Bible Strands
Ezekiel 22:11
One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Ezekiel addresses the inhabitants of Jerusalem during a period of national moral collapse, cataloging their specific covenant violations.
The words — The text uses תּוֹעֵבָה (toʿēḇāh), meaning "abomination," to describe a man's act with his neighbor's wife, paired with עָשָׂה (ʿāśāh), "he has done," to mark the deliberate execution of the act.
The thread — The violations against a daughter-in-law and a sister parallel the prohibitions in Leviticus 18:15 and Leviticus 18:9, while Leviticus 20:17 explicitly reiterates the sister prohibition.
Why it lands — The passage requires recognition of three distinct, deliberate sexual transgressions before the broader indictment of financial exploitation and spiritual abandonment in the surrounding verses.
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 one hath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 18:9 You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
- Leviticus 18:15 You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her.
- Leviticus 20:17 If a man marries his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister; he shall bear his iniquity.
- 2 Samuel 13:14 But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her.
- Leviticus 18:20 You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.
- 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 20:12 If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them.
- Ezekiel 18:11 though the father has done none of them: Indeed, the son eats at the mountain and defiles his neighbor’s wife.
- Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
- Deuteronomy 27:22 ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’