Ezekiel 16:44
in Ezekiel 16Behold, all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
KJV
Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
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This verse in Ezekiel 16
Commentary
6 notes on this verse(Verse 44.) Behold, everyone who speaks a commonly-known proverb, will apply it to you, saying: Like mother, like daughter. You are the daughter of your mother, who has cast away her husband and her sons, and the sister of your sisters, who have cast away their husbands and their sons. Seventy: These are all the things that they have spoken against you in a parable, saying: Like mother and daughter. You are the daughter of your mother, who has rejected her husband and her sons; and the sisters of your sisters, who have rejected their husbands and their sons.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The mother - Old Jerusalem, when the seat of the Jebusites, or the land of Canaan, when full of the idolatrous, bloody, barbarous nations. Her daughter - Jerusalem, or the Jews who are more like those accursed nations in sin, than near them in place of abode.
Behold, everyone that useth proverbs,.... That affects a proverbial way of sneaking that is witty and facetious, and has a talent at satirizing and scoffing, as some have had; such were Lucian and others: shall use this proverb against thee; signifying that the sins of the Jews should be well known and exposed, and they should become the subject of the gibes and jeers of men: saying, as is the mother, so is her daughter; an ancient and common proverb, used to express a likeness and agreement between persons their nature and disposition, in their behaviour, conduct, and conversation.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
As . . . mother . . . her daughter--"Is," and "so is," are not in the original; the ellipsis gives the proverb (but two words in the Hebrew) epigrammatic brevity. Jerusalem proved herself a true daughter of the Hittite mother in sin (Eze 16:3).
As is the mother, so is her daughter - כאמה בתה keimmah bittah, “As the mother, her daughter.” As is the cause, so is the effect. As is the breeding, so is the practice. A silken purse cannot be made out of a swine’s ear. What is bred in the bone seldom comes out of the flesh. All such proverbs show the necessity of early holy precepts, supported by suitable example.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The Jews prided themselves on being under the special protection of Yahweh. In the downfall of their neighbors, they found only additional grounds for confidence in their own security. Ezekiel now in severe rebuke places them on an equality with Sodom and Samaria. Alike have been their sins, except that Judah has had the preeminence in guilt. Alike shall be their punishment.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הִנֵּה֙ | hineh | there! | H2009 → | 843 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַמֹּשֵׁ֔ל | hamoshel | <the> [one who] speaks a proverb | H4911 → | 16 times |
| עָלַ֥יִךְ | ʾalayikh | on you | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| יִמְשֹׁ֖ל | yimshol | he will speak a proverb | H4911 → | 16 times |
| לֵאמֹ֑ר | lemor | <to> saying | H559 → | 5305 times |
| כְּאִמָּ֖ה | keimah | [is] like mother her | H517 → | 220 times |
| בִּתָּֽהּ׃ | bitah | daughter her | H1323 → | 588 times |
הִנֵּה֙there!
hinehH2009 →843 times
כָּל־every
kol-H3605 →5413 times
הַמֹּשֵׁ֔ל<the> [one who] speaks a proverb
hamoshelH4911 →16 times
עָלַ֥יִךְon you
ʾalayikhH5921 →5755 times
יִמְשֹׁ֖לhe will speak a proverb
yimsholH4911 →16 times
לֵאמֹ֑ר<to> saying
lemorH559 →5305 times
כְּאִמָּ֖ה[is] like mother her
keimahH517 →220 times
בִּתָּֽהּ׃daughter her
bitahH1323 →588 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
Ezekiel 16:3and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 16:45
You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father…
- Isaiah 51:1–2
“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.
- Deuteronomy 20:17
For you must devote them to complete destruction—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you,
- John 8:44
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him.…
- Ezekiel 16:45
Through
1 Samuel 24:13As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand will never be against you.
it leads to
- Matthew 7:20
So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.
- Matthew 7:16–18
By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
- Matthew 7:20
Through
Ezra 9:1After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like…
it leads to
- Leviticus 18:24–30
Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
- Nehemiah 9:2
Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
- Leviticus 18:24–30
Where this verse is studied
About Ezekiel
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 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.