What Does Ezekiel 6:11 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
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 root behind “smite” also gives a word for a blow and, elsewhere, a plague, so the prophet’s gesture echoes the violence he names.
THE MEANING
This verse puts bodily lament beside bodily death: a striking hand and stamping foot accompany a cry over the house’s abominations. The announced outcome is concrete, people fall to sword, famine, and pestilence. The verse leaves those deaths exposed as deaths, not softened into figures of speech.
THE ROOT
הַכֵּה
hakkēh
GROWS FROM
נכה
Strike, hit.
“Smite” in this verse is hakkēh. The verb belongs to the same root as מַכָּה (makkāh, a blow or, in some contexts, a plague), so the hand’s strike carries an echo of a blow that falls on people. The verse’s specific word for “pestilence” is דֶּבֶר (dever, pestilence), from a different root; the words are not identical.
ALSO GROWS
nākâ: To strike or hit.
נָכָה
This is the verb family behind the prophet’s command to strike with his hand.
makkāh: A blow or stroke; in some contexts, a plague.
מַכָּה
This branch lets the bodily strike echo the vocabulary of affliction.
יִפֹּלוּ
yippōlū
GROWS FROM
נפל
Fall, drop down.
The verb keeps the outcome physical: people fall under sword, famine, and pestilence. Its related noun מַפָּלָה (mappālāh, downfall or ruin) shows the same root naming a collapse.
ALSO GROWS
nāphal: To fall or drop down.
נָפַל
This verb is the seed of the verse’s “they shall fall.”
mappālāh: Downfall or ruin.
מַפָּלָה
The related noun carries the fall from a physical event into a word for collapse.
רָקַע
rāqaʿ
GROWS FROM
רקע
Stamp, beat out, or spread by beating.
“Stamp” in this verse is rāqaʿ. The root joins the foot’s stamping with the forceful beating out of a surface. רָקִיעַ (rāqîaʿ, expanse or firmament) belongs to this word family, extending the root’s range beyond the foot’s impact.
ALSO GROWS
rāqîaʿ: Expanse or firmament.
רָקִיעַ
This related word carries the root into the idea of something spread out.
wayraqqeʿū: They beat out.
וַיְרַקְּעוּ
In Exodus 39:3, this form describes beating gold into thin plates, showing the root’s physical force.
THE PATTERN
When Scripture names communal judgment, it keeps the consequences bodily and concrete: violence, hunger, disease, and death.
When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.THE THREAD
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despite against the land of Israel;Both verses use רָקַע (rāqaʿ, stamp or beat down) for the foot’s movement. In this verse it accompanies lament; in Ezekiel 25:6 it accompanies rejoicing over Israel’s distress, so the shared root lets the same bodily gesture expose opposite responses.
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