Bible Strands
Ezekiel 33:26
You have relied on your swords, you have committed detestable acts, and each of you has defiled his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Ezekiel to the exiled Israelites, confronting their false confidence in the wake of Jerusalem’s destruction.
The words — עֲמַדְתֶּ֤ם ('a.mad.Tem) literally means "you have stood," and תּוֹעֵבָ֔ה (to.'e.Vah) translates as "abomination."
The thread — The pattern of violent self-reliance and covenant violation appears in Genesis 27:40, Micah 2:1, and Zephaniah 3:3.
Why it lands — The text states that reliance on weapons, idolatry, and sexual immorality directly nullifies any claim to possess the land, requiring the reader to abandon self-justification and face the stated consequences.
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
Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour’s wife: and shall ye possess the land?
Cross-references
- Genesis 27:40 You shall live by the sword and serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will tear his yoke from your neck.”
- Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
- Zephaniah 3:3 Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning.
- Leviticus 18:25 Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.
- Leviticus 20:13 If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
- Leviticus 20:22 You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
- Deuteronomy 4:25 After you have children and grandchildren and you have been in the land a long time, if you then act corruptly and make an idol of any form—doing evil in the sight of the LORD your God and provoking Him to anger—
- Deuteronomy 29:18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,
- Joshua 23:15 But just as every good thing the LORD your God promised you has come to pass, likewise the LORD will bring upon you the calamity He has threatened, until He has destroyed you from this good land He has given you.
- 1 Samuel 2:30 Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.