Ezekiel 16:58

Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the LORD. THOU HAST BORNE THY LEWDNESS - i:e., the punishment of it (). I do not treat thee with excessive rigour. Thy sin and punishment are exactly commensurate....

Here God repeats what we saw before, that the Jews were deprived of all excuse. We know how bold they were in their expostulations, and how they always cried out when God treated them severely. Because, therefore, complaints were always flying about from this proud people, here, as before, God pronounces that they deserved their sufferings: _you bear_, says he, not any immoderate rigor of which you falsely accuse me, but _your abominations _and crimes. זמה, _zemeh_, signifies simply purpose, but also abomination, so that it is better to translate it wickedness or baseness. Now, therefore, we understand the Prophet’s intention, that the Jews, indeed, suffered the just reward of their wickedness; and the penalties which awaited them could not be imputed to God as too severe, since, if they weighed their enormities, they would be found heavier than God’s treatment of them. Besides, this ver...

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 BORNE THY LEWDNESS AND THINE ABOMINATIONS,.... Openly and publicly; their abominable iniquities were written as it were upon their foreheads, and were to be seen of all men; their sin was to be read in their punishment, which is meant by bearing their lewdness and abominations; namely, the punishment due unto them: SAITH THE LORD; who always speaks what is just and true; this is added to denote the truth of what had been, and the certainty of what would be, as follows:...

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 _ LORD._ Hebrew. _Jehovah_. App-4. Some codices, with three early printed editions, read " _Adonai_ ". App-4....

This and the preceding verses assume the destruction of Jerusalem, of which the prophet was fully assured....

FOR THY SISTER SODOM WAS NOT MENTIONED, &C.— _Nor shalt thou any more mention thy sister with reproach, as in the day of thy pride._ Ezekiel 16:57. _Namely, before thy wickedness was discovered; and the time of thy reproach was the same as that of the daughters of Syria, and all her neighbours, and of the daughters of the Philistines who dwell round about thee._ Ezekiel 16:58. _Thou shalt bear,_ &c. Houbigant. The exemplary punishment of Sodom was not duly considered, and spoken of, by thee in the time of thy prosperity and self-confidence; before thy humiliation shewed thy wickedness, and defeats and distresses were brought on thee by the Syrians and Philistines....