What Does Ezra 9:6 Mean in the King James?
And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
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 verse’s hidden tension is vertical: shame lowers the face while guilt rises above the speaker’s head toward heaven.
THE MEANING
Shame is spoken here without hiding its scale: the speaker cannot lift his face, and the wrongdoing towers above his head. The address still moves directly toward God; even humiliation is voiced in God’s presence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that shame makes direct speech to God impossible: the ashamed speaker still says, “O my God,” and names the full height of the guilt.
THE ROOT
לְהָרִים
leharim
GROWS FROM
רוּם
Rise, be high, or raise up.
“lift up” in this verse is leharim. לְהָרִים is a form of רוּם meaning to cause something to rise. The verse sets the face that will not rise against the guilt pictured as rising above the head and reaching heaven.
ALSO GROWS
rām: High, elevated.
רָם
This form comes from the same weak root; its middle ו is heard in the vowel rather than written.
mārôm: Height, heights.
מָרוֹם
It carries all three root consonants and names the height toward which the verse’s imagery points.
אַשְׁמָתֵנוּ
ashmateinu
GROWS FROM
אָשַׁם
Incur guilt or be liable.
This root gathers trespass and liability together: guilt is something for which a person is answerable. Here that guilt has grown, appearing as an accumulating condition rather than an isolated act.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāshēm: Guilty, liable.
אָשֵׁם
This describes the state of being answerable that lies within the word for trespass.
ʾāshām: Guilt; also a reparation offering.
אָשָׁם
The same consonants name both the liability and what is brought in response to it.
וְנִכְלַמְתִּי
venikhlamti
GROWS FROM
כָּלַם
Be humiliated, shamed, or disgraced.
English “blush” can sound like a visible change of color, while כָּלַם names humiliation and disgrace. Beside בֹּשְׁתִּי, “I am ashamed,” it gives the verse two words for shame: inward and exposed.
ALSO GROWS
nikhlām: Humiliated, put to shame.
נִכְלָם
This form describes the person undergoing the disgrace named by the root.
kelimmāh: Shame, disgrace.
כְּלִמָּה
This noun makes explicit the humiliation carried in “I blush.”
THE PATTERN
When guilt overwhelms human measure, Scripture pictures it above the head, too heavy to bear, or blocking the gaze toward heaven.
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.THE THREAD
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.Ezra’s לְהָרִים, “to lift up,” comes from רוּם, the same root heard in Isaiah’s רָם, “high,” and מָרוֹם, “height.” Isaiah places the high One with the lowly, adding a startling nearness to Ezra’s image of guilt rising toward heaven.
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