What Does Ezekiel 23:43 Mean?
And I said to her who was worn out in adultery, Now will they play the harlot with her, and she with them?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?THE KEY
The word “old” carries the wear of time: this verse presents infidelity as a practiced condition whose exchange runs both ways.
THE MEANING
The verse places you before a pattern that has gone on long enough to be called old: others enter her adulteries, and she enters theirs. Its question leaves the exchange mutual and ongoing, with neither side presented as untouched.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that the betrayal is a single lapse or belongs only to one party: the verse depicts an established pattern entered from both sides.
THE ROOT
בָּלָה
balah
GROWS FROM
בלה
b-l-h
To wear out, waste away, or grow old.
“worn out” in this verse is balah. Age here is linked with wearing out. That places the adulteries in a condition marked by duration and accumulated wear, rather than making them sound like a fresh beginning.
ALSO GROWS
bāletāh: She or it wore out, or grew old.
בָּלְתָה
This feminine form shows the same root describing something that has aged through time.
yivlu: They will wear out or grow old.
יִבְלוּ
This form makes the root’s image of wearing away visible, adding depth to “old” in the verse.
נִאֻפִים
ni'ufim
GROWS FROM
נאף
n-ʾ-p
To violate a marriage bond through sexual unfaithfulness.
“adultery” in this verse is ni'ufim. The root names a breach of a marital bond, while the plural presents that breach as a pattern rather than one isolated act. The question then shows the pattern being entered from both sides.
ALSO GROWS
no'ef: An adulterer.
נֹאֵף
The masculine form names a person who participates in the breach described here.
no'efet: An adulteress.
נֹאֶפֶת
The feminine form names the same kind of breach from the woman’s side.
תַזְנוּתֶיהָ
taznuteha
GROWS FROM
זנה
z-n-h
To commit sexual infidelity or prostitute oneself.
“play the harlot” in this verse is taznuteha. This second root places the language of prostitution and sexual unfaithfulness beside the language of adultery. Together they hold both the broken bond and the ongoing sexual exchange in view.
ALSO GROWS
zanah: To commit whoredom or sexual infidelity.
זָנָה
The verb names the action repeated in the verse’s question.
zonah: A prostitute or sexually unfaithful woman.
זוֹנָה
This noun shows the same root describing a person within the pattern of sexual exchange.
THE PATTERN
Fidelity can be violated repeatedly, turning intimate bonds into sites of divided allegiance.
But like a wife who breaks her marriage, who takes strangers in place of her husband!Surely, as a wife has dealt treacherously away from her companion, so you have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.You adulterers and adulteresses, have you not seen that the friendship of the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore desires to be a friend of the world stands as an enemy of God.THE THREAD
But like a wife who breaks her marriage, who takes strangers in place of her husband!Ezekiel 16:32 uses the same נאף (n-ʾ-p) root behind “adulteries,” naming a wife who takes strangers in place of her husband. Here, that breach of a bond appears as an old, reciprocal pattern, and the question asks whether the repetition continues.
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