Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 16:59
For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
59. The fall of Jerusalem, prophetically assumed in Eze 16:58, is now directly threatened. On the “oath” cf. Deu 29:12; Deu 29:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This is ushered in with a most solemn and sacred asseveration.
I will even deal with thee; either thus: Thou hast despised the laws and privileges of my covenant with thee, and I will despise all thy pretensions to my favour by virtue of my covenant; it is mutual, and who breaks it forfeits all benefit by it. Or, deal with thee according as thou hast done to other punished sinners, over which thou hast insulted and condemned.
Hast despised the oath; by wilful and contemptuous despite hast perjured thyself, which is a sin the nations about thee could not be guilty of, for they were not, thou only wast, in covenant with me. Or else, Thou hast contemptuously slighted my bounty and grace, and my faithfulness and truth, and bound thyself by covenant with idols and idolaters, though I had so expressly forbidden them.
The covenant, made in Horeb.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
59. the oaththe covenantbetween God and Israel (Deu 29:12;Deu 29:14). As thou hast despisedit, so will I despise thee. No covenant is one-sided; where Israelbroke faith, God’s promise of favor ceased.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For thus saith the Lord God,…. And what he says may be depended upon as truth, and what will certainly come to pass:
I will even deal with thee as thou hast done; reward them according to their works; or execute the law of retaliation upon them; and reject them, as they had rejected him; and cast them off from being his people, since they had forsook him as their God; they being the aggressors and transgressors of the covenant, he was under no obligation by virtue of that to bless and protect them:
which hath despised the oath by breaking the covenant; the covenant at Mount Sinai; or which was made in the plains of Moab, which had an oath annexed to it, De 29:12; but by breaking the covenant, which they did by their many abominations, they despised the oath by which they were sworn to keep it; and therefore it was but just with God to do with them as they had done with him and his covenant. The words are by some rendered, “I might even deal with thee as thou hast done” i, c. I should be justified in so doing, and you could not justly complain of me but I will not, as follows:
i “ego quidem agerem tecum, quemadmodum fecisti mecum”, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Here, also, God meets the false objection by which the Jews might strive with him; for whatever they were, yet God had entered into covenant with them. They might, therefore, fly to this refuge, that God had bound himself in covenant with them, since he had adopted Abraham with his seed. Although they had provoked God’s anger a thousand times, yet this exception remained, that God ought to stand to his agreement, and not to look at what they had deserved by their ingratitude, but rather to be consistent with his promises. Now, therefore, he returns to this cavil, and says that he is free to break the covenant since they have done so first. I will do, says he, to thee as thou has done. We see, therefore, that the calumny is here repelled by which the Jews could obliquely defame God, as they were accustomed to do, as if he had rendered his covenant void. He says, then, that in agreement it is customary for a person, when deceived, no longer to be necessarily bound to a perfidious breaker of agreements; for covenanting requires mutual faith: but the Jews had violated their agreement, and reduced it to nothing. Hence, through their perfidy and wickedness, God had acquired the liberty of rejecting them, and of no longer reckoning them among his people. Hence, as in the last verse, he said that the Jews paid a just penalty; so now, he adds specially, that he could not be condemned for bad faith in departing from his agreement, because he had to deal with traitors and covenant-breakers who had rendered void their agreement: for there is no covenant when either party declines it. I will do, therefore, to thee as you has done, namely, because you have despised an oath, so as to render the covenant void Here God enlarges upon the crime of revolt, because the Jews had not only dissipated the covenant, but had despised an oath. אלה, aleh, signifies both an oath and a curse; (Deu 27:0😉 hence some think that the Prophet here looks to the curses by which the law was sanctioned, which I willingly adopt. But we must remark what I have already said, that their criminality is increased, because the Jews had not only acted falsely, but had also set at naught that solemn oath by which they had bound themselves. For as God promised that he would be their God, so Moses stipulated in his name that the people should remain obedient to him, and they all answered, Amen; (Lev 26:0.) A punishment was announced, and such as ought to have terrified them. For the Jews then to neglect this covenant as a mere trifle, was the act of brutal stupidity. Whence we see that their crime was doubled, when the Prophet accuses them of not only being truce-breakers, but also of wantonly deriding God, and of treating their own solemn oath, by which they had bound themselves, as a childish action. It follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(59) In breaking the covenant.This was the especial point of the heinousness of the sin of the Jews, and the one which so greatly aggravated their guilt. The sin was necessarily proportioned to the light against which it had been committed. (Comp. Joh. 9:39; Joh. 9:41; Joh. 15:22; Joh. 15:24.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
59. I will even deal with thee as thou hast done The covenant which Israel has broken is now by Jehovah also declared annulled. (See Eze 16:8 and Deu 29:12.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For thus says the Lord Yahweh, “I will even deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in the breaking of the covenant.”
Because they have despised the oath they made to God, by breaking the covenant, God will deal with them accordingly. He will initiate the curses of the covenant (Deu 27:15-26). Both the marriage covenant and the Sinai covenant are in mind here, the one as a picture, the other as the reality.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 16:59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
Ver. 59. I will even deal with thee. ] I will avenge upon thee the quarrel of my covenant. Lev 26:25
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
oath . . . covenant. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 29:12, Deu 29:14). These words are thus found together here, and in Eze 17:13, Eze 17:16, Eze 17:18, Eze 17:19; but nowhere else in Scripture.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will: Eze 7:4, Eze 7:8, Eze 7:9, Eze 14:4, Isa 3:11, Jer 2:19, Mat 7:1, Mat 7:2, Rom 2:8, Rom 2:9
which: Eze 17:13-16, Exo 24:1-8, Deu 29:10-15, Deu 29:25, 2Ch 34:31, 2Ch 34:32, Isa 24:5, Jer 22:9, Jer 31:32
Reciprocal: Lev 26:15 – break Deu 4:23 – lest ye forget Psa 44:17 – dealt Pro 2:17 – forgetteth Jer 11:10 – the house of Israel Eze 17:16 – whose oath Eze 20:37 – I will Hos 6:7 – transgressed Hos 8:1 – transgressed Zec 11:10 – that Heb 8:9 – they continued
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 16:59. As thou hast done denotes the reason for dealing out the punishment to Judah; that it will be what her conduct deserved.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
16:59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the {l} oath in breaking the covenant.
(l) When you broke the covenant which was made between you and me, as in Eze 16:8 .