What Does Ezekiel 48:14 Mean in the King James?

And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land: for it is holy unto the LORD.

Ezekiel 48:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The first portion is already set apart to the LORD, and no transaction can make it ordinary.

THE MEANING

The verse holds the land’s first portion as belonging to the LORD: selling, exchanging, or transferring it does not change its status. Its claim is present before any transaction and remains after every attempted transfer.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that something becomes ordinary once it is sold or transferred; this first portion remains holy unto the LORD.

THE ROOT

רֵאשִׁית

rēʾšît

GROWS FROM

ר־א־שׁ

resh

Head, top, or beginning.

⁨רֵאשִׁית⁩ (rēʾšît, first portion or beginning) grows from ⁨רֹאשׁ⁩ (rōʾš, head). “Firstfruits” therefore carries the sense of the land’s head or beginning, not merely an early slice of its yield.

ALSO GROWS

rōʾš: Head, top, chief.

רֹאשׁ

The land’s first portion is named with the same root as its “head,” giving firstness the sense of a leading or defining portion.

rîšôn: First, former.

רִאשׁוֹן

This branch shows the root’s connection between beginning and what stands first in an order.

קֹדֶשׁ

qōdeš

GROWS FROM

ק־ד־שׁ

qof

Set apart; marked as distinct.

“holy” in this verse is qōdeš. ⁨קֹדֶשׁ⁩ (qōdeš, holiness or set-apartness) names a status that belongs to the LORD. The verse makes that status a boundary around the first portion: selling, exchange, or transfer does not dissolve it.

ALSO GROWS

qādôš: Set apart, holy.

קָדוֹשׁ

The adjective describes what has been marked as distinct, just as the first portion is declared holy unto the LORD.

miqdāš: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.

מִקְדָּשׁ

The sanctuary is a place bearing the same set-apart quality that the verse gives to the first portion.

THE PATTERN

The first portion is set apart to God and marks the larger yield that follows.

The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

Exodus 23:19 · KJVThe first yield of the land is directed to the LORD as the portion that opens the harvest.

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:

Leviticus 23:10 · KJVThe first sheaf is set apart from the harvest and presented before the rest is gathered in.

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James 1:18 · KJVThe image of firstfruits extends to people who stand as the beginning of a larger creation.

THE THREAD

Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

Proverbs 3:9 · KJV

The phrase “firstfruits” here is ⁨רֵאשִׁית⁩ (rēʾšît, first portion or beginning), the same Hebrew word used in Ezekiel. Proverbs links that firstness to honoring the LORD; Ezekiel makes the belonging explicit by saying no sale, exchange, or transfer can undo it.

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