Ezekiel 16

Chap. XVI. Ver. 1—63. Degeneracy of the professed people of God.—As men are with great difficulty made sensible of the heinous guilt of their conduct towards God, and as this conviction is absolutely necessary to repentance and faith in Christ; so it is the duty of ministers frequently to set before them their sins, with all the aggravations of them, as the appointed means of this humiliation.—None are with more difficulty convinced of their abominations than hypocrites: nor should any be reproved and exposed, with so great severity and abhorrence.—Human depravity is most evident in the wickedness of those, who have been most favoured with the means of becoming holy, and in the similarity, hitherto lamentably observable, between the visible church and the rest of the world, except as the former has produced the most monstrous abominations.

Jerusalem has too generally appeared to be the daughter of the Amorite and the Hittite, and the sister of Samaria and Sodom. If we could survey the Christian church, in all the various forms and places in which it has been established in different ages, we should have a picture before us, not much, if at all, more attractive than this of the nation of Israel: though there has always been, in both of them, ‘a remnant according to the election of grace,’ whose pious and quiet lives have been little noticed in history. Otherwise the annals of the church would be the most melancholy subject that could be contemplated.—Let us turn our thoughts to the first establishment of Christianity in the Gentile world, and especially in the Roman empire.

The state of the Gentiles was indeed such, as rendered them a loathsome object in the eyes of a holy God: yet, in a time of pity and love, he passed ‘Live, yea, he said unto them, Live.’ He planted his gospel among them, and caused Christians to multiply exceedingly. At length, the Roman emperors professing themselves Christians, the church grew great and honourable; Christianity became the established religion; abundance of liberty and encouragement was given to its preachers and professors; the places for public worship were multiplied, decorated, and enriched by ample donations and endowments, and the church prospered into a kingdom. But what were the consequences? Contests and cruel persecutions, the superstitions, blasphemies, impostures, and idolatries, which came in, and continued to increase for ages, at length rendered the Christian Roman empire a genuine daughter of the Pagan Roman empire; and all that used proverbs might well say, ‘As was the mother so is the daughter.’ Nor was there ever a heathen city, or kingdom on the face of the earth, of which the iniquities, cruelties, and unnatural lusts, the whoredom and adultery, corporal and spiritual, have not been justified, and far exceeded, by the church of Rome and her dependencies: which long formed so large a part of Christendom, as to give occasion to her assuming the arrogant title of the Holy Catholic Church!”—7".

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Notes on the verses

Chap. XVI. Ver. 2. Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.—{In this allegory, the low origin, increase, prosperity, idolatries, wickedness, ‘and punishment of the Nahi are portrayed with much force, liveliness, and vehemence of eloquent amplification. The language and figures may in many places appear to us exceptionable; but they were in perfect —— to those times, places, and manners; and to — hearer and reader would appear highly appropriate, nor would engender a thought or passion of an irregular kind. Custom sanctions the mode, and prevents the abuse.}—Bagster. The mercy of God to the Jewish church and nation is represented by the state of an exposed and deserted female infant, found by a man who takes pity on her, adopts her into his family, brings her up with great tenderness, and, finally,

when she has obtained a mature age, marries a She proves, however, false and ungrateful, and even commits adultery, which term here intends idolatry, of which the whole Jewish nation had been guilty, to a great excess. Many images, employed by the Asiatics, appear too bold and indelicate for the European taste; while at the same time many of the manners of Europeans are equally revolting to Asiatics. This arises chiefly from the degraded state of females in the Eastern countries. The sexes seldom or never meeting in conversation, the language of men is destitute of refinement, and as are against expressions justly offensive to female delicacy among us. On the contrary, the language of women is destitute of intelligence, and confined to the frivolities of the harem. Happily, a revolution is commenced in India, which may spread through all the East. Female education will qualify women for society with the other sex; and an equal interest in the gospel will furnish topics of conversation, to both alike interesting and important. We are all under infinite obligations to Christianity; but those of women are peculiarly conspicuous. Ver. 3. Thy birth.—See margin. See (Isaiah 51:1). Ver. 4. Not salted.—Galen says, the ancients washed their infants in water, and sprinkled them with salt, (or perhaps sprinkled salt into the water;) the same custom still obtains among the Crim Tartars.—Orient. Lit. Ver. 6. Polluted—See margin. ‘Kicking in thy bloods.’

Ver. 7. Caused thee to multiply.—See margin. Heb. ‘Made thee a great number.’—As the bud of the fields—That is, of the grass. Ver. 8. Spread my skirt.—See (Ruth 3:9). Ver. 12. Forehead.—See note on (Isaiah 3:21).—A beautiful crown.—Heb. ‘A crown of goodliness.’ ‘A very rich and beautiful crown, as virgins espoused and married had crowns set on their heads. ((Song of Solomon 3:11).) So, to complete the solemnity, and make the magnificence of these nuptials full, a crown is set on the head of the Jewish nation, now married to God.’—Ver. 15. Because of renown.—[Raised from the most abject state to dignity and splendour by Jehovah, Israel became proud of her numbers, riches, strength and reputation, forgetting that it was ‘through his comeliness which he had put upon them;’ and thus departing from God, made alliances with heathen nations, and worshipped their idols.]—Bagster.

Ver. 17. Images of men.—See note on (Numbers 25:3). This refers to their idolatry, in which they devoted to their idols the sacrifices appointed to Je- Ver. 18. Broidered garments.—(This seems to intimate, that the Israelites not only spent their own wealth and abundance in building and decorating idol temples, and in maintaining their worship, but that they made use of the holy vestments, and the various kinds of offerings which belonged to Jehovah, in order to honour and serve the idols of the heathen.)—Bagster. Verses 19, 20. My meat.—Newcome, ‘Food.’—For a sweet savour.—The LXX. and Arabic here place a full point, and begin the next sentence.—And thus it was…. (Newcome and Secker “And it hath come to pass)….

that thou hast taken” &c. Ver. 21. To pass through, &c.—See note on (Leviticus 20:2). In addition to what is there said, we quote from Newcome the following passage of Dionysius of Halicarnassus: “After this, having ordered that fires should be made before the tents, he brings out the people to leap over the flames, for the purifying of their pollutions.” So verse 39. Ver. 22. Naked and bare.—Heb. ‘Nakedness and bareness.’—Polluted.—See verse 6. Ver. 24. An eminent place.—An “arch,” or “arched vault.”—Gesenius. So Newcome. English margin, Vulgate, and LXX., “a brothel;” such being employed for that purpose. Ver. 25. At every head of the way.—Newcome, “At the head of every Ver. 6. The Egyptians.—Heb.

‘The sons of Mizraim.’—Great of flesh—That is, lusty and lustful. Ver. 27. Ordinary food.—(Chukkach, ‘thy portion;’ the household provision of a wife—food, clothes, and money.—Delivered thee.—The Jews, under Manasseh, and the succeeding kings of Judah, made the temple itself the scene of their open and abominable idolatries, in addition to all their other idol-temples! It appears to be meant by “the eminent place,” and “high places in every street,” ver. 24. Allured by the prosperity of the Egyptians, they also connected themselves with them, and joined in their multiplied and abominable idolatries. And when Jehovah punished them by wars and famines, and by the Philistines, whose daughters are [ ] ashamed of their enormous idolatries, instead of being amended, they formed alliances with the Assyrians, and worshipped their gods; and they even followed every idol which was worshipped between Canaan and a met Ver.

38. I will give thee blood,’ &c.—This is thought to allude to the water of jealousy, which the accused woman might be required to drink. See (Deuteronomy 5:17), and note; and compare (Revelation 16:6). Ver. 39. Thine eminent es.—For the enormous idolatries and cruelties of Judah and Jerusalem, Jehovah determined to gather together the surrounding nations—both those with whom they had formed alliances, as the Egyptians and the Assyrians, and such as had always been inimical to them, as Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Philistia,—to inflict, or to witness, his judgments upon them. Having exposed their enormous crimes to view, he would pass sentence upon them; he would give Jerusalem into the hands of the Chaldeans, who would destroy the city and temple which they had polluted; level their cities and high places with the ground; slay, plunder, and enslave the people.

]—Bagster. Ver. 41. Many women.—That is, nations. Ver. 43. Fretted.—Newcome, “Provoked.”—This lewdness above all thy abominations.—Or, “(which is) above all thine (other) abominations.” Idolatry is the crime here referred to, which being high treason against their God and King, was the highest crime in the Jewish code: but of this crime they seem long since cured. Ver. 44. As is the way &c.—That is, the whole family are idolaters. Ver. 46. Her daughters at thy left hand.—The Jews, in reckoning the points of the compass, place their face toward the east, when consequently Samaria, in the north, was on their left hand, and Sodom, in the south, upon their right. Ver. 47. But as, &c.—Newcome, and English margin, (“That was loathed as a small thing,) but thou hast been corrupted,” &c. Ver. 49. Sister Sodom.—{Jerusalem had not only copied the example of Samaria,—called her elder sister, because the kingdom of Israel was larger than Judah, and first apostatized into open idolatry,—but had also proved her relationship to Sodom itself,—called her younger sister as being an inferior city and state,—by imitating her abominations, and exceeding her in wickedness.)—Bagster.—Fulness of bread, &c.—See (Genesis 13:10).—Abundance of idleness.—Hebrew, ‘Prosperity of rest.’ N. B. A superabundance of the blessings of Providence often tends to luxury and idleness, which lead to every other vice. Ver. 53. When I shall bring, &c.—Secker, Newcome, and Boothroyd, render this whole passage as a promise; “Yet I will bring again,….

and I will bring again thy captivity in the midst of them.” Ver. 54. Thou art a comfort.—See ch. xiv. 22, 23. Ver. 55. When thy sisters.—Newcome, “And thy sisters,” &c.—Then thou.—Newcome, “And thou.”