What Does Ezekiel 9:1 Mean in the King James?
He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
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 word for those in charge grows from a root of appointment and mustering, so the city’s overseers are summoned as an assembled force of destruction.
THE MEANING
You hear a loud command: those charged over the city are called forward, each carrying a weapon of destruction. Appointment and violence stand together in the summons; those in authority arrive armed. The scene does not conceal what their instruments are for.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that authority over a city is necessarily protective: here, those with charge over it are summoned carrying tools of destruction.
THE ROOT
פְּקֻדּוֹת
peqûdôt
GROWS FROM
פקד
paqad
to attend to, appoint, oversee, or muster
The city’s “charge” is rooted in פקד, whose range includes attending, appointing, and mustering. The word gathers oversight and the assembling of its agents, so those responsible are called into motion.
ALSO GROWS
paqad: to attend to, appoint, muster, or number
פָּקַד
The root’s range joins the role of oversight to the act of gathering people for an assignment.
paqîd: an appointed officer or overseer
פָּקִיד
This branch makes authority a defined appointment, carried here by those summoned forward.
מַשְׁחֵתוֹ
mashcheto
GROWS FROM
שחת
shachat
to ruin, destroy, spoil, or corrupt
“destroying” in this verse is mashcheto. The weapon is identified by the ruin it carries: the same root names destruction and corruption. The English participle presents a function, while the Hebrew root keeps it joined to the broader idea of something spoiled or made desolate.
ALSO GROWS
shachat: to ruin, destroy, or spoil
שָׁחַת
This verb names the work carried by the weapon in the verse.
mashchit: destroyer; one who brings ruin
מַשְׁחִית
This related form makes the agent of destruction visible in the same word family.
קָרְבוּ
qarvu
GROWS FROM
קרב
qarav
to come near or approach
“draw near” in this verse is qarvu. The command is movement toward proximity, and the same seed appears in korban, a drawing-near offering. Here coming close is a summons into a scene of violence, so nearness carries no promise of gentleness.
ALSO GROWS
qarav: to approach or draw near
קָרַב
This is the verb behind the command calling the city’s overseers forward.
qorbān: an offering brought near; a drawing near
קָרְבָּן
The shared root connects approach with an offering, while this verse gives approach the harder force of entering judgment.
THE PATTERN
A scene of judgment makes delegated destruction visible by naming the agents and the task they carry.
For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.THE THREAD
The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.The city officers in Ezekiel are described with פְּקֻדּוֹת (peqûdôt), from פקד (paqad), and Isaiah uses that same root for “mustereth.” In both, what seems like a rank or distant command is revealed as a gathering of assigned forces for battle.
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