Ezekiel 16:46

And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. THINE ELDER SISTER IS SAMARIA - older than Sodom, to whom Judah was less nearly related by kindred than she was to Samaria. Sodom is therefore called her younger sister; Samaria her "older sister" (Grotius). Samaria is called the "older," because in a moral respect more nearly related to Judah (Fairbairn). Samaria had made the calves at Dan and Bethel in imitation of the cherubim. SHE AND HER DAUGHTERS - the inferior towns subject to Samaria (cf. , "Heshbon and ... all the villages," margin, 'daughters thereof.' THAT DWELL AT THY LEFT - the Orientals faced the East in marking the directions of the sky; thus, the North was "left," 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....

Verse Ezekiel 16:46. _THINE ELDER SISTER_ IS _SAMARIA, SHE AND HER DAUGHTERS_ _THAT DWELL AT THY LEFT_] It is supposed that the prophet by _Sodom_ in this place means the Israelites that dwelt beyond Jordan, in the land of the _Moabites_ and _Ammonites_; or rather of the _Moabites_ and _Ammonites_ themselves. Literally, Sodom could not be called the _younger sister_ of Jerusalem, as it existed before Jerusalem had a name. In looking _east_ from Jerusalem, Samaria was on the _left_, and Sodom on the _right hand_; that is, the _first_ was on the _north_, the _second_ on the _south_ of Jerusalem....

The temple looked to the east. Samaria was on its left, and Sodom on its right hand....

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 THINE ELDER SISTER [IS] SAMARIA,.... The metropolis of the ten tribes; "sister" to the Jews, because of the same descent, having one and the same father; the "elder" or "greater" x, because more in number and power; the kingdom of Israel consisted of ten tribes, and the kingdom of Judah but of two; and the ten tribes also were the first in the apostasy from the true worship of God: SHE AND HER DAUGHTERS THAT DWELL AT THY LEFT HAND; as Samaria the sister was the metropolis of the ten tribes, her daughters are the other cities and towns belonging thereunto; and so the Targum renders it, she and her villages; these were situated to the north of the land of Israel, as Judah was to the south, which with the Jews were left and right; as a man standing with his face to the east has the north on his left and the south on his right side: AND THY YOUNGER SISTER, THAT DWELLETH AT THY RIGHT HA...

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

THINE ELDER: or, thy greater. DAUGHTERS. Put by Figure of speech _Prosopopoeia_ (App-6), for villages or neighbouring towns. YOUNGER: or, lesser....

_elder sister_ "elder" is lit. greater, and the reference is to the greater political importance and wider territory of Samaria; as on the other hand Sodom was smaller than Judah. In estimating the quarters of the heavens the beholder faced the east, having the north on his left, &c. _her daughters_ i.e. subordinate towns....