Commentary on the Old Testament Volume 2-4, Biblical commentary 7 · Ezekiel · Chapter 16
CHAP. XVI.
THy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite: in this Chapter the Prophet layeth open from the beginning the baseness of the Jews, that if it were possible he might humble them and pull down the great pride and V. 3.self-conceitedness. And therefore he beginneth with their nativity, saying, that it was of Canaan, their father being an Amorite, and their mother an Hittite, whereby it is meant, that for their wickedness they were so before God reputed, as elswhere they are said to have been Ethiopians unto him, and the Jews are said by our Lord to have been of their father the devil for the like reason. Jerom thinks, that he alludeth to their much speaking and bragging in the name Amorite, and to their madness Joh. 8. 44.in the name Hittite as the words signifie. Of the seven Nations, which Hieron.were so wicked, he nameth, saith another, the Amorite for his procerity and tallness, and the Hittie for the notorious incontinency of these women, of which see v. 45. and giants men of high stature were notorious for violence and oppression, with which sinnes the Jewes were greatly tainted, v. 4. 5. He ascendeth yet higher inlarging himself from V. 4. 5.speaking of Jerusalem whose birth was in Canaan, of which he had hitherto spoken, to speak of Israel looking upon them, as they were in Egypt long before their coming into Canaan, and growing to so famous a City as Jerusalem, In the day that thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed with V. 4. 5.water to supple thee, thou wast not salted at all, nor swadled at all, none eye pityed thee, &c. So that here is a double nativity of Israel spoken of, and the last first, and the first last. For by the nativity when no eye pityed them is meant their adoption, or Gods taking them to be his people, before that ever they were taken notice of to be such, which was when Moses coming to Pharoah said, Israel is my son, my first born, if thou wilt not let Israel go, I will slay thy son, thy first born: For then Israel as a childe new born having no body till then taking care of it, by means whereof their life seemed desperate, for so it is with an infant new born, if the navel be not cut, &c. but it be cast out, ten to one it will dye so soon as it begins to live, the want of cutting and binding up of the navel Calvin.making it to bleed to death, the want of washing of the menstruous blood about it annoying it with the stinking smel unto death,a nd the want of salting it making the skin too tender, as Calvin saith. And most aptly was the state of the Israelites in Egypt thus set forth, to whom nothing was done conducing to life, but all things to their destruction both by the casting of their males so soon as they were born into the river, for which he speaketh here of casting out, and by driving them from the presence of Pharaoh with discomfort, when they desired to be more equally dealt withal as being too much overburthened by making their ful tale of brick, and finding themselves straw also.
In this evil and dangerous case the Lord saith, that he said to Israel, Yet live, and it is twice repeated for their deliverance from both these straights at once V. 6.in their being with so strong an hand brought out of Egypt, or by doubling the word live, he meaneth, that he was a long time in saving them from death. First all those yeers that the cruel edict of Pharaoh was on foot, viz. Eighty at the least (for Moses, before whose birth it was made, was eighty yeers old when he stood before Pharaoh) for if God had not said in that time live, they had been by such cruelty consumed. Secondly, at the time of their deliverance by Moses, when by the increase of their miseries their lives were more bitter then death unto them.
And this was their first birth, though last spoken of, when they multiplyed, notwithstanding their harsh usage, unto a Nation. Their second Nativity, Judg. 8.which is named, and said to be in Canaan, was by their degenerating so soon as they came into Canaan, Joshua and the Elders that over-lived him being dead, for then they began to be to God as men descended from fathers Amorites, and mothers Hittites, and no more Isrelites.
I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, Here the Lord proceedeth V. 7.to shew a greater favour, then by him done unto them, when they were in so poor an estate in Egypt, he multiplyed them in two hundred and fifty yeers from seventy to six hundred thousand, in so much as that they were now grown to some full maturity, as a female grown up from a childe to a woman, her breasts being also fully grown, and she fit now for marriage. And being come to this, he saith, that he passing by cast his eye upon her, as man taketh a wife making a covenant with her, which was done Exod. 24. Then was she also ordained with gold and silver, and silke, &c. and V. 8. 9, 10.shewed to be most beautiful, when being brought into the land of Canaan, and put into other mens possessions they grew wealthy. Then also they were sed with fine wheat and honey, and grew into a kingdom in the dayes of Saul V. 11. 12, 13, 14.and of David and Solomon, in whose time specially she was so greatly honored by other Nations; but all the beauty for which he saith was by his comliness.
Thus the Lord having proceeded in shewing his beneficence towards Israel comes in the next place to accuse this his wife, whom he had spiritually marryed, V. 15. 16, 18, &c.of most gross ingratitude, sinning against the marriage covenant by following other Gods, and of unparalleld incontinency, from v. 15. to v. 26. After which he sheweth what judgements he had brought upon her v. 27. by dimini…hing V. 27.her ordinary food by famine, as in the time of Ahab, When it rained not in three yeers and six moneths, then by giving her to the will of those that hated her, that is, the Philistims, who slew Saul and his sons upon the mountaines of Gilboa, which is pointed at when he saith, that they into whose hands they came were the daughters of the Philistims, that were ashamed of their lewd way, because that although the Cities of the Philistims here called daughters were idolatrous, yet they kept them to their own gods, and received not the gods of other Nations, as the Israelites did both those of the Egyptians and Assyrians. The Vulg. for these words, I have diminished thy ordinary food, hath it, I will take away thy justification, the word Hebr. is foreign a statute or portion, and because it signifieth statute, is by some expounded of the cessation of the ordinance of sacrificing and of other rites in the publike worship of God in his temple. But it agreeth better as Rab. David and Vatablus to expound it, to that whih God in mercy had appointed to Israel both for food and ornament in most bountiful manner, wheat, fine flowre, honey, gold and silver and other pretious things making that state glorious, as was before said v. 10, 11, 12, 13, &c. but these things being abused to idolatry he now threateneth to take away. See a like passage to this, Hosh. 2. whereas in N. T. it is rendred in the Pretertense I have taken away, Hebr. it is in the Future, but these Tenses are sometimes put one for another, and so most probably it is done here, because as hath been before noted, both the Philistims sometime lorded it over Israel in Elyes time, when the Arke was taken, but after the prophesying of Ezekiel nothing is said of the Philistims more, as getting dominion over them, but only of the Caldees; wherefore these words, as Calvin saith, Calvin.have reference to things past, being an upbraiding of them for their extreame hardness of heart in that they were not moved by Gods judgements, by which they had already suffered, to repent, but persisted still in their old sins, as it were running headlong us utter destruction, against corrections, which operate upon those that have any grace to their reformation; which is to be noted by Note. us, that we may know that being corrected, if we be not amended our sins are now of measure sinful, and so nothing can be expected, but utter ruine and desolation to the whole kingdom.
How weak is thy heart, saith the Lord, when as thou dost all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman? The Vulg. Wherewith shall I cleanse thy heart, when V. 30.as thou dost all these works of an whorish woman, & procacis? The reason of the difference in these expositions is, because the word foreign signifieth to circumcise, and hereof in the future may come foreign which is the word here used, and to circumcise the heart and to cleanse it, is all one; but for somuch as the word foreign properly signifieth weak and tender, it is best to take it in this sense. But then here seemeth to be an opposition, the same which is called weak, being charged with doing the works of a strong and domineering whore. But there is herein no repugnancy, for the wicked are weak in heart and dissolute in respect of all that is good, letting flow from them, and being herein of no strength to retaine, but yet they are strong to do evil, so Israel like a whorish woman in idolatry had a most weak heart to hold fast any thing that was good, but did stoutly the whorish works of idolatry with the gods of Egypt, of Assyria and Caldea, and attaining to a kind of preeminnency herein, as an whorish woman able to prostitute her self to all comers.
They give gifts to all whores, but thou givest gifts to all thy lovers: Here the Lord further aggravateth the wickedness of the idolatrous Jews by comparing V. 33.them in their spiritual whoredoms with other whores. In saying, that they gave gifts to their lovers, he alludeth to the manner of marryed women, who not being content with their own husbands secretly allure others to incontinency with them and to have their lusts satisfied by them spare for no cost. For so did the idolatrous Israelites, not being content with the true God, who had marryed them to himself, they bestowed much of their goods, which he of his bounty had given them, upon idols, building them temples, giving rich gifts unto them, and maintaining priests to serve them, partly also conceiving that by this means, that they should have the more favour with the Egyptians, Assyrians and Caldeans, if they concurred with them in worshipping the same gods; thus they profusely spent their substance upon heathenish superstition, for which yet they fared never a whit the better at their hands, but the worse, being contemned and derided, and by God for their perfidy towards him left to be over-cropped and subdued, and utterly spoyled by them.
I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, &c. Here followeth their full judgement for their forementioned abominations, he threatneth V. 37.to gather against them all their lovers, that is, Egyptians and Caldeans, whose amity they had sought by conforming to their idolatries thinking thereby to be safe, but now the Lord sheweth, that by his just judgement they should together be a means of their destruction, as indeed they were, the Caldees by fighting against them, breaking into and burning their City, and the Egyptians, because through their means and a confederacy with them the King of Babybylon was exasperated against them and destroyed them. At what time also they that hated them, especially the Edomites came together with the Coldees, as is noted, Psalme 137. where their cruelty and clamours against them at their destruction are described.
I wlil destroy thy eminent places, The Vulg. thy stews: whereby he meant their altar made to idols and temples in high places, for when enemies pravaile and V. 39.destroy and lay wast any countrey, they spare not the very religious places there, although they have the like in their own countrey.
The Lord not thinking it enough to aggravate the wickedness of the Jews, as he hath formerly done, now to justifie his severe proceedings against them V. 47.by shewing them not only to have come of the Amorites and Hittites, who were long agoe expelled out of the land for their abominations, but that Judea was by sinning become the sister of Sodom and of Samaria, that is, the kingdom of the ten tribes, whose metropolis or chief City was Samaria, full of all manner of idolatry from the time of their first King Jeroboam to the time of their last, Hosheah. And he not only equalizeth Judea to these in sin, but sheweth her to be a farre greater sinner.
But how could this be, touching Sodom he sheweth how, v. 49. by reckoning V. 49.up her sins, pride & haughtiness caused by plenty, called fulness of bread, turned into sin, also by gluttony and drunkenness, and idleness, and wicked pleasures loving that followed hereupon. And as for their pride and haughtiness of mind, it was an high opinion of their own excellency and stable felicity, from which they thought they could never be moved. But the Jews outstripped them in wickedness, because amongst them was added to all these another abomintion far greater, and that was idolatry, for of this we read not in Sodom, and if it were, yet it was a greater sin in the Jews, because they were bound from it by covenant as was said before, v. 8. but so were not the Sodomites. And touching Samaria, Jerusalem was more wicked then she also, as followeth, v. 51. because the Temple was at Jerusalem, and after the division of the Kingdoms many godly Kings and Priests upholding the true worship V. 51.of God there, whereas Samaria had neither Temple nor King to move them to good, but temples of idols and all idolatrous Kings to stir them up to evil. Whereunto we may also adde, that Jerusalem had warning by the destruction of Samaria to repent, but would take none, but grew daily more and more corrupt in the time of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. Whence note, tha the parentage of wicked Christians is not such, nor their affinity such as they suppose Note. it to be, for they think that God is their father, his holy Church, in which is salvation, their mother, and that Christ and his Apostles are their brethren, but they are foully deceived, the Amorites and Hittites, Heathen Indians and Barbarians be their fathers and mothers, and Turks and Tartars Their brethren and sisters. Yea 2. they are worse then any of these, and therefore shall be more severely punished, because more obliged to God, and injoying more means of grace, the Word and Sacraments, and have had warning by the ruins of others both long agoe Constantinople falling into the hands of the cruel Turke, and lately Germany being brought to desolation, which should make us to look to our selves in England, and not to be hardened in our sins, thinking yet that no such judgements shall befal us.
But what meaneth he by saying, v. 52. Thou hast justified thy sisters? Sol. That V. 52.they were more righteous and less sinful, as wicked as they were, then they, as an evil colour being laid by one twice as bad justifieth it comparatively to be a good colour, and likewise if faces or fruits bad or worse be compared together: So Chorazin and Bethsaida justified Sodom and Gomorrah, as Matth. 11.worthy to be judges of them and themselves worthy of condemnation. Yet that those wicked Cities were far from being reputed V. 53.righteous indeed he saith, v. 53. When I bring againe the Captivity of Sodom and Samaria back, I will bring thine back also, that is, never; Hebr. it is, I will turn the captivity of Sodom, and the Captivity of thee, of thy daughters in the midst of them, whereupon Hebrew expositors gather, that Sodom and all shall one day be restored againe.
But this is absurd and contrary to other plaine passages of Scripture, the meaning therefore is, I will turn both these captivities alike, that of Sodom then being never, no more shall this of Jerusalem. But how is it that the Lord then in so many places promiseth the contrary, and did it also in the time Calvin.of Cyrus? Sol. Calvin answereth, that the prophets sometimes speak to the multitude or whole body of Jews, which was wicked and sinful, and sometimes to an Elect remnant amongst them, as Esa. 8. 15. to these all promises are made of mercy and favour, but against the other all threatnings are directed, and consequently this of never having their captivity turned. To this we may Note. adde because of those that returned in the reigne of Cyrus many were wicked and such as lived in the manifest breach of Gods law against marrying with heathens, that this prophesy is to be extended to the Jews captivity in the time of the Romans after which they could no more expect a returning to build the City and Temple againe, onelyonly a remnant of them shall one day have their captivity wherein they are yet held in sin and unbelief, turned when the vaile 2 Cor. 3. Rom. 11. Lyra. Vatabl.shall be taken from before their eyes, and they shall become Christians and be saved. Some by Sodom understand Ammonites and Moabites, because they were begotten by Lot in Sodoms confines and so take take these words, as seriously spoken for some comfort, as if it were meant that the Samaritans, and Sodom should all finde mercy in the end, that is, the Ammonites and Moabites, by being restored to their own countrey, but this is a plaine offering of violence to the text, wherein no comfort is spoken, but destruction threatened for ever.
Thus also v. 55. speaking to the same effect againe is to be understood, and v. 54. Thus thou shalt bear thine infamy or reproach, and be a comfort unto them, V. 55.that is, their sins being lesser and so their punishment somewhat lesser then thine, because there are degrees of torments amongst, the damned, as of glory amongst them that are saved, according to that, It shall be easier for Sodom at the day of judgement then for thee, v. 56. Thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy V. 56.mouth in the day of thy pride, that is, thou thoughtest basely of Sodom as worthily punished for their abominable sins, as being thy self in thine own conceit far more excellent.
Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach if the daughters of Syria, and of the daughters of the Philistims, that despised thee. Or the V. 57.daughters of the Philistims, see before v. 27. The meaning of this place is, that so great was the Jews pride & self-conceitedness, before that any execution for their sins was done upon them by the Syrians or Philistims; for then their vileness began to be discovered by their punishments, and they could not be so impudent as to deny it, and if they were, it was by the judgements then upon them apparent to the Nations round about, especially to those by whom they were judged. v. 58. 59. are conclusion of this tract further confirming the exposition before going touching their utter destruction, as that of Sodom and Samaria, Thou hast born thy lewdness and thine abominations, and I have done to thee as thou hast done in breaking the covenant, that is, when thou shalt be punished, as hath been said, and remaine under my judgements without any deliverance.
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee: Here after exprobrations and threatnings against the community of the wicked Jews, after the manner V. 60.of other Prophets Ezekiel returneth to matter of consolation to the remnant elect amongst them, wherein he pointeth at the grace and favour, which should be extended towards them under the Gospel to their conversion to the faith and everlasting salvation.
And he speaketh of these also, as having had their hands in the same abominations, but in the time of the Gospel converted. For he saith, Thou shalt remember thy wayes, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, and shalt have them of my gift for daughters, but not by thy covenant: Hereby intimating, that a V. 61.man then cometh into covenant with God, when he is ashamed of his fins past, and therefore turneth from them to serve God in newness of life, holding it now a shameful thing to live in sin, but a grace & an honor to live righteously Note. and holily, according to which the Apostle saith, What fruit had yee of those things of which yee are now ashamed? Then in saying, thou shalt receive thy sisters, Rom. 6.&c. he prophesieth also of the conversion of the Gentiles, by means of the Jews, that is, the Apostls going out to preach the Gospel unto them, in which regard, that he saith, that he would give them unto them for daughters, as being by them begotten unto God, as Paul saith to the Corin. Though ye have many instructors, yet 1 Cor. 4. 15.yee have but one father, for I have begotten you But not by thy covenant: this is added as a further declaration of his meaning, v. 60. I will remember my covenant made with thee in thy youth, not thine, for thou wast perfidious and breakest it, so that if I had regarded this, I should never more have owned thee to do thee so great a grace as to make thee the mother of other Nations in respect of the faith, first converting thee hereunto, and beginning this blessed work soly amongst the lost sheep of the house of Israel, as he did when he sent his Disciples forth, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matth. 10.and againe, I was not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and then by them, as a mother begetting unto himself other daughters, the Nations, some Matth. 15.only Sodom and Samaria being named and the rest understood. The Lord therefore calleth it his, not their covenant, for they having broken it he was no more bound thereby on their part, but only because he would not be like unto them, but set his goodness still against their naughtiness continued constant in that which he had promised, although they did not, but brake most foully with him. But why is it called the covenant made with her in her youth, v. 60. seeing it is a new covenant, that is made under the Gospel, Jer. 31. 31? Sol. It is not called new for the substance thereof, for that was all one, but for the manner of giving it, the first being confirmed with the blood of beasts, this by the blood of Christ, that having nothing expressed but doing so to live, this beleeving and living, and that given with great terrour, and accompanied with the heavy burthens of many ceremonies, this in all mildness, and no such burthen imposed. Yet it is for substance the covenant made with her in her youth, viz. for saith, which was the maine thing, that first made their father Abraham so gracious with God, and so brought him and his posterity into this covenant, whereby God bound himself to be his God and the God of his seed for ever, v. 62. 63. are nothing Gen. 15. Rom. 4. Heb. 11.else, but a repeating of the same that was said before for further confirmation of the establishment of this covenant for ever, and of her being confounded at recounting her sins past, and never open her mouth more to justifie her self or to insult over others, as she had formerly done over Sodom.