What Does Ezekiel 23:35 Mean in the King James?
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.
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
What you cast behind your back does not vanish; it becomes what you must carry.
THE MEANING
When you forget the LORD and cast him behind your back, you bear your own lewdness and whoredoms. The verse names the burden plainly and leaves it with the one who carries it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what you throw out of sight ceases to belong to you; the verse says you still bear what you have done.
THE ROOT
שְׂאִי
seʾi from nasaʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
Lift, carry, bear.
Here “bear” is not just endure: it is taking something up and carrying it. After you cast the LORD behind your back, the thing you must carry is your own lewdness and whoredoms.
ALSO GROWS
massaʾ: A burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
A burden is what is taken up and carried, giving physical weight to the verse’s demand to bear.
nasaʾ ʿavon: Bear crookedness or guilt.
נָשָׂא עָוֹן
Leviticus 16:22 uses this same verb for bearing the people’s crookedness, showing how the root links carrying with responsibility for a burden.
וַתַּשְׁלִיכִי
vatashlikhi
GROWS FROM
שלך
Throw, cast, or hurl.
The Hebrew gives forgetting a bodily direction: the LORD is cast behind the speaker’s back. What is pushed out of sight is still present in the sentence, followed by what the speaker must carry.
ALSO GROWS
hishlikh: He cast or threw.
הִשְׁלִיךְ
This form shows the root’s force as a deliberate act of throwing away, like the action named here.
mushlakh: Cast out or thrown down.
מֻשְׁלָךְ
This form describes what has been thrown; the verse pairs the act of casting the LORD away with the burden that remains.
שְׁכַחְתְּנִי
shakhaḥtani
GROWS FROM
שכח
Forget or cease to remember.
“forgotten” in this verse is shakhaḥtani. The verse places forgetting beside a concrete act: casting the LORD behind the back. Together, the words make forgetting more than a lapse of memory; it is expressed as turning away, with a consequence that remains.
ALSO GROWS
shakhaḥ: Forget or cease to remember.
שָׁכַח
This is the root’s basic action, made explicit in the verse’s charge.
yishakhaḥ: Be forgotten.
יִשָּׁכַח
This form shifts the root from the one who forgets to the one left unremembered, showing the relational weight of forgetting.
hishkiaḥ: Cause to forget.
הִשְׁכִּיחַ
This form shows the root can describe forgetting as something brought about, rather than only something that happens passively.
THE PATTERN
What is pushed out of sight is not thereby removed; it returns as a burden or consequence.
But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.Both verses use נשא (nasaʾ), “bear” or “carry.” Ezekiel places the burden on the one who cast the LORD behind her back; Leviticus pictures a goat carrying the people’s iniquities away, then being sent into the wilderness.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us