Ezekiel 16:30
in Ezekiel 16How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How weak is thy heart, saith the Lord Jehovah, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an impudent harlot;
KJV
How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;
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This verse in Ezekiel 16
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 30, 31.) In what shall I cleanse your heart, says the Lord God, when you do all these works of a promiscuous and shameless woman? For you have made your brothel at the head of every street, and your high place you have made in every square; and you have not acted like a prostitute, increasing your price.
This site's exposition
How weak-willed is your heart
on Ezekiel 16:30-34
The figure inverts harlotry: an ordinary harlot is paid, but Jerusalem pays her lovers. Gill calls this the strangest and most damning form of the charge, a nation buying its own subjugation and calling it foreign policy. Clarke reads the inversion as proof the sin was preference and not need.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
As the law is not made for the just but for the lawless and those who are not subjected to God, so the teaching that warns us away from fornication does not become chaste but is for the lawless and the fornicators and the disobedient.
If you understand fornication of the flesh and the soul and the spirit, and if you see someone fornicating in them, you will also see Jerusalem fornicating herself three times.
There is no doubt that the word of the orator provokes the hero to worse things when a heretic builds up his hero in the perversions of heresy by what he says.
Those who have not completely gone away from religion but are conquered by sin and who want their sin to be hidden behave exactly like a prostitute who has been insulted.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Note, Those that are most foolish are commonly most imperious, and think themselves fit to manage others when they are far from being able to manage themselves. What were the particulars of it. They worshipped all the idols that came in their way, all that they were ever courted to the worship of; they were at the beck of all their neighbours (
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2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
weak . . . heart--Sin weakens the intellect ("heart") as, on the contrary, "the way of the Lord is strength to the upright" (Pr 10:29).
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The words behind it
14 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מָ֤ה | mah | how! | H4100 → | 752 times |
| אֲמֻלָה֙ | ʾamulah | hot | H535 → | |
| לִבָּתֵ֔ךְ | libatekh | [is] anger your | H3826 → | |
| נְאֻ֖ם | neum | [the] utterance of | H5002 → | 376 times |
| אֲדֹנָ֣י | ʾadonai | [the] Lord | H136 → | 440 times |
| יְהוִ֑ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3069 → | 306 times |
| בַּעֲשׂוֹתֵךְ֙ | baasotekh | when do you | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| אֵ֔לֶּה | ʾeleh | these [things] | H428 → | 746 times |
| מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה | maaseh | [the] deed[s] of | H4639 → | 236 times |
| אִשָּֽׁה־ | ʾishah- | a woman | H802 → | 781 times |
| זוֹנָ֖ה | zonah | a prostitute | H2181 → | 94 times |
| שַׁלָּֽטֶת׃ | shalatet | imperious | H7986 → |
מָ֤הhow!
mahH4100 →752 times
אֲמֻלָה֙hot
ʾamulahH535 →
לִבָּתֵ֔ךְ[is] anger your
libatekhH3826 →
נְאֻ֖ם[the] utterance of
neumH5002 →376 times
אֲדֹנָ֣י[the] Lord
ʾadonaiH136 →440 times
יְהוִ֑הYahweh
yahwehH3069 →306 times
בַּעֲשׂוֹתֵךְ֙when do you
baasotekhH6213 →2628 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
אֵ֔לֶּהthese [things]
ʾelehH428 →746 times
מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה[the] deed[s] of
maasehH4639 →236 times
אִשָּֽׁה־a woman
ʾishah-H802 →781 times
זוֹנָ֖הa prostitute
zonahH2181 →94 times
שַׁלָּֽטֶת׃imperious
shalatetH7986 →
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
Isaiah 1:3The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”
it leads to
- Jeremiah 8:7
Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
- Jeremiah 4:22
“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
- Isaiah 44:18
They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.
- Matthew 13:13–15
This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’
- Isaiah 5:12
At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.
- Jeremiah 8:7
Through
Jeremiah 4:22“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
- Romans 16:19
Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.
- Jeremiah 5:21
“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Where this verse is studied
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:10 and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 8:1.