Ezekiel 16:47 · Bible study
Ezekiel 16:47 Commentary: More Corrupt Than Sodom
Hebrew · 8 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Why does Ezekiel say Jerusalem was more corrupt than Sodom? Explore this shocking comparison, its historical context, and the weight of divine privilege.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God’s chosen people, Jerusalem, became worse in sin than Sodom and Samaria, cities already under judgment.
- Key words: “ways” (conduct), “abominations” (idolatrous practices), “more corrupt” (surpassing in moral depravity).
- Main debate: Whether the phrase “as if that were a very little thing” is temporal (soon) or comparative (despising as small); both readings underscore Jerusalem’s worse condition.
- Theological theme: Privilege before God brings heightened accountability; sin against greater light is more culpable.
- Best use: A warning against spiritual complacency and the illusion that knowing God automatically keeps us from becoming worse than the world.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were.
WEB World English Bible 2000
Yet you have not walked in their ways, nor done their abominations; but soon you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.
KJV King James Version 1769
Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Yet hast thou not walked in their ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast more corrupt than they in all thy ways.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
And--in their ways thou hast not walked, And according to their abominations done, As a little thing it hath been loathed, And thou dost more corruptly than they in all thy ways.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
And thou hast not walked in their ways, nor done according to their abominations; but as though that were a very little, thou hast been more corrupt than they in all thy ways.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
But neither hast thou walked in their ways, nor hast thou done a little less than they according to their wickednesses: thou hast done almost more wicked things than they in all thy ways.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Y aun no anduviste en sus caminos, ni hiciste según sus abominaciones; antes, como si esto fuera poco|strong="H6985, H6962" y muy poco, te corrompiste más que ellas en todos tus caminos.
Porém não andaste em seus caminhos, nem fizeste conforme suas abominações; mas em vez disso, como se fosse muito pouco, tu te corrompeste ainda mais que elas em todos os teus caminhos.
Tu n’ as pas seulement marché dans leurs voies, commis les mêmes abominations, c’ était trop peu; tu as été plus corrompue qu’ elles dans toutes tes voies.
wiewohl du dennoch nicht gelebt hast nach ihrem Wesen noch getan nach ihren Greueln. Es fehlt nicht viel, daß du es ärger gemacht hast denn sie in allem deinem Wesen.
Doch gij hebt in haar wegen niet gewandeld, noch naar haar gruwelen gedaan; het was wat gerings, een verdriet; maar gij hebt het meer verdorven dan zij, in al uw wegen.
E tu, non soltanto hai camminato nelle loro vie e commesso le stesse loro abominazioni; era troppo poco; ma in tutte le tue vie ti sei corrotta più di loro.
Aczkolwiekeś po drogach ich nie chodziła, aniś według obrzydliwości ich czyniła, obrzydziwszy to sobie jako rzecz małą, przecięś się bardziej niż one popsowała na wszystkich drogach twoich.
Но ты и не их путями ходила и не по их мерзостям поступала; этого было мало: ты поступала развратнее их на всех путях твоих.
你沒有 效法 她們的行為，也沒有照她們可憎的事 去做，你以那為小事，你一切 所行的 倒比她們 更壞。
Still you have not gone in their ways or done the disgusting things which they have done; but, as if that was only a little thing, you have gone deeper in evil than they in all your ways.
Verse in Context
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators agree that Ezekiel 16:47 delivers a deliberate, escalating shock. Calvin notes the prophet first calls Jerusalem a sister to Sodom and Samaria, then “pronounces that they surpassed both.” The verse does not excuse Jerusalem; rather, it frames her sin as exceeding the notorious cities. Gill states plainly that Jerusalem “outwent them, outstripped them in wickedness,” committing “greater abominations” with more aggravated circumstances because they had greater knowledge. Matthew Henry and Wesley concur that “all things considered, they were less sinners than thou.” The Cambridge Bible suggests the difficult Hebrew phrase may mean “speedily” they were corrupted, implying a swift relapse after divine favor. JFB points to Manasseh’s reign (2 Kings 21:9) as the historical fulfillment. Across these voices, the core conviction holds: God’s covenant people, blessed with law and prophets, traded their privilege for a corruption that made even Sodom look restrained.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Comparative view: Jerusalem actively exceeded Sodom's wickedness in quantity and severity; supported by verse 51 and 2 Kings 21:9.
- Temporal view: The obscure Hebrew phrase may mean 'soon' or 'quickly'—Jerusalem fell faster than the other cities; supported by Cambridge Bible's linguistic notes.
- Moral-psychological view: Jerusalem treated Sodom's sins as beneath them, so they innovated even worse evils; favored by Gill and the Geneva Notes.
What is clear: Jerusalem, God's chosen people, is judged to have been more morally corrupt than Sodom—a verdict that shocks the reader and underscores the severity of sin against divine revelation.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of 'not walked in their ways' | All commentators agree Jerusalem is not being excused; she is worse than Samaria and Sodom. | Calvin interprets 'not walked' as 'not equal', they surpassed them. Others take it as a rhetorical setup: Jerusalem did not simply imitate but exceeded. The difference is minor. |
| Interpretation of 'as if that were a very little thing' | The phrase indicates that Sodom's sin was somehow 'small' in Jerusalem's eyes or in the span of time before corruption. | Cambridge leans toward a temporal reading ('soon you were corrupted'), while Gill and the Geneva Notes favor a comparative sense ('they despised Sodom's sins as too small'). The Hebrew word is obscure, so both are held by faithful readers. |
| Historical referent for Jerusalem's exceeding corruption | Manasseh's reign is widely cited as the peak of Judah's sin (2 Kings 21). | Some see the entire monarchy from Hezekiah's reforms onward; Gill mentions Kimchi's view that only 23 years of righteousness existed after the Northern captivity. The general point stands: the trajectory was downward. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Ezekiel 16 is an extended allegory of Jerusalem as God’s unfaithful bride. The chapter opens with the city’s humble origins, an abandoned infant, then recounts how God adopted, clothed and covenanted with her. Verses 15, 34 describe her adultery: chasing idols, sacrificing children, and paying lovers rather than being paid. Verse 47 belongs to a climactic section (vv. 44, 59) where Jerusalem is compared to her “sisters”: Samaria to the north and Sodom to the south. Samaria had fallen to Assyria in 722 BC for her idolatry; Sodom was destroyed by fire from heaven in Genesis 19. For Ezekiel’s audience, these were archetypes of divine judgment.
The shock is that Jerusalem is worse. Historically, this matches the reign of Manasseh (696, 642 BC). Second Kings 21:9 reports that Manasseh “seduced them to do that which is evil more than the nations did whom Yahweh destroyed.” He filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, erected altars to Baal in the temple, and practiced child sacrifice. Ezekiel, prophesying in the decades before the Babylonian destruction (586 BC), sees the city hurtling toward a similar fate. By using Sodom as a yardstick, God makes the accusation undeniable: greater revelation produces greater accountability. The comparison would have stung because Sodom was considered irredeemable. Yet Jerusalem surpassed her.
The literary structure reinforces this. Verses 48, 51 repeat the charge: “Sodom has not done as you have done” and “Samaria has not committed half of your sins.” The passage does not diminish Sodom’s guilt, verse 49 lists Pride, gluttony, and neglect of the poor, but it puts Jerusalem’s rebellion in a different moral universe. This is not hyperbole; it is a measured divine indictment.
Textual Notes
The supplied commentaries note no significant textual variants for Ezekiel 16:47. The primary difficulty is lexical: the Hebrew word translated “as if that were a very little thing” (k'm't qt) is described by the Cambridge Bible as “utterly unknown” and possibly a fragment. Gill records alternate renderings such as “it was loathing as a little thing.” These affect whether the phrase is read temporally (“soon”) or comparatively (“as though it were a small matter”). The majority of translations (KJV, ASV, YLT, Darby) follow the comparative sense, while a few modern versions (BSB) adopt a temporal reading. No theological conclusion depends on resolving this; all agree Jerusalem’s sin exceeded Sodom’s.
Reception History
Ezekiel 16:47 has been read across traditions as a warning against presuming on God’s grace. Calvin used it to argue that even the most notorious sinners (Sodomites) are less guilty than those who sin against revealed knowledge. Matthew Henry applied the passage pastorally, insisting that “the sins of those that know their Lord’s will are far more heinous than the sins of the ignorant.” In Baptist and Wesleyan contexts, the verse has been cited in revival preaching to awaken complacent congregations, drawing the uncomfortable conclusion that churchgoers can out-sin the world by treating God’s blessings as license. Jewish commentators like Kimchi saw in the tiny window of righteousness (the 23 years after the Northern captivity) a lesson in how quickly privilege can evaporate. The verse appears regularly in studies on corporate sin and the judgment that begins with the household of God (1 Peter 4:17).
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- Corruption as competition. Jerusalem did not merely imitate Sodom and Samaria; she competed with them. Her sin had ambition, she innovated evil. The Hebrew phrase behind “a very little thing” suggests she treated their sins as beneath her, so she invented worse. Pride makes sin progressive.
- The sin of privilege. Greater knowledge of God brings greater culpability. Jerusalem had the law, the temple, and the prophets. Sodom had none of these. To sin against more light is to be more corrupt, even if the acts appear similar.
- Grace rejected becomes judgment. God had lavished love on Jerusalem, adoption, beauty, covenant. But she trusted her beauty instead of her Benefactor. The same love, when spurned, becomes the foundation of the most severe verdict. Yet the chapter does not end here; verses 60, 63 promise a renewed covenant.
Five-point outline
- Sin is never satisfied with the sins of others; it escalates.
- Familiarity with holy things can breed contempt rather than gratitude.
- Comparing ourselves to others is a false comfort; God compares us to His standard.
- Judgment is proportional to the revelation we have received.
- Even when judgment is deserved, restoration remains possible through God’s faithfulness.
Illustration hooks
- The employee who, given access to the company safe, embezzles far more than a petty thief outside the organization, greater opportunity, greater violation.
- The child raised in a loving home who treats their parents worse than a neglected child treats strangers, the love they received makes their rebellion more shocking.
Questions your congregation is asking
- “Why does God compare His people to people we think are far worse?”
- “Can a person or a nation become so desensitized that they lose the ability to measure their own sin?”
- “If Jerusalem could fall this far, what hope is there for us?”
Leading a Discussion
Ezekiel 16:47 cuts against our instinct to grade sin on a curve. We naturally rank sins, ours are mild, others’ are unforgivable. But God compares Jerusalem to Sodom and declares Jerusalem worse. This passage asks us to re-evaluate how we measure evil, and to face the sobering truth that knowing God without loving Him produces a unique corruption.
Discussion questions
- Read Ezekiel 16:47 in two or three translations. What words or phrases jump out at you?
- Why do you think God compares Jerusalem to Sodom and Samaria, cities already destroyed for their sin?
- According to the surrounding verses (vv. 48, 51), what specific sins did Sodom commit? How does Jerusalem’s sin differ?
- The verse says Jerusalem “soon” became more corrupt. What does that timing imply about how quickly a people can fall after receiving grace?
- In what ways might a community of faith today become “more corrupt” than those outside the faith?
- How does this passage challenge the way we compare ourselves to others, especially people we consider “worse” than us?
- Verse 60 later promises a new covenant. How does judgment open the door to restoration, and what does that tell us about God’s character?
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| I Kings 16:31 | As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. |
| II Kings 21:9 | But they didn’t listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than the nations did whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel. |
| II Kings 21:16 | Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; in addition to his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. |
| Ezekiel 5:6 | She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.’ |
| Ezekiel 5:7 | “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have followed the ordinances of the nations that are around you; |
| Ezekiel 8:17 | Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose. |
| Ezekiel 16:48 | As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. |
| Ezekiel 16:51 | Samaria hasn’t committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done. |
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
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What the Commentators Say
7 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin explains that when the prophet says the Jews did not walk in the ways of Sodom or Samaria, he does not mean they were innocent. Rather, they were so much worse that they left those nations behind, and God deliberately built the accusation gradually to shock them into paying attention to their far greater guilt.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The commentary highlights a textual puzzle: the phrase "a very little thing" may instead mean "a little while," suggesting speedy corruption. It also notes a rare Hebrew word of uncertain meaning, possibly a fragment of "little." The clear point is that Jerusalem's depravity surpassed even Sodom and Samaria.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
Yet hast thou not walked after their wayes, nor done after their abominations: but as it had bene a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more then they in all thy wayes.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill argues that Israel not only failed to learn from Samaria and Sodom but actually despised their sins as too small and unrefined. They looked down on those sinners as lacking boldness and taste for evil, so they deliberately committed worse abominations themselves. Israel's greater wickedness was aggravated by having more power, wisdom, and the means of grace.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
their abominations —Milcom and Chemosh, the "abominations of Ammon and Moab" ( 1 Ki 11:5 ; 1 Ki 11:7 ). corrupted more than they —So it is expressly recorded of Manasseh ( 2 Ki 21:9 ).
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry highlights the shameful irony: Jerusalem, which prided itself on being better than Sodom and Samaria, actually surpassed them in wickedness. Her greater privileges and knowledge made her sins more blameworthy. She actually justified those infamous cities by comparison, proving herself more corrupt than her sisters.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley emphasizes that those being addressed have no grounds to condemn others. Though they consider the sins of others repulsive, their own deeds are even worse in God's eyes. The point is one of moral inversion: the judged have become the greater offenders.