Ezekiel 12:16

Bible in Basic English (1941)

But a small number of them I will keep from the sword, from the need of food, and from disease, so that they may make clear all their disgusting ways among the nations where they come; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְהוֹתַרְתִּ֤י מֵהֶם֙ אַנְשֵׁ֣י מִסְפָּ֔ר מֵחֶ֖רֶב מֵרָעָ֣ב וּמִדָּ֑בֶר לְמַ֨עַן יְסַפְּר֜וּ אֶת־כָּל־תּוֹעֲבֽוֹתֵיהֶ֗ם בַּגּוֹיִם֙ אֲשֶׁר־בָּ֣אוּ שָׁ֔ם וְיָדְע֖וּ כִּֽי־אֲנִ֥י יְהוָֽה׃

Transliteration

And-hôṯartî from-them ʾanšê mispār from-ḥereḇ from-rāʿāḇ and-from-dāḇer so-that yəsappərû ʾeṯ-all-tôʿăḇôṯêhem among-the-gôyim which-bāʾû there and-yādəʿû that-I YHWH

Grammar Details

• *hôṯartî*: hiphil perfect, 1st common singular - I will leave/spare
• *ʾanšê*: common noun, masculine plural construct - men of
• *mispār*: common noun, masculine singular - number/few
• *ḥereḇ*: common noun, feminine singular - sword
• *rāʿāḇ*: common noun, masculine singular - famine/hunger
• *dāḇer*: common noun, masculine singular - plague/pestilence
• *yəsappərû*: piel imperfect, 3rd common plural - they will recount/tell
• *tôʿăḇôṯêhem*: common noun, feminine plural with 3rd masculine plural suffix - their abominations
• *gôyim*: common noun, masculine plural with definite article - the nations
• *bāʾû*: qal perfect, 3rd common plural - they came/entered
• *yādəʿû*: qal perfect, 3rd common plural - they will know

Word Meanings

• *ʾanšê* *mispār*: men of number/few men/a small number of men

Referenced Verses

• Ezek 14:22-23 : 22 But truly, there will still be a small band who will be safe, even sons and daughters: and they will come out to you, and you will see their ways and their doings: and you will be comforted about the evil which I have sent on Jerusalem, even about everything I have sent on it. 23 They will give you comfort when you see their ways and their doings: and you will be certain that not for nothing have I done all the things I have done in it, says the Lord.
• Jer 22:8-9 : 8 And nations from all sides will go past this town, and every man will say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done such things to this great town? 9 And they will say, Because they gave up the agreement of the Lord their God, and became worshippers and servants of other gods.
• Ezek 6:8-9 : 8 But still, I will keep a small band safe from the sword among the nations, when you are sent wandering among the countries. 9 And those of you who are kept safe will have me in mind among the nations where they have been taken away as prisoners, how I sent punishment on their hearts which were untrue to me, and on their eyes which were turned to their false gods: and they will be full of hate for themselves because of the evil things which they have done in all their disgusting ways. 10 And they will be certain that I am the Lord: not for nothing did I say that I would do this evil to them.
• Jer 30:11 : 11 For I am with you, says the Lord, to be your saviour: for I will put an end to all the nations where I have sent you wandering, but I will not put an end to you completely: though with wise purpose I will put right your errors, and will not let you go quite without punishment.
• Ezek 36:31 : 31 And at the memory of your evil ways and your wrongdoings, you will have bitter hate for yourselves because of your evil-doings and your disgusting ways, O children of Israel.
• Dan 9:5-9 : 5 We are sinners, acting wrongly and doing evil; we have gone against you, turning away from your orders and from your laws: 6 We have not given ear to your servants the prophets, who said words in your name to our kings and our rulers and our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness is yours, but shame is on us, even to this day; and on the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and on all Israel, those who are near and those who are far off, in all the countries where you have sent them because of the sin which they have done against you. 8 O Lord, shame is on us, on our kings and our rulers and our fathers, because of our sin against you. 9 With the Lord our God are mercies and forgiveness, for we have gone against him; 10 And have not given ear to the voice of the Lord our God to go in the way of his laws which he put before us by the mouth of his servants the prophets. 11 And all Israel have been sinners against your law, turning away so as not to give ear to your voice: and the curse has been let loose on us, and the oath recorded in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have done evil against him. 12 And he has given effect to his words which he said against us and against those who were our judges, by sending a great evil on us: for under all heaven there has not been done what has been done to Jerusalem.
• Amos 9:8-9 : 8 See, the eyes of the Lord are on the evil kingdom, and I will put an end to it in all the earth; but I will not send complete destruction on Jacob, says the Lord. 9 For see, I will give orders, and I will have Israel moved about among all the nations, as grain is moved about by the shaking of the tray, but not the smallest seed will be dropped on the earth.
• Matt 7:14 : 14 For narrow is the door and hard the road to life, and only a small number make discovery of it.
• Matt 24:22 : 22 And if those days had not been made short there would have been no salvation for any, but because of the saints those days will be made short.
• Rom 9:27 : 27 And Isaiah says about Israel, Even if the number of the children of Israel is as the sand of the sea, only a small part will get salvation:
• Rom 11:4-5 : 4 But what answer does God make to him? I have still seven thousand men whose knees have not been bent to Baal. 5 In the same way, there are at this present time some who are marked out by the selection of grace.
• Gen 13:16 : 16 And I will make your children like the dust of the earth, so that if the dust of the earth may be numbered, then will your children be numbered.
• Lev 26:40-41 : 40 And they will have grief for their sins and for the sins of their fathers, when their hearts were untrue to me, and they went against me; 41 So that I went against them and sent them away into the land of their haters: if then the pride of their hearts is broken and they take the punishment of their sins,
• Deut 29:24-28 : 24 Truly all the nations will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land? what is the reason for this great and burning wrath? 25 Then men will say, Because they gave up the agreement of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he took them out of the land of Egypt: 26 And they went after other gods and gave them worship, gods who were strange to them, and whom he had not given them: 27 And so the wrath of the Lord was moved against this land, to send on it all the curse recorded in this book: 28 Rooting them out of their land, in the heat of his wrath and passion, and driving them out into another land, as at this day.
• 1 Kgs 9:6-9 : 6 But if you are turned from my ways, you or your children, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods and give them worship: 7 Then I will have Israel cut off from the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for myself, I will put away from before my eyes; and Israel will be a public example, and a word of shame among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder at it and make whistling sounds; and they will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house? 9 And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord their God, who took their fathers out of the land of Egypt; they took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why the Lord has sent all this evil on them.
• Isa 1:9 : 9 If the Lord of armies had not kept some at least of us safe, we would have been like Sodom, and the fate of Gomorrah would have been ours.
• Isa 6:13 : 13 And even if there is still a tenth part in it, it will again be burned, like a tree of the woods whose broken end is still in the earth after the tree has been cut down (the holy seed is the broken end).
• Isa 10:19 : 19 And the rest of the trees of his wood will be small in number, so that a child may put them down in writing.
• Isa 10:22 : 22 For though your people, O Israel, are as the sand of the sea, only a small number will come back: for the destruction is fixed, overflowing in righteousness.
• Isa 24:13 : 13 For it will be in the heart of the earth among the peoples, like the shaking of an olive-tree, as the last of the grapes after the getting-in is done.
• Jer 3:24-25 : 24 But the Baal has taken all the work of our fathers from our earliest days; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us be stretched on the earth in our downfall, covering ourselves with our shame: for we have been sinners against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our earliest years even till this day: and we have not given ear to the voice of the Lord our God.
• Jer 4:27 : 27 For this is what the Lord has said: All the land will become a waste; I will make destruction complete.