What Does Ezekiel 36:10 Mean in the King James?
And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:
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
Restoration means the whole community can inhabit its life again, not merely that its ruins are repaired.
THE MEANING
God’s restorative work reaches the whole house: people increase, cities are inhabited, and wasted places are rebuilt. Renewal here means shared life settling into a landscape that had gone empty, until it can hold a community again.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A place emptied of people is beyond restoration.
THE ROOT
וְנֹשְׁבוּ
venoshvu
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ב
To sit, dwell, or settle.
The root carries both sitting and dwelling, so “inhabited” evokes more than people being present: life has settled into the cities. The verse pictures places becoming lived-in again.
ALSO GROWS
yoshev: One who sits or dwells
יֹשֵׁב
The person who dwells is the living presence that makes a city inhabited.
moshav: Dwelling place, seat, or settlement
מוֹשָׁב
This branch gives dwelling a place: settled life has somewhere to take root.
הֶחֳרָבוֹת
hechoravot
GROWS FROM
ח־ר־ב
To become dry, be laid waste, or be desolate.
English “wastes” can sound like rubble, while the root also carries dryness and desolation. The verse names that emptied condition, then places it beside rebuilding: it is not the place’s final identity.
ALSO GROWS
ḥarev: Desolate, laid waste
חָרֵב
This branch describes the condition the verse says can change.
ḥaravah: Dry ground or a waste place
חָרָבָה
It echoes the image of a landscape deprived of life, which the verse sets within a promise of rebuilding.
וְהִרְבֵּיתִי
ve-hirbeiti
GROWS FROM
ר־ב־ה
To become many or increase; in a causative form, to make many.
“multiply” in this verse is ve-hirbeiti. The word describes people increasing in number, and the following clauses give that increase a home: cities are inhabited and waste places rebuilt. Here multiplication becomes shared life in a renewed landscape.
ALSO GROWS
rabah: Become many or increase
רָבָה
This is the root’s basic movement toward greater number.
hirbah: Increase or make many
הִרְבָּה
This causative form shares the verse’s sense of bringing about increase.
THE PATTERN
Restoration becomes tangible when people return to dwell and ruined places are built into lived-in communities.
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.Then had the churches rest throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.THE THREAD
And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.Both verses use חֳרָבוֹת (choravot), “waste places,” from ח־ר־ב (ḥ-r-b; charav), “to become dry or desolate.” The shared root lets the image sharpen: desolation names a condition that can be rebuilt, not the final identity of a place.
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