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With the Strong's dictionary App, i was trying to make sense of Ezekiel 37:25. Here some Hebrew words are repeated twice. For instance the Hebrew word “ben” means “son”. But what does “ben ben” mean? The word “yashab”, which means “dwell”, has a double too: “yashab yashab”. What purpose does it serve to repeat a word twice? And what does these two doubles mean? An internet search was not successful.

"Yasheb erets nathan Yaacob ebed ab yashab yashab ben ben owlam ebed David nasiy ad owlam."

As a side note. Comparing the original text with the King James version of Eze 37:25 I noticed that 46 words is being used to describe the meaning of the Hebrew version of just 16 words.

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    Hebrew text of Eze. 37:25 has 24 words (not including the prefixed vav).
    – Der Übermensch
    Sep 17, 2022 at 16:11
  • When you use Strong's app, you're probably only looking at the lemmas, and it's likely they are not even in the actual sentence order in which they exist in the actual Hebrew text. Look at an actual Hebrew text and see for yourself.
    – Der Übermensch
    Sep 17, 2022 at 16:13
  • Can you give us a link or a screenshot which shows the version of the verse you quoted?
    – curiousdannii ♦
    Sep 18, 2022 at 2:28
  • I hope this question can be rescued. A good example of what the OP is asking is found in the quote "you shall surely die" in Gen 2.17. The Hebrew for "surely die" is מוּת מוּת מוּת (mut, mut mut) or die.. die DIE! It would be useful for readers to know such things. Maybe i will give it a try.
    – Dan Fefferman
    Sep 18, 2022 at 5:13
  • OK I tried to fix it. Added a familiar example and re-worked the rest to make it more clear.
    – Dan Fefferman
    Sep 18, 2022 at 5:37

2 Answers 2

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I am not sure what the OP is referring to but the actual text of the Hebrew in Eze 37:25 appears to differ from what the OP is discussing in the following ways:

  • the Hebrew has 24 words (not 16)
  • I cannot see where "yashab yashab" occurs
  • I cannot see where "ben ben" occurs.

Even a casual glance at a commonly available interlinear would clarify these questions, so I include a screen shot from Biblehub.com below (see https://biblehub.com/interlinear/ezekiel/37-25.htm )

enter image description here

This results in a perfectly understandable translation as:

  • KJV: And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
  • NIV: They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever.
  • ESV: They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever.
  • NASB: And they will live on the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and My servant David will be their leader forever.

I include this answer for completeness only.

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  • I am sure that you can find the English text from your Bible Hub source to exactly match the NASB 1977 text, because it seems that Bible Hub is using this translation for its inter linear Hebrew translation; from where they have reverse engineered into Strong’s list numbers of Hebrew words. Strong’s app, on the other hand, seems to be matching King James Bible with the original Hebrew text. The Hebrew word pops up when one highlights one or more English words.
    – Constantthin
    Sep 17, 2022 at 13:22
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    @Constantthin It is unclear what you mean by "Strong's list numbers". Regardless, the Tanakh does not have "ben ben" but "binei bineihem" (just like the excerpt reproduced in this answer), which means "[the] children of their children".
    – Iñaki Viggers
    Sep 17, 2022 at 13:25
  • @Constantthin "I don't have access to the Tanakh." You don't need it in this case. The Hebrew characters in this excerpt match the ones in the Tankah. "how do you explain that the English text in the Bible Hub Interlinear Hebrew text exactly matches NASB 1977?" I know nothing about that, but you mentioned "Comparing the original text" and asked about the meaning of [Hebrew] "ben ben". That renders the English text irrelevant.
    – Iñaki Viggers
    Sep 17, 2022 at 13:40
  • @Iñaki Viggers. I was mistaken about that it was NASB 1977 Bible Hub is reverse engineer from. It seems actually to be the Berean Standard Bible they use. I also admit that I mixed up Bible Hub Interlinear with the ordinary Bible Hub.
    – Constantthin
    Sep 17, 2022 at 14:16
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    @Constantthin - you Bible app may be leading you astray - sometimes, some of these sorts of apps just list the root word rather than the actual word with its associated conjunctions and articles, etc.
    – Dottard
    Sep 17, 2022 at 21:18
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What you're seeing might be similar to where Blue Letter Bible shows 4 "ben"s in a row in its "Reverse Interlinear": enter image description here

There are two complications here.

  • The "Reverse" version shows the words in the natural KJV English order, not the original Hebrew order.
  • The "ben"s refer to the root word, not the actual Hebrew word used, which may have various prefixes and suffixes.

For instance, "וּבְנֵיהֶם" lists the Strongs number, the text, the root, and the romanization.

It's slightly less confusing in "Forward" (Hebrew) order.

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  • Is this an app you are using?
    – Constantthin
    Sep 18, 2022 at 2:01
  • @Constantthin, no, it's the Blue Letter Bible web site. Use the link in the first line of the answer. ¶ Hover over the "HC/Nc…" and it will display grammatical information about the full word. In this case it means "Hebrew: Conjunction; Noun common masculine plural construct; Suffix pronominal thirid person masculine plural".
    – Ray Butterworth
    Sep 18, 2022 at 3:09

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