Bible Strands
Ezekiel 16:26
You prostituted yourself with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians, and increased your promiscuity to provoke Me to anger.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses Jerusalem, portrayed as an unfaithful wife, during a prophetic indictment of her idolatry and foreign alliances. The oracle confronts her recent political and spiritual turn toward Egypt.
The words — The Hebrew verb תִּזְנִי (tiz.Ni) means "you acted as a prostitute," applied to the nation's covenant-breaking alliances. The phrase גִדְלֵי בָשָׂר (gid.Lei va.Sar) literally translates to "those growing in flesh," describing the Egyptians, while תַּרְבִּי (tar.Bi) means "you increased," marking a deliberate escalation.
The thread — This pattern of pursuing foreign alliances and engaging in idolatrous worship recurs in Ezekiel 20:7, Ezekiel 23:19, and Exodus 32:4.
Why it lands — The text states that seeking security through hostile nations and their gods is an active provocation of divine anger. It requires the reader to acknowledge that escalating such compromises demands judgment rather than delivering protection.
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
Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 23:19 Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt
- Ezekiel 20:7 And I said to them: ‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’
- Exodus 32:4 He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
- Deuteronomy 29:16 For you yourselves know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we passed through the nations on the way here.
- Joshua 24:14 Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
- Isaiah 30:21 And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”
- Jeremiah 7:18 The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.
- Ezekiel 8:10 So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel.
- Ezekiel 8:14 Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.
- Ezekiel 8:17 “Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose!