What Does Ezekiel 29:17 Mean in the King James?
And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
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 Hebrew verb marks both “it came to pass” and “the word came,” joining the arrival of the moment with the arrival of the word.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s speech is not detached from the moment: it becomes present and addressed. The verse holds a precise point in time and a direct word together, so its living speech reaches you now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that the word of the LORD is only timeless information detached from life; here, speech arrives at a named moment and reaches someone directly.
THE ROOT
וַיְהִי
wayhi
GROWS FROM
היה
h-y-h
To be, become, happen; to come into being.
“came to pass / came” in this verse is wayhi. The verse uses two forms of the same root: first for the moment coming to pass, then for the LORD’s word coming to the speaker. Hebrew joins the unfolding of time and the arrival of speech through one verb of being and happening.
ALSO GROWS
wayhi: And it was; and it came to pass.
וַיְהִי
This form marks the dated event at the verse’s opening.
hayah: Was, became, happened.
הָיָה
This form underlies “the word … came,” linking the word’s arrival with the event coming to pass.
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak, utter; davar can mean a word or a matter, thing.
The word shares its root with the act of speaking, and davar can also name a matter or thing. Here, speech arrives not as an abstraction but as something happening in a moment and directed to a person.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke; he said.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal form shows the speaking action held within davar, “word.”
devarim: Words; matters or things.
דְּבָרִים
This plural form carries the root from spoken words to the matters they express.
THE PATTERN
The word of the LORD arrives as a concrete event, entering a moment and taking effect in the world.
After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.Genesis 15:1 uses the same roots, davar (“word, matter”) and hayah (“be, become, happen”), in a near-identical construction: the word of the LORD was or became to Abram. The echo reveals the message’s arrival itself as an event within a person’s precise moment.
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