44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs H4911 shall use this proverb H4911 against thee, saying, H559 As is the mother, H517 so is her daughter. H1323
What mean ye, that ye use H4911 this proverb H4912 concerning the land H127 of Israel, H3478 saying, H559 The fathers H1 have eaten H398 sour grapes, H1155 and the children's H1121 teeth H8127 are set on edge? H6949 As I live, H2416 saith H5002 the Lord H136 GOD, H3069 ye shall not have occasion any more to use H4911 this proverb H4912 in Israel. H3478
And there they burnt incense H6999 in all the high places, H1116 as did the heathen H1471 whom the LORD H3068 carried away H1540 before H6440 them; and wrought H6213 wicked H7451 things H1697 to provoke the LORD H3068 to anger: H3707
And they rejected H3988 his statutes, H2706 and his covenant H1285 that he made H3772 with their fathers, H1 and his testimonies H5715 which he testified H5749 against them; and they followed H3212 H310 vanity, H1892 and became vain, H1891 and went after H310 the heathen H1471 that were round about H5439 them, concerning whom the LORD H3068 had charged H6680 them, that they should not do H6213 like them.
Now when these things were done, H3615 the princes H8269 came H5066 to me, saying, H559 The people H5971 of Israel, H3478 and the priests, H3548 and the Levites, H3881 have not separated H914 themselves from the people H5971 of the lands, H776 doing according to their abominations, H8441 even of the Canaanites, H3669 the Hittites, H2850 the Perizzites, H6522 the Jebusites, H2983 the Ammonites, H5984 the Moabites, H4125 the Egyptians, H4713 and the Amorites. H567
But were mingled H6148 among the heathen, H1471 and learned H3925 their works. H4639 And they served H5647 their idols: H6091 which were a snare H4170 unto them. Yea, they sacrificed H2076 their sons H1121 and their daughters H1323 unto devils, H7700 And shed H8210 innocent H5355 blood, H1818 even the blood H1818 of their sons H1121 and of their daughters, H1323 whom they sacrificed H2076 unto the idols H6091 of Canaan: H3667 and the land H776 was polluted H2610 with blood. H1818
And say, H559 Thus saith H559 the Lord H136 GOD H3069 unto Jerusalem; H3389 Thy birth H4351 and thy nativity H4138 is of the land H776 of Canaan; H3669 thy father H1 was an Amorite, H567 and thy mother H517 an Hittite. H2850
Thou art thy mother's H517 daughter, H1323 that lotheth H1602 her husband H376 and her children; H1121 and thou art the sister H269 of thy sisters, H269 which lothed H1602 their husbands H582 and their children: H1121 your mother H517 was an Hittite, H2850 and your father H1 an Amorite. H567
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 16
Commentary on Ezekiel 16 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 16
Still God is justifying himself in the desolations he is about to bring upon Jerusalem; and very largely, in this chapter, he shows the prophet, and orders him to show the people, that he did but punish them as their sins deserved. In the foregoing chapter he had compared Jerusalem to an unfruitful vine, that was fit for nothing but the fire; in this chapter he compares it to an adulteress, that, in justice, ought to be abandoned and exposed, and he must therefore show the people their abominations, that they might see how little reason they had to complain of the judgments they were under. In this long discourse are set forth,
Eze 16:1-5
Ezekiel is now among the captives in Babylon; but, as Jeremiah at Jerusalem wrote for the use of the captives though they had Ezekiel upon the spot with them (ch. 29), so Ezekiel wrote for the use of Jerusalem, though Jeremiah himself was resident there; and yet they were far from looking upon it as an affront to one another's help both by preaching and writing. Jeremiah wrote to the captives for their consolation, which was the thing they needed; Ezekiel here is directed to write to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for their conviction and humiliation, which was the thing they needed.
Eze 16:6-14
In there verses we have an account of the great things which God did for the Jewish nation in raising them up by degrees to be very considerable.
Eze 16:15-34
In these verses we have an account of the great wickedness of the people of Israel, especially in worshipping idols, notwithstanding the great favours that God had conferred upon them, by which, one would think, they should have been for ever engaged to him. This wickedness of theirs is here represented by the lewd and scandalous conversation of that beautiful maid which was rescued from ruin, brought up and well provided for by a kind friend and benefactor, that had been in all respects as a father and a husband to her. Their idolatry was the great provoking sin that they were guilty of; it began in the latter end of Solomon's time (for from Samuel's till then I do not remember that we read any thing of it), and thenceforward continued more or less the crying sin of that nation till the captivity; and, though it now and then met with some check from the reforming kings, yet it was never totally suppressed, and for the most part appeared to a high degree impudent and barefaced. They not only worshipped the true God by images, as the ten tribes by the calves at Dan and Bethel, but they worshipped false gods, Baal and Moloch, and all the senseless rabble of the pagan deities.
This is that which is here all along represented (as often elsewhere) under the similitude of whoredom and adultery,
And now is not Jerusalem in all this made to know her abominations? For what greater abominations could she be guilty of than these? Here we may see with wonder and horror what the corrupt nature of men is when God leaves them to themselves, yea, though they have the greatest advantages to be better and do better. And the way of sin is down-hill. Nitimur in vetitum-We incline to what is forbidden.
Eze 16:35-43
Adultery was by the law of Moses made a capital crime. This notorious adulteress, the criminal at the bar, being in the foregoing verses found guilty, here has sentence passed upon her. It is ushered in with solemnity, v. 35. The prophet, as the judge, in God's name calls to her, O harlot! hear the word of the Lord. Our Saviour preached to harlots, for their conversion, to bring them into the kingdom of God, not as the prophet here, to expel them out of it. Note, An apostate church is a harlot. Jerusalem is so if she become idolatrous. How has the faithful city become a harlot! Rome is so represented in the Revelation, when it is marked for ruin, as Jerusalem here. Rev. 17:1, Come, and I will show thee the judgments of the great whore. Those who will not hear the commanding word of the Lord and obey it shall be made to hear the condemning word of the Lord and shall tremble at it. Let us attend while judgment is given.
Eze 16:44-59
The prophet here further shows Jerusalem her abominations, by comparing her with those places that had gone before her, and showing that she was worse than any of them, and therefore should, like them, be utterly and irreparably ruined. We are all apt to judge of ourselves by comparison, and to imagine that we are sufficiently good if we are but as good as such and such, who are thought passable; or that we are not dangerously bad if we are no worse than such and such, who, though bad, are not of the worst. Now God by the prophet shows Jerusalem,
Eze 16:60-63
Here, in the close of the chapter, after a most shameful conviction of sin and a most dreadful denunciation of judgments, mercy is remembered, mercy is reserved, for those who shall come after. As was when God swore in his wrath concerning those who came out of Egypt that they should not enter Canaan, "Yet' (says God) "your little ones shall;' so here. And some think that what is said of the return of Sodom and Samaria (v. 53, 55), and of Jerusalem with them, is a promise; it may be understood so, if by Sodom we understand (as Grotius and some of the Jewish writers do) the Moabites and Ammonites, the posterity of Lot, who once dwelt in Sodom; their captivity was returned (Jer. 48:47; 49:6), as was that of many of the ten tribes, and Judah's with them. But these closing verses are, without doubt, a previous promise, which was in part fulfilled at the return of the penitent and reformed Jews out of Babylon, but was to have its full accomplishment in gospel-times, and in that repentance and that remission of sins which should then be preached with success to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Now observe here,