“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “You eat meat with blood, you lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood. Should you then possess the land?
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?
- KJV Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?
- BSB Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You eat meat with the blood in it, lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. Should you then possess the land?
- NASB Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “You eat meat with the blood in it, raise your eyes to your idols as you shed blood. Should you then possess the land?
- NLT So tell these people, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You eat meat with blood in it, you worship idols, and you murder the innocent. Do you really think the land should be yours?
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 confronts the survivors in Judah: those who keep living in idolatry and bloodshed have no claim to remain in the land. Sin, not lineage, forfeits the inheritance.
Overview
After Jerusalem's fall, the remnant left in the land presumed they would inherit it because Abraham did (cf. 33:24). God answers that they were still eating meat with the blood (violating Leviticus 17), worshiping idols, and shedding blood. Possession of the land was always tied to covenant faithfulness, never mere descent. This exposes the folly of trusting in heritage rather than repentance, a theme John the Baptist later echoes (Matt. 3:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Deut 12:16Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.
- Gen 9:4But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.
- Jer 7:9–10Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,
- Ezek 22:27Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.
- Lev 3:17“‘It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.’”
- Ezek 22:6“‘“Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.
- Ezek 18:6and has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither has defiled his neighbor’s wife, neither has come near to a woman in her impurity,
- Ezek 18:12has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination,
- Ezek 22:9Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains. They have committed lewdness among you.
- Ezek 18:15who has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled his neighbor’s wife,
- Acts 15:20–21but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.
- Acts 15:29that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”
- Acts 21:25But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from food offered to idols, from blood, from strangled things, and from sexual immorality.”
- Lev 7:26–27You shall not eat any blood, whether it is of bird or of animal, in any of your dwellings.
- Ps 24:4He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.
- Lev 17:10–14“‘Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live as foreigners among them, who eats any kind of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.
- Lev 19:26“‘You shall not eat any meat with the blood still in it. You shall not use enchantments, nor practice sorcery.
- Jer 44:15–19Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
- Deut 4:19and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.
- 1 Sam 14:32–34and the people pounced on the plunder, and took sheep, cattle, and calves, and killed them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.
- Ezek 9:9Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion; for they say, ‘Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 33:25 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
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.