Verse Lens · Expanded explanation

Ezekiel 23:29 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

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Verse 29. And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

The prophetic word through Ezekiel carries the next action, claim, image, or measurement through “And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee…” at Ezekiel 23:29 as part of “Former Allies Become Agents of Sexualized Siege Violence.”

Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee

This verse is one part of that explanation in Ezekiel 23:22–35. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.

Read It With

  • Ezekiel 23:22–35

Read Ezekiel 23:29 with 23:22–35. By itself, “And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee…” can be detached from the speaker, addressee, date, exilic horizon, visionary movement, or outcome that gives it force. The complete unit establishes: Babylonian forces and regional groups are summoned against Oholibah; mutilation, stripping, seizure, fire, and abandonment portray Jerusalem's coming defeat.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Within the same chapter, this unit advances from “Oholibah Sees Yet Intensifies the Allegory's Betrayal” into “Former Allies Become Agents of Sexualized Siege Violence.” Its non-interchangeable contribution is: Babylonian forces and regional groups are summoned against Oholibah; mutilation, stripping, seizure, fire, and abandonment portray Jerusalem's coming defeat. This verse's placement is specific: The prophetic word through Ezekiel carries the next action, claim, image, or measurement through “And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee…” at Ezekiel 23:29 as part of “Former Allies Become Agents of Sexualized Siege Violence.”

Read Ezekiel 23:22–35 together

Why these verses belong together: Former allies become violent invaders in the chapter's disturbing personification.

Verse 22. Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side;

Verse 23. The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.

Verse 24. And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.

Verse 25. And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.

Verse 26. They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.

Verse 27. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

Verse 28. For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated:

Verse 29. And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

Verse 30. I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.

Verse 31. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.

Verse 32. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much.

Verse 33. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

Verse 34. Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

Verse 35. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

Follow the Context

  1. The unit begins at 23:22 with the address, action, vision, lament, or measurement named in its title.
  2. Babylonian forces and regional groups are summoned against Oholibah; mutilation, stripping, seizure, fire, and abandonment portray Jerusalem's coming defeat.
  3. By 23:35 the movement reaches its stated warning, promise, response, or transition before the next unit begins.

What This Verse Is Not Saying

Naked exposure by enemies does not make sexual humiliation a righteous punishment.

What Remains True

The verse represents siege, plunder, and abandonment through gendered violence. In Ezekiel 23:29, that bounded truth is carried through this verse's role: The prophetic word through Ezekiel carries the next action, claim, image, or measurement through “And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee…” at Ezekiel 23:29 as part of “Former Allies Become Agents of Sexualized Siege Violence.”

How It Can Shape Life

  • State explicitly that survivors never consent to violence by prior association and deserve safety. This verse directs that response through its exact role: The prophetic word through Ezekiel carries the next action, claim, image, or measurement through “And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee…” at Ezekiel 23:29 as part of “Former Allies Become Agents of Sexualized Siege Violence.”

Teach It Back

Explain Ezekiel 23:29's precise role in Ezekiel 23:22–35: The prophetic word through Ezekiel carries the next action, claim, image, or measurement through “And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee…” at Ezekiel 23:29 as part of “Former Allies Become Agents of Sexualized Siege Violence.” State how “Former Allies Become Agents of Sexualized Siege Violence” controls the line, keep this uncertainty visible—This oracle does not make assault righteous, God a model for abusive partners, or geopolitical dependence a victim's consent to violence.—trace role to contextual meaning to enduring truth to application, and reject one use the verse does not authorize.

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Continue in Context

Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.

Read Ezekiel 23:22–35 — Former Allies Become Agents of Sexualized Siege Violence
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

Where care is needed

Responsible readings differ over composition, rhetoric, historical reconstruction, symbol, and later reception. The preferred reading follows the complete unit and received-book placement while preserving this limit: This oracle does not make assault righteous, God a model for abusive partners, or geopolitical dependence a victim's consent to violence.

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

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 23:22–35, 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 23:22–35

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 23:22–35

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 23:22–35

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 23:22–35

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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 23:22–35

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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 23:22–35

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