What Does Ezekiel 5:3 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts.
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 Hebrew word for “skirts” also means “wing,” so the few are bound into a garment’s wing: held close at the edge of covering.
THE MEANING
The verse makes the remainder tangible: only a few, counted and bound into the edge of a garment. That edge is also a wing, so the image holds together nearness and covering. Their smallness remains visible; what survives is not pictured as a crowd.
THE ROOT
וְצָרַרְתָּ
wetsararta
GROWS FROM
צָרַר
tsarar
To bind or tie up; the same root also carries the sense of pressing into narrowness.
“bind” in this verse is wetsararta. The few are not merely set aside; they are tied into a fold. The same root gives צַר (tsar, narrow or tight), joining the act of binding with the pressure of constriction.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight; also an adversary or foe.
צַר
The shared root lets binding carry a sense of being pressed into a narrow space.
tsarah: Distress or trouble.
צָרָה
The root links a bound or compressed state with the experience of distress.
בִּכְנָפֶיךָ
bikhenafekha
GROWS FROM
כָּנָף
kanaph
Wing, edge, or extremity, including the corner of a garment.
English “skirts” makes this sound only like a clothing edge. The Hebrew כָּנָף (kanaph, wing or garment edge) holds both images together: the few are bound into the garment’s wing.
ALSO GROWS
kanaph: Wing, edge, or corner of a garment.
כָּנָף
This is the word behind “skirts,” joining a garment’s edge to the image of a wing.
kenafayim: Wings, the dual form of the word.
כְּנָפַיִם
The plural form makes the wing sense explicit, revealing what the English clothing image alone can conceal.
מְעַט
me'at
GROWS FROM
מָעַט
ma'at
To be few or small; to diminish.
The word marks a small number, while its verbal family also means to diminish. The remnant is defined by reduction: what is held is only a few.
ALSO GROWS
me'at: A little, a few.
מְעַט
This is the word used for the small number taken and bound.
him'it: To reduce or make few.
הִמְעִיט
This form makes the root’s movement toward diminished numbers explicit.
THE PATTERN
After a dividing, the text follows the small remnant that remains and carries it forward.
But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.THE THREAD
And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.The Hebrew כָּנָף (kanaph, wing or garment edge) is the same word behind “skirts” in both verses. Ezekiel’s few are bound into that edge; Ruth asks for it to be spread over her, revealing the garment’s edge as a place of covering and nearness.
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