Ezekiel 15:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, says the Lord Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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מַ֔עַל

maʻal

H4604

“treachery”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 28× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Leviticus 5:15

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H4603

TWOT: 1230a

unfaithful or treacherous act, trespass - against man - against God

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

10: words
10: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מַ֔עַל treachery H4604 occurs in 28 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
6 nouns
1 conjunction
1 particle

Verb forms

וְנָתַתִּ֥י Qal · Sequential Perfect
מָ֣עֲלוּ Qal · Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 10 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Ezekiel 15:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Ezekiel 6:14 I will stretch out my hand on them, and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations: and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
2 Chronicles 36:14–16 Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Yahweh which he had made holy in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 6:11 Then I said, "Lord, how long?" He answered, "Until cities are waste without inhabitant, And houses without man, And the land becomes utterly waste,
Isaiah 24:3–12 The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this word.
Jeremiah 25:10–11 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.
Ezekiel 14:13–21 Son of man, when a land sins against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand on it, and break the staff of the bread of it, and send famine on it, and cut off from it man and animal;
Ezekiel 17:20 I will spread my net on him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.
Ezekiel 33:29 Then shall they know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed.

Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh's wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Ezekiel 15:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְנָתַתִּ֥י אֶת הָאָ֖רֶץ שְׁמָמָ֑ה יַ֚עַן מָ֣עֲלוּ מַ֔עַל נְאֻ֖ם אֲדֹנָ֥י יְהוִֽה

I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, says the Lord Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Ezekiel 15:8 Septuagint · lemma form

καί δίδωμι ὁ γῆ εἰς ἀφανισμός ἀντί ὅς παραπίπτω παράπτωμα λέγω κύριος

And I will give up the land to ruin, because they have utterly transgressed, says the Lord.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וְאֶתֵּן יַת אַרְעָא לְצָדוּ חֲלַף דִשְׁקָרוּ שְׁקַר אֲמַר יְיָ אֱלֹהִים:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Ezekiel 15:8 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Eze 15:8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 8. And I will make the land desolate.] The land itself often suffereth, propter incolarum inemendabilem malitiam, "for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." {Psa 107:4} Idolatry especially is a land desolating sin.

Because they have committed a trespass.] A grand trespass, a wickedness with a witness; they have deeply revolted, and backslidden with a perpetual backsliding. Apostates, as they sin not common sins, so, with Korah and his complices, they die not common deaths many times.

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.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

15:8 unfaithful: See 6:9; 16:17; Hos 2. Jerusalem had gone after idols instead of faithfully serving the true God. Such behavior broke the covenant between the Lord and his people, with the inevitable result that the land would become desolate.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

trespass--rather, "they have perversely fallen into perverse rebellion." The Jews were not merely sinners as the other nations, but revolters and apostates. It is one thing to neglect what we know not, but quite another thing to despise what we profess to worship [JEROME], as the Jews did towards God and the law.

(1) Taken up by God's gratuitous favor from infancy (Eze 16:1-7); (2) and, when grown up, joined to Him in spiritual marriage (Eze 16:8-14); (3) her unfaithfulness, her sin (Eze. 16:15-34); (4) the judgment (Eze. 16:35-52); (5) her unlooked-for restoration (Eze 16:53 to the close).

Next: Ezekiel Chapter 16

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 8. They have committed a trespass] They have prevaricated; they are the worst of sinners, and shall have the heaviest of punishments. Can men suppose that it is possible to hide even their dark hearts from God?

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

8. The figure of “burning” in the fire is expressed in literal language: the land shall be made a desolation. Like his predecessor Jeremiah, the prophet sets little store by the existence of Israel as a state or kingdom among other states. Israel’s mission is religious, not political. See on ch. Eze_13:3.

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Desolate: see Eze 6:14.

A trespass; not one single trespass, but they have been so perpetually trespassing that it seemed a continued act, and all done with greatest aggravation.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

8. A trespass — Literally, unfaithfulness. “The phrase means they have been shamefully treacherous.” — Cowles.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Because - They have been so perpetually trespassing, that it seems a continued act.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Ezekiel, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 10 words (10 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is maʻal (“treachery”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “treachery” (maʻal) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Leviticus 5:15, which shares the word «treachery», read alongside this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«וְנָתַתִּ֥י» is a Qal Sequential Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 10 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
10 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.