Ezekiel 16:25

Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms. THOU HAST BUILT THY HIGH PLACE AT EVERY HEAD OF THE WAY - in the most frequented places, like a harlot (). HAST MADE THY BEAUTY TO BE ABHORRED, AND HAST OPENED THY FEET TO EVERY ONE. The wanton advances were all on Israel's part; the idolatrous nations yielded to her nothing in return. She had yielded so much that, like a worn-out prostitute, her tempters became weary of her. When the Church lowers her testimony for God to the carnal tastes of the world, with a view to conciliation, she loses everything and gains nothing....

He now adds, _that he made their beauty to be abhorred. _I have no doubt that the Prophet alludes to the filthiness of abandoned women; and even the Latins called them “worn out,” whose foulness arises from their utterly giving themselves up to every wickedness. The Prophet then says that the people were not only like an abandoned woman who engages in impure amours, but that their conduct was gross in the extreme; for though many gratify improper desires through intemperate lust, yet they fastidiously reject those foul and shameless females who are notorious for profligacy. The Prophet means, then, that the people had come to such a pitch of abomination, just as the most abandoned of the sex. He now adds, _you have spread thy feet to every passer-by, and have multiplied thy fornications. _This is taken also from the conduct of harlots and confirms what we have already explained, that the...

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

THOU HAST BUILT THY HIGH PLACE AT EVERY HEAD OF THE WAY,.... Where two or more ways, or two or more streets, met; and so was most conspicuous, and was seen from different parts; which shows the same as before: AND HAST MADE THY BEAUTY TO BE ABHORRED; by the Lord himself, Who otherwise greatly desires and delights in the beauty of his people, when they worship him, Psalms 45:11; and by all good men, and such as fear the Lord, who cannot but abhor such idolatrous practices, and those that are guilty of them; and even by the Heathens themselves, to whom the Jews became mean and despicable, when they fell into idolatry, and under the displeasure of God, whom they forsook; as a common strumpet becomes, in process of time, loathsome to her quondam lovers: AND HAST OPENED THY FEET TO EVERYONE THAT PASSED BY; an euphemism, signifying the exposing to view the p

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

The wife's infidelities Israel's idolatries and idolatrous alliances with foreign nations The idolatries of Israel are represented figuratively as a wife's infidelities against her husband, as had been common in the prophets since Hosea, particularly in Jeremiah (in Isaiah only the single passage ch. Ezekiel 1:21). These idolatries seem presented in two stages: Ezekiel 16:15, her addicting herself to the worship and religious customs of the Canaanites among whom she dwelt; and Ezekiel 16:23, her alliances with foreign peoples and adoption of their religions....

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...

RITUAL OF THE DAY OF ATONEMENT (See also Leviticus 23:26; Numbers 29:7; Exodus 30:10.) This solemn ceremonial took place once a year on the tenth day of the seventh month (_Tishri_ = September). It was enacted by the high priest alone, but the whole nation indicated its interest and participation in it, by resting from all manner of work, by keeping a very strict fast, and by assembling for an 'holy convocation.' The ritual of the Day of Atonement marked the culminating point of the Levitical system, and was calculated to impress the minds of the worshippers in a peculiar degree. Most of the other sacrifices and purifications were occasional and personal, but this was the yearly atonement for the n