On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.
Parallel translations
- WEB On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
- KJV Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.
- NKJV “Ona lofty and high mountain You have set your bed; Even there you went up To offer sacrifice.
- NASB “On a high and lofty mountain You have made your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
- NLT You have committed adultery on every high mountain. There you have worshiped idols and have been unfaithful to me.
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
They set their bed of idolatry on a high mountain and went up to offer sacrifices there. It matters because it pictures spiritual adultery committed openly on the pagan high places.
Overview
Using marriage-bed imagery, the prophet depicts idol worship on the 'high and lofty mountain' as brazen unfaithfulness to God. The high places were notorious sites of illicit worship throughout Israel's history. The verse continues the portrayal of idolatry as adultery against the LORD, the faithful husband of His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ezek 16:16You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred!
- Ezek 23:41You sat on a couch of luxury with a table spread before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil,
- Jer 2:20“For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.
- Ezek 20:28–29When I brought them into the land that I swore to give them and they saw any high hill or leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, presented offerings that provoked Me, sent up their fragrant incense, and poured out their drink offerings.
- Jer 3:6Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.
- Ezek 16:25At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.
- Jer 3:2“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
- Ezek 23:17Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. But after she had been defiled by them, she turned away in disgust.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 57:7 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.