Ezekiel 23:13

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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נִטְמָ֑אָה

ṭâmêʼ

H2930

“to be unclean”

Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular

Appears 162× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 34:5

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 809

to be unclean, become unclean, become impure - (Qal) to be or become unclean - sexually - religiously - ceremonially - (Niphal) - to defile oneself, be defiled - sexually - by idolatry - ceremonially - to be regarded as unclean - (Piel) - to defile - sexually - religiously - ceremonially - to pronounce unclean, declare unclean (ceremonially) - to profane (God's name) - (Pual) to be defiled - (Hithpael) to be unclean - (Hothpael) to be defiled

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 →

6: words
6: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
1 noun
2 adjectives
1 conjunction

Verb forms

וָאֵ֖רֶא Qal · Sequential Imperfect
נִטְמָ֑אָה Niphal · Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 11 words from the Hebrew and 13 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 6 Hebrew tokens and 8 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 23:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

2 Kings 17:18–19 Therefore Yahweh was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
Ezekiel 23:31 You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give her cup into your hand.
Hosea 12:1–2 Ephraim feeds on wind, And chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, And oil is carried into Egypt.

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 23:13 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וָאֵ֖רֶא כִּ֣י נִטְמָ֑אָה דֶּ֥רֶךְ אֶחָ֖ד לִשְׁתֵּיהֶֽן

I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Ezekiel 23:13 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁράω ὅτι μιαίνω ὁδός εἷς ὁ δύο

And I saw that they were defiled, that the two had one way.

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)

וּגְלֵי קֳדָמֵי אֲרֵי אִסְתַּאֲבַת אוֹרְחָא חֲדָא שַׁוִי לְתַרְתֵּיהֶן:

(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 23:13 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 23:13 Then I saw that she was defiled, [that] they [took] both one way,

Ver. 13. Then I saw that she was defiled.] Whence it is that man’s nature is so prone to idolatry, and why that sin is compared to adultery, see Polanus upon this chapter, pp. 538-540.

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.

The Biblical Illustrator

Joseph S. Exell

Eze_23:13

Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way.

Infection easy

Manton says: We easily catch an infectious disease from one another, but no man receiveth health from anothers company. Too true. Evil communications inevitably corrupt good manners; but good communications do not so necessarily improve evil manners. We more readily learn evil than good, and we are also more forcible in communicating sin than virtue. Both as to the giving out and the receiving, the aptness lies on the wrong side. What a proof of our natural depravity! What a change must grace work in us before we shall be fully like our Lord Jesus, who was incapable of being inoculated by sin, but abundantly able to communicate goodness; for healing virtue proceeded from Him. When shall we become disseminators of holiness by our very presence? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Eze 23:13-16. Then — When she neither took warning nor feared; I saw that she was defiled — That her heart was already set on her idols; that they both — Samaria and Jerusalem; took one way — That Judah fell into the same idolatrous practices as Israel. And that she increased her whoredoms — Added to the number of her idolatries; for when she saw men portrayed, &c. — These were probably the pictures of those deified heroes, whom the Chaldeans worshipped as gods; such were Bel, Nebo, and Merodach, mentioned Isa 46:1; Jer 50:2. Calmet, however, understands the words in a different sense, paraphrasing them thus: “Before she had seen the Assyrians, upon the bare relation concerning them, or upon the painting only which was made of them, her passion was inflamed toward them.” Girded with girdles upon their loins — A girdle was a mark of dignity, and worn as such by princes and men in authority. In died attire upon their heads — Houbigant reads, Having their heads bound with a died tiara, or turban. The Chaldeans, and afterward the Persians, wore a sort of turban upon their heads, died of different colours, and with different degrees of ornaments, according to their different qualities. As soon as she saw them, she doted upon them — These images pleased her so much, that she sent to Babylon to learn the manner how their idols were to be worshipped: see Eze 23:40-41; Eze 16:17. This, Lowth thinks, relates to those times when a correspondence was maintained between the cities of Babylon and Jerusalem, after that Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Judea, and made it a tributary kingdom, in the beginning of the fourth year of Jehoiakim.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

one way--both alike forsaking God for heathen confidences.

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

John Gill's Exposition

Then I saw that she was defiled,.... With idols, and the worship of them, Eze 23:7,

that they took both one way; the same way of idolatry; worshipped the same idols, lived the same course of life, were guilty of the same sin, both Israel and Judah.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Then; when she took not warning, neither feared.

She was defiled; her heart was already on her idols. Both Samaria and Jerusalem took one way; chose the same idols and idolatry.

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

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 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ṭâmêʼ (“to be unclean”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to be unclean” (ṭâmêʼ) shape what this verse is saying?
2 Kings 17:18–19 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
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?
The verb «וָאֵ֖רֶא» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Biblical Illustrator read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 8 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.