What Does Ezekiel 47:22 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.
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 sojourner’s children inherit a place among Israel’s tribes, so belonging reaches beyond those born in the land.
THE MEANING
A person who arrives as a sojourner can belong so fully that their children stand as native-born and share the inheritance. Belonging here has a material shape: a place in the land, among the tribes. The verse holds newcomer and native within one allotment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sojourner’s children must remain outsiders, unable to share the inheritance.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָה
naḥalah
GROWS FROM
נחל
To inherit or take possession; in a causative form, to cause someone to inherit or bequeath.
The verse repeats this word for an actual allotted share, not merely a feeling of welcome. The root’s inheritance language makes the sojourner’s children recipients of a place among the tribes.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: Inherit or take possession
נָחַל
The verb shows inheritance as receiving a real possession, which the sojourner’s children receive alongside Israel.
hinḥîl: Cause to inherit; bequeath
הִנְחִיל
This causative form brings the act of assigning an inheritance into view, echoing the land divided by lot.
גֵּר
gēr
GROWS FROM
גור
To reside or sojourn as an outsider.
“strangers” in this verse is gēr. The root keeps the newcomer’s sojourner status visible even as the verse gives their children the standing of those born in the land. Their origin remains named, but it no longer excludes them from the inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
gēr: A resident stranger or sojourner
גֵּר
This is the status named in the verse, carried into the shared allotment rather than erased.
gūr: To dwell or sojourn as an outsider
גּוּר
The verb describes the condition behind the noun: living among a people as a sojourner, while the verse gives the next generation a share among them.
THE PATTERN
The people’s boundary widens when the stranger is counted within the same covenant life and inheritance.
One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD.Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;THE THREAD
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.The Hebrew behind “stranger” in Genesis comes from the same gur root as the sojourner in Ezekiel. There, the land is promised to Abraham while he is a sojourner; here, the sojourner’s children receive an inheritance within that land.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us