Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 16:35
Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:
35 43. Punishment of the adulterous wife, and child-murderer
This punishment is described in somewhat mixed figures: first, Eze 16:36-39, in a figure which tends to pass into a literal account of the destruction of Jerusalem; and secondly, Eze 16:40-43, in a figure suggested by the punishment of the ordinary adulteress.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Eze 16:36
Filthiness – Or, brass, i. e., money, is lavished. The Hebrews generally speak of money as gold Isa 46:6, but brass coins were not unknown in the time of the Maccabees. Compare Mat 10:9; Mar 12:41. Ezekiel may here have put brass for gold contemptuously. Compare Isa 1:22-25; Isa 48:10.
Eze 16:38
I will give thee blood in fury – Rather, I will make thee a bloody sacrifice to fury and jealousy. By the Law of Moses, death was the penalty for murder Exo 21:12, and for adultery (Lev 20:10; e. g., by stoning, Eze 16:40). The circumstances of the siege of Jerusalem corresponded with the punishment of the adulteress; the company gathered around her were the surrounding armies, the fury of the jealous husband was the fury of the attacking army, the stripping off her ornaments was the rapine of the siege, the stoning the battering-rams, the bloody death being the slaughter in the battle.
Eze 16:42
So … rest – Or, My fury shall not rest until thou art utterly ruined.
Eze 16:43
Thou shalt not … abominations – Others render it: I will not do wickedly because of all thine etc. i. e., by allowing jerusalem to remain unpunished
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Her indictment and notoriety of all the charge against her we have heard; her crimes she was guilty of, with the aggravations of them; now follows sentence of condemnation against her.
Hear the word of just condemnation which thou must submit to, though thou refusedst the word of counsel and precept.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
35. Here begins the threat ofwrath to be poured out on her.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord. The sentence about to be pronounced; adjudging to be slain with the sword, to be stoned and burned; the crime for which is to be read in the name of harlot, justly given to an apostate people; as it often is to the church of Rome in the book of the Revelation. The Targum is,
“whose works are as an harlots; O congregation of Israel, receive the words of the Lord;”
which follow:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As Israel has been worse than all the heathen, Jehovah will punish it notwithstanding its election, so that its shame shall be uncovered before all the nations (Eze 16:36-42), and the justice of the judgment to be inflicted upon it shall be made manifest (Eze 16:43-52). According to these points of view, the threat of punishment divides itself into two parts in the following manner: – In the first (Eze 16:35-42) we have, first of all (in Eze 16:36), a recapitulation of the guilty conduct described in vv. 16-34; and secondly, an announcement of the punishment corresponding to the guilt, as the punishment of adultery and murder (Eze 16:37 and Eze 16:48), and a picture of its infliction, as retribution for the enormities committed (Eze 16:39-42). In the second part (Eze 16:43-52) there follows a proof of the justice of this judgment.
Eze 16:35-42 The punishment will correspond to the sin. – Eze 16:35. Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah! Eze 16:36. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thy brass has been lavished, and thy shame exposed in thy whoredom with thy lovers, and because of all the idols of thine abominations, and according to the blood of thy sons, which thou hast given them; Eze 16:37. Therefore, behold, I will gather together all thy lovers, whom thou hast pleased, and all whom thou hast loved, together with all whom thou hast hated, and will gather them against thee from round about, and will expose thy shame to them, that they may see all thy shame. Eze 16:38. I will judge thee according to the judgment of adulteresses and murderesses, and make thee into blood of wrath and jealousy. Eze 16:39. And I will give thee into their hand, that they may destroy thy arches, and pull down thy heights; that they may strip thy clothes off thee, and take thy splendid jewellery, and leave thee naked and bare. Eze 16:40. And they shall bring up a company against thee, and stone thee, and cut thee in pieces with their swords. Eze 16:41. And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and execute judgment upon thee before the eyes of many women. Thus do I put an end to thy whoredom.; and thou wilt also give payment no more. Eze 16:42. And I quiet my fury toward thee, and will turn away my jealousy from thee, that I may repose and vex myself no more. – In the brief summary of the guilt of the whore, the following objects are singled out, as those for which she is to be punished: (1) the pouring out of her brass and the exposure of her shame; (2) the idols of her abominations (with before the noun, corresponding to before the infinitive); (3) the blood of her sons, with the preposition , according to, to indicate the measure of her punishment. Two things are mentioned as constituting the first ground of punishment. The first is, “because thy brass has been poured out.” Most of the commentators have explained this correctly, as referring to the fact that Israel had squandered the possessions received from the Lord, viz., gold, silver, jewellery, clothing, and food (Eze 16:10-13 and Eze 16:16-19), upon idolatry. The only difficulty connected with this is the use of the word n e chosheth , brass or copper, in the general sense of money or metal, as there are no other passages to support this use of the word. At the same time, the objection raised to this, namely, that n e chosheth cannot signify money, because the Hebrews had no copper coin, is an assertion without proof, since all that can be affirmed with certainty is, that the use of copper or brass as money is not mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament, with the exception of the passage before us. But we cannot infer with certainty from this that it was not then in use. As soon as the Hebrews began to stamp coins, bronze or copper coins were stamped as well as the silver shekels, and specimens of these are still in existence from the time of the Maccabees, with the inscription “Simon, prince of Israel” (cf. Cavedoni, Bibl. Numismatik, transl. by Werlhof, p. 20ff.). Judging from their size, these coins were in all probability worth a whole, a half, and a quarter gerah (Caved. pp. 50, 51). If, then, the silver shekel of the value of 21 grains contained twenty gerahs in Moses’ time, and they had already silver pieces of the weight of a shekel and half shekel, whilst quarter shekels are also mentioned in the time of Samuel, there would certainly be metal coins in use of the value of a gerah for the purposes of trade and commerce, and these would in all probability be made of brass, copper, or bronze, as silver coins of the value of a penny would have been found too small. Consequently it cannot be positively denied that brass or copper may have been used as coin for the payment of a gerah, and therefore that the word n e chosheth may have been applied to money. We therefore adhere to the explanation that brass stands for money, which has been already adopted by the lxx and Jerome; and we do so all the more, because every attempt that has been made to fasten another meaning upon n e chosheth , whether by allegorical interpretation (Rabb.), or from the Arabic, or by altering the text, is not only arbitrary, but does not even yield a meaning that suits the context.
, to be poured out = squandered or lavished. To the squandering of the possessions bestowed by the Lord upon His congregation, there was added the exposure of its shame, i.e., the disgraceful sacrifice of the honour and dignity of the people of God, of which Israel had made itself guilty by its whoredom with idols, i.e., by falling into idolatry, and adopting heathen ways. , to (towards), i.e., with thy lovers ( standing for , according to later usage: vid., Ewald, 217 i, p. 561), is to be explained after the analogy of , as signifying to commit adultery towards a person, i.e., with him. But it was not enough to sacrifice the gifts of the Lord, i.e., His possessions and His glory, to the heathen and their idols; Israel also made for itself , all kinds of logs of abominations, i.e., of idols, upon which it hung its ornaments, and before which it set oil and incense, meal and honey (Eze 16:18 and Eze 16:19). And it was not even satisfied with this, but gave to its idols the blood of its sons, by slaying its children to Moloch (Eze 16:20). Therefore (Eze 16:37.) the Lord will uncover the shame of His people before all the nations. He will gather them together, both friend and foe, against Jerusalem, and let them execute the judgment. The punishment will correspond to the sin. Because Israel has cultivated friendship with the heathen, it shall now be given up altogether into their power. On the uncovering of the nakedness as a punishment, compare Hos 2:12. The explanation of the figure follows in Eze 16:38. The heathen nations shall inflict upon Jerusalem the punishment due to adultery and bloodshed. Jerusalem (i.e., Israel) had committed this twofold crime. It had committed adultery, by falling away from Jehovah into idolatry; and bloodshed, by the sacrifices offered to Moloch. The punishment for adultery was death by stoning (see the comm. on Eze 16:40); and blood demanded blood (Gen 9:6; Exo 21:12). ‘ ‘ does not mean, “I will put blood in thee” (Ros.), or “I will cause thy blood to be shed in anger” (De Wette, Maurer, etc.); but I make thee into blood; which we must not soften down, as Hitzig proposes, into cause thee to bleed. The thought is rather the following: thou shalt be turned into blood, so that nothing but blood may be left of thee, and that the blood of fury and jealousy, as the working of the wrath and jealousy of God (compare Eze 16:42). To this end the heathen will destroy all the objects of idolatry ( and , Eze 16:39, as in Eze 16:24, Eze 16:25), then take from the harlot both clothes and jewellery, and leave her naked, i.e., plunder Jerusalem and lay it waste, and, lastly, execute upon her the punishment of death by stoning and by sword; in other words, destroy both city and kingdom. The words ‘ , they bring (up) against thee an assembly, may be explained from the ancient mode of administering justice, according to which the popular assembly ( qahal , cf. Pro 5:14) sat in judgment on cases of adultery and capital crimes, and executed the sentence, as the law for stoning expressly enjoins (Lev 20:2; Num 15:36; Deu 22:21; compare my Bibl. Archol. II. p. 257). But they are also applicable to the foes, who would march against Jerusalem (for qahal in this sense, compare Eze 17:17). The punishment of adultery (according to Lev 20:10) was death by stoning, as we may see from Lev 20:2-27 and Deu 22:24 compared with Joh 8:5. This was the usual mode of capital punishment under the Mosaic law, when judicial sentence of death was pronounced upon individuals (see my Archol. II. p. 264). The other form of punishment, slaying by the sword, was adopted when there were many criminals to be put to death, and was not decapitation, but cutting down or stabbing ( bathaq , to hew in pieces) with the sword (see my Archol. l.c.). The punishment of death was rendered more severe by the burning of the corpse (Lev 20:14; Lev 21:9). Consequently the burning of the houses in Eze 16:41 is also to be regarded as intensifying the punishment; and it is in the same light that the threat is to be regarded, that the judgment would be executed “before the eyes of many women.” The many women are the many heathen nations, according to the description of Jerusalem or Israel as an unfaithful wife. “As it is the greatest punishment to an adulterous woman to be exposed in her sin before the eyes of other women; so will the severest portion of Israel’s punishment be, that it will stand exposed in its sin before the eyes of all other nations” (Kliefoth). This is the way in which God will put an end to the fornication, and appease His wrath and jealousy upon the harlot ( Eze 16:41 and Eze 16:42). , with , to cause a person to cease to be or do anything. For Eze 16:42, compare Eze 5:13. By the execution of the judgment the jealousy ( ) of the injured husband is appeased.
Eze 16:43-52 This judgment is perfectly just; for Israel has not only forgotten the grace of its God manifested towards it in its election, but has even surpassed both Samaria and Sodom in its abominations. – Eze 16:43. Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, and hast raged against me in all this; behold, I also give thy way upon thy head, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, that I may not do that which is wrong above all thine abominations. Eze 16:44. Behold, every one that useth proverbs will use this proverb concerning thee: as the mother, so the daughter. Eze 16:45. Thou art the daughter of thy mother, who casteth off her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, who cast off their husbands and their children. Your mother is a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. Eze 16:46. And thy great sister is Samaria with her daughters, who dwelleth at thy left; and thy sister, who is smaller than thou, who dwelleth at thy right, is Sodom with her daughters. Eze 16:47. But thou hast not walked in their ways and done according to their abominations a little only; thou didst act more corruptly than they in all thy ways. Eze 16:48. As I live, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, Sodom thy sister, she with her daughters hath not done as thou hast done with thy daughters. Eze 16:49. Behold, this was the sin of Sodom, thy sister: pride, superabundance of food, and rest undisturbed had she with her daughters, and the hand of the poor and needy she did not hold. Eze 16:50. They were haughty, and did abominations before me; and I swept them away when I saw it. Eze 16:51. And Samaria, she hath not sinned to the half of thy sins; thou hast increased thine abominations more than they, and hast made thy sisters righteous by all thine abominations which thou hast done. Eze 16:52. Bear, then, also thy shame, which thou hast adjudged to thy sisters. Through thy sins, which thou hast committed more abominably than they, they become more righteous than thou. Be thou, then, also put to shame, and bear thy disgrace, as thou hast justified thy sisters. – , which corresponds to in Eze 16:36, introduces a new train of thought. Most of the commentators take Eze 16:43 in connection with what precedes, and place the pause at Eze 16:44. But the perfect shows that this is wrong. If Eze 16:43 simply contained a recapitulation, or a concluding summary, of the threat of judgment in Eze 16:35-42, the punishment would be announced in the future tense, as it is in Eze 16:37. By the perfect , on the contrary, the punishment is exhibited as a completed fact, and further reasons are then assigned in vindication of the justice of the divine procedure, which we find in Eze 16:44. To this end the guilt of Jerusalem is mentioned once more: “thou didst not remember the days of thy youth,” i.e., what thou didst experience in thy youth; the misery in which thou didst find thyself, and out of which I rescued thee and exalted thee to glory (Eze 16:4-14). To this there was added rage against Jehovah, which manifested itself in idolatrous acts. , to be excited upon or against any person, to rage; thus in Hithpael with in 2Ki 19:27-28. For , compare Eze 9:10. The last clause of Eze 16:43, ‘ , has been misinterpreted in many ways. According to the Masoretic pointing, is the second person; but this does not yield a suitable meaning. For is not used in the sense adopted by the Targum, upon which the Masoretic pointing is undoubtedly based, and which Raschi, Kimchi, and Rosenmller retain, viz., cogitationem facere : “thou hast not take any thought concerning all thy abominations,” i.e., has not felt any remorse. The true meaning is to commit a crime, a wrong, and is used for the most part of unnatural offences (cf. Jdg 20:6; Hos 6:9). There is all the more reason for retaining this meaning, that (apart from the plural = ) only occurs sensu malo , and for the most part in the sense of an immoral action (vid., Job 31:11). Consequently we should have to adopt the rendering: and thou no longer committest this immorality above all thine abominations. But in that case not only would have to be supplied, but a distinction would be drawn between the abominations committed by Israel and the sin of lewdness, i.e., adultery, which is quite foreign to the connection and to the contents of the entire chapter; for, according to these, the abominations of Israel consisted in adultery or the sin of lewdness. We must therefore take as the first person, as Symm. and Jerome have done, and explain the words from Lev 19:29, where the toleration by a father of the whoredom of a daughter is designated as zimmah . If we adopt this interpretation, Jehovah says that He has punished the spiritual whoredom of Israel, in order that He may not add another act of wrong to the abominations of Israel by allowing such immorality to go on unpunished. If He did not punish, He would commit a zimmah Himself, – in other words, would make Himself accessory to the sins of Israel.
The concluding characteristic of the moral degradation of Israel fits in very appropriately here in Eze 16:44., in which Jerusalem is compared to Samaria and Sodom, both of which had been punished long ago with destruction on account of their sins. This characteristic is expressed in the form of proverbial sayings. Every one who speaks in proverbs ( mosheel , as in Num 21:27) will then say over thee: as the mother, so her daughter. Her abominable life is so conspicuous, that it strikes every one, and furnishes occasion for proverbial sayings. may be a feminine form of , as is of (Eze 16:30); or it may also be a Raphe form for : as her (the daughter’s) mother, so her (the mother’s) daughter (cf. Ewald, 174 e, note, with 21, 22 3 ). The daughter is of course Jerusalem, as the representative of Israel. The mother is the Canaanitish race of Hittites and Amorites, whose immoral nature had been adopted by Israel (cf. Eze 16:3 and Eze 16:45). In Eze 16:45 the sisterly relation is added to the maternal, to carry out the thought still further. Some difficulty arises here from the statement, that the mothers and the sisters despise their husbands and their children, or put them away. For it is unquestionable that the participle belongs to , and not to , from the parallel relative clause , which applies to the sisters. The husband of the wife Jerusalem is Jehovah, as the matrimonial head of the covenant nation or congregation of Israel. The children of the wives, viz., the mother, her daughter, and her sisters, are the children offered in sacrifice to Moloch. The worship of Moloch was found among the early Canaanites, and is here attributed to Samaria and Sodom also, though we have no other proofs of its existence there than the references made to it in the Old Testament. The husband, whom the mother and sisters have put away, cannot therefore be any other than Jehovah; from which it is evident that Ezekiel regarded idolatry generally as apostasy from Jehovah, and Jehovah as the God not only of the Israelites, but of the heathen also.
(Note: Theodoret has explained it correctly in this way: “He shows by this, that He is not the God of Jews only, but of Gentiles also; for God once gave oracles to them, before they chose the abomination of idolatry. Therefore he says that they also put away both the husband and the children by denying God, and slaying the children to demons.”)
(Eze 16:45) is a plural noun, as the relative clause which follows and Eze 16:46 clearly show, and therefore is a contracted form of (Eze 16:51) or (Eze 16:52; vid., Ewald, 212 b, p. 538). Samaria and Sodom are called sisters of Jerusalem, not because both cities belonged to the same mother-land of Canaan, for the origin of the cities does not come into consideration here at all, and the cities represent the kingdoms, as the additional words “her daughters,” that is to say, the cities of a land or kingdom dependent upon the capital, clearly prove. Samaria and Sodom, with the daughter cities belonging to them, are sisters of Jerusalem in a spiritual sense, as animated by the same spirit of idolatry. Samaria is called the great (greater) sister of Jerusalem, and Sodom the smaller sister. This is not equivalent to the older and the younger, for Samaria was not more deeply sunk in idolatry than Sodom, nor was her idolatry more ancient than that of Sodom (Theodoret and Grotius); and Hvernick’s explanation, that “the finer form of idolatry, the mixture of the worship of Jehovah with that of nature, as represented by Samaria, was the first to find an entrance into Judah, and this was afterwards followed by the coarser abominations of heathenism,” is unsatisfactory, for the simple reason that, according to the historical books of the Old Testament, the coarser forms of idolatry forced their way into Judah at quite as early a period as the more refined. The idolatry of the time of Rehoboam and Abijam was not merely a mixture of Jehovah-worship with the worship of nature, but the introduction of heathen idols into Judah, along with which there is no doubt that the syncretistic worship of the high places was also practised. and do not generally mean old and young, but great and small. The transferred meaning old and young can only apply to men and animals, when greatness and littleness are really signs of a difference in age; but it is altogether inapplicable to kingdoms or cities, the size of which is by no means dependent upon their age. Consequently the expressions great and small simply refer to the extent of the kingdoms or states here named, and correspond to the description given of their situation: “at the left hand,” i.e., to the north, and “at the right hand,” i.e., to the south of Jerusalem and Judah.
Jerusalem had not only equalled these sisters in sins and abominations, but had acted more corruptly than they (Eze 16:47). The first hemistich of this verse, “thou walkest not in their ways,” etc., is more precisely defined by in the second half. The link of connection between the two statements is formed by yb d . This is generally rendered, “soon was there disgust,” i.e., thou didst soon feel disgust at walking in their ways, and didst act still worse. But apart from the fact that while disgust at the way of the sisters might very well constitute a motive for forsaking those ways, i.e., relinquishing their abominations, it could not furnish a motive for surpassing those abominations. This explanation is exposed to the philological difficulty, that by itself cannot signify taeduit te , and the impersonal use of would at all events require , which could not be omitted, even if were intended for a substantive. These difficulties fall away if we interpret from the Arabic qatt omnino tantum , as Alb. Schultens has done, and connect the definition “a little only” with the preceding clause. We then obtain this very appropriate thought: thou didst walk in the ways of thy sisters; and that not a little only, but thou didst act still more corruptly than they. This is proved in Eze 16:48. by an enumeration of the sins of Sodom. They were pride, satiety, – i.e., superabundance of bread (vid., Pro 30:9), – and careless rest or security, which produce haughtiness and harshness, or uncharitableness, towards the poor and wretched. In this way Sodom and her daughters (Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim) became proud and haughty, and committed abominations , i.e., before Jehovah (alluding to Gen 18:21); and God destroyed them when He saw this. The sins of Samaria (Eze 16:51) are not specially mentioned, because the principal sin of this kingdom, namely, image-worship, was well known. It is simply stated, therefore, that she did not sin half so much as Jerusalem; and in fact, if we except the times of Ahab and his dynasty, pure heathenish idolatry did not exist in the kingdom of the ten tribes, so that Samaria seemed really a righteous city in comparison with the idolatry of Jerusalem and Judah, more especially from the time of Ahaz onward (vid., Jer 3:11). The punishment of Samaria by the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes is also passed over as being well known to every Israelite; and in Eze 16:52 the application is directly made to Jerusalem, i.e., to Judah: “Thou also, bear thy shame, thou who hast adjudged to thy sisters,” – sc. by pronouncing an uncharitable judgment upon them, thinking thyself better than they, whereas thou hast sinned more abominably, so that they appear more righteous than thou. , to be righteous, and , to justify, are used in a comparative sense. In comparison with the abominations of Jerusalem, the sins of Sodom and Samaria appeared perfectly trivial. After , the announcement of punishment is repeated for the sake of emphasis, and that in the form of a consequence resulting from the sentence with regard to the nature of the sin: therefore be thou also put to shame, and bear thy disgrace.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Grievous Punishment of Israel; Punishment Threatened. | B. C. 593. |
35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: 36 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them; 37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. 38 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. 39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare. 40 They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords. 41 And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more. 42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry. 43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.
Adultery was by the law of Moses made a capital crime. This notorious adulteress, the criminal at the bar, being in the foregoing verses found guilty, here has sentence passed upon her. It is ushered in with solemnity, v. 35. The prophet, as the judge, in God’s name calls to her, O harlot! hear the word of the Lord. Our Saviour preached to harlots, for their conversion, to bring them into the kingdom of God, not as the prophet here, to expel them out of it. Note, An apostate church is a harlot. Jerusalem is so if she become idolatrous. How has the faithful city become a harlot! Rome is so represented in the Revelation, when it is marked for ruin, as Jerusalem here. Rev. xvii. 1, Come, and I will show thee the judgments of the great whore. Those who will not hear the commanding word of the Lord and obey it shall be made to hear the condemning word of the Lord and shall tremble at it. Let us attend while judgment is given.
I. The crime is stated and the articles of the charge are summed up (v. 36) and (as is usual) with the attendant aggravations (v. 43); for when God speaks in wrath he will be justified, and clear when he judges, clear when he is judged; and sinners, when they are condemned, shall have their sins so set in order before them that their mouth shall be stopped and they shall not have a word to object against the equity of the sentence. The crimes which this harlot stands convicted of, and is now to be condemned for, are, 1. The violation of the first two commandments of the first table by idolatry, which is here called her whoredoms with her lovers (so she called them, Hos. ii. 12, because she loved them as if they had been indeed her benefactors), that is, with all the idols of her abominations, the abominable idols which she served and worshipped. This was the sin which provoked God to jealousy. 2. The violation of the first two commandments of the second table by the murder of their own innocent infants: The blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them. It is not strange if those that have cast off God and his fear break through the strongest and most sacred bonds of natural affection. Their sins are aggravated from the consideration, (1.) Of the dishonour they had thereby done to themselves: “Hereby thy filthiness was poured out; the uncleanness that was in thy heart was hereby discovered and brought to light, and thy nakedness was exposed to view, and thou wast there by exposed to contempt.” God is displeased with his professing people for shaming themselves by their sins. (2.) Their base ingratitude is another aggravation of their sins: “Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, and the kindness that was done thee then, when otherwise thou wouldst have perished,” v. 43. And, (3.) The vexation which their sins gave to God, whom they ought to have pleased: “Thou hast fretted me in all these things, not only angered me, but grieved me.” It is a strange expression, and, one would think, enough to melt a heart of stone, that the great God, who cannot admit any uneasiness, is pleased to speak of the sins and follies of his professing people as fretting to him. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation.
II. The sentence is passed in general: I will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged (v. 38), and those two crimes were punished with death, with an ignominious death. “Thou hast shed blood, and therefore I will give thee blood; thou hast broken wedlock, and therefore I will give it thee, not only in justice, but in jealousy, not only as a righteous Judge, but as an injured and incensed husband, who will not spare in the day of vengeance,” Pro 6:34; Pro 6:35. He will recompense their way upon their head, v. 43. In all the judgments God executes upon sinners we must see their own way recompensed upon their head; they are dealt with not only as they deserved, but as they procured. It is the end which their sin, as a way, had a direct tendency to. More particularly, 1. This criminal must be (as is usually done with criminals) exposed to public shame, v. 37. Malefactors are not executed privately, but are made a spectacle to the world. Care is here taken to bring spectators together: “All those whom thou hast loved, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, shall come to be witnesses of the execution, that they may take warning and prevent their own like ruin; and those also whom thou hast hated, who will insult over thee and triumph in thy fall.” Both ways the calamities of Jerusalem will be aggravated, that they will be the grief of her friends and the joy of her foes. These shall not only be gathered around her, but gathered against her; even those with whom she took unlawful pleasure, with whom she contracted unlawful leagues, the Egyptians and Assyrians, shall now contribute to her ruin. As, when a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him, so when a man’s ways displease the Lord he makes even his friends to be at war with him; and justly makes those a scourge and a plague to sinners, and instruments of their destruction, who were their tempters, and with whom they were partakers in wickedness. Those whom they have suffered to strip them of their virtue shall see them stripped, and perhaps help to strip them, of all their other ornaments; to see the nakedness of the land will they come. It is added, to the same purport (v. 41), I will execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women; thou shalt be made an example of in terrorem–that others may see and fear and do no more presumptuously. 2. The criminal is condemned to die, for her sins are such as death is the wages of (v. 40): They shall bring up a company (that is, a company shall be brought up) against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords; so great a death, so many deaths in one, is this adulteress adjudged to. When the walls of Jerusalem were battered down with stones shot against them, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were put to the sword, then this sentence was executed in the letter of it. 3. The estate of the criminal is confiscated, and all that belonged to her destroyed with her (v. 39): They shall throw down thy eminent place, and (v. 41) they shall burn thy houses, as the habitations of bad women are destroyed, in detestation of their lewdness. Their high places, erected in honour of their idols, by which they thought to ingratiate themselves with their neighbours, shall be an offence to them, and even they shall break them down. It was long the complaint, even in some of the best reigns of the kings of Judah, that the high places were not taken away; but now the army of the Chaldeans, when they lay all waste, shall break them down. If iniquity be not taken away by the justice of the nation, it shall be taken away by the judgments of God upon the nation. 4. Thus both the sin and the sinners shall be abolished together, and an end put to both: Thou shalt cease from playing the harlot; there shall be no remainders of idolatry in the land, because the inhabitants shall be wholly extirpated, and they shall give no more hire because they shall have no more to give. Some that will not leave their sins live till their sins leave them. When all that with which they honoured their idols is taken from them they shall not give hire any more (v. 41): “Then thou shalt not commit this lewdness of sacrificing thy children, which was a crime provoking above all thy abominations, for thy children shall all be cut off by the sword or carried into captivity, so that thou shalt have none to sacrifice,” v. 43. Or it may be meant of the reformation of those of them that escape and survive the punishment; they shall take warning, and shall do no more presumptuously. The captivity in Babylon made the people of Israel to cease for ever from playing the harlot; it effectually cured them of their inclination to idolatry. And then all shall be well, when this is the fruit, even the taking away of sin; then (v. 42) my jealousy shall depart. I will be quiet, and no more angry. When we begin to be at war with sin God will be at peace with us; for he continues the affliction no longer than till it has done its work. When sin departs God’s jealousy will soon depart, for he is never jealous but when we give him just cause to be so. Yet some understand this as a threatening of utter ruin, that God will make a full end and the fire of his anger shall burn as long as there is any fuel for it. His fury shall rest upon them, and not remove. Compare this with that doom of unbelievers, John iii. 36. The wrath of God abideth on them. They shall drink the dregs of the cup, and then God will be no more angry, for he is eased of his adversaries (Isa. i. 24), is satisfied in the abandoning of them, and therefore will be no more angry, because there are no more for his anger to fasten upon. They had fretted him, when judgment and mercy were contesting; but now he is quiet, as he will be in the eternal damnation of sinners, wherein he will be glorified, and therefore he will be satisfied.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISRAEL’S PUNISHMENT, ACCORDING TO HER SINS
Verses 35-42:
Verses 35, 36 are a direct address of the Lord to Israel as an harlot to hear or give heed to the word of the Lord. He declares that because of her: 1) nakedness, uncovering herself, to a multiple mass of lovers, 2) her filthiness of licentious whoredom with the idol worship, and of abominations with their idols, 3) and her giving the blood of her children to these idols, even to be burned to Moloch, v. 20. He had been incensed, stirred to wrath, Rom 1:18; Lev 18:21; 2Ki 17:17; 2Ki 23:10. The term “thy filthiness was poured out,” is best expressed in the Heb “thy brass has been lavished,” evidently alluding to the giving of her wealth in total commitment to idolatry, down to the cheapest form of copper and brass coins as confirmed Mat 10:9; Mar 12:41. As silver typifies cleanliness brass typifies filthiness, Jer 13:27.
Verse 37 warns Israel that because of her moral infidelity, through her whoredoms of idolatry, the Lord will gather all her lovers, her consorting paramours with whom she has taken pleasure, and even those she had hated, He will gather them in collusion round about her to humiliate her. He stated that they would strip her naked, publicly, for open loathing, scorn and shame, for public infamy, much as that described to be given to an adulterous woman, Num 5:18; Neh 3:5; Isa 47:3; Hos 2:12.
Verse 38 continues to assert that the Lord would judge her in fury and jealousy, as or like women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged, even as adulterers and murderers are judged for their scarlet and crimson sins, as described in the above verse, and Lev 20:10; Deu 13:10; Deu 22:22; Joh 8:4-5; Eze 23:45. The visible form of this judgment was to come through political oppression of heathen nations around Israel, whose gods Israel had adopted.
Verse 39, 40 describe the destruction that the invading destroyers of Israel shall inflict on her, because of her moral infidelity and religious rebellion against God and His covenant laws that they had pledged to keep, Exo 19:1-8. The heathen nations were to destroy their eminent place, fornication chambers, and break down their high places, meaning every temple and altar of their heathen worship, Eze 23:1; Eze 23:41; Eze 23:45. They would then strip them of their clothes, take their fine jewelry and leave them naked, Eze 23:26; Hos 2:3, as God found them in Egypt, v. 6, 7. These enemies were to come down upon them with a huge armed company and inflict death as follows:
1) By form of capital punishment, as prescribed according to their own law for idolatry, adultery, and murder, Lev 20:2; Num 15:36; Deu 22:21. This came to Jerusalem literally, as she was stoned before being burned, Jer 33:4
2) Then the sword followed, as an instrument of slaying large numbers of criminals who sought to flee. It was ordained to be the form of punishment for men seduced to apostasy, Deu 13:12-15.
Verse 41 states that by means of burning their residences with fire, in the sight of many women, he would cause Israel to cease her playing the harlot, even for engaging in prostitution for no hire, or without any form of pay, 2Ki 25:9; Jer 39:8; Jer 52:13. After this she was no more to consort with idolatry or Gentile powers, Isa 2:18; Eze 23:27.
Verse 42 concludes that through the above described method of punishment upon Israel, the Lord’s harlot wife, He would make His fury toward her to rest, 2Sa 21:14; Zec 6:8. His jealousy for her would depart, and He would rest, being no more angry toward her for her injury against His name, Isa 11:13; Hos 2:4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
After God has inveighed against the people’s sins, and treated the whole nation as guilty, he now pronounces judgment on their wickedness. He repeats shortly what he had said, as a judge explains the reason of his sentence. Since, says he, the lower parts of thy body and thy disgrace has been discovered before thy lovers. This is the reason of the judgment, whence it is collected that God is induced to treat his people harshly for just and necessary causes. It now follows: therefore, says he, I will assemble all thy lovers, with those also whom you hate, I will assemble them, and uncover thy shame before them. We may now see what the Jews are threatened with, namely, a disgraceful destruction, so that they become a common laughingstock without any one to succor them; for the diction is metaphorical when he speaks of lovers and of parts of the body; for by lovers he here means the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Chaldeeans. Whence their opinion is refuted who think that the Prophet treats only of superstitions. Nor can this language be transferred to idols, since we know that false gods were not spectators of the punishment which the Prophet denounces against the Jews. Whence it follows that this language will only suit those persons to whose protection the Jews trusted, so as to treat God’s help as useless. Since, then, such is the metaphorical sense of the passage, we understand that shame means spoliation and slaughter; nay, the destruction of both the kingdom and city, and even of the temple. Thus the nation was a common laughingstock, and in this way like a foul and aged harlot. Now we understand the Prophet’s intention. As to Jerome translating “wealth,” it is altogether adverse to the Prophet’s meaning; there is no doubt that he means the lower part of the body, and it follows in the same sense, thy shame was uncovered. But at the same time God expresses why it was done, namely, for fornication, as if an abandoned woman were to act so disgracefully. He now says it was done towards your lovers, towards the idols of your abominations: על, gnel, is here taken for towards or against. He distinguishes between lovers and idols. Those who think that the Prophet treats only of superstitious think the copula superfluous; but there is no doubt that the Prophet means, on one side, the Assyrians, and Egyptians, and Chaldeeans; and on the other, false gods.
And in bloods, says he. He here adds another crime, namely, that of barbarous cruelty, because they did not spare their own sons, as we saw before: many offered up their children, and some were found so excited as to cast them into the fire: it was indeed a monstrous crime when they hesitated not to rage against their own offspring: but they were so carried away by insane zeal that they burnt, up their children when others only drew them through the fire. Hence the Prophet again accuses them of cruelty for offering their children to idols, and so pouring forth innocent blood. Now follows the punishment. Behold, says he, I collect all thy lovers. We said that this ought to be understood of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Chaldreans, all of whom looked upon the slaughter of that perverse and perfidious nation, but none of them helped her. God therefore pronounces the destruction of the people just like that of a harlot abandoned by her lovers, and perishing through hunger, want, and other miseries: for it very often happens that a person under the impulse of love prefers a harlot to his own life; for he will throw off all regard for his wife; he will be disrespectful to both his father and mother, and will break through every restraint to enjoy her company: but when such persons are grown old, and their hair becomes white, which represents the winter of life, and when wrinkles deform the face, then they are despised, and especially if they suffer through disease. So also the Prophet now says that the Jews would be despised by all, so that their lovers should be compelled to behold that example; and meanwhile they scarcely deign to look at the foul appearance which had formerly sweetly delighted them.
Then he proceeds further, namely, that their enemies should behold their ignominy: we know that the Jews were surrounded on all sides by enemies, and that all their neighbors were hostile to them. The Prophet now says that the nations disgrace should be exposed before their lovers, that is, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, Chaldaeans, Philistilles, Edomites, and other nations. This passage teaches us, that although the reason for God’s judgments does not always clearly appear, yet they are never too severe; and when he condescends to afford us a reason, he grants us a gratuitous indulgence. But when he silently executes his judgments, let us learn to acquiesce in his justice, and not to cry out if he exceeds moderation; because when he has once explained that his severity is only justice, hence we must gather the general rule, that whenever he seems to treat his people too severely and harshly, yet he has just reasons for it. Let us learn, also, that the Jews only suffered a just recompense when God so cursed all their counsels. They thought themselves very provident and circumspect when they engaged in alliances with Egyptians and Assyrians. But all their plans turned out unhappily for them, since they consulted their own will contrary to that of God. Let us learn, then, if we wish to promote our own salvation, and to obtain a prosperous result, to do nothing without God’s permission, and not to undertake any deliberations except those which God has dictated and suggested by his word and Spirit. For here every future event is shown to us as in a glass when we wish to be wiser than they ought, and than God permits them. It now follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
ISRAELS PUNISHMENT WILL CORRESPOND WITH HER SINS. (Eze. 16:35-42)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.Eze. 16:35-36. Because thy filthiness was poured out. Heb. Because thy brass has been lavished. Brass is used here to signify money. Israel had spent the wealth which God had given her in the servise of idolatry. That the Jews, at least those in the exile, as well as classic antiquity, had copper money, follows even from our passage, and is confirmed by Mat. 10:9, Mar. 12:41, where brass occurs directly for money. The paramours are, according to what follows, pre-eminently the world-powers themselves. Along with them are named the heathen gods, whose worship was a consequence of political dependence.(Hengstenberg.) And by the blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them. They were also guilty of murder in sacrificing their children to Moloch (Eze. 16:20.)
Eze. 16:37. I will gather all thy lovers. Chiefly those of Assyria and Babylon. With all them that thou hast hated. These were the surrounding nations who were always lying in wait for an occasion against Israel. God would gather friend and foe against Jerusalem and use them as instruments to execute His judgments. Israel is to be punished in kind. She had cultivated friendship with the heathen and partaken of their iniquities, and now she shall be given up altogether into their power. I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. The public judgment. First of all, the assembling of the lovers as witnesses. She who has dishonoured and brought herself to shame becomes now, by the interposition of God, to the one party an object of loathing, to the other an object of mockery. The last attraction, and what might still have been an object of regard, vanishes. Hvernick refers to the procedure in the case of a married woman suspected of adultery (Num. 5:18).(Lange.)
Eze. 16:38. And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged. This is the explanation of the figurative language employed in the last verse. Israel was to be punished with the punishment of adulterers and murderers. And I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. Thou shalt be turned into blood, so that nothing but blood may be left of thee, and that the blood of fury and jealousy, as the working of the wrath and jealousy of God (compare Eze. 16:42). To this end the heathen will destroy all the objects of idolatry, then take from the harlot both clothes and jewellery, and leave her naked, i.e. plunder Jerusalem and lay it waste, and, lastly, execute upon her the punishment of death by stoning and by sword; in other words, destroy both city and kingdom.(Keil.)
Eze. 16:39. And leave thee naked and bare. As thou wast before the Lord had mercy on thee (Eze. 16:7). The unfaithful use of the gifts of God inevitably brings on their loss. God cannot be mocked.(Hengstenberg.)
Eze. 16:40. They shall also bring up a company against thee. This may be explained from the ancient mode of administering justice, according to which the popular assembly (Pro. 5:14) sat in judgment on cases of adultery and capital crimes, and executed the sentence, as the law for stoning expressly enjoins (Lev. 20:2; Num. 15:36; Deu. 22:21). But they are also applicable to the foes, who would march against Jerusalem (Keil). And they shall stone thee with stones. The usual mode of capital punishment under the Mosaic law, and which was inflicted for the crimes of idolatry, adultery, and murder. This doom pronounced upon Jerusalem was accomplished literally, for she was stoned before she was burned (Jer. 33:4). With their swords. Slaying with the sword was a mode of punishment adopted when there were many criminals to be put to death. It was also the doom of those who seduced men to apostacy (Deu. 13:12-15).
Eze. 16:41. And execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women. The many women are the many heathen nations, according to the description of Jerusalem or Israel as an unfaithful wife.(Keil.) As it is the greatest punishment to an adulterous woman to be exposed in her sin before the eyes of other women; so will the severest portion of Israels punishment be, that it will stand exposed in its sin before the eyes of all other nations.(Klieforth.) Concerning the burning of the houses of Jerusalem with fire, see 2Ki. 25:8-9. And thou also shalt give no hire any more. Because thou wilt have no more lovers; wilt, on the whole, after the dissolution of thy national independence, be no more in a condition which admits of impure intercourse with the world-powers.(Hengstenberg.)
Eze. 16:42. So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee. The jealousy ceases because it has found its satisfaction in their punishment, and exhausted itself therein, as the fire ceases when it has consumed its fuel.(Hengstenberg.) The Divine justice comes to an end in its character of jealousyin other words, as the injured faithfulness and love of Israels husband. The departing of the jealousy might, perhaps, by comparison with Isa. 11:13, show grace in the background; but the connection with what follows requires rather a thought like Hos. 2:4. Jehovah gives up the adulterous whorish wife.(Lange.)
HOMILETICS
THE PUNISHMENT OF APOSTACY
I. The loathsome nature of the sin is made manifest. The sin which the children of Israel had committed by their idolatry is called by its right name. It was the breaking of the sacred marriage-covenant into which God had entered with His people. All what whoredom and adultery is in the social state, all what filthiness is in the morals and manners of a people, such was their sin in the sight of God (Eze. 16:38). Israel was guilty of unfaithfulness of the worst kind. God had given the nation the privileges of an espoused wife, but she sinned with many lovers, thus despising the great grace which had called her to such distinction and honour. Gods punishments sometimes begin by revealing our sin to us in all its real vileness. The very conviction of sin is a painful woundthe arrows of the Almighty within our spirit.
II. The very objects of sinful desire are turned into the instruments of punishment. I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness (Eze. 16:37). Those who contributed to her sin shall be made the instruments of her punishment. Sinful love, sooner or later, changes into hate. The boon companions of the profligate turn out to be his bitterest enemies. They thus become a scourge in the hands of God to chastise him for his iniquity. There is no true honour amongst transgressors, for their life is founded upon a falsehood. And as God employed as a scourge for His people those who once were friends, He will also employ for chastisement those who were always enemies. And with them that thou hast hated. Those with whom the children of Israel sinned would make common cause with their enemies for their punishment.
III. The punishment will correspond with the sin.
1. In degree. They were to be punished as murderers and adulterers, for they had sinned as women that break wedlock and shed blood (Eze. 16:38). Stoning was the punishment of adultery, and this threat was literally fulfilled upon Jerusalem, for she was stoned before she was burned (Jer. 33:4). Their sin was great, and therefore their punishment, so great that even Gods fury is represented as being satisfied upon them, and quite brought to a pause (Eze. 16:42). They could no further go in iniquity, and so Gods fury is represented as ceasing; by which we are to understand that it rested upon them. He left them to their fate. God can bring it about that we shall be able to sin no further.
2. In kind. Their sin was public, and so their shame and their judgment were public. Their sin was unfaithfulness towards God, and they are punished by the unfaithfulness of men. They cast God off, and men cast them off. That law which is true of individual man is true also of nations, that the very things which they sow they shall also reap.
(Eze. 16:39-42)
1. Gods hatred is so great, against idolatry and idolators that He will not endure the places where they have used idolatrous worship. The places where they sinned must be destroyed, broken, utterly razed and ruined. Hezekiah is commended for four things; and the first is for removing the high places; then for breaking the images, cutting down the groves, and breaking the brazen serpent.
2. When we abuse the mercies of God, we give Him cause to take them away. They decked their high places with their garments (Eze. 16:16); they made images of their jewels (Eze. 16:17). Here God threatens to take away both the one and the other. He would give them into their hands who should rob them of their fair jewels, and strip them of all their clothes (Isa. 42:22). And leave thee naked and bare. Before, in Eze. 16:8, it is said, that God covered her nakedness. He found her naked, and now He would leave her naked and bare.
3. When God hath showed much kindness to a people, and they have been ungrateful, He will reduce them to their former condition. God did much for Ephraim, yet he was ungrateful, forgot God, went out to other lovers (Hos. 2:2-3). God had spread His skirt over this Jewish woman, clothed her with embroidered silk and fine linen, decked her with choice ornaments and jewels, put His comeliness upon her; but she abused all His bounty and love, proved ungrateful and whorish, and therefore He would put her into her first condition, strip her of all, and leave her naked. She came out of captivity, she should now go into captivity; she was cast out, and now she should be cast out again; she was poor, beggarly, and had nothing, and should be made so again.
4. When judgments are executed upon a backsliding people, then God is at rest and is satisfied. When this woman, this Jewish state, fell into the hands of enemies, was plundered and spoiled, and all her glory laid in the dust; then God caused His fury to rest, His jealousy to depart, then He was quiet, and angry no more. Before judgment be thoroughly executed, God is troubled and restless; but when it is done, He is pacified, comforted, as it is in Eze. 5:13. Before Jonah had judgment passed upon him, there was a great wind, and a mighty tempest in the sea. The Lords anger was let out. But when Jonah was sent, and cast into the seajustice doneit is said the sea ceased from her raging. The Lord first ceased from His fury, He was pacified, and manifested it by stilling of the seas. God would bring the Assyrians upon the Jews; and what then? The indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction (Isa. 10:25).(Greenhill.)
This dire judgment is just; for Israel has not only forgotten Gods undeserved favour to her in her election, but has even surpassed both Samaria and Sodom in her abominations.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D. The Punishment of the Harlot 16:3543
TRANSLATION
(35) Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD! (36) Thus says the Lord GOD: Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness revealed through your harlotry with your lovers; and because of all the idols of your abominations, and for the blood of your sons which you gave to them, (37) therefore, behold I am about to gather your lovers unto whom You have been pleasant, and all whom you have loved, along with all whom you hate; I will gather them against you round about, and I will reveal your nakedness unto them, that they may see all your nakedness. (38) And I will judge you with the judgments accorded adulteresses and those who shed blood; and I will bring upon you the blood of fury and jealousy. (39) And I will give you into their hand; and they shall throw down your eminent places, and break down your lofty places; and they shall strip you of your garments, and take your fair jewels; and they shall leave you naked and bare. (40) And they shall bring up an assembly against you, and they will pelt you with stones, and shall thrust you through with swords. (41) And they shall burn your daughters with fire, and they shall execute judgments against you in the sight of many women; and I will cause you to cease from being a harlot, and also the wages of prostitution you shall not give anymore. (42) So I will cause My wrath against you to rest, and My jealousy will turn from you, and I will be quiet and will no more be vexed. (43) Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, and you have made Me angry with all of these things; therefore also behold I will bring your way on your head (oracle of the Lord GOD); or have you not done this lewdness above all your abominations?
COMMENTS
The allegory continues as the punishment of Judah is described in terms of the punishment of an adulteress. An adulteress was executed publicly. Accusers would start the bloody work and others would then join in (cf. Deu. 13:10). So Judahs lovers would summon other nations to join in the attack upon her. Stoning was the penalty for adultery (Lev. 20:10), and so Judah would be bombarded by the missiles of the enemies as well as thrust through by their swords (Eze. 16:40). Houses and public buildings would be burned. Many women, i.e., neighboring nations, would witness the execution and hopefully learn a lesson from it.[322] With the destruction of political Israel God would bring the harlotry of the nation to an abrupt end. NO longer would Judah be in a position to bribe neighbors for their friendship (Eze. 16:41). Divine justice must punish such unfaithfulness as Israel manifested. Only after the wrath and jealousy (zeal) of God had been satisfied could there be hope of reconciliation (Eze. 16:42). But these calamities would befall them because they had forgotten their past; they were ungrateful for what God had done for them (Eze. 16:43).
[322] There seems to hale been a practice of making other women witness the execution of an adulteress as a warning.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
God’s Judgment On Her Behaviour – She will Be Treated As An Adulteress.
“For this reason, O prostitute, hear the word of Yahweh, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, because your brass was poured out and your nakedness discovered through your whoredoms with your lovers, and because of all the idols of your abominations, and for the blood of your children which you gave them, therefore behold I will gather all your lovers with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those whom you have loved, with all those whom you have hated, I will even gather them against you on every side and will make open your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.”
Ezekiel now directly addresses Israel, by ‘the word of Yahweh’, as a prostitute in process of her profession. She is stripped of her clothing and her discharges come out of her. There may be the idea that she continued to ply her trade during her menstrual period (‘like brass poured out?), for menstrual discharge was looked on as ritually ‘unclean’. But he may just have in mind discharges during sexual intercourse. Thus here she was revealing herself as Ezekiel saw her, disgusting and without shame
The use of the word ‘brass’ here must be compared with its use by Ezekiel in connection with refining. (He speaks as a layman, not as a metalsmith). It has in mind inferior brass with its impurities which it is difficult to refine out. Thus in Eze 24:11 it is closely allied to dross and parallels the ‘filthiness’ and ‘rust’ that gathers in an inferior brass cauldron, the impurities of which cannot be removed even when it melts in the fire; and in Eze 22:18 the idea is of brass being melted in the furnace and being like dross.
Compare Jer 6:28-29 where Jeremiah says, ‘they are all as brass and iron, they all deal corruptly’ and along with iron it is seen as containing impurities such that it cannot be refined, and is compared with ‘refuse silver’. So the ‘brass poured out’ here has in mind what is inferior and unrefinable because of its impurities. ‘As brass poured out’ may well have become a familiar and vivid way of speaking of a woman’s discharges.
Israel’s disgusting state is then clarified. She is responsible for the multiplying of idols, and the lewdness that goes with them, they are like her discharges. And she is especially responsible for the blood of her slain children offered to these idols.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Punishment of the Lord Announced
v. 35. Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord: v. 36. Thus saith the Lord God, v. 37. behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, v. 38. And I will judge thee as women that break wedlock, v. 39. And I will also give thee into their hand, v. 40. They shall also bring up a company against thee, v. 41. And they shall burn thine houses with fire and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women; and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.
v. 42. So will I make My fury toward thee to rest, v. 43. Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, v. 44. Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, v. 45. Thou art the mother’s daughter, that loatheth her husband and her children, v. 46. And thine elder sister is Samaria, v. 47. Yet hast thou not walked after their ways nor done after their abominations, v. 48. As I live, saith the Lord God, v. 49. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, v. 50. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me, v. 51. Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins, v. 52. Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
What is here said comes in as the suitable conclusion of such daring rebellion as Israel had, in the preceding paragraph, been accused of. If Israel hath thus played the harlot, what shall arise, or who will interpose, that she should not have a writing of divorcement, and be put away? Such open and barefaced adultery exceeded, in the Lord’s view, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Punishment shall follow punishment, as one wave of the sea follows another. The Lord is very jealous of His honour, and will not let Israel go unpunished. Reader! how greatly is that sweet intercourse and communion between Jesus and his people interrupted by a loose and unguarded conversation in life and manners? Sweet and blessed is that precept, Grieve not the spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Eph 4:30 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 16:35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:
Ver. 35. Wherefore, O harlot. ] A name good enough for such an odious housewife, the shame of her sex. He is not worthy of an honest name whose deeds are not honest.
Hear the word of the Lord.
a .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 16:35-43
35Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD. 36Thus says the Lord GOD, Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols, 37therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated. So I will gather them against you from every direction and expose your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness. 38Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. 39I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your jewels, and will leave you naked and bare. 40They will incite a crowd against you and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. 41They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will stop you from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer pay your lovers. 42So I will calm My fury against you and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be pacified and angry no more. 43Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me by all these things, behold, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head, declares the Lord GOD, so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations.
Eze 16:37 I shall gather This VERB (BDB 867, KB 1062, Piel PARTICIPLE and Piel PERFECT) is used twice in this verse. It is YHWH who brings the mercenary Babylonian army into Judah (Eze 16:40). All of Judah’s political alliances are useless. Most of them are now part of the Babylonian army under Nebuchadnezzar II.
The theological tragedy is that this word is often used of YHWH gathering His people as a flock from exile (cf. Isa 40:11; Jer 31:10; Eze 34:13; Eze 37:21), but here, because Judah would not repent, her enemies are gathered to attack her!
Eze 16:39 and will leave you naked and bare The innocent imagery of Eze 16:7 has now been replaced with the violent treatment by the invaders sent by YHWH to punish His unfaithful bride (Eze 16:48).
The Jews developed this contrast between a time of innocence and a time of responsibility by their theological concept of the two yetzers (intents). Until the age of knowledge and commitment (i.e., Bar Mitzvah, males, age 13 or Bat Mitvah, females, age 12) children were not responsible for keeping the Law, but after study and vows, they were responsible.
Eze 16:40 This verse makes clear that it is YHWH behind the judgment. Two judgments are mentioned.
1. stoning was a way for the community to remove evil from its midst
a. worship of Molech by child sacrifice, Lev 20:2 (see Special Topic: Molech )
b. mediums, Lev 20:27
c. blasphemer, Lev 24:23
d. false prophets, Deu 13:5
e. idolaters, Deu 13:9; Deu 17:5
f. rebellious son, Deu 21:21
g. adultery or fornication, Deu 22:21
h. rape, Deu 22:24
2. death by the sword to idolatrous cities, Deu 13:15
Eze 16:42 This is the first note of hope (cf. Eze 16:60-63). YHWH’s jealousy will pass!
1. I shall calm My fury, BDB 628, KB 679, Hiphil PERFECT
2. My jealousy will depart, BDB 693, KB 747, Qal PERFECT
3. I shall be pacified, BDB 1052, KB 1641, Qal PERFECT
4. I will no more be angry, BDB 494, KB 491, Qal IMPERFECT
This is similar to Eze 5:13!
Eze 16:43 you have not remembered This VERB (BDB 269, KB 269, Qal PERFECT) is a recurrent theme (cf. Eze 16:22; Eze 16:43; Eze 23:19). Judah’s violation of YHWH’s love was very painful for Him!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
harlot = idolatress.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 16:35-38
Eze 16:35-38
“Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness uncovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers; and because of all the idols of thy abominations, and for the blood of thy children, that thou didst give unto them; therefore behold, I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them against thee on every side, and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood; and I will bring upon thee the blood of wrath and jealousy.”
ISRAEL’S PUNISHMENT AS AN ADULTERESS
These eighteen verses (Eze 16:35-51) speak of the awful punishment of the Chosen People and of its absolute justice in God’s sight.
The punishment of unfaithful wives in antiquity was as sadistically cruel as anything ever known. It is described in Nah 3:4-7. (We refer the reader to my commentary on Nahum in the Minor Prophets Series, Vol. 3, p. 48.) In this paragraph, God condemned Israel to suffer such a shameful and terrible punishment. Why? They had cast into jeopardy the salvation of all mankind!
“Thy filthiness was poured out …” (Eze 16:36). The marginal reading for “filthiness” is “brass,” standing “for wealth or money. However Greenberg stated that the word is actually, “The cognate of the Akkadian “nahsati”, meaning `morbid genital outflow’ of a woman, a reference to female genital distillation produced by sexual arousal. He translated this place, “Your juice was poured out.” We feel certain that the marginal reference is preferable.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
O harlot: Isa 1:21, Isa 23:15, Isa 23:16, Jer 3:1, Jer 3:6-8, Hos 2:5, Nah 3:4, Joh 4:10, Joh 4:18, Rev 17:5
hear: Eze 13:2, Eze 20:47, Eze 34:7, 1Ki 22:19, Isa 1:10, Isa 28:14, Hos 4:1, Amo 7:16
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 16:35. While most of the language will continue to he in terms
adapted to the marriage relation, we should keep in mind that the idolatry of Judah is really the subject. That will account for the direct and literal expressions that will occasionally appear in the verses.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The judgment of Jerusalem 16:35-43
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Yahweh announced the judgment that He would mete out to Jerusalem because of all her unnatural and rebellious unfaithfulness, idolatry, and bloodshed. He would bring all the nations that Jerusalem had opened her legs to against her, and they would abuse and destroy her.