Bible Strands
Ezekiel 16:14
Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in the splendor I bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD declares this to the allegorical bride of Jerusalem at the height of her divinely orchestrated prosperity, immediately preceding the account of her spiritual adultery.
The words — שֵׁם (shem) translates literally as "name" or "fame," and כָּלִיל (ka.Lil) means "[was] perfect," establishing that her renown and flawless appearance were entirely supplied by God.
The thread — This motif of divinely granted renown reaching the nations appears in Deuteronomy 4:6 and 1 Kings 10:24, while its reversal is recorded in Lamentations 2:15 as scorn from passersby.
Why it lands — The text asserts that Israel’s exalted status originated solely from divine provision, requiring the reader to recognize that subsequent pride and corruption stem from rejecting that source.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 10:24 The whole world sought an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.
- Lamentations 2:15 All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- Deuteronomy 4:6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
- 1 Corinthians 4:7 For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
- Deuteronomy 4:32 Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?
- Joshua 2:9 and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you.
- Joshua 9:6 They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant land; please make a treaty with us.”
- 1 Kings 10:1 Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with difficult questions.
- 2 Chronicles 2:11 Then Hiram king of Tyre wrote a letter in reply to Solomon: “Because the LORD loves His people, He has set you over them as king.”
- 2 Chronicles 9:23 All the kings of the earth sought an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.