What Does Ezekiel 5:1 Mean in the King James?
And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.
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 what grows from the body is weighed and portioned, making the loss exact rather than shapeless.
THE MEANING
You are shown loss being made exact: what is cut from the head is weighed, then separated into portions. The body’s covering becomes measured material, and each portion is prepared for a different fate.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse overturns the idea that loss arrives as one undifferentiated blow: here it is weighed and apportioned.
THE ROOT
מֹאזְנֵי מִשְׁקָל
mozne mishqal
GROWS FROM
שקל
sh-q-l
To weigh; to measure by weight.
“balances to weigh” in this verse is mozne mishqal. The scales make the shaving an act of precise reckoning, not merely removal. The same root gives the word for a shekel, so what seems like an uncountable mass of hair becomes something that can be measured.
ALSO GROWS
mishqal: Weight; a measure by weight.
מִשְׁקָל
This is the word in the verse that names what the scales are for.
sheqel: A shekel, a unit of weight and then of money.
שֶׁקֶל
Its shared root shows how weighing turns material into a countable quantity.
וְחִלַּקְתָּ
weḥillaqtā
GROWS FROM
חלק
ḥ-l-q
To divide or apportion.
“divide” in this verse is weḥillaqtā. The verb for dividing belongs to the same root as a portion or share. The hair is not simply cut away; it is made into portions that can receive different outcomes.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēleq: A portion or share.
חֵלֶק
This branch names the individual part created by the dividing.
maḥlōqet: A division or dispute.
מַחֲלֹקֶת
It preserves the root’s sense of separation into distinct parts.
THE PATTERN
What seems too small to matter remains inside the reckoning of a person’s fate.
Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not.THE THREAD
And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.The verb translated “weighed” and the noun “shekels” share the Hebrew root שקל (sh-q-l), meaning “to weigh.” That root link makes the scales here feel exact: even the hair is treated as measurable material, not an indistinct mass.
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