“Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and by their deeds. Their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.
Parallel Translations
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“Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and by their deeds. Their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.
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Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.
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'Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings; their way before Me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 36:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 2:7 I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
- Numbers 35:33-34 “ ‘So you shall not pollute the land where you live; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, where I dwell; for I, Yahweh, dwell among the children of Israel.’ ”
- Micah 2:10 Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction.
- Leviticus 15:19-33 “ ‘If a woman has a discharge, and her discharge in her flesh is blood, she shall be in her impurity seven days. Whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. “ ‘Everything that she lies on in her impurity shall be unclean. Everything also that she sits on shall be unclean. Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. Whoever touches anything that she sits on shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. If it is on the bed, or on anything she sits on, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until the evening. “ ‘If any man lies with her, and her monthly flow is on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed he lies on shall be unclean. “ ‘If a woman has a discharge of her blood many days not in the time of her period, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her period, all the days of the discharge of her uncleanness shall be as in the days of her period. She is unclean. Every bed she lies on all the days of her discharge shall be to her as the bed of her period. Everything she sits on shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her period. Whoever touches these things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. “ ‘But if she is cleansed of her discharge, then she shall count to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. On the eighth day she shall take two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting. The priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her before Yahweh for the uncleanness of her discharge. “ ‘Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, so they will not die in their uncleanness when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.’ ” This is the law of him who has a discharge, and of him who has an emission of semen, so that he is unclean by it; and of her who has her period, and of a man or woman who has a discharge, and of him who lies with her who is unclean.
- Isaiah 24:5 The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.
- Jeremiah 16:18 First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”
- Leviticus 18:24-28 “ ‘Don’t defile yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled. The land was defiled. Therefore I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out her inhabitants. You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you (for the men of the land that were before you had done all these abominations, and the land became defiled), that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
- Psalms 106:37-38 Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood.
- Isaiah 64:6 For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
- Jeremiah 3:1-2 “They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh. “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
- Jeremiah 3:9 Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 36:17 Son of man, when the house of…
Eze 36:17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.
Ver. 17. When the house of Israel.] Ubique Scriptura vindicat gloriam Dei, maxime autem hoc loco. {a} This place of Scripture doth singularly set forth the glory of God’s grace, while it showeth that man’s destruction is wholly of himself, his help only of God.
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As the uncleanness.] As a menstruous clout, abhorred by all.
{a} Oecolamp.
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 In their own land; in fullness, case, and security,…
In their own land; in fullness, case, and security, as in days past they did.
They defiled it; brought in much sin and great guilt upon the land, i.e. on themselves who dwelt there, and sinned greatly.
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By their own way; leaving my law, despising my counsel, forsaking my worship and temple.
By their doings; by their carriage and practices in their whole conversation.
As the uncleanness, & c.; or as one excommunicate, and cut off from the congregation, because of some great sin. Or, since idolatry is so often compared to fornication and whoredom, possibly it may be here the filthiness of spiritual whoredom. I hated and loathed the filthiness of their ways, as I would the impurity of a whorish woman prostituting herself for gain. The word may include the reward of a whore, as it doth Eze 16:33.
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 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt…
Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land,.... The land of Canaan, which the Lord their God gave unto them; a land abounding with all good things, where they dwelt in great ease, plenty, and prosperity; and which also was a holy land, peculiarly chosen of God for his worship and service:
they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: by their sinful ways and evil works: sin is of a defiling nature; it defiles the bodies and souls of men; it defiles their own, and it defiles others; it defiles a land, and the inhabitants of it, and makes them loathsome and abominable to a pure and holy God:
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their way was before me, as the uncleanness of a removed woman: of a menstruous woman in the time of her separation; when she was debarred the company of her husband, and might not enter into the sanctuary of the Lord: this shows what an evil thing sin is, what an uncleanness it is in the sight of God, how abhorrent sinful ways are to him; and though he was the husband of these people, yet, because of their sins, he separated from them, and removed them from and out of their land, as not fit to be in his presence, nor to live there.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 17. When the house of Israel dwelt in…
Verse 17. When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land] Had they continued faithful to me, they had never been removed from it: but they polluted it with their crimes; and I abhorred the land on that account, and gave both them and it up to the destroyers.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Eze 36:17-19. When the house of Israel dwelt in…
Eze 36:17-19. When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land — In fulness of bread, ease, and security, as they did in days past; they defiled it — Rendered it abominable before God, and uncomfortable to themselves; by their own way and by their doings — By the way of their own choice, their wicked way, forsaking my law, despising my counsel, deserting my worship and temple; and by their unholy conversation and unrighteous practices. Their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman — As a woman under a legal pollution was forbidden to come within the courts of the temple, or to attend upon God’s worship there; so the defilements which the Jews had contracted by their idolatries, adulteries, murders, and other heinous sins, rendered them unfit to be acknowledged as God’s people, or to offer up any religious service to him. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them — These and their other sins were the true causes of the desolation of their country, and of all the miseries which they underwent, and not any thing in the land itself, as the heathen said, Eze 36:13. According to their doings I judged them — God frequently repeats that his judgments upon the Jews were no more than what their own ways or doings obliged him to inflict. There was in his dealings with them no arbitrary exercise of sovereignty, but they were dealt with according to their own conduct. And thus God deals with mankind in general: his actions, in regard to them, are not founded in an arbitrary exercise of his absolute sovereignty over them, but in impartial justice, wisdom, and goodness, and he judges them according to their own ways, and not according to the dictates of an arbitrary will.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain removed woman-- (Lev 15:19, &c.).
removed woman-- (Lev 15:19, &c.).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 16–23. Israel’s past history and the principles which it…
16–23. Israel’s past history and the principles which it illustrates
17. When in their own land the people defiled it with their doings. The land was “holy” being sanctified by Jehovah’s presence in it. The sins of the people, idolatry and bloodshed, desecrated it and made it unclean. Holy embraces “clean” under it, as the general does a particular, Jer_2:7; Lev_18:25. Ezek., however, seems to call all sins “uncleanness.” This way of speaking and thinking could hardly have arisen except under the influence of a law of ceremonial defilements (which were real defilements) and purifications.
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uncleanness of a removed] the uncleanness of a woman’s impurity. Lev_15:19. The comparison expresses the extreme of loathing, ch. Eze_7:20.
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 (17) They defiled it.—In Eze_36:17-20 the sin of Israel…
(17) They defiled it.—In Eze_36:17-20 the sin of Israel in the past is set forth as the reason of their present condition. “The land” is always regarded in Scripture as peculiarly consecrated to God, and defiled by the sin of the people. (Comp. Lev_18:28; Num_35:34.) The comparison is with a woman who has been set apart for uncleanness (Lev_15:19), who until her purification was not allowed to come into the sanctuary.
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 Their way was before me. Their ways and doings,…
Their way was before me. Their ways and doings, i.e. their violent deeds and idolatrous practices (ver. 18), were as morally loathsome in Jehovah"s sight as the uncleanness of a woman in her separation was materially disgusting. The comparison may have been derived from Isa_64:6, but was as likely to have been original, seeing Ezekiel was a priest-prophet, to whom the details of the Levitical Law must have been familiar. (comp. Eze_18:6; Lev_15:19)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 36:17 Covenant curses had come to Israel because God’s…
36:17 Covenant curses had come to Israel because God’s people had defiled . . . their own land by their sinful behavior. • A menstrual cloth became polluted by contact with a woman’s monthly flow of blood. This natural process was not sinful, but it was defiling in the same way that any loss of bodily life-fluids such as blood, sweat (see study note on 44:17-19), or semen made people ceremonially unclean (see Lev 15).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.