What Does Ezekiel 30:18 Mean in the King James?
At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.
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
Egypt’s yokes break, but the verse keeps its fall dark and violent: release from domination is not shown as painless.
THE MEANING
When power that constricts your life appears unbreakable, this verse shows its grip can fail and its strength can cease. It keeps the violence in view too: the day darkens, and the daughters go captive, so the broken yoke does not make the scene painless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a dominating power’s visible grandeur makes its grip permanent.
THE ROOT
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
To bind, press, or constrict; the related צַר (tsar) means narrow or tight.
The name carries צַר (tsar, narrow or constricting) with the dual ending -ַיִם (ayim, two): the two narrows. That makes Egypt an image of constriction here, and the yokes give that constriction a physical form.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight, constricting
צַר
Names the tightness carried in the image of Mitzrayim.
meitzar: A narrow place, strait, or distress
מֵצַר
Shows constriction as a place one is pressed into.
מֹטוֹת
motot
GROWS FROM
מוט
To waver, slip, or totter.
“yokes” in this verse is motot. The yoke’s word family is rooted in tottering: the loaded body is pictured at the edge of losing its footing. Breaking the yoke removes the bar that holds the body under that destabilizing load.
ALSO GROWS
mot: To totter, slip, or be shaken
מוֹט
The movement in the root gives the burden a bodily consequence: instability.
motah: A pole, bar, or yoke
מוֹטָה
Names the physical bar that holds the burden in place.
בְּשִׁבְרִי
b’shibri
GROWS FROM
שבר
To break, shatter, or break in pieces.
This root gives “break” a rougher edge than simple loosening: it appears in words for fracture and for breaking surf. The verse holds release from the yoke inside a scene that remains violent, with darkness and captivity in the same frame.
ALSO GROWS
shever: A fracture, breach, or ruin
שֶׁבֶר
Shows that breaking can mean a structural rupture, not a gentle change.
mishbar: A breaker or breaking surf
מִשְׁבָּר
Carries the force of breaking waves into the root’s sense of rupture.
THE PATTERN
The force that keeps others bound can itself be brought low, and its fall changes the world around it.
For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.THE THREAD
And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.The same Hebrew word for yoke-bars appears here: their bands break, and the people are safe in their land. Beside Ezekiel 30:18, it makes release from the yoke clear while leaving that verse’s darkness and captivity visible.
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