John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 16:22

"And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast weltering in thy blood." — Ezekiel 16:22 (ASV)

Here God applies to His own purposes what He has until now related: namely, the extreme wickedness and baseness of the people’s ingratitude in prostituting themselves to idols in this way. Therefore, He reminds them of their condition when He espoused them. For if they had remembered the wretched slavery from which they had been delivered, they would not have been so blinded with perverse confidence, nor would they have exulted in their lasciviousness.

But since they had forgotten all God’s benefits, they became lascivious, prostrated themselves to foul idolatries, and provoked God in every way. Now the Prophet proves this when he says, behold, through these abominations the people did not remember their youth. Why is it that impure and lustful women despise their husbands in this way, if not because they are blinded by their own beauty? And since they do not recognize their own disgrace, they please themselves in foul loves, as the Prophet Hosea says (Hosea 2:5). Such then was the self-confidence of the Jews, that they pleased themselves with their beauty and ornaments; though God’s glory and brightness shone forth in them, yet they did not perceive the source of their dignity, and thus ingratitude was added to pride. You have not remembered, He says, the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and defiled in your blood.