Ezekiel 16:48

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. SODOM THY SISTER HATH NOT DONE - (). Judah's guilt was not positively, but relatively, greater than Sodom's; because it was in the midst of such higher privileges and such solemn warnings: a fortiori, the guilt of unbelievers in the midst of the highest of all lights-namely, the Gospel-is the greatest....

Since what we have lately seen was difficult to be believed, hence God interposes an oath. Nor is it surprising that shame was so despised and cast far away by the Jews, since they were inured to it; and we know how they were swollen with pride, for they always boasted in their adoption and gloried in the name of God. Besides, we know that at this day, if any one accuses a wicked nation, yet it is not so detestable as Sodom, and if he uses this phrase, he inflames all against himself, and causes them to reject his language with indignation. For who will suffer either one city or nation to be compared with Sodom? As far as concerned the Jews, we have said that it was intolerable in them to be fastidious and proud. There was also another reason why they should be indignant at being pronounced worse than the Sodomites: since God had not chosen them as his peculiar treasure in vain and marke...

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

[AS] I LIVE, SAITH THE LORD GOD,.... This is an oath, which the Lord God swore; who, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, by his life; and this he did to confirm what he had and was about to say, that the sins of Judah were greater than those of Samaria and Sodom; which might not be easily believed, but it was as true as he was the living God: SODOM THY SISTER HATH, OR DONE, SHE NOR HER DAUGHTERS, AS THOU HAST DONE, THOU AND THY DAUGHTERS; that is, the inhabitants of Sodom, and of the villages adjacent, as the Targum, had not committed such gross iniquities as the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the towns and villages about it, and of other cities of Judah....

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

AS THOU HAST DONE. Sodom does not mean Jerusalem here, but it refers to the Sodom of Genesis 19. Sodom had not Jerusalem's privileges: hence her transgression was less. Compare Ezekiel 16:46, and Matthew 11:20....

The depravity of Jerusalem exceeded that of either of her sisters: Sodom (Ezekiel 16:48), Samaria (Ezekiel 16:51)....

III. JUDAH: THE FALLEN SISTER 16:44-63 TRANSLATION (44) Behold every one who employs proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, As the mother, so the daughter. (45) You are the daughter of your mother who loathes her husband and her sons; and you are the sister of your sisters who loathe their husbands and their children; your mother was a Hittite, and your father was an Amorite. (46) And your older sister is Samaria she and her daughters who dwell on your left hand; and your younger sister on your right side is Sodom and her daughters. (47) Yet you have not walked in their ways, and you have not done after their abominations, but in a very little while you acted more corruptly than they in all your ways. (48) As I live (oracle of the Lord GOD) Sodom your sister she and her daughters has not done as You have done, You and your daughters. (49) Behold this was the iniquity of So...