Ezekiel 6:9

They that escape; some of them, not every one of them, for several of the escaped did not bethink themselves, as appears, Jer 47 $ 48$ 49$. Shall remember me; my precepts which they violated, my mercies which they abused, my threats which they despised, my promises which they refused, my prophets whom they persecuted, my judgments which have executed; and shall consider and return, and seek me in their affliction. Among the nations: in their own land they forgot and sinned, in a strange land they shall remember and weep; so the remnant is bettered by afflictions. At liberty they were captives to sin and idols; when in captivity they shall shake off that bondage, and become my servants. Because I am broken, & c. Here we meet very different reading. The Chaldee paraphrase and Syriac version read it actively, so does the Latin Vulgate, because, or when, I have broken, &c.; and if this vary from the grammatical construction, yet it carrieth very good sense, and agreeable to the foregoing words. Their whorish hearts would still have forgotten God, if he had not broken their hearts with judgments; but they remembered when broken, and this breaking was the occasion or cause of their remembering God. Others read this passively, as our version, and as the Hebrew form most usually beareth, I am broken. It is an allusion to a misused husband whom a treacherous wife hath broken; either,

1. His peace and content.

2. His love and tenderness.

3. His patience and forbearance.

4. His purposes.

5. His offers and promises. So that, as overcome with grief and anger, he doth, contrary to his natural disposition, lay aside his courting her love, and in his jealousy takes revenge, and then she bethinks herself. So here. Their whorish heart; their heart of whoredom, i.e. idolatrous heart, which was full of that sin, addicted to it, delighted in it, and wedded to it. Hath departed from me: idolatrous hearts do actually depart from God, as an adulterous wife actually departs from her husband. With their eyes: as it vexeth a husband to see his wife fixing her eyes with delight on the adulterer, and turning them with scorn from him, as this breaks the husband's patience; so in this case, Israel's eyes were to idols, and delighted in them, expected help from them, were ready to serve them; all which broke their Husband s, i.e. God s, patience, and provoked his severe revenges. Loathe themselves; with a mixture of grief towards God offended, of indignation against themselves offending, of abhorrence of the offence, and shame before all for it, shall they show their repentance. For the evils; wickednesses, or, as Psalms 32:5, iniquities of sin; the deepest and darkest part of sin, the complicated evils that were in each act. In all their abominations: it is a hypocrite's repentance which is but for some; this of the reserved remnant shall be sound, it is for all abominations, for all kinds of their abominations.