What Does Ezekiel 38:20 Mean in the King James?
So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
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 Hebrew word translated “presence” is the same word as “face” in “face of the earth,” so the whole world stands before God’s face, and shakes.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks of God’s presence as an upheaval that reaches every layer of the world: living creatures and people shake, then mountains are demolished, slopes collapse, and every wall falls to the ground. Nothing in the created landscape or in human-built defenses is presented as outside that shaking.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that only inner life can be shaken while the physical world and built defenses remain beyond the reach of God’s presence is undone here.
THE ROOT
וְרָעֲשׁוּ
ve-raʿashu
GROWS FROM
רעש
r-ʿ-sh
To quake, shake, or convulse.
“shake” in this verse is ve-raʿashu. The verb comes from רעש, a root for quaking and violent commotion. It applies across fish, birds, beasts, creeping things, and people, gathering the living world into one shaking before the verse turns to collapsing terrain and walls.
ALSO GROWS
raʿash: To quake or shake.
רָעַשׁ
This is the verb behind the passage’s movement.
raʿash: Earthquake, tumult, or commotion.
רַעַשׁ
The same consonants also name the upheaval, carrying the action of shaking into the event itself.
מִפָּנַי
mippānay
GROWS FROM
פנה
p-n-h
To turn or face toward.
“presence / face of the earth” in this verse is mippānay. The phrase rendered “at my presence” literally means “before my face,” while “upon the face of the earth” uses the same Hebrew word, panim. English separates presence from face, but the verse places the earth’s face before God’s face.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face, front, surface, or presence.
פָּנִים
It appears both in “face of the earth” and “before my face,” linking the world’s surface to God’s presence.
lifnei: Before, or in front of.
לִפְנֵי
This related form preserves the face/front image where English often uses only “before.”
וְנָפְלוּ
ve-naflu
GROWS FROM
נפל
n-p-l
To fall, drop, or come down.
“fall” in this verse is ve-naflu. The steep places and the wall use two forms of נפל, so the collapse is repeated across the landscape and human structures. The verse moves from creatures shaking to solid forms losing their place and falling to the ground.
ALSO GROWS
ve-naflu: And they shall fall (plural).
וְנָפְלוּ
This form describes the steep places coming down.
tippol: It shall fall (feminine singular).
תִּפּוֹל
The wall uses the same fall-root, extending the collapse to every wall.
THE PATTERN
When God’s presence arrives, upheaval reaches the living world and the structures that seemed immovable.
The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.THE THREAD
But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.Ezekiel and Jeremiah use the same root, רעש (raʿash), for shaking: in Ezekiel it moves through every creature, and in Jeremiah the earth itself trembles. The shared word joins creaturely trembling to world-scale upheaval.
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