1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, |
2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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, |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; |
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. |
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. |
16 The mean beginning of the Jewish church and nation, Eze 16:1-5.
The many favours God bestowed upon them, Eze 16:6-14.
Their treacherous and ungrateful requital, Eze 16:15-34.
Terrible judgments threatened, Eze 16:35-43.
An aggravation of their sin and of their punishment, Eze 16:44-59.
A promise of mercy to a remnant, Eze 16:60-63.
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, Jos 24:14.An Amorite - This comprehended all the rest of the cursed nations.
16:4 In the day - In the day I called Abraham to leave his idolatry.Salted - Salt was used to purge, dry, and strengthen the new - born child.Nor swaddled - So forlorn was the state of the Jews in their birth, without beauty, without strength, without friend.
16:5 To the loathing - In contempt of thee as unlovely and worthless; and in abhorrence of thee as loathsome to the beholder. This seems to have reference to the exposing of the male children of the Israelites in Egypt. And it is an apt illustration of the Natural State of all the children of men. In the day that we were born, we were shapen in iniquity: our understandings darkened, our minds alienated from the life of God: all polluted with sin, which rendered us loathsome in the eyes of God.
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.
16:7 Thou art come - Thou wast adorned with the choicest blessings of Divine Providence. Thy breasts - Grown up and fashioned under God's own hand in order to be solemnly affianced to God.
16:8 When I passed - This second passing by, may be understood of God's visiting and calling them out of Egypt.Thy time - The time of thy misery was the time of love in me towards thee.I spread my skirt - Espoused thee, as Rut 3:9.Entered into a covenant - This was done at mount Sinai, when the covenant between God and Israel was sealed and ratified. Those to whom God gives spiritual life, he takes into covenant with himself.By this covenant they become his, his subjects and servants; that speaks their duty: and at the same time his portion, his treasure; that speaks their privilege.
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 Rut 3:3.
16:10 Broidered - Rich and beautiful needle - work. Badgers skin - The eastern people had an art of curiously dressing and colouring the skins of those beasts, of which they made their neatest shoes, for the richest and greatest personages.
16:11 A chain - Of gold, in token of honour and authority.
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. But God must have all the glory for whatever comeliness they have, it is that which God has put upon them."
16:15 Playedst the harlot - Thou didst go a whoring after idols.Thy renown - Her renown abroad drew to her idolatrous strangers, who brought their idols with them. Pouredst out - Didst readily prostitute thyself to them; every stranger, who passed thro' thee, might find room for his idol, and idolatry. He it was - Thy person was at the command of every adulterer.
16:16 Thy garments - Those costly, royal robes, the very wedding clothes. High places - Where the idol was. With divers colours - With those beautiful clothes I put upon thee. The like things - As there was none before her that had done thus, so shall there be none to follow her in these things.
16:17 Images - Statues, molten and graven images.Commit whoredom - Idolatry, spiritual adultery. And possibly here is an allusion to the rites of Adonis, or the images of Priapus.
16:18 Coveredst - Didst clothe the images thou hadst made.Set mine oil - In lamps to burn before them.
16:19 For a sweet savour - To gain the favour of the idol.Thus it was - All which is undeniable.
16:20 And those - These very children of mine hast thou destroyed.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?
16:21 For them - For the idols.
16:24 In every street - Idol temples were in every street; both in Jerusalem and her cities.
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.
16:26 Great of flesh - Naturally of a big, make, and men of great stature.
16:30 How weak - Unstable, like water. An imperious woman - A woman, that knows no superior, nor will be neither guided nor governed.
16:31 Not as an harlot - Common harlots make gain of their looseness, and live by that gain; thou dost worse, thou lavishest out thy credit, wealth, and all, to maintain thine adulterers.
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.