Ezekiel 16:17

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.

Or "thy glorious vessels of gold and silver" (h); meaning either the vessels of gold and silver in the temple, as Jerom thinks, which they converted to idolatrous uses; or rather their own household vessels of gold and silver which God had given them, as the bounties of his providence, and he had still a right unto, and which they made use of to the dishonour of his name; which argued great ingratitude in them: and madest to thyself images of men; images in the shape of men; some were in the shape of women, others in the shape of men; here only male images are mentioned, because the idolatrous Jews are represented by an adulterous woman committing adultery, with men; and these were made by themselves, of their jewels of gold and silver; or of their golden and silver vessels, which they had to eat and drink out of; these, they melted down and made idols of them in the form of men, just as the molten calf was made of the earrings of the women, Exodus 32:3; to which some refer this passage: and as it was a piece of egregious folly in themselves to part with their jewels and plate for such purposes, and of great ingratitude to God, their benefactor, so of the grossest stupidity and ignorance to worship images so made; which was equally as stupid, or more so, than if a woman should embrace the image of a man, instead of a man himself, as it follows: and didst commit whoredom with them: the images: that is, idolatry, which is spiritual adultery. (h) "vasa gloriae tuae de auro meo,

Verse 17. - Images of men, etc.; Hebrew, as falling in with the symbolism of the history, "male images." The words point to the teraphim, the penates, or household gods, of which we read in Genesis 31:19 ; Judges 18:14 ; 1 Samuel 19:13 ; Hosea 3:4 ; and which, like the statues of Baal-peor, may have exhibited the phallic type of idolatry. Ezekiel 16:17

17 . Cf. Hosea 2:8 , I multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. images of men ] Jerusalem being an unfaithful wife the idols are “men.” The images were of gods; and this prophet probably saw little distinction between an image of Jehovah and that of any other deity. It is likely that, apart from the calf-images, the symbols of Jehovah as well as of the other gods were of the human form; cf. as to the Teraphim, 1 Samuel 19:13 . The supposition hazarded by some that the “male images” (marg.) were representations of the Phallus has little to support it. It is true that Jerome considers the “gruesome object” set up by Maacah the mother of Asa to be simulacrum Priapi ( 2 Chronicles 15:16 , cf. 1 Kings 15:13 ), but this is mere conjecture; and the passage Isaiah 57:8 is too obscure to be depended upon (cf. Prof. W. R. Smith, Rel. of Sem . p. 437). broidered … coveredst them ] Cf. Ezekiel 16:10; Ezekiel 16:13 . The practice of clothing the idols is illustrated by Jeremiah 10:9 , “There is silver beaten into plates … blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of cunning men.” hast set mine oil ] didst set. The ref. is to the offerings made to the idols. The Lord calls it “mine” because due to him, or rather because given by him to Israel, Hosea 2:8 , “she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil … I will take back my corn in the time thereof.”

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.

Thy fair jewels; she forgot the property was in God, she reckoned them her own. The word in Hebrew is of larger extent, and includes vessels, instruments, furniture of all sorts, with which, she was abundantly stored, even from their departure out of Egypt, when they spoiled the Egyptians, Exodus 11:2 , where the selfsame phrase is used, and more since Solomon made gold and silver so common in Jerusalem, with which they made vessels for use, and furniture of all sorts for ornament. My gold: the greater was the sin of this harlot, her ingratitude, and her injustice, that she robbed God, committed sacrilege, that she might have idols with which to defile herself by her idolatry. I had given thee: had she received them of any other hand, the wrong had been the less; but she received them, every one of them, of the hand of God: lie gave her what the Egyptians lent, what David won from enemies, and what Solomon brought in by traffic; so Ho 2 aggravates Israel’s idolatry. Madest; brutish stupidity! to make an idol, and account it a god! Images; statues, molten and graven images; not one single image, but many; so idolatry, as adultery, is boundless. Of men: idolaters had male and female idols; and this idolatress here, as mostly they did, doted on male idols. It is not unlike to that Ezekiel 8:14 , which see. And possibly the Egyptian idolatry with Osiris or Adonis may be noted, or some more lewd image or portrait of Priapus, which might be confirmed from Ezekiel 16:26 23:19,20 .

17. my gold … my silver—(Hag 2:8). images of men—rather, "of the phallus," the Hindu lingam, or membrum virile [Havernick], deified as the emblem of fecundity; man making his lust his god. English Version, however, is appropriate; Israel being represented as a woman playing the harlot with "male images," that is, images of male gods, as distinguished from female deities.

The jewellery of gold and silver was used by Israel for צלמי זכר, idols of the male sex, to commit fornication with them. Ewald thinks that the allusion is to Penates (teraphim), which were set up in the house, with ornaments suspended upon them, and worshipped with lectisternia. But there is no more allusion to lectisternia here than in Ezekiel 23:41 . And there is still less ground for thinking, as Vatke, Movers, and Hvernick do, of Lingam-or Phallus-worship, of which it is impossible to find the slightest trace among the Israelites. The arguments used by Hvernick have been already proved by Hitzig to have no force whatever. The context does not point to idols of any particular kind, but to the many varieties of Baal-worship; whilst the worship of Moloch is specially mentioned in Ezekiel 16:20 . as being the greatest abomination of the whole. The fact that נתן לפּניהם, to set before them (the idols), does not refer to lectisternia, but to sacrifices offered as food for the gods, is indisputably evident from the words לריח ניחח, the technical expression for the sacrificial odour ascending to God (cf. Leviticus 1:9 , Leviticus 1:13 , etc.). ויּהי ( Ezekiel 16:19 ), and it came to pass (sc., this abomination), merely serves to give emphatic expression to the disgust which it occasioned (Hitzig). - Ezekiel 16:20 , Ezekiel 16:21 . And not even content with this, the adulteress sacrificed the children which God had given her to idols.