Ezekiel 23 21

Ezekiel 23:21 kjv

Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

Ezekiel 23:21 nkjv

Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth, When the Egyptians pressed your bosom Because of your youthful breasts.

Ezekiel 23:21 niv

So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.

Ezekiel 23:21 esv

Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts."

Ezekiel 23:21 nlt

And so, Oholibah, you relived your former days as a young girl in Egypt, when you first allowed your breasts to be fondled.

Ezekiel 23 verses

Ezekiel 23 21 Meaning

Ezekiel 23:21 vividly describes Judah's persistent spiritual unfaithfulness, drawing a parallel to a harlot reminiscing about her initial acts of prostitution. It asserts that Judah (Oholibah), despite having witnessed the judgment on Israel (Oholah), yearned to revert to the same spiritual depravities she engaged in during her earliest national history—her "youth" spent in Egypt. The explicit imagery of caressing and fondling the "bosom" and "young breasts" represents the deep-seated attraction and active participation in the idolatry and immoral practices prevalent in ancient Egypt, marking the foundational betrayal of her covenant relationship with God.

Ezekiel 23 21 Context

Ezekiel 23 is a deeply allegorical and graphically descriptive chapter. It continues the prophet's use of sexualized metaphor, introduced in Ezekiel 16, to illustrate the spiritual harlotry of God's people. In this chapter, two sisters, Oholah (Samaria, representing the northern kingdom of Israel) and Oholibah (Jerusalem, representing the southern kingdom of Judah), are portrayed as prostitutes. The chapter details Oholah's initial dalliances with Assyria and her eventual destruction. Oholibah then follows an even more egregious path of unfaithfulness, engaging with Assyria and Babylon.

Verse 21 is a specific indictment against Oholibah (Judah), identifying her spiritual whoredom not as a recent lapse but as a continuation of deeply rooted idolatry stretching back to the nation's formative years in Egypt. This harks back to the wilderness generation and their repeated longing for Egyptian ways and idols, even after God's miraculous deliverance. The explicit imagery emphasizes the profound nature of their spiritual treason and their active, even eager, participation in foreign religious practices that violated their covenant with God. This verse grounds Judah's present-day unfaithfulness in its earliest historical failings, showing a cyclical pattern of rebellion that God profoundly remembers and holds against them.

Ezekiel 23 21 Word analysis

• Thus:

  • Links this verse to the preceding narrative of Oholibah's repeated idolatries.
  • Signifies a consequence or a reiteration of a fundamental truth established by her past actions.

• you yearned for (נַפְקַדְתְּ - nafkad't):

  • The Hebrew verb is in the Pual stem, typically meaning "to be visited," "to be attended to," or "to be called to account." However, in context, particularly with "lewdness," it signifies active remembrance, longing, or revisiting past acts.
  • Suggests a deep-seated desire and an intentional mental recall of the past, indicating that Judah actively desired to re-engage with its past depravities. It's not passive but an internal inclination.

• the lewdness (זִמָּתֵךְ - zimmatek):

  • Refers to sexual immorality, wicked schemes, depravity, or scandalous behavior.
  • In the prophetic literature, it is often a metaphorical term for idolatry and spiritual adultery, indicating a complete disregard for divine boundaries.
  • The term emphasizes the corrupt and immoral nature of their religious and political flirtations.

• of your youth (נְעוּרָיִךְ - ne'uraikh):

  • Refers to the nation's nascent stage, specifically the period when the Israelites were in Egypt and immediately after the Exodus.
  • This is not an innocent, forgotten childhood but the formative period of their national identity, where they already exhibited inclinations towards Egyptian gods.

• when in Egypt:

  • Pinpoints the precise historical and geographical context of their initial spiritual corruption.
  • Serves as a critical anchor, connecting present unfaithfulness to deeply embedded patterns of behavior from the nation's origins.

• your bosom (בְּדַדַּיִךְ - b'dadayikh) was caressed (מִמַּעַר - mi'ma'ar):

  • Bosom (breasts): Graphic anatomical reference emphasizing female sexuality, metaphorically applied to the nation's spiritual sensuality.
  • Caressed: From a root meaning "to press" or "to handle gently but possessively." It denotes sexual manipulation and seduction. This imagery conveys an active participation and receptivity to illicit affections, symbolic of their willing embrace of Egyptian religious practices and alliances.

• and your young breasts (וְיֵשַּׁת - v'yeshaht - variant/difficult root, contextually "to fondle") fondled:

  • Young breasts: Reinforces the imagery of their "youth," implying an early susceptibility or initiation into depravity.
  • Fondled: This word is lexically challenging, but context and ancient versions confirm the sense of stroking, touching, or caressing.
  • Further intensifies the graphic sexual metaphor, highlighting the depth and explicitness of Judah's spiritual harlotry. It's about full participation in the spiritual-idolatrous acts associated with Egypt, even as a nascent nation.

Words-group analysis

• "Thus you yearned for the lewdness of your youth": This phrase strongly connects current moral degradation to a long-standing, cherished pattern of sin from the nation's beginnings. It highlights that Judah's apostasy is not merely a weakness but a deep-seated inclination, almost a nostalgia for spiritual depravity. It's a desire to return to "the good old days" of pagan practices rather than to God's covenant.

• "when in Egypt": This acts as a powerful historical marker. It shows that even during their initial formation as a people, before fully receiving the Mosaic Law, their hearts were already prone to adopt the paganism of the land where they dwelt. This initial exposure formed a dangerous foundation for future rebellion.

• "your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled": This explicit and shocking language underscores the sensuality and corrupting nature of idolatry. It paints a picture of a nation eagerly succumbing to the spiritual allure and immoral rituals of Egypt, depicted as a willing partner in illicit spiritual intimacy. The use of "young breasts" signifies this corruption taking hold at the earliest, most formative stage, representing an initiation into apostasy.

Ezekiel 23 21 Bonus section

• The Pual stem of nafkad't (translated "you yearned for") carries a subtle nuance. While active "yearning" fits the English translation, the root pakad typically involves visiting, inspecting, or being accounted for. Some interpretations suggest Judah's past lewdness in Egypt was "called to account" or "visited upon" her by God's judgment, but the overall context of her longing to repeat the acts strongly supports the active sense of recalling and desiring. This tension highlights that the memory of past sins, whether by the sinner or by God, leads to consequences.
• This verse provides a crucial bridge between Judah's early history and her contemporary situation, challenging any notion that her present apostasy was a recent, isolated incident. Instead, it argues for a deep-seated spiritual pathology, showing how ancestral sins can become ingrained national patterns.
• The sexual imagery, while shocking, was deliberate. In the Ancient Near East, many pagan fertility cults involved ritual prostitution and sensual practices. By using such explicit language, Ezekiel directly parallels Judah's spiritual abandonment of God to the ultimate betrayal in human relationships: sexual promiscuity, thereby stripping away any veneer of religious or political sophistication from their actions and exposing them as pure unfaithfulness.

Ezekiel 23 21 Commentary

Ezekiel 23:21 stands as a stark indictment, asserting that Judah's current spiritual harlotry is not a new deviation but a deep-seated addiction rooted in its earliest national history. The imagery explicitly condemns Judah for "yearning" for the "lewdness" of its "youth" in Egypt, signifying a deliberate return to ancestral apostasies. The graphic depiction of "caressed bosom" and "fondled young breasts" serves as a powerful metaphor for Judah's active, willing, and sensual embrace of Egyptian idolatry and pagan practices, including fertility cults and reliance on political alliances that violated divine trust. This verse underscores that God's people have a long memory for sin, and so does God. He does not forget their historical trajectory of unfaithfulness, revealing a cyclical pattern where present judgments are directly linked to foundational betrayals, a persistent gravitation away from His covenant love towards the allure of foreign ways.