What Does Ezekiel 6:12 Mean in the King James?
He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon 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
Distance, closeness, and confinement do not offer three ways out; they mark three ways death reaches the same people.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts you with a picture in which no position becomes refuge: the far off meets pestilence, the near falls to the sword, and the besieged starves. Its final clause names these deaths as the completion of fury, leaving the violence direct and unsoftened.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that distance itself guarantees safety is undone here: the verse assigns danger to the far, the near, and the enclosed alike.
THE ROOT
וְכִלֵּיתִי
wekhillethi
GROWS FROM
כלה
k-l-h
to complete, bring to an end, or consume
The form translated “accomplish” carries the force of bringing something to completion or consuming it. The fury is not only expressed; it is carried to its endpoint through the calamities named in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
kalah: to finish, complete, or come to an end
כָּלָה
This branch makes the completion sense of “accomplish” visible in the verse’s final clause.
killayon: destruction, complete ruin
כִּלָּיוֹן
This noun shows how the root’s idea of completion can carry devastating force.
הַנָּצוּר
hannatsur
GROWS FROM
צור
ṣ-w-r
to confine, press in, or besiege
The word for “besieged” grows from a verb of enclosing and pressing in; מָצוֹר (matsor) names a siege. The famine falls on the one whose world has been closed around him, making enclosure part of the danger.
ALSO GROWS
tsur: to besiege or confine
צוּר
This verbal form names the enclosing action behind “the besieged.”
matsor: siege, or siege works
מָצוֹר
This noun names the siege as the condition that closes in around the person who remains.
הַקָּרוֹב
haqqarov
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
to approach or come near
The word for “near” shares its root with קָרַב (qarab), “approach,” and קָרְבָּן (qorban), “drawing near.” Here, proximity offers no shelter: the one who is near still meets the sword.
ALSO GROWS
qarab: to approach or draw near
קָרַב
This verb shows that nearness belongs to a family of words about approach.
qorban: drawing near; an offering brought near
קָרְבָּן
This branch carries the same root into the idea of drawing near, while the verse shows that proximity itself does not protect.
THE PATTERN
Judgment is portrayed through converging calamities, so no single form of exposure exhausts its reach.
And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?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
Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.The same root, כלה (k-l-h), “complete or consume,” appears in “accomplish mine anger.” It opens this verse further by giving “accomplish” the force of carrying the declared fury through to its end.
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