Bible Strands
Ezekiel 16:8
Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord GOD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — YHWH speaks directly to Jerusalem, personified as a woman, recounting the moment He chose her and bound Himself to her in covenant. This is the turning point in a longer allegorical speech (Ezek 16:1–63) tracing Israel's history from abandonment to unfaithfulness.
The words — דֹּדִים (dôdîm) is the plural of dôd, an intimate term for love or beloved, rare in the OT and here rendered "old enough for love." The construction עִתֵּךְ עֵת דֹּדִים ("your time [was] a time of love") frames the choice as timed, not arbitrary.
The thread — The gesture of spreading a garment over a woman echoes Ruth 3:9, where Ruth asks Boaz to "spread the corner of your garment over me," invoking the same protective claim. Jeremiah 2:2 recalls "the devotion of your youth" in similar terms of a first love, and Romans 5:8 generalizes the principle: God acts toward the undeserving.
Why it lands — The verse presents covenant as a unilateral act: God initiates, pledges, and claims; the woman contributes nothing but her nakedness and her age. It asks the reader to hold that the bond is not a reward for beauty or maturity but a decision made by the one who passed by.
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
Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.
Cross-references
- Ruth 3:9 “Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she replied. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, for you are a kinsman-redeemer.”
- Jeremiah 2:2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
- Romans 5:8 But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
- Isaiah 43:4 Because you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and nations in place of your life.
- Exodus 32:13 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”
- Exodus 19:4 ‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.
- Deuteronomy 4:31 For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.
- Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.
- 1 Samuel 12:22 Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own.
- Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.