Ezekiel 5:5
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.

New Living Translation
“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is an illustration of what will happen to Jerusalem. I placed her at the center of the nations,

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.

Berean Standard Bible
This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all 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.

New King James Version
“Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her.

New American Standard Bible
“This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have placed her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.

NASB 1995
“Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.

NASB 1977
“Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her.

Legacy Standard Bible
“Thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands all around her.

Amplified Bible
“Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the center of the nations, and countries are around her.

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.

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.

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.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Thus says THE LORD OF LORDS: “This is Jerusalem. I have set her among the nations and all the cities around her

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Thus saith the Lord; This is Jerusalem: I have set her and the countries round about her in the midst of the nations.

Contemporary English Version
I am the LORD God, and I have made Jerusalem the most important place in the world, and all other nations admire it.

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.

English Revised Version
Thus saith the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem: I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"This is what the Almighty LORD says: This is Jerusalem! I have placed it in the center of the nations with countries all around it.

Good News Translation
The Sovereign LORD said, "Look at Jerusalem. I put her at the center of the world, with other 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.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Thus saith the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem! I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her.

Literal Standard Version
Thus said Lord YHWH: “This [is] Jerusalem, | I have set her in the midst of the nations, | And the lands [are] around her.

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

New American Bible
Thus says the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem! I placed it in the midst of the nations, surrounded by foreign lands.

NET Bible
"This is what the sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her.

New Revised 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 Heart English Bible
"Thus says the Lord GOD: 'This is Jerusalem; I have placed her at the center of the nations, and countries are around her.

Webster's Bible Translation
Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are around her.

World English Bible
“The Lord Yahweh says: ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the middle of the nations, and countries are around 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.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Judgment Against Jerusalem
4Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel. 5This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’…

Cross References
Deuteronomy 4:6
Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."

Deuteronomy 8:20
Like the nations that the LORD has destroyed before you, so you will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God.

Jeremiah 6:6
For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Cut down the trees and raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; there is nothing but oppression in her midst.

Lamentations 1:1
How lonely lies the city, once so full of people! She who was great among the nations has become a widow. The princess of the provinces has become a slave.

Ezekiel 4:1
"Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 5:4
Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

Ezekiel 16:14
Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in the splendor I bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.


Treasury of Scripture

Thus said the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the middle of the nations and countries that are round about her.

This

Ezekiel 4:1
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:

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

Luke 22:19,20
And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me…

I have

Ezekiel 16:14
And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

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.

Micah 5:7
And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

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Ezekiel 5
1. Under the type of hair
5. is shown the judgment of Jerusalem for their rebellion
12. by famine, sword, and dispersion














(5) I have set it in the midst of the nations.--This was eminently true of Jerusalem, and of Israel as represented by Jerusalem, in all the ages of its history. It constituted one of the great opportunities of Israel had they been faithful to their calling, while it became a chief source of their disasters when they went astray from God. On the south were Egypt and Ethiopia; on the north, at first the great nation of the Hittites, and later the Syrians, and also Assyrians (who must reach Palestine from the north); on the coast were the Philistines, at the southern end, and on the northern the Ph?nicians, the great maritime nation having intercourse with all "the isles of the sea;" while on the deserts of the east and immediate south were the Ishmaelites, the chief inland traders, who kept up an intercourse by land with all these nations. Even with the great but little-known nations of India, commerce was established by Solomon. Thus centrally situated among the chief kingdoms of antiquity, Israel had the opportunity of presenting to the world the spectacle of a people strong and prosperous in the worship, and under the guardianship, of the one true God, and of becoming the great missionary of monotheism in the ancient world. At the same time they were separated from most of these nations by natural barriers, the deserts on the east and south, the sea on the west, the mountains on the north, which were sufficient to isolate them as a nation, and allow of their free development, without interference, as a God-fearing people. But when, by the unfaithfulness of the Israelites to their religion, the one bond of national unity was weakened, they became a ready prey to the nations around them. During the period of the Judges they fell under the power of one and another of the petty tribes on their confines; and later, when the great empire of Solomon was broken up in consequence of their sins, they were easily overcome by the powerful nations on either side. In all their later history the Israelites were a football between Egypt and Chaldaea, alternately spoiled by tribute as friends or devastated as enemies by each of them. So, in the Divine ordering of the world, responsibility must always be proportioned to privilege; and the failure to fulfil the responsibility leads, as in this case, not only to a withdrawal of the privilege, but to corresponding condemnation.

Verse 5. - This is Jerusalem, etc. The strange acted parables cease, and we have the unfigurative interpretation. The words that follow point to the central position of Jerusalem in the geography, and therefore in the history, of the ancient East: Egypt to the south, Assyria and Babylon to the north, and in the nearer distance Moabites and Ammonites, and Edomites, and Phoenicians, and Philistines; to all of these Jerusalem might have been as a city set on a hill, as the light of the Gentiles. That had been her ideal position from the first, as in the visions of Micah 4:1 and Isaiah 2:1 it was to be in its ideal future. The words are not without interest, as probably having suggested the thought, prominent in mediaeval geography (Dante, 'Inf.,' 34:115, and the Hereford 'Mappa Mundi'), that Jerusalem was physically the central point of the earth's surface. So Moslems believe Mecca to be the earth's centre, and the Greek word omphalos was applied to Delphi as implying the same belief

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
This is what
כֹּ֤ה (kōh)
Adverb
Strong's 3541: Like this, thus, here, now

the Lord
אֲדֹנָ֣י (’ă·ḏō·nāy)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 136: The Lord

GOD
יְהֹוִ֔ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3069: YHWH

says:
אָמַר֙ (’ā·mar)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

‘This [is]
זֹ֚את (zōṯ)
Pronoun - feminine singular
Strong's 2063: Hereby in it, likewise, the one other, same, she, so much, such deed, that,

Jerusalem,
יְר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔ם (yə·rū·šā·lim)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 3389: Jerusalem -- probably 'foundation of peace', capital city of all Israel

which I have set
שַׂמְתִּ֑יהָ (śam·tî·hā)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - first person common singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 7760: Put -- to put, place, set

in the center
בְּת֥וֹךְ (bə·ṯō·wḵ)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 8432: A bisection, the centre

of the nations,
הַגּוֹיִ֖ם (hag·gō·w·yim)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1471: A foreign nation, a Gentile, a troop of animals, a flight of locusts

with countries
אֲרָצֽוֹת׃ (’ă·rā·ṣō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 776: Earth, land

all around her.
וּסְבִיבוֹתֶ֖יהָ (ū·sə·ḇî·ḇō·w·ṯe·hā)
Conjunctive waw | Adverb | third person feminine singular
Strong's 5439: A circle, neighbour, environs, around


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OT Prophets: Ezekiel 5:5 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This (Ezek. Eze Ezk)
Ezekiel 5:4
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