Ezekiel 16:1

16:1-58 In this chapter God's dealings with the Jewish nation, and their conduct towards him, are described, and their punishment through the surrounding nations, even those they most trusted in. This is done under the parable of an exposed infant rescued from death, educated, espoused, and richly provided for, but afterwards guilty of the most abandoned conduct, and punished for it; yet at last received into favour, and ashamed of her base conduct. We are not to judge of these expressions by modern ideas, but by those of the times and places in which they were used, where many of them would not sound as they do to us. The design was to raise hatred to idolatry, and such a parable was well suited for that purpose.

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. Such was the state of the people in Egypt Ezekiel 16:3-5 . On such a child the Lord looked with pity, tended, and adopted it. Under His care it grew up to be comely and beautiful, and the Lord joined it to Himself in that close union, which is figured by the bonds of wedlock. The covenants made under Moses and Joshua represent this alliance Ezekiel 16:6-8 . In the reigns of David and Solomon, Israel shone with all the glory of temporal prosperity Ezekiel 16:9-14 . The remainder of the history of the people when divided is, in the prophet's eye, a succession of defection and degradation marked by the erection of high places Ezekiel 16:16-20 ; by unholy alliances with foreign nations Ezekiel 16:26-33 . Such sins were soon to meet their due punishment.

As an unfaithful wife was brought before the people, convicted, and stoned, so should the Lord make His people a gazing-stock to all the nations round about, deprive them of all their possessions and of their city, and cast them forth as exiles to be spoiled and destroyed in a foreign land Ezekiel 16:35-43 .

CHAPTER 16 Eze 16:1-63. Detailed Application of the Parabolical Delineation of the Fifteenth Chapter to Jerusalem Personified as a Daughter. (1) Taken up by God's gratuitous favor from infancy (Eze 16:1-7); (2) and, when grown up, joined to Him in spiritual marriage (Eze 16:8-14); (3) her unfaithfulness, her sin (Eze 16:15-34); (4) the judgment (Eze 16:35-52); (5) her unlooked-for restoration (Eze 16:53 to the close).Under the similitude of a helpless exposed infant is represented the original state of Jerusalem, Ezekiel 16:1-5; whom God is described to have bred up, married, and treated with kind indulgence, Ezekiel 16:6-14. Her unnatural whoredoms, Ezekiel 16:15-34. God threateneth her with severe judgment, Ezekiel 16:35-43. Her sin, equal to her mother’s, the Hittite, and exceeding that of her sisters’, Sodom and Samaria, shall not go unpunished, Ezekiel 16:44-59. A promise of mercy in the end, Ezekiel 16:60-63. Again, Heb. And, frequently and properly enough rendered as here, again, not pointing out any particular time wherein it came to the prophet. The word of the Lord came unto me; both commanding and directing him what to speak; and it is a very elegant description of God’s dealing with the Jews, and their carriage toward God; his dealing was kindness and tender compassion in the most unparalleled expressions of it toward the Jews, theirs to God was the most unthankful, undutiful, and rebelious.

Israel, by nature unclean, miserable, and near to destruction ( Ezekiel 16:3-5 ), is adopted by the Lord and clothed in splendour ( Ezekiel 16:6-14 ). Ezekiel 16:1 and Ezekiel 16:2 form the introduction. - Ezekiel 16:1 . And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 16:2 . Son of man, show Jerusalem her abominations. - The "abominations" of Jerusalem are the sins of the covenant nation, which were worse than the sinful abominations of Canaan and Sodom. The theme of this word of God is the declaration of these abominations. To this end the nation is first of all shown what it was by nature. - Ezekiel 16:3 . And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to Jerusalem, Thine origin and thy birth are from the land of the Canaanites; thy father was the Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. Ezekiel 16:4 . And as for thy birth, in the day of thy birth thy navel was not cut, and thou wast not bathed in water for cleansing; and not rubbed with salt, and not wrapped in bandages. Ezekiel 16:5 . No eye looked upon thee with pity, to do one of these to thee in compassion; but thou wast cast into the field, in disgust at thy life, on the day of thy birth. - According to the allegory, which runs through the whole chapter, the figure adopted to depict the origin of the Israelitish nation is that Jerusalem, the existing representative of the nation, is described as a child, born of Canaanitish parents, mercilessly exposed after its birth, and on the point of perishing.

Hitzig and Kliefoth show that they have completely misunderstood the allegory, when they not only explain the statement concerning the descent of Jerusalem, in Ezekiel 16:3 , as relating to the city of that name, but restrict it to the city alone, on the ground that "Israel as a whole was not of Canaanitish origin, whereas the city of Jerusalem was radically a Canaanitish, Amoritish, and Hittite city." But were not all the cities of Israel radically Canaanaean? Or was Israel not altogether, but only half, of Aramaean descent? Regarded merely as a city, Jerusalem was neither of Amoritish nor Hittite origin, but simply a Jebusite city. And it is too obvious to need any proof, that the prophetic word does not refer to the city as a city, or to the mass of houses; but that Jerusalem, as the capital of the kingdom of Judah at that time, so far as its inhabitants were concerned, represents the people of Israel, or the covenant nation. It was not the mass of houses, but the population, - which was the foundling, - that excited Jehovah's compassion, and which He multiplied into myriads ( Ezekiel 16:7 ), clothed in splendour, and chose as the bride with whom He concluded a marriage covenant. The descent and birth referred to are not physical, but spiritual descent. Spiritually, Israel sprang from the land of the Canaanites; and its father was the Amorite ad its mother a Hittite, in the same sense in which Jesus said to the Jews, "Ye are of your father the devil" ( John 8:44 ).