have brought these things upon you, because you have prostituted yourself with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.
Parallel translations
- WEB These things will be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols.
- KJV I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.
- NKJV I will do these things to you because you have gone as a harlot after the Gentiles, because you have become defiled by their idols.
- NASB These things will be done to you because you have adulterously pursued the nations, because you have defiled yourself with their idols.
- NLT You brought all this on yourself by prostituting yourself to other nations, defiling yourself with all their idols.
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 states plainly that these calamities come because Judah chased after the nations and defiled herself with their idols. It pinpoints idolatry as the root cause of her ruin.
Overview
The verse gives the explicit reason for the judgment: spiritual prostitution 'after the nations' and pollution by their idols. God is not capricious; the punishment fits the persistent, willful sin. By naming the cause, Scripture vindicates God's justice and calls every generation to examine its own divided loyalties.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ezek 6:9Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.
- Jer 22:8–9And many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’
- Jer 2:18–20Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
- Jer 16:11–12Then you are to answer them: ‘It is because your fathers have forsaken Me, declares the LORD, and followed other gods, and served and worshiped them. They abandoned Me and did not keep My instruction.
- Ezek 23:12–21She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors dressed in splendor, horsemen riding on steeds, all desirable young men.
- Ps 106:35–38but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.
- Ezek 23:7She offered sexual favors to all the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of those for whom she lusted.
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 23:30 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.