I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted 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.
- BSB have brought these things upon you, because you have prostituted yourself with the nations and defiled yourself 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 6:9And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
- Jer 22:8–9And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?
- Jer 2:18–20And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?
- Jer 16:11–12Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
- Ezek 23:12–21She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
- Ps 106:35–38But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
- Ezek 23:7Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
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.