What Does Ezekiel 33:16 Mean in the King James?
None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
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
A past wrong stops defining your record when your present life comes into justice and alignment.
THE MEANING
When your life now acts with justice and alignment, the wrongs you have committed are no longer held in the account against you. The verse locates your life in what you are doing now and names its outcome with emphasis: you surely live.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that your worst past act remains the final truth about you: here, the past wrong is real, but it no longer governs the account when your present life is just and aligned.
THE ROOT
תִּזָּכַרְנָה
tizzākarnāh
GROWS FROM
זכר
Remember, call to mind, or mention.
The verb translated “mentioned” shares its root with words for remembering and memorializing; the verse speaks about what is kept present in the account, not merely what is said aloud. Here, former wrongs cease to be held against the person as the defining record.
ALSO GROWS
zikkaron: Remembrance, memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps something present; this branch shows how the root can describe what remains in view.
zeker: Remembrance, mention.
זֵכֶר
This branch joins speaking of something with remembering it, deepening the force of “shall not be mentioned.”
צְדָקָה
tsĕdāqāh
GROWS FROM
צדק
Be right, just, or aligned.
“right” in this verse is tsĕdāqāh. This word belongs to a family that names rightness and the person who is just. Beside the verse’s word for justice, it describes a present life of lived alignment, not merely a score against the past.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness, justice, alignment.
צֶדֶק
This branch reveals that “right” carries the sense of being rightly ordered.
tsaddiq: A just or aligned person.
צַדִּיק
The word for the person shares the same root, linking alignment to the way a life is lived.
חָיֹה יִחְיֶה
ḥāyōh yiḥyeh
GROWS FROM
חיה
Live, be alive, or revive.
The phrase doubles the life root, literally “living, he will live,” intensifying the outcome. The verse ends by placing the person’s future in life itself, beyond the old record.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Living, alive.
חַי
This branch names life as a present condition, not only a distant outcome.
chayyim: Life.
חַיִּים
The plural form for life shares the root that closes the verse with emphatic living.
THE PATTERN
A changed direction can release past wrongdoing from defining a person’s present.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.THE THREAD
Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.Psalm 25:7 uses זָכַר (zāḵar, remember) twice: the speaker asks that past sins not be remembered and asks to be remembered according to faithful love. The same root frames what falls away and what is held in view, showing why Ezekiel’s “not mentioned” reaches beyond speech to the account that defines a person.
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