Bible Strands
Ezekiel 18:6
He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her period.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Ezekiel addresses the house of Israel to delineate the concrete behaviors that define a righteous man within a broader discourse on personal accountability.
The words — אָכָל ('a.Khal) translates literally to "he has eaten," and נָשָׂא (na.Sa') means "he has lifted up," denoting the physical acts of consuming idolatrous offerings and directing one's gaze toward false gods.
The thread — The text's prohibition against eating at high places and lifting up eyes to idols recurs in Ezekiel 18:15, parallels the warning in Deuteronomy 4:19 against worshiping celestial hosts, and connects to the judgment scene in Ezekiel 6:13 where slain idolaters lie near high-altar shrines.
Why it lands — The passage requires readers to abandon pagan worship and sexual impurity as measurable indicators of a life that fulfills justice rather than defies it.
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 hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour’s wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman,
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 18:15 He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife.
- Deuteronomy 4:19 When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
- Ezekiel 6:13 Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.
- Ezekiel 18:11 though the father has done none of them: Indeed, the son eats at the mountain and defiles his neighbor’s wife.
- Ezekiel 20:24 For they did not practice My ordinances, but they rejected My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, fixing their eyes on the idols of their fathers.
- Ezekiel 22:9 Among you are slanderous men bent on bloodshed; within you are those who eat on the mountain shrines and commit acts of indecency.
- Leviticus 20:10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.
- Leviticus 20:18 If a man lies with a menstruating woman and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from among their people.
- Numbers 25:2 who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.
- Exodus 34:15 Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.