What Does Ezekiel 39:18 Mean in the King James?
Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
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 verse makes might and rank part of the menu: the mighty become flesh, and the princes’ blood becomes drink.
THE MEANING
The scene confronts the reader with a feast made of the mighty: their flesh is eaten, and the princes’ blood is drunk. Strength and title do not place a body beyond this violence; the named rulers remain bodies exposed to consumption.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that strength and rank make a person untouchable is undone: the mighty and princes are explicitly counted among the bodies consumed.
THE ROOT
גִּבּוֹרִים
gibborim
GROWS FROM
גבר
Be strong, prevail, or overcome.
The word carries the sense of prevailing strength. Yet the verse names these mighty ones as flesh to be eaten, placing the sign of their power beside their bodily vulnerability.
ALSO GROWS
gābar: Be strong; prevail.
גָּבַר
The root’s language of prevailing sharpens the reversal: those marked by strength become part of the feast.
geburah: Might; strength.
גְּבוּרָה
This noun names power itself, which the verse sets directly beside flesh that can be consumed.
נְשִׂיאֵי
nesi’ei
GROWS FROM
נשא
Lift, carry, or bear.
“princes” in this verse is nesi’ei. The title belongs to the root of lifting: a prince is one raised up. Here, the elevated title does not separate its bearer from the blood named in the feast.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: Lift; carry; bear.
נָשָׂא
The verb holds the idea of being raised that is compressed into the title “prince.”
massāʾ: A burden; a load carried.
מַשָּׂא
The same root also names what is borne; the verse leaves the prince’s rank intact while exposing the mortal body beneath it.
THE PATTERN
In judgment, the rank of the powerful collapses into the exposed body, and rulers themselves become part of the slaughter.
The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.THE THREAD
That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.Revelation repeats the meal and names kings, captains, and mighty men among the flesh consumed. The echo makes the collapse of status visible: every rank named still ends as a body.
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