What Does Ezekiel 27:35 Mean in the King James?
All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance.
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 Hebrew lets astonishment shade into desolation: the collapse empties its witnesses, and their fear shows on their faces.
THE MEANING
When a great power falls, the shock travels across the waters: people are stunned, and rulers themselves shudder. Fear reaches the face; distance and rank do not keep the collapse at a remove.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The fall of a great power stays local, and distance or rank shields those watching from being shaken.
THE ROOT
שָׁמְמוּ
shamemu
GROWS FROM
שׁמם
š-m-m
To become desolate or appalled.
“astonished” in this verse is shamemu. English makes astonishment sound like a moment of surprise, but this root also describes desolation. The witnesses are so struck by the collapse that their inner state echoes the ruin they see.
ALSO GROWS
shemamah: Desolation, waste.
שְׁמָמָה
This noun names the devastation that lies close to the witnesses’ astonishment.
shomem: Desolate, appalled.
שֹׁמֵם
The same root can describe a ruined place and a person stunned by what has happened.
שָׂעֲרוּ שַׂעַר
sa'aru sa'ar
GROWS FROM
שׂער
ś-ʿ-r
To shudder or be horrified.
The Hebrew repeats the word family: literally, the kings “shuddered a shudder.” The KJV’s “sore afraid” carries the force, while the repeated sound makes their fear feel like an involuntary bodily reaction.
ALSO GROWS
sa'aru: They shuddered; they were horrified.
שָׂעֲרוּ
This is the verb describing the kings’ reaction.
sa'ar: A shudder or horror.
שַׂעַר
The repeated noun intensifies the verb, making the fear feel as if it overtakes them.
רָעֲדוּ פָנִים
ra'adu panim
GROWS FROM
רעד
r-ʿ-d
To tremble or quake.
The Hebrew ties their troubled countenance to trembling. Fear is not hidden behind royal composure; it registers in the face itself.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ad: Trembling, quaking.
רַעַד
This noun names the bodily shake contained in the verse’s image.
re'adah: Trembling, quaking.
רְעָדָה
This related form keeps the root’s focus on visible physical disturbance.
THE PATTERN
When a great power falls, its shock travels beyond its borders and reaches even rulers’ bodies and faces.
Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and be astonished at thee.And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,THE THREAD
As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:Both verses use שׁמם (sh-m-m, “be appalled or desolate”) for the witnesses’ astonishment. Here the root catches people at a power’s fall; in Isaiah it marks the response to a marred human form, carrying the same shock from a fallen city to a visibly wounded body.
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