What Does Ezekiel 46:17 Mean in the King James?
But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons’ for them.
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
A gift can place someone inside another’s estate for a season without making that estate his inheritance.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two kinds of belonging side by side: a servant receives a gift from the prince’s estate for a bounded term, while the sons remain its inheritors. The year of liberty marks the boundary at which what was granted returns to the prince. The verse distinguishes what is given for a term from what is carried forward through a line of inheritance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that possession and permanence are the same: receiving the grant makes it his for a term, but does not make it his inheritance.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָתוֹ
nachalato
GROWS FROM
נחל
nachal
To inherit or take possession; as a noun, an estate or portion passed on as a continuing possession.
The same word נַחֲלָה (nachalah, inheritance) appears first as the prince’s estate and again as what belongs to his sons. Its root also forms נָחַל (nachal, inherit), linking the estate to the act of receiving and carrying it forward.
ALSO GROWS
nachal: To inherit or receive as a possession.
נָחַל
The verb shows inheritance as an ongoing transfer, while the verse sets that enduring line beside a servant’s time-limited grant.
hinchil: To cause someone to inherit; to pass on as a possession.
הִנְחִיל
This form makes explicit the transfer from one generation or holder to another that the sons’ inheritance preserves.
nachalah: An inheritance, estate, or allotted portion.
נַחֲלָה
The repeated noun makes the contrast: the prince’s estate temporarily supplies the gift, but his sons receive the inheritance.
דְּרוֹר
deror
GROWS FROM
דרר
darar
To move freely or flow freely; the related noun denotes release or liberty.
The word דְּרוֹר (deror, liberty) carries the sense of free movement. Here, liberty is a named boundary in time: when it arrives, the servant’s grant returns to the prince.
ALSO GROWS
darar: To move swiftly or flow freely.
דָּרַר
This root sense gives liberty a concrete feel of movement released from restraint.
deror: Liberty or release.
דְּרוֹר
This is the word used for the year that ends the servant’s possession and returns the estate to its source.
מַתָּנָה
mattanah
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
The verb יִתֵּן (yitten, he gives) and the noun מַתָּנָה (mattanah, gift) grow from the same root. The gift is named by the act that places it in the servant’s hands, while the verse gives that placement a defined term.
ALSO GROWS
yitten: He gives or places.
יִתֵּן
This is the act that grants the servant possession of part of the prince’s estate.
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The root’s sense of placing clarifies that the gift is a real grant, even though its duration is limited.
THE PATTERN
A temporary grant can end at a designated release while inheritance remains with its line of belonging.
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.THE THREAD
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.The Hebrew דְּרוֹר (deror, liberty) appears in both verses. Leviticus makes the release year’s effect visible: people return to their possessions and families, just as Ezekiel’s granted estate returns to the prince.
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