Ezekiel 16:18
in Ezekiel 16You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you set My oil and incense before them.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and thou tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them, and didst set mine oil and mine incense before them.
KJV
And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
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This verse in Ezekiel 16
Commentary
15 notes on this verseHast set mine oil and mine incense before them - It appears that they had made use of the holy vestments, and the different kinds of offerings which belonged to the Lord, to honor their idols.
This site's exposition
you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot
on Ezekiel 16:15-19
The turn is abrupt: “you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot,” lavishing favors “on everyone who passed by.” The Lord’s own gifts become idols. Fairbairn notes the high places and foreign shrines built with royal wealth during the divided kingdom.
This site's exposition
My oil and incense
Oil and incense belonged to the LORD's service, the oil for the lampstand and the incense for the golden altar. Clarke reads the verse as the holy vestments and offerings turned to honor idols. Only the object of worship changed.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
We do not imitate anyone, but if we want to imitate anyone, we should imitate Jesus Christ.
Incense and oil are the prayer that is offered to God with understanding and in which God delights.
Whoever is born in the teaching of heretics and has taken these principles for his own faith is a child of Jerusalem the fornicator and sinner.
These various clothes and beautiful garments that God has bestowed on us, if we cut them up and rip them and surround them with false teaching to deceive human beings, there is no doubt that we are covering idols with different clothing.
But we do this whenever we surround heretical depravity with prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice, and all virtues, and under the guise of these, we deceive even the simple; so that seeing the sweet honey of virtues, they do not beware of the poison of vices.
7 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers2 voices
(Verse 18) And you took your multicolored garments and covered them: masculine images are understood: so that every form that he had received for use, he would turn into blasphemy. But we do this whenever we surround heretical depravity with prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice, and all virtues, and under the guise of these, we deceive even the simple; so that seeing the sweet honey of virtues, they do not beware of the poison of vices. And you have set my oil and my incense before them.
To me who preaches the gospel in the church, the devil always stretches out a noose, in order to confuse the whole church with my conduct.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
They had sacrificed their children to their idols. This is insisted upon here, and often elsewhere, as one of the worst instances of their idolatry, as indeed there was none in which the devil triumphed so much over the children of men, both their natural reason and their natural affection, as in this (see Jer. vii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
): Thou deckedst thy high places with divers colours, with the coats of divers colours, like Joseph's, which God had given them as particular marks of his favour, and hast played the harlot (that is, worshipped idols) thereupon. Of this he saith, " The like things shall not come, neither shall it be so; that is, this is a thing by no means to be suffered;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
tookest thy . . . garments . . . coveredst them--that is, the idols, as if an adulteress were to cover her paramours with garments which she had received from the liberality of her husband. my oil--the holy anointing oil sacred to God (Ex 30:22-25). Also that used in sacrifices (Le 2:1, 2).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Mine oil and mine incense - The oil was the produce of the land, the incense received in exchange for such produce. Both were the gifts of Yahweh and belonged to Him; yet the oil Exo 25:6; Exo 29:40 and the incense Exo 30:34, prepared for the service of God, were used in idol-worship. In nature worship the worshippers were especially lavish in vegetable products like incense.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַתִּקְחִ֛י | vatikchi | and you took | H3947 → | 966 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| בִּגְדֵ֥י | bigdei | [the] clothes of | H899 → | 217 times |
| רִקְמָתֵ֖ךְ | rikmatekh | multicolored cloth your | H7553 → | 12 times |
| וַתְּכַסִּ֑ים | vatekhasim | and you covered them | H3680 → | 152 times |
| וְשַׁמְנִי֙ | veshamni | and oil my | H8081 → | 193 times |
| וּקְטָרְתִּ֔י | uketareti | and incense my | H7004 → | 60 times |
| נָתַ֖תְּ | natati | you put | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לִפְנֵיהֶֽם׃ | lifneihem | <to> before them | H6440 → | 2123 times |
וַתִּקְחִ֛יand you took
vatikchiH3947 →966 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
בִּגְדֵ֥י[the] clothes of
bigdeiH899 →217 times
רִקְמָתֵ֖ךְmulticolored cloth your
rikmatekhH7553 →12 times
וַתְּכַסִּ֑יםand you covered them
vatekhasimH3680 →152 times
וְשַׁמְנִי֙and oil my
veshamniH8081 →193 times
וּקְטָרְתִּ֔יand incense my
uketaretiH7004 →60 times
נָתַ֖תְּyou put
natatiH5414 →2011 times
לִפְנֵיהֶֽם׃<to> before them
lifneihemH6440 →2123 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
About Ezekiel
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
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; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Twenty Chapters of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:3; Origen of Alexandria, EXCERPTS ON EZEKIEL 16:18; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:5 and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.