that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.”’
Parallel translations
- KJV That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
- BSB so that I may take hold of the hearts of the people of Israel. For because of their idols, they are all estranged from Me.’
- NKJV that I may seize the house of Israel by their heart, because they are all estranged from Me by their idols.” ’
- NASB in order to take hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who have turned away from Me due to all their idols.” ’
- NLT I will do this to capture the minds and hearts of all my people who have turned from me to worship their detestable idols.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God acts so as to lay hold of Israel's heart, since they have all become estranged from Him through their idols.
Overview
God's confronting response aims to recapture the hearts that idolatry has alienated from Him. His purpose in exposure is ultimately restorative—to reclaim a people who have drifted away. It reveals a God who pursues estranged hearts rather than abandoning them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Isa 1:4Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.
- Zech 11:8I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.
- Hos 10:2Their heart is divided. Now they will be found guilty. He will demolish their altars. He will destroy their sacred stones.
- Jer 2:31–32Generation, consider Yahweh’s word. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?’
- Rom 1:30backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
- 2 Th 2:9–11even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
- Gal 6:7Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
- Col 1:21You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,
- Jer 2:5Yahweh says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless?
- Rom 1:28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
- Heb 3:12Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
- Rom 1:21–23Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.
- Jer 2:11–13Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
- Zech 7:11–14But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
- Deut 32:15–16But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.
- Ezek 14:9–10“‘“If the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, Yahweh, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will destroy him from among my people Israel.
- Rom 8:7because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
- Eph 4:18being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts;
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 14:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.