What Does Ezekiel 48:18 Mean in the King James?
And the residue in length over against the oblation of the holy portion shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward: and it shall be over against the oblation of the holy portion; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that serve the city.
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 remainder beside the holy portion is not cast off; its measured yield becomes food for those who serve the city.
THE MEANING
The land beside the holy portion has a measured place, and its yield feeds the people serving the city. What remains still has a purpose: it nourishes the labor that serves the city now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what remains after a sacred share is waste: here, the remainder has a place and feeds those who serve the city.
THE ROOT
הַנּוֹתָר
hanotar
GROWS FROM
יתר
y-t-r
Remain over; be left as a remainder or surplus.
“residue” in this verse is hanotar. The word comes from the root for what remains after something has been allotted. Here, the remainder is measured and made productive: it becomes food for the city’s servants, not a discarded excess.
ALSO GROWS
yether: Remainder, surplus
יֶתֶר
It names what is left over, showing that the verse assigns the remainder a purpose.
hotir: Leave over; preserve a remainder
הוֹתִיר
This verb shares the root behind “residue,” linking what remains here with what is left in other passages.
עֹבְדֵי
ovdei
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
Work, labor, serve.
The people who serve the city are named through the root for labor and service. The sentence links their work with nourishment: the yield is set aside for those who give their labor to the city.
ALSO GROWS
avad: Work, serve
עָבַד
This is the verb expressed by “serve,” naming the labor that the verse’s food allocation sustains.
avodah: Work, service
עֲבוֹדָה
This noun makes the shared root between labor and service explicit.
תְּבוּאָתָהּ
tevu'atah
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
Come, enter.
The Hebrew word for the land’s yield is formed from בוא, “come” or “enter.” What the KJV calls its “increase” is the harvest that comes in, becoming food for those who serve the city.
ALSO GROWS
bo: Come, enter
בּוֹא
This is the root verb behind the word for yield.
mavo: Entrance; coming in
מָבוֹא
It shows the root’s sense of arriving or entering, echoed in the harvest that comes in from the land.
THE PATTERN
A community’s shared work is sustained by material provision assigned to those who serve it.
And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled;Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?THE THREAD
Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.The word translated “left” comes from יָתַר (yatar), the root behind Ezekiel’s “residue.” In Isaiah what remains preserves a remnant; here, what remains becomes food, carrying the root’s sense of remaining from survival into sustenance.
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