Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 16

Verse 3

16:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD to Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity [is] of the land {a} of Canaan; thy father [was] an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

(a) You boast to be of the seed of Abraham, but you are degenerate and follow the abominations of the wicked Canaanites as children do the manners of their fathers, Isaiah 1:4; Isaiah 57:3 .

Verse 4

16:4 And [as for] thy nativity, in the day thou wast {b} born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to cleanse [thee]; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

(b) When I first brought you out of Egypt and planted you in this land to be my Church.

Verse 6

16:6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy {c} own blood, I said to thee [when thou wast] in thy blood, Live; yea, I said to thee [when thou wast] in thy blood, Live.

(c) Being thus in your filthiness and forsaken by all men, I took you and gave you life: by which is meant that before God wash his Church and give life, there is nothing but filthiness and death.

Verse 8

16:8 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 {d} thy nakedness: yea, I swore to thee, and entered into a covenant with {e} thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.

(d) These words as blood, pollution, nakedness and filthiness are often repeated to beat down their pride, and to cause them to consider what they were before God received them to mercy, favoured them and covered their shame.

(e) That you should be a chaste wife to me, and that I should maintain you and endue you with all graces.

Verse 9

16:9 Then I washed thee with {f} water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I {g} anointed thee with oil.

(f) I washed away your sins.

(g) I sanctified you with my Holy Spirit.

Verse 12

16:12 And I put a jewel in thy nose, and earrings in thy ears, and a beautiful {h} crown upon thy head.

(h) By this he shows how he saved his Church, enriched it, and gave it power and dominion to reign.

Verse 14

16:14 And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty: for it [was] perfect through my {i} comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

(i) He declares where the dignity of Jerusalem stood: that is, in that the Lord gave them of his beauty and excellency.

Verse 15

16:15 But thou didst {k} trust in thy own beauty, and didst play the harlot because of thy renown, and didst pour out {l} thy harlotries on every one that passed by; his it was.

(k) In abusing my gifts and in putting your confidence in your own wisdom and dignity, which were the opportunities of your idolatry.

(l) There was no idolatry with which you did not pollute yourself.

Verse 16

16:16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and didst deck thy high places with various colours, {m} and didst play the harlot upon them: [the like things] shall not come, neither shall it be [so].

(m) This declares how the idolaters put their chief delight in those things which please the eyes and outward senses.

Verse 17

16:17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and hast {n} made to thyself images of men, and hast committed harlotry with them,

(n) You have converted my vessels and instruments which I gave you to serve me with to the use of your idols.

Verse 20

16:20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne to me, and these hast thou sacrificed to them to {o} be devoured. [Is this] of thy harlotries a small matter,

(o) Meaning by fire, read Leviticus 18:21, 2 Kings 23:10 .

Verse 26

16:26 Thou hast also committed harlotry with the {p} Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast multiplied thy harlotry, to provoke me to anger.

(p) He notes the great impiety of this people, who first falling from God to seek help at strange nations also at length embraced their idolatry thinking by it to make their amity more strong.

Verse 31

16:31 In that thou buildest thy eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thy high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, {q} in that thou scornest hire;

(q) Meaning that some harlots contemn small rewards but no lovers gave a reward to Israel, but they gave to all others signifying that the idolaters bestow all their substance which they receive from God for his glory to serve their vile abominations.

Verse 37

16:37 Behold, therefore I will gather all {r} 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 on every side against thee, and will uncover thy nakedness to them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

(r) Egyptians, Assyrians and Chaldeans whom you took to be your lovers will come and destroy you, Ezekiel 23:9 .

Verse 38

16:38 And I will judge thee, as women that {s} break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

(s) I will judge you to death as the adulterers and murderers.

Verse 42

16:42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my {t} jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

(t) I will utterly destroy you and so my jealousy will cease.

Verse 43

16:43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast provoked me in all these [things]; behold, therefore I also will {u} recompense thy way upon [thy] head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thy abominations.

(u) I have punished your faults but you would not repent.

Verse 44

16:44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use [this] proverb against thee, saying, As [is] the mother, {x} [so is] her daughter.

(x) As the Canaanites, the Hittites and others were your predecessors, so are you their successors.

Verse 45

16:45 Thou [art] thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou [art] the sister of thy {y} sisters, who lothed their husbands and their children: your mother [was] an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

(y) That is, of Samaria and Sodom.

Verse 46

16:46 And thy elder sister [is] Samaria, she and her {z} daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, [is] Sodom and her daughters.

(z) That is, her cities.

Verse 47

16:47 Yet hast thou {a} 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.

(a) But done far worse.

Verse 49

16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, {b} 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.

(b) He alleges these four vices, pride, excess, idleness and contempt of the poor as four principal causes of such abomination, wherefore they were so horribly punished, Genesis 19:24 .

Verse 51

16:51 Neither {c} hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thy abominations more than they, and hast {d} justified thy sisters in all thy abominations which thou hast done.

(c) Which worshipped the calves in Bethel and Dan.

(d) You are so wicked that in respect to you Sodom and Samaria were just.

Verse 53

16:53 When I shall bring again {e} 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:

(e) This he speaks in comparison seeing that he would restore Jerusalem when Sodom would be restored, that is, never: and this is meant of the greatest part of the Jews.

Verse 54

16:54 That thou mayest bear thy own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a {f} comfort to them.

(f) In that you have shown yourself worse than they and yet thought to escape punishment.

Verse 55

16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, {g} then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former state.

(g) Meaning that it would never come to pass.

Verse 56

16:56 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned {h} by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,

(h) You would not call her punishment to mind when you were aloft, to learn by her example to fear my judgments.

Verse 57

16:57 Before thy wickedness was {i} uncovered, as at the time of [thy] reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all [that are] around {k} her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise thee on every side.

(i) That is, till you were brought under by the Syrians and Philistines, 2 Chronicles 28:19 .

(k) Which joined with the Syrians, or compassed about Jerusalem.

Verse 59

16:59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the {l} oath in breaking the covenant.

(l) When you broke the covenant which was made between you and me, as in Ezekiel 16:8 .

Verse 60

16:60 Nevertheless I will {m} remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish to thee an everlasting covenant.

(m) That is, out of mercy and love I will pity you and so stand by my covenant though you have deserved the contrary.

Verse 61

16:61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive {n} thy sisters, thy elder and thy younger: and I will give them to thee for daughters, but not {o} by thy covenant.

(n) By which he shows that among the most wicked, he always had some seed of his Church, which he would cause to bear fruit in due time: and here he declares how he will call the Gentiles.

(o) But of my free mercy.

Verse 63

16:63 That thou mayest remember, and be {p} 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.

(p) This declares what fruits God’s mercies work in his, that is, sorrow and repentance for their former life.