Limitless Word
You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and every one of you defiles his neighbor’s wife: and shall you possess the land?
Ezekiel 33:26 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife: and shall ye possess the land?
  • BSB You have relied on your swords, you have committed detestable acts, and each of you has defiled his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’
  • NKJV You rely on your sword, you commit abominations, and you defile one another’s wives. Should you then possess the land?” ’
  • NASB You rely on your sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?” ’
  • NLT Murderers! Idolaters! Adulterers! Should the land belong to you?’

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

The remnant trusted in violence, committed abominations, and defiled marriage, yet still expected to keep the land. God says such a people cannot possess His inheritance.

Overview

Reliance on 'the sword,' idolatry, and adultery shows a society in open rebellion against God's law. Twice God asks, 'shall you possess the land?'—a rhetorical rebuke to those clinging to Abraham's promise while living in sin. The land was holy ground, and unholy people defile and lose it. The verse underscores that grace never licenses ongoing rebellion.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 21

  • Gen 27:40By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you shall shake his yoke from off your neck.”
  • Mic 2:1–2Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.
  • Zeph 3:3Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.
  • Jer 5:8–9They were as fed horses roaming at large: everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
  • Deut 29:18–23lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison;
  • Deut 4:25–26When you shall father children, and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight, to provoke him to anger;
  • Josh 23:15–16It shall happen that as all the good things have come on you of which Yahweh your God spoke to you, so Yahweh will bring on you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you,
  • 1 Sam 2:30“Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever.’ But now Yahweh says, ‘Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me will be lightly esteemed.
  • 1 Kgs 11:5–7For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
  • Ezek 22:9–11Slanderous 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,
  • 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 18:11–12or who does not do any of those things, but even has eaten at the mountain shrines, and defiled his neighbor’s wife,
  • Ps 50:16–20But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
  • Ps 94:20–21Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you, which brings about mischief by statute?
  • 1 Pet 4:3For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.
  • Rev 21:8But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
  • Lev 20:13“‘If a man lies with a male, as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
  • Rev 21:27There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
  • Lev 18:25–30The land was defiled: therefore I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out her inhabitants.
  • Lev 20:22“‘You shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them; that the land, where I am bringing you to dwell, may not vomit you out.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Ezekiel videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Ezekiel 33:26YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on EzekielMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 33:26 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.