Bible Strands
Ezekiel 24:12
It has frustrated every effort; its thick rust has not been removed, even by the fire.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through Ezekiel to the exiled community, using the allegory of a boiling pot to describe Jerusalem’s impending siege. The oracle declares that purification efforts have failed before the city’s judgment is complete.
The words — חֶלְאָתָ֔הּ (chel.'a.Tah) translates as "its rust," while תְּאֻנִ֖ים (te'unim) means "toils" or "efforts." The text states that these toils have been exhausted without removing the hardened corruption.
The thread — Jeremiah 5:3, Jeremiah 9:5, and Jeremiah 2:13 trace a consistent pattern of Israel’s refusal to respond to divine correction. The prophet links Jerusalem’s stubbornness to a broader biblical theme of unrepentant rebellion.
Why it lands — The passage demands a clear-eyed assessment of entrenched sin that resists all cleansing attempts. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine wrath must run its course before restoration becomes possible.
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
She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum shall be in the fire.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 5:3 O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
- Jeremiah 9:5 Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.
- Jeremiah 2:13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
- Jeremiah 51:58 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Babylon’s thick walls will be leveled, and her high gates consumed by fire. So the labor of the people will be for nothing; the nations will exhaust themselves to fuel the flames.”
- Daniel 9:13 Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquities and giving attention to Your truth.
- Habakkuk 2:13 Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?
- Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.
- Genesis 8:21 When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
- Isaiah 1:5 Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.
- Isaiah 47:13 You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you—your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate.