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Ezekiel 18:3

in Ezekiel 18

As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.

KJV

As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.

This verse in Ezekiel 18

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

(Verse 3-4) As I live, says the Lord, there will not be for you any longer this parable as a proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine: the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sins, it shall die. (LXX: As I live, says the Lord Adonai, if it will continue to be said, this parable in Israel, because all souls are mine. Just as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sins, it shall die.)

This site's exposition

The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying,

on Ezekiel 18:1-4

The chapter names a proverb, the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. Ezekiel is sent to retire it by name. Gill reads the thesis that follows, the soul that sinneth, it shall die, as the whole chapter's argument compressed into one line.

This site's exposition

you will no longer quote this proverb

Henry compares Jeremiah 31:29, where the end of this proverb is a promise of mercy. Here it is a threat. The LORD would deal with each of the exiles for his own sins, and the proverb would have nothing left to explain in Israel.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

The taking away of this parable is made the matter of a promise, Jer. xxxi. Here it is made the matter of a threatening. There it intimates that God will return to them in ways of mercy; here it intimates that God would proceed against them in ways of judgment.
As I live, saith the Lord God,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb--because I will let it be seen by the whole world in the very fact that you are not righteous, as ye fancy yourselves, but wicked, and that you suffer only the just penalty of your guilt; while the elect righteous remnant alone escapes.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel - I will now, by this present declaration, settle this question for ever. And hence God has sworn to what follows. After this, who will dare to doubt the judgment pronounced?

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • חַי־[by] [the] life

    chai-H2416 →498 times

  • אָ֕נִיof me

    ʾaniH589 →874 times

  • נְאֻ֖ם[the] utterance of

    neumH5002 →376 times

  • אֲדֹנָ֣י[the] Lord

    ʾadonaiH136 →440 times

  • יְהוִ֑הYahweh

    yahwehH3069 →306 times

  • אִם־if

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • יִֽהְיֶ֨הit will belong

    yihyehH1961 →3559 times

  • לָכֶ֜םto you

    lakhem

  • ע֗וֹדagain

    odH5750 →490 times

  • מְשֹׁ֛לto speak a proverb

    mesholH4911 →16 times

  • הַמָּשָׁ֥לthe proverb

    hamashalH4912 →39 times

  • הַזֶּ֖ה<the> this

    hazehH2088 →1180 times

  • בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃in Israel

    beyisraelH3478 →2507 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Romans 3:19

    Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

    it leads to

    • Galatians 3:10

      All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

    • Galatians 3:22–23

      But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.

    • Romans 3:9

      What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.

    • Romans 2:12–18

      All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

  • Through

    Ezekiel 18:30

    Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 18:21

      But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.

    • Matthew 16:27

      For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.

    • Matthew 3:2

      and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

    • Ezekiel 14:6

      Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Repent and turn away from your idols; turn your faces away from all your abominations.

Where this verse is studied

About Ezekiel

Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.