What Does Ezekiel 28:5 Mean in the King James?
By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
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 root behind commerce also names a talebearer, linking the circulation of goods with the circulation of words that can reshape the heart.
THE MEANING
The verse names a live pattern: skill and exchange increase what you hold, while abundance can raise the heart in its own estimation. The inward change follows the outward gain; wealth becomes more than a possession when it starts setting your sense of stature. The text links accumulation and elevation in one breath.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
More wealth means greater worth or stature. Here, possessions increase as the heart rises, showing that material gain can inflate self-measure rather than establish it.
THE ROOT
רְכֻלָּה
rekullah
GROWS FROM
רכל
r-k-l
To go about as a trader, carrying goods from place to place.
The word translated “traffick” belongs to the same root family as words for a merchant and a talebearer. Hebrew links the circulation of goods with the circulation of reports: what moves between people can shape what gathers in a person’s hands and heart.
ALSO GROWS
rokhel: Merchant, trader.
רֹכֵל
This names the person who carries goods through exchange, making the movement inside “traffick” visible.
rakhil: Talebearer, one who carries reports among people.
רָכִיל
The same root extends circulation from goods to words, revealing a shared image of carrying between people.
וַיִּגְבַּהּ
vayyigbah
GROWS FROM
גבה
g-b-h
To be high or rise.
“lifted up” in this verse is vayyigbah. The Hebrew says the heart became high, using a spatial image for inward elevation. The root also names height and what is high, showing how the verse connects increased wealth with a changed sense of stature.
ALSO GROWS
gavoah: High, tall.
גָּבֹהַּ
This adjective keeps the verse’s image literal: the heart is described as rising in height.
govah: Height, stature.
גֹּבַהּ
This noun links the heart’s elevation to stature, the very measure that wealth can distort.
THE PATTERN
Accumulated wealth can become an inner measure that raises the heart’s estimate of itself.
And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;THE THREAD
Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.“Talebearer” is רָכִיל (rakhil), from the same root רכל (r-k-l) as the “traffick” in Ezekiel. The shared root links goods and reports as things carried between people, opening the verse’s language of trade into a wider image of circulation.
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