What Does Ezekiel 25:15 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred;
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 repeats one Hebrew root for revenge as both motive and action, showing old hatred turning itself into destruction.
THE MEANING
Old hostility does not stay in the past when it is carried forward as revenge; it becomes a present force aimed at destruction. The verse locates that force within the living self, tracing how contempt inside becomes harm outside. The old hatred is not background, it is the motive still acting now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that revenge is neutral payback falls apart here: the verse names it as contempt carried within and directed toward destruction.
THE ROOT
נְקָמָה
neqāmāh nāqam
GROWS FROM
נ־ק־ם
n-q-m
To avenge or take vengeance.
“revenge / vengeance” in this verse is neqāmāh nāqam. The Hebrew repeats this root in the phrase rendered “by revenge” and “taken vengeance,” using it as both a noun and a verb. That repetition makes the motive and the act sound like one movement: what is held as revenge becomes an act of revenge.
ALSO GROWS
nāqam: To avenge; to take vengeance.
נָקַם
This verbal form makes revenge an action rather than a feeling held at a distance.
neqāmāh: Revenge; vengeance.
נְקָמָה
The noun names the motive that the repeated verb turns into action.
אֵיבָה
ʾêvāh
GROWS FROM
א־י־ב
ʾ-y-b
Hostility; enmity.
This word for hatred belongs to the same root as the word for an enemy. The verse presents old hatred as an active relation of hostility, not simply a painful memory.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōyēv: Enemy; one who is hostile.
אֹיֵב
The shared root links the hatred inside the verse to the adversarial stance it produces.
ʾêvāh: Enmity; hostility.
אֵיבָה
This is the word used for the old hatred that drives the revenge.
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־ש
n-p-sh
The living self; a living soul.
The Hebrew phrase rendered “despiteful heart” includes נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh), the living self. The contempt is located within the person’s living self, where the verse shows revenge taking shape before it becomes destruction.
ALSO GROWS
nafshō: His soul; his self.
נַפְשׁוֹ
The possessive form makes clear that nephesh can refer to the living person, not just an abstract inner feeling.
nefāshōt: Living souls; persons.
נְפָשׁוֹת
The plural form preserves the sense of living selves that English can divide among “soul,” “life,” and “person.”
THE PATTERN
Revenge repeats harm by turning remembered hostility into a new act of injury.
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work.Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.THE THREAD
To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.The same Hebrew root נ־ק־ם (naqam, “to avenge”) appears here and in Deuteronomy. Ezekiel names vengeance as the Philistines’ destructive act; Deuteronomy places vengeance in God’s own claim, making the distinction between retaliation and recompense visible.
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