Ezekiel 16: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Ezekiel to confront Jerusalem with her sins by telling her story as an extended picture: an abandoned newborn left in a field, rescued by God, raised, married under covenant, and dressed as a queen. She then used those same gifts for prostitution with idols and with Egypt, Assyria, and Chaldea, and sacrificed her children to idols. God announces judgment carried out by her own lovers, who will expose, strip and stone her and burn her houses, and he compares her to her sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying she is worse than both. The chapter closes with God restoring all three and establishing an everlasting covenant, while Jerusalem is left silent with shame.

Claim by Claim

1. 16:1
   • The word of the LORD came to Ezekiel.
2. 16:2
   • God addressed the prophet as son of man.
   • God told him to make Jerusalem know her abominations.
3. 16:3
   • God told him to say to Jerusalem what the Lord GOD says.
   • Jerusalem's origin and birth were from the land of the Canaanite.
   • Jerusalem's father was an Amorite.
   • Jerusalem's mother was a Hittite.
4. 16:4
   • On the day Jerusalem was born her umbilical cord was not cut.
   • She was not washed in water for cleansing.
   • She was not rubbed with salt.
   • She was not wrapped in cloths.
5. 16:5
   • No eye pitied her enough to do any of these things for her.
   • No one had compassion on her.
   • She was thrown out into the open field.
   • She was thrown out because she was loathed.
   • This happened on the day she was born.
6. 16:6
   • God passed by her.
   • God saw her wallowing in her blood.
   • God said to her, in her blood, Live.
   • God said to her a second time, in her blood, Live.
7. 16:7
   • God made her multiply like a plant of the field.
   • She increased and grew great.
   • She came to full ornament.
   • Her breasts were formed.
   • Her hair had grown.
   • She was naked and bare.
8. 16:8
   • God passed by her again and looked at her.
   • Her time was the time of love.
   • God spread his garment corner over her.
   • God covered her nakedness.
   • God swore to her.
   • God entered into a covenant with her.
   • The Lord GOD declares this.
   • She became God's.
9. 16:9
   • God washed her with water.
   • God rinsed her blood off her.
   • God anointed her with oil.
10. 16:10
    • God clothed her with embroidered work.
    • God gave her shoes of fine leather.
    • God wrapped her in fine linen.
    • God covered her with costly fabric.
11. 16:11
    • God adorned her with ornaments.
    • God put bracelets on her hands.
    • God put a chain on her neck.
12. 16:12
    • God put a ring on her nose.
    • God put earrings on her ears.
    • God put a beautiful crown on her head.
13. 16:13
    • She was adorned with gold and silver.
    • Her clothing was fine linen, costly fabric, and embroidered work.
    • She ate fine flour, honey, and oil.
    • She became exceedingly beautiful.
    • She prospered into royalty.
14. 16:14
    • Her fame went out among the nations because of her beauty.
    • Her beauty was perfect because of the splendor God had put on her.
    • The Lord GOD declares this.
15. 16:15
    • She trusted in her own beauty.
    • She played the harlot because of her fame.
    • She poured out her fornications on everyone who passed by.
    • Her beauty became his.
16. 16:16
    • She took some of her garments.
    • She made herself high places of many colors.
    • She played the harlot on them.
    • Such things should not come and should not be.
17. 16:17
    • She took her ornaments of God's gold and silver, which God had given her.
    • She made for herself male images.
    • She committed whoredom with them.
18. 16:18
    • She took her embroidered garments and covered the images with them.
    • She set God's oil and God's incense before them.
19. 16:19
    • God gave her food: fine flour, oil, and honey.
    • God fed her with it.
    • She set it before the images as a pleasing aroma.
    • That is what happened.
    • The Lord GOD declares this.
20. 16:20
    • She took her sons and her daughters, whom she had borne to God.
    • She sacrificed them to the images to be devoured.
    • God asks whether her whoredoms were a small matter.
21. 16:21
    • She slaughtered God's children.
    • She delivered them up by passing them through for the images.
22. 16:22
    • In all her abominations and whoredoms she did not remember the days of her youth.
    • In her youth she was naked and bare.
    • In her youth she was wallowing in her blood.
23. 16:23
    • This came after all her wickedness.
    • God pronounced woe, woe upon her.
    • The Lord GOD declares this.
24. 16:24
    • She built herself a mound.
    • She made herself a lofty place in every public square.
25. 16:25
    • She built her lofty place at the head of every way.
    • She made her beauty abhorred.
    • She opened her feet to everyone who passed by.
    • She multiplied her whoredoms.
26. 16:26
    • She committed fornication with the Egyptians, her neighbors.
    • The Egyptians are described as great of flesh.
    • She increased her whoredoms to provoke God to anger.
27. 16:27
    • God stretched out his hand over her.
    • God diminished her allotted portion.
    • God gave her over to the will of those who hate her.
    • Those who hate her are the daughters of the Philistines.
    • The daughters of the Philistines were ashamed of her lewd way.
28. 16:28
    • She played the whore with the Assyrians.
    • She did this because she was not satisfied.
    • She played the harlot with them and still was not satisfied.
29. 16:29
    • She multiplied her fornication toward the land of Canaan, toward Chaldea.
    • Even with this she was not satisfied.
30. 16:30
    • God asks how weak her heart is.
    • The Lord GOD declares this.
    • She does all these things.
    • These are the acts of a domineering whorish woman.
31. 16:31
    • She built her mound at the head of every way.
    • She made her lofty place in every public square.
    • She was not like a harlot, because she scorned payment.
32. 16:32
    • She is like a wife who commits adultery.
    • Such a wife takes strangers instead of her husband.
33. 16:33
    • Men give gifts to all whores.
    • She gave her gifts to all her lovers.
    • She bribed them to come to her from every side for her whoredom.
34. 16:34
    • Her whoredoms are the opposite of those of other women.
    • No one followed after her to commit whoredom with her.
    • She gave a fee and no fee was given to her.
    • Therefore she is the opposite.
35. 16:35
    • God called her a harlot.
    • God told her to hear the word of the LORD.
36. 16:36
    • This is what the Lord GOD says.
    • Her filthiness was poured out.
    • Her nakedness was uncovered through her whoredoms with her lovers.
    • This was also with all the idols of her abominations.
    • This was also because of the blood of her children, which she gave to them.
37. 16:37
    • God will gather all her lovers, with whom she took pleasure.
    • God will gather all those she loved together with all those she hated.
    • God will gather them against her from all around.
    • God will uncover her nakedness to them.
    • They will see all her nakedness.
38. 16:38
    • God will judge her with the judgments of women who commit adultery and who shed blood.
    • God will give her blood in fury and jealousy.
39. 16:39
    • God will give her into their hand.
    • They will throw down her mound.
    • They will break down her lofty places.
    • They will strip her of her clothes.
    • They will take her fine ornaments.
    • They will leave her naked and bare.
40. 16:40
    • They will bring up an assembly against her.
    • They will stone her with stones.
    • They will cut her through with their swords.
41. 16:41
    • They will burn her houses with fire.
    • They will execute judgments upon her in the sight of many women.
    • God will cause her to cease from playing the harlot.
    • She will give payment no more.
42. 16:42
    • God will make his fury toward her rest.
    • God's jealousy will depart from her.
    • God will be quiet.
    • God will be angry no more.
43. 16:43
    • She did not remember the days of her youth.
    • She enraged God with all these things.
    • God will repay her way upon her head.
    • The Lord GOD declares this.
    • She shall not commit this lewdness on top of all her abominations.
44. 16:44
    • Everyone who uses proverbs will use a proverb against her.
    • The proverb is: as the mother, so her daughter.
45. 16:45
    • She is her mother's daughter, who loathed her husband and her children.
    • She is the sister of her sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children.
    • Their mother was a Hittite.
    • Their father was an Amorite.
46. 16:46
    • Her elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters.
    • Samaria dwells at her left hand.
    • Her younger sister is Sodom, she and her daughters.
    • Sodom dwells at her right hand.
47. 16:47
    • She did not walk in their ways.
    • She did not do according to their abominations.
    • As if that were a very little thing, she was more corrupt than they in all her ways.
48. 16:48
    • God swears by his own life.
    • The Lord GOD declares this.
    • Sodom her sister and her daughters did not do as she and her daughters have done.
49. 16:49
    • This was the iniquity of her sister Sodom.
    • Sodom and her daughters had pride.
    • Sodom and her daughters had fullness of bread.
    • Sodom and her daughters had prosperous ease.
    • Sodom did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50. 16:50
    • They were haughty.
    • They committed abomination before God.
    • God took them away when he saw it.
51. 16:51
    • Samaria did not commit half of her sins.
    • She multiplied her abominations more than they did.
    • She justified her sisters by all the abominations she did.
52. 16:52
    • She judged her sisters.
    • She must bear her own shame.
    • Her sins were more abominable than theirs.
    • Her sisters are more righteous than she is.
    • She is to be confounded and bear her shame.
    • She has justified her sisters.
53. 16:53
    • God will bring back their captivity.
    • God will bring back the captivity of Sodom and her daughters.
    • God will bring back the captivity of Samaria and her daughters.
    • God will bring back the captivity of her captives in the midst of them.
54. 16:54
    • The purpose is that she may bear her own shame.
    • The purpose is that she may be confounded in all that she has done.
    • She is a comfort to them.
55. 16:55
    • Her sisters Sodom and her daughters will return to their former estate.
    • Samaria and her daughters will return to their former estate.
    • She and her daughters will return to their former estate.
56. 16:56
    • Her sister Sodom was not mentioned by her mouth in the day of her pride.
57. 16:57
    • This was before her wickedness was uncovered.
    • It was like the time of her reproach by the daughters of Syria.
    • It was like the reproach of all those around her.
    • The daughters of the Philistines despise her round about.
58. 16:58
    • She has borne her lewdness and her abominations.
    • The LORD declares this.
59. 16:59
    • This is what the Lord GOD says.
    • God will deal with her as she has done.
    • She despised the oath by breaking the covenant.
60. 16:60
    • God will remember his covenant with her made in the days of her youth.
    • God will establish an everlasting covenant with her.
61. 16:61
    • She will remember her ways.
    • She will be ashamed.
    • She will receive her sisters, both the elder and the younger.
    • God will give them to her for daughters.
    • This will not be by her covenant.
62. 16:62
    • God will establish his covenant with her.
    • She will know that he is the LORD.
63. 16:63
    • The purpose is that she may remember and be confounded.
    • She will never open her mouth again because of her shame.
    • This is when God is pacified toward her for all that she has done.
    • The Lord GOD declares this.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

16:1

"The LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God (the four Hebrew letters YHWH), which later Jewish practice avoided pronouncing aloud. Where the text has "Lord GOD," the Hebrew pairs the title "my Lord" with that same name.

16:2

"Son of man" is Hebrew for "human being" or "mortal"; it is how God addresses Ezekiel throughout the book, and it is a form of address, not a title. The word behind "disgusting things" (KJV "abominations") means things found repellent, and is used especially of foreign religious practices.

16:3

Amorites, Hittites and Canaanites were the peoples living in the land before Israel. Jerusalem had been a Canaanite (Jebusite) city until David captured it. To tell Jerusalem her father was an Amorite and her mother a Hittite is a deliberate insult: Israelites traced their ancestry to Abraham, and this denies her any such descent.

16:4

These are the ordinary things done for a newborn in that world: the cord cut, the baby washed, rubbed with salt (thought to clean and toughen the skin), then bound tightly in strips of cloth. That none of it was done means no one accepted the child at all.

16:5

Abandoning an unwanted newborn in open country was a known practice in the ancient Near East. The child either died or was picked up by a stranger, who could then claim it as a slave or a foster child.

16:7

The KJV's "thou art come to excellent ornaments" translates a Hebrew phrase literally meaning something like "you came to ornament of ornaments." Its exact sense is uncertain; most take it to mean she reached full physical maturity.

16:8

Spreading the edge of one's cloak over a woman was a recognized gesture of claiming her in marriage (compare Ruth 3:9). A covenant was a formal binding agreement, sealed by a sworn oath; here the language of a marriage contract is used for the bond between God and the city.

16:9

Olive oil rubbed into the skin was ordinary care in a hot, dry climate, like moisturizer, and also part of preparing a bride.

16:10

The KJV's "badgers' skin" translates a Hebrew word of uncertain meaning, perhaps a fine tanned leather, perhaps the hide of a sea creature. The same material is named as the outer covering of the tabernacle.

16:12

The KJV puts the jewel on the forehead, but the Hebrew word means a nose ring, a common and expensive piece of women's jewelry.

16:13

Fine (finely sifted) flour, honey and olive oil were luxury foods, not everyday fare. "You rose to be a queen" (KJV "thou didst prosper into a kingdom") is the point where the picture of a girl becoming a bride merges with Jerusalem's rise to be the capital of a kingdom.

16:14

"Heathen" in the KJV simply translates the word for "the nations," that is, foreign peoples. It carries no sense of savagery.

16:15

The prophets routinely describe two things as sexual unfaithfulness: worshiping other gods, and buying the protection of foreign empires. Both senses run through this chapter, since the bond between God and the people had been described as a marriage.

16:16

A "high place" was an open-air shrine, usually on raised ground or a built-up platform, with an altar and often a pillar or pole. Such shrines were used both for local gods and for the LORD; the law associated with Jerusalem's temple condemned them.

16:17

The Hebrew says "images of a male", figures of male gods, and possibly images shaped as male genitals. The metaphor of the previous verses is being pressed hard.

16:18

Draping cloth over a statue and burning incense in front of it were normal steps in caring for a god's image in the ancient Near East. The offense described is that the cloth, oil, and incense were all supplied for the worship of the LORD.

16:19

The oil, incense, fine flour and honey listed here are the standard materials of offerings made at the temple. "A sweet savour" (a pleasing smell) is the fixed technical phrase for the smell of a sacrifice that the deity accepts.

16:20

Child sacrifice was practiced in the region and, at points in the seventh century BC, in Judah itself. Kings Ahaz and Manasseh are both recorded as sacrificing sons. The phrase "borne unto me" means these children belonged to God by covenant, which is what makes this the chapter's worst charge.

16:21

"Making them pass through the fire" is the set expression for child sacrifice. Other biblical texts locate the practice in the valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem and link it with the god Molech; Israelite law forbade it outright.

16:23

"Woe" is an old cry of grief and warning. It means something close to "how terrible for you."

16:24

The KJV's "eminent place" means a built-up mound or platform, and "high place" here is a raised shrine. The words also carry the sense of the raised booth or bed a prostitute would set up, which is why the two pictures sit on top of each other.

16:25

"The head of the way" is the junction where streets meet, the most public and most traveled spot in a town.

16:26

"Great of flesh" is a crude Hebrew expression about the Egyptians' bodies. Behind the image lies a political fact: Judah's kings repeatedly sought Egyptian backing against the eastern empires.

16:27

The Hebrew says he cut down her "allotted portion", her assigned rations or territory. The Philistines were the people of the coastal cities to Judah's west, long-standing enemies; "daughters of the Philistines" means Philistine towns and their people.

16:28

Assyria was the empire that dominated the region from roughly the ninth to the late seventh centuries BC. Judah's kings paid it tribute and took on some of its religious furniture.

16:29

Chaldea is Babylonia, the empire that replaced Assyria and that had already deported Ezekiel and his hearers. The Hebrew word for Canaan can also mean "merchant," which is why the phrase "land of traders" appears here.

16:30

The word translated "weak" is rare and its sense is disputed; proposals range from "how weak and sick" to "how inflamed with rage." KJV "imperious" means domineering, brazen.

16:31

Here the metaphor breaks on purpose. A prostitute at least profits. Jerusalem paid out instead, which in plain political terms means the tribute and temple treasure sent to Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon to buy their favor.

16:33

Normally a client pays a prostitute. The reversal is the whole point of the image, and it has a political edge: Judah sent tribute and gifts to the powers whose favor it wanted, rather than gaining anything from them.

16:35

When LORD is printed in big letters, it stands for God's own name. Long ago people said that name with great respect.

16:36

The word rendered "filthiness" is elsewhere the ordinary word for bronze or copper. Interpreters split over whether it means bodily discharge here or the money and metal lavished on the lovers; both readings are defensible.

16:37

Stripping an unfaithful wife naked in public was a known form of legal shaming in the ancient Near East, and the same image is used elsewhere of a captured city being plundered.

16:38

Under Israelite law both adultery and murder carried the death penalty. "Jealousy" here is a technical term from that law: the legal outrage of a wronged husband.

16:40

Stoning was carried out by the assembled community rather than by an executioner, which is why a crowd has to be brought together.

16:41

Punishment carried out "in the sight of many women" means a public execution staged as a warning to everyone watching.

16:42

In the marriage image, "jealousy" is the husband's legal outrage at a broken marriage. Saying it will depart is saying the case is closed and the sentence served.

16:43

"Back on your own head" means you get the results of what you did.

16:44

A proverb was a short saying passed around as common wisdom. The point is that Jerusalem's behavior will become the standard example people cite, the way we still say "like mother, like daughter."

16:45

The King James "lotheth" is an old spelling of loathes. The charge is that the mother, meaning the earlier peoples of the land, despised her own husband and children, so the daughter city inherited the trait.

16:46

A city's "daughters" are the villages and smaller towns that depended on it. Directions were reckoned facing east, so the left hand is north and the right hand south. Samaria, to the north, was the capital of the breakaway northern kingdom, destroyed by Assyria in 722 BC. Sodom, to the south near the Dead Sea, was the city destroyed in Genesis 19 and had long since become a byword.

16:47

The Hebrew flatly says "you did not walk in their ways," which sits oddly with what follows. It is usually read as bitter sarcasm (as if merely matching them would have been too small a thing), though some think a word has dropped out. Either way the charge is that she outdid them.

16:49

"Fulness of bread" means having more than enough food, and "strengthen the hand of" is the ordinary idiom for supporting or helping someone. The list of Sodom's offenses here is one of social and economic wrongs.

16:50

The Hebrew consonants at the end can be read either "as I saw fit" (KJV) or "as you have seen"; ancient translations differ, and both readings are still printed.

16:51

"Justified thy sisters" is courtroom language: your conduct is so much worse that it makes their case look like the innocent one by comparison. It is not a statement that they were in fact innocent.

16:52

"Confounded" in the King James means publicly humiliated, reduced to silence. It has nothing to do with confusion in the modern sense.

16:53

"Bring again the captivity" translates a fixed Hebrew phrase meaning "restore the fortunes", to reverse a community's ruin. It need not mean literal prisoners returning, which matters here, since Sodom had no captives to bring back.

16:55

"Former estate" means their earlier condition or standing, what they were before the disaster. "Estate" here has nothing to do with property.

16:56

The Hebrew is ambiguous. It can mean that Jerusalem would not so much as speak Sodom's name while she was riding high, or, as most modern versions take it, that Sodom was a word of contempt in her mouth.

16:57

The KJV's "Syria" follows the Hebrew word Aram; many manuscripts and versions read Edom instead. The two words differ by a single letter of similar shape, and copyists confused them often.

16:59

A covenant was ratified by a sworn oath that called down specific curses on whoever broke it. "Despising the oath" is the formal charge of treaty-breaking, not merely a change of heart.

16:60

An everlasting covenant is one with no end date and no conditions attached that could void it, unlike a treaty that lapses when one side defaults. The contrast with the broken agreement in the previous verse is the whole point.

16:61

"Not by thy covenant" is obscure in the Hebrew. It has been taken to mean "not because of the agreement I made with you," and also "though they were never party to your agreement."

16:63

The verb behind "when I am pacified" (KJV) is the word used in the sacrificial laws for making atonement, covering over or wiping away an offense. The one performing it here is God.