F Y 1-22. Birth and Education.
Z 23-43. Sins.
Y 44-46. Birth and Sisterhood.
Z 47-63. Sins.
Y A 1-9. Birth. Pollution.
B r 10-13-. Garments.
s -13. Food.
C 14. Beauty. Renowned.
C 15. Beauty. Misused.
B r 16-18. Garments.
s 19-21. Food.
A 22. Birth. Pollution.
483 B.C.
Ezekiel 16)
1 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 "Son of man, cause Jerusalem (is the subject of this chapter by interpretation. Not the nation itself. By application, the reader may, by grace, refer it the himself) to know her abominations,
3 And say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem; 'Your excisions and kinships (cp. Isa. 51:1) is of the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite (i.e. your founder. This refers to the 1st builders of Jebus; not to Abraham and his seed. Jebus was a Canaanite city. Thus Satan occupied in advance both land and capital as soon as the promise to Abraham was known), and your mother an Hittite.
4 And as for your nativity, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not salted at all (i.e. rubbed, or washed with salt. This is the custom in the land today), nor swaddled at all.
5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these to you, to have compassion upon you; but you were cast out in the open field, to the loathing of your soul, in the day that you were born.
6 And when I passed by you, and saw you trodden under foot (referring to the city of course) in your own blood, I said to you when you were in your blood (Canaanite cities were founded in blood, as proved today by human sacrifice discovered in the foundations. See 1 Kings 9:15-17), 'Live;' yes, I said to you when you were in your blood, 'Live.'
7 I have caused you to multiply as the bud of the field, and you did increased and waxen great (this does not refer to the increase in Egypt, but to the city), and you came to excellent ornaments: your breasts were developed, and your hair is grown, whereas you were naked and bare.
8 Now when I passed by you, and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love (i.e. the city. Of this covenant nothing has been recorded. The secret is here 1st revealed); and I spread My skirt over you, and covered your nakedness (the symbolic act today signifying the taking under one's protection. Common in the East for marrying. Cp. Ruth 3:9): yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord GOD, and you became Mine.
9 Then washed I you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.
10 I clothed you also with embroidered work, and shod you with badgers' skin (cp. Ex. 25:5; 26:14. Num. 4:6. No reference to the tabernacle), and I girded you about with fine linen, and I covered you with silk.
11 I decked you also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon your hands, and a chain on your neck.
12 And I put a jewel in your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. (Referring to the decorations,&c., of the city after being occupied by David.)
13 Thus were you decked with gold and silver; and your raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work;
you did eat fine flour, and honey, and oil (put for all kids of delicacies): and you were exceeding beautiful, and you did prosper into a kingdom. (Hence the expression, "Judah and Jerusalem", the latter being reckoned as a separate kingdom)
14 And your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put upon you, saith the Lord GOD.
15 But you did confide in your own beauty, and played the harlot (all these expressions that follow are to be interpreted of idolatry, and not to sins of the flesh, to which they are likened) because of your renown, and poured out your fornications (i.e. idolatrous acts) on every one that passed by; his it was.
16 And of your garments you did take, and decked your high places with divers colors, and played the harlot thereupon: [saying] 'they (the curses) come not, and it (the threatened judgment) will not be.'
17 You have also taken your fair jewels of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made to yourself images of the male (i.e. the Phallus, referring to the Asherah), and did commit idolatry with them,
18 And took your embroidered garments, and covered them (I.e. these images.): and you have set My oil and My incense before them.
19 My meat (put for all kinds of food) also which I gave you, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed you, you have even set it before them for a sweet savor (a legal phrase, found only in Ezekiel outside the Pentateuch. See Gen. 8:21. Lev. 1:9): and so it became, says the Lord GOD.
20 Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and these have you sacrificed to them to be devoured (as offerings to idols. Cp. 2 Kings 16:3. Ps. 106:37,38. Isa. 57:5. Jer. 7:31; 32:35,&c.). Is this of your idolatry a small matter,
21 That you have slain My sons, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them? (Cp. Lev. 18:21.)
22 And in all your abominations and your idolatry you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and were wallowing in your blood.
Z D t 23-25. Idloatries.
u 26. Egyptians.
E 27. Threatenings.
D u 28,29. Assyrians.
t 30-34. Idloatries.
E 35-43. Threatenings.
23 And it came to pass after all your wickedness, (woe, woe to ! says the LORD GOD;)
24 That you have also built to you a brothel house (put for the idol's temple), and have made you a high place in every street.
25 You have built your high place at every head of the way, and have made your beauty to be abhorred, and have opened your feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied your idolatry.
26 You have also committed fornication with the Egyptians your neighbors, lustful (referring to their idolatry); and have increased your idolatry, to provoke Me to anger.
27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand against you (cp. Ex. 7:19,&c.), and have diminished your allowance (referring to food as measured out to captives or slaves), and delivered you to the desire of them that hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of your lewd way.
28 You have played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the harlot with them, and yet could not be satisfied.
29 You have moreover multiplied your fornication in the land of Canaan to Chaldea (Assyrian idolatry as well as Egyptian); and yet you were not satisfied therewith.
30 How weak is your heart, says the LORD GOD, seeing you do all these things, the work of an headstrong (or without shame) whorish wife;
31 In that you build your eminent place in the head of every way, and make your high place in every street; and have not been as a harlot, in that you scorn hire;
32 [You have been] a wife that commits adultery, which takes strangers instead of her husband!
33 They give fees to all whores: but you give your presents to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your idolatry.
34 And the contrary is in you from other women in your idolatry, whereas none follows you to commit idolatry: and in that you give a hire (used especially for the hire of fornication. Cp. Deut. 23:18), and no reward is given to you, therefore you are contrary.
35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:'
36 Thus says the Lord GOD; 'Because your filthiness (Heb. = brass, put for money's worth, i.e. the money of the brothel. See v.31) was poured out, and your nakedness discovered through your idolatry with your lovers, and with all the manufactured idols of your abominations, even as the blood of your sons, which you did give to them;
37 Behold, therefore I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all them that you have loved, with all them that you have hated; I will even gather out them round about against you, and will discover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.
38 And I will judge you, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged (= with the judgment meted out to: i.e. by death. Cp. Lev. 20:20. Deut. 22:22. John 8:5. Cp. Gen. 39:24); and I will give you blood in fury and jealousy.
39 And I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your eminent place, and shall break down your high places: they shall strip you also of your clothes, and shall take your fair jewels, and leave you naked and bare.
40 They shall also bring up a military host against you, and they shall stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords.
41 And they shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women (i.e. the idolaters, or idolatrous city): and I will cause you to cease from playing the harlot, and you also shall give no hire any more.
42 So will I make My fury toward you to rest, and My jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.
43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have chafed at Me in all these things (i.e. at His laws); behold, therefore I also will recompense your way upon your head, says the Lord GOD: and you shall not commit this lewdness above all your abominations. (I.e. I will not allow this greatest evil by suffering it to go unpunished, and thus conniving at it [Cp. Lev. 19:29)
Y F 44. Relations. Mother and daughter.
G 45-. Application.
F -45. Relations. Mother and sister.
G 46. Application.
44 Behold, every one that uses proverbs shall use this derisive proverb against you, saying, 'As is the mother, so is her daughter.'
45 You are your mother's daughter, that loathes her husband and her sons;
and you are the sister of your sisters, which loathes their husbands and their sons: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
G H And your elder sister
J v is Samaria, and her daughters.
w who dwells at your left hand:
H and your younger sister,
J w who dwells at you right hand,
v is Sodom and her daughter.
46 And your elder (or, your greater) sister
is Samaria, she and her daughters (put for villages or neighboring towns)
that dwell at your left hand:
and your younger (or, lesser) sister,
that dwells at your right hand,
is Sodom and her daughters.
Z K M 47-52. Jerusalem's sins.
N 53. Restoration.
L 54. Yahaveh's purpose.
K N 55. Restoration.
M 55-62. Jerusalem's sins.
L 63. Yahaveh's purpose.
M x 47. Collectively.
y 48. More than Sodom.
z 49,50. Sins of Sodom.
y 51-. More than Samaria.
x -51,52. Collectively.
47 Yet have you not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little time (or quickly. See Prov. 5:14), you were corrupted more than they in all your ways.
48 As I live, says the Lord GOD, Sodom your sister has not done (Sodom does not mean Jerusalem here, but refers to the Sodom of Gen. 19. Sodom had not Jerusalem's privileges; hence her transgression was less. Cp. v.45, and Matt. 11:20-24), she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.
49 Behold, this came to be the iniquity of your sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and luxurious idleness (i.e. security of ease. Cp. Deut. 11:21) was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me: therefore I took them away according to what I saw. (Cp. Gen. 18:21)
51 Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins;
but you have multiplied your abominations more than they (i.e. Samaria and Sodom), and have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you hast done.
52 You also, which have judged your sisters, bear your own shame for your sins that you have committed more abominable than they: they will prove more righteous than you: yes, be you confounded also, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters (Samaria and Sodom).
53 When therefore I shall restore them (referring not to any return of captives, but to a restoration of prosperity. See Deut. 30:3. Job 42:10. Psalm 126:1), the captivity of Sodom (if the waters of the Dead Sea are to be healed, there is no reason why there should not be a restoration as here stated. Cp. 47:8. Zech. 14:8) and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of your captives in the midst of them:
54 That you may bear your own shame, and may be confounded in all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them.
55 When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then you and your daughters shall return to your former estate.
M a 56-59. Jerusalem's sins.
b 60. Yehovah's covenant remembered.
a 61. Jerusalem's sins.
b 62. Yehovah's covenant established.
56 For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,
57 Before your wickedness was unveiled, as at the time of your reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise you round about.
58 You have borne your lewdness and your abominations, says the LORD.
59 For thus says the Lord GOD; 'I will even deal with you as you have done, which have despised the oath in breaking the covenant. (Cp. Deut. 29:12,14.)
60 Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant. (See Rev. 14:6. Gen. 9:16. Isa. 44;7)
61 Then you shall remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you shalt receive your sisters, your elder and thy younger: and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant.
62 And I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall know that I am the LORD:
63 That you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I have accepted a propitiatory covering for you for all that you have done, saith the Lord GOD.' "