John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 16:59

"For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant." — Ezekiel 16:59 (ASV)

Here, also, God addresses the false objection with which the Jews might contend with Him; for whatever they were, God had nevertheless entered into a covenant with them. They might, therefore, resort to this argument: that God had bound Himself in covenant with them, since He had adopted Abraham and his seed.

Although they had provoked God’s anger a thousand times, this objection still remained: that God ought to honor His agreement, and not consider what they had deserved by their ingratitude, but rather be consistent with His promises. Now, therefore, He returns to this objection, and says that He is free to break the covenant since they have done so first. I will do, He says, to you as you have done.

We see, therefore, that the calumny is here refuted—the calumny by which the Jews could indirectly defame God, as they were accustomed to do, as if He had made His covenant void. He says, then, that in an agreement, it is customary for a person, when deceived, to no longer be necessarily bound to a treacherous breaker of agreements; for covenanting requires mutual faithfulness. But the Jews had violated their agreement and reduced it to nothing.

Therefore, through their treachery and wickedness, God had gained the freedom to reject them and to no longer count them among His people. Thus, as he said in the previous verse that the Jews paid a just penalty, so now he specifically adds that God could not be condemned for unfaithfulness in departing from His agreement, because He had to deal with traitors and covenant-breakers who had made their agreement void; for there is no covenant when either party withdraws from it.

I will do, therefore, to you as you have done, namely, because you have despised an oath, so as to render the covenant void. Here God elaborates on the crime of rebellion, because the Jews had not only violated the covenant but had also despised an oath. אלה, aleh, signifies both an oath and a curse (Deuteronomy 27); therefore, some think that the Prophet here refers to the curses by which the law was sanctioned, a view I willingly adopt.

But we must note what I have already said: that their criminality was increased because the Jews had not only acted falsely but had also disregarded that solemn oath by which they had bound themselves. For as God promised that He would be their God, so Moses stipulated in His name that the people should remain obedient to Him, and they all answered, Amen (Leviticus 26). A punishment was announced, one that should have terrified them. For the Jews then to neglect this covenant as a mere trifle was an act of brutal stupidity. From this we see that their crime was doubled, when the Prophet accuses them of not only being covenant-breakers but also of wantonly deriding God and of treating their own solemn oath, by which they had bound themselves, as a childish action.