Ezekiel 16

After explaining the symbol of the vine, the LORD speaks a new parable which Ezekiel is to pass on to the people. This parable covers the entire history of Jerusalem: its origin, rise, beauty and glory, apostasy and judgment, salvation and final blessing. It is a comprehensive explanation of the parable of the short previous chapter.

This chapter is best read in one breath, for it is one story. It contains a gripping and realistic description of an extraordinary nature, some of the details of which may seem strange to us. We see the repulsive picture of a prostitute. However, there is no picture that more clearly captures the reality of the city chosen by God that turns away from the one true God despite its exceptional privileges. The LORD presents this picture to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for this very reason, so that they will recognize how repulsive the sin of unfaithfulness is in His sight.

The word of the LORD comes to Ezekiel (verse 1). The LORD addresses him as “son of man” and commands him to make known to Jerusalem her abominations (verse 2). The abominations refer to the idolatry that Jerusalem has committed and is committing and that she must come to see as the LORD sees it, that is as abominations.

The origin of the city is around the year 3000 BC in the land of the Canaanites, the habitat of the Amorites and Hittites (verse 3; Gen 10:15-16). The name of the city was originally Jebus (Jdg 19:10; 1Chr 11:4). The city is reminded of its heathen roots. By her very nature, the city is distinguished in nothing from the heathen and from her inception she has been under the strong influence of the wicked culture of Canaan.

In the time of her beginning, there is nothing attractive in the city (verse 4). On the contrary. She resembles an unwanted child who does not seem worthy of life. The not cutting of the navel cord indicates the certain death for the child. The Hittite mother apparently does not consider it worthwhile to give any care to the child at all; the child is not worth the water for cleansing. It is as worthless as the vine of the previous chapter. Even the rubbing with salt as an idolatrous ritual to protect against evil powers and the wrapping in cloths to protect against the cold are omitted.

No one looks at the city, no one wants to take any care of her (verse 5). No one who looks at it gets a sense of pity to take care of the city. It is a worthless city, which only inspires disgust in others. All one does with the city is throw her out into the open field. The child is not even a foundling. That is how little value the life of the city has in the eyes of others from the moment of her birth. Instead of the attractiveness of what is newborn, there is disgust, and instead of compassion for what is defenseless, there is contempt and rejection. Applied to the history of the people of Israel, this possibly refers to the period of slavery of the people in Egypt.

Then the LORD passes by (verse 6). He seems to be an “accidental” Passerby (compare the Good Samaritan, Lk 10:33). When He sees the child and sees its condition, how it is squirming in its blood and thus dying, He speaks that life-giving word: “Live!” While with the blood the life flows out of the child, He gives life. The wonder of unexpected salvation is repeated with emphasis. The child, forsaken by the parents and given up to death, is accepted by the LORD. He gives it the ability to live. He calls it from death to life, as it were. Applied to the history of Israel, we may have here an allusion to the redemption from Egypt (cf. Exo 2:25; 3:7).

Because of the LORD’s great care, which is first so withheld from the child, it grows up like plants of the field (verse 7). It comes to great bloom and beauty. Thus, the once despised city grows up into one that is compared to a beautiful, marriageable woman, which is indicated by the formed breasts. The hair grows and becomes long, which speaks of dependence. She is dependent on her Savior for everything. She herself possesses nothing; she is naked and bare. Thus Israel was completely dependent on the LORD in Egypt and in the wilderness.

When the LORD passes by the second time, the castaway child whom He has given life out of pity also becomes an object of His love (verse 8). The LORD does not remain her Foster Father, but becomes her Husband. His heart goes out to Jerusalem. In addition to care, He provides the city with protection and covering, of which the “skirt” or “wing” speaks (Rth 3:9; Mt 23:37). Finally, He brings her into the closest relationship with Himself. He establishes a covenant with her and thus she becomes His possession. All this He ratifies with an oath. In the history of Israel we see this at Sinai. This covenant is also expressed with the picture of a marriage (Isa 54:5; Jer 2:2; Hos 2:16,19).

Then He continues to make her beautiful (verses 9-13). We see this happening from the time David conquers the city of Jerusalem (1049 BC) and makes the city the royal capital. That is the time of love. The LORD chooses this city and grants it extraordinary glory.

He bathes her with water to wash off her blood from her (verse 9). Thus she is cleansed from the past. Then He anoints her with oil, expressing the great value she has for Him (cf. Jn 12:3). When we think of bathing and anointing we can also think of preparing a bride for marriage (cf. Rth 3:3; Est 2:12).

Then He puts beautiful clothing on her, the castaway foundling (verse 10; cf. Psa 45:13-14a). He does not give her this clothing to put on herself, but He clothes her. We can think here of all the possible privileges the LORD has given the city. These privileges are like “porpoise skin”, untouchable for corruption. The clothes of “fine linen and … silk” shows the refined and precious nature of her privileges.

After the clothes comes the jewelry (verses 11-12). They are the ornaments of a bride (cf. Gen 24:22). The “beautiful crown” is the bride’s crown, which also shows the royal highness to which she is exalted. Next, the LORD says as it were that she may look in the mirror and then says: “Thus you were adorned” (verse 13). He points her to the gold and silver, the fine linen and silk with which He has clothed her. It must have been a breathtaking sight for her, who had been so rejected and miserable, to see what He had done to her and made of her.

In addition, He gives her the most precious food, the best nourishment for her growth (Deu 32:13-14). The land where she is is a land flowing with milk and honey. Of that food she can enjoy to the fullest. This healthy food also contributes to the development of her beauty. She becomes “exceedingly beautiful”. The LORD has done everything possible to make this despised woman someone suitable for kingship.

The city’s fame extends beyond her national borders (verse 14). The surrounding nations speak of her beauty with admiration. That beauty is not her own, but that of the LORD. He has laid His glory upon her. We see this in the time of Solomon, when the rumor about Solomon “concerning the name of the LORD” is heard as far away as the distant regions (1Kgs 10:1).

Then comes the dramatic change introduced by the word “but” (verse 15). There is a long tirade about the terrible ingratitude she has shown toward the LORD for all the goodness with which He has favored her. After all the benefits and privileges granted, the time comes when she forgets from Whom she has received all that. She begins to rely on her beauty and forgets Him Who granted her that beauty, to Whom she owes it (Deu 32:15).

In her pride and haughtiness she becomes unfaithful to Him and starts acting lewdly, she starts playing the harlot. How deeply she sinks! To every one who passes by, that is, to every people with whom she comes into contact, she pours out her harlotry. Her beauty, which should be only for the LORD, she gives away to strangers. We see that this development begins as early as the days of Solomon. Solomon, with his love for many women, also brings the gods of those women into his home (1Kgs 11:1-8).

What Jerusalem has received from the LORD as an adornment for herself is used to adorn the places where she practices her idolatrous harlotry (verse 16). She acts like the harlots, who are also used to decorate their beds to entice men into fornication (Pro 7:15-17). Her behavior is unparalleled. Here the saying applies that the decay of the best is the worst decay. We hear the grief in the voice of the LORD when He says how she used the beautiful jewels of gold and silver that He had given her to make idols out of them and to bow down before them and thus play the harlot with them (verse 17).

Another part of the beautiful clothing given to her by the LORD she uses to adorn her idols (verse 18; Jer 10:9). In front of these adorned idols she then places “My oil and My incense”. The LORD is set aside, banished, grossly insulted. By thus dealing with all that He has given her in His mercy and His love, no affront is spared Him. Even the food which He has given her and by which she has become so beautiful is offered as a soothing aroma to the idols of the heathen (verse 19). In the words “so it happened”, we hear how deeply the LORD feels grieved.

As if all this abominable harlotry were not enough, she also brings her children, whom she gave birth to Him, as sacrifices to the idols (verse 20). The children who belong to Him by virtue of the covenant (Deu 14:1; Isa 1:2) are taken from Him. They are slaughtered and then offered as burnt offerings (verse 21; 2Kgs 16:3; 17:17; 21:6; Psa 106:37; Jer 32:35).

No parent couple has an absolute right to their children. God gives life and it belongs to Him. Countless parents, however, do not care about God. Even in Christian families, parents often do not think about the fact that they have been given their children to raise them for God (Eph 6:4). Many parents want their children to live up to their ideals so they can show them off. They do not realize that they are sacrificing their children to modern idols in this way.

In committing all these abominations and harlotries, Jerusalem did not think back to her past, what she had been like, and thus not at all to what the LORD did to her afterwards (verse 22). Literally everything Jerusalem owes to the LORD. He, when she lay utterly helpless, naked and bare and squirming in her blood, took care of her with an everlasting love. He saved her from that misery. But she totally forgot about all the benefits.

Are we not also often forgetful? If we forget where we come from and what the Lord has done with us, we will be able to fall into the grossest sins and greatest abominations. This is why it is so important that we say with our hearts: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits” (Psa 103:2).

The evil that Jerusalem practices knows no end (verse 23). The Lord GOD (Adonai Yahweh) pronounces a twofold “woe” over it, so abominable is it to Him. Jerusalem continues idolatry and builds a shrine for herself and makes high place for herself in every square (verse 24). She not only uses already existing high places, but adds new ones at will.

High places are built at the tops of every street, in order to shamelessly indulge in fornication in a spiritual sense (verse 25). Jerusalem is an attractive trading partner, which abominably abuses her attractiveness to establish relations with other peoples. She goes deep into corruption to curry favor with others. She also goes wide into corruption, for from her harlotries she excludes no one.

The LORD lists some of the main harlotries. Jerusalem plays the harlot “with the Egyptians”, that is, she adopts the gods of the Egyptians and serves them (verse 26). This started in the time of King Solomon. Possibly this also refers to the political movement in Israel that took refuge in Egypt and imitated Egyptian customs. The heavily built stature of the Egyptians may have been something for Jerusalem to envy. This is how she wants to look and impress. Jerusalem is importing Egyptian culture, as it were. That is a slap in the face to the LORD, Who wants to dwell in Jerusalem and has redeemed His people from Egypt. Jerusalem provokes Him to anger with her penchant for Egypt.

We, too, must realize that we dishonor the Lord greatly when we give things of the world a place in our lives again. He has rescued us “from this present evil age” (Gal 1:4). How would we somehow seek again that from which He has rescued us and make room in our lives to seek our support from it? We are then like a dog that has returned to its own vomit or a sow that, after washing, returns to the mire to wallow in it again (2Pet 2:22). If we do so, we provoke Him to anger and He will have to discipline us. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful” (2Tim 2:13), meaning faithful to Himself, which means that He will stand against us in His faithfulness if we go a way of unfaithfulness.

The LORD stretches out His hand in judgment against Jerusalem and diminishes her portion of food by allowing the enemy to gain control of the land and consequently of the harvest (verse 27). In the time of the judges, it is primarily the Philistines whom the LORD uses to discipline His people (Jdg 10:7; 15:11; 1Sam 4:1-10). They are Israel’s hereditary enemies at that time and still are. Even they are ashamed of Jerusalem’s lewd conduct. By “the daughters of the Philistines” are meant the cities of the Philistines.

After yielding to the idolatry of Egypt, Jerusalem plays the harlot “with the Assyrians”, that is, she embraces the idols of Assyria (verse 28). These idols are brought into Jerusalem by King Ahaz and King Manasseh (2Kgs 16:7; 21:3). Jerusalem is truly insatiable in her desire for idolatry. Playing the harlot with the Assyrians also refers to the party seeking political and military support from the king of Assyria (2Chr 28:16; Hos 5:13; 7:11).

After Assyria has fallen away as a world power and Babylon holds the world power, Jerusalem seeks trade relations with Chaldea, which is Babylon (verse 29). That opens the door for the entry of Babylonian idolatry. And it sounds like a horrible refrain, that even by this she is not satisfied with idolatry.

The heart of Jerusalem has been utterly captured by harlotry (verse 30). She has become the most shameless of all harlots. She has shamelessly pursued all the gods of the nations and has bowed down before them at every street and square. There she stands with her harlot’s wages in her hand (verse 31). In doing so, she is not even a real harlot who has received money for her disgusting act. She is a woman who is all about playing the harlot, about committing adultery. It is like a woman who offers herself to strange men out of pure lust. It is supreme unfaithfulness to her own Husband, the LORD (verse 32).

Her harlotry is worse than that of an unmarried person because she despises the solemnly promised faithfulness. Jerusalem’s harlotry is all the more heinous because the people belong to the LORD by virtue of their covenant with Him and are bound to serve Him alone. On top of that, the LORD has His dwelling place in this city. There is no other place on earth at that time where people can sacrifice Him than in the temple in Jerusalem.

The gift of a harlot she has in her hand are to be paid to anyone who wants to commit harlotry with her (verse 33). She not only disdains the wages of a harlot, but pays out a reward or gives a gift to any idol she sees. She makes costly sacrifices to foreign gods and pays tribute to foreign peoples to secure their support (verse 34). In doing so, she has become the opposite of a “normal” harlot who gets paid for her disgusting services and has sunk deeper than this already deeply sunk woman.

The word of the LORD comes to the city (verse 35). The LORD addresses her by the name she deserves, that of “harlot”. Then He pronounces His judgment. First He gives another brief list of her disgusting deeds that necessitate this judgment (verse 36). They are the sins of fornication and human sacrifice. He will gather together her lovers, the nations with whom Jerusalem allied and from whom she served idols, and also all who remained or became her enemies again (verse 37).

It will become a great army of enemies that will move against her to humiliate her deeply. The enemies will deal with her as with harlots and adulteresses who are put to shame in nakedness (verse 38). “The blood of wrath” means that Jerusalem will be punished with death. She has shed blood by bringing human sacrifices and for this her blood will be shed (Gen 9:6). In the wake of adultery, idolatry, she committed murder. Adultery and murder often go hand in hand. We even see it with King David, who, after his adultery with Bathsheba, has her husband Uriah murdered.

The LORD’s “jealousy”, that is His jealousy caused by the adultery, the breaking of the covenant, will repay their unfaithfulness and murders. He will give the city into the power of the nations whose idols she has served (verse 39). He will deliver her to the Babylonians. In this world empire all the other nations conquered by Babylon are represented. They will strip the city of clothes and jewelry and leave her naked and bare, that is broken down to the ground. Thus she will become again as before, in the time of her origin, when the LORD found her (verses 4-6; cf. Hos 2:3a).

The enemies will come against Judah and Jerusalem as a mob and will cause death and destruction around them (verse 40). The stoning she will suffer is a punishment for adulterous women (Jn 8:4-5a; Deu 22:21). That stoning will literally take place when the inhabitants of the city are buried and crushed under the falling rubble during the siege and capture. The houses they will burn (verse 41).

“Many women” will see it happen before their eyes as a deterrent example not to play the harlot. The “many women” are a picture of cities and nations that will see the destruction of Jerusalem. Then harlotry will be wiped out. There will be no more desire to play the harlot. No one will want to have anything to do with her anymore. The attractiveness of the city has changed to repulsiveness. The city is also so destitute that it can no longer pay a harlot’s wages and therefore can no longer buy lovers. Then the fury of the LORD will rest upon them and He will be pacified and angry no more (verse 42). His anger has calmed down.

So we find mentioned in the preceding verses three punishments that a harlot can receive in Israel and that are applied to Jerusalem.
1. First, she will be left naked and bare and thus exposed to the reproach of the bystanders (verse 39).
2. Next, she is stoned to death (verse 40).
3. Finally, she is burned with fire (verse 41).

Once again the LORD explains why He must do all this to her (verse 43). He has brought her way of wandering and infidelity down on her own head. She has not remembered the days of her youth, when He so took care of her, nor served Him with gratitude. Instead, she has appalled Him, deeply shaken Him. His acts of judgment are for the purpose that she will cease from her abominations, that is her idolatry, and that she will no longer behave shamefully.

The LORD continues to hold out to Jerusalem her sins. He uses a proverb to make it clear that she is no better than the heathen mother from whom the city descended (verse 44). The mother is an unfaithful woman who has no natural love for her husband and her children (verse 45). So is Jerusalem. In doing so, she is also a sister to her sisters, who loath natural love in the same way. The expression “sisters” refers to the cities of Jerusalem, Samaria, and Sodom. The heathen origin lies in the connection between the Hittites and the Amorites. Jerusalem is as idolatrous as these heathen peoples.

The LORD points Jerusalem to Samaria and calls that city the “older sister” of Jerusalem (verse 46). By Samaria is meant the whole area of the ten tribes realm which is much larger than that of Judah. Its location is north of Jerusalem. Her other sister, Sodom, is “younger” than Jerusalem. Sodom lives south of Jerusalem. That city is called “younger” because it has a smaller territory. By “her daughters” are meant the surrounding cities of Samaria and Sodom.

Then the LORD points out the ways these cities have gone (verse 47). Jerusalem knows well what happened to Samaria and Sodom because of their apostasy from the LORD: they are ruined. Jerusalem, however, did not let herself be warned, but rather acted more corruptly than they. Jerusalem surpassed both the other cities in their sins (cf. Mt 11:23-24; 2Chr 33:9; Jer 3:11; Lk 10:12). With an oath swearing, the LORD confirms His observation that Sodom and its inhabitants have not sinned as greatly as Jerusalem (verse 48).

To prove this, the LORD lists the heinous sins of Sodom (verses 49-50). This enumeration shows that the sins of Sodom did not consist only of the heinous sexual sins of which the city was full (Gen 18:20-21; 19:4-5). God richly blessed Sodom with natural prosperity (Gen 13:10). But instead of thanking Him for it, she has been full of herself, full of selfishness, as the Lord Jesus also says (Lk 17:28).

Sodom has been a perfectly ordered constitutional state, with freedom of trade and movement, with food and drink for all. However, she has thought only of herself and not of others. Everything has served to satisfy her own pleasures. That has been the breeding ground for all the lewdness and abominations to develop and be indulged before God. That is why God turned the city upside down as soon as He had “seen it” (verse 50; Gen 18:21; 19:24-25). Yet that city was not guilty of marriage violation, as was Jerusalem.

What we see in Sodom we also see in our time. Everything revolves around prosperity. Everyone must become richer and richer, have more and more to spend, be able to enjoy themselves more and more. This greed is sometimes disguised with some money for developing countries, but that does not take away the sting of unbridled pleasure-seeking. On this soil, sexual pleasure-seeking is rampant, rejecting all God-ordained boundaries with the utmost contempt.

The LORD then turns Jerusalem’s gaze to Samaria (verse 51). That city has not done half the sins of Jerusalem. For all the abominations Jerusalem has committed, her sisters Sodom and Samaria appear righteous. That is putting it very strongly. This is done to make clear to Jerusalem the enormous guilt she has brought upon herself because of her wicked behavior. Of course, it does not mean that it reduces the guilt of Sodom and Samaria. The point is that their guilt seems small compared to Jerusalem’s.

Sodom and Samaria received their deserved punishment for a smaller debt than that of Jerusalem. Therefore, Jerusalem will certainly bear her shame (verse 52). The city has also arrogated in pride a judgment about Sodom and Samaria, and in doing so has been completely blind to her own heinous sins. Once again the LORD says that her own sins are so heinous that Sodom and Samaria appear righteous in comparison. He calls on the city to be ashamed and to bear her disgrace.

Then suddenly here is talk of a restoration that the LORD will give (verse 53). He will restore the captivity of Sodom and the neighboring cities and Samaria and the cities around it and Jerusalem. How great is God’s grace! To Jerusalem’s shame, this restoration will happen first with Sodom and Samaria (verse 54). The consolation spoken of here is also to the shame of Jerusalem, for it is the consolation of Sodom and Samaria that their wickedness has been less terrible than that of Jerusalem.

The LORD will restore these three cities with their inhabitants and associated towns to their previous state, which is the state of the time before committing their abominations (verse 55). In her pride, Jerusalem did not even want to mention the name of Sodom (verse 56). That happened during the time when Jerusalem’s sin had not yet become fully manifest (verse 57). But that sin has now come clearly to light. As a result, Jerusalem herself is now an object of reproach of the nations around her. Her disgraceful behavior and her abominations will weigh on her (verse 58).

All this happens to Jerusalem because she has despised the oath by which she committed herself to the LORD (verse 59). What Jerusalem has done toward the LORD, He will now do toward the city. He will also break His covenant with Jerusalem and cast her down in reproach and disgrace.

That verse 55 speaks of a restoration of Sodom raises the question of how that could happen. After all, Sodom has been completely overturned. Not a single Sodomite survived and the area of Sodom became an eternal wasteland (Deu 29:23; Isa 1:9; Jer 49:18; 2Pet 2:6; Jude 1:7). So what about the restoration of which the LORD speaks here? To this question the commentaries do not give an unequivocal answer.

The well-known German Scripture commentator Keil assumes that this verse speaks of the literal Sodom. Only he does not see in this a restoration on earth, but he sees the fulfillment of this prophecy in eternity. However, in light of what we read in the letter of Jude, that cannot be the explanation (Jude 1:7). There it says: “Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.” Keil’s statement even goes in the direction of the false doctrine of the universal atonement. Adherents of that false doctrine therefore use this verse as an argument for their false doctrine. This has come to my attention in an exchange of letters I had with an adherent of this doctrine.

From the various explanations, the following statement appeals to me the most and I submit it to the reader for consideration. We can think here of Sodom in terms of Lot and his descendants. Lot and his daughters were the only ones who did not ultimately perish in the judgment that God brought upon Sodom. Lot’s posterity, which he fathered with his daughters, consists of Ammon and Moab (Gen 19:30-38). The restoration, according to this statement, will actually take place in the restoration of Ammon and Moab (Jer 48:47; 49:6).

In His unshakable faithfulness, which is in such sharp contrast to Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness, the LORD will remember His covenant with them in the days of their youth (verse 60). He will make a new covenant and fulfill it Himself (Jer 31:31-34; 32:40; Heb 8:6-13). Because it is a one-sided covenant and depends only on His faithfulness, it is “an everlasting covenant”. It cannot be broken, for He cannot become unfaithful. Its blessing will come to Jerusalem because He will grant her forgiveness and new life that longs to be obedient to Him.

In order to enjoy the blessings of this covenant, Jerusalem will repent and return (verse 61). She will be deeply ashamed of her sins and the ways she has gone. In that realization, she will receive other nations and no longer look down on them with contempt. Jerusalem will be a mother and receive other nations as daughters. Those nations are given to her by the LORD. He does not do this on the basis of His first covenant with her that was so shamefully broken by her. He does so by virtue of the new covenant He will make with her (verse 62). By this she will know that He is the LORD.

His dealing in grace with her on the basis of the new covenant will cause shame in her (verse 63). She will realize that it is undeserved and not put on a big mouth because she will remember the reproach that has come upon her because of her sins. At the same time, all doubt about her being received by the LORD will be gone, because He will have made atonement for all that she has done wrong. How impressive is the word “all”. What that all means, we see in this chapter. All of it, without exception, is included in the atonement.

This reconciliation and this glorious end of Jerusalem can only be because the Lord Jesus gave His precious blood. God acts on the basis of what He, His Son, has done. He has fulfilled all the conditions of the new covenant and therefore the blessing for God’s people can come at last. In the face of so much sin listed at length in this chapter, there is the all-transcending work of Christ to Whom all glory is for all eternity.

This history may also speak to us. Our origin and behavior (verses 3-4) are not worthy of love. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5a). How do we respond to this love that has been shown to us?