Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 16
Albert Barnes Commentary
Ezekiel 16
Albert Barnes Commentary
Ezekiel 16
"Again the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying," — Ezekiel 16:1 (ASV)
Idolatry is frequently represented by the prophets using the metaphor of a wife’s unfaithfulness to her husband. This image is portrayed here in such a way as to exhibit the aggravation of Israel’s guilt because of her origin and early history.
The original home of Israel's ancestors was the land of Canaan, defiled with idolatry and moral corruption. Israel itself was like a child born in a polluted land, abandoned from its birth, left by its parents in the most utter neglect to the chance regard of any passer-by. Such was the state of the people in Egypt (Ezekiel 16:3–5).
The Lord looked with pity on such a child, tended, and adopted it. Under His care, it grew up to be lovely and beautiful, and the Lord joined it to Himself in that close union, which is represented by the bonds of marriage.
The covenants made under Moses and Joshua represent this alliance (Ezekiel 16:6–8). In the reigns of David and Solomon, Israel shone with all the glory of temporal prosperity (Ezekiel 16:9–14).
The remainder of the history of the people, when divided, is, in the prophet’s view, a succession of falling away and degradation, marked by the erection of high places (Ezekiel 16:16–20) and by unholy alliances with foreign nations (Ezekiel 16:26–33).
Such sins were soon to meet their due punishment. Just as an unfaithful wife was brought before the people, convicted, and stoned, so the Lord would make His people a gazing-stock to all the nations around, deprive them of all their possessions and of their city, and cast them out as exiles to be plundered and destroyed in a foreign land (Ezekiel 16:35–43).
"and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto Jerusalem: Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was thy father, and thy mother was a Hittite." — Ezekiel 16:3 (ASV)
Birth - The word represents “origin” under the figure of “cutting out stone from a quarry” .
An Amorite - The Amorite, a term denoting the whole people. The Amorites, being a principal branch of the Canaanites, are often taken to represent the whole stock (Genesis 15:16; 2 Kings 21:11).
An Hittite - Compare Genesis 26:34. The main idea is that the Israelites by their deeds proved themselves to be the very children of the idolatrous nations who once occupied the land of Canaan. Compare Deuteronomy 20:17.
"And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to cleanse thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all." — Ezekiel 16:4 (ASV)
To supple you - i. e., to cleanse you.
"No eye pitied thee, to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, for that thy person was abhorred, in the day that thou wast born." — Ezekiel 16:5 (ASV)
To the loathing of your person - Or, “so abhorred was your person.”
"And when I passed by thee, and saw thee weltering in thy blood, I said unto thee, [Though thou art] in thy blood, live; yea, I said unto thee, [Though thou art] in thy blood, live." — Ezekiel 16:6 (ASV)
Or, Then I passed by thee ... and I said.
Polluted - wallowing, "treading upon oneself."
In thy blood - may be connected either with "I said" or with "Live." In the latter case, the state of blood and defilement is made the very cause of life, because it called forth the pity of Him who gave life. Since in the Mosaic Law "blood" was especially defiling, so was it also the special instrument of purification.
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