Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
48. Cf. Mat 10:15; Mat 11:24.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Eze 16:48-50
Pride, fulness of head, and abundance of idleness.
The conflict in a luxurious age
1. We must be on our guard against the suggestions of pride and self-complacency, by endeavouring to form as humble an estimate as possible of our own powers and works. We cannot better the world but by bettering ourselves. We cannot put down the pride of the generation in which we live, but we can mortify our own.
2. In regard of that danger which arises to the soul from living in plenty and abundance, we can regulate ourselves in our use of meats and drinks and personal indulgence, practising at certain times a holy moderation and abstinence, that we be not overcome of such delights. And as a safeguard to ourselves in this matter, let us remember the poor. It may be said that in our nation no sooner is a case of real suffering made public than contributions flow in on all sides; and yet do our public prints reveal, almost daily, abuses of the very law by which we provide for poor and indigent persons, which ought to bring to our remembrance more keenly than it does that cumulative sin of Sodom and her daughters, Neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and needy.
3. In regard of the disposition to abundance of idleness, which is increasing, I believe, daily, to which all the incidents of our national prosperity minister, and which must in the end issue in the disturbance of our tranquillity, it is not that you here can do anything to stem that torrent of self-indulgence which is flowing in upon us, especially in the lowest orders, whose tastes are the coarsest, and whose wills through ignorance are the most perverse; but you can resist the tendency to it in yourselves; you can endure this hardness at least, of girding up your loins to do the work which God has appointed for you in the world, as men who believe that it is their duty, required of them by the laws of true religion and sound morality. (T. L. Claughton, M. A.)
The bread of idleness demoralising
Honest work is the best employment for fallen man; and the bread of idleness breeds trouble in those that eat it. This is often illustrated in the luxuriant affluence of tropical vegetation. Mr. Dilke believes that the banana plant is one of the greatest curses of tropical countries, because it will support life with no labour. It grows as a weed, and hangs down its bunches of ripe tempting fruit into your lap as you lie in its cool shade. The terrible results of the plentiful possession of this tree are seen in Ceylon, at Panama, in the coast lands of Mexico, and at Auckland in New Zealand. At Pitcairns island the plantain grove has beaten the missionary from the field; there is much lip Christianity, but no practice to be got from a people who possess the fatal plant. The much-abused cocoanut cannot come near it as a devils agent. Such are the results of eating the bread of idleness. (R. A. Bertram.)
Idle and aimless living
Some time ago I read in a paper of a gentleman being brought up before the magistrate. What was the charge against him? Nothing very serious, you will say. He was found wandering in the fields. He was asked where he was going, and he said he was not going anywhere. He was asked where he came from, and he said he did not know. They asked him where his home was, and he said he had none. They brought him up for wandering as what? a dangerous lunatic. The man who has no aim or object in life, but just wanders about anywhere or nowhere, acts like a dangerous lunatic, and assuredly he is not morally sane. What! Am I aiming at nothing? Have I all this machinery of life, making up a vessel more wonderful than the finest steamboat, and am I going nowhere? My heart throbs are the pulsing of a divinely arranged machinery: do they beat for nothing? Do I get up every morning, and go about this world, and work hard, and all for nothing which will last? As a being created of God for noblest purposes, am I spending my existence in a purposeless manner? How foolish! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Prosperity tests character
The soundness of a vessel is not seen when it is empty, but when it is filled with water, then we shall see whether it will leak or no. (Manton.)
It is in our prosperity that we are tested. Men are not fully discovered to themselves till they are tried by fulness of success. Praise finds out the leak of pride, wealth reveals the flaw of selfishness, and learning discovers the leak of unbelief. Davids besetting sin was little seen in the tracks of the wild goats, but it became conspicuous upon the terraces of his palace. Success is the crucible of character. Hence the prosperity which some welcome as an unmixed favour may far more rightly be regarded as an intense form of test illustrations and meditations. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The folly and danger of pride
I. The sinfulness and danger of pride.
1. Pride is, as far as we know, the first sin that ever was committed. It seems to have been the leading transgression in the defection of fallen angels.
2. Pride renders persons, in a special manner, hateful and abominable in the sight of God (Pro 8:13; Jam 4:6; 1Pe 5:5).
3. Pride is productive of other sins. Hence springs covetousness (Hab 2:5), persecution (Psa 10:2), strifes and quarrels (Pro 13:10).
4. Pride is a destructive sin. It is a presage of the ruin of those in whom it reigns (Pro 16:18). It produces shame (Pro 11:2). Sodom (Gen 19:24-25). Haughty Pharaoh and his hosts (Exo 14:27-28). Haman (Est 7:10). Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:32-33). Herod (Act 12:23).
II. Some remedies against it.
1. Endeavour to acquire the knowledge of your own meanness and sinfulness, and of the holiness and majesty of God; for by comparing yourselves with Him you will sink into nothing in your own esteem.
2. Be persuaded of the excellency of humility, the grace opposite to pride, and be clothed with it (1Pe 5:5).
3. Consider well the examples of humility set before you in the sacred Scriptures. Abraham, Jacob, David, Agur, Paul, and many others; yea, the holy angels fall down before the throne in lowest adoration; but, above all, the example of Jesus Christ (Php 2:5).
4. Understand that all your natural and acquired abilities are the gifts of God. Talents intrusted to your care and management (1Co 4:7). (Pulpit Assistant.)
Idlers
I. Idlers are generally careless. It is said that a stitch in time saves nine. But the idler seldom takes the stitch in time. He is careless in his habits, careless over his soul, and careless about everything. An idle man thinks any way of doing a thing will do if it gets done. He has not sufficient interest to take pains with his work. Whatever you do for Christ, do it well; because God sees your work. He not only looks on the work of stupendous magnitude which is being done by an angel; but He also sees you at your post of deacon and helper and teacher and visitor.
II. Idlers are often sinful. Experience proves this. An English proverb tells us that, An idle brain is the devils workshop,–and it is confirmed by an old Latin proverb, which says, Evil thoughts intrude in an unemployed mind as naturally as worms generate in a stagnant pond. Let me show how idle Christians become sinful. You join a church, but that is all you do for Christ; you never speak a word to the perishing, never visit the sick. Your soul is an empty spiritual house, which the devil uses as a purified workshop where he invents sinful thoughts and wicked actions.
III. Idlers are always miserable. Another old English proverb tells us that, The used key is always bright. But the key which hangs on the nail soon becomes rusted. And your soul will soon rust unless you employ it in good work. Do not allow yourself to be even for only half an hour without finding something useful to do.
IV. Idlers soon tire of work. Some people only pray when they are compelled by misfortune. They soon tire of what is to them the task of prayer. An idle prayer gets nothing; it is like a rusted sword.
V. Idlers always mean well.
VI. Idlers are often of a kindly disposition. They are too lazy to be angry. But they are always ready to do a good turn, if it does not last too long. Christians belong to a life-saving institution. What would you think of the lifeboat men if they sat smoking their pipes the shore when there was a wreck crowded with human beings at the entrance of the harbour? Christians, there are human wrecks about! Come to the rescue! (W. Birch.)
Idleness
Of the various evils to which mankind are subject, few steal upon the soul with such fatal security, and deprive us at once of dignity, of happiness, and virtue, as Idleness. To active crimes that annoy the peace of others, even the most hardened sinner is forced to be awake; but against the still, corroding vices of the heart, that chiefly affect ourselves, we are seldom guarded, except by the voluntary exercise of our own reason, or the friendly admonitions of others.
1. If we look up to the great Creator, as to the source of all perfections, and contemplate His wisdom and His goodness in His works, we shall find that no living example of Idleness or inactivity is ordained by His Providence. All seem working together, and gradually fulfilling some wise and beneficent purpose, which He has appointed. While the face of nature presents us with this general scene of action, shall man remain, in contradiction to the will of heaven, in the rest and sloth of Idleness? Nothing could degrade him more in that scale of being in which he was intended to hold so distinguished a rank. There are active duties allotted to every human being; and the fulfilling of them with cheerfulness and diligence should form no inconsiderable portion of our happiness. While some are assiduously providing for their own household, by following their respective avocations, others may be engaged in laudable attempts to extend the boundaries of science, and to increase the comforts of social life;–while many are anxiously employed in protecting the helplessness of infancy, and in forming the manners of childhood, a few, whom fortune has placed above these humble duties, might fill the offices of state with advantage; and, by their industry, their virtues, and their wisdom, greatly contribute to the general welfare.
2. In a state of indolence are engendered many evils and many sorrows. Among the lower classes of the community Idleness is productive of misery and guilt in every varied form. The ties of every duty, indeed, will be but slightly felt by him who gives himself up to Idleness. His predominant vice gradually undermines his principles, and spreads licentiousness through his character. If a man of this description have a family, all bred up under the contagious influence of his vices, it is impossible to tell how far and wide the stream of corruption will spread. So much is Idleness to be dreaded in its consequences when it infects the poor. If we consider those of middle life, who might be said to possess the object of Agurs prayer, and to have neither poverty nor riches, we shall perceive the same vice diffusing its miseries. Under the pleasing delusion of comfort and of ease we may observe some quitting the active scenes of life, which habit had rendered familiar, and almost natural, in pursuit of happiness in retirement. But it is not every mind that is formed or prepared for the enjoyment of solitude. A languid discontent and a peevish neglect of ordinary comforts soon lead to sensuality and excess of every kind. Self-indulgence is the last idol of the heart; and the short remnant of life is often divided between the feebleness or pain of disease and the stupors of intoxication. To those who may not be in danger of gross and sensual vices, Idleness still brings with it distresses that ought to be dreaded. If temptation from the body should be resisted, it seldom fails to fasten on the mind. The human frame is so constituted as to require frequent alternations of action and of rest. The animal functions cannot be properly performed without them; and how these affect the mind is well known. It may be remarked, however, that even excess of labour is not so injurious as excess of ease. Idleness, indeed, completely disqualifies us for every rational enjoyment. One chief pleasure in human life is the blessing of repose after fatigue; or the relaxation of amusements, either solitary or social, after labour. But these, to the idle, are like food to one whose appetite is already cloyed.
3. Let me earnestly exhort you, therefore, to guard against a vice, whose pernicious influence is so extensive, and whose consequences ought to be so much dreaded. Whatever be your situation, reason and religion will point out to you some scheme of duties appropriated to it, which it should be at once your interest and pleasure to fulfil. Life abounds also with such frequent opportunities of doing good, or improving time, that no part of the small portion which remains should be squandered away in trifles; for, next to the vice of Idleness, is that of employing time amiss. It is fortunate, indeed, for the generality, that many of the active duties are forced on them by necessity: for those who have it in their power to do what they please, always do the least; and soon find the ardour of voluntary pursuits gradually subside, till it is wholly lost in a passion for pleasure, or the love of ease. (J. Hewlett, B. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
As I live; an oath which God often confirms his word by, and certainly that may be believed which the God of truth confirms by his own oath. See this oath explained, Eze 5:11.
Hath not done; hath not equalled thy sins, how little soever thou believest this; the disparity lieth in this, she the less, thou the greater sinner.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
48. Sodom (Mt11:24). Judah’s guilt was not positively, but relatively,greater than Sodom’s; because it was in the midst of such higherprivileges, and such solemn warnings; a fortiori, the guilt ofunbelievers in the midst of the highest of all lights, namely, theGospel, is the greatest.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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 marked them with magnificent titles: you shall be a nation of priests unto me, you shall be my inheritance, and besides, my son — my first-born Israel. (Exo 19:6, and Exo 4:22.) We now see how necessary the interposition by oath was to sanction what the Prophet had said. God therefore here swears by himself, because we call him in as a witness and judge when we swear. But he swears by himself or by his life, because, as the Apostle teaches, he has no greater by whom to swear. (Heb 6:13.) Whatever it be, he here prostrates all foolish boasting, by which the Jews were puffed up when he swears by himself, that they were worse than Sodom and her daughters. And here also he calls in like manner the smaller cities daughters of Jerusalem. This was very hard upon the Jews, when the Prophet says and often repeats, thy sister Sodom. But he wounds their feelings far more bitterly, that Sodom was just in preference to Jerusalem: this was indeed intolerable, and yet we see that the Holy Spirit by no means indulges them here. Hence we must not regard what the reprobate are able to bear, but they must be treated according to their own disposition, and since they rise fiercely against God, so also are they to be subdued, and, according to the common proverb, “a hard wedge must be formed for a hard knot.” It now follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
“As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom; pride, fullness of bread and prosperous ease were in her and in her daughters. Nor did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away when I saw them (or ‘as I saw fit’).”
The evil behaviour of Sodom and her sister towns was proverbial. But, says Yahweh, the behaviour of Jerusalem and Israel was worse. Isa 3:9 says of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘the show of their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom.’ Lam 4:6 goes further and says, ‘for the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom.’ Indeed the destruction of Sodom is regularly spoken of in the Old Testament (Deu 29:23; Isa 1:9; Jer 49:18; Amo 4:11) as illustrating the awful judgment of God. And yet Sodom had not sinned as greatly as Israel.
The sins of Sodom are categorised. She was proud, complacent, basking in prosperity, lacking in concern for the poor and needy, arrogant and idolatrous (committed abomination), so much so that God took her people away when He saw them. We know something of her degradation and sexual perversion from Genesis 19, the natural result of following their religion and of the gods they worshipped. But she had not sinned like Jerusalem had done, multiplying their idolatry over so long a period. No wonder they were doomed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 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.
Ver. 48. As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done. ] Heb., If Sodom thy sister hath done, &c.; q.d., Then let me never be trusted more. Here, then, is a double oath taken by God, to assure this people that they had outsinned Sodom – a truth that they would not easily assent to. To this day we cannot get men to believe that their natures are so naught, their lives so lewd, their state so dangerous, as the preachers make them. Their hearts are good, their penny good silver, &c. The prophet Isaiah lost his life, say the Rabbis, for calling the rulers of Jerusalem rulers of Sodom, and the people of Judah people of Gomorrah. Isa 1:10
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
as thou hast done. Sodom does not mean Jerusalem here, but it refers to the Sodom of Gen 19. Sodom had not Jerusalem’s privileges: hence her transgression was less. Compare Eze 16:46, and Mat 11:20-24.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 10:15, Mat 11:24, Mar 6:11, Luk 10:12, Act 7:52
Reciprocal: 1Ki 14:22 – all Lam 4:6 – punishment of the iniquity of the daughter Eze 5:7 – neither have done Eze 16:46 – thy younger sister Eze 16:47 – thou wast Eze 26:6 – her daughters Eze 33:11 – As I live Hos 9:1 – as Mat 11:23 – in Sodom Rom 2:27 – judge
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 16:48. Sodom was considered less guilty than Judah on the principle of
the responsibility due to the differ- eriee in opportunity. Jesus taught this identical lesson, in Mat 11:23-24.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The people of Sodom were not as bad as the people of Jerusalem (cf. Eze 22:15; 2Ki 15:37; 2Ki 16:6; 2Ki 24:2; 2Ch 28:18-19; Isa 3:9; Jer 23:14). The Sodomites were arrogant, affluent, selfish, and great sinners. Material abundance and physical security fostered sexual perversion (Gen 13:13; Gen 18:20; Gen 19:4-5). The Lord removed them when He saw their sins (cf. Lam 4:6; Mat 11:23-24).