What Does Zechariah 5:3 Mean in the King James?
Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
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 curse and the swearing belong to the same oath-world: the word invoked to secure a claim also carries its exposure across the whole earth.
THE MEANING
The curse reaches across the whole earth and names both hidden taking and sworn speech as breaches it exposes. The scroll holds the hand that steals and the mouth that swears under the same measure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a private taking can stay hidden, or that an oath can shield a false claim, dissolves under a word that reaches the whole earth.
THE ROOT
הָאָלָה
haʾālāh
GROWS FROM
א־ל־ה
To invoke an oath or imprecation; as a noun, an oath-bound curse.
The Hebrew word for “curse” belongs to the language of sworn oaths: an imprecation calls consequences upon a claim. That is why the verse’s curse and its swearer echo one another, the spoken bond stands within the reach of the word that judges it.
ALSO GROWS
ʾālāh: Curse or imprecation.
אָלָה
This is the word naming the force that goes out over the whole earth.
ʾālāh: To swear by invoking an oath or curse.
אָלָה
This verbal branch brings sworn speech into the same word-family as the curse.
הַנִּשְׁבָּע
hannishbaʿ
GROWS FROM
ש־ב־ע
To swear or take an oath.
“sweareth” in this verse is hannishbaʿ. This root presents swearing as a binding oath, not merely speech. Beside אָלָה (ʾālāh, “oath-curse”), the swearer’s own binding words stand within the judgment the scroll announces.
ALSO GROWS
shavaʿ: To swear or take an oath.
שָׁבַע
The verb names the act of making the sworn claim in the verse.
shevuʿah: An oath.
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun shows the same root as a binding sworn commitment.
THE PATTERN
The word of judgment reaches hidden breach and brings it into the open.
I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.THE THREAD
And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.The phrase translated “voice of swearing” is קוֹל אָלָה (qol ʾālāh, “voice of an oath-curse”), the same אָלָה (ʾālāh, “oath-curse”) word used for “curse” in Zechariah. The root overlap reveals how sworn speech and the curse that goes out over the earth belong to one field of meaning.
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