Read the passage and its setting
Ezekiel 16:44–52, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Ezekiel 16:44–52
Jerusalem Is Compared with Samaria and Sodom
The Main Point
A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
What Is Happening Here?
The prophetic word through Ezekiel carries this movement. A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
What Came Before—and What Comes Next?
Ezekiel 16:35–43 established this preceding movement: The oracle assembles lovers as enemies, strips and exposes the woman-city, invokes blood judgment, destroys her places, and describes violence as the end of infidelity.
The next unit, 16:53–59, turns to “Restored Fortunes Intensify Jerusalem's Shame”: The fortunes of Sodom, her daughters, Samaria, and Jerusalem are envisioned as restored so Jerusalem bears shame for despising them and breaking covenant.
Follow Ezekiel's Prophetic Movement
See why this section appears here and how the author's prophetic movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
After “Sexualized Exposure and Violence Portray Siege and Exile, this unit develops “Jerusalem Is Compared with Samaria and Sodom” before “Restored Fortunes Intensify Jerusalem's Shame. Its non-interchangeable contribution is: A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
Follow the Vision, Sign, Oracle, or Measurement
The unit begins at 16:44 with the address, action, vision, lament, or measurement named in its title.
A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
By 16:52 the movement reaches its stated warning, promise, response, or transition before the next unit begins.
What Is the Author Saying?
Why This Interpretation Fits
Stated movement
The prophetic word through Ezekiel carries this unit. A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
Placement in Ezekiel
After “Sexualized Exposure and Violence Portray Siege and Exile, this unit develops “Jerusalem Is Compared with Samaria and Sodom” before “Restored Fortunes Intensify Jerusalem's Shame. Its non-interchangeable contribution is: A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
Uncertainty and ethical limit
The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
“Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the…”
·
This is the exact opening KJV clause of Ezekiel 16:44–52; read it inside the full thought unit.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading Ezekiel 16:44–52 in its dated, literary, and whole-book setting rules out this use:
The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
Context check: A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast. The interpretive limit remains: The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
What Remains True Today
No theological metaphor makes sexual humiliation, partner violence, victim blaming, silenced grief, or treating a person as a prop morally acceptable.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
The prophetic word through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 16:44–52: A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast. The interpretive limit remains: The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
No theological metaphor makes sexual humiliation, partner violence, victim blaming, silenced grief, or treating a person as a prop morally acceptable.
What proportionate response follows?
Name the violence without eroticizing it, distinguish city-personification from real women, center survivor safety, and never use the passage to excuse abuse or demand reconciliation.
A Concrete Example
Before applying Ezekiel 16:44–52, state its ancient referent, summarize its whole movement, name the enduring truth, and refuse this overreach: The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
Teach It Back
Explain Ezekiel 16:44–52 in your own words. Name its place in Ezekiel, one source-controlled observation, one uncertainty, one enduring truth, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Stated movement
The prophetic word through Ezekiel carries this unit. A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
Placement in Ezekiel
After “Sexualized Exposure and Violence Portray Siege and Exile, this unit develops “Jerusalem Is Compared with Samaria and Sodom” before “Restored Fortunes Intensify Jerusalem's Shame. Its non-interchangeable contribution is: A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
Uncertainty and ethical limit
The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
“Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the…”
The opening KJV clause anchors this unit in its actual reported speech, action, or measurement. MorphHB and NET were checked so the phrase remains inside Ezekiel 16:44–52 rather than carrying a neighboring verse's claim.
How certain? very strongWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Exilic setting and recoverable limits
Ezekiel uses embodied, gendered, sexualized, and bereavement imagery to interpret Jerusalem, Samaria, siege, and exile. The rhetoric can communicate political betrayal while also harming or silencing women and survivors when read without resistance.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV wording in 16:44–52
The pinned KJV remains displayed exactly. MorphHB and the NET notes expose older English, difficult syntax, and material alternatives. The controlling uncertainty or ethical limit here is: The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Ezekiel within Jewish Scripture
Ezekiel 16:44–52 belongs first to Ezekiel's exilic prophetic-priestly book and its conversations with Torah, temple traditions, kingship, land, and earlier prophets. Later Jewish and Christian reception must not erase Israel or the first horizon.
How certain? probableHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Canonical relationships after the first horizon
Earlier Torah and prophetic traditions, later biblical reuse of watchman, shepherd, heart, Spirit, resurrection, Gog, temple, river, and city imagery, and New Testament reception may clarify trajectories only after Ezekiel 16:44–52 is read in Ezekiel's own movement.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
No reviewed textual variant changes Ezekiel 16:44–52's central movement; the Hebrew and NET notes were still checked against the pinned KJV, and material translation uncertainty remains visible elsewhere.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do responsible readings differ?
Best judgment: The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Within Ezekiel 16:44–52, divine presence, holiness, judgment, responsibility, hope, land, leadership, and human limitation must be weighted according to The prophetic word through Ezekiel rather than flattened into a timeless slogan.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
How certain? probableCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
A vivid line in Ezekiel 16:44–52 can be detached from the dated exilic setting, literary form, surrounding unit, and book-level movement.
A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast. The interpretive limit remains: The comparison does not authorize ethnic slurs, anti-Samaritan contempt, anti-Jewish stereotypes, or reducing Sodom to one modern culture-war claim.
No theological metaphor makes sexual humiliation, partner violence, victim blaming, silenced grief, or treating a person as a prop morally acceptable.
A mother-daughter proverb compares Jerusalem unfavorably with sisters Samaria and Sodom, saying her practices make them appear righteous by contrast.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Ezekiel 16:44–52, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ezek.xml, OSIS 16:44–52
Supports: Verse-level controls for difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, place names, textual issues, vision language, and material alternatives.
Official NET Ezekiel PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with visible alternatives and ancient-to-modern limits.
Enter the Bible Ezekiel course, Outline and Theological Themes: responsibility, allegory, history, and Jerusalem judgment; applied to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and interpretive questions, including ethical attention to gendered rhetoric and the final vision.
Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Ezekiel Part 2 and Part 3 study guides: sign acts, responsibility, allegory, chapters 16 and 23, and Jerusalem's fall; applied to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Supports: Gender-critical analysis of personified cities, sexualized accusation, exposure, and violence without normalizing abuse or victim blame.
Klein, 'Uncovering the Nymphomaniac,' published pp. 167-186, accepted manuscript sections on Ezekiel 16 and 23; applied to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Supports: Abstract-level warning that patriarchal translation choices can conceal or naturalize sexualized violence; no inaccessible detail is claimed.
Bibb, 'There's no sex in your violence,' Review & Expositor 111.4 (2014), publisher metadata and abstract only; applied at abstract level to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Ezekiel 16:44–52, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Ezekiel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ezek.xml, OSIS 16:44–52
Open the fixed Hebrew Ezekiel file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Ezekiel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2016; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, place names, textual issues, vision language, and material alternatives.
Exact location: Official NET Ezekiel PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Open the official NET Ezekiel PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Ezekiel course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, themes, and passage studies
Alan G. Padgett; revised by Tyler Mayfield
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised June 2023
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with visible alternatives and ancient-to-modern limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Ezekiel course, Outline and Theological Themes: responsibility, allegory, history, and Jerusalem judgment; applied to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Open the Enter the Bible Ezekiel course ↗open university study guide series
Jeremiah and Ezekiel: Ezekiel Parts 1-3 Study Guides
Joel S. Baden and Jacqueline Vayntrub
Yale Bible Study, 2024
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and interpretive questions, including ethical attention to gendered rhetoric and the final vision.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Ezekiel Part 2 and Part 3 study guides: sign acts, responsibility, allegory, chapters 16 and 23, and Jerusalem's fall; applied to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Open the Yale Jeremiah and Ezekiel course ↗peer reviewed trauma and gender critical chapter
Uncovering the Nymphomaniac: The Development of the Image of Israel as an Unfaithful Wife in Ezekiel 16 and 23
Anja Klein
The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel, 2019
Supports: Gender-critical analysis of personified cities, sexualized accusation, exposure, and violence without normalizing abuse or victim blame.
Exact location: Klein, 'Uncovering the Nymphomaniac,' published pp. 167-186, accepted manuscript sections on Ezekiel 16 and 23; applied to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Open Klein's accepted manuscript ↗peer reviewed translation and ethics article
There's no sex in your violence: Patriarchal translation in Ezekiel 16 and 23
Bryan D. Bibb
Review & Expositor 111.4, 2014
Supports: Abstract-level warning that patriarchal translation choices can conceal or naturalize sexualized violence; no inaccessible detail is claimed.
Exact location: Bibb, 'There's no sex in your violence,' Review & Expositor 111.4 (2014), publisher metadata and abstract only; applied at abstract level to Ezekiel 16:44–52
Open the publisher record and abstract ↗