What Does Ezekiel 26:3 Mean in the King James?
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
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 same verb makes both the nations and the sea’s waves rise, turning the attack into a tide of surges.
THE MEANING
Here, opposition gathers like water: many nations rise against Tyre with the pressure of wave after wave. The verse keeps that force concrete, the LORD GOD says he is against the city and causes the surge to rise.
THE ROOT
וְהַעֲלֵיתִי
wəhaʿəlēti kəhaʿalot
GROWS FROM
עלה
Rise or ascend; in the causative form, cause to rise or bring up.
“cause to come up” in this verse is wəhaʿəlēti kəhaʿalot. The verse repeats the causative form of עָלָה (ʿālāh, “rise”): the LORD raises the nations, and the sea raises its waves. The same seed verb makes political force and sea motion one recurring surge.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: Go up, rise, ascend.
עָלָה
The root names the upward movement shared by the nations and the waves.
ʿōlāh: Ascending offering, burnt offering.
עֹלָה
This noun carries the root’s sense of rising into another context: what rises from the offering gives it its name.
לְגַלָּיו
ləgallāw
GROWS FROM
גלל
Roll, roll along, or roll away.
“waves” in this verse is ləgallāw. גַּל (gal, “wave” or “heap”) is linked with גלל (galal, “roll”): the image is rolling heaps, not still water. That motion mirrors the rising verb used for both the nations and the sea’s action.
ALSO GROWS
gal: Wave, billow, heap.
גַּל
The word for the sea’s waves carries the image of a rolling heap pressing forward.
gilgal: Wheel, rolling thing.
גִּלְגָּל
This related word preserves the root’s rolling motion in a different form.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures collective human forces as water surging against a city, wave after wave.
Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.THE THREAD
The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.Both verses use עלה (ʿalah, “rise”) for the sea coming up, and גַּל (gal, “wave”) for its waves. Ezekiel’s many nations and Jeremiah’s sea covering Babylon share the same rising, wave-shaped pressure.
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