I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury; they will take away your nose and your ears; and your remnant will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and your residue will be devoured by the fire.
Parallel translations
- KJV And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.
- BSB And I will set My jealous rage against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and ears, and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and daughters, and your remnant will be consumed by fire.
- NKJV I will set My jealousy against you, And they shall deal furiously with you; They shall remove your nose and your ears, And your remnant shall fall by the sword; They shall take your sons and your daughters, And your remnant shall be devoured by fire.
- NASB I will set My jealousy against you, so that they may deal with you in wrath. They will remove your nose and your ears; and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and your survivors will be consumed by the fire.
- NLT I will turn my jealous anger against you, and they will deal harshly with you. They will cut off your nose and ears, and any survivors will then be slaughtered by the sword. Your children will be taken away as captives, and everything that is left will be burned.
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's jealous wrath will fall through enemies who mutilate, kill, and burn, devastating Judah and her children. It reveals the severity of God's response to covenant betrayal.
Overview
The Lord's 'jealousy' is the rightful zeal of a husband for an unfaithful wife, here expressed in the horrors of conquest, including the cutting off of nose and ears (a known penalty for adultery) and the loss of sons and daughters. The judgment is fierce because the covenant relationship is precious. Such passages press us toward the cross, where God's jealous justice and His mercy meet in the One who bore wrath for sinners.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ezek 23:47The company will stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.
- Ezek 20:47–48and tell the forest of the South, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned thereby.
- Ezek 15:6–7Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
- Ezek 8:1–18In the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the Lord Yahweh’s hand fell there on me.
- Hos 2:4–5Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness;
- Ezek 16:38–42I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.
- Ezek 5:13“‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.
- Exod 34:14for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
- Deut 29:20Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.
- Ezek 22:18–22“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are brass, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are the dross of silver.
- Deut 32:21–22They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
- Song 8:6Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of Yahweh.
- Prov 6:34For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.
- Rev 18:8Therefore in one day her plagues will come: death, mourning, and famine; and she will be utterly burned with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is strong.
- Zeph 1:18Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.
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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 23:25 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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