Ezekiel 16:24
in Ezekiel 16you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
that thou hast built unto thee a vaulted place, and hast made thee a lofty place in every street.
KJV
That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.
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This verse in Ezekiel 16
Commentary
7 notes on this verse(Verse 23 and following) And it came to pass after all your wickedness: woe, woe to you, says the Lord God. And you built yourself a brothel, and made for yourself a prostitute in all the streets. At every head of the road you built a sign of your prostitution, and you made your abominable beauty, and you spread your feet to everyone passing by, and multiplied your fornications. And you fornicated with the sons of Egypt, your neighbors with great flesh, and you multiplied your fornication to provoke me.
This site's exposition
And it came to pass after all thy wickedness
on Ezekiel 16:23-29
The chapter catalogues Jerusalem's foreign alliances as fornication in turn, Egypt, the Philistines, Assyria, and finally Chaldea, each treaty pictured as a paid affair that leaves her unsatisfied and reaching for the next. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the political history straight through the figure, every alliance of the late kings selling the nation's trust piece by piece. Wesley notes the repeated word unsatiable as the chapter's diagnosis, not merely its complaint; no foreign god or treaty could fill what only the covenant filled.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Marvel not then that we are told, You must be born again. God's Kindness to Israel. 6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-run:37w-of-54
That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place,....
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place - גב gab, a stew or brothel; Vulg. lupanar; Septuag. οικημα πορνικον. So my old MS. Bible, a bordel house. “Thou hast builded thy stewes and bordell houses in every place.” - Coverdale’s Bible, 1636. Bordel is an Italian word: how it got so early into our language I know not. Our modern word brothel is a corruption of it. Diodati translates, Tu hai edificato un bordello, “Thou hast built a brothel.” Houses of this kind were of a very ancient date.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
eminent place--rather, "a fornication-chamber," often connected with the impure rites of idolatry; spiritual fornication, on "an eminent place," answering to "fornication-chamber," is mainly meant, with an allusion also to the literal fornication associated with it (Jer 2:20;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
That thou ... - Render it: after that thou didst build “unto thee an eminent place,” and didst make “thee an high place in every street” - after that thou didst build “thy high place at the head of every way and” didst make ...”it came to pass, that thou” didst “also” commit “fornication” etc. An eminent place - literally, “an arched building.” Such places were used as brothels, and so the word is used metaphorically for a place of idol-worship.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַתִּבְנִי־ | vativni- | and you built | H1129 → | 376 times |
| לָ֖ךְ | lakh | for yourself | ||
| גֶּ֑ב | gev | a mound | H1354 → | 13 times |
| וַתַּעֲשִׂי־ | vataasi- | and you made | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| לָ֥ךְ | lakh | for yourself | ||
| רָמָ֖ה | ramah | a high place | H7413 → | 5 times |
| בְּכָל־ | bekhol | in every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| רְחֽוֹב׃ | rechov | open place | H7339 → |
וַתִּבְנִי־and you built
vativni-H1129 →376 times
לָ֖ךְfor yourself
lakh
גֶּ֑בa mound
gevH1354 →13 times
וַתַּעֲשִׂי־and you made
vataasi-H6213 →2628 times
לָ֥ךְfor yourself
lakh
רָמָ֖הa high place
ramahH7413 →5 times
בְּכָל־in every
bekholH3605 →5413 times
רְחֽוֹב׃open place
rechovH7339 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 2:20“For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 12:2
Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
- Leviticus 26:13
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and…
- Deuteronomy 12:2
Through
Psalms 78:58They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their idols.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 32:21
They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will…
- Leviticus 26:30
I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.
- Deuteronomy 32:21
Through
Ezekiel 16:39Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will level your mounds and tear down your lofty shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 16:24–25
you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 23:26
They will strip off your clothes and take your fine jewelry.
- Ezekiel 16:24–25
Through
Isaiah 57:7On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 16:16
You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred!
- Ezekiel 23:41
You sat on a couch of luxury with a table spread before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil,
- Ezekiel 16:16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.