Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 16:60
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
60. The Lord will substitute for the old covenant which was broken an “everlasting” covenant, cf. ch. Eze 37:26; Isa 54:9-10; Isa 55:3; Jer 31:35-36; Jer 32:40; Jer 33:20-22. The covenant will be everlasting because he will forgive their sins (Jer 31:34), and write his law (Jer 31:33), and put his fear (Jer 32:40) in their hearts; giving them a new heart and putting his spirit within them, Eze 36:26. On “days of thy youth” cf. Jer 2:2, and Isa 54:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The promise of restoration must almost have sounded as strangely as the threat of punishment, including as it did those whom Judah hated and despised Eze 16:61. The covenant of restoration was not to be like the old covenant. Not by thy covenant, but by My covenant. The peoples covenant was the pledge of obedience. That had been found ineffectual. But the covenant of God was by promise Gal 3:17. See
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 60. I will remember my covenant] That is, the covenant I made with Abraham in the day of thy youth, when in him thou didst begin to be a nation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord having denounced a perpetual punishment to the stubborn, impenitent body of the Jewish nation, he doth now promise to the remnant that they shall be remembered and obtain covenanted mercy, which makes up the last part of the chapter.
I will remember: properly neither remembering nor forgetting is in God, who is omniscient; but after the manner of man this is spoken of God, who is said to remember when he makes it appear that he hath regard to us, as Psa 20:3, and blesseth us.
My covenant; in which I promised I would not utterly cast off the seed of Israel, nor fail to send the Messiah, the Redeemer, who Should turn away iniquity from Jacob.
With thee; in the loins of Abraham, and solemnly renewed after their coming out of Egypt, which is the time called the days of thy youth, Isa 44:2; 46:3; Eze 16:43.
Establish; confirm and ratify, it shall be sure and unfailing.
Everlasting, i.e. of a very long continuance, as to that part of the covenant which respecteth their condition in the Land of Promise, or Canaan; but in what is spiritual, and containeth heavenly things, it shall be absolutely everlasting, Jer 31:31-34.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
60. The promise here burstsforth unexpectedly like the sun from the dark clouds. With all herforgetfulness of God, God still remembers her; showing that herredemption is altogether of grace. Contrast “I will remember,”with “thou hast not remembered” (Eze 16:22;Eze 16:43); also “Mycovenant,” with “Thy covenant” (Eze 16:61;Psa 106:45); then the effectproduced on her is (Eze 16:63)”that thou mayest remember.” God’s promise was one ofpromise and of grace. The law, in its letter,was Israel’s (thy) covenant, and in this restrictedview was long subsequent (Ga 3:17).Israel interpreted it as a covenant of works, which she whileboasting of, failed to fulfil, and so fell under its condemnation(2Co 3:3; 2Co 3:6).The law, in its spirit, contains the germ of the Gospel; theNew Testament is the full development of the Old, the husk of theouter form being laid aside when the inner spirit was fulfilled inMessiah. God’s covenant with Israel, in the person of Abraham, wasthe reason why, notwithstanding all her guilt, mercy was, and is, instore for her. Therefore the heathen or Gentile nations must come toher for blessings, not she to them.
everlasting covenant(Eze 37:26; 2Sa 23:5;Isa 55:3). The temporary forms ofthe law were to be laid aside, that in its permanent and”everlasting” spirit it might be established (Jer 31:31-37;Jer 32:40; Jer 50:4;Jer 50:5; Heb 8:8-13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth,…. The covenant made with them at Sinai, quickly after they came out of Egypt, when they were, both as a body politic and ecclesiastical, in their infant state; for, as Kimchi says, all the while they were in Egypt, and until they, came into the land of Canaan, were called the days of their youth; and to this covenant, which had the nature of a matrimonial contract, the, prophet refers when he speaks of the “love” of their “espousals”, and the “kindness” of their “youth”, Jer 2:2; this covenant the Lord remembered, and made good his part, though they neglected theirs; and it was particularly remembered when Christ was made under this law, and became the fulfilling end of it to his people; yielding perfect obedience to it, and bearing the penalty of it in their room and stead; for here begins a declaration of the grace and mercy of God to the remnant, according to the election of grace, which were among this degenerate people, and whom the Lord had a special regard unto:
and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant; the covenant of grace, made with the Messiah and his spiritual seed; which is confirmed of God in Christ; ordered in all things and sure; whose promises are yea and amen in Christ; and the blessings of it, the sure mercies of David; a covenant that shall never be broken, made void, or removed; but will continue for ever. This is the new covenant, or the covenant of grace, as exhibited and administered under the New Testament; see Heb 8:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Mercy in Reserve; Promise of Mercy. | B. C. 593. |
60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. 61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant. 62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: 63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.
Here, in the close of the chapter, after a most shameful conviction of sin and a most dreadful denunciation of judgments, mercy is remembered, mercy is reserved, for those who shall come after. As was when God swore in his wrath concerning those who came out of Egypt that they should not enter Canaan, “Yet” (says God) “your little ones shall;” so here. And some think that what is said of the return of Sodom and Samaria (Eze 16:53; Eze 16:55), and of Jerusalem with them, is a promise; it may be understood so, if by Sodom we understand (as Grotius and some of the Jewish writers do) the Moabites and Ammonites, the posterity of Lot, who once dwelt in Sodom; their captivity was returned (Jer 48:47; Jer 49:6), as was that of many of the ten tribes, and Judah’s with them. But these closing verses are, without doubt, a previous promise, which was in part fulfilled at the return of the penitent and reformed Jews out of Babylon, but was to have its full accomplishment in gospel-times, and in that repentance and that remission of sins which should then be preached with success to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Now observe here,
I. Whence this mercy should take rise-from God himself, and his remembering his covenant with them (v. 60): Nevertheless, though they had been so provoking, and God had been provoked to such a degree that one would think they could never be reconciled again, yet “I will remember my covenant with thee, that covenant which I made with thee in the days of thy youth, and will revive it again. Though thou hast broken the covenant (v. 59), I will remember it, and it shall flourish again.” See how much it is our comfort and advantage that God is pleased to deal with us in a covenant-way, for thus the mercies of it come to be sure mercies and everlasting (Isa. lv. 3); and, while this root stands firmly in the ground, there is hope of the tree, though it be cut down, that through the scent of water it will bud again. We do not find that they put him in mind of the covenant, but ex mero motu–from his own mere good pleasure, he remembers it as he had promised. Lev. xxvi. 42, Then will I remember my covenant, and will remember the land. He that bids us to be ever mindful of the covenant no doubt will himself be ever mindful of it, the word which he commanded (and what he commands stands fast for ever) to a thousand generations.
II. How they should be prepared and qualified for this mercy (v. 61): “Thou shalt remember thy ways, thy evil ways; God will put thee in mind of them, will set them in order before thee, that thou mayest be ashamed of them.” Note, God’s good work in us commences and keeps pace with his good-will towards us. When he remembers his covenant for us, that he may not remember our sins against us, he puts us upon remembering our sins against ourselves. And if we will but be brought to remember our ways, how crooked and perverse they have been and how we have walked contrary to God in them, we cannot but be ashamed; and, when we are so, we are best prepared to receive the honour and comfort of a sealed pardon and a settled peace.
III. What the mercy is that God has in reserve for them. 1. He will take them into covenant with himself (v. 60): I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant; and again (v. 62), I will establish, re-establish, and establish more firmly than ever, my covenant with thee. Note, It is an unspeakable comfort to all true penitents that the covenant of grace is so well ordered in all things that every transgression in the covenant does not throw us out of the covenant, for that is inviolable. 2. He will bring the Gentiles into church-communion with them (v. 61): “Thou shalt receive thy sisters, the Gentile nations that are found about thee, thy elder and thy younger, greater than thou art and less, ancient nations and modern, and I will give them unto thee for daughters; they shall be founded, nursed, taught, and educated, by that gospel, that word of the Lord, which shall go forth from Zion and from Jerusalem; so that all the neighbours shall call Jerusalem mother, while the church continues there, and shall acknowledge the Jerusalem which is from above, and which is free, to be the mother of us all, Gal. iv. 26. They shall be thy daughters, but not by thy covenant, not by the covenant of peculiarity, not as being proselytes to the Jewish religion and subject to the yoke of the ceremonial law, but as being converts with thee to the Christian religion.” Or not by thy covenant may mean, “not upon such terms as thou shalt think fit to impose upon them as conquered nations, as captives and homagers to whom thou mayest give law at pleasure” (such a dominion as that the carnal Jews hope to have over the nations); “no, they shall be thy daughters by my covenant, the covenant of grace made with thee and them in concert, as in indenture tripartite. I will be a Father, a common Father, both to Jews and Gentiles, and so they shall become sisters to one another. And, when thou shalt receive them, thou shalt be ashamed of thy own evil ways wherein thou wast conformed to them. Thou shalt blush to look a Gentile in the face, remembering how much worse than the Gentiles thou wast in the day of thy apostasy.”
IV. What the fruit and effect of this will be. 1. God will hereby be glorified (v. 62): “Thou shalt know that I am the Lord. It shall hereby be known that the God of Israel is Jehovah, a God of power, and faithful to his covenant; and thou shalt know it who hast hitherto lived as if thou didst not know or believe it.” It had often been said in wrath, You shall know that I am the Lord, shall know it to your cost; here it is said in mercy, You shall know it to your comfort; and it is one of the most precious promises of the new covenant which God has made with us that all shall know him from the least to the greatest. 2. They shall hereby be more humbled and abased for sin ( v. 63): “That thou mayest be the more confounded at the remembrance of all that thou hast done amiss, mayest reproach thyself for it and call thyself a thousand times unwise, undutiful, ungrateful, and unlike what thou wast, and mayest never open thy mouth any more in contradiction to God, reflection on him, or complaints of him, but mayest be for ever silent and submissive because of thy shame.” Note, Those that rightly remember their sins will be truly ashamed of them; and those that are truly ashamed of their sins will see great reason to be patient under their afflictions, to be dumb, and not open their mouths against what God does. But that which is most observable is, that all this shall be when I am pacified towards thee, saith the Lord God. Note, It is the gracious ingenuousness of true penitents that the clearer evidences and the fuller instances they have of God’s being reconciled to them the more grieved and ashamed they are that ever they have offended God. God is in Jesus Christ pacified towards us; he is our peace, and it is by his cross that we are reconciled, and in his gospel that God is reconciling the world to himself. Now the consideration of this should be powerful to melt our hearts into a godly sorrow for sin. This is repenting because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The prodigal, after he had received the kiss which assured him that his father was pacified towards him, was ashamed and confounded, and said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. And the more our shame for sin is increased by the sense of pardoning mercy the more will our comfort in God be increased.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Because God here promises that he would be propitious to the Jews, some translate the former verse as if it had been said, “Shall I do with thee as you have done?” or, I would do as you have done, unless I had been mindful; but that is too forced in my opinion. I have no doubt that the Prophet restrains himself, so to speak, and directs his discourse peculiarly to the elect, of whom we spoke yesterday. Hitherto he had regarded the whole body of the people which was abandoned, and hence he put before them nothing but despair. But he now turns himself to the election of grace, of which Paul speaks, (Rom 11:5😉 and for this reason promises them that God would be mindful of his covenant, though he would not restore the whole people promiscuously. For the body on the whole must perish; a small band only was reserved. We know, therefore, that this promise was not common to all the sons of Abraham who were his offspring according to the flesh, but it was peculiar to the elect alone. God therefore pronounces, that he would be mindful of his covenant which he had made with that people in their youth, by which words he signifies, that his pity should not go forth except from the covenant. For God always recalls the faithful, as it were, to the fountain, lest they should claim anything as their right, or imagine this or that to be the cause of God’s being reconciled to them. He shows, therefore, that this pity has no other foundation than the covenant; and this is the reason why he says, that he would be mindful of his covenant. He now adds, and I will establish a perpetual covenant with thee. Here God promises, without obscurity, a better and more excellent covenant than that ancient one already abolished through the people’s fault. This passage, then, cannot be understood except of the new covenant which God has established by the hand of Christ. But these two clauses are so mutually united that they ought to be carefully weighed, namely, that God here gives the hope of a new covenant, and yet teaches us that it originates in the old one already abolished through the people’s fault. Thus we see that the New Testament flows from that covenant which God made with Abraham, and afterwards sanctioned by the hand of Moses. That which is promulgated for us in the Gospel is called the; New Covenant, not because it had no beginning previously, but because it was renewed, and better conditions added; for we know that the Law was abrogated by the New Covenant. Whether it be so or not, the excellence of the New Testament is not injured, because it has its source and occasion in the Old Covenant, and is founded on it. It follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(60) I will remember my covenant.The remembrance of Gods covenant is made the basis of His mercy to His penitent people (Lev. 26:42-45) from the beginning, and it is often spoken of as an everlasting covenant. In the New Testament (Luk. 1:54-55; Luk. 1:72-73, &c.) this covenant is regarded as fulfilled in the Christian dispensation. At the same time, the Christian covenant is described as new in Jer. 31:31-34; it was both the continuation and designed fulfilment of the old, and in its superiority and plainer revelation of the Divine will was new. Hence the contrast between My covenant here and Thy covenant in the following verse. The covenant to be afterwards established shall be an everlasting covenant.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
NEVERTHELESS, THE “EVERLASTING COVENANT” OF JEHOVAH STANDETH SURE,vv. 60-63.
60. An everlasting covenant The old covenant is broken, but Jehovah is ready to make a new and everlasting covenant (Eze 36:26; Eze 37:26; Isa 54:9-10; Isa 55:3; Jer 31:34; Jer 31:36; Jer 32:40; Jer 33:20-22). This covenant will include the despised nations, such as Sodom and Samaria, who in the new spirit of this new testament shall become spiritual (and political?) daughters of Israel (Eze 16:61). What a lofty conception is this which, so many centuries before the breaking down of the wall of partition by the Son of David, could include the Gentile world in God’s best covenant of grace. Surely the prophet to whom Jehovah in such a distant age could reveal such new and splendid truth must have been a mighty spiritual seer!
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The promise of Final Hope. The New Everlasting Covenant.
Once again Ezekiel surprises us by introducing hope in the midst of gloom. He reminds us that God’s purpose behind all that is to come is the final restoration of His people. This is a trait of the book, the shining of a light in the midst of almost unrelieved gloom. Jerusalem must indeed fall, the Temple must indeed be destroyed, the people must indeed go though much turmoil and suffering, hope must almost seem gone, but in the end God’s longsuffering and unmerited love towards His people will be revealed in complete restoration.
“Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you will receive your sisters, your elder sisters and your younger, and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your treaty-making (covenant). And I will establish my covenant with you and you will know that I am Yahweh.”
God will never forget His covenant with His people, made at the very beginning. His love and His promises made there still stand, hindered only by their intransigence. So one day He will establish with them a new covenant, an everlasting covenant.
When this takes place they will think back on their behaviour and be ashamed (compare Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31; Zec 12:10-14), and this covenant will not only include them, but also many ‘sisters’ both older and younger. God’s covenant will not only be for them, but for the world. And it will be none of their doing, nor will it be the result of their political manoeuvrings.
These verses are remarkable in what they reveal. Firstly they indicate that the first covenant, the covenant of Sinai, was insufficient because of man’s weakness and because it was not all inclusive.
Secondly it indicates that the new covenant will be everlasting. There will be no way of annulling it, for it will be brought about by God’s activity and not man’s, and will therefore succeed in its aims. It will thus never cease. We can compare here the words of Jeremiah where he speaks of the new covenant which will be written in men’s hearts, ‘I will put My law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And they will no more teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying “Know Yahweh”, for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, says Yahweh, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more’ (Jer 31:33-34). See also Eze 36:25-32; Eze 11:18-20; Eze 37:26-28; Isa 59:21; Isa 61:8. It promises full, total, and permanent restoration through the powerful working of God by His Spirit in men’s hearts.
Thirdly it excludes man having any part in it except as the recipient. It will not be by man’s treaty-making.
Fourthly it promises that at the last men will be ashamed of what they have been, as they respond with others to the grace of God.
Fifthly it reaches far beyond God’s original people to the whole world, to both old and new nations (the elder sisters and the younger sisters in their plurality go far beyond Sodom and Samaria), in the same way as His covenant with Abraham, for this covenant is the final outworking of that one (Gen 12:3). That covenant, unsought, unmerited, and unconditional, began it all, this one, unsought, unmerited, and unconditional, will be its final realisation.
“And I will establish my covenant with you and you will know that I am Yahweh.” All the way through these past chapters we have had the refrain ‘and you will know that I am Yahweh’, and it has always seemed like a threat, for the point was always that they would know it through judgment on their sins, but now the promise is again given, and the idea is more personal and joyous (I will not say ‘more positive’ because all that God does is positive). Like a wife coming to know her husband whom she hardly knew, so will His people come to know Him in an everlasting relationship.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
What a beautiful and gracious close is this to the whole chapter! Do not fail, Reader, to remark the sole cause of such unparalleled mercy, namely, God’s covenant faithfulness in Christ. Here, as in another example of the kind, the Lord refers it unto this source. Eze 36:16 to the end. And do not fail also to remark, the gracious effects the Lord saith shall take place in the hearts of his people. Shame and confusion of face are blessed tokens of a real reform in the heart. The truly converted sinner, in the moment he pleads forgiveness for Christ’s sake, with all the earnestness of a soul that is seeking it in covenant love and the merits of Jesus, will acknowledge in the same moment his unworthiness of it, and while adoring God and the Lamb in the higher strains of praise, will take shame and confusion of face in the self-loathing and abhorring of himself. See striking instances, Ezr 9 throughout. Luk 15:17-21 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 16:60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Ver. 60. Nevertheless I will remember my covenant. ] Here beginneth the evangelical part of the chapter, which is for the comfort of the elect, who would be frightened to hear those direful threats; like as in a house we cannot beat the dogs but the children will fall to crying.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 16:60-63
60Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. 62Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, 63so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done, the Lord GOD declares.
Eze 16:60-63 YHWH will remember His covenant and restore His people (cf. Gen 17:7; Gen 17:19; Lev 26:11; Lev 26:44-45; Deu 4:31) because of His eternal plan of redemption (see Special Topic: YHWH’s ETERNAL REDEMPTIVE PLAN ).
Notice the reciprocal actions
1. God’s sovereign choices
a. I will remember My covenant with you, Eze 16:60, BDB 269, KB 209, Qal PERFECT, cf. Lev 26:42; Lev 26:45
b, I will establish an everlasting covenant with you, Eze 16:60, BDB 877, KB 1086, Hiphil PERFECT. This is referring to the new covenant of Jer 31:31-34, which is described in Eze 36:22-38
c. when I have forgiven you for all that you have done, Eze 16:63, BDB 497, KB 493, Piel INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT
2. the covenant people’s actions
a. you will remember your ways, Eze 16:62-63; Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31
b. you will be ashamed, Eze 16:62-63; Eze 36:32
Both divine initiative and human repentance are required for covenant!
Eze 16:60 I will establish an everlasting covenant This is surprising because the Mosaic covenant was meant to be perpetual. However, it was also conditional on human obedience. It was the inability for obedience on the part of fallen mankind (cf. Genesis 3), even covenant people, that necessitated a new different approach. The new covenant would be based on divine performance (cf. Isaiah 53 and Eze 36:22-38). It would provide internal motivation for obedience (cf. Jer 31:31-34). The contrast can be seen by comparing Eze 18:30-32 with Eze 36:26-27.
God still wants a righteous people who will reflect His character to the nations, but now the focus has shifted from human performance-based covenant to a divine performance-based covenant. Gratitude and family love replace the wages of a hireling! We serve and obey because we are already accepted! Obedience is not what makes us accepted, but the evidence that we have been accepted (cf. Eph 1:4; Eph 2:8-10; Jas 2:14-26). The goal is Christlikeness!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
everlasting covenant. See notes on Gen 9:16 and lsa. Eze 44:7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will remember: Eze 16:8, Lev 26:42, Lev 26:45, Neh 1:5-11, Psa 105:8, Psa 106:45, Jer 2:2, Jer 33:20-26, Hos 2:15, Luk 1:72
I will establish: Eze 37:26, Eze 37:27, Isa 55:3, 2Sa 23:5, Jer 31:31-34, Jer 32:38-41, Jer 50:5, Hos 2:19, Hos 2:20, Heb 8:10, Heb 12:24, Heb 13:20
Reciprocal: Gen 9:15 – remember Lev 26:44 – break Pro 2:17 – forgetteth Isa 54:4 – thou shalt forget Isa 57:18 – have Jer 31:32 – Not Eze 16:22 – General Eze 16:53 – bring Eze 16:62 – I will Eze 20:37 – I will Dan 9:27 – confirm Hos 1:11 – the children of Judah Rom 5:20 – But Heb 8:8 – covenant
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
GODS COVENANT: ISRAELS WAYS
I will remember Thou shalt remember.
Eze 16:60-61
I. The key to the interpretation of the restoration held out in prospect for Sodom and Samaria and Jerusalem is the undeniably representative character of all three.As this representative character of Judah-Jerusalem is clear in our prophetthat is to say, the Jewish people is represented in this, its characteristic remnantso it is no less to be admitted in reference to Sodom and Samaria. The addition at the outset in every case, and their daughters, by means of which three groups are formed, strips the cities named of their individuality. Both Sodom and Samaria come into view with the prophet merely as regards sin and judgment, and with respect to grace and favour. As regards sin and judgment, they belong to history, and are specialised as regards this historical side of theirs, especially Sodom (Eze 16:49 sq.); with respect to grace and favour, they are received into the promise concerning the Jewish people, not merely to throw important light on that promise, but to characterise it Messianically as a world-wide prospect for humanity in general.
II. Sodom and Samaria set before us, symbolise in general, two sinful states of mankind, which are specially distinguished from each other in this way, that Sodom had sinned and been judged without having the law of the covenant, while Samaria has fallen away from the law of the covenant and exposed herself to judgment. It is not as representing heathendom that Sodom comes into view, but as standing outside the covenant of law; and the difference between Samaria and Jerusalem in respect of the covenant of law, out of which Samaria has fallen, is attested by the mercies which have maintained within Jerusalem and for her the covenant and the law so much longer. If St. Paul writes in Romans 2 that they who have sinned without law perish also without law, and that they who have sinned in the law are judged by the law, the statement is illustrated by Sodom and Samaria as to the prospect for Jerusalem. But because, with Ezekiel, grace and favour shoot up their beams behind and beyond the judgment, the fact that Sodom and Samaria, in connection with their sinning, are lost, serves indeed the purpose, in respect of righteousness, of placing Jerusalemexceeding both as she has done in sin and corruptioneven lower than them, and consequently of humbling her more deeply; but the deeper the humiliation, the deeper shall be the sense of shame, since grace and favour form the last prospect. Sodom must be restored, since she is destroyed; while Samaria would have to be brought back from her misery, since she is in exileif favour, notwithstanding judgment and after judgment, were to be the thing spoken of.
III. But it is just such favour of which God means to speak to us by the mouth of His prophet.This favour is in the case of Jerusalem assigned indeed to the last time, in so far as the Messianic period is the last time; nothing, however, being said of transferring it to the world to come or to the last judgment, nor of its being delayed till the general restitution of all things. The same must hold good of the parallels, Sodom and Samaria. But Eze 16:61 makes it perfectly clear, inasmuch as the grace lying in store is spoken of there as a receiving into the fellowship of the everlasting covenant with Jerusalem; and Sodom and Samaria, just as they appear manifestly as types of humanity to be made partakers of grace, so far as they themselves are concerned, step into the background. That Sodom will be restored is not said by our Lord in St. Matthew, any more than He says that Tyre and Sidon will repent. Where Ezekiel speaks of Sodom and Samaria (just as also of Jerusalem) as cities, localities, Sodom is removed from the face of the earth, Samaria lies waste, the style of expression as to returning to their first estate is merely colouring. The motto with the prophet, which runs through the Old Testament, in gospel terms is this: I am come to seek and to save that which was lost. This is the Messianic world-wide prospect for mankind, as it is symbolised in Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
Illustration
As the adopted child turned from her immortal Lover, became unfaithful to his claims, and sought the fellowship of idle deities and idolatrous nations, so have we turned from God. Oh, what a bitter story of infidelity and self-pleasing is traced on the tablets of memory, and on the books of God! So wayward have we been, fitful and capricious! Now like a flaming fire, and again as cold ashes! It is for this that God has been compelled to chasten us. Those who had not such advantages, and were not called to such a high destiny, have not suffered as we have, just because God has not expended on them what He has on us, and has not yearned after them with the same intense desire. Ask Him to establish unto thee His everlasting covenant.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Eze 16:60. After the chastisement lias reformed the wayward wife, her husband will receive her to himself again. Remember my covenant is a reference to the days of their first love, when the husband pledged his constancy for the young wife. He had never broken that promise though she had betrayed his confidence.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 16:60-63. Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with thee, in the days of thy youth I will yet have some regard for you, because you were formerly my people, by virtue of the covenant that I made with you at your coming out of Egypt. And I will establish with you an everlasting covenant Such a one as shall never be abolished, namely, that of the gospel: see note on Jer 32:40. Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed Thou shalt be affected with a deep sense of, and contrition for, thy former provocations, as a necessary preparation for thy conversion. When thou shalt receive thy sisters Converted with thee to Christianity; when the Gentiles, now strangers, but then sisters, shall be admitted with thee into the Christian Church. And I will give them unto thee for daughters As daughters hearken to, and obey their mothers, so shall the Gentiles, brought into the church of God, hearken to his word, which is there declared, and which first went forth from Jerusalem. Even in the times of the apostles, there was a particular deference paid to the church of Jerusalem, as the mother church of the Christian world: see Rom 15:26-27. Accordingly, she is styled the mother of all churches, by the second general council in their synodical epistle: see Theod., Hist. Ecclesiastes, lib. 5. c. 9. A title which the Church of Rome now assumes, without any pretence from Scripture or antiquity. Lowth. Not by thy covenant Not by that old covenant, which was violated; not by external ceremonies, which were a great part of the first covenant; but by that covenant which writes the law in the believers heart, and puts the fear of God into his inward parts; the covenant which I will make with you, through the mediation of the Messiah; a covenant founded in the divine love, cemented by the blood of Christ, and freed from the yoke of bondage. The first covenant was only for a time, but this shall be for ever. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord Shalt know to thy comfort, that I am Jehovah, the source of being and of blessedness, the God of almighty power, of infinite love, and of inviolable faithfulness, merciful to thy unrighteousness, and remembering thy sins and iniquities no more, Jer 31:34; as conspicuous in my mercies as I was before in my judgments. That thou mayest remember and be confounded That thou mayest acknowledge, and be deeply sensible, how many and great thy transgressions have been, and how great my mercy is in pardoning so many and such aggravated iniquities; and never open thy mouth any more Either to justify thyself, or to condemn others, or to quarrel with thy God; because of thy shame Because shame and sorrow, for thy past sins, will cover thee with confusion. When I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done When I have pardoned all thy transgressions, and am reconciled to thee, notwithstanding thy innumerable provocations. Observe, reader, the more sensible we are of Gods love to us, the more ashamed we are that ever we offended him; and the more our shame for sin is increased, the more will our comfort in God be increased also.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
16:60 Nevertheless I will {m} remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish to thee an everlasting covenant.
(m) That is, out of mercy and love I will pity you and so stand by my covenant though you have deserved the contrary.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The restoration of Jerusalem 16:60-63
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Yet the Lord promised to remember and stand by His promises in the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 12:1-3). He would establish a new, everlasting covenant with His people in the future (cf. Eze 11:18-20; Eze 36:26-28; Eze 37:26-28; Isa 59:21; Isa 61:8; Jer 31:31-34). The New Covenant is an organic outgrowth of the Abrahamic Covenant in that it explains further the blessing aspect of that covenant. It does not have the same relationship to the Mosaic Covenant, which it eventually replaced. In the (far distant) future, when the other cities of Canaan would come under Israel’s authority (ch. 48; Gen 17:7-8; Lev 26:42), the Israelites would remember their sinful ways and feel ashamed (cf. Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31; Zec 12:10-14). Other nations would come under Israel’s authority, not because of her faithfulness to the Mosaic Covenant, but because of God’s grace. [Note: See Martin H. Woudstra, "The Everlasting Covenant in Eze 16:59-63," Calvin Theological Journal 6 (1971):22-48.]
"God can no more help being gracious than He can cease being God. He is the God of all grace, and He always finds a covenant basis on which He can exercise His grace." [Note: Feinberg, p. 92.]