What Does Ezekiel 26:5 Mean in the King James?
It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.
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 rock named Tyre is reduced to a surface others use, showing that power can end not only in defeat but in exposure and appropriation.
THE MEANING
Read now, the line confronts the assumption that what is fortified and prosperous is beyond reach: the city’s surface is exposed for nets, and its substance becomes property claimed by other nations. The words keep the violence concrete, what belonged to one is made available to others. “I have spoken it” presents the reversal as settled.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Strength and wealth guarantee lasting control over a place’s future.
THE ROOT
מִשְׂטוֹחַ
mishtoaḥ
GROWS FROM
שטח
to spread out or stretch flat
“spreading” in this verse is mishtoaḥ. The root turns “place” from an abstract location into a surface prepared for nets. In the surrounding passage, Tyre’s name (צֹר, Tzor, rock) meets its counterimage: the rock-city is rendered open ground.
ALSO GROWS
shatach: to spread or stretch flat
שָׁטַח
It supplies the action behind the nets spread across the city’s new surface.
mishtach: a flat expanse or spread surface
מִשְׁטָח
It echoes the place the city becomes: ground made available for another use.
דִּבַּרְתִּי
dibarti
GROWS FROM
דבר
to speak; as a noun, word or matter
The same root forms speech and davar, a word, matter, or thing. The spoken judgment and the concrete outcome stand in one field: the word is bound to what now takes shape.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
It shows how speech and the resulting condition share the same root.
dibber: spoke or declared
דִּבֵּר
It is the verbal form echoed in “I have spoken it.”
לְבַז
levaz
GROWS FROM
בזז
to plunder or seize as spoil
“spoil” in this verse is levaz. The city does not merely fall; it becomes something others can seize. The root gives the reversal a tangible shape: what was held becomes loot.
ALSO GROWS
baz: spoil or booty
בַּז
It names what the city itself becomes.
bazaz: to plunder or seize
בָּזַז
It gives the action behind the transfer of the city’s wealth and control.
THE PATTERN
A power that once seemed world-shaping can become a visible ruin whose wealth is exposed to others.
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,THE THREAD
I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.Isaiah uses the same root, בזז, for taking spoil; Ezekiel makes the city itself the spoil. The shared root makes the reversal concrete: the place is no longer held, but seized.
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