‘Speak to the house of Israel, “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.
Parallel Translations
-
‘Speak to the house of Israel, “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.
-
Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall fall by the sword.
-
Speak unto the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I will profane My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the longing of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left behind shall fall by the sword.
Cross-references (21)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 24:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 23:47 The company will stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.
- Psalms 27:4 One thing I have asked of Yahweh, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in Yahweh’s house all the days of my life, to see Yahweh’s beauty, and to inquire in his temple.
- Jeremiah 7:14 therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
- Ezekiel 23:25 I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will take away your nose and your ears. Your remnant will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and the rest of you will be devoured by the fire.
- Psalms 84:1 How lovely are your dwellings, Yahweh of Armies!
- Jeremiah 6:11 Therefore I am full of Yahweh’s wrath. I am weary with holding it in. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife will be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.
- Jeremiah 16:3-4 For Yahweh says concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became their father in this land: “They will die grievous deaths. They will not be lamented, neither will they be buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and by famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.”
- Lamentations 2:6-7 He has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. In the indignation of his anger, he has despised the king and the priest. The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in Yahweh’s house, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
- Ezekiel 24:16 “Son of man, behold, I will take away from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke: yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down.
- Psalms 74:7 They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.
- Psalms 79:1 God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
- Psalms 96:6 Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
- Psalms 105:4 Seek Yahweh and his strength. Seek his face forever more.
- Psalms 132:8 Arise, Yahweh, into your resting place, you, and the ark of your strength.
- Isaiah 65:11 “But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to Destiny;
- Jeremiah 9:21 For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
- Lamentations 1:10 The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
- Ezekiel 7:20-22 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein. Therefore I have made it to them as an unclean thing. I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a plunder; and they will profane it. I will also turn my face from them, and they will profane my secret place. Robbers will enter into it, and profane it.
- Ezekiel 9:7 He said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” They went out, and struck in the city.
- Daniel 11:31 “Forces will stand on his part, and they will profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and will take away the continual burnt offering. Then they will set up the abomination that makes desolate.
- Acts 6:13-14 and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Wherein you boast and delight.
Wherein you boast and delight.
By sending the Chaldeans to destroy it, as Ezek. 7:22.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 24:21 Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus…
Eze 24:21 Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall fall by the sword.
Ver. 21. Behold, I will profane my sanctuary.] I will put it into the hands of profane persons to be spoiled and polluted, for a punishment of your manifold pollutions of it.
Read full note →
The excellency of your strength.] The Jews had too high a conceit of, and did put too much confidence in, their temple, which therefore they called, as here, the "excellency of their strength," the "desire of their eyes," and that which their soul pitied, animarum indulgentiam. "The temple of the Lord!" they cried; but the Lord of the temple they cared not for. {Jer 7:4}
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 Now he is commissioned to declare the meaning of…
Now he is commissioned to declare the meaning of that he did.
Speak unto the house of Israel; to them at Babylon by word of mouth, but to them at Jerusalem by letter, or messenger.
Read full note →
Profane my sanctuary; cast off, and put into the hands of heathens, who will regard it no more than any other common building, though it is and hath been long my sanctuary; but you, O Jews, first profaned it with your sins, and now, in my just displeasure against you, I will suffer it to be profaned by the Chaldeans.
The excellency of your strength; so it was whilst God’s presence was there, and whilst the Jews kept it undefiled; it was their confidence, and they trusted in it, though they were fallen from God, Jer 7.
The desire of your eyes; as much your desire as my wife was mine, saith the prophet, most dear to you, as she to me, but this shall be burnt.
Your sons and your daughters; the children which survive to you after these grievous calamities, and in whom you hoped for comfort and posterity, shall die by the conqueror’s sword too, Eze 23:47.
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 ye shall do as I have done,.... When…
And ye shall do as I have done,.... When his wife died, and as he was ordered by the Lord; the meaning of Which they were now inquiring:
ye shall not cover your lips; as a token of mourning; nor use any other of their country rites and ceremonies, for fear of provoking their enemies, in whose hands they shall be:
Read full note →
nor eat the bread of men; or "of mourners", as the Targum; there shall be none to comfort them, or send bread to them; they shall all be alike mourners.
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 Profane - Cast off, and put into the hands…
Profane - Cast off, and put into the hands of Heathens. The excellency of your strength - So it was while God's presence was there. The desire - As much your desire, as my wife was mine; most dear to you.
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 Profane, or esteem it no more, (Haydock) but abandon…
Profane, or esteem it no more, (Haydock) but abandon it to the Gentiles. (Calmet) --- Feareth to lose; or on which it rests, ver. 25. (Haydock)
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 excellency of your strength--(compare Amo 6:8). The object of…
excellency of your strength--(compare Amo 6:8). The object of your pride and confidence (Jer 7:4, Jer 7:10, Jer 7:14).
desire of . . . eyes-- (Psa 27:4). The antitype to Ezekiel's wife (Eze 24:16).
Read full note →
pitieth--loveth, as pity is akin to love: "yearned over."
Profane--an appropriate word. They had profaned the temple with idolatry; God, in just retribution, will profane it with the Chaldean sword, that is, lay it in the dust, as Ezekiel's wife.
sons . . . daughters . . . left--the children left behind in Judea, when the parents were carried away.
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 21. I will profane my sanctuary — The prophet’s…
21. I will profane my sanctuary — The prophet’s wife symbolizes Jehovah’s sanctuary, and what the desire of his eyes was to Ezekiel that the temple was to Jehovah and to Israel. No thought of woman in ancient or modern literature is more noble than this. All of these expressions show not only what the temple was to the Israelites, but what his wife was to Ezekiel. Among no other ancient people was the home so sacred that such comparisons could have been properly made. As to the light which this chapter throws upon the character of Ezekiel see introduction to chapter and general Introduction, “Ezekiel’s Personality.”
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 21. excellency of your strength] i.e. your proud boast,…
21. excellency of your strength] i.e. your proud boast, or, your boasted stronghold (Eze_24:25). The temple is referred to.
that which … pitieth] Or, spareth, i.e. holds dear, Eze_36:21; Job_20:13.
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 (21) Profane my sanctuary.—Not merely by its destruction, but…
(21) Profane my sanctuary.—Not merely by its destruction, but by the manner of its destruction, the Gentiles being allowed to enter its most sacred precincts, and carry off in triumph its sacred vessels and treasures. It was in the confidence that God would protect this that the last hope of the Jews lay; He tells them that He will Himself profane it.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The desire of your eyes. There is something exquisitely…
The desire of your eyes. There is something exquisitely pathetic in the iteration of the phrase of Ver. 17. To the priest Ezekiel himself, to the people whom he addressed, the temple was as dear as the wife to the husband. It was also "the pride of their power" (Revised Version), the "pity of their soul" (margin). The former phrase comes from Lev_26:19. When that temple should be profaned, when sons and daughters should fall by the sword, then they would do as the prophet had done. They would learn that there is a sorrow which is too deep for tears, something that passeth show. The state which the prophet describes is not one of callousness, or impenitence, or despair. The people shall mourn for their iniquities;" this will be the beginning of repentance. Lev_26:39, 40 was obviously in the prophet"s thoughts. We note that Ver. 24 is the one solitary passage since Eze_1:3 in which Ezekiel names himself. As single acts and gestures had before (Eze_4:1-12) been a sign of what was coming, so now the man himself was to be in that hour of bereavement.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.