What Does Ezekiel 23:4 Mean in the King James?

And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

Ezekiel 23:4 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Aholah means “her tent,” while Aholibah means “my tent is in her”, so their names distinguish a tent claimed as hers from God’s tent within her.

THE MEANING

The verse names belonging and dwelling together: both sisters are God’s, and Aholibah’s name says, “my tent is in her.” Samaria and Jerusalem appear as kin whose lives extend into sons and daughters, while their names distinguish “her tent” from the tent that is God’s in her.

THE ROOT

אָהֳלָה

Oholah

GROWS FROM

אהל

ʾ-h-l

Tent; to pitch a tent or dwell in a tent.

“Aholah and Aholibah” in this verse is Oholah. Both names are built around ⁨אֹהֶל⁩ (ʾōhel, tent): Aholah means “her tent,” and Aholibah means “my tent is in her.” The names make identity a statement about dwelling, one locates the tent as hers, the other places God’s tent within her.

ALSO GROWS

ʾōhel: A tent or dwelling.

אֹהֶל

This is the shared word at the heart of both names, making dwelling part of how the sisters are identified.

ʾāhal: To pitch a tent or dwell in one.

אָהַל

The verbal branch makes the names carry an action of dwelling, not just the image of a structure.

THE PATTERN

God’s dwelling among a people is repeatedly named as a defining relation, not merely a place.

And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

Exodus 25:8 · KJVThe sanctuary’s purpose is God’s dwelling among the people, the same dwelling image carried by the sisters’ names.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

John 1:14 · KJVThe dwelling language takes bodily form among people, extending the tent image into a living presence.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Revelation 21:3 · KJVGod’s dwelling with people is stated as their defining relation: they are his people, and he is with them.

THE THREAD

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

Psalm 27:5 · KJV

“His tabernacle” translates the same Hebrew tent word carried in Aholah and Aholibah. Ezekiel’s names locate the tent in relation to the sisters; the psalm shows that tent as shelter.

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