Ezekiel 12:20

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

The inhabited towns will be left in ruins and the land will be devastated. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְהֶעָרִ֤ים הַנּֽוֹשָׁבוֹת֙ תֶּחֱרַ֔בְנָה וְהָאָ֖רֶץ שְׁמָמָ֣ה תִֽהְיֶ֑ה וִֽידַעְתֶּ֖ם כִּֽי־אֲנִ֥י יְהוָֽה׃

Transliteration

And-the-ʿārîm the-nôšāḇôṯ teḥĕraḇnāh and-the-ʾāreṣ šəmāmâ ṯihyeh and-wîḏaʿtem that-I YHWH

Grammar Details

• *ʿārîm*: common noun, feminine plural with definite article - the cities
• *nôšāḇôṯ*: niphal participle, feminine plural with definite article - the inhabited
• *teḥĕraḇnāh*: qal imperfect, 3rd feminine plural - they will be laid waste
• *ʾāreṣ*: common noun, feminine singular with definite article - the land
• *šəmāmâ*: common noun, feminine singular - desolation
• *ṯihyeh*: qal imperfect, 3rd feminine singular - it will be
• *wîḏaʿtem*: qal perfect, 2nd masculine plural - you will know

Word Meanings

• *šəmāmâ*: desolation/waste/devastation

Referenced Verses

• Isa 7:23-24 : 23 At that time every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels will be overrun with thorns and briers. 24 With bow and arrow men will hunt there, for the whole land will be covered with thorns and briers.
• Jer 4:7 : 7 Like a lion that has come up from its lair the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. He is coming out to lay your land waste. Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.
• Jer 25:9 : 9 So I, the LORD, affirm that I will send for all the peoples of the north and my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy this land, its inhabitants, and all the nations that surround it and make them everlasting ruins. I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn.
• Isa 3:26 : 26 Her gates will mourn and lament; deprived of her people, she will sit on the ground.
• Jer 34:22 : 22 For I, the LORD, affirm that I will soon give the order and bring them back to this city. They will fight against it and capture it and burn it down. I will also make the towns of Judah desolate so that there will be no one living in them.”’”
• Lam 5:18 : 18 For wild animals are prowling over Mount Zion, which lies desolate.
• Ezek 15:6 : 6 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Like the wood of the vine is among the trees of the forest which I have provided as fuel for the fire– so I will provide the residents of Jerusalem as fuel.
• Ezek 15:8 : 8 I will make the land desolate because they have acted unfaithfully, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
• Dan 9:17 : 17 “So now, our God, accept the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to your devastated sanctuary for your own sake.
• Jer 4:23-29 : 23 “I looked at the land and saw that it was an empty wasteland. I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished. 24 I looked at the mountains and saw that they were shaking. All the hills were swaying back and forth! 25 I looked and saw that there were no more people, and that all the birds in the sky had flown away. 26 I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins. The LORD had brought this all about because of his blazing anger. 27 All this will happen because the LORD said,“The whole land will be desolate; however, I will not completely destroy it. 28 Because of this the land will mourn and the sky above will grow black. For I have made my purpose known and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” 29 At the sound of the approaching horsemen and archers the people of every town will flee. Some of them will hide in the thickets. Others will climb up among the rocks. All the cities will be deserted. No one will remain in them.
• Jer 12:10-12 : 10 Many foreign rulers will ruin the land where I planted my people. They will trample all over my chosen land. They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wilderness. 11 They will lay it waste. It will lie parched and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed. 12 A destructive army will come marching over the hilltops in the wilderness. For the LORD will use them as his destructive weapon against everyone from one end of the land to the other. No one will be safe.
• Jer 16:9 : 9 For I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, tell you what will happen. I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in this land. You and the rest of the people will live to see this happen.’”
• Jer 19:11 : 11 Tell them the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says,‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’
• Jer 24:8-9 : 8 “I, the LORD, also solemnly assert:‘King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people who remain in Jerusalem or who have gone to live in Egypt are like those bad figs. I consider them to be just like those bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. 9 I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. 10 I will bring war, starvation, and disease on them until they are completely destroyed from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’”
• Isa 24:3 : 3 The earth will be completely devastated and thoroughly ransacked. For the LORD has decreed this judgment.
• Isa 24:12 : 12 The city is left in ruins; the gate is reduced to rubble.
• Isa 64:10-11 : 10 Your chosen cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem, a desolate ruin. 11 Our holy temple, our pride and joy, the place where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire; all our prized possessions have been destroyed.