Ezekiel 16:32
in Ezekiel 16You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
A wife that committeth adultery! that taketh strangers instead of her husband!
KJV
But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
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This verse in Ezekiel 16
Commentary
6 notes on this verse(Verse 32 and following) But like an adulterous woman, who brings in strangers over her husband. All prostitutes receive payment: but you have given payment to all your lovers, and you would give them anything to come in to you from every direction to fornicate with you. And it happened in you contrary to the custom of women in your fornications, and there will be no fornication after you. For in that you have given payment, and have not received payment: it has become contrary to you.
This site's exposition
How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God
on Ezekiel 16:30-34
The figure inverts common harlotry itself: an ordinary harlot is paid, but Jerusalem pays her lovers, hiring the nations to accept her advances. 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, since Jerusalem had far more to offer any ally than she ever needed from one.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
A commentator
Pacian of BarcelonaLetter 3: Against the Treatise of the Novatians · Written before 391.
proposed
Your cruelty is a false faith. An heretical congregation is an adulteress woman; for the Catholic hath never from the beginning left the couch and the chamber of her Spouse, nor gone after other and strange lovers. Ye have painted a divorced form in new …
And while all women usually receive payment from their lovers, Jerusalem did the opposite, giving more than she received. And to show the extent of her generosity, she would burden them, saying, 'Come to me often,' so that there would be no neighbor who would not be mixed up in her dishonor. And indeed, Jerusalem surpassed other prostitutes in this as well, not only giving what she had earned through the shameful practice, but also giving marital gifts to her lovers and her adulterers. So great was the example of the adulteress in all its magnitude of shame, that it is preferred not only to those present, but also to future prostitutes.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And it is a great aggravation of sin when men are their own tempters, and, instead of proposing to themselves any worldly advantage by their sin, are at great expense with it; such are transgressors without cause ( Ps. xxv.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
But as a wife that committeth adultery,....
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הָאִשָּׁ֖ה | haishah | O wife | H802 → | 781 times |
| הַמְּנָאָ֑פֶת | hamenaafet | <the> adulterous | H5003 → | 31 times |
| תַּ֣חַת | tachat | [who] in place of | H8478 → | 505 times |
| אִישָׁ֔הּ | ʾishah | husband her | H376 → | 1663 times |
| תִּקַּ֖ח | tikach | she takes | H3947 → | 966 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| זָרִֽים׃ | zarim | strangers | H2114 → | 77 times |
הָאִשָּׁ֖הO wife
haishahH802 →781 times
הַמְּנָאָ֑פֶת<the> adulterous
hamenaafetH5003 →31 times
תַּ֣חַת[who] in place of
tachatH8478 →505 times
אִישָׁ֔הּhusband her
ʾishahH376 →1663 times
תִּקַּ֖חshe takes
tikachH3947 →966 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
זָרִֽים׃strangers
zarimH2114 →77 times
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
Hosea 3:1Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 3:12–14
Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be…
- Jeremiah 31:20
Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me, a delightful child? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares…
- Isaiah 45:22
Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
- Hosea 1:2–3
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”
- Micah 7:18–20
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Jeremiah 3:12–14
Through
Jeremiah 2:28But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 11:13
Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah; the altars of shame you have set up—the altars to burn incense to Baal—are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’
- Deuteronomy 32:37
He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
- Judges 10:14
Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.”
- Jeremiah 11:13
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies2
On this verse
On this chapter
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; Jerome, COMMENTARY ON EZEKIEL 5:16.32-34; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Pacian of Barcelona, Letter 3: Against the Treatise of the Novatians.