Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
Parallel translations
- WEB “‘“Behold, everyone who uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, ‘As is the mother, so is her daughter.’
- BSB Behold, all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
- NKJV “Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter!’
- NASB “Behold, everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you, saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
- NLT Everyone who makes up proverbs will say of you, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
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
A proverb fits her: 'As is the mother, so is her daughter.' Jerusalem reflects the pagan character of her spiritual ancestry.
Overview
God invokes a common saying to introduce a comparison of Jerusalem with her 'family' of nations. The proverb stresses that her sinful nature matches her Canaanite origins (verse 3). It sets up the stinging argument that Jerusalem has become like, and worse than, the most notorious pagan cities.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ezek 18:2–3What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?
- 1 Sam 24:13As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked: but mine hand shall not be upon thee.
- Ps 106:35–38But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
- Ezek 16:3And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.
- Ezra 9:1Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
- 1 Kgs 21:16And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
- 2 Kgs 17:11And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:
- 2 Kgs 17:15And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
- 2 Kgs 21:9But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.
- Ezek 16:45Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
- Ezek 12:22Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 16:44 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.