Ezekiel 16:4
New International Version
On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

New Living Translation
On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth.

English Standard Version
And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.

Berean Standard Bible
On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

King James Bible
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

New King James Version
As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.

New American Standard Bible
As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.

NASB 1995
“As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.

NASB 1977
“As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.

Legacy Standard Bible
As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.

Amplified Bible
And as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing, nor were you rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.

Christian Standard Bible
As for your birth, your umbilical cord wasn’t cut on the day you were born, and you weren’t washed clean with water. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
As for your birth, your umbilical cord wasn’t cut on the day you were born, and you weren’t washed clean with water. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

American Standard Version
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to cleanse thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And she who bore you in the day of your birth did not cut off your umbilical cord and she did not wash you, neither did she salt you in salt, nor did she wrap you in swaddling strips

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And as for thy birth in the day wherein thou wast born, thou didst not bind thy breasts, and thou wast not washed in water, neither wast thou salted with salt, neither wast thou swathed in swaddling-bands.

Contemporary English Version
When you were born, no one cut you loose from your mother or washed your body. No one rubbed your skin with salt and olive oil, and wrapped you in warm blankets.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And when thou wast born, in the day of thy nativity thy navel wits not cut, neither wast thou washed with water for thy health, nor salted with salt, nor swaddled with clouts.

English Revised Version
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to cleanse thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
When you were born, your umbilical cord wasn't cut. You weren't washed with water to make you clean. You weren't rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloth.

Good News Translation
When you were born, no one cut your umbilical cord or washed you or rubbed you with salt or wrapped you in cloths.

International Standard Version
Now as to your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord wasn't cut. You weren't washed with water to clean you, and nobody rubbed you with salt. And it's certain that you weren't wrapped in strips of cloth.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water for cleansing; thou was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

Literal Standard Version
As for your nativity, in the day you were born, | Your navel has not been cut, | And you were not washed in water for ease, | And you have not been salted at all, | And you have not been swaddled at all.

Majority Standard Bible
On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

New American Bible
As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut; you were not washed with water or anointed; you were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in swaddling clothes.

NET Bible
As for your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water; you were certainly not rubbed down with salt, nor wrapped with blankets.

New Revised Standard Version
As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in cloths.

New Heart English Bible
As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you weren't salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

Webster's Bible Translation
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

World English Bible
As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren’t washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor wrapped in blankets at all.

Young's Literal Translation
As to thy nativity, in the day thou wast born, Thou -- thy navel hath not been cut, And in water thou wast not washed for ease, And thou hast not been salted at all, And thou hast not been swaddled at all.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Jerusalem's Unfaithfulness
3and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5No one cared enough for you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, because you were despised on the day of your birth.…

Cross References
Ezekiel 16:3
and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

Hosea 2:3
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.


Treasury of Scripture

And as for your nativity, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to supple you; you were not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

for

Ezekiel 20:8,13
But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt…

Genesis 15:13
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

Exodus 1:11-14
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses…

to supple thee.

Lamentations 2:20,22
Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? …

Luke 2:7,12
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn…

Jump to Previous
Bands Birth Born Clean Cleanse Cleansing Cloths Cord Cut Ease Folded Nativity Navel Rubbed Salt Salted String Supple Swaddled Swathed Washed Wast Water Weren't Wrapped
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Bands Birth Born Clean Cleanse Cleansing Cloths Cord Cut Ease Folded Nativity Navel Rubbed Salt Salted String Supple Swaddled Swathed Washed Wast Water Weren't Wrapped
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














(4) Washed in water to supple thee.--The various particulars of this and the following verse describe a child cast out into the field immediately upon its birth, unpitied by any one, and in a condition in which it must soon have perished. Neither the text nor the margin seems to have hit upon the sense of the word translated "to supple," the probable meaning of which is "to cleanse." The rubbing of the body of the new-born infant with salt, a custom still prevailing in some parts of the east, probably had a symbolical, as well as a supposed physical effect; and is recommended for the latter reason by Galen (De Sanit. i. 7). The wrapping the body tightly in swaddling-bands (Comp. Luke 2:7) is still common, even in Italy. The time here referred to in the life of Israel is that in which it passed from its embryonic state in the family of the patriarchs to a nation in the bondage of Egypt. Despised, oppressed, and enslaved, no other people ever became a nation under such circumstances. Humanly speaking, national life was an impossibility for them.

Verse 4. - As for thy nativity, etc. We ask, as we interpret the parable, of what period in the history of Israel Ezekiel speaks. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are ignored by him, and he starts from a time of misery and shame. It is obvious that the only period which corresponds to this is that of the sojourn of Israel as an oppressed and degraded people in the land of Goshen. He paints, with a Dantesque minuteness, the picture of a child just born, abandoned by its mother and neglected by all others from the very moment of its birth. It lies unwashed and foul to look upon. No woman's care does for it the commonest offices of motherhood. For to supple, read, with the Revised Version, to cleanse. The practice still met with in the East of rubbing the newborn child with salt may have rested partly on sanitary grounds (Jerome, in loc. Galen, 'De San.,' 1:7), partly on its symbolic meaning (Numbers 18:19). When this was done, the child was wrapt in swaddling clothes (Luke 2:7), but these too were wanting in the picture which Ezekiel draws. The whole scene may have been painted from the life. Such a birth may well have been witnessed during the march of the exiles, when the brutality of their Chaldean drivers allowed no halt, and the child was left to perish of neglect, and the thought may then have flashed across Ezekiel's mind that the pity which he felt for the deserted infant was a faint shadow of that which Jehovah had felt for Israel in the degradation of their heathen bondage.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
On the day
בְּי֨וֹם (bə·yō·wm)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3117: A day

of your birth
וּמוֹלְדוֹתַ֗יִךְ (ū·mō·wl·ḏō·w·ṯa·yiḵ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural construct | second person feminine singular
Strong's 4138: Nativity, lineage, native country, offspring, family

your cord
שָׁרֵּ֔ךְ (šār·rêḵ)
Noun - masculine singular construct | second person feminine singular
Strong's 8270: A string, the umbilical cord

was not
לֹֽא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

cut,
כָרַּ֣ת (ḵār·raṯ)
Verb - QalPass - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3772: To cut, to destroy, consume, to covenant

nor
לֹֽא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

were you washed
רֻחַ֖צְתְּ (ru·ḥaṣt)
Verb - Pual - Perfect - second person feminine singular
Strong's 7364: To wash, wash off or away, bathe

with water
וּבְמַ֥יִם (ū·ḇə·ma·yim)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 4325: Water, juice, urine, semen

for cleansing.
לְמִשְׁעִ֑י (lə·miš·‘î)
Preposition-l | Adverb
Strong's 4935: A cleansing

You were not
לֹ֣א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

rubbed with salt
וְהָמְלֵ֙חַ֙ (wə·hā·mə·lê·aḥ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hofal - Infinitive absolute
Strong's 4414: To rub to pieces, pulverize, to disappear as dust, to salt

or wrapped in cloths.
וְהָחְתֵּ֖ל (wə·hā·ḥə·têl)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hofal - Infinitive absolute
Strong's 2853: Perhaps entwine, enwrap


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 16:4 As for your birth in the day (Ezek. Eze Ezk)
Ezekiel 16:3
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