What Does Ezekiel 5:12 Mean in the King James?
A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after 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
The scattering is no escape: the sword is drawn after the third that the winds carry away.
THE MEANING
The verse names a collapse that reaches every direction: pestilence and famine consume people within, the sword strikes around them, and those driven outward face a sword still pursuing them. Its final movement refuses the idea that distance alone brings safety.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that leaving the place where violence begins guarantees safety; here, the sword follows those who are scattered.
THE ROOT
אֲזָרֶה
ʾazāreh
GROWS FROM
זרה
z-r-h
To scatter, disperse, or winnow.
“scatter” in this verse is ʾazāreh. The same root holds dispersal and winnowing: casting outward can separate what was together. Here that movement carries people away, while the verse makes clear that the sword still reaches after them.
ALSO GROWS
mizrēh: Winnowing shovel or fan
מִזְרֶה
This tool scatters grain so it separates; it shows the dispersive force carried by the root.
zārāh: To scatter or winnow
זָרָה
The verb names the casting outward that the verse makes concrete in the image of scattering in every direction.
רוּחוֹת
rûḥôt
GROWS FROM
רוח
r-w-ḥ
Breath; moving air, including wind.
The Hebrew word here translated “winds” also names breath; English separates what Hebrew holds in one word. The verse uses that word for the directions into which people are scattered, making the movement of air part of the passage’s stark image of exposure.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind or moving air
רוּחַ
Here the plural form names the winds in every direction that carry the scattered people outward.
ruach: Breath
רוּחַ
The same Hebrew word names breath within a living body, joining the air that carries people away to the breath that sustains life.
THE PATTERN
Dispersal does not end the reach of violence; the sword follows people beyond the place from which they are driven.
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.THE THREAD
And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.This verse repeats Ezekiel 5:12’s movement: scattering toward every wind, then drawing a sword after the dispersed. The shared wording makes the point unmistakable: being carried outward does not place them beyond the sword’s reach.
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