Ezekiel 23:20
New International Version
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.

New Living Translation
She lusted after lovers with genitals as large as a donkey’s and emissions like those of a horse.

English Standard Version
and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses.

Berean Standard Bible
and lusted after their lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions.

King James Bible
For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

New King James Version
For she lusted for her paramours, Whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, And whose issue is like the issue of horses.

New American Standard Bible
She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose discharge is like the discharge of horses.

NASB 1995
“She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

NASB 1977
“And she lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Legacy Standard Bible
She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Amplified Bible
For she lusted after her lovers [there], whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Christian Standard Bible
and lusted after their lovers, whose sexual members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
and lusted after their lovers, whose sexual members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions.

American Standard Version
And she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Contemporary English Version
She eagerly wanted to go to bed with Egyptian men, who were famous for their sexual powers.

English Revised Version
And she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
She lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose semen was like that of horses.

Good News Translation
She was filled with lust for oversexed men who had all the lustfulness of donkeys or stallions." (

International Standard Version
She lusted after her paramours, whose genitals are like those of donkeys, and whose emissions are like those of horses.

Majority Standard Bible
and lusted after their lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions.

NET Bible
She lusted after their genitals--as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions.

New Heart English Bible
She doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Webster's Bible Translation
For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

World English Bible
She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
And she lusts on their lovers, "" Whose flesh [is] the flesh of donkeys, "" And the emission of horses—their emission.

Young's Literal Translation
And she doteth on their paramours, Whose flesh is the flesh of asses, And the issue of horses -- their issue.

Smith's Literal Translation
And she will desire after their paramours, whom the flesh of asses their flesh, and the flowing of horses their flowing.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
And she was mad with lust after lying with them whose flesh is as the flesh of asses: and whose issue as the issue of horses.

Catholic Public Domain Version
And she was mad with lust after lying with them, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose flow is like the flow of horses.

New American Bible
She lusted for the lechers of Egypt, whose members are like those of donkeys, whose thrusts are like those of stallions.

New Revised Standard Version
and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose emission was like that of stallions.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
For she doted upon their servants, whose male organs are like those of asses, and whose privates are like those of horses.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
And she copulated with their Servants, whose flesh was like the flesh of donkeys, and their genitals like the genitals of horses
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
And she doted upon concubinage with them, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
and thou didst dote upon the Chaldeans, whose flesh is as the flesh of the asses, and their members as the members of horses.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Adultery of Oholah and Oholibah
19Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt 20and lusted after their lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. 21So you revisited the indecency of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your bosom and pressed your young breasts.…

Cross References
Jeremiah 3:6-10
Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there. / I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. / She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well. ...

Hosea 2:2-5
Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. / Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst. / I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery. ...

Hosea 4:12-14
My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God. / They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery. / I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

Jeremiah 2:20-25
“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. / I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine? / Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD. ...

Isaiah 57:3-8
“But come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes! / Whom are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of deceit, / who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? ...

Revelation 17:1-5
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.” / And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. ...

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.”

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?”

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.

Nahum 3:4
because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.

2 Kings 9:22
When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

Revelation 2:20-22
But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols. / Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling. / Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.

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.

1 Corinthians 6:15-18
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.” / But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. ...

Galatians 5:19-21
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; / idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, / and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.


Treasury of Scripture

For she doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Ezekiel 16:20,26
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, …

Ezekiel 17:15
But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?

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Asses Desire Donkeys Doted Doteth Emission Flesh Full Genitals Horses Issue Lusted Members Seed
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Asses Desire Donkeys Doted Doteth Emission Flesh Full Genitals Horses Issue Lusted Members Seed
Ezekiel 23
1. The unfaithfulness of Aholah and Aholibah
23. Aholibah is to be plagued by her lovers
36. The prophet reproves the adulteries of them both
45. and shows their judgments














She lusted after their lovers
This phrase highlights the intense and unrestrained desire that the Israelites had for the idolatrous practices and alliances with foreign nations. The Hebrew root for "lusted" is "עָגַב" (agab), which conveys a sense of passionate longing or infatuation. Historically, Israel's repeated turning to other nations for political and military alliances, instead of relying on God, is a recurring theme in the Old Testament. This phrase serves as a metaphor for spiritual adultery, where Israel's covenant relationship with God is compromised by their pursuit of pagan practices.

Whose genitals were like those of donkeys
This vivid imagery is used to describe the perceived power and allure of the foreign nations that Israel pursued. In the ancient Near Eastern context, donkeys were often symbols of strength and virility. The use of such graphic language underscores the extent of Israel's infidelity and the depth of their spiritual corruption. It serves as a stark reminder of how far they had strayed from their covenant with God, choosing instead to be captivated by the apparent might and allure of other nations.

And whose emission was like that of stallions
The comparison to stallions further emphasizes the excessive and unrestrained nature of Israel's idolatry. Stallions, known for their vigor and potency, symbolize the overwhelming and consuming nature of the sinful practices that Israel engaged in. This phrase highlights the futility and destructiveness of seeking fulfillment outside of God's provision and design. In a broader scriptural context, it serves as a warning against the dangers of allowing worldly desires to overshadow one's commitment to God.

(20) Their paramours.--The word is masculine, as indicating the abominable sins copied by the Israelites from the heathen, and asses and horses are introduced to show the intensity of lust. (Comp. Jeremiah 5:8.)

Verse 20. - She doted on her paramours. Commonly the word is used of a concubine (Genesis 22:24; Judges 8:31). Here it is used in scorn of the Egyptian princes whose favor Judah courted, reminding us of Homer's Ἀχαιίδες οὐκετ Ἀχαίοι, as indicating their political weakness. All that need be said of the comparison that follows is that here also Ezekiel follows in the footsteps of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 5:8). What is indicated is that Judah threw herself into the idolatrous ritual of Egypt with an almost orgiastic passion. The harlot nation returned, as it were, to her first love, and renewed the whoredoms of her youth.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
and lusted
וַֽתַּעְגְּבָ֔ה (wat·ta‘·gə·ḇāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 5689: To have inordinate affection, lust

after
עַ֖ל (‘al)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

their lovers,
פִּֽלַגְשֵׁיהֶ֑ם (pi·laḡ·šê·hem)
Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 6370: A concubine, a paramour

whose
אֲשֶׁ֤ר (’ă·šer)
Pronoun - relative
Strong's 834: Who, which, what, that, when, where, how, because, in order that

genitals
בְּשַׂר־ (bə·śar-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1320: Flesh, body, person, the pudenda of a, man

were like those
בְּשָׂרָ֔ם (bə·śā·rām)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 1320: Flesh, body, person, the pudenda of a, man

of donkeys
חֲמוֹרִים֙ (ḥă·mō·w·rîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2543: A male ass

and whose emission
וְזִרְמַ֥ת (wə·zir·maṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular construct
Strong's 2231: A gushing of fluid

was like that
זִרְמָתָֽם׃ (zir·mā·ṯām)
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 2231: A gushing of fluid

of stallions.
סוּסִ֖ים (sū·sîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 5483: A swallow, swift (type of bird)


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 23:20 She doted on their paramours whose flesh (Ezek. Eze Ezk)
Ezekiel 23:19
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