Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Ezekiel to the house of Israel during the prophetic pronouncement of imminent national collapse. The declaration follows the warning that their silver and gold will be cast into the streets and rendered useless against divine wrath.
The words — `גָּאֹן` (ga'on) = pride, and `תוֹעֲבֹתָם` (to'avotam) = their abominations. The text records how the people took the beauty of sacred objects and redirected it toward the construction of detestable idols.
The thread — This pattern of misdirected holiness and subsequent profanation appears in Ezekiel 24:21, Jeremiah 7:30, and Isaiah 64:11, where sacred items and the temple are actively desecrated or reduced to ruins as a direct consequence of covenant violation.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that material wealth and religious artifacts cannot avert judgment when repurposed for rebellion. It requires the reader to accept that divine defilement of holy things is a deliberate judicial act, not a passive loss.
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
As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 24:21 Tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I am about to desecrate My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul. And the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword.’
- Jeremiah 7:30 For the people of Judah have done evil in My sight, declares the LORD. They have set up their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it.
- Isaiah 64:11 Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.
- Ezekiel 8:7 Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.
- Ezekiel 8:15 “Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.”
- Ezekiel 9:7 Then He told them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city.
- 2 Kings 21:4 Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My Name.”
- 2 Kings 21:7 Manasseh even took the carved Asherah pole he had made and set it up in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever.
- 2 Kings 23:11 And he removed from the entrance to the house of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the chamber of an official named Nathan-melech. And Josiah burned up the chariots of the sun.
- 1 Chronicles 29:1 Then King David said to the whole assembly, “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great because this palace is not for man, but for the LORD God.