Ezekiel 16:10
in Ezekiel 16I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with sealskin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and covered thee with silk.
KJV
I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
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This verse in Ezekiel 16
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Verse 10.) And you clothed yourself in various colors. LXX: And you adorned yourself with various garments: engaging in the rituals of the law, you abandoned idols. These are the various garments with which Joseph was clothed: and his brothers could not sell him unless they first stripped him of his varied tunic (Gen. XXXVII). And it is said of the bride in the forty-fourth psalm: The queen stood at your right hand in a robe adorned with gold, surrounded by variety (Ps. XLIV, 10).
This site's exposition
Then I bathed you with water
on Ezekiel 16:9-14
The Lord himself washes, anoints, clothes and crowns the bride, until her renown for beauty spreads among the nations. Henry reads the section as Israel's prosperity under David and Solomon. Barnes adds that naming every ornament makes the coming betrayal weigh as heavily as it does; nothing here was self-made.
This site's exposition
sandals of fine leather
The fine leather is the covering of the tabernacle in Exodus 26:14, as Clarke notes. The LORD dressed His bride in the stuff of the sanctuary, linen and silk and embroidered cloth. Jerome read her garments as the law.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
I clothed thee also, with broidered work,.... Or, "with needle work" (q); with garments of divers colours, like Joseph's coat; perhaps it may refer to the rich raiment borrowed of the Egyptians, when they came out from thence.
We need not be particular in the application of these. Her wardrobe was well furnished with rich apparel; they had embroidered work to wear, shoes of fine badgers' skins, linen girdles, and silk veils, bracelets and necklaces, jewels and ear-rings, and even a beautiful crown, or coronet.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
I clothed thee also with broidered work - Cloth on which various figures, in various colors, were wrought by the needle. With badgers’skin - See Exo 25:6. The same kind of skin with which the tabernacle was covered. Fine linen - בשש beshesh, with cotton. I have seen cloth of this kind enveloping the finest mummies. I covered thee with silk - משי meshi. Very probably the produce of the silk-worm.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Ps 45:13, 14, similarly describes the Church (Israel, the appointed mother of Christendom) adorned as a bride (so Isa 61:10). It is Messiah who provides the wedding garment (Re 3:18;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
THE root of Israel's nation was originally a lone man whose family and dependants formed a small Bedouin tribe wandering throughout the plains of Canaan. God separated and selected Abraham, who was in no way distinct from others in his parentage, and declared that in him and in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. When the tribe had somewhat multiplied, God found them in Egypt, a herd of slaves helplessly crushed beneath the foot of Pharaoh. They were sorely burdened with labors for which they received no reward.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
THE root of Israel's nation was originally a lone man whose family and dependants formed a small Bedouin tribe wandering throughout the plains of Canaan. God separated and selected Abraham, who was in no way distinct from others in his parentage, and declared that in him and in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. When the tribe had somewhat multiplied, God found them in Egypt, a herd of slaves helplessly crushed beneath the foot of Pharaoh. They were sorely burdened with labors for which they received no reward. They were without spirit to resent the oppressions of their taskmasters and without power to succeed had the energy been there. Yet God brought them out of Egypt. He led them through the wilderness, chased out powerful nations before them, settled them in the most fertile country and there multiplied them at such an extraordinary rate, and enriched and endowed them with such power that the little kingdom of Israel became famous among the nations of the earth! And in the days of Solomon its scepter was respected far and wide. The nations of the earth stood still and wondered how so small a monarchy had come to be so exceedingly rich and great. It was entirely through the favor of Jehovah that these great blessings had been received. He had a favor to Abraham's race. He revealed Himself to them and not to others. He chose them to be His people and made them the custodians of His Law. His worship was kept up among them and while they were faithful to Him they were a happy and a prosperous people whose renown went forth to Tarshish and the isles—and the excellence of whose laws and government was respected and admired even by such distant nations as those which were governed by the queen of the South. The beauty of the nation consisted entirely in what God had done for it—its comeliness was a comeliness which Jehovah had put upon it.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Badgers’ skin - Probably the skin of the dolphin or dugong (Exo 25:5 note). Silk - For a robe, a turban, or (as gauze) for a transparent veil; the derivation of the word in the original is much disputed.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
And I clothed you with embroidered garments “And I clothed you with embroidered garments of the spoils of your enemies.”
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
And I adorned you with ornaments E pare toy, and I adorned you. [Jonathan renders:] And I adorned you with the adornment of the words of the Torah, written on the two stone tablets.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וָאַלְבִּישֵׁ֣ךְ | vaalbishekh | and I clothed you | H3847 → | 110 times |
| רִקְמָ֔ה | rikmah | multicolored cloth | H7553 → | 12 times |
| וָאֶנְעֲלֵ֖ךְ | vaenalekh | and I shod you | H5274 → | |
| תָּ֑חַשׁ | tachash | leather | H8476 → | |
| וָאֶחְבְּשֵׁ֣ךְ | vaechbeshekh | and I wrapped head your | H2280 → | 33 times |
| בַּשֵּׁ֔שׁ | bashesh | with <the> fine linen | H8336 → | 41 times |
| וַאֲכַסֵּ֖ךְ | vaakhasekh | and I covered you | H3680 → | 152 times |
| מֶֽשִׁי׃ | meshi | silk | H4897 → |
וָאַלְבִּישֵׁ֣ךְand I clothed you
vaalbishekhH3847 →110 times
רִקְמָ֔הmulticolored cloth
rikmahH7553 →12 times
וָאֶנְעֲלֵ֖ךְand I shod you
vaenalekhH5274 →
תָּ֑חַשׁleather
tachashH8476 →
וָאֶחְבְּשֵׁ֣ךְand I wrapped head your
vaechbeshekhH2280 →33 times
בַּשֵּׁ֔שׁwith <the> fine linen
basheshH8336 →41 times
וַאֲכַסֵּ֖ךְand I covered you
vaakhasekhH3680 →152 times
מֶֽשִׁי׃silk
meshiH4897 →
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 61:10I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom…
it leads to
- Revelation 19:7–8
Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.
- Psalms 132:9
May Your priests be clothed with righteousness, and Your saints shout for joy.
- Philippians 3:9
and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.
- Psalms 132:16
I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints will sing out in joy.
- Revelation 21:2
I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
- Revelation 19:7–8
Through
Ezekiel 16:13So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to…
it leads to
- Psalms 50:2
From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.
- 1 Kings 4:21
And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of…
- Deuteronomy 32:13–14
He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,
- Psalms 50:2
Where this verse is studied
About Ezekiel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 813: “The Privileged Man” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.