Ezekiel 16:40

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...

Since what Ezekiel has hitherto brought forward was incredible, he now explains the manner of its accomplishment — that the Chaldmans and Assyrians should bring a large army _and bury the whole of Judea with stones, and pierce it through with swords_. By these figures he simply means that there should be such slaughter that the whole region should be made desolate, just as if the enemy should slay all that they met with stones and swords. Some think that he alludes to stones which were thrown by engines of war; but I doubt whether the Prophet thought of this. What I have stated is more simple, that the Jews had no cause to think themselves free from that final slaughter of which the Prophet spoke, _since numerous and powerful armies should come and overwhelm them with stones, and pierce them through with swords_. It follows —...

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....

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

THEY SHALL ALSO BRING UP A COMPANY AGAINST THEE,.... An army, so the Targum; the Chaldean army: AND THEY SHALL STONE THEE WITH STONES: cast out of their engines and slings, by which they battered the walls, as well as killed the inhabitants; and so the Targum renders it, with sling stones; the allusion is to the stoning of adulterous persons, Deuteronomy 22:24; AND THRUST THEE THROUGH WITH THEIR SWORDS; such as attempted to escape out of the city, or fell into the hands of the enemy when it was taken, were slain with the sword....

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

A COMPANY. a military host....

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....