Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.
Parallel translations
- WEB On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
- BSB On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.
- 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 16:16And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
- Ezek 23:41And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.
- Jer 2:20For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.
- Ezek 20:28–29For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.
- Jer 3:6The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
- Ezek 16:25Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.
- Jer 3:2Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
- Ezek 23:17And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.
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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.