What Does Ezekiel 26:13 Mean in the King James?
And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
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 silence is not merely empty air: the Hebrew says the songs’ tumult is actively brought to an end.
THE MEANING
The verse puts before you a power that can end even a full public soundscape: songs cease, and harps are no longer heard. The silence reaches both the songs’ tumult and the instrument’s voice; what fills the air can disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that abundance, beauty, or cultural sound guarantees permanence; even a full soundscape can be silenced.
THE ROOT
הִשְׁבַּתִּי
hishbatî
GROWS FROM
שבת
sh-b-t
To stop or cease; to rest from activity.
“cease” in this verse is hishbatî. This is the same root found in Shabbat, where stopping is an appointed rest. Here the causative form makes cessation an action: the songs are brought to an end.
ALSO GROWS
shabbat: Sabbath; cessation from work.
שַׁבָּת
The shared root links the verse’s imposed stopping with the broader Hebrew idea of ceasing.
shabbaton: A complete rest or Sabbath observance.
שַׁבָּתוֹן
This branch shows how the root can name a defined period of cessation, while the verse describes sound itself being stopped.
הֲמוֹן
hamon
GROWS FROM
המה
h-m-h
To murmur, roar, or surge with sound.
Hamon can name a multitude or tumult as well as noise, so the phrase evokes the crowded swell of the songs. The verse silences a whole soundscape, not just one melody.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: To murmur or roar.
הָמָה
The verb carries the sense of sound swelling or churning, giving the songs’ noise a living, collective force.
hamon: Multitude, tumult, or noisy abundance.
הָמוֹן
This noun holds abundance and sound together, deepening the scale of what is brought to silence.
THE PATTERN
When judgment overturns a public order, its music and familiar sounds can be silenced.
The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;THE THREAD
The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.Isaiah uses the same ש-ב-ת (sh-b-t) root for music ceasing, including the harp’s joy. That shared root makes the silence here a stopping brought about, not merely a sound fading away.
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