לְמַ֥עַן יַחְסְר֖וּ לֶ֣חֶם וָמָ֑יִם וְנָשַׁ֨מּוּ֙ אִ֣ישׁ וְאָחִ֔יו וְנָמַ֖קּוּ בַּעֲוֺנָֽם
that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Ezekiel 4:17
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Ezekiel 4:17 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
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King James Version Public Domain
That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Because they will lack bread and water, every man will be dismayed at his brother and waste away because of their iniquity.”
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.
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King James Version Public Domain
That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
that they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
Because that bread and water shall faile, they shalbe astonied one with another, and shall consume away for their iniquitie.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
So that when bread and water fail, every man may fall against his brother, and they may pine away in their iniquities.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
so that they lack bread and water, and have been astonished one with another, and been consumed in their iniquity.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
so that they lack bread and water, and have been astonished with one another, and been consumed in their iniquity.”
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
Because they will lack bread and water, every man will be dismayed at his brother and waste away because of their iniquity.”
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Because they will lack bread and water, every man will be dismayed at his brother and waste away because of their iniquity.”
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Darby Bible Public Domain
because bread and water shall fail them, and they shall be astonied one with another, and waste away in their iniquity.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
That they may want bread and water, and be astonished one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
Running out of food and water, they will be horrified as they look at one another wasting away because of their sins.”
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
So that they may be in need of bread and water and be wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin.
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
that they may want bread and water, and be appalled one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →
Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →
וְנָמַ֖קּוּ
mâqaq
H4743
“and · to rot”
Conjunction + Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural
- Appears 10× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Leviticus 26:39
- Part of Speech
- Conjunction + Verb
- Stem
- Niphal
- Form
- Sequential Perfect
- Person
- 3rd Person
- Gender
- Common
- Number
- Plural
Full BDB Definition
to decay, pine away, rot, fester
- (Niphal)
- to fester (of wounds)
- to rot, rot away
- to moulder away
- to pine away
- (Hiphil) to cause to rot
- לְמַ֥עַן maʻan H4616 “for the sake of” Preposition
- יַחְסְר֖וּ châçêr H2637 “to lack” Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
- לֶ֣חֶם lechem H3899 “bread” Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute
- וָמָ֑יִם mayim H4325 “and · water(s)” Conjunction + Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute
- וְנָשַׁ֨מּוּ֙ shâmêm H8074 “and · to be desolate” Conjunction + Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural
- אִ֣ישׁ ʼîysh H376 “man” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute
- וְאָחִ֔יו ʼâch H251 “and · brother · his” Conjunction + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- וְנָמַ֖קּוּ mâqaq H4743 “and · to rot” Conjunction + Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural
- בַּעֲוֺנָֽם ʻâvôn H5771 “in/at · iniquity · their” Preposition + Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural
About this verse
These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
- 9
- words
- 9
- distinct lemmas
- Prophets
- section
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is וְנָמַ֖קּוּ to rot H4743 — appearing just 10 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
Shared distinctive vocabulary
וְנָמַ֖קּוּ to rot H4743 occurs in 7 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 3 verbs
- 5 nouns
- 1 preposition
Verb forms
- יַחְסְר֖וּ Qal · Imperfect
- וְנָשַׁ֨מּוּ֙ Niphal · Sequential Perfect
- וְנָמַ֖קּוּ Niphal · Sequential Perfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 19 words from the Hebrew and 26 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
Cross-references
3Topical passages linked to Ezekiel 4:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Leviticus 26:39 Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
- Ezekiel 24:23 Your tires shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.
- Ezekiel 33:10 You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: Thus you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
ὅπως ἐνδεής γίγνομαι ἄρτος καί ὕδωρ καί ἀπο ἀναἵζω ἄνθρωπος καί ἀδελφός αὐτός καί τήκω ἐν ὁ ἀδικία αὐτός
that they may lack bread and water; and a man and his brother shall be brought to ruin, and they shall pine away in their iniquities.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
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Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
בְּדִיל דְיַחְסַר לְהוֹן מֵיכַל וּמִשְׁתִּי וְיִצְדוֹן גְבַר וַאֲחוּהִי וְיִתְמְסוּן בְּחוֹבֵיהוֹן:
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Lesson kit
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Ezekiel, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 9 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is mâqaq (“to rot”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- The word mâqaq carries the sense “to rot.” How does it shape the verse?
- How does Leviticus 26:39, which shares the word «to rot», read alongside this verse?
- These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
- «יַחְסְר֖וּ» is a Qal Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
- Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?
Things to notice
- These translations choose different wording for 15 words in this verse.
- 9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Ezekiel 4:17 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Trapp's Complete Commentary
John Trapp
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Matthew Poole's English Annotations
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Rashi
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)
Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.