What Does Ezekiel 9:5 Mean in the King James?

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:

Ezekiel 9:5 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew forbids mercy twice, first as sparing, then as pity, so the absence of compassion is part of the command itself.

THE MEANING

The command is blunt: the agents strike through the city, and neither sparing nor pity may interrupt the blow. Its violence is not softened by a mercy clause; the verse names judgment as an action carried through without compassion.

THE ROOT

תַּחְמֹלוּ

taḥmōlû

GROWS FROM

חמל

ḥ-m-l

to pity, spare, or have compassion

“pity” in this verse is taḥmōlû. Here the word names compassion as a response that could spare someone, while the command explicitly bars it. The adjacent prohibition against sparing names both the compassionate response and the act of restraint.

ALSO GROWS

ḥemlāh: compassion, pity

חֶמְלָה

This noun makes explicit the compassion that the command prohibits.

wattaḥmōl: and she had compassion

וַתַּחְמֹל

This verb form shows the same root as an act of compassion that can arise toward another.

תָּחֹס

taḥōs

GROWS FROM

חוס

ḥ-w-s

to spare, show regard for, or have pity

“spare” in this verse is taḥōs. The verb can carry both the sense of sparing and of having regard or compassion. Beside “pity,” it marks a second prohibition: neither sparing nor compassionate regard is to stop the strike.

ALSO GROWS

ḥūs: spare, pity

חוּס

This verb form carries the same range of regard and sparing that is forbidden here.

yāḥūs: he will spare, he will have pity

יָחוּס

The same root can describe the act of sparing that this command rules out.

הַכּוּ

hakkû

GROWS FROM

נכה

n-k-h

to strike or smite

“smite” in this verse is hakkû. The same root names the action of striking and the blow that results from it. The verse therefore places physical force at its center; its prohibitions on pity and sparing do not conceal what the agents are ordered to do.

ALSO GROWS

makkāh: a blow, wound, or plague

מַכָּה

The noun makes the ordered strike concrete as a blow.

makkēh: one who strikes; striking

מַכֶּה

This form names the striker or the act of striking from the same root as the command.

THE PATTERN

When judgment is declared, scripture can state the withholding of compassion as part of its execution.

And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

Deuteronomy 7:16 · KJVThe command explicitly joins destruction with the prohibition against pity, making the withholding of compassion part of its stated force.

And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 7:4 · KJVThe eye’s failure to spare and refusal of pity recur together before recompense is named.

For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

Romans 11:21 · KJVThe warning makes the possibility of being unsparing explicit in another judgment image.

THE THREAD

And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 7:4 · KJV

The same Hebrew roots for “spare” and “pity” return together, with the eye named again. Here the declaration continues into recompense, revealing the severity carried by that repeated pair.

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