What Does Ezekiel 35:15 Mean in the King James?
As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
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 same Hebrew word for desolation marks both the state that delights Seir and Seir’s own fate, turning celebration into a mirror.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader before a stark reversal: joy in another’s ruin returns as one’s own ruin. The ending presents this reversal as a disclosure, the ones who witness it recognize the LORD as the one who acts.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Another’s ruin can be a safe source of joy, untouched by consequences for the one who rejoices.
THE ROOT
שְׁמָמָה
shemamah
GROWS FROM
שׁמם
To become desolate, devastated, or appalled.
“desolate” in this verse is shemamah. The same form from this root appears first for Israel’s desolation and then for Seir’s. The root can hold both the ruined state and the shock of encountering it, so the verse’s repeated desolation becomes a mirrored experience.
ALSO GROWS
shamem: To be desolate, devastated, or appalled.
שָׁמֵם
The verb shows the state as something undergone, not merely a vacant landscape.
shemamah: Desolation; a wasteland.
שְׁמָמָה
This is the form repeated in the verse: the condition that prompts Seir’s rejoicing becomes Seir’s own condition.
וְיָדְעוּ
veyad'u
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know or perceive.
“know” in this verse is veyad'u. The verse ends with knowing, so the reversal culminates in recognition of the LORD. The root’s sense of knowing reaches beyond information to perception shaped by encounter.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
This is the root form behind “they shall know,” naming recognition that arrives through what is experienced.
da'at: Knowledge or perception.
דַּעַת
This related noun shows the awareness that the verse’s final phrase brings into view.
THE PATTERN
Joy that feeds on another’s calamity returns as a matching measure.
For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.The same Hebrew root for desolation appears beside the same closing recognition: “thou shalt know that I am the LORD.” Read together, these lines make the ruin a disclosure as well as a reversal.
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