They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there.
Parallel Translations
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They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there.
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And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
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and they committed harlotries in Egypt; they committed harlotries in their youth; there were their bosoms pressed, and there their virgin breasts were bruised.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 23:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Leviticus 17:7 They shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat idols, after which they play the prostitute. This shall be a statute forever to them throughout their generations.’
- Joshua 24:14 “Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 16:22 In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and were wallowing in your blood.
- Deuteronomy 29:16 (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the middle of the nations through which you passed;
- Ezekiel 20:8 “ ‘ “But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me. They didn’t all throw away the abominations of their eyes. They also didn’t forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the middle of the land of Egypt.
- Ezekiel 23:8 She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her. They caressed her youthful nipples; and they poured out their prostitution on her.
- Ezekiel 23:19 Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.
- Ezekiel 23:21 Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the caressing of your nipples by the Egyptians because of your youthful breasts.
- Hosea 2:15 I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain They became idolaters after the manner of the Egyptians.
They became idolaters after the manner of the Egyptians.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 23:3 And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they…
Eze 23:3 And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
Ver. 3. And they committed whoredoms in Egypt.] See Eze 20:8 Jos 24:14.
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They committed whoredoms in their youth.] Like the strumpet Quartilla in Petronius, who said, Iunonem ego meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse. {a}
There were their breasts pressed.] Violatam virginitatem mammarum laxitas consequitur.
{a} Petron. Satyricon.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain They committed whoredoms in Egypt; when they came down…
They committed whoredoms in Egypt; when they came down into Egypt, and sojourned there: possibly they might commit bodily whoredoms, but spiritual whoredoms, i.e. idolatry, they did certainly commit, as appears Jos 24:14; Eze 20:7,8, which see; in a low condition, by converse with the idolatrous Egyptians they fell in with their idolatry.
In their youth; early; though it is no where said when they began, yet by this it appears that it was not long after their coming down into Egypt.
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There were their breasts pressed: this and what follows is an allusion, which illustrates what was before spoken; while they were constant to God and his worship, they were as beautiful, chaste, and lovely virgins; when seduced to idolatry, they became as loathsome harlots or strumpets.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And they committed whoredoms in Egypt,.... When they were…
And they committed whoredoms in Egypt,.... When they were but one body, one nation; and while they sojourned as strangers in that land they learned and practised the idolatries of it, Jos 24:14, and so the Targum,
"and they erred in Egypt, after the worship of their idols they erred, and there they corrupted their works:''
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they committed whoredoms in their youth; as soon as they were come out of Egypt, and were formed into a political and ecclesiastical state, had the law of God given them, and promised obedience to him, and were espoused by him, which times are called the days of their youth and espousal, Jer 2:2, and then were they guilty of whoredom, or spiritual adultery, which idolatry, in making and worshipping the golden calf, after the manner of Egypt; and in joining themselves to Baalpeor, the god of the Moabites, Exo 32:1;
there were their breasts pressed, there they bruised the teats of their virginity; that is, the Egyptians, who drew them into idolatry, and with whom they committed it; which is expressed by the actions of adulterous persons, suggesting that, before this, they were as chaste and pure virgins to God, adhered to his worship, and served him only, and were not defiled with the superstition and idolatry of the Heathens: or, "they made (l) the teats or paps of their virginity"; that is, made them swell and increase, being impregnated by them, and their idolatry completed; or to move and heave being pressed.
(l) "fecerant mammas", Starckius; "fecerent ut earam mammae agrerent", Gussetius; "sese commovendo scilicet, in contentione libidinis aestuantes, et pectoris anheli reciprocationem sequentes", ib. p. 652. "ibi subagitarunt ubera virginum", Coeccius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Whoredoms - Idolatry.
Whoredoms - Idolatry.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Fornication. That is, idolatry. (Challoner) --- Down. Virgins used…
Fornication. That is, idolatry. (Challoner) --- Down. Virgins used the stomacher, or (Haydock) fascia pectoralis, Isaias iii. 24. This chapter resembles the 16th. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Even so early in their history as their Egyptian…
Even so early in their history as their Egyptian sojourn, they committed idolatries (see on Eze 20:6-8; Jos 24:14).
in their youth--an aggravation of their sin. It was at the very time of their receiving extraordinary favors from God (Eze 16:6, Eze 16:22).
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they bruised--namely, the Egyptians.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. They committed whoredoms in Egypt — It is…
3. They committed whoredoms in Egypt — It is plain from this that Ezekiel knew that Israel had broken faith with the one God in Goshen. Baethgen has convincingly proved that Kuenen’s idea of an original Hebrew polytheism has not the slightest foundation. He shows that when the prophets were battling for monotheism they were not striving for a new thing, but for the ancient imperishable treasure which the nation did not prize and revere enough. Moses and the prophets, as little as Jesus, wished to proclaim a new God. They only revealed another phase of the character and will of the “Ancient of Days.” “As far back as Israelitish history can be followed into the past the legitimate worship of Israel was the worship of the one God, and the worship of other gods was regarded as an apostasy.” (See Baethgen, Der Gott Israels und die Gotter der Heiden, 1888.)
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. The two kingdoms are represented ideally as already…
3. The two kingdoms are represented ideally as already existing in Egypt. This is not so far from the truth. The great tribes of Judah and Ephraim from the first stood apart, and in their attitude there lay already the germs of the two kingdoms, as appears in the song of Deborah. On the idea of the prophet that idolatry was practised in Egypt, cf. ch. Eze_20:8, Eze_16:26.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) In Egypt.—The idolatries of Israel in Egypt have…
(3) In Egypt.—The idolatries of Israel in Egypt have already been spoken of in the Note to Eze_20:8. (See also Eze_23:19 below.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 23:3 They became prostitutes by worshiping false gods.
23:3 They became prostitutes by worshiping false gods.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.