Ezekiel 24:23

Easy-to-Read Version

You will wear your turbans and your sandals. You will not show your sadness publicly or cry publicly, but you will waste away with guilt and talk to each other quietly about your grief.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Your turbans will remain on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not lament or weep but will waste away because of your iniquities and will groan to one another.

Hebrew Names Version
Your tires shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.

King James Version
And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.

English Standard Version
Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to one another.

New American Standard Bible
'Your turbans will be on your heads, and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn and you will not weep; but you will rot away in your guilty deeds, and you will groan to one another.

New Century Version
Your turbans must stay on your heads, and your sandals on your feet. You must not cry loudly, but you must rot away in your sins and groan to each other.

Amplified Bible
'Your turbans will be on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but you will rot away in your sins and you will groan to one another.

World English Bible
Your tires shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And your tyre shalbe vpon your heads, and your shooes vpon your feete: ye shall not mourne nor weepe, but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourne one toward another.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'Your turbans will be on your heads and your shoes on your feet. You will not mourn and you will not weep, but you will rot away in your iniquities and you will groan to one another.

Legacy Standard Bible
And your headdresses will be on your heads and your shoes on your feet. You will not mourn, and you will not weep, but you will rot away in your iniquities, and you will groan to one another.

Berean Standard Bible
Your turbans will remain on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but you will waste away because of your sins and groan among yourselves.

Contemporary English Version
You won't take off your turbans and your sandals. You won't cry or mourn, but all day long you will go around groaning because of your sins.

Complete Jewish Bible
put your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet, and neither observe mourning nor cry. Rather, because of your crimes you will pine away and groan to one another.

Darby Translation
and your turbans shall be upon your heads, and your sandals upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall waste away in your iniquities and moan one toward another.

George Lamsa Translation
And your hair shall not be cut, and your shoes shall be on your feet; you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities and shall try to comfort one another.

Good News Translation
You will not go bareheaded or barefoot or mourn or cry. You will waste away because of your sins, and you will groan to one another.

Lexham English Bible
And your turban must be on your heads, and your sandals must be on your feet. You shall not mourn, and you shall not weep, but you shall waste away because of your iniquities, and you shall groan to one another.

Literal Translation
And your turbans shall be on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You shall not wail nor weep, but you shall rot away in your iniquities, and each man groan to his brother.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
youre bonettes shal ye haue vpon youre heades, & shues vpon youre fete Ye shal nether mourne ner wepe, but in youre synnes ye shal be soroufull, and one repete with another.

American Standard Version
And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.

Bible in Basic English
And your head-dresses will be on your heads and your shoes on your feet: there will be no sorrow or weeping; but you will be wasting away in the punishment of your evil-doing, and you will be looking at one another in wonder.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
and your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet; ye shall not make lamentation nor weep; but ye shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.

King James Version (1611)
And your tires shall be vpon your heads, and your shooes vpon your feet: yee shall not mourne nor weepe, but yee shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourne one towards an other.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And your tire [shalbe] vpon your heades, and your shoes vpon your feete: ye shall neither mourne nor weepe, but ye shall pyne away in your iniquities, & mourne one towardes another.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And your hair shall be upon your head, and your shoes on your feet: neither shall ye at all lament or weep; but ye shall pine away in your iniquities, and shall comfort every one his brother.

English Revised Version
And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Ye schulen haue corouns in youre heedis, and schoon in the feet; ye schulen not weile, nether ye schulen wepe, but ye schulen faile in wretchidnesse, for youre wickidnessis; and ech man schal weile to his brother.

Update Bible Version
And your tires shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.

Webster's Bible Translation
And your tires [shall be] upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one towards another.

New English Translation
Your turbans will be on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you will not mourn or weep, but you will rot for your iniquities and groan among yourselves.

New King James Version
Your turbans shall be on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you shall neither mourn nor weep, but you shall pine away in your iniquities and mourn with one another.

New Living Translation
Your heads will remain covered, and your sandals will not be taken off. You will not mourn or weep, but you will waste away because of your sins. You will groan among yourselves for all the evil you have done.

New Life Bible
Your heads will be covered and your shoes will be on your feet. You will not have sorrow or cry. But you will waste away in your sins and cry in pain to one another.

New Revised Standard
Your turbans shall be on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall pine away in your iniquities and groan to one another.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And your chaplets shall be on your heads. And your sandals on your feet, Ye shall neither lament, nor weep,- Yet shall ye pine away in your iniquities, and shall groan one to another.

Douay-Rheims Bible
You shall have crowns on your heads, and shoes on your feet: you shall not lament nor weep, but you shall pine away for your iniquities, and every one shall sigh with his brother.

Revised Standard Version
Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall pine away in your iniquities and groan to one another.

Young's Literal Translation
And your bonnets [are] on your heads, And your shoes [are] on your feet, Ye do not mourn nor do ye weep, And ye have wasted away for your iniquities, And ye have howled one unto another.

Contextual Overview

¹⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, ¹⁶ "Son of man, you love your wife very much, but I am going to take her away from you. Your wife will die suddenly, but you must not show your sadness. You must not cry loudly. You will cry and your tears will fall, ¹⁷ but you must mourn quietly. Dress as you normally do; wear your turban and sandals; don't cover your mustache, and don't eat the food people normally eat when someone dies." ¹⁸ The next morning I told the people what God had said. That evening, my wife died. The next morning I did what God commanded. ¹⁹ Then the people said to me, "Why are you doing this? What does it mean?" ²⁰ Then I said to them, "The word of the Lord came to me. He told me ²¹ to speak to the family of Israel. The Lord God said, ‘Look, I will destroy my holy place. You are proud of that place and sing songs of praise about it. You love to see it. You really love that place. But I will destroy it, and your children that you left behind will be killed in battle. ²² But you will do the same things that I have done about my dead wife. You will not cover your mustache or eat the food people normally eat when someone dies. ²³ You will wear your turbans and your sandals. You will not show your sadness publicly or cry publicly, but you will waste away with guilt and talk to each other quietly about your grief. ²⁴ So Ezekiel is an example for you. You will do all the same things he did. That time of punishment will come, and then you will know that I am the Lord God .'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

but: Ezekiel 4:17, Ezekiel 33:10, Leviticus 26:39

and mourn: Isaiah 59:11

Reciprocal: Exodus 33:4 - and no 2 Samuel 15:30 - barefoot Psalms 78:64 - widows Isaiah 20:2 - put Isaiah 30:20 - the bread Lamentations 4:9 - for Ezekiel 24:17 - bind

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet..... As will be necessary while travelling, and when carrying captive to a foreign country, as now will be their case:

ye shall not mourn nor weep; shall not dare to do it, because of their enemies; and, moreover, so great should be their miseries and calamities, that they should be struck dumb, and quite astonished and stupefied with them; that they should not be able to vent their sorrow by an outward act of mourning:

but ye shall pine away for your iniquities; without any true sense of them, or godly sorrow for them, but in wretched hardness of heart, and black despair:

and mourn one towards another; not to God, confessing their sins, being contrite and penitent; but to one another, fretting, murmuring, and complaining at the hand of God upon them: this seems to denote the private way of mourning they should use for fear of the enemy, when they could get together by themselves, as well as their disregard to God, against whom they had sinned.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The death of Ezekiel’s wife took place in the evening of the same day that he delivered the foregoing prophecy. This event was to signify to the people that the Lord would take from them all that was most dear to them; and - owing to the extraordinary nature of the times - quiet lamentation for the dead, according to the usual forms of mourning, would be impossible.

Ezekiel 24:17

The priest in general was to mourn for his dead (Leviticus 21:1 ff); but Ezekiel was to be an exception to the rule. The “tire” was the priest’s mitre.

Eat not the bread of men - Food supplied for the comfort of the mourners.

Ezekiel 24:23

Pine away - Compare Leviticus 26:39. The outward signs of grief were a certain consolation. Their absence would indicate a heart-consuming sorrow.

Ezekiel 24:27

Ezekiel had been employed four years in foretelling the calamities about to come to pass. He had been utterly disregarded by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and received with apparent respect but with real incredulity by those in exile. Now until the city had been actually taken, the voice of prophecy should cease, so far as God’s people were concerned. Hence the intervening series of predictions relating to neighboring and foreign nations Ezek. 25–32. After which the prophet’s voice was again heard addressing his countrymen in their exile. This accounts for the apparently parenthetical character of the next eight chapters.