What Does Ezekiel 3:8 Mean in the King James?
Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
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
God does not remove the hostile faces; God makes the one who stands before them firm enough to meet them.
THE MEANING
When you meet refusal directly, the firmness this verse names is given: your stance is strengthened to withstand the stance facing it. The verse does not promise agreement; it describes resistance that cannot dictate your shape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that if others refuse to hear, their resistance has more power than the word you are given to speak.
THE ROOT
חֲזָקִים
ḥāzaqim
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be firm or strong; strengthen; prevail.
“strong” in this verse is ḥāzaqim. The same root appears twice: God makes the face firm against faces and the forehead firm against foreheads. The language describes strength fitted to meet resistance directly, rather than the removal of resistance.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzaq: Be strong, become firm, or prevail.
חָזַק
The firmness in the verse is a stance that holds under pressure.
ḥizzeq: Strengthen or make firm.
חִזֵּק
This form makes explicit that the strength described here is imparted.
heḥeziq: Hold fast or seize.
הֶחֱזִיק
The root can carry the sense of holding on, giving the verse’s firmness a quality of staying power.
פָּנִים
panim
GROWS FROM
פנה
Turn or face toward.
The word for face is linked to turning toward: these are not distant obstacles but people standing directly before the speaker. The repeated face-to-face image makes the opposition personal and immediate, and the firmness meets it at that point of contact.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face, presence, or what is before someone.
פָּנִים
The repeated faces show that the challenge is encountered directly.
panah: Turn toward or face.
פָּנָה
The root’s sense of turning helps reveal the face as orientation and presence, not merely appearance.
THE PATTERN
Opposition may remain in place while God-given steadiness enables the word to be spoken and the course to be held.
For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.THE THREAD
As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.The next verse carries the same face-and-forehead image forward, comparing the strengthened forehead to flint. The opposition remains visible in their looks; what changes is the speaker’s capacity to meet it without being dismayed.
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