Ezekiel 23:48

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Ezekiel 23:48 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
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Ezekiel 23:48 (World English Bible). Public Domain. Lemma interlinear Bible study tool, https://lemma.gebible.app/v/ezekiel/23/48.

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English Translation
Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
World English Bible · Public Domain
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Compare translations 3

The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.

Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.

Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    For I will remove shameful behavior from the land and discipline all the women so they will no longer act like prostitutes.

unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).

Versions to compare (up to 4)

3 of 4 selected

Show all 18 translations

Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.

  • World English Bible Public Domain
    Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
  • Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
    So I will put an end to indecency in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your behavior.
  • Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
    So I will put an end to indecency in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your behavior.
  • King James Version Public Domain
    Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
  • American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
    Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
  • Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
    Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
  • Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
    Thus will I cause wickednesse to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to doe after your wickednesse.
  • Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
    And I will take away wickedness out of the land: and all women shall learn, not to do according to the wickedness of them.
  • Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
    And I have caused wickedness to cease from the land, And instructed have been all the women, And they do not according to your wickedness.
  • Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    And I have caused wickedness to cease from the land, || And all the women have been instructed, || And they do not do according to your wickedness.
  • Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
    For I will remove shameful behavior from the land and discipline all the women so they will no longer act like prostitutes.
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
    For I will remove shameful behavior from the land and discipline all the women so they will no longer act like prostitutes.
  • Darby Bible Public Domain
    And I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, and all women shall receive instruction and shall not do according to your lewdness.
  • World Messianic Bible Public Domain
    “‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to be lewd like you.
  • Webster's Bible Public Domain
    Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
  • Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
    This is how I will put an end to immorality in the country, and all the women will be warned not to do what you have done.
  • Bible in Basic English Public Domain
    And I will put an end to evil in all the land, teaching all women not to do as you have done.
  • JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
    Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).

Word by word

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זִמָּ֖ה
zimmâh
H2154
“wickedness”
Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
Part of Speech
Noun
Type
Common
Gender
Feminine
Number
Singular
State
Absolute
Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H2161

TWOT: 556b

plan, device, wickedness, evil plan, mischievous purpose - plan, purpose - evil device, wickedness - not chaste, incest, licentiousness, adultery, idolatry, harlotry
  1. וְהִשְׁבַּתִּ֥י shâbath H7673 “and · to cease” Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular
  2. מִן min H4480 “from” Preposition
  3. הָאָ֑רֶץ ʼerets H776 “the · land” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute
  4. וְנִֽוַּסְּרוּ֙ yâçar H3256 “and · to discipline” Conjunction + Verb, Nithpael, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural
  5. כָּל kôl H3605 “all of” Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct
  6. הַנָּשִׁ֔ים ʼishshâh H802 “the · women” Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute
  7. וְלֹ֥א lôʼ H3808 “and · not” Conjunction + Particle, Negative
  8. תַעֲשֶׂ֖ינָה ʻâsâh H6213 “to do” Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Plural
  9. כְּזִמַּתְכֶֽנָה zimmâh H2154 “like/as · wickedness · your” Preposition + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Feminine, Plural

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
9
distinct lemmas
Prophets
section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

זִמָּ֖ה wickedness H2154 occurs in 27 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

  • 3 verbs
  • 5 nouns
  • 1 preposition
  • 1 particle

Verb forms

  • וְהִשְׁבַּתִּ֥י Hiphil · Sequential Perfect
  • וְנִֽוַּסְּרוּ֙ Nithpael · Sequential Perfect
  • תַעֲשֶׂ֖ינָה Qal · Imperfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

  • זִמָּ֖ה wickedness H2154 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 23 words from the Hebrew and 24 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 19 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

12

Topical passages linked to Ezekiel 23:48 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

  • Ezekiel 6:6 In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your sun-images may be hewn down, and your works may be abolished.
  • Ezekiel 16:41 They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you shall also give no hire any more.
  • Ezekiel 23:27 Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from you, and your prostitution [brought] from the land of Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.
  • 2 Peter 2:6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly;
  • Deuteronomy 13:11 All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more such wickedness as this is in the midst of you.
  • Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
  • Ezekiel 5:15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes; (I, Yahweh, have spoken it;)
  • Ezekiel 22:15 I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries; and I will consume your filthiness out of you.
  • Ezekiel 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
  • Micah 5:11–14 I will cut off the cities of your land, And will tear down all your strongholds.
  • Zephaniah 1:3 I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh.
  • 1 Corinthians 10:6–11 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

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 23:48 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְהִשְׁבַּתִּ֥י זִמָּ֖ה מִן הָאָ֑רֶץ וְנִֽוַּסְּרוּ֙ כָּל הַנָּשִׁ֔ים וְלֹ֥א תַעֲשֶׂ֖ינָה כְּזִמַּתְכֶֽנָה

Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Ezekiel 23:48 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἀποστρέφω ἀσέβεια ἐκ ὁ γῆ καί παιδεύω πᾶς ὁ γυνή καί οὐ μή ποιέω κατά ὁ ἀσέβεια αὐτός

And I will remove ungodliness out of the land, and all the women shall be instructed, and shall not do according to their ungodliness.

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)

1

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.

  1. Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)
    וַאֲבַטֵיל חוֹבֵי עֵיצַת חֶטְאִין מִן אַרְעָא וְיִתְרַדְיָן כָּל מְדִינְתָא וְלָא יַעְבְּדָן כְּעֵיצַת חֲטָאֵיכוֹן:

    (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 23:48 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 23:48 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

Ver. 48. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease.] Thus, if it may be done no otherwise. Thus still, if men will not mend by fair means, they are taken away by death, that they may sin no more.

That all women may be taught.] That all cities and states may hear, and fear, and do no more so.

“ Exemplo alterius qui sapit, ille sapit. ”

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.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Meaning, all other cities and countries.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

(Eze 23:27).

that all . . . may be taught not to do, &c.-- (Deu 13:11).

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 48. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease] Idolatry; and from that time to the present day the Jews never relapsed into idolatry.

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

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(48) To cease.—By the removal of the sinners. “All women,” in accordance with the allegory, means all nations. The judgments upon Israel should be then, and for all time, a conspicuous monument of God’s righteous severity.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

48. be taught] take warning (the form nithpa., cf. Deu_21:8).

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.

John Gill's Exposition

Thus will I cause to cease lewdness out of the land,.... There being no opportunity for it, nor any to commit it; what were not destroyed by famine, sword, and pestilence, during the siege, were carried captive; and, when they returned, were never more given to idolatry; see Eze 23:27,

that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness; that is, that all provinces, as the Targum, all kingdoms; states, churches, and people, hearing and reading the judgments of God on this people for their idolatry, may learn to shun it; it is even an instruction to us, at this distance, not to commit idolatry, as they did, Co1 10:7. The church of Rome ought to observe this.

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

Cause lewdness to cease: see Eze 23:27. Hereafter in this land such-like abominations shall never be committed more, as indeed we do not read of any such after their return out of this captivity.

That all women, countries, kingdoms, and cities, may be warned by your examples of sorrows and destruction, to fear God, do justly, love mercy, and hate violence.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Lewdness - Idolatry. And indeed we do not read of any after their return out of this captivity.

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

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

So they will set your

"So the company will set your." The word "they" refers to the "company" of people from Ezekiel 23:47.

set your shameful behavior against you

This is an idiom. AT: "cause you to accept responsibility for your shameful behavior" or "punish you for your shameful behavior" (See: Idiom)

bear the guilt of your sins with your idols

"accept responsibility for the guilt of your sins with your idols." This implies that they will be punished for their sins. AT: "receive the punishment for sinning by worshiping your idols" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

shame

discipline

sin

know

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

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 (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is zimmâh (“wickedness”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

  1. What does “wickedness” (zimmâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
  2. Leviticus 18:17 shares the word «wickedness» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
  3. “wickedness” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
  4. These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
  5. The verb «וְהִשְׁבַּתִּ֥י» is Hiphil Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
  6. Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

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Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

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