What Does Ezekiel 45:7 Mean in the King James?
And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion, and of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward, and from the east side eastward: and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border.
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
Even the prince’s land is a bounded share within a landscape ordered around sacred and civic space.
THE MEANING
Here, authority has a defined place within a shared landscape: the prince’s allotment lies beside the holy portion and the city’s holding, stretching from west to east. The ruler receives a real share, yet it remains distinct from the sacred and communal holdings around it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that authority means owning everything: the prince’s allotment is measured beside, and separately from, the sacred and civic land.
THE ROOT
חֵלֶק
ḥēleq
GROWS FROM
חלק
ḥ-l-q
To divide or apportion; a share set apart from a whole.
The word for a portion belongs to the same root as dividing and apportioning. The land here is not an undifferentiated expanse: it is divided into shares, each situated within the whole.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālaq: To divide, distribute, or apportion.
חָלַק
This verb makes the act inside “portion” visible: land becomes a share through division.
ḥelqāh: A plot or tract of land.
חֶלְקָה
This branch names the bounded piece of ground that an allotted share can become.
אֲחֻזָּה
ʾăḥuzzāh
GROWS FROM
אחז
ʾ-ḥ-z
To grasp, take hold, or hold fast.
The city’s “possession” carries the sense of a holding: land is something held within the larger arrangement. The prince’s share is placed beside that holding, with each occupying its own defined place.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāḥaz: To grasp or take hold.
אָחַז
The verb gives the concrete action beneath the city’s holding: someone takes hold of or holds land.
ʾăḥuzzāh: A holding, possession, or estate.
אֲחֻזָּה
This noun is the very word used for the city’s landholding in the verse.
נָשִׂיא
nāśîʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
n-ś-ʾ
To lift, carry, or bear.
The title for the prince is associated with the root of lifting and bearing, adding a note of weight-bearing to the word for ruler. Here, that ruler receives a measured share within a larger order of holdings.
ALSO GROWS
nāśāʾ: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This verb supplies the root’s physical sense of bearing, echoed in the prince’s title.
maśśāʾ: A load or burden; also an oracle or utterance.
מַשָּׂא
This branch shows what is carried, linking the root’s sense of bearing with the weight of the prince’s role.
THE PATTERN
A shared world is ordered through bounded portions, each holding its place within a larger whole.
Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;THE THREAD
The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.Ezekiel uses חֵלֶק (ḥēleq), “portion,” for a measured land allotment; Psalm 16:5 uses the same Hebrew word for the speaker’s inheritance. The shared root lets “portion” hold both a bounded tract and one’s share in what sustains life.
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