What Does Ezekiel 39:26 Mean in the King James?
After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.
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
Freedom from fear does not erase the breach a person still carries before God.
THE MEANING
You can live without immediate fear and still carry the truth of a breach in your relationship with God. The security around you does not make unfaithfulness disappear; the verse holds outward safety and inward shame in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“If I feel safe now, nothing remains from what I have done.”
THE ROOT
מָעֲלוּ
ma'alu
GROWS FROM
מעל
To act treacherously or unfaithfully; to violate a trust.
The verse pairs the noun for “trespass” with the verb “trespassed,” both from this root. The repetition presents the breach as a concrete act of unfaithfulness, not just a vague feeling of guilt.
ALSO GROWS
ma'al: Trespass; an act of unfaithfulness or betrayal.
מַעַל
The noun names the breach that the verse says they bear.
ma'al: To act unfaithfully or betray a trust.
מָעַל
This verb form appears in the verse, making the breach relational: it is committed against God.
כְּלִמָּה
kelimmah
GROWS FROM
כלם
To shame, humiliate, or bring disgrace.
The shame is named beside the actual trespass, so inner weight and concrete action remain joined. Here shame is something borne in the aftermath of the breach, not an unrelated label.
ALSO GROWS
kelimmah: Shame or disgrace.
כְּלִמָּה
This is the word for “shame” in the verse.
nikhlam: Humiliated or put to shame.
נִכְלָם
This form shows the root describing the experience of being brought into shame.
לָבֶטַח
labetach
GROWS FROM
בטח
To trust, rely on, or feel secure.
The word for dwelling safely belongs to a family that also carries the sense of trust and reliance. Beside the root for betrayal, it makes the verse’s tension plain: living undisturbed by danger does not by itself make a relationship whole.
ALSO GROWS
batach: To trust or rely securely.
בָּטַח
This verb shares the root behind the secure dwelling described here.
mivtach: A place of confidence or refuge.
מִבְטָח
This noun shows the root extending from feeling secure to the place in which security is found.
THE PATTERN
Restoration can name wrongdoing and shame while still opening a way toward reconciliation.
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;Leviticus uses the same root for “trespass” and “trespassed” that appears in Ezekiel 39:26. The repeated root gives the breach a specific name, linking what is borne in shame with what can be brought into confession.
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