What Does Ezekiel 33:17 Mean in the King James?
Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
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 word translated “equal” carries the sense of being measured: the verse answers a charge against God’s measure by putting the accuser’s own way on the scale.
THE MEANING
The verse turns the accusation back toward the one making it: the LORD’s way is called unequal, yet the speaker’s own way is held to the same measure. Neither path escapes the judgment being spoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s way can be called unfair while one’s own way stands beyond judgment.
THE ROOT
יִתָּכֵן
yittākhēn
GROWS FROM
תכן
to measure, weigh, or assess; to be measured
The same verb appears in both halves: the LORD’s way and the people’s way are each called “not equal.” Its root adds the image of weighing; Proverbs uses this same root when the LORD weighs the breath within.
ALSO GROWS
tōkhēn: weighs or assesses
תֹכֵן
In Proverbs 16:2, this form describes the LORD weighing what lies within a person, showing that the measure reaches beyond outward appearances.
tōkhēn: ponders or weighs
תֹכֵן
In Proverbs 21:2, the same form describes the LORD weighing hearts, extending the image from a judged path to the inward person.
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
דרך
to tread or step along
The verse uses derekh for both the LORD’s way and the people’s way. Its connection to treading makes the comparison concrete: a way is a course walked, and both courses are held side by side.
ALSO GROWS
dārakh: to tread, step, or march
דָּרַךְ
This verb reveals the movement inside “way”: the verse weighs an actual course of steps, not merely an abstract opinion.
dōrēkh: one treading or stepping
דֹּרֵךְ
This form keeps the root’s bodily action visible, linking a path to the one whose steps make it a path.
THE PATTERN
A judgment that condemns another’s way also brings the judge’s own way under the measure.
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.THE THREAD
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.The Hebrew root תכן appears in Ezekiel’s “is not equal” and in Proverbs’ “weigheth.” Proverbs makes the scale explicit: the LORD weighs human ways and the breath within.
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