Ezekiel 16 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Ezekiel 16

The Lord’s Faithless Bride

16:1 Again the word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.

6 “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.

8 “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. 9 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.¹ 11 And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. 12 And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. 14 And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.

15 “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore² because of your renown and lavished your whorings³ on any passerby; your beauty⁴ became his. 16 You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be.⁵ 17 You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. 18 And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. 19 Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord GOD. 20 And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter 21 that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? 22 And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.

23 “And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord GOD), 24 you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. 25 At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself⁶ to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. 26 You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger. 27 Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. 28 You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. 29 You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

30 “How sick is your heart,⁷ declares the Lord GOD, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, 31 building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. 32 Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! 33 Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. 34 So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

35 “Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD: 36 Thus says the Lord GOD, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, 37 therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. 38 And I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. 39 And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places. They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare. 40 They shall bring up a crowd against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. 41 And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. I will make you stop playing the whore, and you shall also give payment no more. 42 So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry. 43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations?

44 “Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46 And your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. 47 Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. 48 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. 51 Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed. 52 Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

53 “I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst, 54 that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them. 55 As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state. 56 Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria⁸ and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you. 58 You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD.

The Lord’s Everlasting Covenant

59 “For thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, 60 yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of⁹ the covenant with you. 62 I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, 63 that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord GOD.”

Footnotes

[1] 16:10 Or with rich fabric
[2] 16:15 Or were unfaithful; also verses 16, 17, 26, 28
[3] 16:15 Or unfaithfulness; also verses 20, 22, 25, 26, 29, 33, 34, 36
[4] 16:15 Hebrew it
[5] 16:16 The meaning of this Hebrew sentence is uncertain
[6] 16:25 Hebrew spreading your legs
[7] 16:30 Revocalization yields How I am filled with anger against you
[8] 16:57 Some manuscripts (compare Syriac) of Edom
[9] 16:61 Or not apart from

Commentary

v1-2: Ezekiel had the task to expose Jerusalem's abominations. Idolatry is described as spiritual adultery; the metaphor is not consistent; the two are sometimes effectively the same. The language is graphic and uncomfortable; but the disobedience of the people of God was truly serious.

v3-14: God's love and grace towards Jerusalem. A reminder of what she was, and what had happened to her, before she turned from the ways of the Lord.

v3: Unworthy, from the family lines of Amorites and Hittites, dwelling in the land of Canaan. Compare Josh 15.8; 63.

v4-5: Unclean, loathed and cast out.

Notice that the new born baby was wrapped in cloths, see Job 38.9; Luke 2.7, for Christ experienced normal human birth.

v6: God gave life, at the command of His word, see 37.3-6.

v7: Growth and maturity, someone of beauty.

v8: The covering of shame, entering into the covenant relationship with God.

v9: Cleansed and anointed.

v10: Clothing of protection (sandals) and of beauty (linen and silk).

v11-12: Adornment, again of beauty.

v13: Enjoying riches and fine food, the claim of royalty.

v14: A testimony among the nations. God bestowed His splendour upon Jerusalem; comeliness, magnificence, glory, excellence; the very character of God was displayed in His people. In the parable, these things really happened, as God anointed and exalted Israel. During the reigns of David and Solomon, in particular, Israel had become a powerful and influential nation.

v15-16: Jeshurun grew fat and kicked (Deut 32.15). Enjoying popularity and fame, she trusted in her own beauty. Her presumption led to prostitution. Like King Uzziah, her material prosperity led to rebellion against God.

v17-21: Details of Israel's rebellion; idolatry is presented as spiritual prostitution; she abused all that God had given. Using direct and striking words, God highlighted their child sacrifice, part of the practice of idolatry.

v22: Israel failed to remember past blessings, see v43.

v23-30: Blatant sin and bad company; Jerusalem was surrounded by sin, in Egypt, Philistia, Assyria, Babylon. We must beware of our neighbours. Israel should have remained faithful and loyal, trusting and worshipping the one true God. Instead, she engaged in prostitution, and practised the deeds of a brazen and persistent prostitute the image describes Israel’s alliances with Gentile nations, by which she was led into idolatry. Instead of avoiding the ways of the godless nations, Israel learned their ways..

As a warning, God had stretched out His hand, reduced her territory, giving it to her enemies. But she continued, shocking those around her by her lewd behaviour, being insatiable in her rebellion.

v31-34: Jerusalem was not wooed by her lovers; rather she went after them, see v15,25. These words indicate her folly as well as her rebellion.

v35: The Lord's judgment declared to the "prostitute."

v36: The judgment for Judah's deliberate, persistent, and serious sin. (Verses 37 to 42 describe this.)

v37-38: Those who loved her become the instrument of God's judgment, gathering to destroy her.

v39: Her latter end will be worse than her beginning, 2 Pet 2.21.

v40-41: Through the severity of this judgment, the people will learn to put aside their idolatry.

v42: This judgment will complete God's anger against His people.

v43: We must remember our past, Ps 77.11-12; and remember what God has done in our lives.

v44-48: Judah followed the sins of the Hittites, the family of her mother, and of Samaria and Sodom, her sisters. Yet Judah actually excelled in her depravity. Jerusalem is pictured as walking side by side with Samaria and Sodom, sharing in their sins.

v49-50: Specific sins of Sodom are mentioned, for which God destroyed them. Judgment is His prerogative.

The sins mentioned here are wider than those referred to in Gen 19. Here they are arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned, neglecting the poor and needy, in addition to their pride and immoral. Suddenly, they are more like many millions today.

v51-52: Samaria and Sodom appeared righteous in comparison with Judah, such was the seriousness of her sins. The command from God, from which there is no escape, is "Bear your disgrace." This was well deserved.

v53-55: Captives returned and restored "to what they were before." This is part of their bearing their shame and disgrace.

v56-58: Judah, thinking herself righteous, looked down on Sodom. But her wickedness was exposed, she became the object of scorn, and bore the punishment for her sins.

v59-60: A new and everlasting covenant, not deserved, but given by God through His grace. . Just as the description of Jerusalem’s sins was striking, so the promise of restoration is a stark contrast with what has gone before.

v61: Not on the basis of the previous covenant, for Judah will remember her ways and her pride, and repent. Her erstwhile sisters will become her daughters, an indication of God's exaltation of His people.

v62: God, previously made known in judgment, will be made known by His new covenant.

v63: God will provide atonement, although Judah will still repent and be ashamed of her wrong doing.