Skip to content

Grammar Analysis: Ezekiel 28:13-15 - Niphal Creation/Found Sequence

Scope. Passage grammar for the creation/found sequence in Ezekiel 28:13-15: hibbarekha, nimtsa, and the temporal frame "from the day ... until." This entry stays at the level of Hebrew morphology and temporal syntax.

Text

KJV (Ezek 28:13-15): - v.13: "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God... in the day that thou wast created." - v.14: "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth... thou wast upon the holy mountain of God..." - v.15: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee."

Word-by-Word Parsing: Key Forms

Reference Hebrew Lemma Parsing Gloss
Eze 28:13 הָיִיתָ היה Verb.Qal.Perf.2ms be
Eze 28:13 גַּן־אֱלֹהִים גן / אלהים Noun.s.Cst + Noun.mp.Abs garden of God
Eze 28:13 בְּיֹום יום Prep + Noun.ms.Cst in day of
Eze 28:13 הִבָּרַאֲךָ ברא Verb.Niphal.InfCon.+2ms your being created
Eze 28:13 כֹּונָנוּ כון Verb.Pual.Perf.3p were prepared/established
Eze 28:15 תָּמִים תמים Adj.ms.Abs complete/blameless
Eze 28:15 מִיֹּום יום Prep + Noun.ms.Cst from day of
Eze 28:15 הִבָּרְאָךְ ברא Verb.Niphal.InfCon.+2ms your being created
Eze 28:15 עַד עד Prep until
Eze 28:15 נִמְצָא מצא Verb.Niphal.Perf.3ms was found
Eze 28:15 עַוְלָתָה עולה Noun.fs.Abs unrighteousness/wickedness

Temporal Structure

Element Hebrew Parsing Function
Starting point מִיֹּום הִבָּרְאָךְ min + construct day + Niphal InfCon + 2ms suffix Beginning terminus: "from the day of your being created"
Duration/state תָּמִים אַתָּה בִּדְרָכֶיךָ adjective + pronoun + PP State predicated over the interval
Ending point עַד־נִמְצָא עַוְלָתָה בָּךְ ʿad + Niphal perfect + subject + PP Endpoint: "until unrighteousness was found in you"

Key Grammatical Features

1. Niphal Infinitive Construct With Suffix

Both v.13 and v.15 use Niphal infinitive construct forms of ברא with a 2ms suffix: הִבָּרַאֲךָ / הִבָּרְאָךְ. Grammatically, the suffix supplies the subject/patient of the infinitive: "your being created." The form is passive/intransitive in profile, not an active self-creating verb.

Grammar reference: stem-niphal.

2. Pual Establishment in v.13

כֹּונָנוּ is parsed Pual perfect 3p of כון. It reports the prepared/established state of the workmanship listed in the verse. The passive/intensive Pual differs from the Niphal creation infinitive: the verse uses more than one passive-result form.

3. Niphal Perfect nimtsa as Endpoint

נִמְצָא in v.15 is Niphal perfect 3ms of מצא, "was found." Its subject is עַוְלָתָה ("wickedness/unrighteousness"). The grammar does not say "until you found iniquity"; it says iniquity "was found" in the addressee.

4. min ... ʿad Bounded Interval

The temporal frame מִיֹּום ... עַד creates a bounded interval: from the creation-day to the found-iniquity point. The adjective תָּמִים is predicated over the interval, not over the whole oracle independently of that temporal frame.

Cross-References

Generated from: hebrew_parser.py --verse Eze 28:13-15 and --construct Eze 28:13-15; KJV corpus lookup. Last updated: 2026-05-07