Ezekielchapter 16
63 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband!
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel spoke this chapter to exiles who were proud of their city's founding, its royal marriages and its treaties. He tells the whole history of Jerusalem as the life of one woman, from her birth to her marriage and beyond. It is the longest chapter in the book and the hardest to hear read aloud, and it was meant to be hard. Listen for the gifts and what becomes of each one, and for the sisters the city is measured against. Then listen for how the story ends. It asks a reader to see their own story as a debt of grace.
Context
- Who
- Exiles proud of their city's founding and its royal marriages and treaties
- What
- An allegory of Jerusalem as a foundling God rescued and married, who used His gifts to serve other gods, followed by a promise of an everlasting covenant.
- Where
- Tel Abib in Babylonia, speaking of Jerusalem from its Canaanite origins to its fall.
- When
- About 591 BC, before Jerusalem's fall, looking back over the city's whole history.
- Why
- To make the exiles see their city's history as grace betrayed, and to show that God's covenant would outlast their unfaithfulness.
Historical context
The opening is a picture of newborn care, item by item, and each item is real. The cord was cut, the baby was washed, rubbed with salt, a widely practised custom in the ancient Near East, believed to toughen and cleanse the skin, and then wrapped tightly in strips of cloth. Jerusalem is described as a baby who got none of it, thrown out in an open field, which is what happened to unwanted infants in much of the ancient world.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The marriage language is legal. Spreading the corner of a garment over a woman was a public claim of protection and marriage, the same gesture Ruth asks of Boaz. Entering into a covenant with her is the formal contract language. The gifts that follow are a bride's outfit as a wealthy household would assemble it: embroidered cloth, fine linen, sandals of the costly leather also used for the tabernacle's outer covering, bracelets, a necklace, a nose ring, earrings and a crown.
The betrayal is described in terms of those same gifts. She took the embroidered cloth and made shrine hangings out of it, took the gold and silver jewellery and had images cast, and set God's own oil and flour and honey before them as offerings. Nothing new is bought; everything given is repurposed.
Then the worst charge: she took her sons and daughters and passed them through the fire. Child sacrifice was practised in the Valley of Hinnom below the city at a site called Topheth, and it is condemned by name in the Law and in Kings. Excavated burial grounds of the wider Phoenician world, most famously at Carthage, contain urns of infant remains, which is why scholars treat these biblical descriptions as reporting a real and known practice rather than a slander.
The chapter also ranks the sisters. Samaria to the north and Sodom to the south, and the sin of Sodom is defined here in a way that surprises many readers: pride, plenty of food, careless ease, and no help for the poor and needy, alongside the abomination for which it is remembered.
Significance
This is the most brutal chapter in the book, and it is deliberately shaped as a family history so that the hearers cannot hold it at arm's length. Jerusalem was not a great city that fell on hard times. It was an abandoned baby that lived because someone stopped for it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And after all that, the last paragraph is a covenant God says He will establish, an everlasting one, in which He forgives and the woman is left silent with shame. The exiles hearing their city's shame recited in public would have expected the story to end at the fire. It ends at a covenant instead.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's table of synagogue readings ties no weekly portion and no Haftarah to this chapter. Probed for this lane, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Ezekiel 16, and no festival reading for the book. The table holds the Haftarah of each weekly portion and the six books read whole on a feast or a fast. Across chapters 1 to 24 of Ezekiel the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 20 and 22.
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The translation is modern, so every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer.
Rashi reads the foundling as Israel in Egypt. "When I chose you in Egypt, you were without any preparation" (Rashi on Ezekiel 16:4:1). He states the key to the whole chapter at the ninth verse: "the entire episode is only a parable" (Rashi on Ezekiel 16:9:1). He follows the Aramaic Targum of Jonathan, which explains each gift as a gift of the covenant.
By that reading the ornaments are "the adornment of the words of the Torah, written on the two stone tablets" (Rashi on Ezekiel 16:11:1). The ring on the nose is the ark: "I placed the ark of My covenant among you" (Rashi on Ezekiel 16:12:1). The gold and silver are the Tabernacle and the manna (Rashi on Ezekiel 16:13:1).
The fall begins with fame. "You relied on the fame of the beauty that spread concerning you" (Rashi on Ezekiel 16:15:1). The bread given and set before idols is the manna, which came down on the day of the golden calf and was placed before the calf (Rashi on Ezekiel 16:19:1). The double woe of the twenty-third verse is "Woe is to you because you have sinned! Woe is to you because you have not repented!" (Rashi on Ezekiel 16:23:1).
The corpus carries 3 notes on this chapter without an English text, marked linked. Radak's notes stand at 16:1:1 and 16:18:1. Metzudat David's note stands at 16:21:1. Each stands cited and unquoted, because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 8 filed under the Talmud and 32 under the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 80:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 471:4. On verse 2 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 4:11:4-12:2 and Megillah 25a:17. On verse 3 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 45:1 and Bereshit Rabbah 99:7. On verse 4 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 18:2 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 1:35. On verse 5 it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 42:9.
On verse 6 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:12 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Lech Lecha 35. On verse 7 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 5:1. On verse 8 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 12:6:4. On verse 9 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:2. On verse 10 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 43:9.
On verse 11 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 48:17. On verse 12 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Shabbat 6:4:3. On verse 13 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 19:4. On verse 14 it holds Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 2:11. On verse 17 it holds Sifrei Devarim 146:1.
On verse 19 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 17:1. On verse 20 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:36. On verse 24 it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 22. On verse 25 it holds Ketubot 39b:1. On verse 26 it holds Vayikra Rabbah 25:7.
On verse 31 it holds Pesikta DeRav Kahana 13:4. On verse 32 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:34. On verse 34 it holds Avodah Zarah 17a:4. On verse 35 it holds Shemot Rabbah 50:3. On verse 36 it holds Niddah 41b:7.
On verse 37 it holds Otzar Midrashim, Pesikta, Pesikta Chadata 19. On verse 42 it holds Midrash Tehillim 85:1. On verse 43 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 47:23:2. On verse 44 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:6:13. On verse 46 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 2:9:1.
On verse 48 it holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 11:16:10. On verse 49 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 25:1. On verse 55 it holds Shemot Rabbah 15:21. On verse 61 it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Appendix to Devarim 3:1. On verse 63 it holds Berakhot 12b:9.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 16:4:1 to 16:23:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 16:1:1 to 16:18:1, cited by ref only: Sefaria holds no English version of the ref; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Ezekiel 16:21:1, cited by ref only: Sefaria holds no English version of the ref; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/16.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Ezekiel 16: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A newborn cast out, washed, and crowned a queen
Ezekiel 16:1-3
Again the word of the LORD came to me: “Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.” The city has no claim on God by birth, and Gill notes that Israel’s whole story begins with a people called while still among idolaters.
Ezekiel 16:1
“Idolatry is frequently represented by the prophets under the figure of a wife’s unfaithfulness to her husband. This image is here so portrayed, as to exhibit the aggravation of Israel’s guilt by reason of her origin and early history. The original abode of the progenitors of the race was the land of Canaan, defiled with idolatry and moral corruption. Israel itself was like a child born in a polluted land, abandoned from its birth, left by its parents in the most utter neglect to the chance regard of any passer-by.”
confront Jerusalem with her abominations: Jerome reports the Septuagint as testify against Jerusalem for her iniquities. The prophet brings the charge, and the rest of the chapter is the case against her. Her abominations are set out one by one.
Ezekiel 16:2
“Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.”
3 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 16:2
“Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations - And such a revelation of impurity never was seen before or since. Surely the state of the Jews, before the Babylonish captivity, was the most profligate and corrupt of all the nations of the earth. This chapter contains God’s manifesto against this most abominable people; and although there are many metaphors here, yet all is not metaphorical. Where there was so much idolatry, there must have been adulteries, fornications, prostitutions, and lewdness of every description.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 16:2
“Why is it that I admire Ezekiel? Because the order was given him to make known to Jerusalem its abominations, and he did not place before his eyes any danger that would result from his preaching, but in order to keep only the precepts of God, he spoke whatever he was told. Let us realize that there was a mystery, that there was the revelation of a mysterious kind on the subject of Jerusalem and all that is said against it. Nevertheless, he prophesied, and accused it of fornication.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Ezekiel 6:1patristic
Ezekiel 16:2
“And again, Ezekiel makes this an accusation against them, that they did not grieve for the afflicted. What sayest thou, O Prophet? God punisheth, and shall I grieve for those that He is punishing? Yea verily: for God Himself that punisheth wisheth this: since neither does He Himself wish to punish, nay, even Himself grieves when punishing. Then be not thou glad at it. You will say, "If they are justly punished, we ought not to grieve." Why, the thing we ought to grieve for is this—that they were found worthy of punishment.”
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 43patristic
Your father was an Amorite: Barnes notes that the word for origin pictures stone cut from a quarry, as in Isaiah 51:1. Wesley recalls Joshua 24:14, where Abraham's fathers served other gods beyond the River. Jerusalem itself was a Jebusite city before David took it.
Ezekiel 16:3
“Birth - See the margin; the word represents “origin” under the figure of “cutting out stone from a quarry” (compare Isa 51:1). An Amorite - the Amorite, a term denoting the whole people. The Amorites, being a principal branch of the Canaanites, are often taken to represent the whole stock Gen 15:16; 2Ki 21:11. An Hittite - Compare Gen 26:34. The main idea is that the Israelites by their doings proved themselves to be the very children of the idolatrous nations who once occupied the land of Canaan. Compare Deu 20:17.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:3
“Jerusalem - The whole race of the Jews. Thy birth - Thy root whence thou didst spring. Thy father - Abraham, before God called him, (as his father and kindred) worshipped strange gods beyond the river, Josh. xxiv, 14.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 16:4-5
On the day of your birth your cord was not cut: The vision moves to an exposed infant, unwashed, unsalted, unswaddled, and thrown into an open field. Calvin reads the details against birth customs, so the scene lands as total abandonment. Wesley draws the point forward: Jerusalem owed her life to nothing in herself, and every kindness that follows is unearned.
Ezekiel 16:4
“It follows: And you were not washed in water for salvation. The bodies of babies, as soon as they are born from the womb, are usually washed with water: so too does the spiritual generation require the saving washing. For no one is clean from filth, not even if his life were of only one day. And in the Psalms we read: In iniquities I was conceived, and in sins my mother conceived me. The second birth dissolves the first birth.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekiel 4:16.4-5patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 16:4
“Its very life was a miracle (Ex 1:15-22). navel . . . not cut--Without proper attention to the navel cord, the infant just born is liable to die. neither . . . washed in water to supple thee--that is, to make the skin soft. Rather, "for purification"; from an Arabic root [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 16:4
“As for thy nativity, etc. - This verse refers to what is ordinarily done for every infant on its birth. The umbilical cord, by which it received all its nourishment while in the womb, being no longer necessary, is cut at a certain distance from the abdomen: on this part a knot is tied, which firmly uniting the sides of the tubes, they coalesce, and incarnate together.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
thrown out into the open field: Clarke notes that some ancient peoples exposed unwanted infants in the fields to die. Gill applies the picture to Israel's bondage in Egypt, when no one showed the nation mercy. Her survival came from God's hand alone.
Ezekiel 16:5
“Thou wast cast out in the open field - This is an allusion to the custom of some heathen and barbarous nations, who exposed those children in the open fields to be devoured by wild beasts who had any kind of deformity, or whom they could not support.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 16:6-7
Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood: The Lord's word to the dying infant is a single command spoken twice, Live, and the girl grows under that word alone. Clarke reads the doubled command as covenant language. The growth marks Israel's development from Egypt to the kingdom, still owing everything to the word first spoken over her.
Ezekiel 16:6
"Live in thy blood," that is, Live, but live a life exposed to many deaths, as was the case in the beginnings of Israel's national existence, in order to magnify the grace of God [CALVIN]. The former view is preferable. Spiritually, till the sinner is made sensible of his abject helplessness, he will not appreciate the provisions of God's grace.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:6
“When I passed by - God here speaks after the manner of men. Live - This is such a command as sends forth a power to effect what is commanded; he gave that life: he spake, and it was done.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
like a plant of the field: Gill connects the growth with the people of Israel multiplying in Egypt, as at Exodus 1:7. The girl grew up and became beautiful, yet she was still naked and bare. She had life and no covering.
Ezekiel 16:7
“I caused “thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou” didst increase “and” wax “great, and thou” didst come “to excellent” beauty; “thy breasts” were “fashioned and thine hair” was grown, yet wast “thou naked and bare.” The prophet has arrived at the time at which the child grew up to maturity. God preserved the life of the infant which must without His help have died Eze 16:6; and the child grew up to womanhood, but was still desolate and unprotected.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:7
“I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field,.... Or, "made thee millions" (m); like the spires of grass in the field. This refers to the multiplication of the children of Israel in Egypt, especially after the death of Joseph, and even while they were sorely afflicted, and likewise in later times.”
you were indeed old enough for love: The Lord spreads his skirt over her, compare Ruth 3:9, swears an oath, and Jerusalem becomes his. Keil reads this as the Sinai covenant pictured as a wedding. Gill notes love and covenant come before any of the adorning that follows, so nothing she wears is ever hers by right.
Ezekiel 16:8
“Was the time of love - Thou wast marriageable. I spread my skirt over thee - I espoused thee. This was one of their initiatory marriage ceremonies. See Rth 3:9. I - entered into a covenant with thee - Married thee. Espousing preceded marriage.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 16:9-14
Then I bathed you with water: The Lord himself washes, anoints, clothes and crowns the bride, until her renown for beauty spreads among the nations. Henry reads the section as Israel's prosperity under David and Solomon. Barnes adds that naming every ornament makes the coming betrayal weigh as heavily as it does; nothing here was self-made.
Ezekiel 16:9
“Washed - It was a very ancient custom among the eastern people, to purify virgins who were to be espoused. And I anointed - They were anointed that were to be married, as Ruth iii, 3.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:9
“When God said, Israel is my son, my first-born--Let my people go, that they may serve me, that word, backed as it was with so many works of wonder, thoroughly washed away their blood; and when God led them under the convoy of the pillar of cloud and fire he spread his skirt over them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
sandals of fine leather: The fine leather is the covering of the tabernacle in Exodus 26:14, as Clarke notes. The LORD dressed His bride in the stuff of the sanctuary, linen and silk and embroidered cloth. Jerome read her garments as the law.
Ezekiel 16:10
“I clothed thee also with broidered work - Cloth on which various figures, in various colors, were wrought by the needle. With badgers’skin - See Exo 25:6. The same kind of skin with which the tabernacle was covered. Fine linen - בשש beshesh, with cotton. I have seen cloth of this kind enveloping the finest mummies. I covered thee with silk - משי meshi. Very probably the produce of the silk-worm.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
a chain around your neck: Jerome notes that this verse names the jewelry in general before the next verses list each piece. Isaiah 3:18-23 lists the same bracelets and chains taken from the proud daughters of Zion. Here the LORD gives them.
Ezekiel 16:11
“When God gives us good works, He surrounds our hands with bracelets. Hence it is said that it is likened to the hands of the prophets (Hosea 13), and we often read in the hand of Haggai or Jeremiah and the rest (Haggai 1). In Job, the lip of the dragon is pierced by a bracelet, and all his venomous hisses, which are understood in perverse doctrines, are pierced by the circle of good works (Job 40).”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:11
“The priests are anointed with holy oil and are clothed with embroidered cloth and with silk. It means riches, which the people gained as a result of his providence, as much in spirit as in body.”
Theodoret of Cyrus · written before 458 · Commentary on Ezekiel 5:16patristic
a ring in your nose: Clarke and Gill describe the nose ring as a common ornament of eastern women. Abraham's servant put one on Rebekah at Genesis 24:47 when she was chosen as Isaac's bride. The crown marks the bride as a queen.
Ezekiel 16:12
“And I put a jewel on thy forehead,.... The same with the nose jewel, which was hung upon the forehead, and reached down to the nose and mouth; and, however disagreeable it may seem to us, was reckoned very ornamental in the eastern countries, Isa 3:21; and where now, as in Persia, as well as in all the Levant, the women put rings through their noses, which they pierce with needles, as Monsieur Thevenot (z) relates; so Dr. Shaw (a) says that nose jewels are used still by the Levant Arabs.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 16:12
“I put a jewel on thy forehead - על אפך al appech, upon thy nose. This is one of the most common ornaments among ladies in the east. European translators, not knowing what to make of a ring in the nose, have rendered it, a jewel on thy forehead or mouth, (though they have sometimes a piece of gold or jewel fastened to the center of their forehead.) I have already spoken of this Asiatic custom, so often referred to in the sacred writings: see Gen 24:22, Gen 24:42; Exo 32:2; Job 42:11; Pro 11:22; Isa 3:21; Hos 2:13.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 16:12
“And you are adorned with gold and silver. We have often said that gold pertains to the mind, and silver to eloquence. May the Lord grant us to receive divine understanding and wisdom, and to bring forth with eloquence what we conceive in our minds, and by no means to make an idol out of them as heretics do, of whom it is written: 'I gave them silver and gold, but they made a Baal out of silver and gold' (Hosea 2:8). And this, according to spiritual understanding, is more suited to the adornment of women.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
rose to be queen: Barnes calls fine flour, honey and oil the choicest kinds of food. Deuteronomy 32:13 pictures Israel fed with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag. The foundling now wears a crown.
Ezekiel 16:13
“Fine flour, and honey, and oil - These were the choicest kinds of food. Into a kingdom - This part of the description refers to the reigns of David and Solomon, when the kingdom of Israel (still undivided) attained its highest pitch of grandeur.”
the splendor I bestowed on you: Jerome gives the reading of Symmachus, that her name was perfect because of the dignity the LORD placed on her. The queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem because of Solomon's fame at 1 Kings 10:1. All of it was borrowed glory.
Ezekiel 16:14
In Ezekiel, God speaks to Jerusalem: "You were perfect through my beauty." And this is the meaning of the text: "You were not perfect through your own works or through your own knowledge and the boasting of your heart but through my beauty, which I had put on you freely through my mercy."
Jerome · written before 420 · Against the Pelagians 2.25patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 16:14
“My comeliness - "That is, thro' the beauty of their holiness, as they were a people devoted to God. This was it that put a lustre upon all their other honours, and was indeed the perfection of their beauty. Sanctified souls are truly beautiful in God's sight, and they themselves may take the comfort of it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 16:14
“It is a besotting bewitching sin; and, when men are given up to it, they seldom recover themselves out of the snare. Because it is a shameful scandalous sin for those that have joined themselves to the Lord to join themselves to an idol. What were the causes of this sin.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A harlot who paid her lovers instead of taking hire
Ezekiel 16:15-19
you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot: The turn is abrupt: “you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot,” lavishing favors “on everyone who passed by.” The Lord’s own gifts become idols. Fairbairn notes the high places and foreign shrines built with royal wealth during the divided kingdom.
Ezekiel 16:15
“The prophet now describes the idolatries of the time of the Kings. The earlier offences in the time of the Judges are not noticed, that being an unsettled time. The conduct of the people after they had “prospered into a kingdom” is to be described. Because of thy renown - The marriages of Solomon with pagan wives, and his consequent idolatries, are a clear instance of such, misuse of glory.”
made colorful high places: Second Kings 23:7 records women weaving hangings for Asherah inside the temple precincts, and Barnes reads this verse against that practice. The garments the LORD gave became tent cloth for idols. Barnes takes the closing words to mean these abominations reached the utmost.
made male idols: Jerome notes that the law commanded gold and silver for the ark, the lampstand and the vessels of worship. Jerusalem melted the same kind of gift into images of men. Hosea 2:8 makes the same charge of silver and gold used for Baal.
Ezekiel 16:17
“And madest to thyself images of men - צלמי זכר tsalmey zachar, male images. Priapi are here meant, which were carried about in the ceremonies of Osiris, Bacchus, and Adonis; and were something like the lingam among the Hindoos. Herodotus, lib. ii, c. 48, 49, gives us an account of these male images: Πηχυαια αγαλματα νευροσπαστα, τα περιφορεουσι κατα κωμας ται γυναικες, νευον το αιδοιον, ου πολλῳ τεῳ ελασσον εον του αλλου σωματος. This was done at the worship of Bacchus in Egypt: and they who wish to see more may consult Herodotus as above.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
My oil and incense: Oil and incense belonged to the LORD's service, the oil for the lampstand and the incense for the golden altar. Clarke reads the verse as the holy vestments and offerings turned to honor idols. Only the object of worship changed.
Ezekiel 16:18
“Hast set mine oil and mine incense before them - It appears that they had made use of the holy vestments, and the different kinds of offerings which belonged to the Lord, to honor their idols.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
as a pleasing aroma: A pleasing aroma is the law's phrase for offerings the LORD accepts, as at Leviticus 1:9. Jerusalem gave His food to idols. Gill records a Jewish tradition that manna was set before the golden calf.
Ezekiel 16:19
“My meat also which I gave thee,.... Or "my bread" (i); a general name for all eatables. The Targum renders it, "my good things.'' The Jews apply it to the manna, which, they say, descended the same day the molten calf was made, and they set it before it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:19
“Allusion is here made to some rite like the Roman “Lectisternia,” in which public tables were set forth for feasts in honor of idols.”
Ezekiel 16:20-22
You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me: The charge reaches child sacrifice: “You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols.” Beneath it lies the root: “you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.”
Ezekiel 16:20
“Sacrificed - Not only consecrating them to be priests to dumb idols; but even burning them in sacrifice to Molech. Devoured - Consumed to ashes. Is this - Were thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast proceeded to this unnatural cruelty?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:20
“Borne unto me - me is emphatic. The children of Yahweh have been devoted to Moloch. The rites of Moloch were twofold; (1) The actual sacrifice of men and children as expiatory sacrifices to, false gods. (2) The passing of them through the fire by way of purification and dedication. Probably the first is alluded to in Eze 16:20; the two rites together in Eze 16:21.”
delivered them up through the fire: The LORD claims the children as His own, born under His covenant. Barnes distinguishes two rites of Molech, the killing of children and their passing through the fire. Leviticus 18:21 had forbidden giving children to Molech.
Ezekiel 16:21
“To cause them to pass through the fire - Bp. Newcome quotes a very apposite passage from Dionysius Halicarnass. Ant. Romans lib. i., s. 88, p. 72, and marg. p. 75, Edit.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the days of your youth: The closing words return to verse 6, where the infant lay in her own blood until the LORD spoke. Deuteronomy 8:11-14 warned that prosperity would make Israel forget the God who brought her out of Egypt. Verse 43 repeats the charge.
Ezekiel 16:22
“Also, our Jerusalem, if it is supplanted by heretical deception, takes away her sons, who are stronger in faith, and daughters who do not have such great strength of faith. Or indeed sons, who know mystical things: daughters who follow a simple history; and delivers them to be devoured by demons, and when she kills them, she believes she is giving them life, and appeasing the idols, with whose slaughter they are satiated.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
Ezekiel 16:23-29
in addition to all your other wickedness: The chapter lists Jerusalem’s foreign alliances as adultery, with “the Egyptians,” “the Assyrians,” and “Chaldea, the land of merchants.” Each is a paid affair that leaves her reaching for the next, and the refrain is “you were not satisfied.” The political history of the late kings runs through the figure.
Ezekiel 16:23
“Their bodies are corrupted, and the soul is wounded.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Ezekiel 7:6patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:23
“For what saith He? "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign." Now what He saith is to this effect: What marvel if ye behave so to me who have been hitherto unknown to you when even to the Father, of whom ye have had so much experience, ye have done the very same? forsaking Him, ye have run unto the devils, drawing to yourselves wicked lovers. With this Ezekiel too was continually upbraiding them.”
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 43:1patristic
a lofty shrine: Clarke notes that the Latin and Greek versions render the word for mound as a brothel. The Berean reads a mound, a raised place for idols. The shrines stood in every public square of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 16:24
“Thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place - גב gab, a stew or brothel; Vulg. lupanar; Septuag. οικημα πορνικον. So my old MS. Bible, a bordel house. “Thou hast builded thy stewes and bordell houses in every place.” - Coverdale’s Bible, 1636. Bordel is an Italian word: how it got so early into our language I know not. Our modern word brothel is a corruption of it. Diodati translates, Tu hai edificato un bordello, “Thou hast built a brothel.” Houses of this kind were of a very ancient date.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
At the head of every street: Wesley reads the head of every street as the roads into the country, where travellers would pass. Idolatry spread beyond the city into the whole land. The shrines stood where no one could miss them.
Ezekiel 16:25
“At every head of the way - Not content with what was done in the city, she built her idol temples in the country, wherever it was likely passengers would come.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians: Judah's kings looked to Egypt for help against Assyria and Babylon, and Isaiah 30:1-2 and 31:1 condemn that trust. Seeking another protector counted as betrayal of her husband. It provoked the LORD to anger.
Ezekiel 16:26
“Egyptian idolatry, a worship of the powers of nature, was eminently sensual. The idolatry here spoken of is not so much that which Israel brought with them from Egypt, as the idolatry introduced in the time of Solomon and Rehoboam.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 16:26
“You see that she is handed over to the souls of strangers, she who is unworthy to practice the law and the words of God.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Ezekiel 7:8patristic
Ezekiel 16:26
“Great of flesh - The most extensive idolaters. Bene vasatis-longa mensura incognita nervy - Juv. Sat. 9:34. This is the allusion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
reduced your portion: Barnes reads the reduced portion as a husband cutting back an unfaithful wife's allowance. Henry points to the Philistine raids on Judah's lowland towns under Ahaz, recorded at 2 Chronicles 28:18. Even the Philistines were ashamed of her conduct.
Ezekiel 16:27
“Have diminished thine ordinary food - As a husband lessens the things which minister to the luxury of an unfaithful wife, so did the Lord cut Israel short in consequence of her unfaithfulness. Daughters - The small cities. The Philistines have left a permanent record of their supremacy in the name of the holy land - Palestine. It was a special shame to be subjected to so small a power as that of Philistia (see Isa 14:29); but the very Philistines were ashamed of Judah’s unfaithfulness, and were themselves truer to their false gods than Judah was to Yahweh.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:27
“For this they were justly chastised by the Philistines. Or it may refer to the inroads which the Philistines made upon the south of Judah in the reign of Ahaz, by which it was weakened and impoverished, and which was the beginning of sorrows to them ( 2 Chron. xxviii. 18 ); but they did not take warning by those judgments, and therefore were justly abandoned to ruin at last.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
prostituted yourself with the Assyrians: Isaiah 7:17-20 warned Ahaz that the Assyrians he courted would come against Judah. By Hezekiah's day the king stripped the gold from the temple doors to pay Assyria, as 2 Kings 18:16 records. She was never satisfied.
Ezekiel 16:28
“Compare the marginal reference. Idolatry, spiritual adultery, invariably accompanied these unholy alliances, and brought with it disaster and ruin.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:28
“When God makes covenants with us and we consent to them, we are blessed. But when we prostitute ourselves to the spirits of evil, then we turn the covenants of God into the land of Canaan, and we make a pact with her.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Ezekiel 7:9patristic
The Hebrew here reads Canaan, a name that also means traders, so the Berean calls Chaldea a land of merchants. Hezekiah showed his gold and silver to envoys from Babylon at Isaiah 39:2. Her promiscuity only increased.
Ezekiel 16:29
“In the land ... - Probably used in the restricted sense of the low lands on the coast of the western sea; occupied by Phoenician colonies. The children of Israel were brought into contact at first with pagans residing within their own borders. Then they extended their contact to foreign nations, trading and forming alliances with Chaldaea, and in so doing were attracted by the idolatries of those with whom they carried on commerce. Some render it: “with the merchants’ land, even with Chaldaea.” Compare Eze 17:4.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:29
“Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan,.... Or, "with the land of Canaan" (l); with the inhabitants of it, doing the same evils, committing the same idolatries, as the old inhabitants of Canaan did; and so the Targum, "and thou hast multiplied thine idols, that thou mightest be joined to the people of Canaan:'' or, "to the land of Canaan" (m); like to the land of Canaan; according to the abominations of the Canaanites, doing as they did.”
Ezekiel 16:30-34
How weak-willed is your heart: The figure inverts harlotry: an ordinary harlot is paid, but Jerusalem pays her lovers. Gill calls this the strangest and most damning form of the charge, a nation buying its own subjugation and calling it foreign policy. Clarke reads the inversion as proof the sin was preference and not need.
Ezekiel 16:30
“As the law is not made for the just but for the lawless and those who are not subjected to God, so the teaching that warns us away from fornication does not become chaste but is for the lawless and the fornicators and the disobedient.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Ezekiel 7:10patristic
you scorned payment: Jerome renders the clause as a harlot who scorns an offered fee to get a larger one. Jerusalem went further and paid the fee herself. The Septuagint, which Jerome also reports, reads it the same way.
Ezekiel 16:31
“Or according to the Septuagint: You were not like a prostitute gathering wages, but you gave what you should have received, so that you would not be protected by the help of those with whom you fornicated and followed demons, but rather, oppressed by various captivities, you would feel your calamities.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekiel 5:16.30-31patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:31
“JEROME translates, "Thou hast not been as a harlot in scorning (that is, who ordinarily scorns) a hire offered," in order to get a larger one: nay, thou hast offered hire thyself to thy lovers (Eze 16:33, 34).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
You adulterous wife!: The figure shifts from harlot to wife. A harlot sells herself, and an adulterous wife breaks a covenant with her own husband. The law of Deuteronomy 22:22 set death as the penalty for adultery.
Ezekiel 16:32
“And while all women usually receive payment from their lovers, Jerusalem did the opposite, giving more than she received. And to show the extent of her generosity, she would burden them, saying, 'Come to me often,' so that there would be no neighbor who would not be mixed up in her dishonor. And indeed, Jerusalem surpassed other prostitutes in this as well, not only giving what she had earned through the shameful practice, but also giving marital gifts to her lovers and her adulterers.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekiel 5:16.32-34patristic
gave gifts to all your lovers: Barnes compares 2 Kings 16:8, where Ahaz took silver and gold from the LORD's house and sent it to the king of Assyria. The wife paid for her own dishonor with her husband's goods. Treasure given for worship bought foreign protection.
Ezekiel 16:33
“The picture is heightened by the contrast between one who as a prostitute receives hire for her shame, and one who as a wife is so utterly abandoned as to bestow her husband’s goods to purchase her own dishonor. Compare 2Ki 16:8.”
you are the very opposite!: The verse states the reversal twice. Jerome says no one sought her favors and she paid all comers. Her conduct had no precedent among women of her kind.
Ezekiel 16:34
“Contrary - Here we may see, what the nature of men is, when God leaves them to themselves: yea, tho' they have the greatest advantage, to be better, and to do better.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Stripped bare before the lovers she gathered
Ezekiel 16:35-39
O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD!: “I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure,” and they become her judges, for “they will see you completely naked.” She receives “the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood.” The stripping undoes the clothing of verses 10 to 13.
you poured out your wealth: The Hebrew word behind wealth is nechosheth, copper or bronze, and Clarke takes it as money given to the heathen nations. He notes it can also mean filth. The blood of the children stands beside the money as a second charge.
Ezekiel 16:36
“Thy filthiness was poured out - נחשתך nechushtech. As this word signifies a sort of metal, (brass), it is generally supposed to mean money. They had given money literally to these heathen nations to procure their friendship and assistance; but the word also means verdigris, the poisonous rust of copper or brass. It is properly translated in our version filthiness, poisonous filth. Does it not refer to that venereal virus which is engendered by promiscuous connexions?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
all those you loved: Loved and hated alike gather against her. Babylon, once courted, became the besieger, and Edom joined the plunder at Obadiah 11. Hosea 2:10 exposes the unfaithful wife before her lovers in the same way.
Ezekiel 16:37
“As, when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him, so when a man's ways displease the Lord he makes even his friends to be at war with him; and justly makes those a scourge and a plague to sinners, and instruments of their destruction, who were their tempters, and with whom they were partakers in wickedness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
those who shed blood: Two crimes meet two penalties. Adultery and murder both carried death under the law, at Leviticus 20:10 and Genesis 9:6. Wesley ties the sentence to the blood of the children given to idols.
Ezekiel 16:38
“Blood - Thou gavest the blood of thy children to idols in sacrifice; I will give thee thine own blood to drink.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
level your mounds: The lovers tear down the shrines built for them. Gill names them as the Chaldeans and their allies, who destroyed city, temple and high places together. Clarke compares the patrons who finally strip a kept woman of all they gave.
Ezekiel 16:39
“And I also will give thee into their hand,.... Into the hand of their lovers and enemies that should be gathered against them, the Assyrians and Chaldeans, with others that joined them, as in Eze 16:37; and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thine high places; the city of Jerusalem, the temple, and altars; and not only these, but even the high places and altars which were set up for idolatrous uses; all should be destroyed by the Chaldean army.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:39
“They shall strip thee also of thy clothes - thy fair jewels - Alluding to a lot common enough to prostitutes, their maintainers in the end stripping them of all they had given them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 16:40-43
They will bring a mob against you: The penalty the law set for adultery falls on the city. Then the wrath is spent: “I will lay to rest My wrath against you.” The charge is named once more, “Have you not committed this lewdness on top of all your other abominations?”
Ezekiel 16:40
“They shall also bring up a company against thee,.... An army, so the Targum; the Chaldean army: and they shall stone thee with stones: cast out of their engines and slings, by which they battered the walls, as well as killed the inhabitants; and so the Targum renders it, with sling stones; the allusion is to the stoning of adulterous persons, Deu 22:24; and thrust thee through with their swords; such as attempted to escape out of the city, or fell into the hands of the enemy when it was taken, were slain with the sword.”
in the sight of many women: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the many women as the surrounding nations, watching and mocking, as Psalm 137:7 remembers Edom doing. Burning was the law's penalty for a city that turned to idols at Deuteronomy 13:16. Second Kings 25:9 records the burning.
Ezekiel 16:41
“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).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
lay to rest My wrath: Wesley reads the quiet as the anger of a wronged husband ending once the sentence is carried out. Clarke hears something darker, God ceasing even to rebuke. Silence from God can be the heaviest judgment.
Ezekiel 16:42
“I will be quiet and will be no more angry - I will completely abandon thee; have nothing more to do with thee; think no more of thee. When God in judgment ceases to reprehend, this is the severest judgment.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:42
“My jealousy - The jealousy whereto you have provoked me, will never cease, 'till these judgments have utterly destroyed you, as the anger of an abused husband ceases in the publick punishment of the adulteress.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
upon your own head: The verse returns to the charge of verse 22, that Jerusalem forgot the days of her youth. Fairbairn read the last question as God refusing to let her lewdness pass. Her deeds come down on her own head.
Ezekiel 16:43
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Samaria and Sodom look righteous beside her
Ezekiel 16:44-45
all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you: A folk proverb, “Like mother, like daughter”, is turned against Jerusalem to fix her parentage, the Amorite and Hittite stock. Wesley reads the proverb as popular mockery the Lord adopts, letting the nations' own scorn carry the verdict. The naming of sisters that follows widens the indictment beyond Jerusalem alone.
Ezekiel 16:44
“The mother - Old Jerusalem, when the seat of the Jebusites, or the land of Canaan, when full of the idolatrous, bloody, barbarous nations. Her daughter - Jerusalem, or the Jews who are more like those accursed nations in sin, than near them in place of abode.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
who despised her husband and children: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain how Sodom can be a sister, since Moab and Ammon came from Lot after Sodom fell. The Canaanite mother despised husband and children, and the daughters copied her. Child sacrifice runs through the whole family.
Ezekiel 16:45
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 16:46-48
Your older sister was Samaria: Samaria and Sodom are named as Jerusalem’s sisters. Gill notes the Hebrew says left and right, as a speaker faced east. The comparison runs against expectation, for “your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.”
Ezekiel 16:46
“Thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left - It is supposed that the prophet by Sodom in this place means the Israelites that dwelt beyond Jordan, in the land or the Moabites and Ammonites; or rather of the Moabites and Ammonites themselves. Literally, Sodom could not be called the younger sister of Jerusalem, as it existed before Jerusalem had a name. In looking east from Jerusalem, Samaria was on the left, and Sodom on the right hand; that is, the first was on the north, the second on the south of Jerusalem.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:46
“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].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
more depraved than they were: Second Kings 21:9 says Manasseh led Judah to do more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed. Ezekiel extends the charge to Samaria and Sodom. The descent came quickly.
Ezekiel 16:47
“Not walked after their ways - For they, all things considered, were less sinners than thou. Nor done - Their doings were abominable, but thine have been worse.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
your sister Sodom and her daughters: Judah sinned with the covenant, the law and the prophets in her hands, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note, her guilt ran deeper than Sodom's. Jesus uses the same measure for Capernaum at Matthew 11:23-24. The oath of the Lord GOD binds it.
Ezekiel 16:48
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 16:49-52
this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: Sodom’s sin is named: “She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.” Samaria “did not commit half the sins you did.” Jerusalem must bear her own shame, for “all the abominations you have committed have made your sisters appear righteous.”
Ezekiel 16:49
“This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom - If we are to take this place literally, Sodom was guilty of other crimes besides that for which she appears to have been especially punished; in addition to her unnatural crime, She is charged with pride, luxury, idleness, and uncharitableness; and these were sufficient to sink any city to the bottomless pit.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Therefore I removed them: Haughty repeats the pride of verse 49, and the abominations include the sin of Genesis 19, as Clarke notes. Genesis 18:21 has the LORD come down to see whether the outcry is true. The ruin stood as a warning in Judah's own region.
Ezekiel 16:50
“As I saw good - Or, “as soon as I saw it.” Omit “good.” God saw and punished. Compare Gen 18:21.”
appear righteous: Justified here means declared less guilty, as Wesley notes. Samaria had fallen to Assyria for sins that Jerusalem then multiplied. Jeremiah 3:11 says faithless Israel proved more righteous than treacherous Judah.
Ezekiel 16:51
“Hast justified - Not made them righteous, but declared them less unrighteous, than thou; of the two they are less faulty.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
bear your disgrace: The Hebrew verb behind appear righteous is the one for justify, and Clarke compares Luke 18:14. Jerome calls shame after sin the second tablet after shipwreck. Bearing her disgrace is the first step back.
Ezekiel 16:52
“They are more righteous than thou - תצדקנה ממך tetsuddaknah mimmech, “They shall be justified more than thou.” They are less guilty in the sight of God, for their crimes were not accompanied with so many aggravations. This phrase casts light on Luk 18:14: “This man went down to his house justified rather than the other.” Less blame in the sight of God was attached to him. He always had fewer advantages, and now he was a true penitent; while the other was boasting of what he had done, and what he had not done.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:52
“The second tablet after the shipwreck is to be ashamed when you have sinned, and not to subject yourself to the reproach that is said against Jerusalem: You have become like a prostitute, you do not know how to blush (Jeremiah III, 3). But he carries his own torture, who is tormented by his own conscience, and in this world endures torment by his own will, lest he endure eternal torments.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
An everlasting covenant remembered, and shame that silences
Ezekiel 16:53-55
I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity: The Lord promises to restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria alongside Jerusalem's own. Calvin reads the promise as figurative of the nations coming into mercy, while others read it as addressed to the peoples named. The text's claim is that Jerusalem's restoration is not more automatic than her sisters'.
Ezekiel 16:53
“A denunciation of hopeless ruin. When Sodom shall be rebuilt and shall flourish, when Samaria shall be again a mighty people, then, but not until then, shall Jerusalem be restored.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:53
“The sense here thus is, Thou shalt be restored when Sodom and Samaria are, but not till then (Eze 16:55), that is, never. This applies to the guilty who should be utterly destroyed (Eze 16:41, 42); but it does not contradict the subsequent promise of restoration to their posterity (Nu 14:29-33), and to the elect remnant of grace [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
be ashamed of all you did: Jerusalem's ruin would comfort her sisters, since her punishment makes theirs look light. Jerome applies Luke 12:47 here, where the servant who knew his master's will is beaten with many blows. Greater privilege brings the heavier sentence.
Ezekiel 16:54
“For of whom is it doubted that among three sinners, rather sinners, a gentile, a heretic, and a churchman, he is more deserving of greater punishments, who is deserving of greater dignity? For the powerful, as we have said, endure torments powerfully (Wisdom 6:7). But he who is least deserving is deserving of mercy. And the servant who knows the will of his master, and does not do it, will be beaten with many (Luke 12:47). Therefore Peter also says: It is time for judgment to begin with God's house (1 Peter 4:17).”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Ezekielpatristic
return to their former state: Barnes reads the linked restoration as a threat, because Sodom was never rebuilt. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown keep a promise for a remnant of Jerusalem. Verse 60 states it as the everlasting covenant.
Ezekiel 16:56-58
Did you not treat your sister Sodom as an object of scorn: Jerusalem's pride refused to speak Sodom's name, too proud for the comparison she now bears in public shame before the Philistines and the surrounding nations. Henry reads this as the chapter's turn from indictment toward consequence made personal, pride specifically punished by the humiliation it once refused to imagine.
Ezekiel 16:56
“Sodom was not mentioned--literally, "was not for a report." Thou didst not deign to mention her name as if her case could possibly apply as a warning to thee, but it did apply (2Pe 2:6).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the daughters of Edom: The Hebrew text reads Aram here, and the Berean follows other witnesses in reading Edom. Judah had scorned her sister Sodom in the day of her pride. Soon the daughters of Edom and the Philistines scorned Judah.
Ezekiel 16:57
“Thy reproach - Rather, the “reproach.” In his march toward Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar attacked and overthrew Damascus and other Syrian towns. The Jews exulted, not foreseeing that this was but a precursor of that ruin which should discover their own wickedness.”
bear the consequences of your lewdness: Gill takes bearing lewdness to mean bearing its punishment in public view, so that the sin is read in the penalty. The judgment section ends here. The covenant promise follows at once.
Ezekiel 16:59-63
I will deal with you according to your deeds: “I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.” Keil sets it beside the new covenant Jeremiah names in the same exile (Jeremiah 31:31). Restoration comes with honesty about the past.
Ezekiel 16:59
“In breaking the covenant - So will I break my covenant with thee.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
an everlasting covenant: Clarke identifies the covenant of her youth with the one made with Abraham, when the nation began in him. Wesley applies the promise to the remnant and ties it to the Redeemer who turns iniquity from Jacob. Isaiah 55:3 uses the same phrase.
Ezekiel 16:60
“I will remember my covenant - That is, the covenant I made with Abraham in the day or thy youth, when in him thou didst begin to be a nation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:60
“Nevertheless - The Lord having denounced a perpetual punishment to the impenitent body of the Jewish nation, doth now promise to the remnant, that they shall be remembered, and obtain covenanted mercy. My covenant - In which I promised I would not utterly cut off the seed of Israel, nor fail to send the redeemer, who should turn away iniquity from Jacob.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
your older and younger sisters: Samaria and Sodom come to Jerusalem as daughters, joined to her in the restored people. Wesley reads the gift as the covenant written on the heart, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown cite Malachi 3:6 for the unchanging love behind it. The gift rests on grace alone.
Ezekiel 16:61
“God means, "not that thou on thy part hast stood to the covenant, but that 'I am the Lord, I change not' (Mal 3:6) from My original love to thee in thy youth" (see Ro 3:3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 16:61
“But not - Not by that old covenant which was violated; nor by external ceremonies, which were a great part of the first covenant, but by that covenant which writes the law in the heart, and puts the fear of God into the inward parts.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
I will establish My covenant: Elsewhere in Ezekiel the people know the LORD through judgment. Here they know Him through the covenant He establishes, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note. Hosea 2:19-20 promises the same betrothal in faithfulness.
Ezekiel 16:62
“And I will establish my covenant with thee,.... See Gill on Eze 16:60; and which is repeated for the comfort of the Lord's people, being ashamed upon the remembrance of their evil ways; and to show the certainty of it, as well as because it is a matter of the greatest importance: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; a covenant keeping God; true and faithful to my promises, and able to make them good: this is a principal blessing of the covenant of grace, to know the Lord, Jer 31:34.”
when I make atonement: The verb is kipper, the word for atonement in the law of sacrifice, with the LORD Himself as the one who covers her sin. Wesley observes that the more God's love is felt, the deeper the shame for offending Him. Pardon silences every excuse.
Ezekiel 16:63
“Because of thy shame - Such a confusion for thy sin will cover thee. Indeed the more we feel of God's love, the more ashamed we are that ever we offended him. And the more our shame for sin is increased, the more will our comfort in God be increased also.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Keep studying
Studies6
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Twenty Chapters of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.