What Does Ezekiel 37:13 Mean in the King James?
And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
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
Knowing the LORD is the recognition that arrives when he opens the grave and brings his people up from within it.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you as one of a people whom the LORD calls his own: he opens the graves holding you and brings you up from them. Knowing him here comes through that concrete emergence; the grave is named plainly, and its hold is broken by his act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the grave lies beyond the LORD’s reach, or that you must understand him before deliverance can arrive: here, knowing follows his act of bringing you up.
THE ROOT
וִידַעְתֶּם
viydaʿtem
GROWS FROM
ידע
to know, perceive, recognize
This root joins knowing to acquaintance: it is not merely information about the LORD, but recognition formed through encounter. Here, the people know him through what he does, opening the grave and bringing them up.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: knowledge, knowing
דַּעַת
This branch keeps knowing tied to an experienced understanding, not just a fact held at a distance.
môdaʿ: acquaintance, known relative
מוֹדָע
This branch makes the root’s relational sense visible: to know is also to be acquainted with someone.
בְּפִתְחִי
befitḥî
GROWS FROM
פתח
to open
“opened” in this verse is befitḥî. The same root names an opening and a doorway, so opening the graves means breaking the boundary of a shut place. The verse pictures an enclosure made passable, not the grave being renamed or minimized.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: doorway, entrance
פֶּתַח
The grave’s opening becomes an entrance out of the place that held the people.
pittûaḥ: engraving, carving
פִּתּוּחַ
This related word carries the sense of cutting into a surface, echoing the force of opening what was closed.
וּבְהַעֲלוֹתִי
uvehaʿalotî
GROWS FROM
עלה
to go up, ascend
“brought you up” in this verse is uvehaʿalotî. This root makes the movement directional: the people are brought up from their graves. English can make “brought up” sound like a general rescue, while the Hebrew keeps the upward movement in view.
ALSO GROWS
ʿolah: burnt offering, an offering that ascends
עֹלָה
Its name carries the same upward movement that marks the people’s emergence from the grave.
ʿaliyyah: ascent, going up; upper room
עֲלִיָּה
This branch makes the upward direction explicit: the verse’s movement is from below toward what is above.
THE PATTERN
The grave is an enclosure God can open, bringing the dead into the open by his call.
O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.THE THREAD
And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.The same verb for “know” returns after the LORD places breath in them and they live. Recognition follows both the grave’s opening and the restoration of life within the people, making the link between being brought up and knowing explicit.
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