Ezekiel 16:35-52
35. Here begins the threat of wrath to be poured out on her.
36. filthiness—literally, "brass"; metaphor for the lowest part of the person [CALVIN]. English Version is better: thy filthy lewdness is poured out without restraint (compare Jer 13:27). As silver is an emblem of purity, brass typifies "filthiness," because it easily contracts rust. HENDERSON explains it, "Because thy money was lavished on thy lovers" (Eze 16:31, 33, 34).
blood of thy children— (Eze 16:20; Jer 2:34).37. thy lovers—the Chaldeans and the Assyrians. The law of retribution is the more signally exemplified by God employing, as His instruments of judgment on Israel, those very nations whose alliance and idols Israel had so eagerly sought, besides giving her up to those who had been always her enemies. "God will make him, who leaves God for the world, disgraced even in the eyes of the world, and indeed the more so the nearer he formerly stood to Himself" [HENGSTENBERG], (Isa 47:3; Jer 13:26; Ho 2:12; Na 3:5).
all . . . thou hast hated—the Edomites and Philistines; also Moab and Ammon especially (De 23:3). I . . . will discover thy nakedness—punishment in kind, as she had "discovered her nakedness through whoredoms" (Eze 16:36); the sin and its penalty corresponded. I will expose thee to public infamy.38-40. judge thee, as women that break wedlock— (Le 20:10; compare Eze 16:2). In the case of individual adulteresses, stoning was the penalty (Joh 8:4, 5). In the case of communities, the sword. Also apostasy (De 13:10) and sacrificing children to Molech (Le 20:1-5) incurred stoning. Thus the penalty was doubly due to Israel; so the other which was decreed against an apostate city (De 13:15, 16) is added, "they shall stone thee with stones and thrust thee through with . . . swords." The Chaldeans hurled stones on Jerusalem at the siege and slew with the sword on its capture.
shed blood . . . judged— (Ge 9:6). jealousy—image taken from the fury of a husband in jealousy shedding the blood of an unfaithful wife, such as Israel had been towards God, her husband spiritually. Literally, "I will make thee (to become) blood of fury and jealousy."39. thine eminent place—literally, "fornication-chamber" (see on Eze 16:24), the temple which Israel had converted into a place of spiritual fornication with idols, to please the Chaldeans (Eze 23:14-17).
strip thee of . . . clothes— (Eze 23:26; Ho 2:3). They shall dismantle thy city of its walls. fair jewels—literally, "vessels of thy fairness" or beauty; the vessels of the temple [GROTIUS]. All the gifts wherewith God hath adorned thee [CALVIN].40. (Eze 23:10, 47). Compare as to the destruction under Titus, Lu 19:43, 44.
41. The result of the awful judgment shall be, when divine vengeance has run its course, it shall cease.
burn— (De 13:16; 2Ki 25:9). women—the surrounding Gentile nations to whom thou shalt be an object of mocking (Ps 137:7). I will cause thee to cease . . . harlot— (Eze 23:27). Thou shalt no longer be able to play the harlot through My judgments. thou . . . shall give . . . no hire . . . any more—Thou shalt have none to give.42. my fury . . . rest—when My justice has exacted the full penalty commensurate with thy awful guilt (see on Eze 5:13). It is not a mitigation of the penalty that is here foretold, but such an utter destruction of all the guilty that there shall be no need of further punishment [CALVIN].
43. (Eze 16:22; Ps 78:42). In gratitude for God's favors to her in her early history.
fretted me— (Isa 63:10; Eph 4:30). thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations—that is, this the wickedness (compare Zec 5:8), peculiarly hateful to God, namely, spiritual unchastity or idolatry, over and "above" (that is, besides) all thine other abominations. I will put it out of thy power to commit it by cutting thee off. FAIRBAIRN translates, "I will not do what is scandalous (namely, encouraging thee in thy sin by letting it pass with impunity) upon all thine abominations"; referring to Le 19:29, the conduct of a father who encouraged his daughter in harlotry. English Version is much better.44. As . . . mother . . . her daughter—"Is," and "so is," are not in the original; the ellipsis gives the proverb (but two words in the Hebrew) epigrammatic brevity. Jerusalem proved herself a true daughter of the Hittite mother in sin (Eze 16:3).
45. mother's . . . that loatheth her husband—that is, God ("haters of God," Ro 1:30); therefore the knowledge of the true God had originally been in Canaan, handed down from Noah (hence we find Melchisedek, king of Salem, in Canaan, "priest of the most high God," Ge 14:18), but Canaan apostatized from it; this was what constituted the blackness of the Canaanites' guilt.
loathed . . . children—whom she put to death in honor of Saturn; a practice common among the Ph nicians. sister of thy sisters—Thou art akin in guilt to Samaria and Sodom, to which thou art akin by birth. Moab and Ammon, the incestuous children of Lot, nephew of Abraham, Israel's progenitor, had their origin from Sodom; so Sodom might be called Judah's sister. Samaria, answering to the ten tribes of Israel, is, of course, sister to Judah.46. elder sister . . . Samaria—older than Sodom, to whom Judah was less nearly related by kindred than she was to Samaria. Sodom is therefore called her younger sister; Samaria, her "elder sister" [GROTIUS]. Samaria is called the "elder," because in a moral respect more nearly related to Judah [FAIRBAIRN]. Samaria had made the calves at Dan and Beth-el in imitation of the cherubim.
her daughters—the inferior towns subject to Samaria (compare Nu 21:25, Margin). left—The Orientals faced the east in marking the directions of the sky; thus the north was "left," the south "right." Sodom . . . daughters—Ammon and Moab, offshoots from Sodom; also the towns subject to it.47. their abominations—Milcom and Chemosh, the "abominations of Ammon and Moab" (1Ki 11:5, 7).
corrupted more than they—So it is expressly recorded of Manasseh (2Ki 21:9).48. Sodom— (Mt 11:24). Judah's guilt was not positively, but relatively, greater than Sodom's; because it was in the midst of such higher privileges, and such solemn warnings; a fortiori, the guilt of unbelievers in the midst of the highest of all lights, namely, the Gospel, is the greatest.
49. pride—inherited by Moab, her offspring (Isa 16:6; Jer 48:26), and by Ammon (Jer 49:4). God, the heart-searcher, here specifies as Sodom's sin, not merely her notorious lusts, but the secret spring of them, "pride" flowing from "fullness of bread," caused by the fertility of the soil (Ge 13:10), and producing "idleness."
abundance of idleness—literally, "the secure carelessness of ease" or idleness. neither did she strengthen . . . the poor—Pride is always cruel; it arrogates to itself all things, and despises brethren, for whose needs it therefore has no feeling; as Moab had not for the outcast Jews (Isa 16:3, 4; Jer 48:27; Lu 16:19-21; Jas 5:1-5).50. haughty—puffed up with prosperity.
abomination before me—"sinners before the Lord" (Ge 13:13); said of those whose sin is so heinous as to cry out to God for immediate judgments; presumptuous sins, daring God to the face (Ge 18:20; 19:5). I took them away— (Ge 19:24). as I saw good—rather, "according to what I saw"; referring to Ge 18:21, where God says, "I will go down, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto Me."51. Samaria—the kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel less guilty than Judah; for Judah betrayed greater ingratitude, having greater privileges, namely, the temple, the priesthood, and the regular order of kings.
justified thy sisters—made them appear almost innocent by comparison with thy guilt (Jer 3:11; Mt 12:41, 42).52. Thou . . . which hast judged . . . bear thine own— (Mt 7:1, 2; Ro 2:1, 17-23). Judah had judged Sodom (representing "the heathen nations") and Samaria (Israel), saying they were justly punished, as if she herself was innocent (Lu 13:2).
thy shame—ignominious punishment.