What Does Ezekiel 37:21 Mean in the King James?

And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

Ezekiel 37:21 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The scattered are not merely located again; they are gathered from every side and brought back to the land that is theirs.

THE MEANING

For the reader now, this verse presents Israel’s dispersion as fully visible to God: no direction lies outside the reach of gathering. The promise has a concrete destination, the people’s own land. It holds the people and their ground together as the shape of return.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Being scattered does not mean that Israel is beyond God’s reach or has lost its claim to return.

THE ROOT

וְקִבַּצְתִּי

veqibbats'ti

GROWS FROM

קבץ

q-b-ts

To gather, collect.

English gives one action, “gather,” while the Hebrew root ⁨קבץ⁩ (q-b-ts, “gather, collect”) also describes those who are gathered. The verse’s movement is from a gathering action to a people reassembled as a whole.

ALSO GROWS

meqabbets: One who gathers; the gatherer.

מְקַבֵּץ

Isaiah 56:8 uses this form for the LORD who gathers Israel’s outcasts, presenting gathering as an act that defines the one who does it.

leniqbatsav: To or beside those gathered to him.

לְנִקְבָּצָיו

Isaiah 56:8 uses this form for those gathered to him; the same root names both the gathering and the gathered people.

THE PATTERN

Scattering does not cancel belonging: the gathered are restored to shared place or brought together as one.

That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

Deuteronomy 30:3 · KJVThe verse links dispersion among the nations with a gathering that restores the scattered to their own people.

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Isaiah 11:12 · KJVThe gathering reaches the dispersed from every direction, echoing Ezekiel’s “on every side.”

And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

John 11:52 · KJVThe scattered are gathered together in one, expressing the same movement from dispersion to a shared whole.

THE THREAD

The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.

Isaiah 56:8 · KJV

Ezekiel and Isaiah use the same Hebrew root ⁨קבץ⁩ (q-b-ts, “gather, collect”) for the gathering. Isaiah extends the image: alongside Israel’s outcasts, others too are gathered.

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