What Does Ezekiel 35:14 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.
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 whole earth’s rejoicing and one power’s desolation occupy the same moment: public triumph is no shelter from judgment.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s pronouncement holds celebration and devastation in one frame: the world rejoices while the power addressed is laid bare. It shows you that success does not shield a force that celebrates another’s ruin from judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that rejoicing over another’s collapse proves you are safe from judgment.
THE ROOT
שְׁמָמָה
shemamah
GROWS FROM
שמם
To be desolate or appalled; to leave devastated.
The word translated “desolate” comes from a root that also describes being appalled. It carries the shock of devastation, not simply the absence of people; beside “rejoiceth,” its written opening letters echo the other word, though the two have distinct roots.
ALSO GROWS
shamem: To be desolate or appalled.
שָׁמֵם
The same root holds both the ruined condition and the stunned response to it.
shemamah: Desolation; waste.
שְׁמָמָה
This noun names the devastating condition pronounced over the one addressed.
שְׂמֹחַ
səmoaḥ
GROWS FROM
שׂמח
To rejoice or be glad.
“rejoiceth” in this verse is səmoaḥ. The verse sets rejoicing directly beside desolation. Their Hebrew spellings share the written opening letters שמ, but they are separate roots: the echo tightens the contrast without making joy and devastation the same word.
ALSO GROWS
simchah: Joy; gladness.
שִׂמְחָה
This noun gives the rejoicing in the verse a wider sense of shared joy.
sameach: Glad; rejoicing.
שָׂמֵחַ
This form names the glad state behind the verse’s description of the earth rejoicing.
THE PATTERN
Gloating over another’s calamity brings the rejoicer under a matching judgment.
Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.THE THREAD
But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.Obadiah uses the same Hebrew root שׂמח (samach, rejoice) for “rejoiced.” It names delight in another’s destruction, clarifying the judgment behind Ezekiel’s stark pairing of rejoicing and desolation.
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