15 But thou didst trust H982 in thine own beauty, H3308 and playedst the harlot H2181 because of thy renown, H8034 and pouredst out H8210 thy fornications H8457 on every one that passed by; H5674 his it was.
16 And of thy garments H899 thou didst take, H3947 and deckedst H6213 thy high places H1116 with divers colours, H2921 and playedst the harlot H2181 thereupon: the like things shall not come, H935 neither shall it be so.
17 Thou hast also taken H3947 thy fair H8597 jewels H3627 of my gold H2091 and of my silver, H3701 which I had given H5414 thee, and madest H6213 to thyself images H6754 of men, H2145 and didst commit whoredom H2181 with them,
18 And tookest H3947 thy broidered H7553 garments, H899 and coveredst H3680 them: and thou hast set H5414 mine oil H8081 and mine incense H7004 before H6440 them.
19 My meat H3899 also which I gave H5414 thee, fine flour, H5560 and oil, H8081 and honey, H1706 wherewith I fed H398 thee, thou hast even set H5414 it before H6440 them for a sweet H5207 savour: H7381 and thus it was, saith H5002 the Lord H136 GOD. H3069
20 Moreover thou hast taken H3947 thy sons H1121 and thy daughters, H1323 whom thou hast borne H3205 unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed H2076 unto them to be devoured. H398 Is this of thy whoredoms H8457 a small matter, H4592
21 That thou hast slain H7819 my children, H1121 and delivered H5414 them to cause them to pass through H5674 the fire for them?
22 And in all thine abominations H8441 and thy whoredoms H8457 thou hast not remembered H2142 the days H3117 of thy youth, H5271 when thou wast naked H5903 and bare, H6181 and wast polluted H947 in thy blood. H1818
23 And it came to pass after H310 all thy wickedness, H7451 (woe, H188 woe H188 unto thee! saith H5002 the Lord H136 GOD;) H3069
24 That thou hast also built H1129 unto thee an eminent place, H1354 and hast made H6213 thee an high place H7413 in every street. H7339
25 Thou hast built H1129 thy high place H7413 at every head H7218 of the way, H1870 and hast made thy beauty H3308 to be abhorred, H8581 and hast opened H6589 thy feet H7272 to every one that passed by, H5674 and multiplied H7235 thy whoredoms. H8457
26 Thou hast also committed fornication H2181 with the Egyptians H1121 H4714 thy neighbours, H7934 great H1432 of flesh; H1320 and hast increased H7235 thy whoredoms, H8457 to provoke me to anger. H3707
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 16
Commentary on Ezekiel 16 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 16
Still God is justifying himself in the desolations he is about to bring upon Jerusalem; and very largely, in this chapter, he shows the prophet, and orders him to show the people, that he did but punish them as their sins deserved. In the foregoing chapter he had compared Jerusalem to an unfruitful vine, that was fit for nothing but the fire; in this chapter he compares it to an adulteress, that, in justice, ought to be abandoned and exposed, and he must therefore show the people their abominations, that they might see how little reason they had to complain of the judgments they were under. In this long discourse are set forth,
Eze 16:1-5
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.
Eze 16:6-14
In there verses we have an account of the great things which God did for the Jewish nation in raising them up by degrees to be very considerable.
Eze 16:15-34
In these verses we have an account of the great wickedness of the people of Israel, especially in worshipping idols, notwithstanding the great favours that God had conferred upon them, by which, one would think, they should have been for ever engaged to him. This wickedness of theirs is here represented by the lewd and scandalous conversation of that beautiful maid which was rescued from ruin, brought up and well provided for by a kind friend and benefactor, that had been in all respects as a father and a husband to her. Their idolatry was the great provoking sin that they were guilty of; it began in the latter end of Solomon's time (for from Samuel's till then I do not remember that we read any thing of it), and thenceforward continued more or less the crying sin of that nation till the captivity; and, though it now and then met with some check from the reforming kings, yet it was never totally suppressed, and for the most part appeared to a high degree impudent and barefaced. They not only worshipped the true God by images, as the ten tribes by the calves at Dan and Bethel, but they worshipped false gods, Baal and Moloch, and all the senseless rabble of the pagan deities.
This is that which is here all along represented (as often elsewhere) under the similitude of whoredom and adultery,
And now is not Jerusalem in all this made to know her abominations? For what greater abominations could she be guilty of than these? Here we may see with wonder and horror what the corrupt nature of men is when God leaves them to themselves, yea, though they have the greatest advantages to be better and do better. And the way of sin is down-hill. Nitimur in vetitum-We incline to what is forbidden.
Eze 16:35-43
Adultery was by the law of Moses made a capital crime. This notorious adulteress, the criminal at the bar, being in the foregoing verses found guilty, here has sentence passed upon her. It is ushered in with solemnity, v. 35. The prophet, as the judge, in God's name calls to her, O harlot! hear the word of the Lord. Our Saviour preached to harlots, for their conversion, to bring them into the kingdom of God, not as the prophet here, to expel them out of it. Note, An apostate church is a harlot. Jerusalem is so if she become idolatrous. How has the faithful city become a harlot! Rome is so represented in the Revelation, when it is marked for ruin, as Jerusalem here. Rev. 17:1, Come, and I will show thee the judgments of the great whore. Those who will not hear the commanding word of the Lord and obey it shall be made to hear the condemning word of the Lord and shall tremble at it. Let us attend while judgment is given.
Eze 16:44-59
The prophet here further shows Jerusalem her abominations, by comparing her with those places that had gone before her, and showing that she was worse than any of them, and therefore should, like them, be utterly and irreparably ruined. We are all apt to judge of ourselves by comparison, and to imagine that we are sufficiently good if we are but as good as such and such, who are thought passable; or that we are not dangerously bad if we are no worse than such and such, who, though bad, are not of the worst. Now God by the prophet shows Jerusalem,
Eze 16:60-63
Here, in the close of the chapter, after a most shameful conviction of sin and a most dreadful denunciation of judgments, mercy is remembered, mercy is reserved, for those who shall come after. As was when God swore in his wrath concerning those who came out of Egypt that they should not enter Canaan, "Yet' (says God) "your little ones shall;' so here. And some think that what is said of the return of Sodom and Samaria (v. 53, 55), and of Jerusalem with them, is a promise; it may be understood so, if by Sodom we understand (as Grotius and some of the Jewish writers do) the Moabites and Ammonites, the posterity of Lot, who once dwelt in Sodom; their captivity was returned (Jer. 48:47; 49:6), as was that of many of the ten tribes, and Judah's with them. But these closing verses are, without doubt, a previous promise, which was in part fulfilled at the return of the penitent and reformed Jews out of Babylon, but was to have its full accomplishment in gospel-times, and in that repentance and that remission of sins which should then be preached with success to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Now observe here,