What Does Ezekiel 38:10 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
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
An evil intention takes shape in two stages: matters rise into the heart, then the heart devises a plan.
THE MEANING
This verse names two moments in the reader’s present experience: matters rise into the heart, and a harmful design is formed there. Hebrew links “think” with the word for “thought” or “plan,” presenting evil as an intention given shape, not merely a passing notion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that every thought that appears is already a settled intention: the verse distinguishes what rises from the plan that is then devised.
THE ROOT
וְחָשַׁבְתָּ
vechashavta
GROWS FROM
חשב
to reckon, think through, devise, or plan
The Hebrew uses the same root in “think” and “thought,” binding the act of thinking to what is being fashioned. That echo distinguishes a matter that rises into the heart from the intention shaped through thought.
ALSO GROWS
machashavah: thought, intention, plan
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This is the word translated “thought” in the verse, revealing that the thought is also a formed intention.
cheshbon: account, reckoning, calculation
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This related word carries the root’s sense of working something out, making the devising shade in “think” audible.
יַעֲלוּ
ya'alu
GROWS FROM
עלה
to rise, go up, ascend
“come up” in this verse is ya'alu. The Hebrew image is of matters rising upon the heart. Paired with the later word from חשב, it places arrival before formation: what surfaces and what is made of it are separate motions.
ALSO GROWS
ʿalah: to rise, go up
עָלָה
This verb is the root itself, showing that the verse pictures thoughts as rising.
ʿaliyyah: ascent, going up
עֲלִיָּה
This noun preserves the same upward movement, illuminating the verse’s image of something coming up upon the heart.
THE PATTERN
What takes shape in the heart can become a deliberate course.
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.THE THREAD
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.Genesis 6:5 uses the same חשב root family in “thoughts,” making the link lexical as well as thematic. Ezekiel’s “evil thought” belongs to this language of formed design; Genesis shows the heart’s designs becoming its settled pattern.
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