I made you thrive like a plant of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.
Parallel translations
- WEB I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent ornament. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and bare.
- KJV I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.
- NKJV I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.
- NASB I made you very numerous, like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine jewelry; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare.
- NLT And I helped you to thrive like a plant in the field. You grew up and became a beautiful jewel. Your breasts became full, and your body hair grew, but you were still naked.
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 made the child flourish and grow into beautiful maturity, yet she remained naked and bare. Growth without covering still left her exposed.
Overview
Under God's blessing, Israel multiplied and grew great, a likely allusion to her increase in Egypt and the wilderness. Yet she was still 'naked and bare,' not yet brought into covenant. The verse shows God's providential care preparing her for the covenant relationship He will establish next.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 24
- Exod 1:7but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
- Deut 1:10The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- Isa 62:3You will be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, a royal diadem in the palm of your God.
- Ezek 16:10–13I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.
- Neh 9:18–25Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies,
- Hos 2:3Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
- Ezek 16:16You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred!
- Ps 149:2–4Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.
- Ps 148:14He has raised up a horn for His people, the praise of all His saints, of Israel, a people near to Him. Hallelujah!
- Acts 7:17As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased greatly in number.
- Exod 12:37The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.
- Job 1:21saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”
- Ps 135:4For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.
- Deut 4:8And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?
- Song 4:5Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.
- Deut 33:26–29“There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty.
- Exod 3:22Every woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”
- Isa 61:10I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
- Ezek 16:22And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.
- Deut 32:10–14He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.
- Ps 147:20He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His judgments. Hallelujah!
- Gen 22:17I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
- Hos 2:9–10Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness.
- Rev 3:17–18You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
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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 16:7 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.