What Does Ezekiel 29:11 Mean in the King James?
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
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
Desolation here stops both movement and habitation: no one crosses the land, and no one remains in it.
THE MEANING
The verse names desolation as the cessation of both crossing and dwelling: no human or animal passes through, and no one settles there. The forty years mark this as an extended condition, not a momentary vacancy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Desolation only means people have left, while the land remains open to movement and use.
THE ROOT
תַּעֲבֹר
taʿavor
GROWS FROM
עָבַר
to cross over, pass from one side to another
“pass through” in this verse is taʿavor. The verb appears twice, so the verse makes crossing itself part of the desolation: neither human nor animal passes through. The root carries the sense of crossing a boundary into what lies beyond, a movement the verse completely removes.
ALSO GROWS
maʿavar: a crossing or passage
מַעֲבָר
The crossing-place shares the root of the movement that ceases here.
ʿever: the other side, beyond
עֵבֶר
The root holds both the act of crossing and the far side reached by crossing; this verse closes that passage.
תֵּשֵׁב
teshev
GROWS FROM
יָשַׁב
to sit, remain, or dwell
“be inhabited” in this verse is teshev. The word translated “inhabited” comes from a root that also means to sit or remain. Alongside עָבַר (ʿavar, to cross or pass through), it removes both ways of being present in a place: moving across it and staying in it.
ALSO GROWS
yoshev: one who dwells, a resident
יוֹשֵׁב
The resident is the one who remains; the verse says that settled presence ceases.
moshav: a dwelling or settlement
מוֹשָׁב
The same root names a place of settled life, which the verse says is absent.
THE PATTERN
When a place is emptied by judgment, the loss reaches its roads, ordinary movement, and the sounds of settled life.
I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;THE THREAD
If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts:Ezekiel 14:15 uses the same Hebrew root עָבַר (ʿavar, to cross or pass through) for beasts crossing the land and for the person who can no longer cross it. Here, no human or beast crosses at all; the shared root makes passage itself a measure of how completely the land is laid waste.
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