I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you throughout the lands; I will purge your uncleanness.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries. I will consume your filthiness out of you.
- KJV And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.
- NKJV I will scatter you among the nations, disperse you throughout the countries, and remove your filthiness completely from you.
- NASB And I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among the lands, and I will eliminate your uncleanness from you.
- NLT I will scatter you among the nations and purge you of your wickedness.
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 will scatter Jerusalem among the nations and consume her filthiness out of her. Exile will serve both as punishment and as purging.
Overview
Dispersion among the nations is the announced judgment, fulfilling earlier covenant warnings (Lev. 26:33). Yet it carries a refining purpose: to consume her uncleanness. This blend of judgment and purification points to God's deeper aim to purge His people from sin, fully accomplished only in Christ's cleansing work.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Neh 1:8Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses when You said, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,
- Ezek 22:22As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted within the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath upon you.’”
- Deut 4:27Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- Zech 7:14But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”
- Lev 26:33But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.
- Ezek 36:19I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered throughout the lands. I judged them according to their ways and deeds.
- Ezek 20:38And I will purge you of those who rebel and transgress against Me. I will bring them out of the land in which they dwell, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
- Ezek 22:18“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are but the dross of silver.
- Jer 15:4I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.
- Mal 4:1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
- Ezek 23:47–48The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.
- Mal 3:3And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.
- 1 Pet 4:12Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.
- Zech 13:9This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”
- Deut 28:64Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
- Deut 28:25The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Ezek 34:6My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’
- Ezek 24:6–14Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents.
- Ezek 5:12A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.
- Matt 3:12His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
- Isa 1:25I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities.
- Ezek 23:27So I will put an end to your indecency and prostitution, which began in the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’
- Ezek 12:14–15And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.
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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 22:15 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.