Bible Strands
Ezekiel 23:48
So I will put an end to indecency in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your behavior.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel to the personified cities of Samaria and Jerusalem during an oracle condemning their idolatrous alliances and sexual immorality. The declaration immediately follows the description of their coming violent execution and destruction.
The words — The Hebrew verb הִשְׁבַּתִּי (hish.ba.Ti) means "I will cause to cease," paired with זִמָּה (zi.Mah), rendered literally as "licentiousness" or "indecency." This lexical pairing establishes a definitive divine termination of the condemned behavior.
The thread — This theme of ending indecency recurs in Ezekiel 23:27, where God resolves to stop the prostitution that began in Egypt, and echoes Ezekiel 16:41, which promises the burning of houses and judgment before many women. The motif of national purification through judicial intervention also appears in Ezekiel 6:6.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine judgment removes corrupt patterns and issues a public warning to prevent imitation. It requires the reader to accept that idolatry and immorality trigger conclusive divine intervention rather than mere correction.
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
Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 6:6 Wherever you live, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works blotted out.
- Ezekiel 16:41 Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgment against you in the sight of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will never again pay your lovers.
- Ezekiel 23:27 So I will put an end to your indecency and prostitution, which began in the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’
- 2 Peter 2:6 if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;
- Deuteronomy 13:11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.
- Isaiah 26:9 My soul longs for You in the night; indeed, my spirit seeks You at dawn. For when Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.
- Ezekiel 5:15 So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.
- Ezekiel 22:15 I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you throughout the lands; I will purge your uncleanness.
- Ezekiel 36:25 I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.
- Micah 5:11 I will remove the cities of your land and tear down all your strongholds.