Ezekiel 16:39

And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. I WILL JUDGE THEE, AS WOMEN THAT BREAK WEDLOCK - (; cf. ). In the case of individual adulteresses, stoning was the penalty (John 8:4). In the case of communities, the sword. Also apostasy () and sacrificing children to Moloch (Leviticus 20:1) incurred stoning. Thus, the penalty was doubly due to Israel; so not only is it said, "They shall stone thee with stones," but also the other penalty which was decreed against an apostate c...

Here Ezekiel enlarges upon God’s judgment, when he teaches that the Jews would not only be exposed to every disgrace, as if they were brought forward into a noble and conspicuous theater, but they would suffer spoliation and rapine from those in whom they formerly trusted. _I will give thee_, says he, _into their hands _He speaks of lovers and enemies: in truth, he says all shall meet together — your ancient allies and friends as well as your enemies: and we know that they were spoiled at one time or another by the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Chaldaeans. For at the time when Jerusalem was taken and cut off, the Assyrians were reduced under the monarchy of the Chaldees. Babylon had oppressed Nineveh, as is well known, but the strength of both people were joined together. Thus the Jews were spoiled by them when they thought that they had provided for themselves very successfully by an allian...

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....

Verse Ezekiel 16:39. _THEY SHALL STRIP THEE ALSO OF THY CLOTHES - THY FAIR_ _JEWELS_] Alluding to a lot common enough to prostitutes, their maintainers in the end stripping them of all they had given them....

Judah is now represented as undergoing the punishment adjudged to an adulteress and murderess. Only in her utter destruction shall the wrath of the Lord, the jealous God, cease. Ezekiel 16:36 FILTHINESS - Or, brass, i. e., money, is lavished. The Hebrews generally speak of money as gold Isaiah 46:6, but brass coins were not unknown in the time of the Maccabees. Compare Matthew 10:9; Mark 12:41. Ezekiel may here have put brass for gold contemptuously. Compare Isaiah 1:22;...

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 I ALSO WILL GIVE THEE INTO THEIR HAND,.... Into the hand of their lovers and enemies that should be gathered against them, the Assyrians and Chaldeans, with others that joined them, as in Ezekiel 16:37; AND THEY SHALL THROW DOWN THINE EMINENT PLACE, AND SHALL BREAK DOWN THINE HIGH PLACES; the city of Jerusalem, the temple, and altars; and not only these, but even the high places and altars which were set up for idolatrous uses; all should be destroyed by the Chaldean army. The Targum is, "and they shall destroy thy walls, and thy high places shall be destroyed:'' THEY SHALL STRIP THEE ALSO OF THY CLOTHES; as persons commonly are when taken captives: AND SHALL TAKE THY FAIR JEWELS; or, "the vessels of thy glory" s; the vessels of the sanctuary of gold and silver, and their own household furniture, with

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

Punishment of the adulterous wife, and child-murderer This punishment is described in somewhat mixed figures: first, Ezekiel 16:36, in a figure which tends to pass into a literal account of the destruction of Jerusalem; and secondly, Ezekiel 16:40, in a figure suggested by the punishment of the ordinary adulteress....