Ezekiel 16:15-34

C. The Infidelity of the Bride 16:15-34

TRANSLATION

(15) But you trusted in your beauty, and committed harlotry because of your reputation, and poured out your harlotries upon all who passed by; it belonged to him. (16) And you took from your garments, and made for yourself high places decked with different colors; and you committed harlotry upon them; they are not coming, and it will not lie. (17) And you took your fair jewels of My gold and My silver which I had given to you, and you made for yourself images of men, and committed harlotry with them. (18) And you took your woven garments, and you covered them; and My oil and My incense you placed before them. (19) And My bread which I gave to you, fine flour and oil and honey which I fed you, you set before them for a sweet savor, and thus it was (oracle of the Lord GOD). (20) And you took your sons and your daughters whom you bore unto Me, and you sacrificed them to them to be devoured. Were your harlotries a small matter, (21) that you slaughtered My children, and gave them up, in causing them to pass (through the fire) to them? (22) And in all of your abominations and harlotries you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, and you were wallowing in your blood. (23) And it came to pass after all your evil woe, woe to You (oracle of the Lord GOD) (24) that you built for yourself a platform, and you made for yourself a high place in every street. (25) At every head of the way you have built your lofty place, and you have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied your harlotries. (26) And you committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh, and you multiplied your harlotry to provoke Me. (27) And behold I have stretched out My hand against you, and I have diminished your allowance, and I have delivered you into the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistine who are ashamed of your lewd way. (28) And you committed harlotry with the Assyrians without having enough; you committed harlotry with them, and yet you were not satisfied. (29) And you multiplied your harlotries with the land of merchants, Chaldea, but yet you were not satisfied, (30) How weak is your heart (oracle of the Lord GOD) when you do all these things, the work of a wanton harlot. (31) When you built your platforms at the head of every way, and have made your lofty place in every street, and you were not like the harlot who seeks more pay. (32) O woman that commits adultery, who takes strangers instead of her husband! (33) To all harlots gifts are given; but you have given your gifts to all your lovers, and you have bribed them to come unto you from round about in your harlotries. (34) And you are different from other women, in that you solicited to harlotry, and you were not solicited, and in that you paid the wages of prostitution rather than the wages of prostitution being given to you, and so you were different.

COMMENTS

The beautiful bride proved unfaithful to the marriage covenant with God. Instead of trusting Him she began to trust in her beauty, i.e., her material prosperity. She began to commit harlotry with foreign nations and their gods thus hoping to endear herself to her neighbors. She readily responded to every proffer of love (Ezekiel 16:15), i.e., she took up with every form of idolatry. The garments given to her by her divine Husband (i.e., material blessings) were used to make and decorate high places where Israel pursued her idolatrous lust. The last expression in Ezekiel 16:16 is difficult they (feminine) are not coming and it (masculine) will not be. Perhaps these words express disgust at the lewdness of Israel.

The jewelry of gold and silver had been melted down and fashioned into idols (cf. Hosea 2:10) images of men with whom the adulterous wife might commit her harlotry (Ezekiel 16:17). The images were dressed with the rich garb with which God had bedecked His bride. Oil and incense, gifts which God had given to His people were given as offerings to the lifeless idols (Ezekiel 16:18). The rich foods God had given His bride were set before these idols in various pagan rituals to serve as a sweet savor, i.e., something to satisfy the appetite of the gods. Thus if was, God says; it cannot be denied (Ezekiel 16:19).

As God's wife, Israel had a responsibility to rear her children in the fear of the Lord. But some of these precious little ones had been slaughtered and burned by their parents in the worship of the god Molech.[319] Not satisfied with the lewd rites of Canaanite worship, Israel went the whole way even to this horrible extreme[320] (Ezekiel 16:20-21). The bride of God had sunk to this extreme because she failed to remember the days of her youth. If from time to time she had called to mind those humble origins she surely would not have been guilty of these abominations (Ezekiel 16:22).

[319] Warnings against this practice are found in Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 18:24 and Deuteronomy 18:9 f. Ahaz of Judah seems to have introduced the practice (2 Kings 16:3) and during the reign of Manasseh the practice was widespread (2 Kings 21:6).

[320] Ezekiel 16:21 suggests that the children were first slain and then burnt. Pass through the fire appears to be a euphemism for child immolation.

As the prophet contemplates the fate in store for Israel as a result of her wickedness he bursts forth in a lament Woe, Woe unto you! (Ezekiel 16:23). He then expands upon the theme of the wickedness of Israel. In every street platforms or pedestals for various images could be found (Ezekiel 16:24). At every head of the way, i.e., crossroad, their idols were conspicuous. The bride of God had put her beauty to an abominable use. She had spread her feet, i.e., committed prostitution, with every one who passed by, i.e., she had taken up with every pagan cult with which she had come in contact (Ezekiel 16:25). Israel did not even confine her spiritual harlotries to Canaanite worship ways. Through foreign alliances she became involved with the gods of more distant powers. Spiritual harlotry with the sensuous (great of flesh) Egyptians whose worship was characterized by obscene idolatries was perhaps the climax of Israel's degeneration. The tendency to worship so many foreign gods was motivated not so much by their lust for forbidden forms of worship as by a subconscious desire to provoke and defy the Lord (Ezekiel 16:26).

Because of these acts of infidelity, God stretched out His hand over Israel for the purpose of inflicting punishment. As a betrayed husband might withdraw or reduce an unfaithful wife's maintenance (cf. Hosea 2:11), so God reduced the portion He had originally assigned to Israel. The reference here is probably to the territorial incursions by foreign nations against Israel from the days of Solomon to the time of Ezekiel. At the time the prophet spoke these words tiny Judah occupied only a fraction of the territory which God had given to Israel of old. So weak were the people of God that their ancient arch-enemies the Philistine[321] were now able to satisfy their desire for revenge. Sarcastically Ezekiel adds that even the ruthless Philistine were ashamed of the disgraceful conduct of Israel (Ezekiel 16:27). Assyria and Chaldea, the two great commercial centers, number among Israel's lovers; but still the harlotrous wife could not find spiritual satisfaction (Ezekiel 16:28-29).

[321] It is generally understood that daughters of the Philistine refers to Philistine cities.

How morally weak and degenerate was the heart of God's once lovely wife! She had become a wanton (lit., domineering) harlot. (Ezekiel 16:30). Unlike the ordinary harlot, the profit motive did not figure in Israel's spiritual liaison. Israel prostituted herself not for gain but to satisfy her unbridled lust (Ezekiel 16:31). The picture is pathetic. A woman unwilling to be a wife to her husband, but anxious for intimate association with strange gods and foreign lands (Ezekiel 16:32). Rather than receiving gifts as is common with women of the street, Israel actually bribed lovers, i.e., she solicited alliances with foreign nations (Ezekiel 16:33-34).

God had a word for His harlotrous wife (Ezekiel 16:35). Because of all her spiritual adultery with foreign nations, her abominable idols and her revolting sacrifice of little children to those idols, (Ezekiel 16:36) God would bring judgment upon the land. Israel's lovers nations with whom she had a treaty and those other nations with whom treaties had been broken would be gathered against Judah. Those nations would be used of God to bring national humiliation upon the people of God. The land will be stripped bare by these forces and her nakedness thus will be exposed to public view (Ezekiel 16:37).

Adulteresses and child murderers were judged most harshly under the Law of Moses. That same severe judgment was now about to be brought against Judah. Only the blood of the guilty could assuage the divine fury and jealousy (Ezekiel 16:38). To accomplish that judgment, God would use foreign nations, those who once were Israel's lovers. This ruthless force would destroy the eminent places used in idolatrous rites. Enemy soldiers would strip the adulterous wife of clothing and jewels and leave her naked, i.e., Judah would see her buildings destroyed and her wealth carried away (Ezekiel 16:39).