Ezekiel 16:3

And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
say	וְאָמַרְתָּ֞ ve.'a.mar.Ta	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
saith	אָמַ֨ר 'a.Mar	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Lord	אֲדֹנָ֤י 'a.do.Nai	H136	the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
GOD	יְהוִה֙ Yah.weh	H3069	YHWH · proper noun, a title
Jerusalem	לִיר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔ם li.Ru.sha.Lim	H3389	Jerushalaim or Jerushalem · preposition + proper noun, a place name
birth	מְכֹרֹתַ֙יִךְ֙ me.kho.ro.Ta.yikh	H4351	origin (as if a mine) · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
nativity	וּמֹ֣לְדֹתַ֔יִךְ u.Mo.le.do.Ta.yikh	H4138	nativity (plural birth-place) · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
land	מֵאֶ֖רֶץ me.'E.retz	H776	the earth (at large · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
Canaan	הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֑י ha.ke.na.'a.Ni	H3669	a Kenaanite or inhabitant of Kenaan · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
father	אָבִ֥יךְ 'a.Vikh	H1	father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Amorite	הָאֱמֹרִ֖י ha.'e.mo.Ri	H567	an Emorite · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
mother	וְאִמֵּ֥ךְ ve.'i.Mekh	H517	a mother (as the bond of the family) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Hittite	חִתִּֽית chi.Tit	H2850	a Chittite · noun, gentilic feminine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Ezekiel 16:45 Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husban…
Isaiah 51:1-2 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit…
Deuteronomy 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusi…
Nehemiah 9:7 Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,…
Genesis 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
1 Kings 21:26 And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Is…
Isaiah 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 16:1-5

Ezekiel is now among the captives in Babylon; but, as Jeremiah at Jerusalem wrote for the use of the captives though they had Ezekiel upon the spot with them (ch. 29), so Ezekiel wrote for the use of Jerusalem, though Jeremiah himself was resident there; and yet they were far from looking upon it as an affront to one another's help both by preaching and writing. Jeremiah wrote to the captives for their consolation, which was the thing they needed; Ezekiel here is directed to write to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for their conviction and humiliation, which was the thing they needed. I. This is his commission (Eze 16:2): "Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations (that is, her sins); set them i…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 16:3

birth . . . nativity--thy origin and birth; literally, "thy diggings" (compare Isa 51:1) "and thy bringings forth." of . . . Canaan--in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sojourned before going to Egypt, and from which thou didst derive far more of thy innate characteristics than from the virtues of those thy progenitors (Eze 21:30). an Amorite . . . an Hittite--These, being the most powerful tribes, stand for the whole of the Canaanite nations (compare Jos 1:4; Amo 2:9), which were so abominably corrupt as to have been doomed to utter extermination by God (Lev 18:24-25, Lev 18:28; Deu 18:12). Translate rather, "the Amorite . . . the Canaanite," that is, these two tribes personified; their…

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Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 16:3

Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan - It would dishonor Abraham to say that you sprung from him: ye are rather Canaanites than Israelites. The Canaanites were accursed; so are ye. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite - These tribes were the most famous, and probably the most corrupt, of all the Canaanites. So Isaiah calls the princes of Judah rulers of Sodom, Isa 1:10; and John the Baptist calls the Pharisees a generation or brood of vipers, Mat 3:7. There is a fine specimen of this kind of catachresis in Dido's invective against Aeneas: - Nec tibi Diva parens, generis nec Dardanus auctor, Perflde; sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens Caucasus, Hyrcanaeque adm…

The Church Fathers

Which of the cities in the world were so elevated and so deep in knowledge as the city of God?
— Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:3

If so many things are said in Jerusalem about which such great and wonderful things are written that have been promised to her, what future is there for unhappy me, if I sin? Who will I have for a father, who will I have for a mother?
— Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON EZEKIEL 6:3

If we are on the alert, these evils that came into life as a result of the sins of our forebears will in no way be able to harm us, because in fact they go no further than the level of terminology. It was the first formed human being who through the fall brought on the punishment of death and was responsible for spending his life in pain and distress, and it was he who was the cause of servitude. But Christ the Lord came and permitted all these evils to occur only at the level of terminology, provided we are of the right mind. You see, death is now not death but only carries the name of death—or, rather, even the very name has been abolished.
— John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON GENESIS 29:23

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Fornication — In every form of it was sternly condemned by the Mosaic law (Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16). (See ADULTERY.) But this word is more frequently used in a symbolical than in…
Solomon, Song of — Called also, after the Vulgate, the “Canticles.” It is the “song of songs” (1:1), as being the finest and most precious of its kind; the noblest song, “das Hohelied,” as Luther calls it. The…
Adoption · Is of God’s grace — Is of God’s grace
Amorites, The · Descent from, illustrative of man’s natural state — Descent from, illustrative of man’s natural state
Hittites · Descent from, illustrative of the degradation of the Jews — Descent from, illustrative of the degradation of the Jews
Ingratitude To God · Illustrated — Illustrated

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Ezekiel 16:3

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 16:1-5

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 16:3

Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 16:3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Ezekiel 16:3

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 16:1-5

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 16:3

Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 16:3

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Gill on Ezekiel 16:3

Keil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 16:1-5

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Ezekiel 16:1-63

Rashi on Ezekiel 16:3