What Does Ezekiel 31:1 Mean in the King James?

And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Ezekiel 31:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew uses the same verb-root for “it came to pass” and “the word ... came”: the day and the word arrive as one happening.

THE MEANING

The verse locates the LORD’s word in a sharply marked moment, and the same root describes that moment’s unfolding and the word’s arrival. The word meets you within your lived time as something that happens and speaks into that moment.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that divine speech is abstract or detached from the actual day you are living.

THE ROOT

וַיְהִי

vayehi

GROWS FROM

היה

Be, become, happen.

“came to pass / came” in this verse is vayehi. The same root appears first in “it came to pass” and again in “the word of the LORD came unto me.” The Hebrew joins the day’s happening with the word’s arrival, presenting the word as an encounter within that moment.

ALSO GROWS

vayehi: And it was; and it happened.

וַיְהִי

This is the form behind “it came to pass” at the verse’s opening, linking the dated event with the word’s arrival through the same root.

ehyeh: I am; I will be.

אֶהְיֶה

This form shows the root’s range from being to happening; here, the word “was” to the prophet, rendered in English as “came.”

דָּבָר

davar

GROWS FROM

דבר

Speak, declare; as a noun, a word or matter.

Davar can name spoken words and matters or things. The word reaching the prophet is therefore also tied to what takes place in the moment, a connection English leaves less visible.

ALSO GROWS

devarim: Words, matters, things.

דְּבָרִים

The same word-family appears in Genesis 15:1 for “these things” before the LORD’s word comes to Abram.

ledabber: To speak.

לְדַבֵּר

This verbal form makes explicit that davar is rooted in speaking, while the noun also carries the sense of a matter or thing.

THE PATTERN

The word of God meets people within particular moments and acts on the reality it reaches.

Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Jeremiah 1:4 · KJVThe word reaches Jeremiah as a direct encounter that begins with “Then,” within his lived moment.

Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

Luke 3:2 · KJVThe word reaches John in a specific place and moment, as it does Ezekiel.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 · KJVThe word is active within a person, reaching and discerning what is already present there.

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 · KJV

In Hebrew, “these things” and “the word” both use forms of ⁨דבר⁩ (davar). The verse makes the link visible: what has happened and what is spoken share the same word-family.

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