What Does Ezekiel 36:36 Mean in the King James?
Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.
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 LORD makes restoration visible: what was ruined becomes a place where life can take root, and that change makes his nature known.
THE MEANING
What is desolate in your life is not beyond rebuilding; the LORD speaks of it as ground where life can take root. His nature becomes knowable in the change from ruin to renewed, inhabitable life. The spoken promise and the completed work belong together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what is ruined can only remain a monument to loss dissolves here: the LORD treats even desolation as ground for rebuilding and planting.
THE ROOT
בָּנִיתִי
bānîtî
GROWS FROM
בנה
Build, construct, establish.
“build” in this verse is bānîtî. The root can describe building a structure and being built up into a family. Restoration here reaches beyond repaired places to the renewed possibility of belonging and habitation.
ALSO GROWS
bānîtî: The first-person form of banah used in this verse.
בָּנִיתִי
The verse places the LORD’s own building at the center of restoration.
’ibbāneh: A form of banah used in Genesis 16:2, where it is rendered “that I may obtain children by her.”
אִבָּנֶה
The same root can speak of a family being established, widening the image of rebuilding into renewed belonging.
נָטַעְתִּי
nāṭaʿtî
GROWS FROM
נטע
Plant, set into the soil; establish by planting.
“plant” in this verse is nāṭaʿtî. Planting names purposeful placement with roots. The desolate place becomes ground where growth can persist.
ALSO GROWS
netaʿ: A planting or plant from the same root.
נֶטַע
It makes the promise concrete: the place is not only rebuilt but given the character of planted ground.
mattaʿ: A planted place or plantation from the same root.
מַטָּע
This branch carries the image from a single act of planting to a place established for growth.
וְיָדְעוּ
veyadʿu
GROWS FROM
ידע
Know, perceive, recognize.
The surrounding peoples know the LORD through the visible work of restoration. This is recognition by witnessing what the LORD does, not knowledge detached from the change itself.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: The basic verb for knowing and recognizing.
יָדַע
It keeps the verse’s knowledge tied to perception of the rebuilding and planting.
hôdîaʿ: A causative form of the same root, meaning to make something known or declare it.
הוֹדִיעַ
The restored places make the LORD known to those who see what has changed.
THE PATTERN
God’s restoration makes desolation habitable and fruitful, so its visible effect becomes witness to God’s nature.
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.Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:THE THREAD
Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.The shared root בנה (banah, “build”) links ruined places with a person who can be built again. Jeremiah’s doubled phrasing holds the action and its result together: the LORD builds, and the reader is built.
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