Ezekiel 16:22

And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood. THOU HAST NOT REMEMBERED THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH. Forgetfulness of God's love is the source of all sins. Israel forgot her deliverance by God in the infancy of her national life. See , to which forms a lovely contrast (; )....

Here God accommodates to his own ends what he has hitherto related, namely, the extreme wickedness and baseness of the people’s ingratitude in thus prostituting themselves to idols. Hence he recalls to mind their condition when he espoused them. For if the wretched slavery from which they had been delivered had been present to their mind, they had not been so blinded with perverse confidence, nor had they exulted in their lasciviousness. But since they had forgotten all God’s benefits, they became lascivious, and prostrated themselves to foul idolatries, and provoked God in every way. Now the Prophet proves this when he says, _behold, through these abominations the people did not remember their youth_. Whence happens it that impure and lustful women thus despise their husbands, unless through being blinded by their own beauty? And since they do not recognize their own disgrace, they plea...

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....

EXPOSITION The section on which we now enter, with its companion picture in Ezekiel 23:1; forms the most terrible, one might almost say the most repellent, part of Ezekiel's prophetic utterances. We have, as it were, his story of the harlot's progress, his biography of the Messalina of the nations. We shudder as we read it, just as we shudder in reading the sixth satire of Juvenal. The prophet speaks, like the satirist, of things which we have learnt, mainly under the teaching of Christian purity, to veil in a reticent reserve, with a Lucretian and Dante-like vividness. The nearest parallel, indeed, which literature presents to it is found in the 'Epistola ad Florentinos' of the latter poet. We need to remember, as we read it, that his standard was not ours, that those for whom he wrote had done or witnessed the things which he describes, that there was in them no nerve of

AND IN ALL THINE ABOMINATIONS AND THY WHOREDOMS,.... Or idolatries, which were abominable to God, and were many; of which that just mentioned was not one of the least: THOU HAST NOT REMEMBERED THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH; the destitute and forlorn condition then in, and what favours were then bestowed: WHEN THOU WAST NAKED AND BARE, [AND] WAST POLLUTED IN THY BLOOD; Ezekiel 16:6; Ezekiel 16:7; which is mentioned to upbraid the Jews with their ingratitude; they forgetting the miserable condition they were in in Egypt, and what great things the Lord had done for them in bringing them out from thence, and the obligations they were laid under to him: and yet, after all this, to commit such abominable iniquities, and in the midst of them all never once ca

In this very remarkable chapter, God describes his ancient people Israel under the figure of an infant which had been cast away, but which he had cared for and tended, and upon which he had lavished much love, making it the object of his choice, on which his very heart was set. Yet this specially-favored one had gone astray, and committed all manner of wickedness; but for all that, the love of God had not been withdrawn. The whole chapter is a graphic picture of the way in which Israel and Judah went after false gods, and forsook the only living and true God. Ezekiel 16:1. _Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,_ This is a very necessary command, for unless men know their disease they will not apply to the great Physician. Only he who knows that he is poor will be willing to accept of alms. It is, there

Ezekiel 16:1. This chapter consists of four sections: 1. The parable of the abandoned child. 2. Jerusalem's idolatries and moral degradation (Ezekiel 16:15). 3. The doom of Jerusalem and the promise of restoration (Ezekiel 16:35). 4. The covenant remembered (Ezekiel 16:60). The parable of the abandoned child, and what the gracious Lord did for the little one is a most beautiful demonstration of what He had done in His sovereign love and grace for Jerusalem. It must be read first with this in mind. But this sweet parable illustrates also, as few other portions in the Old Testament do, the grace which the Lord bestows upon t

ABOMINATIONS. Put by _Figure of speech Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for that which Jehovah abominated, POLLUTED. wallowing, or weltering....

All the gifts of Jehovah to her she took and bestowed on idols: her raiment (Ezekiel 16:16_; Ezekiel 16:18_), her gold and silver (Ezekiel 16:17), and her delicate fare (Ezekiel 16:19). And as if this were a small matter, she sacrificed also the children which were Jehovah's to her idols (Ezekiel 16:20)....

C. The Infidelity of the Bride 16:15-34 TRANSLATION (15) But you trusted in your beauty, and committed harlotry because of your reputation, and poured out your harlotries upon all who passed by; it belonged to him. (16) And you took from your garments, and made for yourself high places decked with different colors; and you committed harlotry upon them; they are not coming, and it will not lie. (17) And you took your fair jewels of My gold and My silver which I had given to you, and you made for yourself images of men, and committed harlotry with them. (18) And you took your woven garments, and you covered them; and My oil and My incense you placed before them. (19) And My bread which I gave to you, fine flour and oil and honey which I fed you, you set before them for a sweet savor, and thus it was (oracle of the Lord GOD). (20) And you took your sons and your daughters whom you bore unt...