They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.
Parallel translations
- WEB People 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.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry.
- NASB Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you give your gifts to all your lovers and lavish favors on them so that they will come to you from every direction for your obscene practices.
- NLT Prostitutes charge for their services—but not you! You give gifts to your lovers, bribing them to come and have sex with you.
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
Reversing custom, she pays her lovers and bribes the nations to come to her. She spends her resources to purchase her own betrayal.
Overview
Most prostitutes receive gifts, but Jerusalem lavishes them on her lovers, paying tribute to foreign nations and their gods to court their favor. She squanders God's gifts to fund her unfaithfulness. The picture exposes the irrational, self-impoverishing nature of sin, which pays dearly for its own degradation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 57:9And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell.
- Hos 8:9–10For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.
- Hos 2:12And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
- Deut 23:17–18There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
- Joel 3:3And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
- Isa 30:6–7The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
- Isa 30:3Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
- Mic 1:7And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.
- Ezek 16:41And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.
- Luke 15:30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
- Gen 38:16–18And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?
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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 16:33 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
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