What Does Ezekiel 33:18 Mean in the King James?
When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
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
Righteousness is a direction that can be abandoned: the consequence follows the turn, not the person’s old label.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you now: alignment does not make your next turn consequence-free. When you turn from alignment into crooked action, death is the outcome carried by that course; the verse names that consequence plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a history of right alignment guarantees life regardless of the direction you take now.
THE ROOT
צִדְקָתוֹ
tsidqato
GROWS FROM
צדק
To be right or just; to stand in alignment.
“righteousness” in this verse is tsidqato. The word’s family connects the aligned person with the alignment itself: a tzaddiq is one oriented in tzedek. The verse says that this orientation can be left, with a real consequence.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Alignment; justice; rightness.
צֶדֶק
It names the alignment the verse says a person can turn away from.
tsaddiq: A righteous person; one who is aligned.
צַדִּיק
The person’s description comes from an orientation that can change.
שׁוּב
shuv
GROWS FROM
שוב
To turn or return.
“turneth” in this verse is shuv. The hinge of the verse is a turn: the person moves away from alignment. The same root can also name return, showing that turning describes direction rather than a fixed identity.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return; turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch makes the root’s sense of directional change clear.
meshubah: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
It names the departure from a path that the verse describes.
עָוֶל
ʿāwel
GROWS FROM
עול
To act unjustly; to deal crookedly.
“iniquity” in this verse is ʿāwel. The Hebrew word carries the sense of injustice, an act that bends what is right out of alignment. The verse’s movement is concrete: away from alignment and into crooked action.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāwel: Injustice; wrong.
עָוֶל
This is the word for the wrongdoing named in the verse.
ʿavlah: Injustice; wrongdoing.
עַוְלָה
This related form keeps the focus on unjust action rather than an abstract stain.
THE PATTERN
A change in direction changes the outcome carried by the path.
But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.THE THREAD
But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.This verse repeats the same turn from righteousness into iniquity, then states that the former record does not cancel the consequence. The shared Hebrew words make the direction and its outcome unmistakable.
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