Bible Strands
Ezekiel 16:23
Woe! Woe to you, declares the Lord GOD. And in addition to all your other wickedness,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD speaks through Ezekiel to Jerusalem, delivering this declaration immediately after listing her remembered abominations and before detailing her constructed shrines. The words — The Hebrew א֣וֹי ('o) appears twice, translating literally as "woe!" to signal imminent judgment. The thread — The text links to Ezekiel 2:10’s scroll containing words of lamentation and woe, while Jeremiah 13:27 pairs similar sexual metaphors with divine condemnation. Why it lands — The text states that new rebellion is layered over prior wickedness. This demands a reader to acknowledge cumulative guilt without excuse before facing the stated judgment.
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 it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord God;)
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 13:27 Your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution on the hills and in the fields—I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?”
- Ezekiel 2:10 which He unrolled before me. And written on the front and back of it were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.
- Ezekiel 13:3 This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit yet have seen nothing.
- Ezekiel 13:18 and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their wrists and make veils for the heads of people of every height, in order to ensnare their souls. Will you ensnare the souls of My people but preserve your own?
- Ezekiel 24:6 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents.
- Zephaniah 3:1 Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled!
- Matthew 11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
- Matthew 23:13 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- Revelation 8:13 And as I observed, I heard an eagle flying overhead, calling in a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the remaining three angels!”
- Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea; with great fury the devil has come down to you, knowing he has only a short time.”