Bible Strands
Ezekiel 16:44
Behold, all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Ezekiel to Jerusalem, portrayed as an unfaithful daughter, immediately after declaring that her past deeds will be brought upon her own head.
The words — The Hebrew כְּאִמָּהּ בִּתָּהּ (ke-'immah bi-ttāh) literally means "like her mother, her daughter," forming the core of the cited proverb.
The thread — This proverbial pattern of inherited conduct appears in Ezekiel 18:2 regarding sour grapes, 1 Samuel 24:13 on wickedness proceeding from the wicked, and Psalms 106:35 concerning the adoption of foreign customs.
Why it lands — The text states that Jerusalem’s corruption directly mirrors her mother’s lineage, requiring the reader to acknowledge the unbroken continuity of her actions without attributing blame elsewhere.
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
Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 18:2 “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge’?
- 1 Samuel 24:13 As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand will never be against you.
- Psalms 106:35 but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.
- Ezekiel 16:3 and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
- Ezra 9:1 After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.
- 1 Kings 21:16 And when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.
- 2 Kings 17:11 They burned incense on all the high places like the nations that the LORD had driven out before them. They did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger.
- 2 Kings 17:15 They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.
- 2 Kings 21:9 But the people did not listen and Manasseh led them astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
- Ezekiel 16:45 You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.