Ezekiel 16:15-63
Summary for Ezek 16:15-19: 16:15-19 a Instead of appreciating the good things God had given her, Jerusalem prostituted her fame and beauty to false gods and offered to idols the clothes, jewels, food, and oil that the Lord had given her.Summary for Ezek 16:20-22: 16:20-22 b Jerusalem even gave her sons and daughters as sacrifices to false gods. Child sacrifice was practiced among the nations around Israel as a sign of total commitment to a deity, especially in the worship of the gods Molech and Chemosh (see Deut 12:31 c; 2 Kgs 3:27 d). Israel sometimes participated in this detestable sin.
Summary for Ezek 16:23-25: 16:23-25 e Prophets commonly described idolatry in terms of adultery (see Hos 2 f), but Ezekiel goes into much more detail than any other prophet. He depicts Jerusalem as not just foolish or misguided, but rotten to the core. Her adultery had taken place on every street corner, and she had an inexhaustible appetite for increasingly depraved entertainments.
Summary for Ezek 16:26-29: 16:26-29 g Jerusalem actively promoted promiscuity in pursuing Egypt, the Assyrians, and Babylonia in alliances that were financially costly and that rarely delivered the expected benefits. These alliances would have been just as reprehensible if they had delivered tangible political benefits, because they demonstrated lack of trust in the Lord. Inevitably, they also led Israel into worship of the allied nations’ gods.
Summary for Ezek 16:35-38: 16:35-38 h Since Jerusalem behaved like an adulteress, it was fitting that she should face an adulteress’s death sentence. God would strip her naked in a symbolic act of divorce, thus reversing the clothing metaphor of marriage (see 16:8 i; Hos 2:2-3 j). Then the people would stone her (Lev 20:10 k; Deut 22:22 l). Since this would cover her naked body with blood, she would leave the world just as she came into it. This metaphor was fulfilled when the Babylonians destroyed the city in 586 BC.
Summary for Ezek 16:39-43: 16:39-43 m Ironically, Jerusalem’s lovers would turn against her and destroy her. The Lord’s fury would not be requited until the city had paid for all its former sins.
Summary for Ezek 16:44-45: 16:44-45 n Jerusalem’s “parents” were a Hittite and an Amorite. Hittites and Amorites were previous occupants of Canaan who were cut off from the land because of their sins (cp. Gen 15:16 o). The pagan city of Jerusalem was captured and incorporated into Israel in David’s time (2 Sam 5:6-10 p). Jerusalem’s subsequent behavior was in keeping with her heredity.
Summary for Ezek 16:46-50: 16:46-50 q Samaria, Jerusalem’s older (or larger) sister, had practiced deviant worship ever since Jeroboam introduced golden calves into his national shrines at Dan and Bethel (1 Kgs 12:28-33 r).
• Sodom, Jerusalem’s younger (or smaller) sister, was a byword for sexual sin (Gen 19:4-9 s) and for pride, gluttony, laziness, and neglect of the poor and needy.
Summary for Ezek 16:51-52: 16:51-52 t In comparison to Jerusalem, Samaria and Sodom seemed virtuous. If God had justly destroyed both of Jerusalem’s sisters for their sins, how would Jerusalem escape God’s coming wrath?
Summary for Ezek 16:53-54: 16:53-54 u The power of God’s grace, even more than his judgment, would make Jerusalem feel ashamed of her association with such “parents” and “sisters” (16:44-52 v).
Summary for Ezek 16:59-63: 16:59-63 w Jerusalem’s sins were serious and had to be judged, but judgment was not God’s last word on Jerusalem. She had been comprehensively breaking God’s covenant and deserved the consequence of death, but God would remember the covenant he had made with her in the beginning. God’s purposes for his people cannot be derailed even by their sin, for his covenant commitment is everlasting (Ps 136 x). God’s forgiveness of her sins would finally bring Jerusalem to repentance.
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