Ezekiel 16:32
30 How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute!
31 But 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.
You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband!
33 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.
34 So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite!
This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband!
- KJV
- But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
- WEB
- “‘“Adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!
- ASV
- A wife that committeth adultery! that taketh strangers instead of her husband!
- DARBY
- O adulterous wife, that taketh strangers instead of her husband.
- BLB
- [You are] the woman committing adultery, [who] in place of her husband does receive strangers!
- ÅB
- Du horkvinne, som i stedet for din mann tar imot fremmede!
- OTB
- ‘Du utro hustru, som foretrekker fremmede fremfor sin egen ektemann!
- B1930
- Du horkvinne, som i stedet for din mann tar imot fremmede!
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Jeremiah 2:28
But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.
Read in contextHosea 3:1
Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and offer raisin cakes to idols.”
Read in contextJeremiah 3:20
But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.
Read in context2 Corinthians 11:2–3
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
Read in contextJeremiah 2:25
You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’
Read in contextEzekiel 16:8
Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord GOD.
Read in contextHosea 2:2
Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
Read in contextJeremiah 3:8–9
She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.
Read in context