Ezekiel 16:47

47 You not only followed their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they.

Ezekiel 16:47 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
English Standard Version (ESV)
47 Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.
New Living Translation (NLT)
47 But you have not merely sinned as they did. You quickly surpassed them in corruption.
The Message Bible (MSG)
47 Haven't you lived just like they did? Haven't you engaged in outrageous obscenities just like they did? In fact, it didn't take you long to catch up and pass them!
American Standard Version (ASV)
47 Yet hast thou not walked in their ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as [if that were] a very little [thing], thou wast more corrupt than they in all thy ways.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
47 You didn't follow their ways. You didn't do the same disgusting things that they did. It only took you a little time to be more corrupt than they ever were.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
47 Didn't you walk in their ways and practice their abominations? It was only a short time before you behaved more corruptly than they did.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
47 You lived exactly the way they did. You copied their evil practices. I hate those practices. Everything you did was so sinful that you soon became even worse than they were.

Ezekiel 16:47 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 16:47

Yet hast thou not walked after their ways
But in ways more evil; were not content to keep pace with them, and do as they did; but outwent them, outstripped them in wickedness: nor done after their abominations;
but committed greater abominations than they did; sins of a more heinous nature, and attended with more aggravated circumstances; having more power and wealth, more Wisdom and understanding; the means of grace, the word and ordinances of God: but, as [if that were] a very little [thing];
to commit the sins that Samaria and Sodom did: or, "it was loathing [to thee] as a little thing" F1; they despised and loathed their sins as too mean and little, and not flagitious and enormous, or bold and daring enough to be committed; and looked upon them, with contempt, as sneaking sinners, that had no soul nor spirit in them, or taste for sinful pleasures, in comparison of them: or the sense is, it would have been a little thing, comparatively speaking, had they only walked after the ways and abominations of Samaria and Sodom, and stopped there; but they had greatly exceeded them; and so the Targum,

``if thou hadst walked in their ways, and done according to their abominations, thy sin had been small.''
Kimchi interprets it of a small time that the Jews continued in the ways and worship of God, after the captivity of the ten tribes, which were carried away in the sixth year of Hezekiah; so that there were but three and twenty years left of his reign, when his son Manasseh succeeded him, and was more wicked than all before him; and these three and twenty years are the little time here spoken of and within a very little time, and thou wast corrupted more than they in all their ways;
this explains what is meant by not walking after their ways and abominations; they were greater sinners than they; more corrupt in their principles and practices; more hardened in them, and more difficult to be reclaimed from them; see ( Matthew 11:23 Matthew 11:24 ) .
FOOTNOTES:

F1 (jq jemk) "tanquam parvum, fastidio fuit hoc", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus; "velut parum fastidi", Starckius.

Ezekiel 16:47 In-Context

45 You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46 Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom.
47 You not only followed their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they.
48 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.
49 “ ‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

Cross References 1

  • 1. 2 Kings 21:9; S Ezekiel 5:7
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