Ezekiel 16:33
New International Version
All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.

New Living Translation
Prostitutes charge for their services—but not you! You give gifts to your lovers, bribing them to come and have sex with you.

English Standard Version
Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings.

Berean Standard Bible
Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.

King James Bible
They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.

New King James Version
Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry.

New American Standard Bible
Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you give your gifts to all your lovers and lavish favors on them so that they will come to you from every direction for your obscene practices.

NASB 1995
“Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries.

NASB 1977
“Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries.

Legacy Standard Bible
Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from all around for your harlotries.

Amplified Bible
Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you give your gifts to all your lovers, bribing the pagan nations to come to you [as allies] from every direction for your obscene immoralities.

Christian Standard Bible
Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors.

American Standard Version
They give gifts to all harlots; but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and bribest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredoms.

Contemporary English Version
Prostitutes accept money for having sex, but you bribe men from everywhere to have sex with you.

English Revised Version
They give gifts to all harlots: but thou gavest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and bribest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredoms.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
All prostitutes get paid. But you give gifts to all your lovers and bribe them to come to you from all directions to have sex with you.

Good News Translation
A prostitute is paid, but you gave presents to all your lovers and bribed them to come from everywhere to sleep with you.

International Standard Version
"All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give your gifts to all your lovers, then you bribe them to come to you from everywhere to get your sexual favors!

Majority Standard Bible
Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.

NET Bible
All prostitutes receive payment, but instead you give gifts to every one of your lovers. You bribe them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors!

New Heart English Bible
They give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution.

Webster's Bible Translation
They give gifts to all lewd women: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come to thee on every side for thy lewdness.

World English Bible
People give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
They give a gift to all whores, "" And you have given your gifts to all your lovers, "" And bribe them to come in to you, "" From all around—in your whoredoms.

Young's Literal Translation
To all whores they give a gift, And -- thou hast given thy gifts to all thy lovers, And dost bribe them to come in unto thee, From round about -- in thy whoredoms.

Smith's Literal Translation
To all committing fornication they will give liberal gifts: and thou gavest thy liberal gifts to all loving thee, and thou wilt make them a present to come in to thee from round about in thy fornications.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
Gifts are given to all harlots: but thou hast given hire to all thy lovers, and thou hast given them gifts to come to thee from every side, to commit fornication with thee.

Catholic Public Domain Version
Wages are given to all prostitutes. But you have given wages to all your lovers, and you have given gifts to them, so that they would enter to you from every side, in order to fornicate with you.

New American Bible
Prostitutes usually receive gifts. But you bestowed gifts on all your lovers, bribing them to come to you for prostitution from every side.

New Revised Standard Version
Gifts are given to all whores; but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from all around for your whorings.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
Men pay a price to all harlots; but instead you pay a price to all your lovers and bribe them with your whoredom, that they may come to you from every side round about you.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
To all whores they give payment, and you have given payment to all your lovers, and you have bribed them with your fornications that they would come to you from all around you
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
to all harlots gifts are given; but thou hast given thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hast bribed them to come unto thee from every side in thy harlotries.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
She has even given rewards to all that went a-whoring after her, and thou hast given rewards to all thy lovers, yea, thou didst load them with rewards, that they should come to thee from every side for thy fornication.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Jerusalem's Unfaithfulness
32You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband! 33Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. 34So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite!…

Cross References
Hosea 9:1
Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.

Jeremiah 2:20
“For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.

Jeremiah 3:1-3
“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD. / “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. / Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.

Isaiah 1:21
See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!

Hosea 2:5
For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’

Jeremiah 13:27
Your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution on the hills and in the fields—I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?”

Isaiah 57:3
“But come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!

Proverbs 7:10-12
Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart. / She is loud and defiant; her feet do not remain at home. / Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.

Revelation 17:1-2
Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. / The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.”

Revelation 18:3
All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

James 4:4
You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

2 Peter 2:14-15
Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed. / They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

Matthew 12:39
Jesus replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Matthew 16:4
A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away.

1 Corinthians 6:15-16
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! / Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”


Treasury of Scripture

They give gifts to all whores: but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and hire them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution.

give

Genesis 38:16-18
And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me? …

Deuteronomy 23:17,18
There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel…

Hosea 2:12
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

but thou

Isaiah 30:3,6,7
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion…

Isaiah 57:9
And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell.

Hosea 8:9,10
For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers…

hirest [heb] bribest

Jump to Previous
Bribe Bribed Cheap Direction Everywhere Favors Fee Gavest Gifts Givest Harlotries Harlots Love Lovers Offering Payment Prostitute Prostitutes Prostitution Receives Rewards Side Whoredom Whoredoms Whores Women
Jump to Next
Bribe Bribed Cheap Direction Everywhere Favors Fee Gavest Gifts Givest Harlotries Harlots Love Lovers Offering Payment Prostitute Prostitutes Prostitution Receives Rewards Side Whoredom Whoredoms Whores Women
Ezekiel 16
1. Under the parable of a wretched infant is shown the natural state of Jerusalem
6. God's extraordinary love toward her,
15. Her grievous judgment
35. Her sin, equal to her mother,
46. and exceeding her sisters, Sodom and Samaria,
59. calls for judgments
60. Mercy is promised her in the end














Men give gifts to all prostitutes
This phrase highlights the typical transactional nature of relationships with prostitutes in ancient times. In the cultural and historical context of the Ancient Near East, it was customary for men to pay or give gifts to prostitutes in exchange for their services. The Hebrew word for "prostitutes" here is "זֹנָה" (zonah), which refers to a woman who engages in sexual activity for payment. This sets the stage for a stark contrast with the behavior of Jerusalem, as depicted in the following phrases.

but you give gifts to all your lovers
The phrase underscores the reversal of expected roles. Instead of receiving payment, Jerusalem, personified as an unfaithful wife, is depicted as giving gifts to her lovers. This is a powerful metaphor for Israel's idolatry and spiritual adultery, where instead of being devoted to God, they pursued other nations and their gods, offering them gifts and tributes. The Hebrew word for "lovers" is "מְאַהֲבִים" (me'ahavim), indicating those with whom one has an illicit relationship, further emphasizing the betrayal of the covenant with God.

you bribe them to come to you
This phrase illustrates the desperation and degradation of Jerusalem's spiritual state. The act of bribing, indicated by the Hebrew word "שֹׁחַד" (shochad), suggests a willingness to go to great lengths to attract these foreign nations and their deities. It reflects a deep-seated insecurity and a misguided attempt to find security and identity outside of their covenant relationship with God.

from all around for your illicit favors
The phrase "from all around" suggests the widespread nature of Jerusalem's unfaithfulness, reaching out to various nations and cultures. The term "illicit favors" translates the Hebrew "תַּזְנוּת" (taznut), which refers to acts of unfaithfulness or harlotry. This highlights the extent of Israel's spiritual adultery, as they sought alliances and worshiped foreign gods, forsaking their unique relationship with Yahweh.

(33) Thou givest thy gifts.--2Kings 16:8-9, may be referred to as an instance in illustration. Ahaz "took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord," as well as "the treasures of the king's house," and used it to secure the alliance of the king of Assyria.

The prophet, having up to this point described the sin, now turns to pronounce the punishment upon Israel (Ezekiel 16:35-52). The same allegory is still preserved, and the punishment is depicted in the same figurative language as the sin. This portion of the prophecy may be subdivided into two parts, in the first of which (Ezekiel 16:35-43) the punishment itself is described in terms taken from the legal punishment of the adulteress and murderess; while in the second (Ezekiel 16:44-52) the justice of this doom is vindicated, especially by a comparison with Samaria on the one side, and with Sodom on the other.



Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Men give
יִתְּנוּ־ (yit·tə·nū-)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

gifts
נֵ֑דֶה (nê·ḏeh)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5078: A bounty

to all
לְכָל־ (lə·ḵāl)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

[their] prostitutes,
זֹנ֖וֹת (zō·nō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 2181: To commit adultery, to commit idolatry

but you
וְאַ֨תְּ (wə·’at)
Conjunctive waw | Pronoun - second person feminine singular
Strong's 859: Thou and thee, ye and you

gave
נָתַ֤תְּ (nā·ṯat)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - second person feminine singular
Strong's 5414: To give, put, set

gifts
נְדָנַ֙יִךְ֙ (nə·ḏā·na·yiḵ)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person feminine singular
Strong's 5083: A present

to all
לְכָל־ (lə·ḵāl)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

your lovers.
מְאַֽהֲבַ֔יִךְ (mə·’a·hă·ḇa·yiḵ)
Verb - Piel - Participle - masculine plural construct | second person feminine singular
Strong's 157: To have affection f

You bribed
וַתִּשְׁחֳדִ֣י (wat·tiš·ḥo·ḏî)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - second person feminine singular
Strong's 7809: To give a present, bribe

them
אוֹתָ֗ם (’ō·w·ṯām)
Direct object marker | third person masculine plural
Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case

to come
לָב֥וֹא (lā·ḇō·w)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

to you
אֵלַ֛יִךְ (’ê·la·yiḵ)
Preposition | second person feminine singular
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

from everywhere
מִסָּבִ֖יב (mis·sā·ḇîḇ)
Preposition-m | Adverb
Strong's 5439: A circle, neighbour, environs, around

for your illicit favors.
בְּתַזְנוּתָֽיִךְ׃ (bə·ṯaz·nū·ṯā·yiḵ)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine plural construct | second person feminine singular
Strong's 8457: Harlotry, idolatry


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 16:33 They give gifts to all prostitutes (Ezek. Eze Ezk)
Ezekiel 16:32
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