What Does Ezekiel 26:18 Mean in the King James?
Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure.
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
Tyre’s fall becomes a quake that unsettles shores far beyond its center.
THE MEANING
A collapse at the center reaches people who seem far away. The islands tremble at the city’s fall and are alarmed at its going-out; the absence itself carries force. What disappears from one place can unsettle a much wider world.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that distance leaves a community untouched by another center’s collapse.
THE ROOT
יִרְעֲשׁוּ
yir'ashu
GROWS FROM
רעש
ra'ash
To quake, shake, or make a commotion.
English “tremble” can sound like a private emotion, but רַעַשׁ (ra’ash) also means shaking or a quake. The verse gives the islands a ground-shaking response: the fall disturbs a whole region.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ash: Shaking, quake, commotion
רַעַשׁ
This noun shows that the root can name a disturbance large enough to be felt beyond one person.
hir'ish: To make something shake or quake
הִרְעִישׁ
This causative form illuminates how one collapse can set distant communities trembling.
וְנִבְהֲלוּ
ve-nivhalu
GROWS FROM
בהל
bahal
To become alarmed, dismayed, or suddenly disturbed.
“troubled” in this verse is ve-nivhalu. The verse moves from a quake to alarm: the islands are not merely shaken in the distance but become inwardly disoriented. The response reaches both the shared world and the people living in it.
ALSO GROWS
behalah: Terror or alarm
בֶּהָלָה
This noun gives the trouble in the verse the force of sudden alarm.
nivhal: To be dismayed or startled
נִבְהַל
This verbal form shows the inner response that follows the outward shaking.
מִצֵּאתֵךְ
mi-tsetekh
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
To go out, come forth, or depart.
“Departure” is built from the ordinary act of going out. The islands react not only to the fall but to the going-out itself, the absence left when a powerful presence is gone.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out or come forth
יָצָא
This is the root’s basic motion, making the city’s departure a going-out rather than only an abstract ending.
hotsi: To bring out or lead out
הוֹצִיא
The causative form shares the same seed of movement across a boundary.
THE PATTERN
The collapse of a powerful center sends disturbance through communities connected to it.
And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.THE THREAD
For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;“Tremble” here and “shaking” there share the Hebrew root רעש (ra’ash), the seed of a quake. The same root lets the shock register across distant shores in one verse and through a whole land in the other.
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