Bible Strands
Ezekiel 5:11
Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks to Israel through Ezekiel immediately after declaring the coming cannibalism and scattering of the remnant. He pronounces judgment at the precise moment of covenant rupture for defiling His sanctuary.
The words — חַי־ (chai-) and אָ֗נִי ('A.ni) combine in the oath formula "as surely as I live." נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה (ne.'Um 'a.do.Nai Yah.weh) literally renders "utterance of the Lord Yahweh."
The thread — This declaration of withdrawn divine favor and unmitigated judgment echoes the covenant curses in Leviticus 26:33 and Deuteronomy 31:17. The pattern of God abandoning a defiled sanctuary also appears in Jeremiah 7:15 and Psalm 78:60.
Why it lands — The text states that idolatry directly causes God to cease pity and spare the people. It demands a reader recognize that covenant privilege ends when worship becomes detestable.
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
Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 7:20 His beautiful ornaments they transformed into pride and used them to fashion their vile images and detestable idols. Therefore I will make these into something unclean for them.
- 2 Chronicles 36:14 Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.
- Jeremiah 7:9 Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,
- Ezekiel 7:4 I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’
- Ezekiel 7:9 I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow.
- Ezekiel 8:5 “Son of man,” He said to me, “now lift up your eyes to the north.” So I lifted up my eyes to the north, and in the entrance north of the Altar Gate I saw this idol of jealousy.
- Ezekiel 11:18 When they return to it, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations.
- Jeremiah 16:18 And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”
- Lamentations 2:21 Both young and old lie together in the dust of the streets. My young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have slaughtered them without compassion.
- Ezekiel 8:16 So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.