What Does Ezekiel 32:20 Mean in the King James?
They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.
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 Hebrew holds the people beneath the sword and the whole roaring multitude being dragged into view at the same time.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks of collective violence in a single image: they fall among those slain by the sword, while the singular “she” and all her multitudes are drawn toward it. The whole and the many within it are caught in the same descent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a multitude is protected by its size: the verse places the collective and all its people under the sword together.
THE ROOT
נִתְּנוּ
nittənū
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
give, set, place
The verb behind “delivered” belongs to נתן, whose basic sense is giving or placing. The clause also pictures the people as put beneath the sword’s reach, deepening the force of “delivered” without changing it.
ALSO GROWS
natan: give, set, place
נָתַן
This verb makes the verse’s delivery concrete: the people are given over to the sword.
mattanah: gift, something given
מַתָּנָה
This noun carries the same root of giving, showing how נתן can name both an act and what is handed over.
הֲמוֹנֶיהָ
hamoneha
GROWS FROM
המה
h-m-h
roar, murmur, make a tumult
“Multitudes” can sound like a count alone, but הֲמוֹן also carries the sense of tumult or noise. Here the crowd is heard as well as counted: all her people are gathered into the same violent image.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: to roar, murmur, or make a tumult
הָמָה
This verb gives the root its sound, making the multitude more than a number.
hamon: noise, tumult, crowd, or abundance
הָמוֹן
This noun holds together the crowd’s size and its tumult, echoing the verse’s “all her multitudes.”
THE PATTERN
When a people are given over to the sword, the violence reaches the collective body, not only an individual.
He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.THE THREAD
And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.The same root, נתן (natan), appears around the sword: it is given into the slayer’s hand, while here the people are given to its reach. The shared verb links the sword’s preparation with the people being placed beneath its violence.
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