Then the people asked, “What does all this mean? What are you trying to tell us?”
Parallel translations
- WEB The people said to me, Won’t you tell us what these things are to us, that you do so?
- KJV And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?
- BSB Then the people asked me, “Won’t you tell us what these things you are doing mean to us?”
- NKJV And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things signify to us, that you behave so?”
- NASB And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are doing?”
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
The people, struck by Ezekiel's strange behavior, ask what it means for them. Their question opens the way for the message the sign was meant to convey.
Overview
The prophet's unusual restraint in grief provokes the exiles to ask its significance. Sign-acts in Ezekiel were designed to arrest attention and prompt exactly such inquiry. The people's curiosity becomes the occasion for God's word to land, showing how God uses even our questions to draw us toward His truth.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ezek 12:9“Son of man, hasn’t the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’
- Ezek 37:18When the children of your people shall speak to you, saying, Will you not show us what you mean by these?
- Mal 3:13“Your words have been stout against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’
- Ezek 21:7It shall be, when they ask you, ‘Why do you sigh?’ that you shall say, ‘Because of the news, for it comes! Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.’”
- Ezek 20:49Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! they say of me, ‘Isn’t he a speaker of parables?’”
- Mal 3:7–8From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
- Ezek 17:12“Say now to the rebellious house, ‘Don’t you know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king, and its princes, and brought them to him to Babylon.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 24:19 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.