What Does Ezekiel 16:32 Mean in the King James?
But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse frames adultery as an act of replacement: the wife actively takes strangers in the place of her husband.
THE MEANING
Betrayal here is active: the wife takes strangers in the place of her husband. The verse names what happens when a bond remains while another is received as its substitute.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that betrayal is merely distance or an inward feeling: here it takes the concrete form of receiving another in the spouse’s place.
THE ROOT
הַמְנָאָפֶת
hamənaʾepet
GROWS FROM
נאף
The three-consonant root נאף (naʾaf) means to commit adultery.
“committeth adultery” in this verse is hamənaʾepet. The form in the verse names the wife through the act she is committing. The next verb makes that betrayal concrete: she takes strangers in her husband’s place.
ALSO GROWS
nōʾēf: An adulterer
נֹאֵף
This noun names a person by the same act that defines the wife in the verse.
niʾūf: Adultery
נִאֻף
This noun names the act itself, showing that the verse’s description grows from the same root.
תִּקַּח
tiqqaḥ
GROWS FROM
לקח
The three-consonant root לקח (lāqaḥ) means to take or receive.
“taketh” in this verse is tiqqaḥ. The wife is the grammatical actor: she takes the strangers. The root gives the betrayal the shape of an enacted exchange, rather than a bond merely fading away.
ALSO GROWS
lāqaḥ: To take or receive
לָקַח
This is the verb’s basic form and makes the action in the verse visible as taking.
leqiḥāh: Taking or receiving
לְקִיחָה
This noun carries the same action into a thing or act received, echoing the verse’s image of taking strangers into the husband’s place.
THE PATTERN
Covenant betrayal takes shape when another allegiance is received in the place of the bond.
Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.THE THREAD
Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.Both verses use forms of נאף (naʾaf, “commit adultery”). Ezekiel names the replacement itself; Proverbs shows the same betrayal being wiped from view and denied.
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