Ezekiel 16:47

Did Israel imitate the heathen or not?

PROBLEM: In Ezekiel 5:7, the Israelites were condemned because they had “multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around” them. Yet, here in Ezekiel 16:47 they were condemned by God who said, “You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations.”

SOLUTION: There are two possible explanations of this discrepancy. Some scholars hold that the Israelites had imitated the pagan nations in some regards, but not in all. They had not gone so far as to incur the same judgment of God as the heathen around them, even though their present course was not consistent with God’s Law.