What Does Ezekiel 32:23 Mean in the King James?

Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living.

Ezekiel 32:23 · 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 power that made the land of the living afraid is now gathered among the slain in the pit.

THE MEANING

The verse holds the terror inflicted on the living beside the graves of those who inflicted it. Their company lies slain by the sword, and the land of the living bears the fear their violence caused.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Terror does not make its source untouchable: the ones who caused it are themselves among the slain.

THE ROOT

חִתִּית

ḥittît

GROWS FROM

חתת

ḥ-t-t

To be shattered, dismayed, or struck with terror.

The word translated “terror” grows from a root that also describes being shattered or dismayed. The verse’s terror is more than an emotion: it carries the force of something that breaks the living’s sense of safety.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāṯaṯ: To be shattered or dismayed.

חָתַת

This verbal form reveals the destabilizing force contained in the terror named here.

məḥittāh: Ruin, dismay, or calamity.

מְחִתָּה

This related noun links terror with concrete ruin, fitting the verse’s images of sword, slain bodies, and graves.

THE PATTERN

The fear a power spreads among the living does not make that power immune to being brought down.

The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.

Psalm 9:15 · KJVThose who set a trap for others are themselves caught and brought into the pit.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Isaiah 14:15 · KJVThe one brought low is placed in the same kind of pit named in Ezekiel.

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

Revelation 18:21 · KJVA city associated with violence is itself violently cast down.

THE THREAD

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Joshua 1:9 · KJV

“Terror” here and “dismayed” in Joshua share the Hebrew root ⁨חתת⁩ (ḥāṯaṯ), meaning to be shattered or dismayed. Ezekiel names terror imposed on the living; Joshua uses the same root to speak directly against being overcome by it.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us