What Does Ezekiel 36:38 Mean in the King James?
As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: 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 city’s return is revealed as a feast-like multitude of people, whose presence makes the LORD known.
THE MEANING
A place you experience as ruined can teem again with people, as Jerusalem does at its feasts. That abundance is visible human life, and through it you recognize the LORD. Knowing here is encounter with what has been restored, not mere information.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a place emptied by ruin has no future: barrenness is not proof that life cannot return.
THE ROOT
יָדַע
yadaʿ
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive through acquaintance.
English “know” can sound like possessing a fact; יָדַע (yadaʿ, to know or perceive) reaches recognition through lived acquaintance. Here, the crowding of emptied cities becomes an encounter through which the LORD is recognized.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This related form points to knowledge that takes shape through recognition, not information held at a distance.
maddaʿ: knowledge, understanding
מַדָּע
Its shared root connects knowing the LORD with a recognition that becomes clear through what is experienced.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
א־ד־ם
ʾ-d-m
Human being; in the creation story’s wordplay, the ground-being linked to soil.
“men” in this verse is adam. The phrase צֹאן אָדָם (tson adam, a flock of human beings) names the multitude as אָדָם (adam, human beings), linked in the creation story to אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground or soil). The returning multitude is earth-born human life inhabiting the ground again.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
The human name shares its root with the ground, fitting the image of cities filled again with embodied inhabitants.
adom: red
אָדֹם
This related word shares the consonants and carries an earthy color association in the Hebrew word-family.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s restorative work turns ruin and scattering into gathered, living abundance.
For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.THE THREAD
And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.The verb יָדַע (yadaʿ, to know or perceive) links this verse with Ezekiel’s “they shall know.” In Exodus, the people know the LORD through being brought out from under burdens; here, a city filled with people makes the LORD known through restored life.
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