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Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry your stuff out that way.
Ezekiel 12:5 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby.
  • BSB As they watch, dig through the wall and carry your belongings out through it.
  • NKJV Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry your belongings out through it.
  • NASB Dig a hole through the wall in their sight and go out through it.
  • NLT Dig a hole through the wall while they are watching and go out through it.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Ezekiel is to dig through the wall and carry his baggage out through it, picturing a desperate, secret escape.

Overview

Breaking through a wall rather than using the gate depicts the furtive flight that awaits Jerusalem's people, and especially their king. The detail anticipates Zedekiah's attempt to flee the besieged city (2 Kings 25:4). Each strange action is a deliberate enacted prophecy of the judgment soon to fall.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 2

  • 2 Kgs 25:4Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city around it); and the king went by the way of the Arabah.
  • Jer 39:2–4In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city),

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Ezekiel videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Ezekiel 12:5YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on EzekielMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.

How Ezekiel 12:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.