Ezekiel 16

Jerusalem’s Unfaithfulness

¹Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominations ³and tell her that this is what the Lord Yahweh says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. ⁵No one cared enough for you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, because you were despised on the day of your birth.

• EZK 16:3[NOTE]A PICTURE STORY. Chapter 16 is a long parable. Jerusalem is a baby left to die, saved and raised by God, then married to Him. It is hard to read on purpose, so the people would feel how much they had hurt Him.

⁶Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’ ⁷I made you thrive like a plant of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

• EZK 16:6[NOTE]LIVE! Unwanted babies were sometimes left outside to die in the ancient world. God saw her and said one word: Live.

⁸Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord Yahweh. ⁹Then I bathed you with water, rinsed off your blood, and anointed you with oil. ¹⁰I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck. ¹²I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.

• EZK 16:8[NOTE]I SPREAD MY GARMENT. A way of saying I will marry you, like Ruth 3:9. God's covenant with Israel was a marriage.

¹³So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be queen. ¹⁴Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in the splendor I bestowed on you, declares the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁵But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking. ¹⁶You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred!

• EZK 16:15[DEMONIC]Jerusalem sacrifices God's children to idols
• EZK 16:15[NOTE]UNFAITHFUL. The Bible calls idol worship adultery, because God's people belonged to Him alone, Hosea 2 and Jeremiah 3. The words are strong to show how much it hurt Him.

¹⁷You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself. ¹⁸You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you set My oil and incense before them. ¹⁹And you set before them as a pleasing aroma the food I had given you—the fine flour, oil, and honey that I had fed you. That is what happened, declares the Lord Yahweh.

²⁰You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough? ²¹You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols.

• EZK 16:20[NOTE]YOUR CHILDREN. The worst sin of all: they gave their own sons and daughters to idols. God calls them My children, 16:21. He hated child sacrifice, Jeremiah 7:31.

²²And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.

²³Woe! Woe to you, declares the Lord Yahweh. And in addition to all your other wickedness, ²⁴you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square. ²⁵At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by. ²⁶You prostituted yourself with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians, and increased your promiscuity to provoke Me to anger.

• EZK 16:24[DEMONIC]Jerusalem builds a shrine in every public square

²⁷Therefore I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct. ²⁸Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied. ²⁹So you extended your promiscuity to Chaldea, the land of merchants—but even with this you were not satisfied!

³⁰How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord Yahweh, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute! ³¹But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

• EZK 16:31[DEMONIC]Shrines at the head of every street

³²You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband! ³³Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. ³⁴So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite!

Judgment on Jerusalem

³⁵Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of Yahweh! ³⁶This is what the Lord Yahweh says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, ³⁷therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked. ³⁸And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.

• EZK 16:36[DEMONIC]Judgment for detestable idols and the blood of children

³⁹Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will level your mounds and tear down your lofty shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and leave you naked and bare. ⁴⁰They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgment against you in the sight of many women.

• EZK 16:39[DEMONIC]Her lovers will tear down her lofty shrines

I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will never again pay your lovers. ⁴²So I will lay to rest My wrath against you, and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be calm and no longer angry.

⁴³Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will surely bring your deeds down upon your own head, declares the Lord Yahweh. Have you not committed this lewdness on top of all your other abominations?

⁴⁴Behold, all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you:

‘Like mother, like daughter.’

⁴⁵You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to your north; and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to your south. ⁴⁷And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were.

⁴⁸As surely as I live, declares the Lord Yahweh, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.

• EZK 16:49[NOTE]THE SIN OF SODOM. Pride, plenty of food, easy comfort, and no help for the poor and needy, then detestable things, 16:50. Genesis 19 tells the rest.

⁵¹Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have multiplied your abominations beyond theirs, and all the abominations you have committed have made your sisters appear righteous. ⁵²So now you must bear your disgrace, since you have brought justification for your sisters. For they appear more righteous than you, because your sins were more vile than theirs. So you too must bear your shame and disgrace, since you have made your sisters appear righteous.

⁵³But I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity, as well as Samaria and her daughters. And I will restore you along with them. ⁵⁴So you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did to comfort them.

⁵⁵And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state. ⁵⁶Did you not treat your sister Sodom as an object of scorn in the day of your pride, ⁵⁷before your wickedness was uncovered? Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you. ⁵⁸You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your abominations, declares Yahweh.

The Covenant Remembered

⁵⁹For this is what the Lord Yahweh says: I will deal with you according to your deeds, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant. ⁶⁰But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. ⁶¹Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.

• EZK 16:60[NOTE]I WILL REMEMBER. After all that, God promises an everlasting covenant. Grace gets the last word, Jeremiah 31:31 to 34.

⁶²So I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am Yahweh, ⁶³so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, declares the Lord Yahweh.”