Read & explore together
Jerusalem’s Unfaithfulness
Ezekiel 16:1–34 uses confronting picture language to expose Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness to the Lord Yahweh. The passage moves from abandonment and generous care to covenant betrayal, spreading corruption and the Lord’s stated judgement.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
The word of Yahweh comes to Ezekiel with a command to make Jerusalem know her abominations. Jerusalem is addressed through an extended comparison that uses family, marriage and prostitution imagery as prophetic teaching. The passage explains both the depth of the Lord’s care and the seriousness of Jerusalem’s sin and its consequences.
Ezekiel 16:1–34Main takeaway
This passage teaches that Jerusalem’s guilt is grave because she turned the Lord Yahweh’s covenant gifts into unfaithfulness and did not escape his judgement.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01From abandoned to aliveJerusalem’s beginning is pictured as helpless and unwanted, left without ordinary care and cast into the open field.
Explanation
Jerusalem’s beginning is pictured as helpless and unwanted, left without ordinary care and cast into the open field. In that state, the Lord passes by and says, “Live!” He then causes growth and increase. The opening stresses complete need and the Lord’s life-giving initiative.
02Covenant care and gifted beautyThe Lord then describes a covenant bond with Jerusalem. He covers her nakedness, pledges himself and says she became his.
Explanation
The Lord then describes a covenant bond with Jerusalem. He covers her nakedness, pledges himself and says she became his. He washes, anoints, clothes and adorns her. Her food, beauty, royal standing and renown are not self-made. Her beauty is said to be perfect through the Lord’s majesty placed on her.
03The Lord’s gifts misusedThe turning point comes when Jerusalem trusts in her beauty and uses what the Lord gave her for prostitution and idols.
Explanation
The turning point comes when Jerusalem trusts in her beauty and uses what the Lord gave her for prostitution and idols. Garments, jewels, oil, incense and food are redirected to high places and images. The passage also adds the horror of sacrificing sons and daughters and forgetting earlier helplessness.
04Woe, spread of unfaithfulness and judgementAfter this wickedness, the Lord pronounces, “Woe, woe to you!” Jerusalem builds lofty places everywhere and multiplies prostitution, including with Egyptians, Assyrians and Chaldea, yet remains unsatisfied.
Explanation
After this wickedness, the Lord pronounces, “Woe, woe to you!” Jerusalem builds lofty places everywhere and multiplies prostitution, including with Egyptians, Assyrians and Chaldea, yet remains unsatisfied. The Lord also says he has stretched out his hand over her, diminished her portion and delivered her to those who hate her.
05A weak heart and a shameful exchangeThe Lord calls Jerusalem’s heart weak because she does the work of an impudent prostitute.
Explanation
The Lord calls Jerusalem’s heart weak because she does the work of an impudent prostitute. Her behaviour is presented as worse still because she scorns pay, takes strangers instead of her husband, and even gives gifts and bribes to her lovers. The picture is of disgraceful covenant betrayal, not mere desire.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What does the repeated command “Live!” show about Jerusalem’s beginning?
Notice the neglected condition in Ezekiel 16:4–5 and who speaks life in Ezekiel 16:6.
02According to the passage, where did Jerusalem’s beauty and renown come from?
Trace the Lord’s actions and gifts in Ezekiel 16:8–14, especially the statement about “my majesty”.
03What consequences and evaluations does the Lord himself state after Jerusalem’s widespread unfaithfulness?
Look for the words of woe, the diminished portion, delivery to those who hate her, and the description of her heart in Ezekiel 16:23, 16:27, 16:30 and 16:31.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Ezekiel 16:1–34
1Again Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2“Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations;
3and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite. An Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite.
4As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren’t washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor wrapped in blankets at all.
5No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, because you were abhorred in the day that you were born.
6“ ‘ “When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’
7I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent beauty. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and bare.
8“ ‘ “Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my garment over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and you became mine.
9“ ‘ “Then I washed you with water. Yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.
10I clothed you also with embroidered work and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.
11I decked you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands, and put a chain on your neck.
12I put a ring on your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.
13Thus you were decked with gold and silver. Your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered work. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate.
14Your renown went out among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you,” says the Lord Yahweh.
15“ ‘ “But you trusted in your beauty, and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by. It was his.
16You took some of your garments, and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them. This shouldn’t happen, neither shall it be.
17You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and played the prostitute with them.
18You took your embroidered garments, covered them, and set my oil and my incense before them.
19My bread also which I gave you, fine flour, oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you even set it before them for a pleasant aroma; and so it was,” says the Lord Yahweh.
20“ ‘ “Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and you have sacrificed these to them to be devoured. Was your prostitution a small matter,
21that you have slain my children and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire to them?
22In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and were wallowing in your blood.
23“ ‘ “It has happened after all your wickedness—woe, woe to you!” says the Lord Yahweh—
24“that you have built for yourselves a vaulted place, and have made yourselves a lofty place in every street.
25You have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your prostitution.
26You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh; and have multiplied your prostitution, to provoke me to anger.
27See therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your portion, and delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way.
28You have played the prostitute also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the prostitute with them, and yet you weren’t satisfied.
29You have moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land of merchants, to Chaldea; and yet you weren’t satisfied with this.
30“ ‘ “How weak is your heart,” says the Lord Yahweh, “since you do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute;
31in that you build your vaulted place at the head of every way, and make your lofty place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn pay.
32“ ‘ “Adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!
33People give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution.
34You are different from other women in your prostitution, in that no one follows you to play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given to you, therefore you are different.” ’