What Does Ezekiel 32:2 Mean in the King James?
Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.
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
Pharaoh’s power is measured by what it leaves behind: waters fouled by the passage of his feet.
THE MEANING
The verse names a ruler whose reach spreads through shared waters while his feet churn and foul them. Its image is alive wherever domination clouds the common life through which others must move.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that force proves greatness: here, the condition of the waters after power passes reveals what that power is.
THE ROOT
וַתְּעַכֵּר
watəʿakkēr
GROWS FROM
עכר
ʿ-k-r
To trouble, make turbid, or bring calamity.
“fouledst” in this verse is watəʿakkēr. Beneath “fouled” is the root’s wider motion: troubling and making turbid. The same seed joins muddied water to public trouble, so Pharaoh’s feet leave the rivers carrying the mark of his disturbance.
ALSO GROWS
ʿākār: Troubler.
עָכָר
In 1 Chronicles 2:7, Achar is called “the troubler of Israel”; the same root carries harm from fouled water into communal life.
ʿākôr: Trouble; the name of the Valley of Achor.
עָכוֹר
The place-name turns the root into a landscape of trouble, echoing how Pharaoh’s passage makes the rivers bear the mark of his disturbance.
THE PATTERN
The state of the waters reveals whether a power is stirring peoples into tumult or bringing their roar to rest.
Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.THE THREAD
I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.The same root, עכר (ʿ-k-r), appears in both verses: Pharaoh’s feet foul the rivers, and the promised relief is described as feet no longer troubling them. The repeated word makes the consequence tangible: the waters are no longer muddied by the passage of human and animal power.
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