Ezekiel 16:59

16:59-63 After a full warning of judgments, mercy is remembered, mercy is reserved. These closing verses are a precious promise, in part fulfilled at the return of the penitent and reformed Jews out of Babylon, but to have fuller accomplishment in gospel times. The Divine mercy should be powerful to melt our hearts into godly sorrow for sin. Nor will God ever leave the sinner to perish, who is humbled for his sins, and comes to trust in His mercy and grace through Jesus Christ; but will keep him by his power, through faith unto salvation.

For thus saith the Lord God,.... And what he says may be depended upon as truth, and what will certainly come to pass: I will even deal with thee as thou hast done; reward them according to their works; or execute the law of retaliation upon them; and reject them, as they had rejected him; and cast them off from being his people, since they had forsook him as their God; they being the aggressors and transgressors of the covenant, he was under no obligation by virtue of that to bless and protect them: which hath despised the oath by breaking the covenant; the covenant at Mount Sinai; or which was made in the plains of Moab, which had an oath annexed to it, Deuteronomy 29:12; but by breaking the covenant, which they did by their many abominations, they despised the oath by which they were sworn to keep it; and therefore it was but just with God to do with them as they had done with him and his covenant. The words are by some rendered, "I might even deal with thee as thou hast done" (i), &c. I should be justified in so doing, and you could not justly complain of me; but I will not, as follows: (i) "ego quidem agerem tecum, quemadmodum fecisti mecum", Tigurine version.

(59) In breaking the covenant. —This was the especial point of the heinousness of the sin of the Jews, and the one which so greatly aggravated their guilt. The sin was necessarily proportioned to the light against which it had been committed. (Comp. John 9:39 ; John 9:41 ; John 15:22 ; John 15:24 .)

Verses 59, 60. - I will even deal with thee, etc. The law of retribution is stated in all its fulness. Falling back upon the idea of the espousals of Israel in the covenant made at Sinai ( Leviticus 26:42, 45 ; Deuteronomy 29:11, 12 ), Ezekiel presses home on Judah the thought that she had broken that covenant. She must suffer as though it no longer existed. She must "dree her weird" and "accept her punishment" ( Leviticus 26:41 ). And then Jehovah would show that he had not really been unmindful of his part in it. He bad remained faithful in spite of her unfaithfulness. And so in the day of her repentance he will not only renew it, but will give it a higher and more permanent character. The "new covenant" of which Ezekiel's master had spoken ( Jeremiah 31:31 ) should not be as the old, decaying and vanishing away, but should be foreverlasting. Ezekiel 16:59

This is ushered in with a most solemn and sacred asseveration. I will even deal with thee; either thus: Thou hast despised the laws and privileges of my covenant with thee, and I will despise all thy pretensions to my favour by virtue of my covenant; it is mutual, and who breaks it forfeits all benefit by it. Or, deal with thee according as thou hast done to other punished sinners, over which thou hast insulted and condemned. Hast despised the oath; by wilful and contemptuous despite hast perjured thyself, which is a sin the nations about thee could not be guilty of, for they were not, thou only wast, in covenant with me. Or else, Thou hast contemptuously slighted my bounty and grace, and my faithfulness and truth, and bound thyself by covenant with idols and idolaters, though I had so expressly forbidden them. The covenant, made in Horeb.

But this disgrace will not be the conclusion. Because of the covenant which the Lord concluded with Israel, Jerusalem will not continue in misery, but will attain to the glory promised to the people of God; - and that in such a way that all boasting will be excluded, and Judah, with the deepest shame, will attain to a knowledge of the true compassion of God. - Yet, in order that all false confidence in the gracious promises of God may be prevented, and the sinful nation be thoroughly humbled, this last section of our word of God announces the restoration of Sodom and Samaria as well as that of Jerusalem, so that all boasting on the part of Israel is precluded. - Ezekiel 16:53 . And I will turn their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of thy captivity in the midst of them: Ezekiel 16:54 . That thou mayest bear thy shame, and be ashamed of all that thou hast done, in comforting them. Ezekiel 16:55 . And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their first estate; and Samaria and her daughters will return to their first estate; and thou and thy daughters will return to your first estate. Ezekiel 16:56 . And Sodom thy sister was not a discourse in thy mouth in the day of thy haughtinesses, Ezekiel 16:57 . Before thy wickedness was disclosed, as at the time of the disgrace of the daughters of Aram and all its surroundings, the daughters of the Philistines, who despised thee round about

. Ezekiel 16:58 . Thy wrong-doing and all thy abominations, thou bearest them, is the saying of Jehovah. Ezekiel 16:59 . For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I do with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised oath to break covenant. Ezekiel 16:60 . And I shall remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and shall establish an everlasting covenant with thee. Ezekiel 16:61 . And thou wilt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou receivest thy sisters, those greater than thou to those smaller than thou; and I give them to thee for daughters, although they are not of thy covenant. Ezekiel 16:62 . And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou wilt perceive that I am Jehovah; Ezekiel 16:63 . That thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and there may no longer remain to thee an opening of the mouth because of thy disgrace, when I forgive thee all that thou hast done, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - The promise commences with an announcement of the restoration, not of Jerusalem, but of Sodom and Samaria.