All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
Parallel translations
- WEB All hands will be feeble, and all knees will be weak as water.
- BSB Every hand will go limp, and every knee will turn to water.
- NKJV Every hand will be feeble, And every knee will be as weak as water.
- NASB All hands will hang limp, and all knees will drip with water.
- NLT Their hands will hang limp, their knees will be weak as water.
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
All hands will hang limp and every knee turn weak as water. Terror drains the people of strength.
Overview
The Lord describes the physical collapse of courage: feeble hands and knees weak as water before the coming terror. The picture conveys utter helplessness in the face of God's judgment. When God removes a people's strength, human power is exposed as nothing, underscoring dependence on the only One who can truly save.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ezek 21:7And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.
- Heb 12:12Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
- Isa 13:7–8Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
- Ezek 22:14Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.
- Jer 6:24We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 7:17 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
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