Ezekiel 12:16

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

But I will let a small number of them survive the sword, famine, and pestilence, so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go. Then they will know 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 Yet some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their behavior and their deeds, you will be consoled about the catastrophe I have brought on Jerusalem– for everything I brought on it. 23 They will console you when you see their behavior and their deeds, because you will know that it was not without reason that I have done everything which I have done in it, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
• Jer 22:8-9 : 8 “‘People from other nations will pass by this city. They will ask one another,“Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?” 9 The answer will come back,“It is because they broke their covenant with the LORD their God and worshiped and served other gods.”
• Ezek 6:8-9 : 8 “‘But I will spare some of you. Some will escape the sword when you are scattered in foreign lands. 9 Then your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are exiled. They will realize how I was crushed by their unfaithful heart which turned from me and by their eyes which lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves because of the evil they have done and because of all their abominable practices. 10 They will know that I am the LORD; my threats to bring this catastrophe on them were not empty.’
• Jer 30:11 : 11 For I, the LORD, affirm that I will be with you and will rescue you. I will completely destroy all the nations where I scattered you. But I will not completely destroy you. I will indeed discipline you, but only in due measure. I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.”
• Ezek 36:31 : 31 Then you will remember your evil behavior and your deeds which were not good; you will loathe yourselves on account of your sins and your abominable deeds.
• Dan 9:5-9 : 5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the inhabitants of the land as well. 7 “You are righteous, O Lord, but we are humiliated this day– the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 8 O LORD, we have been humiliated– our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors– because we have sinned against you. 9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. 10 We have not obeyed the LORD our God by living according to his laws that he set before us through his servants the prophets. 11 “All Israel has broken your law and turned away by not obeying you. Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. 12 He has carried out his threats against us and our rulers who were over us by bringing great calamity on us– what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven!
• Amos 9:8-9 : 8 Look, the Sovereign LORD is watching the sinful nation, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will not completely destroy the family of Jacob,” says the LORD. 9 “For look, I am giving a command and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations. It will resemble a sieve being shaken, when not even a pebble falls to the ground.
• Matt 7:14 : 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it!
• Matt 24:22 : 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
• Rom 9:27 : 27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel,“Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved,
• Rom 11:4-5 : 4 But what was the divine response to him?“I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal.” 5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
• Gen 13:16 : 16 And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted.
• Lev 26:40-41 : 40 However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me 41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for their iniquity,
• Deut 29:24-28 : 24 Then all the nations will ask,“Why has the LORD done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger all about?” 25 Then people will say,“Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. 27 That is why the LORD’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses written in this scroll. 28 So the LORD has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”
• 1 Kgs 9:6-9 : 6 “But if you or your sons ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, and decide to serve and worship other gods, 7 then I will remove Israel from the land I have given them, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, and Israel will be mocked and ridiculed among all the nations. 8 This temple will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss out their scorn, saying,‘Why did the LORD do this to this land and this temple?’ 9 Others will then answer,‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God, who led their ancestors out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served. That is why the LORD has brought all this disaster down on them.’”
• Isa 1:9 : 9 If the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had not left us a few survivors, we would have quickly been like Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.
• Isa 6:13 : 13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.”
• Isa 10:19 : 19 There will be so few trees left in his forest, a child will be able to count them.
• Isa 10:22 : 22 For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back. Destruction has been decreed; just punishment is about to engulf you.
• Isa 24:13 : 13 This is what will happen throughout the earth, among the nations. It will be like when they beat an olive tree, and just a few olives are left at the end of the harvest.
• Jer 3:24-25 : 24 From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal, has taken away all that our ancestors worked for. It has taken away our flocks and our herds, and even our sons and daughters. 25 Let us acknowledge our shame. Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our ancestors. From earliest times to this very day we have not obeyed the LORD our God.’
• Jer 4:27 : 27 All this will happen because the LORD said,“The whole land will be desolate; however, I will not completely destroy it.