1.
Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2.
Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
Ezekiel 16:2. Cause Jerusalem to know, &c.— This order was probably performed by way of letter, as Jeremiah signified the will of the Almighty to the captives of Babylon. God here particularly upbraids the city of Jerusalem for her iniquities, because it was the place that he had chosen for his peculiar residence; and yet the inhabitants had defiled that very place, nay, and even the temple itself, with idolatry; the sin particularly denoted by the word abominable. Nothing, says Calmet, 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.
3.
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.
Ezekiel 16:3. Thy birth, and thy nativity, &c.— Thy root, or origin, and thy nativity, &c. As much as to say, "You dishonour the race of Abraham, whence you are descended; you deserve much rather the name of a Canaanite than of an Israelite." The Amorites and Hittites appear to have been the most corrupted of all the Canaanites: a more ignominious appellation could not be given to a Hebrew, than to call him of the race of Canaan. Isaiah calls the princes of Judah, rulers of Sodom; ch. Eze 1:10 and St. John the Baptist calls the Pharisees, a generation of vipers. Heathen authors, in the transports of their enthusiasm, frequently expressed themselves in the same manner. Virgil makes Dido say to AEneas,
Nec tibi diva parens, &c. Perfidious monster! boast thy birth no more; No hero got thee, and no goddess bore. No!—thou wert brought by Scythian rocks to day, By tigers nurs'd, and savages of prey; But far more rugged, wild, and fierce than they. AEn. book 6: ver. 525, &c. WARTON.
4.
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
Ezekiel 16:4. And as for thy nativity— "Thou wast abandoned like an infant, whereof no care is taken, and which is about to be exposed." The expressions used in this verse allude to the customs observed by eastern nations at the birth of their children; and the design of the prophet is to mark out that state of impurity wherein the Hebrews were found in Egypt; plunged in idolatry and ignorance, and oppressed with cruel servitude.
5.
None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
6.
And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
Ezekiel 16:6. Polluted in thine own blood— Wallowing in thy blood. The last clause of this verse is not found in the Syriac and LXX. That horrid custom of the ancients of exposing their infants when they could not support them, or when the children had any natural defects, is very well known. This inhumanity was not permitted among the Hebrews; but Ezekiel alludes to it, as a matter very common among other nations. See Calmet.
7.
I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.
Ezekiel 16:7. I have caused, &c.— I have caused thee to multiply as the grass of the field; and thou didst increase and grow up to maturity, and didst arrive to the perfection of beauty. Thy breasts were fashioned, and thy tresses sprouted out; but still thou wast naked, and bare.
8.
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, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
Ezekiel 16:8. Behold, &c.— See Ruth 3:9. The Jews' deliverance out of Egypt is often described as the time of God's espousing them to himself; and his entering into covenant with them represented by a marriage-contract. See Jeremiah 2:2.
9.
Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.
Ezekiel 16:9. Then washed I thee with water, &c.— "I added every thing which had the least tendency to contribute to thy beauty and ornament." The anointing with oil was reckoned a necessary ingredient in a festival dress. See Ruth 3:3. 2 Samuel 14:2. This and the following verses allude to those parts of the woman's attire, which not only serve for use, but are used for elegance or luxury; and import, that God did not only provide the Jews with necessaries, but also with superfluities or abundance. Instead of badger's skins, Houbigant reads, purple sandals.
10.
I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
11.
I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
12.
And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
Ezekiel 16:12. I put a jewel on thy forehead— I put thee on a nose-jewel. See Gen 24:47 and Houbigant. See also Song of Solomon 3:11.
13.
Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
Ezekiel 16:13. And thou didst prosper into a kingdom— And, in fine, wast advanced to a kingdom; Houbigant, who instead of comeliness, in the next verse, reads glory.
14.
And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
15.
But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
Ezekiel 16:15. But thou didst trust, &c.— But thou, trusting on thy beauty, didst play the harlot, degenerating from thy renown. Houbigant. The Hebrews polluted their glory, and profaned the great name of the Lord which was their honour, by their frequent and scandalous idolatries.
16.
And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
Ezekiel 16:16. The like things, &c.— And hast refused to be mine. Houbigant.
17.
Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Ezekiel 16:17. Images of men— Idol images, or images for worship.
18.
And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
19.
My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 16:19. And thus it was, &c.— Houbigant begins the next verse with this clause, which he reads thus; Nay, moreover, saith the Lord God; and he ends the 20th verse with the word devoured, and begins the 21st verse thus, Was it a small matter for thee to have played the harlot, that thou must also slay my children, and deliver them to be consecrated unto them? The allusion here seems to be to the horrid sacrifices of Moloch.
20.
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
21.
That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
22.
And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.
23.
And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;)
24.
That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.
Ezekiel 16:24. An eminent place— A brothel-house. Houbigant. See also Ezekiel 16:31; Ezekiel 16:39. Instead of, Hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, Eze 16:25 he reads, And, dishonouring thy beauty, thou hast, &c.
25.
Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.
26.
Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.
Ezekiel 16:26. Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians— The prophet objects to the Jews the three principal superstitions described chap. Ezekiel 8:15, &c. Fornication, adultery, and whoredom, are the constant figures under which the Holy Spirit represents the idolatries of the Israelites; consequently, by this character of the Egyptians, being great of flesh, we are given to understand that Egypt was the grand origin and incentive to idolatry, and the propagator of it among the rest of mankind. Div. Leg. vol. 3: p. 335.
27.
Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.
28.
Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
29.
Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
Ezekiel 16:29. In the land of Canaan unto Chaldea— With the land of Canaan, &c. Or, as Houbigant renders it, In the land of merchants among the Chaldeans.
30.
How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;
Ezekiel 16:30. How weak is thine heart, &c.— How shall I circumcise thine heart, &c. Houbigant.
31.
In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;
32.
But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
33.
They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.
Ezekiel 16:33. They give, &c.— To harlots gifts are presented, but thou presentest thy gifts, &c.
34.
And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.
Ezekiel 16:34. Whereas none followeth thee, &c.— Nor is thy way like that of an harlot, for thou hast given a reward, &c. The intelligent reader, says Bishop Warburton, perceives, that the meaning of the metaphor is, "You Jews are contrary to all other nations; you are fond of borrowing their rites; while none of them care to borrow yours, or to take any of them into their national worship." See Div. Leg. vol. 3:
35.
Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:
36.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;
Ezekiel 16:36. Because thy filthiness, &c.— Because thy money, or thy brass. Houbigant.
37.
Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.
38.
And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.
Ezekiel 16:38. I will judge thee, as women, &c.— As adultresses and shedders of blood are judged; and I will take the same punishment of thee which is taken by a furious and jealous husband. Houbigant. The prophet alludes to the waters of jealousy, spoken of in the law. The common punishment of adultery was stoning. See John 8:5. And the prophet here alludes to what should follow in the siege of Jerusalem, from the warlike machines of the Chaldeans. See Ezekiel 16:40-41.
39.
And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.
40.
They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.
41.
And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.
42.
So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.
Ezekiel 16:42. So will I make my fury toward thee to rest— Though it be more grateful to God's excellent nature to awaken men with his bounty than with his chastisement, yet he can punish with as little noise as he can relieve: it is but withdrawing himself, giving men up to their own hearts' lust, letting them walk in their own counsels, and have all they desire to have; and they are insensibly as miserable as their most outrageous enemies desire to see them. The oldest and most obstinate sinners have the same desires, the same childish desires with little children: they wish to be let alone; and God gratifies them, and lets them alone: and woe unto them who are so left!—There is not a more terrible denunciation of judgment and vengeance in all the most heightened expressions of the prophets, than in that unconcerned determination and denunciation which the Lord here makes by Ezekiel, after all other experiments and expedients had failed. I will cause my fury towards thee to rest, &c. All his threats, all the strokes of his displeasure, all the mortification which the people had undergone by it, were not so intolerable as was this cessation of his fury, this departure of his jealousy, and this quietness and laying aside of his anger. While he had any kindness left for her, any good purposes towards her, he was jealous for Sion, with great jealousy and great fury; the kindness was for ever expired, when the fury and the jealousy were extinguished. We are to pray that he will rather deliver us up to our worst enemies, than give us up to ourselves, to our own heart's desire.
43.
Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.
44.
Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
Ezekiel 16:44. Every one that useth proverbs— They who love to apply the memorable sayings of former ages to the present times, shall apply that common proverb to thee, "That the daughter followeth the mother's steps;" and that Jerusalem is no better than the Amorites, whose land she inhabits, and whose manners she imitates. See Lowth, and the note on Ezekiel 16:3.
45.
Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
46.
And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
Ezekiel 16:46. Thine elder sister is Samaria— Samaria is called the elder sister of Jerusalem, as being the capital city of the ten tribes, a much larger kingdom than that of Judah: she also led the way to that idolatry which afterwards infected the whole nation; forsaking the worship which God had appointed in his temple, and setting up the golden calves. Sodom is called the younger sister, as having also abounded in every idolatrous practice. The prophet here considers Samaria and Sodom as two cities still subsisting; though Sodom had been long since destroyed, and Samaria had been overthrown one hundred and twenty-seven years before this prophesy of Ezekiel. The vices of Sodom and Samaria were not attended with such aggravating circumstances as those of Jerusalem; for they had not been blessed with the same great privileges. The reader will find a great similarity between the reasoning here and in the Gospel, Matthew 11:20-24.
47.
Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
48.
As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.
49.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50.
And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
51.
Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.
52.
Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.
53.
When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
54.
That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
55.
When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.
56.
For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,
57.
Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about.
58.
Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the LORD.
59.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
60.
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
61.
Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
62.
And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:
63.
That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.