What Does Ezekiel 32:31 Mean in the King James?
Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.
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 consolation comes from seeing others in the grave: comfort settles his isolation while leaving his army slain by the sword.
THE MEANING
You encounter consolation that does not restore what is lost: Pharaoh sees the other fallen nations and is comforted over his multitude. Shared ruin eases his isolation, while the verse still names Pharaoh and his army as slain by the sword.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that consolation proves a wound has been undone: Pharaoh is comforted, yet the verse still calls him and his army slain.
THE ROOT
וְיִנָּחֵם
ve-yinnāḥēm
GROWS FROM
נ־ח־ם
N-Ḥ-M
To comfort or console; in another stem, to relent or regret.
“comforted” in this verse is ve-yinnāḥēm. This root’s range joins being consoled with consoling, and also includes relenting or regret in another stem. Here Pharaoh’s comfort settles his grief through the sight of others who share his fate; it does not reverse the deaths.
ALSO GROWS
niḥēm: To comfort or console another.
נִחֵם
The related action of comforting another makes Pharaoh’s consolation part of a wider word-family of responses to grief.
neḥāmāh: Consolation or comfort.
נֶחָמָה
This noun names the comfort Pharaoh receives, even though the verse leaves the sword’s violence intact.
menaḥēm: A comforter; one who consoles.
מְנַחֵם
The root can name both the experience of consolation and the one who gives it, showing that comfort moves between people.
הֲמוֹנוֹ
hamonō
GROWS FROM
ה־מ־ה
H-M-H
To murmur, roar, or move in tumult; by extension, a multitude or tumult.
The word for Pharaoh’s multitude belongs to a root associated with a roar or tumult. The English “multitude” gives the number, while the Hebrew also carries the sense of a mass gathered in commotion.
ALSO GROWS
hāmāh: To murmur, roar, or surge tumultuously.
הָמָה
This verb gives the multitude an echo of a roaring mass, not just a headcount.
hāmōn: A multitude, crowd, or tumult.
הָמוֹן
The verse uses this noun for Pharaoh’s host, linking the army’s vastness with the root’s sound of tumult.
THE PATTERN
Death draws ruler and commoner into a shared condition that rank cannot exempt.
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.THE THREAD
And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.Isaac is comforted after his mother’s death; here Pharaoh is comforted while facing his army’s death. Both use the נ־ח־ם root, which holds consolation and grief in the same word-family without undoing the loss.
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