Again Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations; and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite. An Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite. 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. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, because you were abhorred in the day that you were born.
“ ‘ “When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent ornament. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and bare.
“ ‘ “Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and you became mine.
“ ‘ “Then washed I you with water. Yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered work, and put sealskin sandals on you. I dressed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I decked you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands, and put a chain on your neck. I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were decked with gold and silver. Your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered work. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate. Your renown went out among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you,” says the Lord Yahweh.
“ ‘ “But you trusted in your beauty, and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by. It was his.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15 This chapter contains very severe reproaches against the people…
This chapter contains very severe reproaches against the people of Judea who were left at Jerusalem. For although Ezekiel had been a leader to the Israelites and the Jewish exiles, yet God wished his assistance in profiting others. Hence the office which God had imposed upon his Prophet is now extended to the citizens of Jerusalem, whose abominations he is ordered to make manifest. The manner is afterwards expressed, when God shows the condition of that nation before he embraced it with his favor. But after recounting the benefits by which he had adorned the people, he reproves their ingratitude, and shows in many words, and by different figures, how detestable was their perfidy in revolting: so far from God after he had treated them so liberally. These things will now be treated in their own order. As to Ezekiel’s being ordered to lay bare to the Jews their abominations, we gather from this that men are often so blinded by their vices that they do not perceive what is sufficiently evident to every one else. And we know that the people was quite drunk with pride, for they voluntarily blinded themselves by their own flatteries. It is not surprising, then, that God orders them to bring their abominations into the midst, so that they may at length feel themselves to be sinners. And this passage is worthy of notice, since we think those admonitions superfluous until God drags us into the light, and places our sins before our eyes. There is no one, indeed, whose conscience does not reprove him, since God’s law is written on the hearts of all, and so we naturally distinguish between good and evil; but if we think how great our stupidity is concealing our faults, we shall not wonder that the prophets uttered this command, to lay open our abominations to ourselves. For not only is that self-knowledge of which I have spoken cold, but also involved in much darkness, so that he who is but partially conscious grows willingly hardened while he indulges himself. Again, we must remember that the Jews were to be argued with in this way, because they pleased themselves with their own superstitions. For the Prophet shows that their chief wickedness consisted in deserting God’s law, in prostituting themselves to idols, and in setting up adulterous worship like houses of ill fame; but in this they pleased themselves, as we daily see in the papacy, that under this pretext the foulest idolatries are disguised, since they think themselves to be thereby worshipping God.
It is not surprising, then, if God here obliquely blames the stupidity and sloth of the Jews when he commands their abominations to be laid open, which are already sufficiently known to all. Afterwards, that God may begin to show how improperly the people were behaving, he recalls them to the first origin or fountain of their race. But we must notice that God speaks differently of the origin of the people. For sometimes he reminds them of Abraham’s condition before he had stretched forth his hand and dragged them, as it were, from the lowest regions into life, as it is said in the last chapter of Joshua, (Joshua 24:2, 3,) Thy father Abraham was worshipping idols when God adopted him. But sometimes the beginning is made from the covenant of God, when he chose Abraham with his posterity for himself. But in this passage God takes the time from the period of the small band of men emerging by wonderful increase into a nation, although they had been so wretchedly oppressed in Egypt; for the redemption of the people which immediately followed is called sometimes their nativity. So here God says that the Jews were there born when they increased so incredibly, though when oppressed by the Egyptian tyranny they had scarcely any place among living men. And what he says of Jews applies equally to all the posterity of Abraham: for the condition of the ten tribes was the same as that of Judea. But since the Prophet speaks to a people still surviving, he is silent about what he would have said, if he had been commanded to utter this mandate to the exiles and captives, as well as to the citizens of Jerusalem. Whatever its meaning, God here pronounces that the Jews sprang from the land of Canaan, from an Amorite father, and from a Hittite mother
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15 Thou boastest to be of the seed of Abraham,…
Thou boastest to be of the seed of Abraham, but thou art degenerate and followest the abominations of the wicked Canaanites, as children do the manners of their fathers, Isa. 1:4 and 57:3.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–15 Eze 16:1 Again the word of the LORD came…
Eze 16:1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ver. 1. Again the word of the Lord came unto me.] For the better setting on of what had been said in the foregoing chapter, for cutting the combs of the self-conceited Jews, and convincing them of their wickedness and wretchedness thereby. The chapter consisteth of law and gospel, {Eze 16:60} and is a lively type, animae peccatricis et poenitentis, of an offending and repenting soul.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–15 Again, Heb. And, frequently and properly enough rendered as…
Again, Heb. And, frequently and properly enough rendered as here, again, not pointing out any particular time wherein it came to the prophet.
The word of the Lord came unto me; both commanding and directing him what to speak; and it is a very elegant description of God’s dealing with the Jews, and their carriage toward God; his dealing was kindness and tender compassion in the most unparalleled expressions of it toward the Jews, theirs to God was the most unthankful, undutiful, and rebelious.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 15 Ezekiel is now among the captives in Babylon; but,…
Ezekiel is now among the captives in Babylon; but, as Jeremiah at Jerusalem wrote for the use of the captives though they had Ezekiel upon the spot with them (ch. 29), so Ezekiel wrote for the use of Jerusalem, though Jeremiah himself was resident there; and yet they were far from looking upon it as an affront to one another's help both by preaching and writing. Jeremiah wrote to the captives for their consolation, which was the thing they needed; Ezekiel here is directed to write to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for their conviction and humiliation, which was the thing they needed.
I. This is his commission (Eze 16:2): "Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations (that is, her sins); set them in order before her." Note, 1. Sins are not only provocations which God is angry at, but abominations which he hates, as contrary to his nature, and which we ought to hate, Jer 44:4. 2. The sins of Jerusalem are in a special manner so. The practice of profaneness appears most odious in those that make a profession of religion. 3. Though Jerusalem is a place of great knowledge, yet she is loth to know her abominations; so partial are men in their own favour that they are hardly made to see and own their own badness, but deny it, palliate or extenuate it. 4. It is requisite that we should know our sins, that we may confess them, and may justify God in what he brings upon us for them. 5. It is the work of ministers to cause sinners, sinners in Jerusalem, to know their abominations, to set before them the glass of the law, that in it they may see their own deformities and defilements, to tell them plainly of their faults. Thou art the man.
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II. That Jerusalem may be made to know her abominations, and particularly the abominable ingratitude she had been guilty of, it was requisite that she should be put in mind of the great things God had done for her, as the aggravations of her bad conduct towards him; and, to magnify those favours, she is in these verses made to know the meanness and baseness of her original, from what poor beginnings God raised her, and how unworthy she was of his favour and of the honour he had put upon her. Jerusalem is here put for the Jewish church and nation, which is here compared to an outcast child, base-born and abandoned, which the mother herself has no affection nor concern for. 1. The extraction of the Jewish nation was mean: "Thy birth is of the land of Canaan (Eze 16:3); thou hadst from the very first the spirit and disposition of a Canaanite." The patriarchs dwelt in Canaan, and they were there but strangers and sojourners, had no possession, no power, not one foot of ground of their own but a burying-place. Abraham and Sarah were indeed their father and mother, but they were only inmates with the Amorites and Hittites, who, having the dominion, seemed to be as parents to the seed of Abraham, witness the court Abraham made to the children of Seth (Gen 23:4, Gen 23:8), the dependence they had upon their neighbours the Canaanites, and the fear they were in of them, Gen 13:7; Gen 34:30. If the patriarchs, at their first coming to Canaan, had conquered it, and made themselves masters of it, this would have put an honour upon their family and would have looked great in history; but, instead of that, they went from one nation to another (Psa 105:13), as tenants from one farm to another, almost as beggars from one door to another, when they were but few in number, yea, very few. And yet this was not the worst; their fathers had served other gods in Ur of the Chaldees (Jos 24:2); even in Jacob's family there were strange gods, Gen 35:2. Thus early had they a genius leading them to idolatry; and upon this account their ancestors were Amorites and Hittites. 2. When they first began to multiply their condition was really very deplorable, like that of a new-born child, which must of necessity die from the womb if the knees prevent it not, Job 3:11, Job 3:12. The children of Israel, when they began to increase into a people and became considerable, were thrown out from the country that was intended for them; a famine drove them thence. Egypt was the open field into which they were cast; there they had no protection or countenance from the government they were under, but, on the contrary, were ruled with rigour, and their lives embittered; they had no encouragement given them to build up their families, no help to build up their estates, no friends or allies to strengthen their interests. Joseph, who had been the shepherd and stone of Israel, was dead; the king of Egypt, who should have been kind to them for Joseph's sake, set himself to destroy this man-child as soon as it was born (Rev 12:4), ordered all the males to be slain, which, it is likely, occasioned the exposing of many as well as Moses, to which perhaps the similitude here has reference. The founders of nations and cities had occasion for all the arts and arms they were masters of, set their heads on work, by policies and stratagems, to preserve and nurse up their infant states. Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem - So vast were the efforts requisite to the establishment of the Roman name. Virgil. But the nation of Israel had no such care taken of it, no such pains taken with it, as Athens, Sparta, Rome, and other commonwealths had when they were first founded, but, on the contrary, was doomed to destruction, like an infant new-born, exposed to wind and weather, the navel-string not cut, the poor babe not washed, not clothed, no swaddled, because not pitied, Eze 16:4, Eze 16:5. Note, We owe the preservation of our infant lives to the natural pity and compassion which the God of nature has put into the hearts of parents and nurses towards new-born children. This infant is said to be cast out, to the loathing of her person; it was a sign that she was loathed by those that bore her, and she appeared loathsome to all that looked upon her. The Israelites were an abomination to the Egyptians, as we find Gen 43:32; Gen 46:34. Some think that this refers to the corrupt and vicious disposition of that people from their beginning: they were not only the weakest and fewest of all people (Deu 7:7), but the worst and most ill-humoured of all people. God giveth thee this good land, not for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked people, Deu 9:6. And Moses tells them there (Eze 16:24), You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you. They were not suppled, nor washed, nor swaddled; they were not at all tractable or manageable, nor cast into any good shape. God took them to be his people, not because he saw any thing in them inviting or promising, but so it seemed good in his sight. And it is a very apt illustration of the miserable condition of all the children of men by nature. As for our nativity, in the day that we were born we were shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, our understandings darkened, our minds alienated from the life of God, polluted with sin, which rendered us loathsome in the eyes of God. Marvel not then that we are told, You must be born again.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–15 Again the word of the Lord came unto me,…
Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. The word of prophecy from the Lord, as the Targum; the following representation was made to him under a spirit of prophecy.
Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. The word of prophecy from the Lord, as the Targum; the following representation was made to him under a spirit of prophecy.
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Ezekiel 16:2
eze 16:2
eze 16:2
eze 16:2Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. That is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as the Targum; these are mentioned instead of the whole body of the people, because that Jerusalem was the metropolis of the nation, whose sins were very many and heinous: called "abominations", because abominable to God, and rendered them so to him; particularly their idolatries are meant; which, though committed by them, and so must be known to them, yet were not owned, confessed, and repented of by them, they not being convinced of the evil of them; in order to which the prophet is bid to set them before them, and show them the evil nature of them; and which he might do by writing to them, for he himself was now in Chaldea with the captives there. The Targum is,
"son of man, reprove the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and show them their abominations.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15 The mean beginning of the Jewish church and nation,…
The mean beginning of the Jewish church and nation, ver. 1- 5. The many favours God bestowed upon them, ver. 6-14. Their treacherous and ungrateful requital, ver. 15-34. Terrible judgments threatened, ver. 35-43. An aggravation of their sin and of their punishment, ver. 44-59. A promise of mercy to a remnant, ver. 60-63
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15 In this chapter the mercy of God to Jerusalem,…
CHAPTER XVI
In this chapter the mercy of God to Jerusalem, (or the Jewish
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Church and nation,) is set forth by the emblem of a person that
should take up an exposed infant, bring her up with great
tenderness, and afterwards marry her, 1-14.
She is then upbraided with her monstrous ingratitude in
departing from the worship of God, and polluting herself with
the idolatries of the nations around her, under the figure of
a woman that proves false to a tender and indulgent husband,
15-52.
But, notwithstanding these her heinous provocations, God
promises, after she should suffer due correction, to restore
her again to his favour, 53-63.
The mode of describing apostasy from the true religion to the
worship of idols under the emblem of adultery, (a figure very
frequent in the sacred canon,) is pursued unth great force, and
at considerable length, both in this and the twenty-third
chapter; and is excellently calculated to excite in the Church
of God the highest detestation of all false worship.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVI
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 13, 15 Eze 16:2. Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations —…
Eze 16:2. Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations — Her foul sins and multiplied transgressions, especially her idolatries, or spiritual adulteries, and unexampled folly in her lewdness. “This might probably be done by way of letter, as Jeremiah signified the will of God to the captives at Babylon. God here particularly upbraids Jerusalem for her iniquities, because it was the place he had chosen for his peculiar residence; and yet the inhabitants had defiled that very place, nay, and the temple itself with idolatry; the sin particularly denoted by the word abomination.” “Nothing can give us a greater horror of the crimes of Jerusalem than the manner in which Ezekiel speaks here. This city must certainly have carried her impiety to the greatest height, to merit reproaches so lively and strong.” See Lowth and Calmet.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 Idolatry is frequently represented by the prophets under the…
Idolatry is frequently represented by the prophets under the figure of a wife’s unfaithfulness to her husband. This image is here so portrayed, as to exhibit the aggravation of Israel’s guilt by reason of her origin and early history. The original abode of the progenitors of the race was the land of Canaan, defiled with idolatry and moral corruption. Israel itself was like a child born in a polluted land, abandoned from its birth, left by its parents in the most utter neglect to the chance regard of any passer-by. Such was the state of the people in Egypt Eze 16:3-5. On such a child the Lord looked with pity, tended, and adopted it. Under His care it grew up to be comely and beautiful, and the Lord joined it to Himself in that close union, which is figured by the bonds of wedlock. The covenants made under Moses and Joshua represent this alliance Eze 16:6-8. In the reigns of David and Solomon, Israel shone with all the glory of temporal prosperity Eze 16:9-14. The remainder of the history of the people when divided is, in the prophet’s eye, a succession of defection and degradation marked by the erection of high places Eze 16:16-20; by unholy alliances with foreign nations Eze 16:26-33. Such sins were soon to meet their due punishment. As an unfaithful wife was brought before the people, convicted, and stoned, so should the Lord make His people a gazing-stock to all the nations round about, deprive them of all their possessions and of their city, and cast them forth as exiles to be spoiled and destroyed in a foreign land Eze 16:35-43.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15 Cethite, or "Hethite." These two were probably the most…
Cethite, or "Hethite." These two were probably the most abandoned of Chanaan. Daniel (xiii. 56.) give the infamous judges the like appellation; and Isaias (i. 10.) calls the Jews princes of Sodom. (Calmet) --- So Dido says to Eneas: Nec te diva parens, generis nec Dardanus auctor
Perfide sed duris genuit te cautibus, &c. (Virgil, Æneid iv.) (Haydock)
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--- But we nowhere find such a vehement and continued reprimand. The prophet seems to quit his proper character to make (Calmet) the abominations of the people known and detested, chap. iii. 8. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 5. The Story of the Lewd Adulteress (Ezekiel 16.)
5. The Story of the Lewd Adulteress (Ezekiel 16.)
1And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 2Son of man, cause Jeru salem to know her abominations; 3And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto Jerusalem: Thy origin [extraction] and thy birth is of the land of the Canaanite; 4thy father was the Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. And [as regards] thy birth, in the day that thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed with water for cleansing; and thou wast not rubbed with salt 5at all, nor wast thou wrapt in swaddling-bands at all. No eye had pity upon thee [looked upon thee compassionately], to do one of these things for thee, to bend over thee; and thou wast cast out upon the face of the field [upon the open field], 6in contempt of thy soul [life], in the day that thou wast born. And I passed by thee, and I saw thee stamping [or, trampled] in thy blood, and said unto thee, 7In thy blood live! and [yea] said unto thee, In thy blood live! Ten thousand [myriads] like the bud of the field I made thee [to be, to become]; and thou didst increase [didst grow up] and wax great, and camest to most excellent ornament; thy breasts became firm [rose up], and thy hair grew, yet thou wast naked and 8bare. And I passed by thee, and saw thee, and, behold, [it was] thy time, a time of movements of love, and I spread My wing over thee, and covered thy nakedness; and I swore unto thee, and entered into covenant with thee 9—sentence of the Lord Jehovah—and thou becamest Mine. And I washed thee with water, and rinsed thy blood from off thee, and anointed thee with oil. And 10I clothed thee with broidered work, and shod thee with tachash, and wrapped thee round with byssus, and covered thee with silk. And 11I decked thee with ornament, and put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain about thy neck. 12And I put a ring in thy nose, and earrings in thine ears, 13and a splendid crown upon thy head. And thou didst adorn thyself with gold and silver, and thy clothing was byssus and silk and broidered work; fine flour, and honey, and oil didst thou eat; and thou wast [becamest] exceedingly beautiful, and didst prosper into [attain unto] a kingdom [kingly authority or 14dignity]. And thy name went forth among the heathen for thy beauty; for it was perfect through My adornment, which I put upon thee—sentence of 15the Lord Jehovah.—And [yet] thou didst trust in thy beauty, and didst play the harlot upon thy name, and didst pour out thy fornications upon every 16one that passed by; his it was. And thou didst take of thy garments, and didst make for thyself high places, spotted [patched] ones, and didst play the harlot 17upon them: they should not come, neither should it be. And thou didst take articles of thy splendour [thy splendid jewels] of My gold and My silver, which I had given thee, and didst make for thyself images of men, and didst 18play the harlot with them. And thou didst take thy broidered garments, and didst cover them; and My oil and My incense thou didst set before them. 19And My bread which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey I gave thee to eat, and thou didst set it before them as a sweet savour: and it was so—20sentence of the Lord Jehovah. And thou didst take thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou barest unto Me, and didst sacrifice them to them to devour; 21was it less than thy whoredoms? And thou didst slay My sons, and gavest them up, in causing them to pass through [the fire] for them [i. e. for the idols]. 22And with all thy abominations and thy whoredoms thou didst not remember the days of thy childhood [youth], when thou wast naked and bare, wast stamping [trampled] in thy blood. 23And it came to pass after all thy wickedness—woe, 24woe unto thee! sentence of the Lord Jehovah—That thou didst build for thee a vault, and didst make for thee a high place in every street. 25At every head of a way [crossway, parting-way] thou didst build thy high place, and didst put to shame [didst abhor] thy beauty, and didst spread out thy 26feet to every passer-by, and didst multiply thy whoredoms. And thou didst whore after the sons of Egypt, thy neighbours, great of flesh, and 27didst multiply thy whoredoms, to provoke Me to anger. And, behold, I stretched out My hand over thee, and diminished thy allowance, and gave thee to the soul of them that hated thee, the daughters of the Philistines, 28who were ashamed of thy lewd way. And thou didst whore after the sons of Asshur for want of being satisfied; and thou didst whore with 29them, and still wast not satisfied. And thou didst increase thy whoredom unto the land of Canaan, Chaldea, and even with this wast not satisfied. 30How exhausted [spent with longing] is thy heart—sentence of the Lord Jehovah—when thou doest all this, the doing of an imperious whorish woman. 31When thou didst build thy vault at the head of every way, and madest thy high place in every street, thou wast not like the harlot, to scorn the hire. 32The woman that committeth adultery under her husband receiveth strangers! 33To all harlots they give [are accustomed to give] a present [a gift], and [yet] thou gavest thy presents to all thy lovers, and didst make presents to them, to 34come to thee on every side for thy whoredoms. And there was in thee the contrary of women; in thy whoredoms they did not follow after thee for whoredom, and in thy giving of hire when no hire was given to thee; and 35[so] thou wast the contrary.—Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah. 36Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thy brass was poured out [emptied out], and thy nakedness uncovered in thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the filthy idols of thy abominations, and according to the blood of thy sons, 37whom thou hast given unto them; Therefore, behold, I am gathering all thy lovers, to whom thou wast pleasant, and all whom thou hast loved, with all whom thou hast hated; and I gather them against thee from round about, 38and uncover thy nakedness unto them, and they see all thy nakedness. And I judge thee with the judgments of adulteresses and of those who shed blood; 39and I make thee into blood of fury and jealousy. And I give thee into their hand, and they throw down thy vault, and demolish thy high places; and they strip thee of thy clothes, and take the articles of thy splendour [thy splendid 40jewels], and leave thee naked and bare. And they bring up a company against thee, and cast at thee with stones, and hew thee down with their swords. 41And they burn thy houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee before the eyes of many women; and I make thee cease from being a harlot, neither 42shalt thou give hire any more. And I make My fury rest in thee, and My jealousy departs from thee; and I take rest, and I will no more be angry. 43Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy childhood [youth], and didst rage against Me in all this, behold, I also have given thy way upon thy head—sentence of the Lord Jehovah—and hast thou not committed lewdness above all thy abominations?
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44Behold, every one that deals in proverbs shall utter a proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter. 45Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that spurneth [casteth off] her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, who spurned their husbands and their 46children; your mother is a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. And thy great sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, that dwell at thy left; and thy smaller sister than thou, that dwelleth on thy right, is Sodom and 47her daughters. And [yet] thou didst not walk in their ways, nor didst after their abominations; as only a little, thou wast more corrupt [didst act more corruptly] than they in all thy ways. 48As I live—sentence of the Lord Jehovah—if Sodom thy sister hath done, she and her daughters, as thou hast done and thy daughters! 49Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister: pride, fulness of bread, and rest free from care [tranquil security], were to her and her daughters; and the hand of the poor and needy she did not take hold of 50[strengthen]. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me; 51and I removed them when I saw it. And Samaria hath not committed the half of thy sins; and thou didst multiply thy abominations more than they, 52and didst justify thy sisters by all thy abominations which thou didst. Thou also bear [take upon thee] thy disgrace [shame], which thou didst adjudge to thy sisters; by thy sins, wherein thou hast done more abominably than they, they will be more righteous than thou; and [yea] also be thou ashamed, and bear thy disgrace, because thou didst justify thy sisters.
53And I turn back their misery, the misery of Sodom and her daughters, and the misery of Samaria and her daughters, and the misery of thy miseries in the midst of them. 54That thou mayest bear thy disgrace, and be 55ashamed of all that thou hast done, in that thou comfortest them. And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their first estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their first estate, and thou and thy daughters 56shall return to your first estate. And Sodom thy sister was not for a report in thy mouth in the day of thy haughtinesses, 57Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of the scorn of the daughters of Aram, and of all her [Jerusalem’s] surroundings, the daughters of the Philistines, who despised thee round about. Thy lewdness and thy abominations, 58thou hast borne 59[bearest] them—sentence of Jehovah. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: And I did with thee as thou hast done, who didst despise the oath to break the 60covenant. And [yet] I remember My covenant with thee in the days of thy 61childhood [youth], and establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. And thou rememberest thy ways, and art ashamed, when thou receivest thy sisters, those greater than thyself along with those smaller than thyself; and I give 62them to thee for daughters, and not by thy covenant; And I establish My 63covenant with thee; and thou knowest that I am Jehovah. To the end thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and there may be no more opening of thy mouth because of thy disgrace, when I cover for thee all that thou hast done: sentence of the Lord Jehovah.
Eze_16:4. Sept.: ... ον̓κ ἐδησας τ. μκστονς σον... ον̓κ ἐλονσθης τον κριστον μον—Vulg.: non es lota in salutem—Sept., Syr., hex., and Arabic read: שדך, ubera tua.
Eze_16:5. …ὀφθαλμος μον ἐπι σοι... τοντων, τον παθειν τι ἐπι σοι... τη σκολιοτητι της ψνκης σον—
Eze_16:6. ... πεφνρμενην ἐν τω αἱμ.... ἐκ τον αἱματος σον ἡ ζωη σον, κ. πληθνγον (Eze_16:7.)—For חיי, there is a reading חייך, vita tua.
Eze_16:7. ... κ. εἰσηλθες εἰς πολεις πολεων—Vulg.: Multiplicatam quasi germen … et ingressa es et pervenisti ad mundum muliebrem; … nuda et confusione plena.—For ודים, there is a reading: שדיך.
Eze_16:8. ... ὡς καιρος καταλνοντων. Vulg.: tempus tuum, tempus amantium.
Eze_16:12. κ. ἐδωκα ἐνωτιον ἐπι τον μνκτηρα σον... κ στεφανον κανχησεως—
Eze_16:13. For ומלבושך, there is a reading: ומלבושיך, et vestimenta tua; Sept., Syr.
Eze_16:15. ... ὁ ον̓κ ἐσται—Vulg.: … ut ejus fieres.—Sept. reads: תזנותך, in the sing.
Eze_16:16. ... κ. ον̓ μη εἰσελθης ον̓δʼ ον̓ μη γενηται. Vulg.: … sicut non est factum neque futurum est.
Eze_16:19-21. ... κ. ἐγενετο μετα ταυτα…κ. ἐλαβες…̔Ως μικρα ἐξεπορνευσας, κ. ἐσφαξας τ. τεκνα…ἐν τω ἀποτροπιαζεσθαι σε αὐτα ἐν αὐτοις. (Many Codices and the Complut. have the plural: מתזנותיך; see also Eze_16:25-26.)
Eze_16:27, ʼΕαν δε ἐκτεινω την... κ. ἐξαρω... κ. ταραδωσω σε εἰς ψνχας... τας ἐκκλινονσας σε ἐχ τ. ὁδον σον ἡς ἠσεβησας. Vulg.: et auferam justificationem tuam—(Another reading: ואנדע.)
Eze_16:28. ...θυγατερας ʼΑσσουρ... χ ἐξεπορνευσας κ. οὐχ ἐνεμπιπλω,
Eze_16:29. κ. ἐπληθυνας την διαθηκην σου προς γην Χαν. κ. Χαλδ.—Vulg.: … in terra Chan. cum Chaldæis—
Eze_16:30. Τι διαθω την θυγατερα σου... ἐν τω ποιησαι σε... κ. ἐξεπορνευσας τρισσως ἐν ταις θυγατρασιν σου—Vulg.: In quo mundabo cor tuum … cum facias omnia hæc …?
Eze_16:31. ... κ. ἐγενου ὡς πορνη συναγουσα μισθωματα. Vulg,: … nec facta es quasi meretrix fastidio augens pretium, sed (Eze_16:32) quasi mulier adultera—
Eze_16:32. ‘Η γυνη... ὁμοια σοι, παρα τ. ἀνδρος αὐτης λαμβανουσα μισθωματα πασιν (Eze_16:33) τ. ἐκπορνευουσιν αὐτην προσεδιδου μισθωματα. Κ. συ δεδωχας...
Eze_16:34. ... ἐξεστραμμενον παρα τ. γυναιχας ἐ τ. πορςεια σου, κ. μετα σου πεπορνευκασιν ἐν τω προσδιδοναι σε μισθωματα κ. σοι μισθ οὐκ ἐδοθη—Vulg.: et post te non erit fornicatio—
Eze_16:36. For ובדמי, the Sept., Chald., Arab., Vulg. read: ובדמי.
Eze_16:37. ... κ. ἀποκαλυψω τ, κακιας σου προς αὐτους—
Eze_16:40. ... ἀξουσιν ἐπι σε ὀχλους—
Eze_16:42. ... κ. οὐ μη μεριμνησω οὐκετι
Eze_16:43. ... κ. ἐλυπεις με... κ. οὑτως ἐποιησας τ. ἀσεβειαν σου ἐπι πασαις τ. ἀνομιαις σου. Vulg.: … provocasti e…et non feci juxta scelera tua in omnibus abominationibus tuis. (For בראש, there is a reading: בראשך, which also that of Syr. and Arab.—Sept., Syr., and Arab, read: עשיתי, without the negation.)
Eze_16:46. ... ἡ πρεσβυτερα... ἡ νεωτερα—
Eze_16:47. Κ, οὐδʼ ὡς... οὐδε κατα... παρα μικρον κ. ὑπερκειοκι—Vulg.: fecisti pauxillum minus; pene sceleraiora fecisti. (Another reading: מהם.)
Eze_16:49. ... κ. ἐν εὐθηνια οἰνου ἐωπαταλων αὑτη—
Eze_16:50. Vulg.: sicut vidisti. (Another reading: כאשר ראית.)
Eze_16:51. Another reading: ממנה, præ illa.
Eze_16:53. Vulg.: Et convertam restituens eas conversione Sodomorum c. filiabus … et conversione Samariæ … et convertam reversionem tuam—
Eze_16:55. ... ἀποκατασταθησονται καθως ἠσαν ἀπʼ ἀρχης—
Eze_16:56. κ. εἰ μη ἠν Σοδομα—
Eze_16:57. προ του... ὁν τροτον νυν ὀνειδος εἰ—Vulg.: Palæstinarum—(Another reading: בנות אדם (Edom), Syr.)
Eze_16:61. κ. δωσω αὐτας σοι εἰς οἰκοδομην—
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
The humbling prophetic discourse passes from the designation of the vine to that other, where Jerusalem specially is spoken of as the “daughter” of Zion. At the basis of such a conception of the people, i.e. of Judah as a woman in their still standing capital city, the leader of fashion, there lies the mystery of Jehovah’s covenant as a marriage. To the course of sinning stretching over centuries, and with special reference to מָעְַלוּ מַעַל in Eze_15:8, there corresponds the detailed picture, which borrows its colours and therewith obtains its justification from the thoroughly sensual idolatry into which the people had fallen. It is spoken after the manner of the East, and must be translated into the language of the West,—in other words, traced back to its spirit and the ideas lying underneath. The story which is therein related is in so preponderating a degree a story of sin (Eze_16:2-34), and the punishment of sin (Eze_16:35-52), that the glimpse of grace, with which the long chapter concludes, only occupies the verses 53–63. (“The whole representation runs on like a progressive drama, which in an earthly picture see forth so vividly the conflict of the holy love of God with man’s unfaithfulness, that many a reader certainly, with feelings of shame, will exclaim: My soul has been the faithless spouse of God!”—Schmieder.)
Eze_16:2-14. The Grace at the Beginning
In this way (comp. Deuteronomy 32) the abominations (Eze_7:3-4; Eze_7:9) of Jerusalem—representing the people in their own land—are to be the more affectingly brought home to her consciousness, are to be held up before her in so much the more shameful a light (“the abominations of Canaan,” Häv.). “He first loved us,” is the golden background for the dark and gloomy picture which follows, but which even in Eze_16:2 is kept in view, and already in Eze_16:3 hints at Jerusalem’s Canaanitish origin. Of such a nature are those abominations of hers which the prophet is to make known to Jerusalem, that such an inference seems justifiable, and one that may be drawn. (Kimchi, Grotius, have supposed an announcement by means of a letter!)—As in the figurative expression: מְבוּרָה (from בָּרָה, to dig), the reference is to the place where metals are found (comp. Isa_51:1), or to the source (Häv. compares Eze_21:32 [30], and understands: “place of generation,” corresponding to the father, just as the place of birth corresponds to the mother), so also מוֹלְדוֹת, which is likewise in the plural, means something belonging to the sphere of nature. The higher divine origin of the people is, in fact, lost sight of; they are conceived of as regards the land of their natural development, where their capital city is situate. The intermediate thought is the implied accusation, that they have not dealt with the inhabitants of the land in accordance with the promise (comp. Exo_23:32 sq.; Deu_7:1 sq.), but have become degenerate like them, and therefore themselves ripe for extermination. Just as in Joh_8:44, in contrast with Abraham, “the devil” is spoken of as the “father” of the Jews, so here the Amorite (Gen_15:16; Jos_10:5), who by himself, or also along with the Hittite, is elsewhere named instead of the Canaanite in general, either because these two were the most distinguished of the Canaanitish nations, or because with them more than the rest of the Canaanitish the earliest reminiscences of the fathers of the Jewish people were connected (Genesis 23; Gen_26:34-35; Gen_27:46; Gen_28:1; Gen_28:6; Gen_28:8). Where, as here, the reference was to the land, it was the Canaanite (in Greek: the Phœnician) who principally came into consideration with the Jews (Gen_38:2). What is implied in the expression Canaanite might be seen already in Gen_9:25, were not the Hamitic corruption of this people (comp. in what follows the different hints of this) a fact established from profane literature even. The close intercourse with the Semitic tribes, already carried on in earliest times, is reflected especially in the Semitic character of the language of Canaan; it was the overpowering spirit of the Semitic to which almost all the Hamitic dialects have succumbed: so much the more ignominious must the spiritual dependence of the degenerate Jews, with which Ezekiel charges them, appear. (Comp. Zep_1:11.)
Eze_16:4. The circumstances connected with the birth, of which the description is still continued in Eze_16:5, point to Egypt, where the nation first saw the light of day.—הוּלֶּדֶת, inf.: the being born. The dagesh after shurek is unusual.—בָרַּת and שָׁרֵּךְ both times ד with dagesh: shorrech, chorrath.—The bandaging and cutting of the navel-cord, as is necessary after the birth for the independent life of the child. And just as in this way there is expressed what is necessary, so in the washing with water we have what is customary and fit. מִשְׁעִי only here; probably a Chaldaic form for מִשְׁעִית. Other derivations from שָׁעַע or שָׁעָה: ad lenimentum, Jarchi: “for brightness,” Cocc.: ad jucundum aspectum meum.—What was done elsewhere to new-born infants (according to Galen), and is still done in the East down to the present day, in order to harden the tender skin, according to Häv. and Hitz., because of the symbolic meaning of salt, in order to express the hope and wish for a vigorous life,—Augusti derives from this the usual sprinkling of salt in baptism,—is perhaps at the same time intended to serve for a more thorough cleansing, or (according to others) for healing the wound of the navel. It was not fostering care that fell to the lot of Israel’s national life in the times that succeeded Joseph, when they grew from a family into a nation, but envy, persecution, contempt on the part of the Egyptians; so that they must have looked like an exposed Bedouin female infant (foundling) abandoned to its misery (a heathen custom prevailing in many quarters), given over to perish.
Eze_16:5. Those who had looked up to Joseph did not even look down with compassion on thee.—“The existence (soul) of Israel as a nation was an object of abhorrence to the Egyptians. The image of a child the more suitable, as Moses, the type of his people, was actually exposed,” etc. (Hengst.) [Others: inasmuch as thou wast to them an object of loathing; or: in the loathing which thou hadst of thine own life.] Such outward misery is not conceivable without a corresponding inward misery. Hengst. makes the wretched condition in Egypt to be a punishment of the evil tendencies dwelling in Israel from of old (Gen_15:13-14).
In contrast with such neglect (Eze_16:4) and such treatment (Eze_16:5) on the part of man, the divine compassion rises up into greater prominence in Eze_16:6. Jehovah is portrayed after the similitude of a king (as so often in the German legends a king’s son finds a deserted maiden), who passed thereby, perhaps on the chase.—In the blood still adhering from the time of birth (Juv. Sat. Ezekiel 7 : adhuc a matre rubentem). But by this expression is at the same time meant to be signified the danger to the life of the child, and not merely its impurity (quanquam fœda es sanguine, volo te vivere). [Targum and Rashi: of the blood of circumcision and of the passover lamb; the verse Blessing in the ritual of circumcision.] As in this way from the very commencement בְּדָמַיּךְ is connected in thought with the desperate movement or situation of the child, in like manner it is afterwards to be joined both times with תְַיי. It is from the first the word of promise (וָאמַר לָך twice), but as being seriously meant and certain, and hence continued without interruption, rendered more vivid by means of the repetition. מִתְבּוֹםֶםֶת, Hithpalel of בּוּם, Ges.: given up to be trodden under foot. The root-meaning is “to tread down,” “to trample.” (“This child was able to survive such trampling.” Hengst.) Häv.: “despised,” in a derivative signification. The continued promise of life in the midst of danger continually threatening, makes us think besides of Exo_3:2.—In Eze_16:7 there follows the mightily efficacious blessing in the increase of the people, a visible confirmation and realization of the word of promise (Exo_1:7; Exo_1:12). According to Hitzig, we have by this means a transition from the figure to the thing signified. According to Hengst., the subject in hand is an ideal child, that comes to view in a multiplicity of separate existences; רְבָבָה is not one myriad, but a numerical measure, an ideal unity, embracing a multitude of actual myriads (Num_10:36; Deu_33:17).—בַּעֲדִי עֲדָיִים, either: into the age when maidens think of dress and finery (when would that be?), or, from the fact of her being naked, of the highest charm of youthful beauty, which would quite fit into the context. [Häv.: “the most distinguished morning-time of life, the most beautiful season of youth.” And just as he appeals in support of this view to Psa_103:5 [4], so Hitzig at the same time appeals to Psa_32:9 for an explanation in the sense: “and thou wentest along in the ornament of cheeks.”]—The sprouting hair about the pudenda as a sign of becoming marriageable. Indecent (Häv.) nakedness is not the subject in hand, but merely nakedness in contrast with clothing and ornament.
Eze_16:8 brings to view a significant act of grace on Jehovah’s part, parallel to that in Eze_16:6. The parallel is not, that after “the founding of the city” there comes now “its passing into the hands of Israel, and that for the dwelling-place of Jehovah;” nor that in the one case we have “the wandering horde,” and in the other “the covenant at Sinai” (Hitz.); but it consists in this, that as Jehovah’s mercy was shown to the people by their preservation and increase in Egypt, so it was shown by their deliverance from Egypt, which reached its immediate close in the giving of the law at Sinai; in the former case more outwardly, in the latter for the most part in an inward way.—Thy time, connected by means of the “seeing” with what goes before, is defined by the following עֵת דֹּדִים (wooing-time), as meaning that the marriageable one has become ripe for love.—The spreading of the corner of the upper garment and the covering of the nakedness symbolize in general, that He took the miserable, helpless one under His protection, interested Himself in her; specially, however, with the thought of conferring the honour of betrothal, marriage—comp. Rth_3:9 (in which connection Cocc. makes mention of the covering cloud at the departure from Egypt and the passage through the Red Sea); a thought which is solemnly carried out in the swearing and entering into covenant, by means of which Israel, grown into a nation, now became the peculiar people of Jehovah. Comp. Eze_20:5-6; Exodus 19; Exo_20:2; Exo_20:5; Exo_20:24; Deu_5:2; Eph_5:32.
Eze_16:9 in part resumes Eze_16:4, in order to make the cleansing appear as thorough as possible; even what still cleaved to Israel from his birth was to be put away, the reason being that they were sanctified by God to be wholly and entirely His people, to occupy a priestly place among the nations. This peculiar destiny of Israel as a nation is symbolized by the washing. [Häv.: cleansing in the solemn covenant-sacrifice, Exodus 24. Hitz., as already older expositors: of the laws of cleansing, e.g. Lev_15:19.] At the reception into the royal harem, lengthened preparations, especially purifications, are customary in the East; comp. Est_2:12; Rth_3:3. To the same category belongs also the anointing. We are not debarred from thinking of spiritual benefits—the gifts of the Spirit in Israel.
Eze_16:10. After the cleansing and anointing comes the clothing, in view already of the kingly character of Israel generally, Exo_19:6; Psalms 55. The Egyptian colouring of the painting is at the same time, perhaps, not unintentional.—דִקְמָה, from רָקַם (to puncture), is embroidered work, specially of variegated colours; here with gold and silver, figures, flowers, etc. The art of working in various colours is even at the present day very much developed among the Egyptians.—תַּתשׁ, elsewhere only in the Pentateuch, of the outermost covering of the tabernacle and of the sacred furniture; here manifestly an article of luxury. Some have thought of the seal, the dolphin, the fox, a species of hyena, etc. (Winer, Realw. ii. p. 596 sq.), of whose skin the shoes were manufactured. The old translations, on the contrary, leave out of view the material, and lay stress upon the colour of the leather; not exactly blue, but of a dark colour, red, violet. Bynæus, De Calc. Hebr.: scarlet. Hengst.: morocco. Niebuhr heard in Arabia, from a learned Jew, that tachash is the red-coloured skin of the ram. To tanning and colouring the root-meaning of the word may possibly have some reference.—שֵׁשׁ, Egyptian shens or shenti (comp. Eze_9:2), means, like βύσσος, cotton, of which splendid garments were worn, but also linen, which is fine like cotton. Here the finest linen headband (turban) must be meant (תָבַשׁ), Exo_28:39.—וָאְַכַםֵּךְ (comp. Eze_16:8) in no way necessitates the meaning of covering with a veil (Hitz.), but Eze_16:13 uses the word מֶשִׁי of the clothing, which is, according to the tradition of the Jewish commentaries, silk (τρίχαπτον = threads fine like hair), but according to Hitzig, coloured cloth. Comp. Braunius, De Vest. etc. At all events, it is meant to be the highest degree of splendour, where the clothing even is like ornament.
Eze_16:11-12. Plainly the bride’s ornaments, by the detail of which the rich and splendid era of Solomon is still more vividly set before us. Comp. besides, Gen_24:22; Gen_24:30; Gen_24:47. But if even the chain about the neck is something peculiar (Gen_41:42), so above all is the crown (Lam_1:1; Isa_62:3; Jer_13:18).
Eze_16:13. In consequence of the divine adorning, Israel could adorn herself (שֵׁשִׁי וָמֶשִׁי, one of Ezekiel’s paronomasias), and nothing was too costly; and to such riches corresponded the maintenance, the rest of the living, as the husband has to provide it for his wife, above all in the East. The choice delicacies appear to form the contrast to the usual food of the people in Egypt. By the word לִמְלוּכָה there is now expressed what was hinted at already, along with the priestly elements in what goes before. By means of their kingdom the kingly character of the people in general was suitably represented before the heathen nations also, but so much the more gloriously as the Messianic idea was symbolized thereby. Besides, there is also a preparation for Ezekiel 17. Comp. in addition, Son_7:7 [6]; Lam_2:15.—The extraordinary beauty of Israel is their law (Deu_4:6 sq.) and their Messiah (Psa_45:3 [2]).
Eze_16:14. Already exemplified in Exo_15:14 sq.; still farther in 1Ch_14:17; 1 Kings 10. Let it be noted that Israel is thus spoken of as perfect through Jehovah, of grace, not by nature or by reason of merit. Faithfulness, therefore, would have kept them in this glory. (Hos_2:10 [8]; Mic_2:9.)
ADDITIONAL NOTE
[“The second stage of this allegorical history, exhibited in Eze_16:8-14, represents the singular honour and glory conferred on the ideal virgin in her exaltation to the rank of a spouse to the King of Zion, and her decoration with apparel suited to her elevated station. … The description presents a vivid and impressive image of the singular goodness of God to Israel, from the time that He visited them in Egypt, and raised them from the low and depressed condition which they held there, to the nearest fellowship with Himself, and the highest place among the kingdoms of the earth. The relation formed between Jehovah and Israel at that interesting period had already been more than once represented under the image of the marriage-union.” See Isa_50:1; Isa_54:1; Hosea 1-3; Jer_2:2. “Indeed, no earthly relation could so fitly have been employed as that of marriage to exhibit the nature of that hallowed union, in virtue of which the Lord not only conferred upon them the rich dowry of temporal good, but also graciously condescended to maintain with them a most intimate and endearing interchange of love. … It is the internal relationship established between them and God, and the spiritual blessings immediately growing out of it, which are here primarily and chiefly referred to. Even the outward temporal blessing secured in the covenant, and in part also realized, should never have been viewed as an ultimate and independent good, but rather as the expression and emblem of something higher and better. They were not properly blessings at all, except in so far as they were held in connection with the favour of Heaven, and bespoke the fellowship of love that subsisted between Jehovah and His people. … But considering the state in which they were found in Egypt, they much needed to undergo a process of purification, to fit them for bearing aright so high and ennobling a character. That many rites of cleansing should have been prescribed to them, and a long course of preparatory discipline appointed, only betokened the Lord’s earnest desire to have them qualified for the exalted state and destiny He wished them to fill. And throughout, nothing was wanting of tender compassion and faithful dealing on His part. From the first He crowned them with marks of His goodness. A fulness of power and glory rested on them far surpassing what their numbers alone might have warranted them to expect. And when the kingdom at last rose to meridian splendour, and received the confirmation and enlargement given to it, especially in the days of David and Solomon, the surrounding heathen were compelled to own that there is a great reality in the favour and blessing of Heaven. They saw in Israel, as a people, living monuments of the mighty efficacy of divine grace, how it can exalt the feeble, and lay the powers of the world, as well as the bounties of nature, under contribution to the furtherance of its beneficent designs.”—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel, pp. 166–168.—W. F.]
Eze_16:15-34. The Horrible, Unfaithfulness
Eze_16:15 is in the form of an introduction, which announces two parts of what follows: (1) the nature, (2) the extent (Eze_16:23 sq.) of the people’s sinning. The inmost nature of it is represented as being a trusting (בָּטַח) in the gift, conceived of apart from the Giver, hence as self-righteousness, pride, security. The way in which such a self-pleasing disposition expressed itself is portrayed, in accordance with the image of a wife, as fornication, alike in a political and in a religious point of view, from the time of Solomon. עַל־שְׁמֵךְ (in connection with Eze_16:14), on the ground of the report, the fame of thy beauty; on that ground, relying thereupon as upon a charter, that thou certainly hadst the name above others, as if nothing could rob thee of thy privilege (Judges 4; Rev_18:7). [Others: “because of” (so Eng. Vers.); or: “notwithstanding,” forgetting the name which thou hadst received from thy husband; or: against, i.e. against thy husband, so that adultery would be specified, which is dragged in from Eze_16:32.] Deu_32:15; Hos_13:6.—The flowing forth of unrestrained desire, the extent to which the degeneracy reached, is expressed in the strongest way in the words: and didst pour out, etc. (Eze_14:19).—לוֹ יֶהִי. Hengst.: “his be it,” as if the words of the adulteress, that is to say, to him will I yield myself. Hitz.: יְפִי, though at some distance, is the only possible subject; properly וַיְהִי, but the copula has fallen away because of לוֹ going before. Klief.: his it became, indefinitely: what thou hadst to bestow. A contrast to וַתִּהְיִי לִי: “and thou becomest mine,” in Eze_16:8. (Comp. Psa_45:12 [11].)
Eze_16:16. A description in detail of the idolatry and the idolatrous worship as an abuse of the gifts and blessings of Jehovah, and a more and more heinous robbery of Him.—The worship of the high places was still a worship of Jehovah, but was already a self-willed degeneracy from the command that there should be one sanctuary (Deuteronomy 12), a divergence according to fancy and foreign examples. The בָּמוֹת are in themselves high places, natural heights set apart for worship, meant as they were to help the lacking elevation of heart, affecting as they did the high flight of the imagination; here, in connection with the garments: tents, made of variegated stuffs for garments, or provided with curtains of the same, or—shall we say?—laid out with variegated carpets, seeing that such things were woven by women for the Punic Venus (2Ki_23:7). Hengst.: “small idol-temples for domestic use.” Ewald: small altars (Eze_16:24; Eze_16:31). The worship of Astarte (?). Because of the epithet: טְלֻאוֹת, Hitzig makes mention of “smaller pieces of cloth also,” but rejects the interpretation: “patched” high places; referring, however, to Gen_30:35 sq. (“the sensuous piety became wanton over the party-coloured rags!”)—עְַלֵיהֶם, masc. referring to בֶּנֶד, the עַל pointing to the “high places,” i.e. to the high places thus clothed. [Hengst.: to be referred to the paramours, in the sense of: “with them.” Others: on the carpets (?) in the tent-temples.]—בָאוֹת, a paronomasia with בָּמוֹת, לֹא בָאוֹת, i.e. according to the law of Israel. They ought not to find entrance. [Cocc.: which do not come from God to you, like the ark and the temple, but are inventions of your own heart!] וְלֹא יִהְיֶה, in reference to the clause: “and didst play the harlot upon them.” [Others: the like has not come to pass, nor will it ever be. Hengst.: the like shall not come nor happen, as denoting unprecedented shamelessness.]
Eze_16:17. A contrast between what was taken and the purpose for which it was taken. At the same, time there now comes into view (וַתִּקְחִי in Eze_16:18 for the third time) the robbery of Jehovah. Images of men—(idolatry in general) because of the figure of a woman the idols are represented as men. [Häv.: images of the membrum virile (phallus). Ewald: penates (teraphim), covered with ornament, set up in the house, honoured with lectisternia.]
Eze_16:18. The “covering,” according to Hitzig, is meant of the clothing of the idols with splendid drapery; Movers: of the wrapping up of the phalli, when they are placed in the shrine. The “setting before” them took place in sacrifice (Lev_2:1-2).—My, not only as being from God, but still more as being destined for Him (Exo_30:23-25). Eze_6:13; Eze_8:11.
Eze_16:19. As for the erection of sanctuaries (Eze_16:16) and the making of idols (Eze_16:17), so for the honour paid to the same, Israel deprived herself not only of her clothes, but even of the divine food (Eze_16:13). The rich heathen worship of Hither Asia!—וַיֶּהִי, not interrogatively, but the simple shocking fact.
Eze_16:20. The last step of apostasy, even their own children!—וַתִּקְחִי once more, as in Eze_16:18; Eze_16:17; Eze_16:16.—The worship of Moloch, as it existed from the time of Ahaz. זָבַת is: to slay in sacrifice; and the same thing is expressed by לֶאֱכוֹל with which שָׁחַט in Eze_16:21 is to be connected, in order to explain to us בְּהַעְַבִיר as a lustration in the shape of burning; 2Ki_23:10; Jer_32:35; Jer_7:31. Hengst.: “The passing through was the mode of slaying, and the devouring was the consequence of it. The idol was supposed to be present in the fire.”—To the question: הַמְעַט מִ׳, a negative answer is expected, as in Eze_8:17 : Was it (the sacrificing of the children) less than, etc.? On the contrary, it far exceeded them. [Häv.: Was there still too little of your whoredom? namely, to stop with Eze_16:15-19. Hengst.: Hadst thou too little of thy whoredoms?] Instead of: “thy,” we have in Eze_16:21 : My; what was in the former relation inhuman, was in the latter not only a robber’s, but also a murderer’s outrage against God.
Eze_16:22. Where there is now a transition to the extent of the idolatrous actings, we have a very suitable retrospective glance in recapitulation (בָּל), and, corresponding to the worst degree of outward idolatry, the forgetfulness of God in the inmost heart. The recollection of the first condition (Eze_16:6-7) would necessarily have become the remembrance of Jehovah. Self-pleasing (Eze_16:15) did not allow it to come to this, but such non-remembrance was the parent of such gratitude.
Eze_16:23. The extent to which, with such aggravation, the unfaithfulness reached. The picture, hitherto having reference to religious matters, now assumes a political hue. It appears that the representation given in Eze_16:15-22 is now used as a clothing for the thought in a figurative way. After all, etc. Hengst. understands the expression of time: with the oppression by the world-powers the apostasy became properly national. In that case the wickedness would require to be taken as calamity, and the misery that has come to Israel in consequence of such sins against Jehovah would have to be read between the lines, or the: woe, etc. would have to be connected with וַיְהִי. But the repeated exclamation seems rather to be a preparation for something future, the judgment still to come, and hence to be conceived of as a parenthesis, and וַיְהִי to be introductory to Eze_16:24; and therefore it seems necessary to interpret אַחְַרֵי, not indeed in the way of climax (Häv.: even beyond, etc.), for Eze_16:20 sq. closed with the highest degree of guilt, but rather of the moral consequence. Such apostasy from Jehovah could not fail to be followed by the inner (political) decline of the theocracy, and the falling away to all possible world-powers.
Eze_16:24. נָּב, in a collective sense, related to רָמָה, perhaps as altar to רָמָה temple-height. Both are constructed, and thus בָּמוֹת is distinguished from the natural בָּמוֹת The actual idolatry, or the national decline set forth under this figure, showed itself in the midst of the bustle of the city. (According to others: נָּב = fornix, in the service of those religions of nature; farther defined by means of רָמָה as in an elevated situation, striking the eye.) Comp. Eze_6:13.
Eze_16:25. Comp. Pro_8:2.—וַתְּתַעְַבִי, as if thou thyself hadst an abhorrence of thy national glory (Eze_16:13-14). [Others causatively: to make an object of loathing.]—Israel lay on the path for manifold intercourse with the world, especially between the Asiatic and African world-powers.
Eze_16:26. The sons of Egypt are not its gods, and therefore the reference is to political whoredom. Let it be remembered how in express terms intercourse with Egypt was forbidden to Israel, how return thither is threatened them rather as the worst punishment (Deu_28:68); and let one compare, from the days of Solomon onwards, 1Ki_3:1; 1Ki_9:16; 1Ki_10:28; 2 Kings 18.; Isaiah 30; Isa_31:1; Isa_36:6; Jer_37:5; Jer_37:7.—(2 Kings 17.) But נִּדְלֵי בָשָׂר is characteristic for the licentious character of Egyptian worship (Mendes!). בָּשָׂר, the membrum virile. Comp. Hengst. Authentic, 1. p. 119 sq.; Mos. und Egypten, p. 216. This expressive mode of designating them is, according to Hengst., intended to mean great of power. It marks rather the brutal lowness of having dealings with a state of such a character, religiously considered, of longing after it. In accordance therewith we have the provoking of Jehovah to anger, and what follows in Eze_16:27 (Eze_6:14; Eze_14:9; Eze_14:13). The “diminishing” is in contrast with, the “increasing,”—חֹק. Hengst.: “law;” in general: what accrues of right to the wife in respect of sustenance, clothing, lodging (Exo_21:10); here in particular: what is destined for Israel by Jehovah in respect of maintenance, nurture, adornment, increase (Eze_16:9 sq.); only not exactly with Häv.: “the destined inheritance.” As regards the thing meant, we may compare what the nation lost in land, and people, and influence, and splendour, or the like, especially indeed through Egypt, 1Ki_11:18; 1Ki_11:21; 1Ki_11:40; 1Ki_14:25. (Joel 4. [3.] 19.)—Gave thee to the soul, etc., usually interpreted, with an unwarranted quoting of such passages as Psa_27:12; Psa_17:9; Psa_41:3 [Psa_41:2], Psa 64:19, of a giving up to the desire, rage, bloodthirstiness, as if it were like נָתַן בְּיָד, whereas here at least the disposition of soul of the Philistine cities or states is expressly said to be different.—“Haters” they were already, but they became despisers.—מִדַּרכֵּךְ זִמָּה is kept too closely to the figure by Hitz.: “because of thy profligate conduct, which is a disgrace for her also, because for the whole female sex;” while Häv. interprets too definitely of the thing meant, and has besides mistaken the meaning: they themselves brought back the ark (1 Samuel 5, 6).—זִמָּה, craftiness, baseness, (Lev_18:17) most shameful uncleanness. Either a descriptive genitive or an emphatic apposition: thy conduct pure lewdness. The Philistines, who are introduced rather as spectators than as parties actively engaged, to whose contempt Israel was given up by Jehovah, turned away with shame from Israel’s heathenish policy, inasmuch as they, in pleasing contrast thereto, stuck by their gods. Comp. Jer_2:10 sq. (Grot.) [Hävernick’s view is that the Philistines are named instar omnium, in the sense of outward violence inflicted by fiercest enemies. Hitz. puts out of view the period of the judges, and refers to 2Ch_28:18; Joel 4 [3] 4, 5; 2Ch_21:16; comp. besides the article in Winer, 2 p. 252 sq.]
Eze_16:28. Having got no satisfaction in the African, they betake themselves now to the Asiatic world-power. Hitz. lays stress rightly upon the difference between זָנָה אֶל (already in Eze_16:26) and זָנָה with the acc, where in the case before us the two are contrasted with each other: first longing after, and then no satisfaction even when the longing is realized. (Comp. 2Ki_16:7; 2Ch_28:16; Jer_2:18; 2Ki_23:29.) And with this Eze_16:29 connects the Babylonians. Ever more and more (Eze_16:25-26) of insatiable lust.—כּנַעַן is taken by most in an appellative sense, as meaning commerce, trade; hence: the land of traders, Chaldea (Eze_17:4; Isa_23:8; Job 40:30 [Job_41:6]), a view which is suggested by no kind of hint in the passage. Then, certainly, to translate: “with the land of Canaan,” and to think of Canaanitish (Phœnician) idolatry (Psa_106:38) “as far as Chaldea,” or “at the same time turned to Chaldea,” i.e. while taking in addition the Babylonish worship of Belus and Mylitta, is still less suitable. But כְּנַעַן means simply: “low ground” (low land); why not keep by the proper name in this sense? With an allusion to this, this downward step would be held up before the elevated Judah-Jerusalem, when in Chaldea, in the longing after political fellowship with the Babylonians, it hoped at the same time to get the land of Canaan, i.e. to get the Promised Land kept through such help of Asia herself against Asia. כַּשְׂדִּימָה, with ה parag., is the explanation which is added, to show in what sense אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן is meant. Hengst., referring to Ezekiel 23 and Isaiah 39, and to the want of satisfaction spoken of here, points to the fact that they had at this very time turned back again to the Egyptians. Their new “Canaan” came to stand them in still worse stead than their intercourse with Assyria; Chaldea’s friendship showed itself to be pure selfishness.
Eze_16:30. By means of the exclamation (surprise, complaint?) a pause is introduced; what has been said (Eze_16:15 sq.) is forcibly summarized.—Ewald: “how languishing is thy heart!” biting sarcasm; how great must be the languishing of love! Similarly Ges.: “How thy heart languished from lust!” Hengst.: “how withered,” etc.; design edly the form לִבָּה, not elsewhere occurring in the sing.: a womanish heart, which has lost its sap and vigour in the world. אְַמֻלָה, likewise only here as partic. Kal.—Imperious, instead of being under thy husband, bold, unruly.
Eze_16:31. בִּבְנוֹתַיךְ, inf. with plur. suff. for בִּבְנוֹתֵךְ. Comp. Eze_16:24-25. The “doing” mentioned in Eze_16:30 is exemplified, and then its imperiousness is unfolded: thou wast hot like the harlot, namely, in that, as a thoroughly genuine harlot does, who wishes merely to play the whore at any price, thou thoughtest little of, scornedst the harlot’s hire. Eze_16:33 will show that she rather paid such hire to her lovers, purchased some for herself therewith. וְלֹא־הָיִיתָה is to be taken along with לְקַלֵּם׳ = thou scornedst not, etc. Commonly: in that thou scornedst, etc. [Others: not like the harlot, who despiseth, scorneth her hire, that is to say, wishes to extort more, because it appears to her too small: but thou didst accept everything, because the only object with thee was to satisfy thy lust. Others still: like the harlot who boasteth of her hire.]—As the people are portrayed from Eze_16:8 onwards as the spouse of Jehovah (comp. אִשָׁה in Eze_16:30), we have in Eze_16:32 very suitably, just as also in Eze_16:30, the exclamation (Häv.: “O adulterous woman, who taketh!”), which lays stress upon the adultery involved in this policy with the foreign world-powers. תַּחַת, while she was under the authority of her husband (Rom_7:2), i.e. was legally and morally bound to be faithful to him. Others [as Eng. Vers.]: “instead.” The horrible unfaithfulness is set forth as the whoredom of a married woman. Going back upon Eze_16:31, Eze_16:33 portrays her whoredom, explaining fully the לְקַלֵּם׳ there. נֵדֵה, here merely instead of אֶתְנַן. Häv. thinks of נדָּה, res fœda. The lovers are not the heathen gods,—although not without reference to them (comp. Eze_16:36), in contrast with Jehovah,—but the strange nations (Eze_16:26 sq.); and these as bought. Comp. 2Ki_16:8; Hos_8:9 sq., Eze_12:2 [1]; Isa_30:5-6. Hitzig: the presents through ambassadors, the yearly tribute, etc. As she was still always drawing upon her Husband’s resources, she might well give presents. That she did so with such a view, for such an object, how horrible!
Eze_16:34. The contrary or the reverse, so that from among all women thou standest forth alone of thy kind. What nowhere else finds an imitator among women, when a woman has done it before! In general there was no following after thee in thy whoredoms; but in particular (Eze_16:33) there was no one imitated thee in such giving of hire for whoredom.
Eze_16:35-52. The Punishment
Eze_16:35. As if in a public judicial process, the indictment is read out.
Eze_16:36. To pour out, comp. Eze_16:15; here brass (Gesen.: copper, the art of tempering which was known), either used for metals of all kinds; or goods and chattels generally (comp. Eze_16:10 sq., Eze_16:16 sq.); or money in particular, in which case it admits of question whether copper money was in use, not to speak of being common. (Mat_10:9; Mar_12:41.) It is put instead of the “whoredoms” of Eze_16:15, because according to Eze_16:33 these were purchased by means of presents; and this the more appropriately, as in Deu_8:9 (comp. this Comm. in loco), and in Eze_33:25 of the same book, in the blessing of Moses, the richness in brass of the Promised Land is significantly referred to. Hence (1) the misuse and squandering of the dowry of the people, as it was given them in their own land. [Häv.: brass as an ignoble and impure (?) metal, because of the disposition and the use made of it. Buns.: “because thy kettle ran over,” to denote the overflowing of lustful desire.]—(2) Shameful self-prostitution in national and religious respects, as contrasted with Eze_16:8, and visited with retribution in Eze_16:37.—Policy led at the same time to the introduction of the gods of the world-powers (Eze_8:10). Eze_16:16 sq. וְעַל is taken by many in the same sense as יַעַן: “and because of,” unnecessarily; but וְכִדְמֵי must be so taken. As respects idolatry, the sacrificing of their own children even. Eze_16:20 sq. Hence (3) murder. These are the separate counts of the indictment.
Eze_16:37. The public judgment. First of all, the assembling of the lovers as witnesses. She who has dishonoured and brought herself to shame becomes now, by the interposition of God, to the one party an object of loathing, to the other an object of mockery. The last attraction, and what might still have been an object of regard, vanishes. Hävernick refers to the procedure in the case of a married woman suspected of adultery, Num_5:18.
Eze_16:38. The sentence, which is one of death, because for adultery and murder; the jealousy referring to the former, the fury to the latter.—Into blood, i.e. so that thou shalt be dissolved into that in consequence of such fury and jealousy; Eze_5:13; Eze_5:15.
Eze_16:39. Those who before were witnesses now appear as executioners of the sentence. Grotius thinks of the temple. But it is the annihilation of the national life, which had fallen away from Jehovah, and not so much the plundering of Jerusalem, as generally the stripping of Israel of all her glory as a nation, that is the thought, expressed figuratively in accordance with the foregoing representation (Eze_16:24; Eze_16:7).
Eze_16:40. קָהָל, in accordance with the procedure in the case of adulteresses, as it were a “local community.” Most interpreters make the stoning, which is merely a keeping up of the figure, refer to the ballistœ of the besiegers. The murder (Eze_16:36; Eze_16:20 sq.) is punished with the swords.
Eze_16:41. Comp. Deu_13:16; 2Ki_25:9. The many women are the numerous spectators, and these are the nations. Israel becomes a spectacle to the world. The opportunity and means for political intercourse with the heathen will disappear with the political independence.
Eze_16:42. Comp. on Eze_5:13. The divine justice comes to an end in its character of jealousy; in other words, as the injured faithfulness and love of Israel’s Husband.—The departing of the jealousy might perhaps, by comparison with Isa_11:13, show grace in the background; but the connection with what follows requires rather a thought like Hos_2:4 [2]. Jehovah gives up the adulterous whorish wife. No more—in wrath there is certainly love still!
Eze_16:43. זָכַרְתְּי, with appended י, as in Eze_16:22, and frequently in Ezekiel and Jeremiah.—2Ki_19:27 sq. Hengst.: “thou wert angry with Me in all this,” i.e. notwithstanding all the benefits, etc.; Isa_8:21. Better at all events than: “thou didst provoke Me to anger by all this,” for the Kal stands firm.—Eze_9:10.—עשיתי is usually taken in the second person, either in the sense: “and [that] thou shalt not commit a deed of shame in addition to all,” etc., that is to say, the measure is full, and in the place of the sin the punishment shall enter; or in the sense: “for thou hast not taken thought (הַוִּמָה) to thyself = hast not repented concerning all,” etc.; or interrogatively: “hast thou not committed this great transgression in addition to all,” etc.? Others have taken the verb in the first person, alleging that the clause was to be understood as meaning that Jehovah repelled from Himself the charge of having borne with the whoredom of the people, and hence of having Himself committed it, inasmuch as he had not punished it,—a very singular thought, surely. הַזִּמָה is emphatic, and with a reference back is the same as in Eze_16:27; and the clause can scarcely be understood otherwise than as an interrogation, inasmuch as certainly the peculiar unfaithfulness of the people, depicted so prominently in Eze_16:30 sq., is elsewhere distinguished from all their abominations.
Eze_16:44. Comp. on Eze_12:22. The poet, perhaps also he who makes use of such proverbs, takes them into his mouth, utters them, for he can do it rightly.—אִמָּה, either for אֵם, like לִבָּה for לֵב in Eze_16:30, here also betokening the effeminate, womanish character, or for אִמָּהּ: “as is her mother,” etc. Not the Jerusalem of former days, but (comp. Eze_16:3 with Eze_16:45) the style of Canaan.
Eze_16:45. The husband is God, who can only be one and the same, either with reference, e.g., to Melchizedek, who could point back to a better primeval time, or generally, because all idolatry is adultery, apostasy from God; Act_17:24 sq.; comp. Isa_54:5.—The aversion for their children was shown in the worship of Moloch; Lev_18:21; Lev_18:24; Deu_12:30-31.—אֲחוֹתֵךְ, according to Ges., a plural; according to Rosenm., “the dual, comp. Eze_16:46;” according to Hengst., an ideal person, the sisterhood.
Eze_16:46. As “their husbands” were spoken of, because the relation in the case of Samaria was certainly different from that in the case of Sodom, Jehovah in the one, Elohim in the other, so Samaria and Sodom—sisters of the Jewish kingdom, because belonging to the same mother-country, and at the same time homogeneous in character—are still farther distinguished as to their size, in respect of the number of the tribes and cities, which are the daughters, and also as to their northern and southern position. Both come significantly into consideration as regards Judah, as being already judged.
Eze_16:47. כִּמְעַם קם, according to Ges.: “it would be only a little;” Ewald: “only a little while;” Hengst.: “it wanted a little” (a softened “almost”); Häv.: “for a short time it caused thee loathing, disgust” (!?). The meaning is perhaps: as if it were only a little, how Samaria and Sodom have conducted themselves, and what they have done, thou even wentest beyond them. [So Eng. Vers.] Others connect it with what goes before: “thou didst not walk, etc. a little merely, but thou wast,” etc. Some have even taken לוּא = לא: “yea, hadst thou only, etc., but,” etc. Comp. besides, Luk_12:48; Mat_11:24.
Eze_16:48. A solemn denial, as regards the more notorious of the two sinners (Sodom), that she has done like Judah. Hence in reality her acting was “as it were only a little” in comparison with thee ! For she had neither Moses nor the prophets.
Eze_16:49. It was the ordinary natural man who in Sodom ripened himself for judgment, in presence certainly of the riches of divine goodness, but not of the clearest revelation of truth. For the close of the verse, comp. the inhospitality in Genesis 19.
Eze_16:50. Comp. Gen_18:20-21.
Eze_16:51. The specification is wanting in the case of Samaria, not only because the remembrance too readily suggested itself, but also because the thought was a familiar one from Jeremiah; Jer_3:11. Judah had the temple, the royal house of David, at all events, with a longer season for repentance, not only Sodom’s, but also Samaria’s judgment before her eyes.—The justification is a comparative one: in relation to thee, Sodom and Samaria must appear as righteous. There is perhaps also the thought, that this relative justification so much the more demands the divine judgment upon Judah-Jerusalem.
Eze_16:52. The mention of the judgment upon Samaria is wanting,, as well as the mention of the details of her sinning; the inference is immediately drawn in its application to Judah. The disgrace is the judgment, the punishment, to those with whom she agreed, which she recognised in reference to the others as being righteous. Comp. Rom_2:1. [Ewald: “thou who hast called in question thy sisters.” Hengst.: “thou who didst judge” [so Eng. Vers.]. Older expositors: “because thou hast been intercessor,” hast virtually absolved.] She reviled them; now she must revile herself, or at least she is reviled, and this all the more as through Judah’s sins they are more righteous than she.
Eze_16:53-63. The Return of Grace
Eze_16:53. Just as there is grace at the beginning, so the end is grace.—For שׁוּב שְׁבוּת or שְׁבִית, comp. this Comm. on Deut. The fundamental passage is Deu_30:3. A standing, as it were, proverbial phrase, but not necessarily of the bringing back from exile, rather Messianic in sense; for the abstract שְׁבוּת, from שָׁבָה means in general: destiny, misery, as here a state of punishment. Of an exile of Sodom certainly nothing can be said! In form there is a paronomasia, but we are not to explain in this way the putting of the Kal for the Hiphil; the phrase requires a meaning like “to restore,” a putting an end to and turning of the misery for this purpose. See Job_42:10. The transitive use of שׁוּב must thus be admitted as against Hengst.—Before Judah’s restoration is mentioned, that of Sodom and Samaria is promised,—of the former as being the greatest sinner, of the latter as being the next to Judah. Thus Judah appears in the middle between the punished sinners,—just as in the New Testament publicans and Samaritans,—and her misery is not superlative, in the sense “misery of miseries” (Hengst.: deepest misery, such a misery as displays itself as misery even in the midst of misery; Häv.: heaviest, most fearful); nor is the expression to be taken as a pleonastic explanation, in the sense of “misery which is thy misery,” in order to emphasize the idea “thy own” (Keil); still less as = the captives of thy captivity [Ewald in perplexity reads: וְשַׁבְתִּי שׁ׳]; but summing up (Eze_16:58): of all thy great and manifold misery, the special one, that which is wholly and entirely so. Placed in the midst of such sinners by means of such penal misery
Eze_16:54—Judah shall (this is the divine intention, the object which it is meant to serve) amid her disgrace be compelled to be ashamed of all her sins, while she “comforts” the others, i.e. because restoration was the leading thought which goes before in Eze_16:53, and which is immediately resumed,—inasmuch as she furnishes them in her own case with an illustration, real though only in the third place, of grace. [Rosenm. takes the clause ironically, as meaning that Judah has been found still worse than themselves (Eze_14:23). Keil: inasmuch as they learn from the punishment endured by Jerusalem, God’s righteousness, etc. Others: by means of fellowship in misfortune, and that a misfortune so much greater. Ewald: in order that Jerusalem may never again reckon herself better, but may rather through her suffering with them comfort the others.]
Eze_16:55. קַדְמָה is the status ante, but is not to be more closely defined. Not as before the punishment, for then Sodom and Samaria were wicked, and Judah full of pride (Eze_16:56); in that case the idea would be the possibility of conversion, so that they might be converted. But they are certainly not to return to the state before punishment, in order perhaps to be converted, but at most, conversion might perhaps be conceived of as the implied condition of such restoration. Mat_11:23 does not refer to a restoration, but to the possibility of Sodom’s having remained in the state in which she was. An earthly and physical restoration, alike of Sodom with the cities and inhabitants of the Jordan valley and of Samaria, and also of Judah-Jerusalem, has been thought of, just as in Act_3:21 the universal renewal of the world to its original glory before the entrance of sin, the palingenesia (Mat_19:28; Rom_8:18 sq.; 2Pe_3:13), has been thought of; or at least such a resurrection of the dead to life has been taken to be the clothing, the colouring of the thought of their being made partakers of pardoning grace. But as in Eze_16:45 sq. it is merely moral relations that are spoken of, which of course have to do with persons, the inhabitants of the cities in question, an ethical restitutio in integrum suggests itself as the meaning of the text (comp. Mal_4:6; Mat_17:11). If, therefore, a restoration of the divine image (in Christ) should not be thought of, then certainly the return to the first estate must be understood as a symbolical way of expressing the idea of bestowing pardoning grace. Cocc. fixes his view upon the descendants of those who had survived the destruction of Sodom. So also Neteler: In Genesis 14 two expeditions against Sodom are spoken of; the captives of the first expedition came to Elam, and their descendants are destined to enter the Church; just as also it was merely the descendants of the captives of Samaria and Jerusalem that could return. “The beginning of the return ensued on the day of Pentecost, perhaps even earlier through those that sprung from the captives of Sodom that went to Elam (proselytes),” etc. Hengst. suggests “a continuation of the means of grace after death for those to whom on earth salvation did not present itself in its highest completeness, for the inhabitants of Sodom swept away by the judgment,” appealing to 1Pe_3:19-20; 1Pe_4:6. (Mat_12:41-42) Comp. on the other hand, Eze_16:60 sq. The symbolical view (comp. Eze_29:14; Eze_47:8 sq.; Jer_48:47; Amo_9:14; Isa_19:23-24) will not certainly commend itself by such assumptions as that Sodom represents the two and a half tribes on the other side of Jordan, or that it represents the Ammonites and Moabites, or that it is a type of that heathendom which is morally allied to it. Against such assumptions there is the parallel with the two definitely historical conceptions, Samaria and Jerusalem, comp. Eze_16:49-50; and the Ammonites and Moabites in particular are just as little Sodomites as Lot was. But this much will be clear from the way in which Jerusalem is placed side by side with Sodom precisely and Samaria,—in other words, with the most notorious sinners (Deu_32:32; Isa_1:10; Jer_23:14; Rev_11:8); sinners, too, from whose judgment in long bygone days Jerusalem seemed to herself far removed, just as she despised those most nearly related to herself in lineage who had been carried into exile;—this much will be clear, that over against the sin and the judgment spoken of here, grace and favour are manifestly to be taken in a Messianic point of view, and are meant to be set forth in a way that is full of promise. Comp. Rom_11:32. The promise “soaring far above the censure,” as Hitzig says of the section Eze_16:53-63. The solution of the difficulty, as it is attempted by Calvin, by means of assuming a comminatio a conditions impossibili (Joh_15:20),—if Sodom and Samaria, then also thou; but the former not, therefore thou also not,—is supported neither by the letter nor by the connection; we have promise before reaching Eze_16:60 sq. “The restoration is, as in the case of Job, a lifting up to a stage of existence far surpassing the former,—admission into the kingdom of God and participation in all its blessings” (Hengst.).
Eze_16:56. Such a prospect stands out the more prominently, as the retrospect hinted at in Eze_16:54 appears by its side. שְׁמוּעָה—what is heard, and ought to be marked; hence: tidings, report, what may at the same time serve for instruction, for warning. Sodom had not been taken, either in her sins or in her punishment, by Israel as an intimation to herself, which is to be heard and pondered whenever the topic appeared in her mouth; she merely talked it on its way, without drawing from it instruction or warning for herself, giving herself up as she did at the time to her Sodom-like (Eze_16:49, Eze_7:20; Eze_7:24) proud boastings. [Häv.: “was not for instruction, so that thy mouth was full of the impression.” Others: “she was not heard in thy mouth; thou didst not think of her, didst not speak of her.” Rosenm.: thou didst not take Sodom’s name at all into thy mouth from mere pride (! ?). Keil: “Sodom was not a discourse in thy mouth, that thou didst talk of her and lay to heart her fate.” Ewald: “although Sodom had no reputation in thy mouth, was defamed by thee, somewhat as thou thyself now art by thine enemies,” etc. Others take the sentence as a question. So Hengst.: “Was not Sodom evil spoken of in thy mouth?” Hitz.: “Was not Sodom a discourse in thy mouth? a theme which thou didst handle in an edifying manner?” Others still, as Luth., Cocc., Klief., take it as a future, against the grammar.]
Eze_16:57. A more exact determination of the time of בְּיוֹם׳. It was before the punishment, to which, and not merely to the sin, the retrospect is directed, just as in Eze_16:53 “miseries” are spoken of in the plural. By means of the punishment the discovery (Eze_16:37; Eze_16:36) of her wickedness took place, her wicked pride came to shame and dishonour; namely, by means of the impending judgment from the direction of Babylon, which can be looked back to as a thing already accomplished in the past, and that all the more as Jehovah speaks from the standpoint of the promised favour following thereupon. [Ewald translates: “just as thou art now the scorn,” etc. The expression: as at the time, is commonly referred to Isa_9:11; 2Ki_15:37; 2Ki_16:6; 2Ch_28:5; 2Ch_28:18 sq.; Keil adding 2Ki_24:2.] Her own experience of punishment, that Sodom in reality came to be heard and felt by her, therefore humbled even earlier the pride of Judah, if not in her own eyes, yet in those of strangers. If, therefore, Sodom was of no use before, if her own experience did her harm, yet by means of the impending discovery of her wickedness, something else is to be brought about. (Hengst.: “By that which she suffered she learned what she had done; she no longer spoke in pride of Sodom with a ‘God, I thank thee,’ but laid her hand upon her own heart.”) The Aramaic (Syrian) cities and nations are to be looked upon, according to Hengst., not as the destroying powers—“in that case Asshur and Babylon would be mentioned”—but as mocking neighbours. Häv. takes them and the daughters of the Philistines to be instruments of the divine avenging justice,—but not with reference to any single occurrence, but in regard to the whole history of the covenant-people, as the northeastern and southern neighbours of the theocracy; and says that not for them alone, but for all her surroundings, the same thing lay in store,—a multitude of punishments, which corresponded at the same time to their hard-heartedness.
Eze_16:58 is taken by others as future. Hitz.: “in the mouth of Jehovah of the certain future: thou must bear.” It is, as already remarked on Eze_16:57, the standpoint of the certain bestowment of grace, from which the last punishment also is looked upon as one that has already taken place. The aim, the divine intention of Eze_16:54, is reached. Comp. on Eze_16:43.—With the mention of the punishments already over (Eze_16:57) there is connected this summary sentence, which, pointing to the impending culmination of punishment, brings the matter to a conclusion, in order with Eze_16:59 to make the transition to the opposite.—כִּי gives the reason with divine attestation why it must be so, that it is according to righteousness; not merely, however, in reference to punishment, but (Eze_16:60) looking beyond to grace as well.—וְעשית, the וְ therefore (also in Eze_16:60) a continuation of the discourse in Eze_16:58. Others: “yea.” The Qeri rightly: וְעָשִׂיתִי, in the first person. Others take it as the second person: thou didst to thyself what thou didst; comp. Rom_2:5.—Oath, Deu_29:11 [12].—Comp. Eze_16:8.
Eze_16:60. Faithfulness as opposed to unfaithfulness. Lev_26:42. See Exo_19:24.—Comp. Isa_54:8; Isa_54:10; Jer_31:31; Jer_32:40.
Eze_16:61. In addition to Jehovah’s remembering, we have now the people’s remembering. He remembered His covenant, His faithfulness; they had to remember their ways, their unfaithfulness. The being ashamed is that already alluded to in Eze_16:54 after their experience of penal chastisement; here, however, still more expressly in view of the grace to be experienced. Israel may well receive what is given her. Comp. Eze_16:46; Eze_16:53; Eze_16:55. The plural, however, stretches beyond Samaria and Sodom to the greater and smaller national communities of mankind. For daughters—Rosenm., Hitz.: Jerusalem therefore the metropolis, the capital of the new theocracy. Keil: “because the heathen nations are engrafted in Israel as their stem.” The position of daughter, as it regards the maternal relation of Israel, is clear from Joh_4:22. Comp. besides Psalms 87.—The expression: and not by thy covenant, is made perfectly clear by Joh_10:16. Hengst. explains the short, but so much the more forcible, addition from Eze_16:59 : “not because the fulfilment of thy covenant obligations gave thee any claim to it.” Similarly most expositors. But the covenant is always God’s covenant; expressly so in Eze_16:60, as also immediately again in Eze_16:62. Hence “thy covenant” = My covenant with thee in the days of thy childhood, Eze_16:60. The parties in question are designated as “without law,” i.e. as not springing from the law, although not as standing outside the promise. Comp. on Eze_16:8; Rom_2:12; Rom_2:14. And so in Eze_16:62 the everlasting covenant, again resumed with emphatic אְַנִי from Eze_16:60, is represented as pure gospel, as a most gracious fulfilment of promise, as well as, of course, of the law of Israel (“My covenant with thee,” Eze_16:60). But the relation under the law was always temporary, and also local, national, one that passed over into the fulfilment; which indeed drew forth from the law even the latent gospel, and realized it, but which in divine faithfulness brought about the fulfilment of promise in a more general sense (e.g. Gen_12:3), and which accordingly stretches from eternity to eternity, and for this reason the knowledge of Jehovah is significantly connected with it. (Exo_3:14.)
Eze_16:63. לְמַעַן reminds us of Eze_16:54, while at the same time Eze_16:62 is resumed. Remember thy “ways,” the sins thou hast committed.—Be ashamed, comp. Eze_16:52; that is to say, instead of her former pride, which shut her eyes to her deepest corruption and apostasy, but opened her mouth the more shamelessly for self-justification as well as for bringing charges against God.—As the covenant springs from pure mercy and faithfulness, so in its inmost essence it consists in forgiveness of sins.
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS
1. The scene with the adulteress in John 8., whom the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus, might perhaps appear still more significant resting on the background of our chapter. Let it be supposed that Jesus wrote Ezekiel 16. with His finger on the ground, and on the basis of that put forth the well-known challenge of Joh_8:7.
2. If in respect of the temporary garb this chapter is kept to the Old Testament, it is essentially New Testament in its spirit and design. Paul has not more sharply assailed the Jews, nor more thoroughly stripped them of all their own righteousnesses. Comp. Rom_2:3. The prophet does not even once bring into view their descent from Abraham. That and everything else for him lie sunk in pure sin and misery. Justification by works is here held up even to irony, inasmuch as the greater sinner “justifies” the lesser ones by means of her deeds of abomination. At the close comes salvation.
3. And just as salvation is reached at the close, so our chapter shows itself at once as a way of salvation, from the fact that the actual sin in all its ingratitude and inconceivability, but along with that the natural corruption cleaving to the people of God, is disclosed. For in what blindness does a man live with regard to himself, so long as he lives to sin! The greatness of my sin and misery must ever be the first thing for me to know, if I am to live and die happily in the consolation of the gospel.
4. Inasmuch, however, as the form of the prophetic discourse exhibits in detail a whore and adulteress of the most abandoned description, in order to hold up before the people in the picture a mirror of themselves inwardly, we are, as Cocceius very truly remarks, to make matter of reflection (for this is the object of the description) the much more shameful spiritual unchastity as regards God, even while there may be outward fleshly decency before men. And this all the more as the ordinary judgment of mankind falls so unmercifully upon the fleshly form of manifestation, while it is wont to form a liberal and tolerant estimate of the apostasy from God and the yielding up of the spirit to idols. Cocceius, in this connection, points to Rev_14:4, and explains the “virgins” spiritually of the true and faithful followers of Jesus.
5. “Our chapter is, by the keeping up throughout of the figure therein, one of those Scripture passages which vindicate for ever the truth of the so-called mystic interpretation of the Song of Solomon” (Klief.).
6. For the Hebrew nation, which is more essentially a nation than any other, inasmuch as it “does not consist of more or fewer disparate, heterogeneous, and mutually foreign conglomerates, and more or less accidental aggregates, united by accretion from without, but is pre-eminently one individual, one family” (Ziegler). Egypt was the heathen foil, and still more the proper birthplace. There it grew to be a nation from the twelve heads of tribes. The natural potencies, which in this case come likewise to be considered, such as the great fruitfulness of this land, its climate so extraordinarily adapted for population, etc., are still more than met by the antithesis—on the one side monotheistic, on the other side polytheistic—which here lay open, and which prevented a dangerous mixture, and by what sprang from it in the shape of a “great spiritual antipathy and idiosyncrasy of the two nations,” through which a preparation was made for the pregnant development of religio-moral individuality as a nation at Sinai.
7. It is worthy of notice, and the after-effect is always visible in the history of the Jewish people, that they became a nation in a foreign land, in misery, and hence were already a nation before they took possession of the Promised Land.
8. It is one thing, Israel’s becoming a people (Eze_16:6); it is another, Israel’s becoming the people of Jehovah (Eze_16:8). In the latter respect the introductory declaration, “I who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,” gives the right key-note for the law of the covenant. In accordance with that it was to be understood as the will of one who was gracious, whose commandments, rightly understood, cannot be grievous. They led to grace, even when they led to the knowledge of sin.
9. Although “the whole of the development of Israel” (Hengst.) is surveyed by the eye of the prophet in the divine discourse, and although Häv. should not deny that regard is had at the same time “to the later history of the nation under David and Solomon,” yet it is principally the first season of youth that is here apostrophized, so that we get a pendant for what is said in Rev_2:4 about the “first love.” (Comp. especially Eze_16:8 in our chapter.)
10. Häv.: “The departure from Egypt, the giving of the law, the covenant of God with Israel, are facts which, comprehending as they do the choosing and preparation of the people to be a people of God, are of such a kind that they include at the same time the later blessings in germ; these are only the farther realization, confirmation, and development of those divine manifestations of grace there deposited in germ in the midst of the people.”
11. Hengst. asserts that “we are not to think of spiritual benefits,” that “the prophet abides by what is palpable, which the ungodly even, whose consciences he wishes to touch, would necessarily recognise,”—a view against which Häv. rightly remarks, that the material, outward blessings are special, just because they “have in them a spiritual significance,”—because they are “symbols, the concrete embodiment of spiritual verities and heavenly blessings.” This “is clear even from the nature of allegory itself.”
12. The covenant-people are portrayed for us both in their priestly and in their kingly character as a people. The more clearly they appear in this way as chosen out of the world—and thereby in their task, in their destination, for the world—the deeper feeling of ignominy and pain must their identification with the world, nay, in consequence of that, their sinking far below the heathen world, produce as a warning example to Christendom!
13. Marriage and religion here run so much into one another, that the vesture of the thought, the figure, becomes, as it were, the thing itself; and from this ideal hallowing of the institution of marriage there springs a religious and thus a very profound conception of its nature on the Old Testament ground (comp. Mal_2:14), just as in Eph_5:32 we have the New Testament view.
14. Israel’s identifying himself with the world is thorough unfaithfulness, as Israel was offered in the covenant relationship with Jehovah grace to withstand, to ward off, temptation through the world-powers,—is an unfaithful misapplication not only of the gifts of grace and blessings which have come to Israel, but of his state of grace. But he who forgets what manner of man he was, he who has a high opinion of himself, has no desire for grace; and the more he trusts in himself, the more quickly will he squander gifts and blessings. “If once this direction is taken, the wickedness advances farther and farther, unceasingly, with unabashed countenance; it spares no gift of God which it would not bring as an offering to its self-made gods, to itself, and to its sinful lust” (Häv.).
15. Self-exaltation leads from grace, just as self-knowledge leads to grace.
16. With the self-annulling of the relationship to God is bound up the annulling of a nation’s self in its different relations. Where there is no religion, there may be manners, but no morality; neither is there any historical nationality, however much of self-praise it may receive. Godliness is always the true policy, having the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. With its religion a people’s nationality is bound up. (The honouring of God and the national honour. The significance of the religious character of a people as it regards their ethical and national side.)
17. “In the Hebrew worship there was found a theocracy elsewhere unexampled. Originality and independence in the domain of natural religion was wanting in the case of the Hebrews; the fundamental bias produced by the worship of Jehovah left room merely for a pressing in of natural religion, dependent for the most part on outward circumstances. Striking proof how original and deeply rooted monotheism is in Hebraism” (Häv.). Comp. the development of this idea in Saalschütz Archäol. ii. p. 382 sq.
18. With this national character of hers as a people of Jehovah, Israel’s polytheistic aberrations are quite as much sins against herself, her true, essential, proper self, as against the Lord her God.
19. The punishment of death is inflicted by the law of Moses either in the shape of burning (? perhaps only of the corpses, after previous stoning), Lev_20:14; Lev_21:9,—Gen_38:24 appears to be a pre-Mosaic legal usage,—or by stoning, or by the sword. Hanging is not a Mosaic punishment.
20. Grotius drew the inference from our chapter (Eze_16:38; Eze_16:40), that after Moses’ time the severer punishment of stoning was introduced in the case of adultery; without ground, as Meyer on John 8. rightly decides. It was the legal Mosaic punishment of adultery, perhaps in general, as Häv. on Ezekiel in loco makes very probable, and not merely in cases like Deu_22:20 sq., 23 sq., to which Meyer limits it; although the figurative language used by our prophet in reference to the punishment would have its emphasis if the law had been to decree stoning only in cases so peculiar. (Israel conceived of as betrothed in marriage! Her obligation as a people to virgin-like purity!)
21. It is a fearful development that of Israel—the more grace, the more sin. And yet grace would display itself the more mightily, the more mightily sin had developed itself. “What a great, free kingdom of grace,” says Umbreit, “which the prophet builds up, in which Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem stand before God in a line connected in the closest way!”
22. The key to the interpretation of the restoration held out in prospect for Sodom and Samaria and Jerusalem is the undeniably representative character of all three. As this representative character of Judah-Jerusalem is clear in our prophet,—that is to say, the Jewish people is represented in this, its characteristic remnant,—so it is no less to be admitted in reference to Sodom and Samaria. The addition at the outset in every case, “and their daughters,” by means of which three groups are formed, strips the cities named of their individuality. But it is not the Jordan valley and the laud of the kingdom of Israel, and just as little is it the respective inhabitants, that are to be represented thereby, as it is plain from the connection that no special reference of any kind, either to local circumstances as such, or to persons as such, exists. Both Sodom and Samaria come into view with the prophet merely as regards sin and judgment, and with respect to grace and favour. As regards sin and judgment, they belong to history, and are specialized as regards this historical side of theirs, especially Sodom (Eze_16:49 sq.); with respect to grace and favour, they are received into the promise concerning the Jewish people, not merely to throw important light on that promise, but to characterize it Messianically as a world-wide prospect for humanity in general. We are not at liberty to say with Hengst.: “Sodom represents the entire heathen world standing in similar circumstances with her.” For what would Samaria represent, as distinguished from her and from Jerusalem? But if sin and judgment indisputably constitute the historical element of Sodom and Samaria, we shall require to express ourselves in this way: Sodom and Samaria set before us, symbolize in general, two sinful states of mankind, which are specially distinguished from each other in this way, that Sodom has sinned and been judged without having the law of the covenant, while Samaria has fallen away from the law of the covenant and exposed herself to judgment. It is not as representing heathendom that Sodom comes into view, but as standing outside the covenant of law; and the difference between Samaria and Jerusalem in respect of the covenant of law, out of which Samaria has fallen, is attested by the mercies which have maintained within Jerusalem and for her the covenant and the law so much longer. If Paul writes in Romans 2. that they who have sinned without law perish also without law, and that they who have sinned in the law are judged by the law, the statement is illustrated by Sodom and Samaria as to the prospect for Jerusalem. But because, with Ezekiel, grace and favour shoot up their beams behind and beyond the judgment, the fact that Sodom and Samaria, in connection with their sinning, are lost, serves indeed the purpose, in respect of righteousness, of placing Jerusalem—exceeding both as she has done in sin and corruption—even lower than them, and consequently of humbling her more deeply; but the deeper the humiliation, the deeper shall be the sense of shame, since grace and favour form the last prospect. A thought such as that expressed by Hengst.: “If God has compassion on the most notorious sinners among the heathen, how should He not have compassion on all?” lies outside our text. In accordance with our text the thought would need to run: If grace lies in prospect for Jerusalem, so much the more must this be the prospect for Sodom and Samaria, how greatly soever Jewish Pharisaism might set its face against it. The fact that the favour held out in prospect is expressed as a “return to their first estate,” explains the “turning” of the captivity, or more generally of the misery, as שׁוּב שִׁבוּת, as a “bringing back,” inasmuch as it is a “returning,” and both alike are figurative modes of speech. As the one takes its colour from Sodom’s judgment, so the other takes its colour from Samaria’s punishment. Sodom must be restored, since she is destroyed; while Samaria would have to be brought back from her misery, since she is in exile—if favour, notwithstanding judgment and after judgment, were to be the thing spoken of. But it is just such favour of which God means to speak to us by the mouth of His prophet. This favour is in the case of Jerusalem assigned indeed to the last time, in so far as the Messianic period is the last time; nothing, however, being said of transferring it to the world to come or to the last judgment, nor of its being delayed till the general restitution of all things. The same must hold good of the parallels, Sodom and Samaria. But Eze_16:61 makes it perfectly clear, inasmuch as the grace lying in store is spoken of there as a receiving into the fellowship of the everlasting covenant with Jerusalem; and Sodom and Samaria, just as they appear manifestly as types of humanity to be made partakers of grace, so far as they themselves are concerned, step into the background. When Stier wishes to explain Ezekiel by means of Mat_11:24 in reference to Sodom, he drags into the words of our Lord what does not necessarily lie in them. The last day, which according to Stier’s interpretation is to manifest “ways of grace still open” even “in the world to come,” does indeed make manifest those who are saved by grace through faith, as it likewise justifies the righteousness of God in its judgments before the whole world. That it will be more tolerable for Sodom on this day is explained simply enough from the circumstance that her guilt, as also that of Tyre and Sidon, when compared with the guilt of others, will appear as less heinous. But that Sodom will be restored is not said by our Lord in Matthew, any more than He says that Tyre and Sidon will repent. Where Ezekiel speaks of Sodom and Samaria (just as also of Jerusalem), as cities, localities, Sodom is removed from the face of the earth, Samaria lies waste, the style of expression as to “returning to their first estate” is merely colouring. The motto with the prophet, which runs through the Old Testament, in gospel terms is this: I am come to seek and to save that which was lost. This is the Messianic world-wide prospect for mankind, as it is symbolized in Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
23. “The prosperity and safety of the olden time is the immediate form under which the prophet beholds also the future,”—just as to be in paradise = to be in heaven; “but presently this future appears also in so ideal a splendour, that that very form bursts asunder, and in truth a new world presents itself to his eye. It is the old God, with the old gifts of His love; but the subjective condition has become a different one, and hence the old blessings also are of a new kind, and the whole state in consequence has become one far more exalted, far more glorious than the old” (Häv.).
[“It is as if an assurance were given to a child, whose family had become enveloped in misfortune, that he should live to see the former prosperity return again; but meanwhile he himself springs up to manhood, and, having now other wants to satisfy, and higher relations to fill than formerly, the revived prosperity must bring new and nobler gifts within his reach, to place him in the same relative position he originally occupied. In short, the bringing back of the captivity, and returning to the former state, as applied to the covenant-people, indicates nothing as to the outward form of things to be enjoyed, but points only to their nature, and character, as similar to what had already been” (Fairbairn).—W. F.]
24. Hengst. wishes to find, in the circumstance that in Eze_16:53; Eze_16:55 (just as also in Isa_19:23-24) Israel takes only the third place, a hint that the heathen world will attain sooner to salvation, and a preparation for Rom_11:25 (?). Again, the “comforting” of Eze_16:54 is to be explained from Eze_16:61], and is meant to signify the preaching of the gospel (Isaiah 40.), which will come at first from an election of Jews (the apostles) to the heathen. The high honour of this mission to the heathen world will fill with deep shame, because of the earlier apostasy. There is no question, at all events, as to the remark that the kingdom of God “can only for a time be limited to a single nation, and the limitation must be the means of removing the limitation.”
25. Häv.: (1) “The old covenant appears as the foundation, the presupposition, of the new, so that the latter rests on the former. The new institute of salvation is not the dissolution, but the fulfilment, the confirmation, and completion of the old. (2) It is characteristic of the new covenant that it is to be an everlasting covenant. But the eternity of duration already promised to the old covenant nevertheless stands fast, inasmuch as the old covenant rises into and passes over into a covenant of such a kind that its dissolution is not to be thought of.” Comp. besides our exposition of Eze_16:61 sq.
26. “Vain is the boast which Rome takes up against Jerusalem. For it is not from Rome that the gospel has gone forth, but from Jerusalem; just as it is also not to the Romans alone that it has forced its way. We are children of Jerusalem, but not of Rome. If Rome will be saved, she must become a daughter of Jerusalem; and this means that Rome must in this case accept the law which has gone forth from Jerusalem, and dare not accept or deliver aught else. But Jerusalem has begun to show herself as a mother, inasmuch as the apostles and believers from Jerusalem have preached the gospel to us” (Cocc).
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze_16:1 sq. “As a physician, when he wishes to heal a wound thoroughly, must probe it to the bottom, so a teacher, when he wishes to convert men thoroughly, must first seek to bring them to a knowledge of their sins” (Cr.).—“The man is thoroughly sick who does not wish to hear how sick he is, lest he should be compelled to know and believe it. But such is the sinner, who reckons himself as righteous” (Stck.).—“Without the knowledge of sin, repentance and conversion are not to be thought of. We know indeed already by nature that we ought not to kill, to steal, etc.; but because through inborn defect our natural knowledge is very much obscured, God has given the ten commandments, to set the law of nature in a clearer light; and the prophets are the expounders of the ten commandments. In other men we perceive at once the sins which we do not discover in ourselves. To ourselves we are indulgent, especially if we err in the service of God, since we are always clinging to the view that what we did with a good intention cannot possibly displease God. So much the more must the prophets drag our sins to the light” (Luther).
Eze_16:2. “Those who are in the Church, and yet live an ungodly life, are to be considered the same as the heathen before God, Mat_18:17” (Tüb. Bib.).
Eze_16:3. “What Jerusalem had to listen to in the passage before us! And yet what would have to be said of our extraction, as to who we are, and from what heathen we are sprung?” (Jer.)
Eze_16:4. The abuse of benefits increases guilt. Hence the preaching of those conferred by God on the Jewish people, as here by Ezekiel, is a thorough carrying out of the original commission: Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.
Eze_16:5 sq. It is above all as seen in contrast with our natural corruption that we come to understand the grace of God the Father in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, through the Holy Spirit.—“How did it stand with ourselves, before God stretched forth His hand to us, and brought us out of the filth of our sins? We are born children of wrath; we lie under guilt for our sins; we must have died eternally, had we not been quickened through Christ, Eph_2:4-5; 1Co_6:12” (Luther).—Where none helps, God is our help.—“Priest and Levite pass by; God does not. He not only will, but He also can help. His looking upon us is already help” (Stck.).—Remembering a good preparation (for the table of the Lord also): (1) let us remember what we are by nature; (2) let us remember still more God’s grace.
Eze_16:8 sq. “This is the second gracious visitation of God; the first is in Eze_16:6 sq.” (Schmieder.)
Eze_16:9 sq. “With such grace God comes to meet us, when as the compassionate Father He comes to meet His prodigal sons (Luke 15.), embraces them, and by His promises and so many proofs of His love takes away our unbelief, and enters into covenant with us. This takes place when He forgives us our sins, imparts to us His Spirit, and frees us from the bondage of sin. But as those who have the gift of freedom bestowed upon them change their clothes, so we put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and are numbered with the royal priesthood (Col_3:12-13)” (Heim-Hoff.).—“Observe that God not only washed, but also anointed; in other words, He not only forgives our sins, but at the same time sanctifies us by His Spirit” (Cocc.).—“Do you wish to know what articles of clothing these really are? Compassion, kindness,” etc. (Jer.)—“But the adorning of godly women is not to be that which is outward, but the new man inwardly, 1Pe_3:3 sq,; Gal_5:22” (Starke).—“The kingdom of glory is reached by those only who keep the faith to the end” (Stck.).
Eze_16:14. “A name of renown is no small favour from God, but one ought not to pride himself in it, Mat_3:9” (O.).—“There is no name of greater glory and renown than to be a child of God. Strive to bear this name with truth, Hos_1:10” (Starke).
Eze_16:15. “The divine gifts, so soon as we cease to recognise them as such, inevitably become a snare. The heart that has grown proud by means of them becomes the sport of all lusts and passions” (Hengst.).—Ingratitude is the reward of the world; it was so even in the case of the nation placed in so splendid a position in the heathen world, and that in reference to the Lord. What a mirror for Christendom!—“How many a one has been corrupted by beauty!” (Stck.)—“Beauty, whence comes it? is it not also a divine gift? Who can make himself beautiful? And should it not serve to keep what is unbeautiful, to keep vice far from us? And how soon is beauty gone!” (Luther.)—Prosperity without piety, in nine cases out of ten, leads to corruption.—“This is a worm which gnaws and destroys the most precious souls, and renders the commandments of no effect, when the man is content with the praise of men, and boasts himself as if his own doings were enough for him. Beware, therefore, of trusting in thine own will, because it is nothing without God’s assistance. When you have done all, say, We are unprofitable servants. ‘It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy’ (Rom_9:16). It is the Lord’s will that we should place our confidence in this, that our names are written in heaven” (Heim-Hoff., after Calv.).—“The name of a Christian is not enough, if the walk of a Christian does not go along with it” (Stck.).—“The more distinguished thou art among men, the more watchful over thyself thou shouldst be” (Luther).
Eze_16:16 sq. “What is there that men do not spend upon sinful objects, and especially upon false worship!—All that thou offerest to the idols: tell us, then, earthly-minded man, what hast thou offered in thy life to God?” (Starke.)—New patches upon an old garment; here, as so often, upon the old idolatry!—“Observe that those who fall away from the true religion are accustomed to walk at the head of processions, and would fain even excel others through their superstition, so that the latter are even displeased” (Luther).
Eze_16:17 sq. There is a systematic theology, professing to be biblical, after this pattern, where the gold and silver of Holy Scripture are wrought up into doctrinal statements and practical inferences according to one’s own liking, under splendid wrappings (phrases), and by means of an eloquence that reminds one of better times.—“The true God clothes and feeds His own; but the false gods must be clothed and fed by their worshippers, and for this purpose God’s gifts are to serve” (Stck.).
Eze_16:20 sq. “God’s right not only to the grown up, but also to their children, is not merely in virtue of creation and preservation, but in virtue of the covenant” (Starke).—“The extent of the grace which was promised to Abraham must be recognised in the Church of Christ also. Christ imparts the sparks of His Spirit to whom He will; and hence many in the first years of childhood have a purer fear of God than those who are grown up. And therefore in the worship of the Church, and especially in baptism, the grace of the new birth for children of God is ascribed to little children even, in dependence on the promise: I am thy God, and the God of thy seed” (Heim-Hoff.).—“Thou darest not, O false, hypocritical Christian, hold thyself to be righteous as compared with the Jews, because thou hast an abhorrence of what they did; for the rearing of thy children for the devil and the world is certainly not better” (Berl. Bib.).—“God retains His right over our children; and so He does thee no wrong when He summons them away from thee into heaven” (Stck.).
Eze_16:22 sq. The ungodly and idolatrous have a bad memory. It is the memory that the devil seeks first to steal from man. When memory comes back to us through grace, how our eyes are filled with tears! Sometimes the dying hour draws aside the veil from our memory. Oh, let it not come so late!
Eze_16:25. “The beauty is the national honour, a noble boon bestowed by God, which not to esteem, but to prostitute, is a sign of deep degeneracy and alienation from God” (Hengst.).
Eze_16:26. “Ofttimes neighbours entice one another to sin” (Starke).
Eze_16:27. Even upon Israel’s most wicked ways God’s hand is ever discernible still.
Eze_16:28 sq. There is an insatiable hunger in sin.—“With God’s word, on the other hand, men become so quickly satiated” (Stck.).—“Without repentance we go from sin to sin” (Jer.).—“Our heart has no rest until it rests in God” (Augustine).—“If we are too intimately connected with the ungodly, it is just as if we went near a fan, and made it blow up our evil desires, which without that are already burning sufficiently in our soul. It is difficult to keep the favour of those with whom we are on terms of friendship, if we do not agree with them” (Heim-Hoff.).
Eze_16:30. “A withered heart, a heart that has lost its sap and vigour (Psa_32:4), is the heritage of those who seek in the world what God alone can impart. Hope always disappointed is the enemy of life.”
Eze_16:31. Where wickedness has grown into a habit, everything becomes a means to the end, for its only wish is to gratify its lust.
Eze_16:32. “Those who serve God and Mammon, Christ and Belial, are in the same condemnation” (Stck.).
Eze_16:35 sq. The punishment of God begins with the holding up before us of our sins; and thus our evil conscience is the announcement of yet another condemnation.—God’s word and Spirit never flatter, but call sinner and sin by their right name.—Such is the relation in which God stands to whoredom; how different the position taken up by states and cities toward it, that still wish to be called Christian!—To hear while it is yet time, to hear the voices of grace, saves us from being compelled to hear the sentence of punishment.
Eze_16:37. False, sinful love readily passes over into fierce hate, which is also a judicial sentence of God, even in this life.—Such is the case also with boon companionship, gambling companionship, and similar worldly friendships.—This is the curse of sin, that those with whom we have sinned make common cause with our enemies for our punishment.—“The penal uncovering of the nakedness is the righteous retribution for having done so voluntarily” (Hengst.).—Friends may in certain circumstances be the most painful rods in God’s hand.—Keep me, O God, from friends who are not Thy friends.
Eze_16:38 sq. The history of the world, still more the history of the Church, most of all the history of the Jewish people, shows a retribution at work, and proves at the same time the existence of a Judge.—To be in the enemy’s hand does not, in the case of faith, exclude the comfort of knowing that we are in God’s hand; but for the ungodly it is a sign that God has given them up.—Those are the most awful scenes of burning, in whose ruins we see ourselves pointed away beyond man altogether to the righteous God. In this way Jerusalem has become a parallel to the Dead Sea.—He who refuses to obey God must in the end obey men.
Eze_16:40. The sin public; the shame public; the judgment public.
Eze_16:41. “God can easily bring it about that we shall sin no more; in other words, that even if we wish it as before, we shall be able to go no farther” (Stck.).
Eze_16:42. If the sin ceases, the wrath ceases, it rests over the sinner; and so the nationality of Israel has ceased among the nations.—God’s resting, His being no longer angry, may be hell.—The extremity of judgment is such indifference on the part of God. Eze_16:43 sq. All sin becomes still worse from its being a crime against God’s grace. “Against Thee, Thee only,” is the so thoroughly damning element in sin.—“The sins and bad habits of parents do not excuse the children, but render them the more guilty, because they have not shunned ways so wicked” (Stck.).
Eze_16:47 sq. When sin has grown to madness, the most horrible depths of corruption disclose themselves just in the case of those who have had most to do with God’s word.—A man of the world cannot possibly sin like one who has formerly been a “Christian.”—What sinner in Israel did not reckon himself a pious man, if not a saint, as compared with Sodom! How different is God’s judgment from men’s judgment upon others and upon themselves!
Eze_16:49 sq. Good days may become bad weeks, a bad eternity,—Unmercifulness shows that we ourselves have not obtained mercy.—If we are to be ashamed before Sodom and Samaria, how much more before the penitent thief upon the cross!
Eze_16:51 sq. The mote and beam, as in Matthew 7.—In judging of sins, many a thing has to be considered which God alone can know. Hence we should not wish to judge, but should leave the judgment to God.—Justification before men, and justification before God; justification from men in word, through their praise, or in actual fact, through their greater guilt; and justification from God, in His word, through Christ’s work.
Eze_16:53 sq. “Teachers and preachers must preach not only the law, but also the gospel” (O.).—However great our sin and misery may be, there is, a redemption from all.—“What the prophet here predicts has been fulfilled in the Church, and is being fulfilled still daily” (Jer.).—The gospel proclaims and promises return from captivity, and restoration of the divine image alike to the grossest sinners, and to the apostates who have fallen away from the truth, and also to those who boast themselves of Moses and the prophets, yea, of Christ and the apostles, but who shall the more righteously fall under judgment if they do not repent.—“In the case of spiritual captivity we must think of the jailor, of the chains, and of the bondage. But from Satan’s yoke, and the chains of darkness, and from wicked works, Christ leads us to freedom” (Stck.).
Eze_16:54. “This is a beautiful revenge and a blessed retribution on God’s part, the shaming of the sinner by means of grace” (Cocc.).—To be ashamed of salvation, and to be ashamed because of so great salvation, how different are these two things!
Eze_16:55. It is a bringing back, the restoration of the nations to a united humanity in the Son of man, the new heavens and the new earth, the creation of redemption.
Eze_16:56. “How many rejoice in the calamity of others, and do not reflect that perhaps a still greater one hangs over their own head! Pro_24:17” (Starke).—The stones of the temple at Jerusalem cry loud enough in the ear of Christendom!
Eze_16:57. The day of judgment makes bare.—“In this life much remains hidden, but the last day will make manifest thoughts as well as words and actions” (Stck.).—In the end, and—if one looks deep enough—already even, he who despises God and is cast off by Him is despised by men likewise.
Eze_16:58. “He who seems to bear sin lightly will find the punishment so much the heavier.”
Eze_16:59. God deals with us according to our works, and He does not deal with us according to our works; both already in this world, but thoroughly only in the world to come.—God’s remembering His grace produces the everlasting covenant.—“Believers have no right to assume or imagine that they have been reconciled to God from any other cause than from the grace of the covenant” (Calv.).
Eze_16:61. Our remembering is never without shame on our part.—God’s grace awakens, sharpens memory also.—“The remembrance of our former state of sin ought to humble us thoroughly, but at the same time to awaken us to the gratitude we owe to God for having shown us so great mercy, 1Co_15:9-10” (Starke).
Eze_16:63. “God is willing to remit not one and another sin merely, but all our sins” (Luther).—“In this chapter, as in Romans 1. sq., God makes a complete disclosure of the abominations of sin, but for the purpose in grace of also covering them up wholly” (Richt.).—“The justification of grace takes away from those who have come to know their sin thoroughly all boasting of their own merits, Rom_3:24” (Starke).—Our being struck dumb in judgment, our being struck dumb from grace.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–15 birth . . . nativity--thy origin and birth; literally,…
birth . . . nativity--thy origin and birth; literally, "thy diggings" (compare Isa 51:1) "and thy bringings forth."
of . . . Canaan--in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sojourned before going to Egypt, and from which thou didst derive far more of thy innate characteristics than from the virtues of those thy progenitors (Eze 21:30).
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an Amorite . . . an Hittite--These, being the most powerful tribes, stand for the whole of the Canaanite nations (compare Jos 1:4; Amo 2:9), which were so abominably corrupt as to have been doomed to utter extermination by God (Lev 18:24-25, Lev 18:28; Deu 18:12). Translate rather, "the Amorite . . . the Canaanite," that is, these two tribes personified; their wicked characteristics, respectively, were concentrated in the parentage of Israel (Gen 15:16). "The Hittite" is made their "mother"; alluding to Esau's wives, daughters of Heth, whose ways vexed Rebekah (Gen 26:34-35; Gen 27:46), but pleased the degenerate descendants of Jacob, so that these are called, in respect of morals, children of the Hittite (compare Eze 16:45).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 JERUSALEM’S UNFAITHFULNESS AND PUNISHMENT — THE ADOPTED CHILD-WIFE, Eze_16:1-43.
JERUSALEM’S UNFAITHFULNESS AND PUNISHMENT — THE ADOPTED CHILD-WIFE, Eze_16:1-43.
In chaps. 13-15 the prophet has shown how untrustworthy are all the Israelitish hopes that punishment will not fall upon them for their sins. He now in a most powerful allegory makes Jerusalem “to know her abominations,” and to see that her destruction is the natural and inevitable result of her unchaste deeds. Jerusalem, representing here the chosen people, is pictured as a child of disreputable origin, cast out and uncared for from the day of her birth because of the loathsomeness of her person, and only saved from death in her infancy by the divine Friend, who it seems immediately after this kind act restored her to her home (Eze_16:7-8), where she grew up into maidenhood in a most neglected condition and was finally once more cast out, filthy in person, naked and bleeding (Eze_16:9-10), when once again he saved her from herself and her dangerous environment, betrothed her to himself, took her into his own palace, gave her rich and precious ornaments, and she became his wife. Yet, with immeasurable ingratitude and iniquity, she gave to strangers the very life and beauty which her divine husband had created in her. Even his wedding presents were scattered among her lovers (heathen idolaters), her children were neglected and slain, and she became a prostitute, not because she needed money (Eze_16:31), but only because of her innate unchastity (Eze_16:30). This loathsome picture of unapproachable iniquity is seen to represent the misalliance of Jehovah with Judah, and justifies all the threatened punishment which Ezekiel has declared shall fall upon the unfaithful wife who has sunk to a lower degradation than the common harlot.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–15 1–7. The exposed child rescued and adopted by Jehovah—his…
1–7. The exposed child rescued and adopted by Jehovah—his taking to himself the family of Israel in the early patriarchal times
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 (3) Thy birth and thy nativity is of the…
(3) Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan.—In the original the words “births” and “nativities” are in the plural, already indicating what the whole context makes plain, that the reference is not to the natural, but to the spiritual origin of Israel. So our Lord says to the Jews of His time, “Ye are of your father, the devil” (Joh_8:44; comp. Mat_3:9); and Isaiah addresses his contemporaries as “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrha” (Isa_1:10). The word births, as indicated by the margin, comes from a verb meaning to cut or dig out, as stone from the quarry; and there is a play upon this sense in Isa_51:1. Israel’s character, her spiritual nativity, was thoroughly Canaanitish.
An Amorite . . . an Hittite.—These two tribes, especially the former, as the most prominent in Canaan, are frequently put for the whole (Gen_15:16; Deu_1:44, with Num_14:45; Jos_10:5; 2Ki_21:11, &c). The dealings of the patriarchs in Canaan were particularly with the Hittites (Genesis 23; Gen_26:34-35; Gen_27:46; Gen_28:1; Gen_28:6-8). This once great and powerful nation had almost faded from history; but their monuments and inscriptions are just now beginning to be discovered and deciphered.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–15 HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Vers. 1-4. Undeserved and lavish…
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Vers. 1-4. Undeserved and lavish kindness.
The Prophet Ezekiel was a prophet of reproach. His ministry largely consisted in rebuke and denunciation. His lot fell upon the time of his country"s calamity. Defection and apostasy were punished by national disaster; for whilst the exiles endured the ills of banishment, the remnant in Jerusalem and in Judah endured the horrors of siege. That all the evils inflicted upon. the Hebrew people were of the nature of righteous punishment is apparent from the record of their departure from God. It is this point which the prophet presses in this chapter one of the most painful in the inspired volume. The distinguishing favour, bounty, and forbearance of God are described as aggravating the national guilt. That a people so favoured should forsake him to whom they owed everything, and should addict themselves to the worship and service of idols, was guilt of no ordinary kind, entailing no ordinary chastisement. The figure under which the prophet sets forth the Divine favour towards Jerusalem, and Jerusalem"s disloyalty to God, is a very bold and effective figure; and if it were less painful and distressing it would be less just. Jerusalem is represented first as a low born, neglected babe, taken under the kindly protection of the Lord, and by him nourished and trained to lovely womanhood, and taken for his own spouse. Ungrateful for this kindness, Jerusalem is pictured as unfaithful to him to whom she owed everything, as prostituting herself to her idolatrous neighbours, indulging her own passions, and dishonouring her rightful Lord. In plain and pungent language her monstrous guilt is exposed, and its due punishment is threatened. Yet, in his amazing compassion, the Lord does not abandon and repudiate her whom he had chosen, but invites her to repentance, and promises to renew the covenant of his loving kindness. In the early part of the chapter the goodness and pity of God towards Jerusalem are portrayed in terms the most touching and affecting.
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I GOD"S GRACIOUS KINDNESS APPEARS FROM THE RECORD OF THE ORIGIN AND EARLY STATE OF JERUSALEM. In ver. 3 the prophet reminds Jerusalem whence she had sprung. Her native place was the land of Canaan, a land notorious for the cruelty and vileness of its inhabitants. Her father was an Amorite, and her mother a Hittite an ancestry of which she could not be vain. There was, accordingly, nothing in the birth and breeding of Jerusalem which could commend her to the Divine regard; that regard must have been altogether disinterested, benignant, and compassionate.
II GOD"S SPARING MERCY APPEARS FROM HIS TREATMENT OF JERUSALEM IN THE TIME OF HER WORTHLESSNESS AND WRETCHEDNESS. Under the graphically depicted figure of a deserted newborn child, the condition of Jerusalem is portrayed as one of neglect, destitution, and friendlessness. When in such a state she was seen and pitied by the Benevolent One, who rescued her from death, who nurtured her gently, and provided for her all that could minister to her health, her growth, her vigour, her beauty. Whatever was justly written in praise of Jerusalem, in her fairest and brightest days, must be read in connection with this authoritative statement of the grace and kindness of God her Saviour. She had nothing which she did not receive from him who made her to differ.
III GOD"S LOVING KINDNESS APPEARS IN THE COVENANT INTO WHICH HE ENTERED WITH JERUSALEM. In the eighth and following verses is described in glowing language the favour which God had to Jerusalem in the day of her espousals. The covenant of love was entered into, and the bride was arrayed in magnificent and costly attire, indicative of the bounty and kindness of her Lord. The poet prophet rises to his highest strain in singing of the beauty and majesty of the elected spouse of Jehovah. "Thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper unto royal estate. And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my majesty, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.
IV GOD"S GRACE APPEARS IN THE EXALTATION OF JERUSALEM TO A POSITION OF FAVOUR AND HONOUR. The wealth and splendour, the power and renown, of Jerusalem, especially in the reign of Solomon, are matters of history. The fame of Jerusalem was spread afar: she was "the joy of the whole earth." And this was the explanation: "The Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for a habitation." "I," said the Lord sware unto thee, and thou becamest mine. T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES Vers. 1-14. Superhuman love.
The main difficulty in producing a moral reformation among men is to convince them of their degradation of the low level to which they have sunk. The first thing to be done is to hold up to their view some bright mirror, in the which they may discern clearly what manner of men they are. Such a mirror is provided in the chapter under consideration. We have pictured here
I A FORMER LOATHSOME CONDITION. Sin is not merely resistance against proper authority, it is also personal pollution a defilement of the soul.
1. A base origin. "Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother was a Hittite." It is often edifying to look "to the rock whence we were hewn to the meanness of our earthly parentage. The ancestors of the Hebrews were idolaters a branch of that very race whom they despised and drove out. They had no superior dignity from their forefathers. All the superiority they enjoyed, had come from the special favour of Jehovah.
2. Their neglected condition. The kindness of common humanity had been denied to them in their infantile state. Their ancestors, the Amorites, cared nothing for them; yea, treated them as aliens in the land. Again and again Abraham was driven away by famine, and had to find sustenance by favour in the land of Egypt. At length, in the days of Jacob, "they were cast out into the open field," i.e. into the land of Egypt. They soon had no protection nor security from the Egyptian government. They were reduced to thraldom; their lives were made bitter.
3. They were even loathsome to all. To the Egyptians they were an abomination. They were hated of all men. It may have been on account of pusillanimity and mean-spiritedness the effect of long servitude. It may have been on account of their peculiar customs their clannishness. It may have been because of their peculiar religion, so different from all the nations. Yet there was the fact that no nation would make alliance with them.
4. Their forlorn and abandoned state. As a female child is often, in Eastern lands, abandoned on the hills left to perish from want, or to be devoured by wild beasts so, as far as human protection was afforded, Israel was exposed to early death. The Egyptians did their utmost to exterminate the race. The Amalekites and the Edomites followed in the same track. Israel was isolated in the world treated as a foe by all.
II GENEROUS TREATMENT BY GOD. Dispossessed of all natural attractions, God chose to show to this abandoned child special favour. The only explanation is, "So it seemed good in his sight." He giveth not to men a reason for his doings.
1. There was a look of love. The extreme helplessness of a little child often moves to pity the heart of a stolid man. Unless friendly help be at once afforded by the passer by, the puny child must perish. So the time of Israel"s desolateness was the time of Jehovah"s love. No other sentiment came into play then but the royal sentiment of love. The very heart of God looked out through his eye.
2. There was kindly protection. True love is not content with sentiment, nor yet with smiles, nor yet with words: it goes out in practical deeds. The best thing to be done was done at once. "I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness.
3. There was appropriate cleansing. As soon as the imperilled life was secured, the health and comfort of the child became Jehovah"s concern. "I washed thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood." The God of heaven condescended to do this menial work. His real glory is seen in his amazing humility. He deigns to wash us still to wash the soul from all its foulness.
4. There was the forthputting of vital power. "I said unto thee, Live!" The voice of God is a resistless energy. God"s word is creative: "He speaks, and it is done." He who spake to the primitive chaos, "Let there be light!" and light was, speaks also to the soul dead in sin, and says effectually, "Live!" However near the brink of doom, they shall live, if God speaks the quickening word. "Is not this a brand plucked from the burning?
5. Multiplication of life. He made the one into many. "I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field." He who in the beginning of creation ordained that every plant should produce seed after its own kind, ordained that Israel should be fruitful above the ordinary measure of mankind. "As the stars of heaven, so shall thy seed be," was the promise to Abraham. And the promise was fulfilled. "They of the city flourished as the grass of the earth." Growth of population is an accepted sign of national prosperity.
6. A gracious alliance. "I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine." Though other nations refused to make alliances with Israel, Jehovah did so of his own accord. He treated them with most favourable consideration. He dealt with them as with free men men endowed with reason and judgment. He made a compact with them, by which he bound himself to befriend them, on condition that they would loyally serve him. This was an act of stupendous grace. God dealt with them as if they were his equals. It gas a voluntary marriage.
7. There was also splendid adornment. "I clothed thee also with broidered work," etc. This once abandoned child was not only rescued, but was raised to dignity and honour. Her clothing was costly; her beauty set off to the greatest advantage. From the lowest grade of human life she was lifted to the very highest. Her person was adorned with richest ornaments, embellished with jewels and gold. Her dowry was magnificent, princely. Her condition was made by God a condition of luxury and splendour.
8. There was conferred on her queenly honour and renown. "I put a beautiful crown upon thy head." "Thou didst prosper into a kingdom." To this rescind child no earthly good was denied. She had more than heart could desire. Other countries were despoiled to enrich her. She was exalted to a place of high renown. Foreign rations became her servants, and kings her ministers. On the summit of earthly glory she sat enthroned, the wonder and the envy of the world. Which thing is an allegory. From the mire of moral pollution we have been raised: we have been put among God"s sons. "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ;" "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father"s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. D.
HOMILIES BY W. JONES Vers. 1-15. A picture of human depravity and destitution, and of Divine condescension and favour.
the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations," etc. "We have here," says Hengstenberg, "one of the grandest prophecies of Ezekiel. The prophet surveys in the Spirit of God the whole of the development of Israel, the past and the future." In this development we have the following stages: The condition in which the Lord found his people; the condition to which he raised them; their shameful departures from him; his severe judgments upon them; and their restoration to his favour. Each of these developments of Israelitish history may be viewed as an emblem of man"s moral condition or relations with God, or of God"s dealings with man. It seems to us that it would be unwise to attempt to deal with the chapter as a whole in one homily. We shall therefore consider its chief paragraphs separately. In the section before us we have two graphic pictures.
I A PICTURE OF HUMAN DEPRAVITY AND DESTITUTION, OR OF THE CONDITION IN WHICH THE LORD FOUND HIS PEOPLE.
1. Their depraved moral parentage. "Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the laud of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite." The people of Israel are hero designated "Canaanites," to indicate their degraded moral character and condition. "The Amorites and the Hittites are two chief Canaanitish tribes, that elsewhere so often represent the whole of the Canaanites; the Amorites already, in Gen_15:16, where they specially represent the Canaanitish people in their sinfulness." Moral character and conduct are often viewed as indicative of moral parentage. "When men live according to the courses, natures, manners of others, they are styled their sons, or children." Thus the Jews are called "sons of the sorceress," etc.. (Isa_57:3) The Jews in the time of our Lord"s ministry upon earth claimed to be "Abraham"s seed They said unto him, Abraham is our father." But Jesus said unto them, "Ye are of your father the devil". (Joh_8:33-44) And St. Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, called Elymas the sorcerer a "child of the devil". (Act_13:10) The tendency to sin which characterizes human nature indicates sinful parentage. The doctrine of original sin has often been stated in a very objectionable mariner. But there is a basis of fact underlying that doctrine. It is certain that human beings manifest in early life a proclivity to sin. The modern scientific teaching as to inherited tendencies conducts to the conclusion that we inherit a depraved moral nature.
2. Their destitute moral condition. "And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut," etc. (vers. 4, 5). These verses point to the condition of Israel in Egypt, where the family grew into a nation, or the nation may have said to have been born. There was nothing there to foster the moral life and health of the young nation. Nay, more, their physical condition was one of cruel oppression and bitter persecution. (cf. Exo_1:7-22) They were abhorred, afflicted, and brutally ill treated. But the verses illustrate man"s spiritual condition apart from the grace of God and the provisions of that grace. Man is morally unclean as an unwashed infant, morally neglected as an uncared for infant, left to live or die, no one taking an interest in its condition, and being completely incapable of self-help. Is not that a picture of man"s spiritual state apart from the grace of God? We inherit a sinful nature. We cannot convert or sanctify ourselves, or even do anything with a view to such results without Divine influence. We cannot repent except as we are summoned and strengthened to do so from heaven. And man cannot save us if he would; forevery man is a sinner, and needs salvation himself. Neither can angels save us. Their utmost wisdom, love, and might are inadequate to the difficult task. God alone has pity enough and power enough for this work. If he leaves us we must perish. If we are to be saved he must begin and carry on the gracious work. And we rejoice to know that he does not leave any people to perish without witness of himself, or without some gracious influences from him. (cf. Act_14:17; Rom_1:19, Rom_1:20; 1Ti_2:4)
II A PICTURE OF DIVINE CONDESCENSION AND FAVOUR, OR THE CONDITION TO WHICH THE LORD RAISED HIS PEOPLE. (Vers. 6-14.) Here, as Fairbaian observes, "everything is fragrant with the matchless grace and loving kindness of God.
1. God graciously regarded them in their outcast condition. "I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted Revised Version, "weltering," in thine own blood." He looked compassionately upon the Israelites in their afflictions and sorrow in Egypt. "The Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt," etc.. (Exo_3:7-10) He saw our race ruined by sin, and of his own free and unmerited grace he had pity upon us. We had no claim upon his compassion or assistance. By our sin we had forfeited every title to his favour. We had no grace or beauty to commend us to his regard. We were rather, as in the picture drawn by the prophet (vers. 3-6), fitted to awaken repulsion. Yet God looked upon us in mercy; and he did so of his own good pleasure. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us," etc. "God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
2. God conferred life upon them. "I said unto thee in thy blood, Live!" He saw the Israelites in Egypt as it were naked, abhorred, and perishing, and he designed them for life, and caused them to live, notwithstanding the cruelty, of their oppressors. And it is God of his grace, through Christ Jesus and by his Word and Spirit, who quickens dead souls into life. "God being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together with Christ." (Eph_2:4-10; cf. Col_2:13; Joh_3:5-8)
3. He blessed them with growth and increase. "I caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field," etc. The explanation of this verse is in Exo_1:7, Exo_1:12. The great increase of the children of Israel excited the fears of theEgyptian monarch, and led him to oppress them; "but the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew." Their growth was of God, and accorded with his great purposes concerning them. Spiritual growth in the individual is the product of Divine influences. God quickens and sustains and increases the life of the soul. Hence St. Paul prays "that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man," etc.. (Eph_3:16-19) The increase of the Church also is of him. "The Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved". (Act_2:47) "I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase". (1Co_3:6)
4. He took them into union with himself. "Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee," etc. (ver. 8). The child is represented as having now arrived at womanhood. The casting of the skirt over her is an action indicative of taking her under one"s protection with a view to betrothal. (cf. Rth_3:9) And keeping up the figure, the espousals are indicated by the words, "Yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine." This covenant was entered into at Mount Sinai. (Exo_19:3-8 Exo_34:27) "What grace when the Holy and Almighty One condescends to enter into covenant with so sinful and miserable a people!" And still God graciously enters into covenant with all who heartily believe on his Son Jesus Christ. (cf. Heb_8:6-13) In this covenant we give ourselves to him as loyal subjects and servants; and in addition to many other blessings, he gives himself to us as the crowning blessing of the covenant. And if we are in this covenant, we may without presumption address him as our Father and our God. (cf. Joh_20:17) "The Lord is my Portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
5. He sumptuously clothed and adorned them. "Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee," etc. (vers. 9-14). The washing and anointing (ver. 9) are suggested by the custom in the East of purifying the bride for her royal husband. (cf. Est_2:12) Israel is represented as having been thoroughly cleansed and anointed as the bride of the Lord. Then the prophet speaks of the dress and jewellery of the bride.
(1) The clothing and adorning were glorious. "I clothed thee also with broidered work," etc. The reference is to the condition of the people daring the reigns of David and Solomon, before the kingdom was divided, when they were at the height of prosperity and power. God clothes his people with "the beauty of holiness." They have "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit." "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation," etc.. (Isa_61:10; and cf. Luk_15:22)
(2) The clothing and adorning were admired. "Thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty." The renown of the Israelites and their king is mentioned in 1Ch_17:8, 1Ch_17:21. When men are clothed with the beauties of moral excellence they awaken the admiration of the world. Men respect genuine religion when they see it embodied in human lives.
(3) The clothing and adorning were of God. "It was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." The prosperity, power, and glory of Israel came from him. And Christians have not a righteousness of their "own, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." He arrays them in glories like his own. "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." Spiritual, unfading, and eternal are the garments and glories in which God invests his people. W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 8, 10 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.
Eze_16:1-2
Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.
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Vile ingratitude
I. Let us consider our iniquities--I mean those committed since conversion, those committed yesterday, and the day before, and today--and let us see their sinfulness in the light of what we were when the Lord first looked upon us.
1. Hath the Lord loved us, though there was nothing in our birth or parentage to invite regard or merit esteem? Then surely every sin that we commit now is aggravated by that sovereign choice, that infinite compassion that doted upon us, though our birth was vile and our origin base.
2. There was everything in our condition that would tend to destruction, but nothing in us that would tend upwards towards God. There we were, dying, nay dead, rotten, corrupted, so abominable that it might well be said, Bury this dead one out of my sight, when Jehovah passed by and He said unto us, Live. The recollection of our youthful iniquity crushes us to the very earth. Yet though sovereign mercy has put all these sins away; though Jove has covered all these iniquities, and though everlasting kindness has washed away all this filth, we have gone on to sin. If some of us who are rejoicing in covenant love and mercy could have a clear view of all the sins we have committed since conversion, of all the sins we shall commit till we land in heaven, I question whether our senses might not reel under the terrible discovery of what base things we are.
3. One thing else appears designed to represent our sins as blacker still. Thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born. Great God! how couldst Thou love that which we ourselves hated? Oh! tis grace, tis grace, tis grace indeed! And yet--O ye heavens, be astonished--yet we have sinned against Him since then, we have forgotten Him, we have doubted Him, we have grown cold towards Him; we have loved self at times better than we have loved our Redeemer, and have sacrificed to our own idols and made gods of our own flesh and self-conceit, instead of giving Him all the glory and the honour forever and forever.
II. The time when He began to manifest His love to us personally and individually.
1. He washed us with the water of regeneration, yea, and truly washed away the stain of our natural sanguinity. Oh, that day, that day of days, as the days of heaven upon earth, when our eyes looked to Christ and were lightened, when the burden rolled from off our back! That day we never can forget, for it always rises to our recollection the moment we begin to speak about pardon--the day of our own pardon, of our own forgiveness. The galley slave may forget the time when he escaped from the accursed slave holders grasp, and became a freeman. The culprit who lay shivering beneath the headsmans axe may forget the hour when suddenly his pardon was granted and his life was spared. But if all these should consign to oblivion their surprising joys, the pardoned soul can never, never, never forget. Unless reason should lose her seat, the quickened soul can never cease to remember the time when Jesus said to it, Live. Oh! and has Jesus pardoned all our sins and have we sinned still? Has He washed me, and have I defiled myself again?
2. When He had washed us, according to the ninth verse, He anointed us with oil. Yes, and that has been repeated many and many a time. Thou hast anointed my head with oil. He gave us the oil of His grace; our faces were like priests, and we went up to His tabernacle rejoicing. Shall the body that is the temple of the Holy Ghost be desecrated? Yet that has been the case with us We have had God within us, and yet we have sinned. O Lord, have mercy upon Thy people !Now we see our abomination in this clear light, we beseech Thee pardon it, for Jesus sake!
3. He not only washed us, He not only anointed us with oil, but He clothed us, and clothed us sumptuously. Jesus spent His life to work my robe of righteousness. His sufferings were so many stitches when He made the broidered work of my righteousness. What would you think of a king with a crown on his head going to break the laws of his kingdom? What would you think if a monarch should invest us with all the insignia of nobility, and we should afterwards violate the high orders conferred upon us while adorned with the robes of state? This is just what you and I have done.
4. We have not only received clothing, but ornaments. We cannot be more glorious; Christ has given the Church so much, she could not have more. He could not bestow upon her that which is more beautiful, more precious, or more costly. She has all she can receive. Nevertheless, in the face of all these, we have sinned against Him.
III. What our sins really have been. The germs, the vileness, the essence of our own sin, has lain in this--that we have given to sin and to idols things that belong unto God. When you pray at a prayer meeting, the devil insinuates the thought, and you entertain it, What a fine fellow I am! You may detect yourself when you are talking to a friend of some good things God has done, or when you go home and tell your wife lovingly the tale of your labour, there is a little demon of pride at the bottom of your heart. You like to take credit to yourself for the good things you have done. Sometimes a man has another god besides pride. That god may be his sloth. Have you never detected yourself, when inclined to be dilatory in spiritual things, leaning on the oar of the covenant, instead of pulling at it, and saying, Well, these things are true, but there is no great need for me to stir myself. Sometimes it is even worse. God gives to His people riches, and they offer them before the shrine of their covetousness. He gives them talent, and they prostitute it to the service of their ambition. He gives them judgment, and they pander to their own advancement, and seek not the interest of His kingdom. He gives them influence; that influence they use for their own aggrandisement, and not for His honour. What is this but parallel to taking His gold and His jewels, and hanging them upon the neck of Ashtaroth? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A charge to city ministers
I. Ezekiel had a commission to a corrupt city; So have you. Superstition, sensuality, formality, worldliness, were rampant in Jerusalem. But were her sins greater than those of Manchester, Glasgow, London?
II. Ezekiels commission was to reveal the corrupt city to itself; this is yours.
1. Because the moral corruptions of a city expose the population to terrible calamities.
(1) Calamities in this life--diseases, pauperism, lunacy, etc.
(2) Calamities in the life to come. A terrible retribution awaits the wicked.
2. Because the city itself is ignorant of its moral corruptions. They know not what they do. Poor, miserable, blind, naked, etc. Go and tell them. Take the torch of the Gospel into their midst, and let it flame down upon their consciences.
3. Because a revelation of it to itself may lead it now to moral reformation.
4. Because unless you make this revelation to it no one else can be expected to do it. Who else will or can do it? Not scientists, legislators, merchants, soldiers. The work is given to you. (Homilist.)
Fearless preaching
It is related of John Wesley that, preaching to an audience of courtiers and noblemen, he used the generation of vipers text, and flung denunciation right and left. That sermon should have been preached at Newgate, said a displeased courtier to Wesley on passing out. No, said the fearless apostle; my text there would have been, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!
Uncomfortable sermons
I remember one of my parishioners at Halesworth telling me, says Whately, that he thought a person should not go to church to be made uncomfortable: I replied that I thought so too; but whether it should be the sermon or the mans life that should be altered so as to avoid the discomfort must depend on whether the doctrine was right or wrong.
Conviction of sin--the preachers aim
It is plain dealing that men need. A toyish, flashy sermon is not the proper medicine for a lethargic, miserable soul, nor fit to break a stony heart. Heaven and hell should not be talked of in a canting, jingling, and pedantic strain. A Seneca can tell you that it is a physician that is skilful, and not one that is eloquent, that we need. If he have also fine and neat expressions, we do not despise them, nor over much value them. It is a cure that we need, and the means are best, be they never so sharp, that will accomplish it. If a hardened heart is to be broken, it is not stroking, but striking that must do it. It is not the sounding brass, the tinkling cymbal, the carnal mind puffed up with superficial knowledge that is the instrument fitted to the renewing of mens souls. It is the illuminating beams of sacred truth communicated from a mind that by faith hath seen the glory of God, and by experience found that He is good, and living in the love of God; such an one is fitted to assist you first in the knowledge of yourselves, and then in the knowledge of God in Christ. (R. Baxter.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Ezekiel 16
JERUSALEM-AN IDEAL HISTORY
Ezekiel 16
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IN order to understand the place which the sixteenth chapter occupies in this section of the book, we must remember that a chief source of the antagonism between Ezekiel and his hearers was the proud national consciousness which sustained the courage of the people through all their humiliations. There were, perhaps, few nations of antiquity in which the flame of patriotic feeling burned more brightly than in Israel. No people with a past such as theirs could be indifferent to the many elements of greatness embalmed in their history. The beauty and fertility of their land, the martial exploits and signal deliverances of the nation, the great kings and heroes she had reared, her prophets and lawgivers-these and many other stirring memories were witnesses to Jehovahs peculiar love for Israel and His power to exalt and bless His people. To cherish a deep sense of the unique privileges which Jehovah had conferred on her in giving her a distinct place among the nations of the earth was thus a religious duty often insisted on in the Old Testament. But in order that this sense might work for good it was necessary that it should take the form of grateful recognition of Jehovah as the source of the nations greatness, and be accompanied by a true knowledge of His character. When allied with false conceptions of Jehovahs nature, or entirely divorced from religion, patriotism degenerated into racial prejudice and became a serious moral and political danger. That this had actually taken place is a common complaint of the prophets. They feel. that national vanity is a great obstacle to the acceptance of their message, and pour forth bitter and scornful words intended to humble the pride of Israel to the dust. No prophet addresses himself to the task so remorselessly as Ezekiel. The utter worthlessness of Israel, both absolutely in the eyes of Jehovah and relatively in comparison with other nations, is asserted by him with a boldness and emphasis which at first startle us. From a different point of view prophecy and its results might have been regarded as fruits of the national life, under the divine education vouchsafed to that people. But that is not Ezekiels standpoint. He seizes on the fact that prophecy was in opposition to the natural genius of the people, and was not to be regarded as in any sense an expression of it. Accepting the final attitude of Israel toward the word of Jehovah as the genuine outcome of her natural proclivities, he reads her past as an unbroken record of ingratitude and infidelity. All that was good in Israel was Jehovahs gift, freely bestowed and justly withdrawn; all that was Israels own was her weakness and her sin. It was reserved for a later prophet to reconcile the condemnation of Israels actual history with the recognition of the divine power working there and moulding a spiritual kernel of the nation into a true "servant of the Lord". {Isaiah 40 ff.}
In chapters 15 and 16, therefore, the prophet exposes the hollowness of Israels confidence in her national destiny. The first of these appears to be directed against the vain hopes cherished in Jerusalem at the time. It is not necessary to dwell on it at length. The image is simple and its application to Jerusalem obvious. Earlier prophets had compared Israel to a vine, partly to set forth the exceptional privileges she enjoyed, but chiefly to emphasise the degeneration she had undergone, as shown by the bad moral fruits which she had borne. {cf. Isa_5:1 ff.; Jer_2:21 Hos_10:1} The popular imagination had laid hold of the thought that Israel was the vine of Gods planting, ignoring the question of the fruit. But Ezekiel reminds his hearers that apart from its fruit the vine is the most worthless of trees. Even at the best its wood can be employed for no useful purpose; it is fit only for fuel. Such was the people of Israel, considered simply as a state among other states, without regard to its religious vocation. Even in its pristine vigour, when the national energies were fresh and unimpaired, it was but a weak nation, incapable of attaining the dignity of a great power. But now the strength of the nation has been worn away by a long succession of disasters, until only a shadow of her former glory remains. Israel is no longer like a green and living vine, but like a branch burned at both ends and charred in the middle, and therefore doubly unfit for any worthy function in the affairs of the world. By the help of this illustration men may read in the present state of the nation the irrevocable sentence of rejection which Jehovah has passed on His people.
We now turn to the striking allegory of chapter 16, where the same subject is treated with far greater penetration and depth of feeling. There is no passage in the book of Ezekiel at once so powerful and so full of religious significance as the picture of Jerusalem, the foundling child, the unfaithful spouse, and the abandoned prostitute, which is here presented. The general conception is one that might have been presented in a form as beautiful as it is spiritually true. But the features which offend our sense of propriety are perhaps introduced with a stern purpose. It is the deliberate intention of Ezekiel to present Jerusalems wickedness in the most repulsive light, in order that, if possible, he might startle men into abhorrence of their national sin. In his own mind the feelings of moral indignation and physical disgust were very close together, and here he seems to work on the minds of his readers, so that the feeling excited by the image may call forth the feeling appropriate to the reality.
The allegory is a highly idealised history of the city of Jerusalem from its origin to its destruction, and then onward to its future restoration. It falls naturally into four divisions:-
1. Eze_16:1-14 -The first emergence of Jerusalem into civic life is compared to a new-born female infant, exposed to perish, after a cruel custom which is known to have prevailed among some Semitic tribes. None of the offices customary on the birth of a child were performed in her case, whether those necessary to preserve life or those which had a merely ceremonial significance. Unblessed and unpitied she lay in the open field, weltering in blood, exciting only repugnance in all who passed by, until Jehovah Himself passed by, and pronounced over her the decree that she should live. Thus saved from death, she grew up and reached maturity, but still "naked and bare," destitute of wealth and the refinements of civilisation. These were bestowed on her when a second time Jehovah passed by and spread His skirt over her, and claimed her for His own. Not till then had she been treated as a human being with the possibilities of honourable life before her. But now, she becomes the bride of her protector, and is provided for as a high-born maiden might be, with all the ornaments and luxuries befitting her new rank. Lifted from the lowest depth of degradation, she is now transcendently beautiful, and has "attained to royal estate." The fame of her loveliness went abroad among the nations: "for it was perfect through My glory, which I put upon thee, saith Jehovah" (Eze_16:14).
It will be seen that the points of contact with actual history are here extremely few as well as vague. It is indeed doubtful whether the subject of the allegory be the city of Jerusalem conceived as one through all its changes of population, or the Hebrew nation of which Jerusalem ultimately became the capital. The latter interpretation is certainly favoured by chapter 23, where both Jerusalem and Samaria are represented as having spent their youth in Egypt. That parallel may not be decisive as to the meaning of chapter 16; and the statement "thy father was the Amorite and thy mother a Hittite" may be thought to support the other alternative. Amorite and Hittite are general names for the pre-Israelite population of Canaan, and it is a well-known fact that Jerusalem was originally a Canaanitish city. It is not necessary to suppose that the prophet has any information about the early fortunes of Jerusalem when he describes the stages of the process by which she was raised to royal magnificence. The chief question is whether these details can be fairly applied to the history of the nation before it had Jerusalem as its metropolis. It is usually held that the first "passing by" of Jehovah refers to the preservation of the people in the patriarchal period, and the second to the events of the Exodus and the Sinaitic covenant. Against this it may be urged that Ezekiel would hardly have presented the patriarchal period in a hateful light, although he does go further in discrediting antiquity than any other prophet. Besides, the description of Jerusalems betrothal to Jehovah contains points which are more naturally understood of the glories of the age of David and Solomon than of the events of Sinai, which were not accompanied by an access of material prosperity such as is suggested. It may be necessary to leave the matter in the vagueness with which the prophet has surrounded it, and accept as the teaching of the allegory the simple truth that Jerusalem in herself was nothing, but had been preserved in existence by Jehovahs will, and owed all her splendour to her association with His cause and His kingdom.
2. Eze_16:15-34 -The dainties and rich attire enjoyed by the highly favoured bride become a snare to her. These represent blessings of a material order bestowed by Jehovah on Jerusalem. Throughout the chapter nothing is said of the imparting of spiritual privileges, or of a moral change wrought in the heart of Jerusalem. The gifts of Jehovah are conferred on one incapable of responding to the care and affection that had been lavished on her. The inborn taint of her nature, the hereditary immorality of her heathen ancestors, breaks out in a career of licentiousness in which all the advantages of her proud position are prostituted to the vilest ends. "As is the mother, so is her daughter" (Eze_16:44); and Jerusalem betrayed her true origin by the readiness with which she took to evil courses as soon as she had the opportunity. The "whoredom" in which the prophet sums up his indictment against his people is chiefly the sin of idolatry. The figure may have been suggested by the fact that actual lewdness of the most flagrant kind was a conspicuous element in the form of idolatry to which Israel first succumbed-the worship of the Canaanite Baals. But in the hands of the prophets it has a deeper and more spiritual import than this. It signified the violation of all the sacred moral obligations which are enshrined in human marriage, or, in other words, the abandonment of an ethical religion for one in which the powers of nature were regarded as the highest revelation of the divine. To the mind of the prophet it made no difference whether the object of worship was called by the name of Jehovah or of Baal: the character of the worship determined the quality of the religion; and in the one case, as in the other, it was idolatry, or "whoredom."
Two stages in the idolatry of Israel appear to be distinguished in this part of the chapter. The first is the naive, half-conscious heathenism which crept in insensibly through contact with Phoenician and Canaanite neighbours (Eze_16:15-25). The tokens of Jerusalems implication in this sin were everywhere. The "high places" with their tents and clothed images (Eze_16:17), and the offerings set forth before these objects of adoration, were undoubtedly of Canaanitish origin, and their preservation to the fall of the kingdom was a standing witness to the source to which Israel owed her earliest and dearest "abominations." We learn that this phase of idolatry culminated in the atrocious rite of human sacrifice (Eze_16:20-21). The immolation of children to Baal or Molech was a common practice amongst the nations surrounding Israel, and when introduced there seems to have been regarded as part of the worship of Jehovah. What Ezekiel here asserts is that the practice came through Israels illicit commerce with the gods of Canaan, and there is no question that this is historically true. The allegory exhibits the sin in its unnatural heinousness. The idealised city is the mother of her citizens, the children are Jehovahs children and her own, yet she has taken them and offered them up to the false lovers she so madly pursued. Such was her feverish passion for idolatry that the dearest and most sacred ties of nature were ruthlessly severed at the bidding of a perverted religious sense.
The second form of idolatry in Israel was of a more deliberate and politic kind (Eze_16:23-34). it consisted in the introduction of the deities and religious practices of the great world-powers-Egypt, Assyria, and Chaldea. The attraction of these foreign rites did not lie in the fascination of a sensuous type of religion, but rather in the impression of power produced by the gods of the conquering peoples. The foreign gods came in mostly in consequence of a political alliance with the nations whose patrons they were; in other cases a god was worshipped simply because he had shown himself able to do great things for his servants. Jerusalem as Ezekiel knew it was full of monuments of this comparatively recent type of idolatry. In every street and at the head of every way there were erections (here called "arches" or "heights") which, from the connection in which they are mentioned, must have been shrines devoted to the strange gods from abroad. It is characteristic of the political idolatry here referred to that its monuments were found in the capital, while the more ancient and rustic worship was typified by the "high places" throughout the provinces. It is probable that the description applies mainly to the later period of the monarchy, when Israel, and especially Judah, began to lean for support on one or other of the great empires on either side of her. At the same time it must be remembered that Ezekiel elsewhere teaches distinctly that the influence of Egyptian religion had been continuous from the days of the Exodus (chapter 23). There may, however, have been a revival of Egyptian influence, due to the political exigencies which arose in the eighth century.
Thus Jerusalem has "played the harlot"; nay, she has done worse-"she has been as a wife that committeth adultery, who though under her husband taketh strangers." And the result has been simply the impoverishment of the land. The heavy exactions levied on the country by Egypt and Assyria were the hire she had paid to her lovers to come to her. If false religion had resulted in an increase of wealth or material prosperity, there might have been some excuse for the eagerness with which she plunged into it. But certainly Israels history bore the lesson that false religion means waste and ruin. Strangers had devoured her strength from her youth, yet she never would heed the voice of her prophets when they sought to guide her into the ways of peace. Her infatuation was unnatural; it goes almost beyond the bounds of the allegory to exhibit it: "The contrary is in thee from other women, in that thou committest whoredoms, and none goeth awhoring after thee: and in that thou givest hire, and no hire is given to thee, therefore thou art contrary" (Eze_16:34).
3. Eze_16:35-58 .-Having thus made Jerusalem to "know her abominations" (Eze_16:2), the prophet proceeds to announce the doom which must inevitably follow such a career of wickedness. The figures under which the judgment is set forth appear to be taken from the punishment meted out to profligate women in ancient Israel. The public exposure of the adulteress and her death by stoning in the presence of "many women" supply images terribly appropriate of the fate in store for Jerusalem. Her punishment is to be a warning to all surrounding nations, and an exhibition of the jealous wrath of Jehovah against her infidelity. These nations, some of them hereditary enemies, others old allies, are represented as assembled to witness and to execute the judgment of the city. The remorseless realism of the prophet spares no detail which could enhance the horror of the situation. Abandoned to the ruthless violence of her former lovers, Jerusalem is stripped of her royal attire, the emblems of her idolatry are destroyed, and so, left naked to her enemies, she suffers the ignominious death of a city that has been false to her religion. The root of her sin had been the forgetfulness of what she owed to the goodness of Jehovah, and the essence of her punishment lies in the withdrawal of the gifts He had lavished upon her and the protection which, amid all her apostasies, she had never ceased to expect.
At this point (Eze_16:44 ff.) the allegory takes a new turn through the introduction of the sister cities of Samaria and Sodom. Samaria, although as a city much younger than Jerusalem, is considered the elder sister because she had once been the centre of a greater political power than Jerusalem, and Sodom, which was probably older than either, is treated as the youngest because of her relative insignificance. The order, however, is of no importance. The point of the comparison is that all three had manifested in different degrees the same hereditary tendency to immorality (Eze_16:45). All three were of heathen origin-their mother a Hittite and their father an Amorite-a description which it is even more difficult to understand in the case of Samaria than in that of Jerusalem. But Ezekiel is not concerned about history. What is prominent in his mind is the family likeness observed in their characters, which gave point to the proverb "Like mother, like daughter" when applied to Jerusalem. The prophet affirms that the wickedness of Jerusalem had so far exceeded that of Samaria and Sodom that she had "justified" her sisters-i.e., she had made their moral condition appear pardonable by comparison with hers. He knows that he is saying a bold thing in ranking the iniquity of Jerusalem as greater than that of Sodom, and so he explains his judgment on Sodom by an analysis of the cause of her notorious corruptness. The name of Sodom lived in tradition as that of the foulest city of the old world, a ne plus ultra of wickedness. Yet Ezekiel dares to raise the question, What was the sin of Sodom? "This was the sin of Sodom thy sister, pride, superabundance of food, and careless ease was the lot of her and her daughters, but they did not succour the poor and needy. But they became proud, and committed abominations before Me: therefore I took them away as thou hast seen" (Eze_16:49-50). The meaning seems to be that the corruptions of Sodom were the natural outcome of the evil principle in the Canaanitish nature, favoured by easy circumstances and unchecked by the saving influences of a pure religion. Ezekiels judgment is like an anticipation of the more solemn sentence uttered by One who knew what was in man when He said, "If the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Sodom and Gomorrha, they would, have remained until this day."
It is remarkable to observe how some of the profoundest ideas in this chapter attach themselves to the strange conception of these two vanished cities as still capable of being restored to their place in the world. In the ideal future of the prophets vision Sodom and Samaria shall rise from their ruins through the same power which restores Jerusalem to her ancient glory. The promise of a renewed existence to Sodom and Samaria is perhaps connected with the fact that they lay within the sacred territory of which Jerusalem is the centre. Hence Sodom and Samaria are no longer sisters, but daughters of Jerusalem, receiving through her the blessings of the true religion. And it is her relation to these her sisters that opens the eyes of Jerusalem to, the true nature of her own relation to Jehovah. Formerly she had been proud and self-sufficient, and counted her exceptional prerogatives the natural reward of some excellence to which she could lay claim. The name of Sodom, the disgraced sister of the family, was not heard in her mouth in the days of her pride, when her wickedness had not been disclosed as it is now (Eze_16:57). But when she realises that her conduct has justified and comforted her sister, anti when she has to take guilty Sodom to her heart as a daughter, she will understand that she owes all her greatness to the same sovereign grace of Jehovah which is manifested in the restoration of the most abandoned community known to history. And out of this new consciousness of grace will spring the chastened and penitent temper of mind which makes possible the continuance of the bond which unites her to Jehovah.
4. Eze_16:59-63 -The way is thus prepared for the final promise of forgiveness with which the chapter closes. The reconciliation between Jehovah and Jerusalem will be effected by an act of recollection on both sides: "I will remember My covenant with thee Thou shalt remember thy ways" (Eze_16:60-61). The mind of Jehovah and the mind of Jerusalem both go back on the past; but while Jehovah thinks only of the purpose of love which he had entertained towards Jerusalem in the days of her youth and the indissoluble bond between them, Jerusalem retains the memory of her own sinful history; and finds in the remembrance the source of abiding contrition and shame. It does not fall within the scope of the prophets purpose to set forth in this place the blessed consequences which flow from this renewal of loving intercourse between Israel and her God. He has accomplished his object when he has shown how the electing love of Jehovah reaches its end in spite of human sin and rebellion, and how through the crushing power of divine grace the failures and transgressions of the past are made to issue in a relation of perfect harmony between Jehovah and His people. The permanence of that relation is expressed by an idea borrowed from Jeremiah-the idea of an everlasting covenant, which cannot be broken because based on the forgiveness of sin and a renewal of heart. The prophet knows that when once the power of evil has been broken by a full disclosure of redeeming love it cannot resume its old ascendency in human life. So he leaves us on the threshold of the new dispensation with the picture of Jerusalem humbled and bearing her shame, yet in the abjectness of her self-accusation realising the end towards which the love of Jehovah had guided her from the beginning: "I will establish My covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah: that thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and not open thy mouth any more for very shame, when I expiate for thee all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah" (Eze_16:62-63).
Throughout this chapter we see that the prophet moves in the region of national religious ideas which are distinctive of the Old Testament. Of the influences that formed his conceptions that of Hosea is perhaps most discernible. The fundamental thoughts embodied in the allegory are the same as those by which the older prophet learned to interpret the nature of God and the sin of Israel through the bitter experiences of this family life. These thoughts are developed by Ezekiel with a fertility of imagination and a grasp of theological principles which were adapted to the more complex situation with which he had to deal. But the conception of Israel as the unfaithful wife of Jehovah, of the false gods and the world-powers as her lovers, of her conversion through affliction, and her final restoration by a new betrothal which is eternal, are all expressed in the first three chapters of Hosea. And the freedom with which Ezekiel handles and expands these conceptions shows how thoroughly he was at home in that national view of religion which he did much to break through. In the next chapter we shall have occasion to examine his treatment of the problem of the individuals relation to God, and we cannot fail to be struck by the contrast. The analysis of individual religion may seem meagre by the side of this most profound and suggestive chapter. This arises from the fact that the full meaning of religion could not then be expressed as an experience of the individual soul. The subject of religion being the nation of Israel, the human side of it could only be unfolded in terms of what we should call the national consciousness. The time was not yet come when the great truths which the prophets and psalmists saw embodied in the history of their people could be translated in terms of individual fellowship with God. Yet the God who spake to the fathers by the prophets is the same who has spoken to us in His Son; and when from the standpoint of a higher revelation we turn back to the Old Testament, it is to find in the form of a nations history the very same truths which we realise as matters of personal experience.
From this point of view the chapter we have considered is one of the most evangelical passages in the writings of Ezekiel. The prophets conception of sin, for example, is singularly profound and true. He has been charged with a somewhat superficial conception of sin, as if he saw nothing more in it than the transgression of a law arbitrarily imposed by divine authority. There are aspects of Ezekiels teaching which give some plausibility to that charge, especially those which deal with the duties of the individual. But we see that to Ezekiel the real nature of sin could not possibly be manifested except as a factor in the national life. Now in this allegory it is obvious that he sees something far deeper in it than the mere transgression of positive commandments. Behind all the outward offences of which Israel had been guilty there plainly lies the spiritual fact of national selfishness, unfaithfulness to Jehovah, insensibility to His love, and ingratitude for His Benefits. Moreover, the prophet, like Jeremiah before him, has a strong sense of sin as a tendency in human life, a power which is ineradicable save by the mingled severity and goodness of God. Through the whole history of Israel it is one evil disposition which he sees asserting itself, breaking out now in one form and then in another, but continually gaining strength, until at last the spirit of repentance is created by the experience of Gods forgiveness. It is not the case, therefore, that: Ezekiel failed to comprehend the nature of sin, or that in this respect he falls below the most spiritual of the prophets who had gone before him.
In order that this tendency to sin may be destroyed, Ezekiel sees that the consciousness of guilt must take its place. In the same way the apostle Paul teaches that "every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." Whether the subject be a nation or an individual, the dominion of sin is not broken till the sinner has taken home to himself the full responsibility for his acts and felt himself to be "without excuse." But the most striking thing in Ezekiels representation of the process of conversion is the thought that this saving sense of sin is produced less by judgment than by free and undeserved forgiveness. Punishment he conceives to be necessary, being demanded alike by the righteousness of God and the good of the sinful people. But the heart of Jerusalem is not changed till she finds herself restored to her former relation to God, with all the sin of her past blotted out and a new life before her. It is through the grace of forgiveness that she is overwhelmed with shame and sorrow for sin, and learns the humility which is the germ of a new hope towards God. Here the prophet strikes one of the deepest notes of evangelical doctrine. All experience confirms the lesson that true repentance is not produced by the terrors of the law, but by the view of Gods love in Christ going forth to meet the sinner and bring him back to the Fathers heart and home.
Another question of great interest and difficulty is the attitude towards the heathen world assumed by Ezekiel. The prophecy of the restoration of Sodom is certainly one of the most remarkable things in the book. It is true that Ezekiel as a rule concerns himself very little with the religious state of the outlying world under the Messianic dispensation. Where he speaks of foreign nations it is only to announce the manifestation of Jehovahs glory in the judgments He executes upon them. The effect of these judgments is that "they shall know that I am Jehovah"; but how much is included in the expression as applied to the heathen it is impossible to say. This, however, may be due to the peculiar limitation of view which leads him to concentrate his attention on the Holy Land in his visions of the perfect kingdom of God. We can hardly suppose that he conceived all the rest of the world as a blank or filled with a seething mass of humanity outside the government of the true God. It is rather to be supposed that Canaan itself appeared to his mind as an epitome of the world such as it must be-when the latter-day glory was ushered in. And in Canaan he finds room for Sodom, but Sodom turned to the knowledge of the true God and sharing in the blessings bestowed on Jerusalem. It is surely allowable to see in this the symptom of a more hopeful view of the future of the world at large than we should gather from the rest of the prophecy. If Ezekiel could think of Sodom as raised from the dead and sharing the glories of the people of God, the idea of the conversion of heathen nations could not have been altogether foreign to his miner It is at all events significant that when he meditates most profoundly on the nature of sin and Gods method of dealing with it, he is led to the thought of a divine mercy which embraces in its sweep those communities which had reached the lowest depths of moral corruption.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 15 ISRAEL’S INGRATITUDE, PUNISHMENT, AND, IN THE END, FORGIVENESS. (Chap.…
ISRAEL’S INGRATITUDE, PUNISHMENT, AND, IN THE END, FORGIVENESS. (Chap. 16)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—The prophet surveys the entire development of the nation, past and future. Their original condition was most wretched, like that of a miserable infant at its birth utterly neglected and deprived of proper attention and care. God had brought them out of this lowly estate, had saved them from destruction, and had fostered them with His constant love and care until they had reached to a maturity of vigour and loveliness. But in their ingratitude they sinned grievously against Him. They might rest in their position as the chosen vine and think themselves secure, but they are here assured that they are no better than other nations, and are liable to be punished and judged as the heathen around them. Yet, in the end, God will be mindful of His covenant, grant them His forgiveness, and restore them to favour.
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ISRAEL’S PAST CONDITION, HELPLESS, UNCLEAN, AND ABOUT TO PERISH. (Eze_16:1-2)
Eze_16:1-2. “Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.” Jerusalem is used as the symbolical representative of the whole Jewish people. Her sins were greater than those of other nations; they were “abominations,” for they were the sins of the covenant people. The main end of this chapter is to declare these abominations.
Eze_16:3. “Thy birth and thy nativity is in the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.” “Regarded merely as a city, Jerusalem was neither of Amoritish nor Hittite origin, but simply a Jebusite city. And it is too obvious to need any proof that the prophetic word does not refer to the city as a city, but that Jerusalem represents the people of Israel, or the covenant nation. It was not the mass of houses, but the population—which was the foundling—that excited Jehovah’s compassion, and which He multiplied into myriads (Eze_16:7), clothed in splendour, and chose as the bride with whom He concluded a marriage covenant. The descent and birth referred to are not physical, but spiritual descent. Spiritually, Israel sprang from the land of the Canaanites; and its father was an Amorite and its mother a Hittite, in the same sense in which Jesus said to the Jews, ‘Ye are of your father the devil’ (St Joh_8:44). The iniquity of the Amorites was great even in Abraham’s time, through not yet full or ripe for destruction (Gen_15:16); and the daughters of Heth, whom Esau married, caused Rebekah great bitterness of spirit (Gen_27:46)” (Keil).
Eze_16:4. “Thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee.” The cutting of the navel-string is necessary for the independent life of the child, and the washing with water to cleanse it from the impurities attaching to it. If these necessary offices are neglected, the infant must perish.
“Thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all” “After the washing, the body was rubbed with salt, according to a custom very widely spread in ancient times, and still met with here and there in the East; and that not merely for making the skin drier and firmer, or of cleansing it more thoroughly, but probably from regard to the virtue of salt as a protection from putrefaction. And, finally, it was bound with swaddling-clothes. Not one of these things, so indispensable to the preservation and strengthening of the child, was performed in the case of Israel at the time of its birth from any feeling of compassionate love; but it was cast into the field, i.e. exposed, in order that it might perish. The day of the birth of Jerusalem, i.e. of Israel, was the period of its sojourn in Egypt, where Israel as a nation was born, the sons of Jacob who went down to Egypt having multiplied into a nation” (Keil).
Eze_16:5. “None eye pitied thee, to do any of these things unto thee.” “Those who had looked up to Joseph did not even look down with compassion on thee” (Lange). Israel in Egypt was an object of contempt. The neglect into which it had fallen might well be compared to the cruel desertion of an infant; for Moses, the type of his people, was actually exposed, and afterwards delivered from threatened death by God’s providence
HOMILETICS
MORAL CORRUPTION IN THE CHURCH
The prophet is speaking to those who had been brought into covenant with God, and called to serve Him as His people. He is not speaking of the sins of mankind generally, but of those of the Church. Of this moral corruption we are here taught—
I. That it ought to be thoroughly brought home to all concerned. No half measures, or delicate hints, will suffice. Jerusalem must “know her abominations” (Eze_16:2).
1. The knowledge of sin is, before all things, necessary to salvation. It is not sufficient to make a general admission of our heritage in the sin which is natural to our race. There must be a real, heart-felt knowledge of sin as committed by ourselves against God. The sad wounds of our soul must be probed to the very bottom, a painful yet salutary process.
2. The knowledge of sin cannot be arrived at by our own unaided powers. However we may lament the sin that is in the world, we are naturally blind to our own real state. Even the engaging in the outward services of religion may tend still more to blind us, for we are tempted to rest satisfied with them, and, it may be, to regard them as an atonement for our faults and transgressions. And religious people are liable also to the temptation of pleading the motive of a good intention and purpose as a defence for what is clearly wrong. They use the light which is given them, not to shine on the path of duty, but to aid their own wilfulness. The real knowledge of sin must be brought to such from without. It is necessary that the inspired prophet should speak. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to convince of sin.
II. It ought to be revealed in all its enormity.
1. As sin against the light. Those who have church privileges, and yet live ungodly lives, are regarded as the heathen in the sight of God (Mat_18:17).
2. As sin which brings to a most miserable condition. Such may be compared to an abandoned infant, ready to perish (Eze_16:4-5).
(Eze_16:2.)
1. A people may be guilty of abominations, and not know nor acknowledge them. “They know not to do right” (Amo_3:10). When men know not what is right, how can they know what is wrong? They stored up violence and robbery in their palaces, they got wealth by injustice, oppression, laid it up, and thought it well gotten. They know not God (Jer_9:3). “They know not the way of the Lord” (Jer_5:4); therefore their own ways seem good in their eyes. They were blinded, and as they knew not their abominations, so they acknowledged them not (Hos_5:15). They are, therefore, urged to lay their sin to heart and confess it.
2. There is an unwillingness in sinners to hear of their sins. “Cause Jerusalem to know,” &c.; she is against it, but make her to know them. This people were always averse to hear of their sins or duty (Zec_7:11-12; 2Ch_36:16). When Stephen told them of their practices (Act_7:51-52) what followed upon it? “They were cut to the heart, and they gnashed upon him with their teeth.” And when Christ told them of their sins they derided Him (Luk_16:14), told Him that He had “a devil” (Joh_8:48). And not only wicked men are unwilling to hear of their sins, but even good men also. When God reproved Jonah, “Doest thou well to be angry?” his reply was, “I do well to be angry, even to death.” He thought God did evil in reproving him, that he had more cause to be angry than God had to chide him for his anger. Paul was become an enemy to the Galatians, because he told them the truth, he told them of their sins. Good men do not easily endure to hear of their faults.
3. What God commands the prophets and ministers to do, it matters not how it is taken by the people, they are to do it. It was not for Ezekiel to excuse himself from this service, to object against it, to say they will mock me, despise me, misuse me, hate me, seek my hurt. God commanded, and it was his duty to do it carefully, conscientiously, and faithfully. He must make known their sins to themselves, to the world, let the event be what it will (Isa_58:1). The prophet must not whisper, but cry, and that aloud; it matters not who hears, he must lift up his voice like a trumpet. When men blow trumpets they do it with all their strength, and the sound of it goeth far; so must the prophets utter the sins of the people, and show them their transgressions.
(1.) That others may take warning, and not do as they have done (1Ti_5:20).
(2.) That they may bring the parties to repentance (Jer_33:22). How shall sinners come to repentance if they hear not of their sins, if they be not convinced of the sinfulness of them by the prophets and ministers of God? The false prophets hid their sins from them.
(3.) That they may deliver their own souls (Eze_33:8-9).
4. The sins of people are abominations in God’s account. Sins are works, but works of iniquity, abominable works, and abominable iniquity (Psa_14:1; Psa_53:1).—Greenhill.
ISRAEL’S SALVATION FROM HER SHAME AND MISERY IS DUE TO THE LORD ALONE (Eze_16:6-14)
Eze_16:6. “And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood.” Some render, “and saw thee trampled in thy blood.” Israel in Egypt was a people trampled upon, utterly despised. “I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live.” It was sad to be despised, but the chief danger was that life was seriously threatened. From the mouth of God, the word “Live” was a word of power, and was visibly fulfilled in the extraordinary multiplication of Israel. “Jehovah here represents Himself as a traveller who, on passing by, discovers the unsightly and pitiable object which had just been described, and interposes for its rescue. Notwithstanding its pollution, He takes compassion upon it, and saves its life. In this miserable and helpless condition Jehovah found the Hebrews in the land of bondage. Extending the principle involved in the figure beyond the direct teaching of the text, it is strikingly descriptive of the condition of sinners previous to conversion.”—(Henderson.)
Eze_16:7. “I have caused thee to multiply as the bird of the field.” According to the promise (Exo_1:7; Exo_1:12). “Thou art come to excellent ornaments.” Heb., “Ornament of cheeks,” describing youthful freshness and beauty of face. “Thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown.” The Heb. word when applied to the breasts means to expand, lit. to raise oneself up. “The metaphor is still continued, representing the infant growing up to womanhood, and exhibiting unmistakeable signs of puberty.”—(Henderson.) “Whereas thou wast naked and bare.” “Naked and bare are figurative expressions for still destitute of either clothing or ornaments. This implies something more than the poverty of the people in the wilderness attached to Egypt. Nakedness represents deprivation of all the blessings of salvation with which the Lord endowed Israel and made it glorious, after he had adopted it as the people of his possession in Egypt, Israel was living in a state of nature, destitute of the gracious revelations of God.”—(Keil.)
Eze_16:8. “Behold thy time was the time of love.” This is not intended merely to convey the idea that she had arrived at a marriageable age, but also the further thought that she had become an object of affection. “I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness.” “The spreading of the corner of the upper garment and the covering of the nakedness symbolize in general, that He took the miserable, helpless one under His protection, interested Himself in her; specially, however, with the thought of conferring the honour of betrothal, marriage (Rth_3:9). This thought is solemnly carried out in the swearing and entering into covenant, by means of which Israel, grown into a nation, now became the peculiar people of Jehovah (Eze_20:5-6; Exodus 19, Exo_20:2; Exo_20:5; Deu_5:2; Eph_5:32.”—(Lange.) “There was nothing in Israel that was lovely. It was all pure affection on the part of Jehovah. The advance in the allegory is now to that of the espousals.”—(Henderson.) “I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee.” “An obvious reference to the solemn transactions at Sinai, when Jehovah entered into covenant with the Hebrews, thereby contracting as it were a conjugal relation, by which He pledged Himself to love, provide for, and protect them; while they came under an obligation to love, worship, and obey Him to the exclusion of every rival god. Hence as it follows in the sequel, and so frequently in the Old Testament, idolatry is represented as spiritual adultery, the nation thereby being guilty of a breach of the marriage covenant.’—(Henderson.)
Eze_16:9. “Then washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I annointed thee with oil.” Preparations for the marriage ceremony, consisting of purification, the putting on of ornaments, and annointing with oil were customary in the East (Est_2:9-12). Before the Israelites were permitted to enter into covenant with God they had to undergo a thorough purification (Exo_19:14; Jer_2:2-3). “The anointing with oil indicates the powers of the Spirit of God, which flowed to Israel from the divine covenant of grace.”—(Keil.)
Eze_16:10. “Broidered work.” Rich garments of many colours, adorned with figures wrought in silver and gold. With such costly garments queens were accustomed to clothe themselves (Psa_45:15). “And shod thee with badger’s skin.” “This was a kind of skin used by the Hebrews to make an over-covering to the tabernacle (Exo_26:14); and, as appears from the present verse, used also for shoes; but of what particular animal, has been disputed. The most probable opinion is, that the seal is intended.”—(Henderson.) “And I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.” “The girding with fine linen refers to the head-band (Eze_24:17; Exo_29:9; Lev_8:13), and is applied by the Targum to the headdress of the priests.”—(Henderson.)
Eze_16:12. “And I put a jewel on thy forehead.” The Hebrew word here rendered, “jewel” properly means a “ring,” and the word rendered “forehead” (though sometimes used to denote the countenance or face in general) signifies strictly and properly the nose. “The jewellery included not only armlets, nose-rings, and earrings, which the daughters of Israel were generally accustomed to wear, but also necklaces and a crown, as ornaments worn by princesses and queens.”—(Keil.)
Eze_16:13. “Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver.” This verse sums up the contents of Eze_16:9-12. “Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil; and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.” “The food is referred to once more; and the result of the whole is said to have been, that Jerusalem became exceedingly beautiful, and flourished even to royal dignity. The latter cannot be taken as referring simply to the establishment of the monarchy under David, any more than merely to the spiritual sovereignty for which Israel was chosen from the very beginning (Exo_19:5-6). The expression includes both, viz., the call of Israel to be a kingdom of priests, and the historical realisation of this call through the Davidic sovereignty” (Keil)
Eze_16:14 “And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty.” “As a kingdom theirs was distinguishingly flourishing in the days of David and Solomon, the former of which monarchs greatly extended its boundaries and enriched it with the spoils of his victories. The theocracy then reached its highest point of glory, and was of great celebrity among the surrounding nations (1 Kings 10). Still they are reminded that their prosperity and glory were not owing to any merit of their own. It was a ‘comeliness’ which Jehovah their covenant-God had put upon them. To His unmerited bounty they owed all that they enjoyed” (Henderson).
HOMILETICS
SALVATION IS OF THE LORD
The salvation and advancement of Israel to position and renown among the nations has its parallel in the salvation and exaltation of believers. Consider—
I. The grace of this salvation. Israel is described under the figure of a miserable infant neglected at its birth, and even cast out and left to perish. This people on whom God bestowed His grace, were lying in their own pollutions, and fast sinking into moral death. They were destitute of every ornament and beauty of goodness (Eze_16:6-7). There was nothing in them to win the love of admiration or affection, but everything to excite loathing and disgust. When we consider the condition from which Israel was called, we must feel that the salvation of the people was by grace alone. And what does God see in man as a sinner but all that is abhorrent to His own holy nature! If God comes to the help of such it must be by the impulse of a grace which is all His own.
II. The glory of this salvation. The glory of it lies in the fact that it is grace manifested in the most wonderful and excellent way.
1. It had its source in the love of pity and compassion. There was nothing in the original condition of Israel to win the love of admiration. It was the love of pity and compassion that saved them. Such a love is worthy of the broad free benevolence of God. It is a love which cannot be overtasked by the worst condition of human sin and misery. The grace of God meets the case of the guilty, and His mercy that of the miserable; and the glory of it lies in the fact, that it springs from pure pity without any merit or claim whatever on the part of its object.
2. It was a manifestation of that love which desires to give and bless. These are the essential characteristics of all love which is worthy of that sacred name. “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” and that blessedness first and above all belongs to God. He is the only blessed One, for He alone is ever giving and never receiving. And what is Creation but the love of God expressing itself in manifold gifts; and what is Redemption but the love of God, as it brings the undeserved gifts of salvation to the souls of men? God’s love gave to ancient Israel a restored life; “I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live”—gave them an energy of growth and improvement—invested them with ornaments and beauty (Eze_16:7). They also had bestowed upon them by an extraordinary grace the favours of God’s love, for they were taken into intimate union with Himself (Eze_16:8). And further, God also gave them influence among the nations of the earth (Eze_16:14)—that influence which comes from righteousness. They had thus bestowed upon them that love which both gives and blesses. But in this process by which they were raised from sin to holiness, the order is, first—forgiveness; and then the other gifts and blessings of grace. They are first purified from their pollution, and then are anointed (Eze_16:9). For God must pardon before He can heal; and men must be justified before they can be sanctified. God loves the sinner though vile and miserable but His favour is only reserved for those who are washed and sanctified.
The first lesson of this passage is, that the infinite love and pity of the heart of God is the spring and origin of our salvation. Therefore there is no room for pride or boasting on our part. In this matter of salvation, above all things, we must give the glory to God alone.
(Eze_16:6.)
I. There is nothing in the creature to move God to show mercy. God saw nothing to incline or move Him to do aught, or bestow aught upon this infant. But there are several things which move men.
1. Birth and progeny. Royal and noble births have affected many; David was taken with Saul’s daughter (1Sa_18:17-18). This moves not God, He poureth contempt upon princes (Job_12:21). He chooseth the poor to be rich in faith (Jas_2:5). Believers are said to be “born not of blood” (Joh_1:13), which some refer to families of noble and royal blood. “Not many noble are called” (1Co_1:26).
2. Beauty. Jacob was affected with the beauty of Rachel; Ahasuerus with the beauty of Vashti (Est_1:11). God is not moved with beauty; if we had it, there is nothing in man to affect His eye (Psa_14:3). We are altogether filthy, and God saw them in their blood.
3. Natural parts prevail with men. Ahithophel’s counsel took much with David and Absalom; Joseph, Daniel, had excellent spirits, great wisdom, and they were advanced thereupon. Learning is persuasive, and conquers many, but parts and learning can do nothing with God (1Co_1:26; Mat_11:25).
4. Profitableness, serviceableness. So Paul persuades Philemon to take Onesimus, because he would be profitable unto him. Men are taken with men, because they bring in gain unto them. But the Lord is not profited by the righteousness of men (Job_35:7); He receives nothing at man’s hands, and when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants.
5. Necessity moves men mightily. It caused Abiathar to give the shew-bread to David (1Sa_21:6); the necessity of the Church moved the rich to sell their lands and goods to distribute unto every man as they had need (Act_2:45). This is no motive unto Divine Majesty.
6. Hope of proving well draws forth men to do much. Men do much for others with the hope that they may become instruments of good. But God will give the gifts of Christ for the rebellious, and dwell among them (Psa_68:18). How rebellious was Manasseh! How did he sin against heaven and earth, yet God had a gift of life for him. To Mary Magdalene and to Zaccheus, Christ said, live, when they were in their blood. He showed mercy to Paul, and bade him live, when he was a persecutor and an injurious person.
7. Nothing in the godly moves God, all they do is debt (Luk_17:10). The will and deed are of the Lord (Php_2:13).
II. The Lord shows mercy to men when they are in desperate conditions. When this infant was cast out, and lay bleeding to death, God said “Live.” When Moses, and other Hebrew children were to be drowned, the Lord delivered them. When in Babylon, all the necks of the Jews were upon the block by Haman’s plot and power, the Lord showed them mercy, and said, “Live,” The thief upon the cross met with life in the gates of death.
III. When sinners look not after God, He is pleased to look after and find out them. God found out and sought the Jews, when they neither sought nor called; so it is with the Gentiles (Isa_65:1). Both Gentile and Jew had preventing grace, and were sought out of God before ever they sought God. Hence Jerusalem had that promise or title, thou shalt be called, “Sought out” (Isa_57:12).
IV. God hath no need of any people. He passed by, like some great man, that riding forth, finds a poor distressed infant, and out of compassion takes it into his family; not because he needs it, but he will show kindness to it of his own good pleasure. If He needed people or nations He could create them, raise them up from the stones. The Samaritan had no need of the wounded man, but he needed the Samaritan’s wine and oil.
V. In bestowing mercies, God is real. This appears from the doubling of the word—“Live,” “Live.” When there is a doubling of the same word, there the intention, reality, and earnestness of the author speaking is held out (Eze_5:8; Eze_37:5-6; Isa_40:1).
VI. When God hath done much for a people, and they are degenerate and ungrateful, the Lord’s way of dealing with them is to set before them their original condition and his kindness unto them (Mic_6:2-5 : Deu_32:6). (Greenhill).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. Preachers are servants of God. We are God’s…
Eze 16:6
I. Preachers are servants of God. We are God’s servants on behalf of souls. The souls of our world are desolate and dead as winter; it is the will of God that a spring-time should be brought out in their history, that they should become verdant and flourishing as the garden of the Lord. We are commissioned to traverse the whole world with a life-giving ministry, and to exercise it on behalf of every soul.
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II. There are souls dead. (1) Men are ignorant of the nature of their souls. Men suppose that there is a congruity between their souls and the pleasures and gains of the present world, whereas there is an utter incongruity. If souls know not their own nature, it is not too strong a figure to speak of them as dead. (2) The souls of men are not fulfilling the end of their being. (3) The souls of men are strangers to the peculiar joys of their being. The love of God is the highest of all possible pleasures. The love of God, tasted and enjoyed in everything, is that fine pleasure concealed in everything, concealed expressly for souls, and which only souls can extract. Human souls are dead to this bliss.
III. Therefore, as the servants of the Gospel, the cry of our ministry is, Live. We are charged by God to call upon you to repent, to sue for mercy, and solemnly declare to you that not to repent is to perish. We are to tell you that He who knew no sin died for your sins, and that, therefore, life, eternal life, is offered to you through His death.
J. Pulsford, Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., p. 567.
References: Eze 16:6.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 190; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 253. Eze 16:9-14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 813. Eze 16:10.—Ibid., Evening by Evening, p 358.
Eze 16:27
I. The last clause of the text may be considered as supposing that a man becomes the slave of another, and that this other is one who entertains towards him a feeling of hatred. Through the apostasy of Adam, Satan obtained a dominion over the globe which he never could have held had our first parents remained firm in their allegiance. It may have been that it was hatred to man which first moved Satan to attempt his destruction. That haughty spirit, chafed by his defeat, and furious at his own exile from happiness, could not endure to look on the purities and felicities of Paradise. Man was innocent, and that made him hateful; man was happy, and he was, therefore, instinctively detested. And if we may speak of man as an object of hatred to Satan when he held fast his allegiance, what may we suppose him now—now that, seduced into apostasy, he has been secured by the interference of God manifest in the flesh? Who will attempt to tell what must have been the rage and disappointment of the devil when he found that the creature whose overthrow he had compassed, and whom he therefore regarded as his undisputed prey, was the object of a most wondrous arrangement—an arrangement which in the largest measure was to bring good out of evil, and cause that the very fall of our race should issue in man’s exaltation to a far higher than his original glory?
II. Satan must hate man, so that whosoever is the servant of this chief of fallen angels, is accurately in the condition described by our text. There are but two moral states. Mankind admit morally of only one division—the servants of Satan or the disciples of Christ. Therefore is no alternative but this; for the whole world would have been Satan’s empire had not Christ interposed. And whilst the effect of that interposition has been to diminish that empire already, and to secure its final demolition, it is only those who acquire "repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," who are translated into the new kingdom before which every other shall ultimately give way. Every unconverted man is virtually in such a state that he may be described as "delivered unto the will of him that hateth him."
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1654.
References: Eze 16:54.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 264; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 354. Eze 16:62, Eze 16:63.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1289. Eze 17:4.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvii., p. 95.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Section 3 (Eze 16:1-63).
Section 3 (Eze 16:1-63).
Jerusalem’s profanation of her marriage covenant, yet final restoration.
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We have now the long and terrible history of Jerusalem as the Lord alone could give it; a people who, in so signal and manifest a way, had been delivered by the power of God from the misery of her original condition, as born among the nations, and made to know Himself. None, surely, had been brought face to face with Him as Israel had. And Jerusalem was only Israel in fullest manifestation; and not only delivered, but they had been united to God in a way no other nation had, to have their part with Him, and know the full blessedness of that in the midst of a world gone far from Him. They were thus (wonderful to speak of it) as it were Jehovah’s married wife, to whom He was in a relationship peculiar and exclusive amongst the nations, and enjoying all the blessings that this great and wonderful position would of necessity yield for them. Yet they were now to prove the terrible capacity on man’s part of losing all that he is entrusted with, in breaking, as far as he can do it, every tie by which God would bind him to Himself.
The long story of this is given in all its loathsomeness, for it was no time to hide the reality of it all, so that it should be fully judged. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not find judgment from God; thus, for those who had hearts to realize it (and the spiritual eye is in the heart) Israel is taught here to judge herself, that grace may even now be her refuge; and, as at the beginning, so at the end, triumphant therefore all through, God’s grace is manifest. If Israel has profaned her marriage covenant, yet God in the end shows Himself true to it: and from Him shall come the final restoration which shall at last openly, in the eyes of all the world, manifest His grace, so that the world itself should know it. This, then, is what we have here.
1. Israel’s original condition is first reviewed. As already said, Jerusalem is only Israel in full development. The city stands for the people, as cities are everywhere the development of man, in which what he is is most fully shown and brought to maturity. The city in this way is notable from many sides. The tendency of men is plainly towards cities; they show what man is, what he can do for himself; as, on the other side, they show his feebleness, his dependence, and how little he can do. There was no city of God in the beginning. The first city that we read of was man’s city, not God’s. It was the offspring of man’s thoughts and of his need. The city is the bringing together of men in the consciousness of their need of one another, according to the common motto that "Union is strength." Helplessness is written upon man in his very beginning. The human babe is helpless as the young of no other creature is. The child from its beginning and for long, is debtor to others if it is to exist at all; and for suitable development men must come together. God has so ordained that full independence should be impossible for us. Individuality with all of us is grounded in some way upon individual defect We are not competent all round. We have each his special capacities and his special deficiencies; as, in the world at large also, each country has its own peculiar productions and its need of what is to be got from elsewhere. Thus the world is bound together, and it is quite superfluous today to dwell upon the need which we thus have of one another.
The city then is the natural product of this need; but while it is almost necessarily thus the product of man’s thought, there is in it a divine meaning which eternity itself will recognize in the fullest way. Yet man anticipated God as to it, and such an anticipation is ever found to be without God, and to have, therefore, all the terrible characteristics of this. Those who would not scatter, when that was God’s mind, remained but to build up Babel. Yet man finds the help he seeks. "As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." The bringing of men together favors this; and even the more diverse such men are, the more may this help be manifested -struck out, as one may say, even from the collision of contrasted attributes. Thus in the city we find, as a rule, the ripest fruits of man’s efforts, and always, perhaps, his ripest wisdom, but in evil as well as good. And, alas, with man such as he is, selfish ends dominate too largely to make the coming together wholly good. Rather is there oftentimes, as we know, the most manifest and fullest debasement in this way. What spectacles are men’s cities of vice and poverty, as, on the other hand, of man’s achievements! Cain builds his city; and his posterity show the aptitudes which are developed in such combinations as the city manifests. But it is plain that morally the development is but a degeneration. On the other hand, in the final future, the city will manifest God’s hand in it -God’s hand in our individual necessities themselves; in our various adaptation to one another; in our various ability to help one another. Love is the spirit of help, and, where true, manifests the divine nature. How blessed to know that His own ministry of love to us all is to be reflected in our ways with one another. The city of God stands over against the city of man, contrasted, yet resembling. Jerusalem here gives us, in a sense, both sides of this -city of God, as in His thought and desire city of man, as he but too surely makes it. Jerusalem, then, is but Israel herself in full development.
She is first told of her extraction and of her birth. Heredity puts its mark upon the pages of Scripture, as it does everywhere upon nature; only, man being fallen, the mark of heredity is largely the mark of the fall. Grace makes us to rise above this, but if the power of grace declines, the natural heredity manifests itself once more. Thus Jerusalem was, as it were, again Canaanite, as it was in its origin: "Thy father," says God, "was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite." Notice these names here, where everything has a symbolic force, and fully significant, therefore. At the very opening of the world after the flood, as a mark of departure from God already beginning, and so soon to spread everywhere in it, we find the shameful story of Ham ("darkened by the light," as his name imports), and Canaan is his immediate descendant; it shows us man, not in mere original ignorance of God, as many now would make him, but as one who, in the presence of the light received it only as capacity for degradation. Resisted light is ten-fold darkness. From such an one Canaan is the natural fruit, Canaan "the merchantman," as the word is plainly used in Scripture. Canaan is from cana, "to bend the knee, to bow down." "Servant of servants" he was to be to his brethren; and we may be sure that he was that in spirit, if God puts him into this place. But we may serve it two ways. We may serve in love, in which there is nothing higher. But, with fallen man, this service may be but as in Canaan the spirit of the slave (the "servant of servants"), the spirit of fear and not of love. Or it may be for selfish ends; when, of necessity, subtlety and deceit will characterize it. "He is a merchant" (Canaan), says the prophet, "the balances of deceit are in his hand; he loveth to oppress" (Hos 12:7). Thus it is plain what the spirit of his service is. The Amorite comes naturally from this.
The Amorite, as we have seen elsewhere, does not mean "the mountaineer," for which there is no proper justification. He is "the talker," the man of words; in the East, in the market-place, he is the person who perhaps most impresses you. The merchant, there, is emphatically one who "cries up" his wares; demanding a higher price than he ever expects to get, in order to leave room for the inevitable coming down. He knows the uttermost value of his goods; or if he is buying, how to depreciate that which he really values. The wise man exactly describes him: "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth" (Pro 20:14). With greed against greed, the balances are sure to be deceitful ones; and for him who is possessed with a spirit of this sort, everything is valued according to its estimate in the market. Alas for "the Canaanite in the house of the Lord!" (Zec 14:21). Here the Judas-spirit develops, who will sell his Master cheap enough; and we see directly the proofs of Israel’s parentage in this way, how the Amorite father manifests itself in her.*
{*The Amorites, or "Talkers," suggest that pride which is so distinctive of high profession "speaking great swelling words;" -"Our lips are our own, who is lord over us." Pride and boasting seem thus to be connected with the thought of the Amorite, the emir (as the word is) who exalts himself, and gives his commands. The Hittite is the other extreme -cringing, fawning cowardice. They are linked together as the parentage of the natural man. "Ye shall be as God" is the Amorite pride; "they hid themselves" is the Hittite cowardice. -S. Ridout.}
Her mother also as the Hittite is not difficult to understand. The sons of Heth are literally "the children of fear" (See Gen 23:19, Notes). Such fear necessarily develops where the heart is set upon its own things, and in a world where every one is at strife with his neighbor. In the things of God also it comes in, as we know, in such sort that men tell us today that all religion is bred of it. This, moreover, can alternate with utter recklessness; for such a spirit will naturally seek the antidotes for its torment, which the world and Satan will as readily supply. All this, alas, but too well depicts the history of the professing people of God, whether in Israel or in the Christendom that has succeeded it. If we would get the profit of all this, we must not lose sight of the unmistakable repetition before our eyes today of Israel’s history. We have it all, even to the Babylonish captivity, and the broken fragments which have come out of it. Go back to the so-called "dark ages," or find the spots in in which these dark ages have survived to the present day, and see how a selfish spirit of fear is everywhere, and how it connects with the haughtiness of a spiritual profession which knows how to cry up its wares, while it will sell them cheap, too, to attract sufficiently the bidder. The Amorite and the Hittite have left unmistakably their impress upon things everywhere; and we have little cause to boast ourselves with the Philistine boast (see ver. 27) against scattered and exiled Israel. Yet we cannot but notice in Jacob, the supplanter, how these features showed themselves in the very beginning of the nation -before there was a nation at all. But this is all that heredity can do for us. For the rest, it must be the grace of God or nothing.
We come now (ver. 4) to the actual birth of the nation which, as we know, was in Egypt. The forlornness of their condition was manifest when, according to the figurative language here, their navel was not cut; that is to say, they were not qualified, as it might seem, for independent life at all, and thus exposed to death at the very outset.* Nor were they washed with water for cleansing. How they had forgotten the very name of their God in Egypt is manifest by Moses, inquiry (Exo 3:13); and the golden calf is manifest proof of how the Egyptian idolatry had laid hold of them. Thus they were not rubbed with salt at all; they were strangers to divine holiness and to that power which alone can resist corruption. Nor, as yet, were there even swaddling-bands for the infant nation. The restraints suited to their condition which love itself may impose, and which they were to find afterwards, were, as yet, unfelt. Egypt had lawlessness enough for them, if it had no true freedom. And Israel was, as we know, no object of compassion even to the nation among whom they had come to be. They were but as a foundling cast out into the open field to perish; as we may see them in Moses their deliverer himself thus cast out, but with the divine hand over him, and a divine purpose in all, through which these very circumstances became the means of lifting him into his higher and God-ordained position.
{*The necessary separation from defilements of birth is here suggested. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." The link with its symbolic Hittite mother had not been cut. The picture is dreadful and solemn, but divinely applicable to Israel’s infancy as a nation. -S. Ridout.}
2. It is evident, then, in what we find here, it is not the city Jerusalem merely or literally that we are to think of, but the nation as we find them in Egypt when under the decree of the persecutor, in their blood, as it is expressed here, and groaning in their bondage, "God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them" (Exo 2:25). The first sign of their national life and of the blessing of God was even then manifesting itself with regard to them in their multiplication under the very decree of death; and when afterwards the judgments were upon Egypt, Israel, as we read, grew great and came to excellent adornment. It was indeed the voice of the Almighty that had said unto them in their blood, "Live." And, according to the figure, the breasts that were to nourish her children grew; while even then, nevertheless, they were, as far as the blessing which God designed for them, still "naked and bare." But then and thus it was that He looked upon them; and for this despised people, mere Egyptian bond-slaves as they were, there came the time of love in which, as He declares, He spread His skirt over them to cover their nakedness. We cannot but think of the covering cloud, and how, when they seemed to be exposed to the wrath of their enemies and almost in their grasp, the sea made way for them, while the cloud covered them from above. Here, already, they were proclaimed the people of the Lord, although the covenant at Sinai had not yet taken place; and, indeed, it is important to realize that this covenant was not, after all, the foundation of blessing for the nation. God had His own purpose in it, and His purposes are always blessing.*
{*This period is touchingly referred to in Jeremiah, "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness . . . Israel was holiness unto the Lord" (Jer 2:2-3). The whole chapter is a solemn and tender pleading with a poor unfaithful people, like an untrue wife; and this is followed up in the next chapter: "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you" (Jer 3:14). Similarly Isaiah (Isa 50:1-11) shows that it was not the Lord, but Israel’s sins which had brought about her divorce. This is the frequent imagery of Scripture in history (as Gen 29:18), psalm (Psa 45:1-17) and prophecy. In a higher and sweeter sense it is also the type of the union of Christ with the Church (Eph 5:32, etc.). The two are not however to be confounded. -S. Ridout.}
The law was needed as the handmaid of a grace for which the people as yet, alas, were not prepared; and when God looked upon them in Egypt, it is expressly declared that He remembered His "covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob," and thus "took knowledge of them." In the same way, at the bush, God declares Himself to Moses as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;" and His word is: "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt" (Exo 3:7). His message to Pharaoh accordingly is: "Thus saith Jehovah, Israel is my son, my first-born; and I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve Me." Thus God’s recognition of His people does not wait for any legal promise on their part of what they will do: and when at Sinai the legal covenant begins, He could already say to them (Exo 19:4): "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles, wings, and brought you to Myself." True, He has now to say: "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exo 19:5-6). Thus there was a covenant which they had to keep or observe, but that which followed was not what is yet in the divine mind for them, of which the new covenant is to be the perfect expression. Nor are we to confound, as alas so many Christians even still do, the old with the new covenant. It was of their own choice and with the declaration of their own ability -the value of which had so soon to be tested, but with such terrible result -that God proclaimed in their hearing from the mount which flamed with fire and quaked under His presence there, the terms of blessing which they might find in an obedience which was rendered as easy as possible for them, but which, nevertheless, was the "ministration of death."
Hittite they are in their own character surely, as they tremble and stand afar off while Moses draws near to the thick darkness in which God is (Exo 20:18-21); and Amorite none the less for that, as we see in their ready profession. But thus it was that they had to be tested, as Moses declares: "God is come to prove you," he says. But alas for the fallen creature under the proving of God! What can it prove but a fallen condition? And Moses’ song long after this (Deu 32:1-52), a song which was to be put into their mouths that it might be a witness for God against the children of Israel (Deu 31:19), declares at once the utter hopelessness of blessing under it, and the grace of God which must be their only resource at last. Nevertheless, Israel was here now by their own profession in covenant with the Lord; they had fully, of course, the responsibility of this.
3. The object here is manifestly to recite all that God did for them, and in spite of legal conditions, how God’s grace as well as His holiness was made to shine out. "I washed thee with water," He says, "yea, I thoroughly washed thy blood from off thee, and I anointed thee with oil." Hengstenberg asserts here that "We are not to think of spiritual benefits;" and that "the prophet abides by what is palpable, which the ungodly even, whose consciences he wishes to touch, would necessarily recognize." How narrow is this as an idea, and how little it does justice to what God was doing for His people, in which the spiritual benefits were, as one may say, the whole thing aimed at -without which all others would be necessarily empty and vain; true also, as has just been acknowledged, that the people under the test of the law, would necessarily show themselves what man under such tests has ever shown himself to be, and that, notwithstanding the large outward show of blessing in keeping the Lord’s words, which should have enticed nature itself, if possible, into obedience. They were to have all possible assistances to this, and self-interest itself was to be enlisted upon the same side. Every material good was to be with the righteous; the whole nation, under one government, committed to the same path, was to be in favor of him who kept the covenant. Nevertheless, He who knew man perfectly -who knew the needs of the true-hearted who would experience that by the law is the knowledge of sin -could not but speak all through of God’s continual mercy and the ground of His showing this. The very publication of commandments in the keeping of which, if it were possible, man should live, was a light which must needs have effect upon the nation at large. Moreover, they had all the responsibility of the knowledge which God had given them of Himself in the constant interventions in their behalf, providing for them through the barren sands of the wilderness every day of their journey -a, constant miracle. Thus He could say of them, in contrast with the terrible immoralities of the nations around: "I washed thee with water;" and in the provisions of His law itself, when seen in connection with their typical meaning: "I thoroughly washed thy blood from off thee, and I anointed thee with oil."
As to what these last words signify in their deepest meaning, we cannot but see ground for it in the gifts and work of the Spirit manifesting Himself among them, the responsibility of which was upon all. From those who have heart for the blessing, nothing can shut out blessing. Nothing on God’s part surely would ever do it. And the oracles of God, which, as we must remember, began to take written form with Moses himself, were as the voice of the Spirit; the apostle Paul puts them as Israel’s chiefest blessing: "Chiefly that unto them were committed the oracles of God." How much are we not receiving at this present time through God’s word to them! Here, then, God puts before the nation, in its extreme departure from Him, all that in which He had wrought to bring them nigh.*
{*The anointing with oil was an official act in setting apart priests, kings, and in one case at least, the prophet to his work. As a type of the Spirit, it would suggest the empowering of the anointed one for his work. Thus Israel as a nation had that ministry of the Spirit which should have been an abundant sufficiency for all her testimony and service. That she so utterly failed was but proof of her alienation, not of any lack in God’s provision. The simile of the marriage relation is still preserved here. The presentation of queen Esther to Ahasuerus will illustrate this. For the Church however the unction is of the indwelling Spirit, and therefore abides eternally. -S. Ridout.}
The clothing with "broidered work" (literally, "variegated work ") naturally refers to the elaborate ceremonial of their religion; in which, although under a veil, all the grace of God was found for them, as far as it could then have expression. What an interweaving of forms and colors do we find there when we consider its typical significance -continually inviting the meditation of the thoughtful; and for those who, stricken in conscience by the law’s just claim upon them, how it pointed them to God’s way of forgiveness! We may see in the 32nd psalm how far this knowledge could go, while here the very failure of the law to produce perfection made it all the more a finger pointing to that which was yet to come. The inefficiency of those sacrifices, such as those of bulls and goats, would necessarily press itself upon any who realized what sin was; while faith, in connection with prophecies given from the very beginning, would find in it the foretoken of a better Sacrifice to come. On the other hand, when positive, wilful sin was in question, the ceremonies failed altogether, and one in sin like David’s was left entirely to God’s mercy, as he also expresses it in the 51st psalm. In all this Israel was plainly under the school-master, and the law was already the handmaid of the grace upon which everything depends for man.
The shoeing with seal-skin, which is next spoken of, makes us think of Kohath’s charge in the wilderness, to whom the most precious things, as the object-lessons for approach to God, were committed -all went under the protection of sealskin. Israel was thus, in a higher sense than the literal, shod for the way. She must pursue her journey in peace: and so are we, as the apostle tells us, "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;" shoes which, like those of Israel in the wilderness, never wear out.
The "fine linen" speaks of practical righteousness, inscribed as it was upon the tables of the covenant. The clothing of the priests, and the enclosure of the tabernacle itself, was of fine linen; to a thoughtful mind it could hardly fail to suggest something of what it typified. It comes also in its natural place in the enumeration here, after cleansing by the blood and the maintenance of approach to God had been duly cared for -things upon which all righteousness depends.
The word used here for "silk" only occurs twice in Scripture. It speaks of something drawn out (meshi, from mashah); it is an animal product, as the fine linen is a vegetable one. All nature contributes to the symbolism of spiritual things, and none can question that Israel’s was a symbolic system throughout. Silk is produced by the caterpillar, according to the figurative idea, through death to resurrection; left behind, as it were, by the creature for the use of man. We thus see in it the most costly ornament of God’s people still -in fact, the "best robe" for the Father’s house.
This introduces to what is more simply ornament, for God is not satisfied with meeting the necessities of His people, but must enrich those whom He has delivered. Hands, neck, nose, ears, head, are all covered with them. The bracelet (tsamid) speaks of what is "joined together," and tsemed means a "yoke;" thus are the hands still ornamented that are used to labor in the service of Christ. The chain for the neck (rabhid, "collar for the throat") reminds us of that through which the high praises of God should sound, as expressed in Psa 149:1-9. In both of these last things the activities of the divine life are pointed out as the true ornament of God’s people. The nose-ring seems to give us the effect for the whole life here: nezem al appaim means literally "the device for the nostrils," which in Scripture are connected with the human life which is as a vapor in the poor, weak creature which man is; but by God’s "device," the wonderful plan which these things bring before us, the life is redeemed from vanity. It seems that we are here reminded of all this.
Then we have the ear-rings in the ear. The word agil is in close relation with the name Eglon (see Jos 10:3, Notes), which means not simply a "ring," but with the thought of movement also, reminding us of what Ezekiel has ever in remembrance, the whirring wheels, the wheel of life ordained at once for man’s humiliation and his blessing. These two things come constantly together, and the ear is truly circumcised when it accepts the divine lesson. "The ear that heareth the reproof of life shall abide among the wise" (Pro 15:31). Thus the ear is indeed beautified and capable of hearing aright all other things when it has heard, first of all, the condemnation upon man himself, which, accepted, brings him ever to the never-failing blessing which God has for him.*
{*How beautifully all these adornments speak of the Lord our righteousness. Each detail yields a fuller richer meaning for us than even it could do for Israel, for all is real, spiritual, and therefore eternal. -S. Ridout.}
After all this comes the beautiful crown. A people of whom the former things were true could not lack it. Israel, when true to her God, could not but be thus a queen among the nations. If she failed, the cause of the failure is manifest. For when God was even in measure owned in the midst of Israel, she stood unconquerable by all enemies. Thus the next words picture her according to her God-given exaltation. As we see her in Solomon’s time, she has indeed "come to royal estate." The Lord sums up what He has done for them: "Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy clothing was fine linen and silk and broidered work." And to this is added that by which God sustains the creature so dependent upon Him: "Thou didst eat fine flour and honey and oil." Even in the wilderness, the bread from heaven was given them; not only angels’ food, as the common version puts it, but "the food of the mighty" (Psa 78:25) -the food which makes mighty. How apt we are to think that if we are once Christians, the character of our food is of no vital import. How little is realized our dependence upon the word of God -that "man shall live not by bread alone," but by that which is its true antitype, "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God!" If only we knew better our dependence upon this, if only God’s word was searched into, not to obtain mere knowledge, but that which ministers to the need of the soul (and there is nothing in all God’s word that does not minister to it if read aright), what mighty men would be produced! Is it not for want of this that revivals, such as are truly that, so soon decline? Through the grace of God, some ministry has laid hold upon men, some fresh truth, it may be, or some fresh power in truth known before; but then, so often comes the lack in going on acquiring and growing. God has invited, has drawn to Himself, and is ready to give in unexhausted grace what would maintain the spiritual life in blessing and power. But we are satisfied, as it were, with the first taste, and go no further. Thus, as the manna, kept and unused, quickly grew old and became corrupt, so the truth once enjoyed, even if not lost, becomes, as it were, without sap or lifeless, inadequate to produce what once it did produce. And why? It has been neglected, if not slighted. It has not led, as it should, to God Himself and to the growing acquaintance with Him for which it was intended. The glow and fervor that once was, passes away therefore; and we are brought under that law which we have seen again and again so to characterize that which is earthly -of revival and decay. The unsearched pages of God’s word are witness against us of how we have really dishonored that which we have professed to believe in as, all of it, the word of God. If we are content with this, decay is assured.
Again, we read of the manna that it was like wafers made with honey (Exo 16:31). Honey speaks of natural sweetness, which may refresh one for the moment, as in Jonathan’s case, but which we can in no wise live upon. But the manna, the heavenly food, has in it a power which does not pall; not mere natural sweetness, but that which is abiding. In Christ, the true antitype of the manna, our true food, we find indeed all the sweetness of humanity, but raised to the divine. Such honey of spiritual sweetness awakens an appetite which should never languish.
But again, we find in the manna (Num 11:8) that the taste of it was like "fresh oil." So the power of the Spirit is in the word of God; it is Christ whom it ministers to us; and in this there is perpetual freshness, which will resist decay. Thus even in the wilderness we already have that which will be our food in the land itself -the meat which, as the Lord says, "endureth to everlasting life."
This is the application for ourselves, of course. The things that happened unto Israel "happened unto them for types;" yet in all this we surely can see how God was drawing His people to Himself; how He would make, and did make, day by day bear witness to His inexhaustible resources, and lead His people on from strength to strength, making their difficulties only the more to manifest the almighty power which was there to meet them. Thus Israel became "exceeding beautiful," even in the eyes of the nations around, as we see in the gifts of Tyre and Sheba in the days of Solomon -an anticipation of the time yet to come in which again, drawn by the glory of her glorious King, "the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift." "The kings of Tar-shish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him" (Psa 45:12; Psa 72:10-11). But Israel forgot that it was the comeliness which Jehovah’s presence imparted to them which constituted her beauty. Hence the misery which soon followed, and which not yet has passed away.
4. The story of Israel’s failure is next brought out; and, alas, all her privilege, her wealth of blessing, became for her only the means of more fatal and deeper downfall. It is traced to its root here, to their self-confidence. Alas, how possible it is for those who owe all they have to grace alone, that self-confidence should yet show itself! And we may build ourselves up just as Israel did, upon privileges which only God’s grace could have given to us, thus taking the glory which is His due to dress ourselves with it! And how quickly pride may thus darken the sunshine of God’s grace -for God dwelleth with the humble and the contrite spirit, and the proud He beholdeth afar off: it is the necessity of His nature. Sin entered at the very outset of man’s history, by departure from the God-appointed place, as it began in heaven itself. The account of this is given us later on, where we shall have to consider it: "Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness" (Eze 28:17). So with Israel: "Thou didst trust in thy beauty," and then, alas, the Canaanite character came fully out. Israel could make merchandise of that beauty itself, and, in the strong language of Scripture (to make it offensive to us, as it was to God), she played the harlot because of her renown, prostituting herself with the nations around in utter debasement. What cause had she indeed to whom all God’s wealth was being ministered, to make merchandise of it with others? Alas, where pride turns the thoughts upon oneself, God’s gifts fail to satisfy. So with Israel; and so with us, wherever in any measure we repeat this history. All that we see here in Israel is in principle only too sadly possible for the Christian also. Ezekiel has thus a message for us today. The heart that loses its first love becomes unsatisfied with its God-given blessings; the good that is in them is not found, and a mad craving comes into the soul to seek from the world a satisfaction which the world has not, and therefore cannot give. Thus it finds but degradation, and this is what God calls idolatry and harlotry -singularly strong words, we may think, but only because the true estimate of things is lost. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses;" says James, "know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" And again another apostle says, "Covetousness, which is idolatry." The Church taking up with the world has repeated, only in a more terrible way, Israel’s history; and we must not forget this, so as to make the prophetic words but mere records of the past, and lose their admonition for us.
Departure from God took its outward form in Israel by making for themselves "high places." It was but a heathen habit, playing upon the imagination with a worship in which there is no heart, just as men still seek to satisfy themselves with music, architecture, drapery, and that most characteristic "dim religious light," in which to worship a God who is Light itself, and in whom no darkness is. Such things work upon nature, and produce a sentiment which is so largely taken for the reality which is wanting to it. Thus upon the mountain-tops man could imagine himself nearer to God than in the valleys, and the depths of groves and forests helped, with the beauty of nature, to make him think he was nearer to the God of nature than he really was. There is indeed a witness to God in all these things: who would wish to deny it? Nay, with joy to realize how God in all these things is seeking to draw near to man. Nevertheless, it is just here that man so often makes the fatal mistake of substituting what is merely natural for what is spiritual, and so deceives himself. In heathenism these high places and these groves turned thus, as was inevitable, to evil instead of good, and the worst abominations of heathenism attached themselves to them. What is figurative in the language used here is nevertheless drawn from the awful grossness of the heathen abominations, in which the lusts and passions of men were let loose as homage to the God of nature, with the consequent degradation following upon this. Israel soon realized all these abominations, and spent the riches which God had heaped upon her to the gratification of those various forms of lust which make the world the corrupt thing it always has been.
Under such figures as we find here, the Spirit of God in the final book, in Revelation, draws the awful picture of Babylon the Great, the corrupt Church, in her commerce with the kings of the earth. She has gone Israel’s way, but further in reality than Israel could go, for holy things were committed to her such as Israel never had, and with these she has made merchandise in true Canaanite fashion. She has given that which is holy to the dogs; she has cast her pearls before swine; and she, too, out of her silver and gold, has made for herself what is spoken of immediately here, the "image of men" -men not as they are, but as she would have them: in effect, sacramental, sham Christians, decorated with the lowest debasement of spiritual blessings. But wherever the heart departs from God, it will adorn what it seeks with imaginations of its Own, and conjure up delirious visions, which only show the loss of all sobriety. The false becomes the true, and the true therefore becomes the false.
The last step here is one in which the apostate Church has still followed the ancient order. The children really born to God in the midst of Israel, the remnant owned as His, were sacrificed by a people mad upon their idols; and who knows not that, for refusing divine homage to a piece of magically transformed bread, the blood of God’s saints has been poured out like water? If we had eyes to read such things on a minuter scale, how often might we find that the impulses and purposes born of the Spirit within us have been sacrificed in like manner to the self-will that even in a Christian may go thus after its idols. In all this, as with Israel, God’s grace and the deliverance wrought by His grace must be practically forgotten. The way is naturally downward, and Israel leaving her true God transgressed as the heathen with their false ones would be ashamed to do. "Hath a nation changed its gods which are yet no gods?" asked the Lord by Jeremiah; "but my people have changed their glory into that which doth not profit" (Jer 2:11). The Philistines who at Ashdod would not tread upon the threshold of their mutilated Dagon (1Sa 5:5), might be ashamed of Israel’s lewd way. They recognized the hand of the Lord upon them, when they sent back the ark to Israelitish territory; yet how little did Israel recognize or repent under the divine hand which was upon her! "Why," asks the Lord by Isaiah, "should ye be smitten any more? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint" (Isa 1:5). But as in a Christian assembly, even in the apostles, days, there had been what even the Gentiles stigmatized as infamous, so Israel away from God became more heathenish than the heathen. Her high places were, as the Lord reproaches her here, at every cross-road, to allure passers-by from all quarters. As Rome in her days of degeneracy, so had Israel her Pantheon of all the gods there were round about her -of Egypt, with the fleshly grossness indicated in the worship of bestial gods; of Assyria, of Babylon, etc., all sought after, with continually increasing loss of prestige and power. The infatuated harlot squandered in vain all that divine goodness had bestowed upon her, hiring lovers for reward, getting herself none, and her portion from her true Husband necessarily finding no replenishment. If godliness hath profit of this life also, as well as that which is to come, how sure and utter is the loss that is entailed by the will that wanders from the Source of every good!
The record of Israel here is what we find in the history of Christendom as well, as already said, which has repeated the sins of her ancestry, even though there may be with this the disguise of a new dialect which puts no restraint upon the things thus covered up by it, the darkness only favoring the deeds that suit it.*
{*It may be well to remember that this apostasy may have had, ostensibly, its origin in a political effort to court the friendship of the nations by whom Israel was surrounded. Isolated from all other peoples, Israel’s only safety lay in abiding obedience to Jehovah. Lapsing from that she turned for help to one and another of the nations. Only faith would keep them true to God; this is abundantly seen in the book of Deuteronomy. Therefore when that faith failed, the people soon courted the favor of the world, and this of course led them into the idolatry described with such unsparing faithfulness in this portion.
So in the history of the Church, when first love failed -as in Ephesus -in the very effort to escape persecution -of Smyrna -the world was courted, and the illicit union of Pergamos and Thyatira was the inevitable result. Of course true faith resisted all this; but, alas, all men have not faith, and so the mass turn to the world for its help.
Similarly in the soul’s individual history, faith alone fights the good fight; where faith weakens, the power of spiritual enemies increases, and in very timidity the soul turns to the world and its principles for the strength which comes from God alone. Compromises, worldly ways and entanglements, and shameful dishonor to the Lord are the result.
But it cannot be too constantly repeated, that the beginning of all declension is a loss of heart for the things of Christ, and of faith which counts upon Him alone. -S. Ridout.}
5. Israel’s guilt is now summed up and her punishment announced. Her sins are made the means of her recompense, and those to whom she has turned, while turning away from God, become the instruments of His judgments. Stripped of the riches she had received from God, but had lavished upon her lusts, she should no more be able to gratify herself in this way. She had fully proved, as she is again reminded, her Canaanite descent, which was now apparent: "Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite." There remained for her but the judgment long since pronounced upon Canaan for their sins; and Judah was but the sister of already judged Samaria -and more, of judged Sodom too. She had exceeded in her enormities even these, and, as the Lord declares, had even justified them, comparatively -she had exceeded them in iniquity. She who had judged her sisters must now take her place along with them and bear her shame. Jerusalem that had looked on in pride of heart while Samaria had gone into captivity, and had ceased to think of Sodom, a mere vacant spot as it were upon the earth which had cast it out, was now to exhibit her guilt in her condemnation as fully as they did.
6. And is this then the end? It might seem indeed to be so. What could be done more than God had done, but in vain? If the story were merely a human one, a dealing of man with man, there would surely be no help, no remedy; and God Himself numbering Judah now with Sodom and with Samaria might seem to argue that He had fully and finally given her up. Indeed, interpreters not a few have argued from such premises in this very way. If Sodom could return and find blessing, then there might be hope for Jerusalem; but was it not already wiped out from the earth? Yet God takes up this argument to answer it in a way of His own: meeting the challenge from His own words, to say, Well, I will do this thing which is impossible: "Thy sister Sodom and her daughters shall return to their first estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their first estate. Thou also and thy daughters shall return to your first estate."
What is intended here seems a difficulty, for it is certain that Sodom has gone out of knowledge. If we look for her upon the earth, we shall not find her; yet it is just of this earthly restitution that Ezekiel, as has often been said already, everywhere speaks. The judgment that he pronounces is not the judgment of eternity, the judgment following after death, but the historical earth-judgment. Thus we are not permitted here to do as some do, and look beyond the grave to find the remedy. The fact that we have just now had before us, that the judgment of Israel was to be at the hands of those with whom she had sinned, shows that it is in the record of the world’s history that we are to look for its accomplishment. It is not a question therefore of the standing of souls before God, nor of individuals, whatever inference we may make, as we have to make in many cases, but what is before us here is Sodom as a whole, Samaria as a whole, and so again Jerusalem as a whole. God is acting things out before the eyes of men, in order to give the broad, general lesson so much needed. We do right to carry it further than the mere details of history. If sin is the destruction of any people, it is because it is the destruction of individual souls; and if it is their destruction in this world, assuredly, except God’s grace in some way come in, it must be their destruction in the eternity that follows time. But this is not Ezekiel’s theme. It is the broad lesson of history to which he would call our attention, and we may be sure that these lessons are of immense importance to us. It was for this that the trial of man, through the forty centuries before Christ, went on. And we know how God in the New Testament takes up the result of this trial. It was "when the world by wisdom knew not God," that "it pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe;" and it was "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Thus we may not think lightly of the lessons of history, while there is that, truly, which no earthly history can reveal, of which indeed we must think, and for which all else works.*
{*Our Lord had declared it would be more tolerable for Sodom than for the city which rejected Him; and in Revelation (Rev 11:8) Jerusalem is spiritually called Sodom. The Phariseeism which made self its object, resulted in spiritual abominations and corruptions which can only be characterized in this awful way. -S. Ridout.}
If we take what is here clearly revealed, then, Sodom is to reappear in a future generation, with her burden of sin and shame removed, and owned as sister to the tribes of Israel; as in their punishment, so in the grace they can say at last, they have received double for all their sins (Isa 40:2). We need not at all be at the trouble to search for her at the present time. God will know how to bring her out of her obscurity in His own due time; but it is certain that for other perished nations besides Sodom, the future, according to the word of God, has a resurrection-time at hand. Nor can we fail to see, if we have eyes for it, some anticipations of such things furnished by present history. Thus has Italy been finding her lost national unity again; and Greece is upon the way to realize this also.* In some cases it seems indeed as if there were to be, not a resurrection of life, but rather a resurrection of judgment. Into all this it is not the place to inquire here; but, for various purposes of righteousness or of grace, God will certainly show, as the Preacher assures us, that He "requireth that which is past" (Ecc 3:15). This, once more, is only part of that implied in the revolution of the wheel which again and again Ezekiel brings before us, in which we may see the lesson it surely has for us. The divine Word thus positively assures us that "Sodom and her daughters shall return to their first estate;" "Samaria and her daughters shall return" also -guaranteed by Scripture again and again, though disputed still (perhaps less and less however). The verity of the judgment which has come is only the seal upon the verity of the restoration that shall come. The wheel is, in fact, revolving; and that which brings down will bring up again.**
{*Since the 10 years when this was written, Greece has taken further strides, and even now seems on the verge of assuming the national prominence foretold in Scripture. -S. Ridout.
** Sodom, we must remember, was a typical Canaanite city. If the "mother" was overthrown, the "daughters" were spared, and in Zoar (the "little one" spared for Lot’s sake) we see the perpetuation of the Canaanite, which in the latter day will blossom out in what will answer to a literal restoration of Sodom. -S. Ridout.}
So the double assurance is given here: "Thy lewdness and thine abominations, thou barest them, saith Jehovah; for thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the oath and broken the covenant. Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and establish to thee an everlasting covenant. And thou shalt remember thy ways and be confounded, when thou receivest thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger one; for I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not because of thy covenant; and I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah." Thus, if on man’s side the covenant with God has been broken, from God’s side, breach there really can never be.*
{*It is instructive to note the causes which developed such abominable iniquity in Sodom -"Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness." Pride, the exaltation of self, comes first. It is the sin of Satan, as it is declared in Eze 28:1-26. Pride’s self-sufficiency has no need of mercy nor of grace; it says to God, "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." Next comes "fulness of bread" -no need which would force a cry to God. It is notorious in the world’s history that wealth and luxury are the cause of moral and manly decay.
"Abundance of idleness" leaves the soul open for the lusts of the flesh to assert themselves. Vices flourish in luxuries, until unspeakable corruption brings God’s judgment upon the putrid mass. When, in the language of the Roman satirist, "the Orontes flowed into the Tiber" -oriental luxury and vice displaced the manly energy of former days -the great empire tottered to its fall. Nations can no more afford to be idle than individuals. Peoples of a rough northern climate or bleak mountain lands, often put to shame those under a balmy sky where sloth flourishes.
So in spiritual things, the saint must meet the foe, must toil and wrestle with an apparently barren condition, if he is to avoid succumbing to the deceits of this world. There is special warning in this for the young believer. "It is good that a man bear the yoke in his youth" -learn to endure hardness, and thus become a good soldier of Jesus Christ. -S. Ridout.}
This covenant in the days of Israel’s youth we must not confound, as has been already said, with the mere legal covenant which Israel so readily entered into, but which has had such bitter fruit. The covenant which God remembered when He took up Israel at the first was, as we have seen, His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; and those three names give what is to be His memorial to all generations (Exo 3:15). So also the everlasting covenant which He will establish with them is expressly said to be a new covenant (Jer 31:31-34): "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they brake, though I was a husband to them, saith the Lord." To confound these contrasted covenants would seem to be impossible for us; yet it has been done, and is being done continually. The covenant with their fathers they could not break; it had no conditions which might entail the loss of its blessings. The Sinaitic covenant is distinctly marked out in the very passage before us as not that covenant: "I will give them unto thee for daughters," says the Lord here, "but not because of thy covenant." "Thy covenant" He calls it, because man with his legal heart necessitated, as it continually does in individual experience, the allowing of a law which could yet perfect nothing, and with which God thus finds fault -not indeed for lack of holiness in it or anything unsuited in that way to His requirements, but just because it is that requirement which, to those who are under it, yields nothing but the knowledge of sin and self-hopelessness. Indeed that is its true and worthy fruit. But then, as the apostle says, if God speaks of a new covenant, He has made the first old; and it is according to the new covenant that He says here: "I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah; that thou mayest remember and be ashamed, and no more open thy mouth because of thy confusion, when I am propitiated as to thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah." Here the fruit of Christ’s work is, as we see, recognized. The glory, over which the law necessitated a veil, is now in open sight.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Foundling Child who became an Unfaithful Wife
The Foundling Child who became an Unfaithful Wife
From Hosea onwards the prophets spoke of idolatry under the figure of unchastity. God was the husband of Israel, but she proved unfaithful to Him. This thought has already been expressed by Ezekiel in Eze_6:9, and it is now expanded into an elaborate historical allegory. The subject is nominally the city of Jerusalem, but really the whole nation of Israel. Jerusalem was a girl-child of heathen extraction, who was exposed in infancy to die (Eze_16:1-5). God saw her and saved her life, and she grew to maturity, though still in a poor and mean condition (Eze_16:6-7). Then He took her to be His wife, loading her with every honour (Eze_16:8-14). But she was disloyal to Him, admitting idols as her lovers at the high places, and lavishing on them the gifts God had bestowed upon her (Eze_16:15-19).) She even sacrificed to them her own children whom she had borne to God (Eze_16:20-21). By borrowing the idolatries of the surrounding nations, Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia, she j made them all her paramours, with every aggravation of guilt (Eze_16:23-34). Her sin had already brought reproach upon her from hostile neighbours like the Philistines (Eze_16:27), but she had proved incorrigible and must now suffer utter humiliation and destruction (Eze_16:35-43). Men would speak of her as the true daughter of her parents, the true sister of Samaria and Sodom, whose guilt had been less than hers; though she had despised them in her pride (Eze_16:44-52). Her humiliation would I be completed by her being put on a level with them, and sharing the mercy extended to them (Eze_16:53-59). Nevertheless God would not forget His love for her, but would pity and restore her, giving her Samaria and Sodom for daughters instead of sisters. Humbled, ashamed, and forgiven, she would know at last the true character of God (Eze_16:60-63).
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3. Thy birth, etc.] Though the allegory deals with the history of Israel as a nation it begins by tracing the origin of Jerusalem. It was a Canaanite city, inhabited by Jebusites, long before it became the capital of God's kingdom. Jos_15:63; Jdg_1:21; Jdg_19:11; 2Sa_5:6-8.
Amorite] a general name for some of the tribes originally inhabiting Canaan: cp. Gen_15:16; Deu_20:17. Hittite] The Hittites, or children of Heth, were another portion of the original inhabitants of Canaan: cp. Gen_10:15; Num_13:29. Another branch of the Hittites had a powerful empire to the N. of Palestine (Jos_1:4; Jdg_1:26).
7. Thou hast increased, etc.] RV 'thou didst increase,' etc. The past tense should be read throughout the verse. Whereas] RV 'yet.'
8. A covenant] a marriage covenant, probably with reference to the covenant at Sinai.
10. Badgers' skin] RV 'sealskin,' probably the skin of the dugong, an herbivorous cetacean found in the Red Sea.
12. A jewel on thy forehead] RV 'a ring upon thy nose': see Isa_3:21.
16. High places] the seats of ancient Canaanite worship, retained by the Israelites for the worship of the true God, but perverted to their old uses: see Eze_6:3, Eze_6:6, Eze_6:13.
20, 21. Human sacrifice was not unknown in early Israel: see on Gen_22:1-14; Jdg_11:30-40, and was introduced in later times by Ahaz (2Ki_16:3; 2Ch_28:3) and Manasseh (2Ki_21:6; 2Ch_3:6). It was also practised in the northern kingdom (2Ki_17:17).
24, 25. Besides the high places throughout the land, idolatrous shrines were established in the streets of Jerusalem.
27. Israel suffered from the Philistines both in the days of the Judges and the early kings, and in later times (2Ch_28:18).
29. In the land of Canaan, etc.] RM 'unto the land of traffic,' etc. See Eze_17:4.
38. As women.. are judged] see Lev_20:10; Deu_22:22; Joh_8:5.
41. Many women] the neighbouring nations.
45. Your mother.. your father] The plural pronoun refers to the three sisters.
46. Samaria] the capital of the kingdorn of the Ten Tribes, standing for the whole of that kingdom. Left hand.. right hand mean north and south respectively: see Joh_10:3.
Elder.. younger] refer not to historical antiquity but to importance.
57. Syria] Heb. 'Aram.' We may change one letter and read 'Edom.' The Edomites exulted over the fall of Jerusalem (Oba_1:10-14; Psa_137:7). The Philistines seem to have done the same. Both nations are denounced in similar terms in Eze_25:12-17.
61. Not by thy covenant] The new relation of Jerusalem to Samaria and Sodom would not depend on anything in the past, but would be a fresh arrangement of God's grace.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v15 (See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
trust
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Eze 16:1-63. This chapter consists of four sections: 1.…
Eze 16:1-63. This chapter consists of four sections: 1. The parable of the abandoned child. 2. Jerusalem’s idolatries and moral degradation (Eze 16:15-34). 3. The doom of Jerusalem and the promise of restoration (Eze 16:35-59). 4. The covenant remembered (Eze 16:60-63).
The parable of the abandoned child, and what the gracious Lord did for the little one is a most beautiful demonstration of what He had done in His sovereign love and grace for Jerusalem. It must be read first with this in mind. But this sweet parable illustrates also, as few other portions in the Old Testament do, the grace which the Lord bestows upon the believer in the gospel. Thy father an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite reminds us of what is true of all men, so tersely expressed in David’s confession, “Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did MY mother conceive me” Psa 51:5. Like the child pictured in the parable, we are lost, perishing in the field (the world). What could that perishing child do to save itself? Even so we cannot do anything to save ourselves. The Lord passing by had compassion and spoke His Word of power--Live. He came from heaven to this earth, into the field to seek and save what is lost. He found man in the vile and helpless condition so aptly pictured by the miserable child. And more than that, He died to save man. He gave His life so that we might live. The first thing He does for the believing sinner is to give him life. When the spiritual dead hear His voice they live. The washing with water, the anointing with oil (type of the Holy Spirit), the announcement “thou becamest Mine,” as well as the clothing, the beautifying and the crowning, all illustrate what His marvelous grace does for the trusting, believing sinner. It is all grace from start to finish, from the impartation of life in the new birth to the crowning in glory.
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Upon this beautiful background of Jehovah’s love and mercy, there is written next the dark picture of Jerusalem’s whoredoms, symbolical of her wicked idolatries. It started all with pride (Eze 16:15). Jerusalem did not acknowledge the giver. Instead of worshipping Him, they established the high places and conformed to all the wicked Canaanitish practices. Eze 16:15-34 give the depth of Jerusalem’s apostasy.
Then the Lord addresseth her whom He loved, and who had turned away from Him as a harlot. Her doom and judgment is announced which once more is followed by the promise of mercy and restoration. The restoration of Sodom and her daughters has puzzled many. It has been used by Universalists, Russellites, Restorationists, teachers of Reconciliationism and other errorists to back up their inventions of a second chance of the wicked dead, or the ultimate salvation of the entire race. The restoration promises have nothing to do with the restoration of the wicked dead. They are promises of national restoration. It is a mistake to look in the Old Testament for any doctrines concerning the future state. Three facts will show this error of making the Old Testament teach the restoration of the wicked.
1. The Old Testament is not that part of the divine revelation where teachings and doctrines about the future state are given.
This is a most important fact. The Old Testament shows man as upon the earth, on this side of death, and not beyond death. The future of Israel on the earth, their supremacy and destiny of glory amidst the nations of the earth, the judgments of God in the earth, as well as the future blessings for the nations inhabiting the earth during the coming age, are all clearly revealed in the Old Testament. The state after death, that which is beyond this life, is shrouded in mystery in the Old Testament Scriptures. That great judgment, the great white throne judgment, is nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament, nor do we read a word there of “the second death.” Resurrection of the dead, no doubt, was known to individual saints of Old Testament times; the Spirit of God revealed it to their hearts, but as a doctrine, resurrection is not found in the Old Testament. In Psa 16:1-11 is revealed the hope of resurrection of the body, and there is a prophecy of the resurrection of our Lord.
2. Should we find anything in the Old Testament concerning the future state, the state of the righteous and the unrighteous after death, such a hint or statement can only be rightly understood and interpreted by the great doctrine concerning the future state as revealed in the New Testament.
By this, of course, we do not say that the Old Testament needs correction by the revelation of the New, nor do we say that the Old is inferior to the New; all is the Word of God. However, as the Old Testament does not show man’s condition after death, any passage which appears to relate to such a condition must be interpreted by the full light as given in the New Testament.
3. If such passages as Eze 16:53 and Eze 37:1-14, etc., teach the restitution of the wicked by resurrection for another chance, we must then find such a doctrine of the restoration most clearly and fully revealed as one of the great doctrines of the New Testament.
In vain, however, do we look in the New Testament for such a restoration--second probation doctrine. Such a doctrine is not even hinted at in the New. However, the New Testament gives the fullest revelation concerning resurrection and the future state. It tells us that there is indeed a resurrection of the body for every human being. This revelation of resurrection as contained in the New Testament leaves no room whatever for the Sodomites and all the wicked idolatrous Israelites to be raised up for another chance. Our Lord, in Joh 5:29, reveals a twofold resurrection, a resurrection unto life and a resurrection unto damnation. The human race, those who have died, are therefore in resurrection divided into two classes; they must come forth either unto life or unto damnation: there is no middle class. Later the New Testament teaches a first resurrection, an out-resurrection from the dead. Only those who have believed and died in Christ will have a share in this resurrection. Both Old and New Testament saints belong to it, but none have a part in it who died in their sins. The rest of the dead, meaning of course, the wicked dead, are not raised up till after the thousand years. This is a second resurrection, and this takes place not when the Lord comes the second time, but after His millennial reign Rev 20:1-15. The subjects of this second resurrection appear before the great white throne and are cast into the lake of fire. Now, these teachers claim that the return of Sodom and Samaria to their former estate means their resurrection for another chance when the Lord comes. But, as these departed, wicked people are wicked still, how can they have part in the first resurrection when the Lord comes, which is the resurrection of the righteous?
They surely cannot belong to this resurrection. And there is nowhere in the New Testament a word about another special resurrection in which all the wicked are raised from the dead for another chance. After the resurrection of the righteous dead there is but one more resurrection, the resurrection of the wicked unto damnation. In the light of these facts the flimsy theory built upon misapplied texts of the Old Testament, texts which relate to national restoration and blessing, breaks down completely. And now, having seen what the statements in this chapter of Ezekiel do not mean, let us see what is their meaning. While these statements cannot mean the resurrection of individuals, they mean a national restoration. There is promised in many passages of the Old Testament a national restoration of Israel. The ten tribes are to be brought back to their former possessions. Historically they have been lost. But they are not lost to God. He knows where they are. He has kept track of them, and in His own time He will make good the promises of their restoration and will bring back the remnants of the house of Israel, now scattered still among the nations. The Jews will also be restored to their territory. Repeatedly this national restoration of the ancient people is promised under the picture of a resurrection. But to other nations there is also promised such a national restoration in the days to come, when the Lord comes and begins His Kingdom reign over the earth. Such a national revival is beyond a doubt promised for a future day to Moab, Ammon, Assyria, and Egypt. Edom and Babylon, however, are doomed as nations and no revival whatever is promised to them.
We do not know, of course, how God will accomplish these promises of restoration and national revivals, and how He will gather the remnants of these former nations from the great sea of nations. We can leave this and other difficulties with Him who will see to the fulfillment of all these things.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 15 God’s Early Grace upon his People
God’s Early Grace upon his People
v. 1. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
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v. 2. Son of man, cause Jerusalem, where the remnant of the Lord’s people were now concentrated, to know her abominations, an open exposure of Jerusalem and a frank discussion of her guilt being intended to bring her to repentance,
v. 3. and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity, namely, in the spiritual sense, is of the land of Canaan, for the inhabitants of Jerusalem had followed the idolatrous Canaanites in their wicked ways. Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite, from both of which heathen nations the children of Israel had accepted much that was loathsome in the eyes of the Lord. They had become so heathenish in their customs and in their morals that the only explanation of their conduct was the assumption of a heathen parentage.
v. 4. And as for thy nativity, concerning the manner of Jerusalem’s birth: in the day that thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee, for the purpose of a thorough cleansing; thou wast not salted at all, as was customary in order to harden the tender skin, nor swaddled at all. Jerusalem is pictured as a neglected and forsaken infant.
v. 5. None eye pitied thee to do any of these unto thee, the acts customary in the case of a new-born infant, to have compassion upon thee; but thou was cast out in the open field, the exposure of infants being common in many ancient nations, to the loathing of thy person, as an object of loathing, in the day that thou wast born. Such, figuratively speaking, is the pitiful condition of all men by nature, objects of revulsion in the sight of the holy God.
v. 6. And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, altogether abandoned and wallowing in its own blood, as though stamping it down, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, in the very depths of degradation and misery, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live, the repetition of the reassuring words serving to place the utmost emphasis upon the mercy of Jehovah.
v. 7. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, like the flowers that spring up at the beginning of the rainy season, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments, in the highest charm of youthful beauty; thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, as in the fullness of puberty, whereas thou wast naked and bare. All this was indicative of the marriageable age, which is the point of comparison. The description refers to the marvelous preservation and multiplication of the children of Israel in Egypt, before the Lord formally chose them, as His people.
v. 8. Now, when I passed by thee, at that stage of her history, and looked upon thee, behold, thy times was the time of love, that is, when marriage should have taken place, when some one should have taken her to wife; and I spread. My skirt over thee, in the gesture signifying a man’s willingness to marry a woman, Rth 3:9, and covered thy nakedness; yea, I sware unto thee, promising the faithfulness of the bridegroom, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine, the formal espousal being held, by which the Lord entered into the wedded state with Israel, His chosen people.
v. 9. Then washed I thee with water, to take away the filth of her nakedness and sinfulness and to prepare her for the wedding; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil, thus imparting the power and grace of His Spirit.
v. 10. I clothed thee also with broidered work, with princely magnificence, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, sandals made of the leather of the sea-cow, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk, all of which indicates that the Lord gave Israel rich gifts, also in the blessings pertaining to this life.
v. 11. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands and a chain on thy neck. All this seems to point quite definitely to the era of Solomon, when the outward splendor of the kingdom reached its highest stage.
v. 12. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, the nose-ring which Oriental women wore, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus Jerusalem was elevated to the rank of a princess among the nations.
v. 13. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, with great and outstanding wealth; and thy raiment was of fine linen and silk and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour and honey and oil, being given the richest nourishment; and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom, into such dignity and standing among the nations of the world.
v. 14. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty, the glory of Israel being spoken of in wondering terms by heathen nations everywhere; for it was perfect through My comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. Just as Israel’s position, both outward and spiritual, was in every way the gift of God’s mercy, so it is due to his grace alone if individuals as well as nations become prosperous in the things pertaining to this life or to the life beyond.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 15 General Information:
General Information:
In this chapter, Yahweh speaks about Jerusalem as if the city were his unfaithful bride. He describes her growth from infancy to adulthood. The city represents the people who live there. (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)
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the word of Yahweh came
This is an idiom that is used to introduce something that God told his prophets or his people. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 3:16. AT: "Yahweh spoke this message" or "Yahweh spoke these words" (See: Idiom)
Son of man
"Son of a human being" or "Son of humanity." God calls Ezekiel this to emphasize that Ezekiel is only a human being. God is eternal and powerful, but humans are not. AT: "Mortal person" or "Human"
Your beginning and your birth
These two phrases share similar meanings. Yahweh speaks of when people founded the city as if it were the city's birth. (See: Doublet and Metaphor)
your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite
The Amorites and Hittites were both pagan people groups who lived in the land before the people of Israel conquered it. Yahweh speaks of Jerusalem's father and mother belonging to these people groups to express that she was born into idolatry. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word of God
Son of Man
Jerusalem
abomination
declare
Lord Yahweh
Canaan
Amorite
Hittite
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 15 16:1-63 Jerusalem is exposed as a wanton prostitute. Even…
16:1-63 Jerusalem is exposed as a wanton prostitute. Even in the relatively mild form of the English translation, ch 16 is hard to read, and it was at least as shocking in the ancient context. Ezekiel was graphically communicating the full ugliness and offensiveness of Judah’s sin. He refused to be polite when discussing his people’s depravity. In fact, his refusal to tone down the offensiveness of Jerusalem’s sin is precisely the point of the passage. The offensive nature of the portrayal was critical to its effectiveness because Ezekiel’s hearers could understand that God’s awful judgment upon them was justified only if they first understood the magnitude of their sin in his sight. A less graphic presentation would not have adequately communicated this message.
16:1-3 Ezekiel begins with Jerusalem’s unpromising origins; it came from Canaanite roots and was the offspring of an Amorite and . . . a Hittite. The city of Jerusalem predated the conquest under Joshua and was never captured during that campaign. Instead, it retained its native Canaanite population even after David conquered it.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.