Bible Strands
Ezekiel 7:21
And I will hand these things over as plunder to foreigners and loot to the wicked of the earth, who will defile them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through the prophet Ezekiel to the house of Israel during the climax of chapter 7's judgment oracle. The declaration follows God's statement that He will render the temple's sacred ornaments unclean for their idolatry.
The words — The Hebrew verb נְתַתִּי (neṯattî) means "I will give" or "I will hand over," paired with the noun שָׁלָל (shālāl), literally "plunder." These terms frame the divine action as a deliberate transfer of possession to hostile forces.
The thread — This motif of sacred objects becoming plunder for foreigners appears in 2 Kings 24:13 and 2 Kings 25:9, where Babylonian forces remove temple treasures and burn Jerusalem's buildings. The loss of a purchased inheritance is echoed in Psalms 74:2, which recalls Zion as God's treasured congregation now under threat.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that idolatry forfeits divine protection and turns consecrated things into objects of profanation. It requires the reader to confront the concrete consequence of treating holiness as a tool for pride.
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
And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 24:13 As the LORD had declared, Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the treasures from the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD.
- Psalms 74:2 Remember Your congregation, which You purchased long ago and redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance—Mount Zion, where You dwell.
- 2 Kings 25:9 He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.
- 2 Kings 25:13 Moreover, the Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars and stands and the bronze Sea in the house of the LORD, and they carried the bronze to Babylon.
- 2 Chronicles 36:18 who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king and his officials.
- Psalms 79:1 A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
- Jeremiah 52:13 He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.