What Does Ezekiel 24:17 Mean in the King James?
Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.
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
The verse commands grief to groan in silence, making restraint an outward condition, not proof that sorrow is absent.
THE MEANING
The verse places an inner groan beside a command to stay silent, dress, and eat. Sorrow remains real even while its familiar public signs are withheld.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a silent face means a sorrowless heart: the command itself begins with a groan.
THE ROOT
דֹּם
dom
GROWS FROM
דמם
d-m-m
to be silent, become still, or cease
The verse places הֵאָנֵק (he’anēq, “groan”) beside דֹּם (dom, “be silent”): grief is present even as its public expression is restrained. This root also branches into words for stillness and quiet waiting, showing that silence can hold what is happening within.
ALSO GROWS
demamah: stillness, silence
דְּמָמָה
This word appears in the KJV phrase “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), where silence is not simply emptiness.
dumiyyah: silence, quiet waiting
דּוּמִיָּה
Psalm 39:2 uses this form beside the speaker’s stirred sorrow, showing that silence and grief can occupy the same moment.
THE PATTERN
Grief can remain present when its outward signs are restrained.
Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.THE THREAD
I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.Psalm 39:2 uses דּוּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, “silence”) from the same root as Ezekiel’s דֹּם (dom, “be silent”), and the psalmist says his sorrow is stirred. The shared root shows that silence can contain grief without erasing it.
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