Ezekiel 16:25
in Ezekiel 16At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou hast built thy lofty place at the head of every way, and hast made thy beauty an abomination, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredom.
KJV
Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.
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This verse in Ezekiel 16
Commentary
11 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
in addition to all your other wickedness
on Ezekiel 16:23-29
The chapter lists Jerusalem’s foreign alliances as adultery, with “the Egyptians,” “the Assyrians,” and “Chaldea, the land of merchants.” Each is a paid affair that leaves her reaching for the next, and the refrain is “you were not satisfied.” The political history of the late kings runs through the figure.
This site's exposition
At the head of every street
Wesley reads the head of every street as the roads into the country, where travellers would pass. Idolatry spread beyond the city into the whole land. The shrines stood where no one could miss them.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
Possessing these things, she is of great beauty, but she is corrupted by the divisions of heretics and foreign religious systems.
A noble alternative only to be embraced in preference to Satan! In the old days even Jerusalem went whoring and opened her legs to everyone that passed by. It was in Egypt that she was first deflowered and there that her teats were bruised.
She will sit by the waters of loneliness, her pitcher laid aside, and open her legs to every one who passes by and be polluted to the crown of her head. It would have been better for her to have submitted to the yoke of marriage, to have walked in level places, than to aspire to loftier heights and fall into the depths of hell.
Our Zion, in which at times there are Philistines and Tyre and Ethiopia; that watchtower, that meretrix, that harlot, that Rahab, that Babylon, that one who, according to Ezekiel, has prostituted herself to everyone on the crossroads; that meretrix, if she wills it, suddenly becomes a virgin. A virgin she becomes, conceives the Son of God and brings him forth. "From your fear, O Lord, we conceived and suffered the pangs of childbirth, bringing forth the spirit of your salvation on the earth." Understand, therefore, that [Jerusalem], who was a prostitute, conceives of God and is in labor and brings forth the Savior.
What then has persuaded you to contradict each other and to procure to yourselves so great a disgrace? You cannot give any good account of it; this supposition only remains, that all you do is but outward profession and pretense.… And you make nothing of accusing the Fathers, and you complain outright of the expressions as being unscriptural; and, as it is written, "opened your legs to every one that passed by;" so as to change as often as they wish, in whose pay and keep you are.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
At every head of the way - Not content with what was done in the city, she built her idol temples in the country, wherever it was likely passengers would come.
Thus some common drunkards will be company for every one that puts up the finger to them; how weak are the hearts of such! They adorned their idol-temples, and groves, and high places, with the fine rich clothing that God had given them (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way,....
The words behind it
17 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| רֹ֣אשׁ | rosh | head of | H7218 → | 599 times |
| דֶּ֗רֶךְ | derekh | a road | H1870 → | 707 times |
| בָּנִית֙ | banit | you built | H1129 → | 376 times |
| רָֽמָתֵ֔ךְ | ramatekh | high place your | H7413 → | 5 times |
| וַתְּתַֽעֲבִי֙ | vatetaavi | and you made abominable | H8581 → | |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| יָפְיֵ֔ךְ | yafeyekh | beauty your | H3308 → | 19 times |
| וַתְּפַשְּׂקִ֥י | vatefaseki | and you opened wide | H6589 → | |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| רַגְלַ֖יִךְ | raglayikh | feet your | H7272 → | 247 times |
| לְכָל־ | lekhol | for every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| עוֹבֵ֑ר | over | [one who] passed by | H5674 → | 556 times |
| וַתַּרְבִּ֖י | vatarbi | and you increased | H7235 → | 227 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| תַּזְנוּתָֽיִךְ׃ | taznutekh | prostitution<s> your | H8457 → | 20 times |
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
כָּל־every
kol-H3605 →5413 times
רֹ֣אשׁhead of
roshH7218 →599 times
דֶּ֗רֶךְa road
derekhH1870 →707 times
בָּנִית֙you built
banitH1129 →376 times
רָֽמָתֵ֔ךְhigh place your
ramatekhH7413 →5 times
וַתְּתַֽעֲבִי֙and you made abominable
vatetaaviH8581 →
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
יָפְיֵ֔ךְbeauty your
yafeyekhH3308 →19 times
וַתְּפַשְּׂקִ֥יand you opened wide
vatefasekiH6589 →
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
רַגְלַ֖יִךְfeet your
raglayikhH7272 →247 times
לְכָל־for every
lekholH3605 →5413 times
עוֹבֵ֑ר[one who] passed by
overH5674 →556 times
וַתַּרְבִּ֖יand you increased
vatarbiH7235 →227 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
תַּזְנוּתָֽיִךְ׃prostitution<s> your
taznutekhH8457 →20 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
Jeremiah 3:2“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the…
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.
- 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.
- Ezekiel 8:4–6
And there I saw the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain.
- Genesis 38:14
she removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah…
- Jeremiah 2:7
I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land, and made My inheritance detestable.
- Ezekiel 16:24–25
Through
Ezekiel 16:31But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 16:33–34
Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.
- Isaiah 52:3
For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”
- Hosea 12:11
Is there iniquity in Gilead? They will surely come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.
- Ezekiel 16:33–34
Where this verse is studied
About Ezekiel
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Athanasius of Alexandria, ON SYNODS 39; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; Jerome, LETTER 79.10; Jerome, LETTER 22.6; Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 18 (PS 86); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 7:7.