Ezekiel 5:5 "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

◄ Ezekiel 5:5 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
"This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

English Standard Version
“Thus says the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

New American Standard Bible
"Thus says the Lord GOD, 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.

King James Bible
Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
This is what the Lord GOD says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

International Standard Version
"This is what the Lord GOD says, 'This is Jerusalem. I placed her in the center of nations, with many nations surrounding her.

American Standard Version
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Thus saith the Lord God: This is Jerusalem, I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the countries round about her.

Darby Bible Translation
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem: I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the countries are round about her.

Young's Literal Translation
Thus said the Lord Jehovah: this is Jerusalem, In the midst of the nations I have set her, And round about her are the lands.

Cross References

Deuteronomy 4:6
Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

Deuteronomy 8:20
As the nations which the LORD destroys before your face, so shall you perish; because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.

Jeremiah 6:6
For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the middle of her.

Lamentations 1:1
How does the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

Ezekiel 4:1
You also, son of man, take you a tile, and lay it before you, and portray on it the city, even Jerusalem:

Ezekiel 5:4
Then take of them again, and cast them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 16:14
And your renown went forth among the heathen for your beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put on you, said the Lord GOD.

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

5:5-17 The sentence passed upon Jerusalem is very dreadful, the manner of expression makes it still more so. Who is able to stand in God's sight when he is angry? Those who live and die impenitent, will perish for ever unpitied; there is a day coming when the Lord will not spare. Let not persons or churches, who change the Lord's statutes, expect to escape the doom of Jerusalem. Let us endeavour to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Sooner or later God's word will prove itself true.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

5, 6. Explanation of the symbols:

Jerusalem—not the mere city, but the people of Israel generally, of which it was the center and representative.

in … midst—Jerusalem is regarded in God's point of view as center of the whole earth, designed to radiate the true light over the nations in all directions. Compare Margin ("navel"), Eze 38:12; Ps 48:2; Jer 3:17. No center in the ancient heathen world could have been selected more fitted than Canaan to be a vantage ground, whence the people of God might have acted with success upon the heathenism of the world. It lay midway between the oldest and most civilized states, Egypt and Ethiopia on one side, and Babylon, Nineveh, and India on the other, and afterwards Persia, Greece, and Rome. The Ph�nician mariners were close by, through whom they might have transmitted the true religion to the remotest lands; and all around the Ishmaelites, the great inland traders in South Asia and North Africa. Israel was thus placed, not for its own selfish good, but to be the spiritual benefactor of the whole world. Compare Ps 67:1-7 throughout. Failing in this, and falling into idolatry, its guilt was far worse than that of the heathen; not that Israel literally went beyond the heathen in abominable idolatries. But "corruptio optimi pessima"; the perversion of that which in itself is the best is worse than the perversion of that which is less perfect: is in fact the worst of all kinds of perversion. Therefore their punishment was the severest. So the position of the Christian professing Church now, if it be not a light to the heathen world, its condemnation will be sorer than theirs (Mt 5:13; 11:21-24; Heb 10:28, 29).