What Does Ezekiel 23:23 Mean in the King James?
The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
This verse lets attraction and domination occupy the same image: power can be desirable, prestigious, and mounted at once.
THE MEANING
This catalogue places desire beside rank and military force: desirable young men, rulers, renowned figures, and horses. Attraction and threat share the scene, so prestige does not prove that the power is safe to join. Even the name Babylon carries Scripture’s wordplay with confusion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that desirability, public renown, or overwhelming strength proves an attachment is safe.
THE ROOT
חֶמֶד
ḥemed
GROWS FROM
חמד
To desire, take pleasure in, or covet.
The desirable men are described with the same root that can name coveting. Attraction and the impulse to grasp are branches of one seed here.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmad: To desire, take pleasure in, or covet.
חָמַד
The root links the verse’s appeal with the language of coveting.
maḥmād: A desirable or precious thing.
מַחְמָד
This branch shows how what is wanted can be regarded as precious.
בְּנֵי־בָבֶל
bene Bavel
GROWS FROM
בלל
To mix or confuse; Genesis 11:9 links Babel’s name with this verb through wordplay.
“Babylonians” in this verse is bene Bavel. Genesis itself pairs Babel (בָּבֶל, Bavel, Babel/Babylon) with בָּלַל (balal, to confuse or mix); this is Scripture’s wordplay, not a claim about historical etymology. That link gives the name a shadow of confusion behind the verse’s alluring catalogue of power.
ALSO GROWS
balal: To mix or confuse.
בָּלַל
Genesis 11:9 uses this verb in its explanation of Babel’s name.
Bavel: Babel or Babylon, the place name.
בָּבֶל
Genesis 11:9 links the name to confusion through wordplay.
קְרוּאִים
qeru’im
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call, proclaim, or summon.
The word rendered “renowned” carries the sense of “called ones.” Their appeal includes public recognition: these are people known and designated by name.
ALSO GROWS
qārāʾ: To call, proclaim, or summon.
קָרָא
The root makes the verse’s renown a matter of being called or named.
miqrāʾ: A convocation, assembly, or public reading.
מִקְרָא
This branch shows how calling can gather people into public recognition or assembly.
THE PATTERN
Desire can make power look worthy of attachment before its consequences are visible.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.THE THREAD
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.“Desirable” comes from חמד (ḥ-m-d), the same root rendered “covet” and “desire” here. The shared root joins attraction to the impulse to possess: both grow from the same seed.
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