Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity.
- KJV Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.
- NKJV ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.
- NASB Therefore as I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘Because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, I definitely will also withdraw and My eye will have no pity, and I also will not spare.
- NLT “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will cut you off completely. I will show you no pity at all because you have defiled my Temple with your vile images and detestable sins.
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
Because Jerusalem defiled God's sanctuary with idols, He will withdraw His pity and diminish her. Defiling worship provokes unsparing judgment.
Overview
The Lord swears by His own life that, because His temple was defiled with detestable idols, His eye will not spare. The defiling of holy worship is singled out as a chief offense provoking judgment. God's jealousy for the purity of His worship is fierce, and only the perfect, undefiled sacrifice of Christ can cleanse what sin has profaned.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 39
- Ezek 7:20His beautiful ornaments they transformed into pride and used them to fashion their vile images and detestable idols. Therefore I will make these into something unclean for them.
- Ezek 7:9I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow.
- Ezek 11:18When they return to it, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations.
- 2 Chr 36:14Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.
- Ezek 7:4I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’
- Ezek 8:5–6“Son of man,” He said to me, “now lift up your eyes to the north.” So I lifted up my eyes to the north, and in the entrance north of the Altar Gate I saw this idol of jealousy.
- Jer 7:9–11Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,
- Ezek 9:10But as for Me, I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. I will bring their deeds down upon their own heads.”
- Ezek 9:5And as I listened, He said to the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing; do not show pity or spare anyone!
- Jer 16:18And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”
- Ezek 8:16So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.
- Ezek 24:14I, the LORD, have spoken; the time is coming, and I will act. I will not refrain or show pity, nor will I relent. I will judge you according to your ways and deeds,’ declares the Lord GOD.”
- Ezek 8:18Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”
- Ezek 11:21But as for those whose hearts pursue detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”
- Lam 2:21Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.
- Deut 7:25–26You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God.
- 2 Kgs 21:4Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My Name.”
- Ezek 44:7In addition to all your other abominations, you brought in foreigners uncircumcised in both heart and flesh to occupy My sanctuary; you defiled My temple when you offered My food—the fat and the blood; you broke My covenant.
- Jer 10:24Correct me, O LORD, but only with justice—not in Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.
- Zech 11:6For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.”
- Rom 8:32He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
- Rom 11:12But if their trespass means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
- 2 Chr 33:7Manasseh even took the carved image he had made and set it up in the house of God, of which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever.
- Jer 32:34They have placed their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it.
- Ezek 29:15Egypt will be the lowliest of kingdoms and will never again exalt itself above the nations. For I will diminish Egypt so that it will never again rule over the nations.
- 2 Chr 33:4Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”
- Heb 6:13When God made His promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself,
- 2 Kgs 23:12He pulled down the altars that the kings of Judah had set up on the roof near the upper chamber of Ahaz, and the altars that Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD. The king pulverized them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.
- Num 14:28–35So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.
- Amos 8:7The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.
- Ezek 23:28For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Surely I will deliver you into the hands of those you hate, from whom you turned away in disgust.
- 2 Pet 2:4–5For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;
- Mal 3:17“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
- Jer 44:4Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’
- Ps 95:11So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”
- Rom 11:21For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will certainly not spare you either.
- 2 Kgs 21:7Manasseh even took the carved Asherah pole he had made and set it up in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever.
- Ps 107:39When they are decreased and humbled by oppression, evil, and sorrow,
- Deut 29:20The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven
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