Albert Barnes Commentary Ezekiel 16:1

"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).