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Ezekiel 36:17

in Ezekiel 36

“Son of man, when the people of Israel lived in their land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. Their behavior before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman’s impurity.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings: their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.

KJV

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

This verse in Ezekiel 36

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land - Had they continued faithful to me, they had never been removed from it: but they polluted it with their crimes; and I abhorred the land on that account, and gave both them and it up to the destroyers.

This site's exposition

the word of the LORD came to me

on Ezekiel 36:16-21

The word comes again, turning from land to people and tracing the cause of exile: Israel's defilement, the blood shed, and the idols. Their saying, “These are the people of the LORD, yet they had to leave His land”, profaned the name the judgment was meant to vindicate.

This site's exposition

defiled it by their own ways

Leviticus 18:24 to 28 warned that a defiled land would vomit out its people, as it had the Canaanites before them. Ezekiel reads the exile of Israel as that warning carried out. Their ways and deeds made the land unclean.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Ezekiel · Written before 420.

proposed

(Verse 16 and following) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, the house of Israel have dwelt (or dwells) in their own land, and they have defiled it with their ways and their idols: according to the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity, their way has become before me.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Their way in the eye of God was like the pollution of a woman during the days of her separation, which shut her out from the sanctuary and made very things she touched ceremonially unclean, Lev. xv. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and which he cannot endure to look upon. They shed blood and worshipped idols (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

removed woman-- (Le 15:19, &c.). The reason for their removal was their sin, which God's holiness could not let pass unpunished; just as a woman's legal uncleanness was the reason for her being separated from the congregation.

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

The words behind it

16 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.

  • בֶּן־O son of

    ben-H1121 →4930 times

  • אָדָ֗םhumankind

    ʾadamH120 →551 times

  • בֵּ֤ית[the] house of

    beitH1004 →2046 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵל֙Israel

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • יֹשְׁבִ֣ים[were] dwelling

    yoshevimH3427 →1079 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • אַדְמָתָ֔םown land their

    ʾadmatamH127 →225 times

  • וַיְטַמְּא֣וּand they made unclean

    vaytameuH2930 →162 times

  • אוֹתָ֔הּ<obj.> it

    ʾotahH853 →10935 times

  • בְּדַרְכָּ֖םby conduct their

    bedarkamH1870 →707 times

  • וּבַעֲלִֽילוֹתָ֑םand by practices their

    uvaalilotamH5949 →24 times

  • כְּטֻמְאַת֙like [the] uncleanness of

    ketumatH2932 →36 times

  • הַנִּדָּ֔ה<the> menstruation

    hanidahH5079 →29 times

  • הָיְתָ֥הit was

    hayetahH1961 →3559 times

  • דַרְכָּ֖םconduct their

    darkamH1870 →707 times

  • לְפָנָֽי׃<to> before me

    lefanaiH6440 →2123 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

    Micah 2:10

    Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction—a grievous destruction!

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 12:9

      For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

    • Psalms 106:38

      They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

    • 2 Kings 17:6

      In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the…

    • Hebrews 4:1–9

      Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it.

    • 2 Chronicles 7:20

      then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of…

  • Through

    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.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 8:7–9

      For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;

    • Jeremiah 16:18

      And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”

  • Through

    Isaiah 24:5

    The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 13:20

      Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,

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 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Ezekiel; 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); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, Ezekiel and the Book of His Prophecy.