Ezekiel 16:5 Komentář

Still God is justifying himself in the desolations he is about to bring upon Jerusalem; and very largely, in this chapter, he shows the prophet, and orders him to show the people, that he did but punish them as their sins deserved. In the foregoing chapter he had compared Jerusalem to an unfruitful vine, that was fit for nothing but the fire; in this chapter he compares it to an adulteress, that, in justice, ought to be abandoned and exposed, and he must therefore show the people their abominations, that they might see how little reason they had to complain of the judgments they were under. In this long discourse are set forth, I. The despicable and deplorable beginnings of that church and nation (Eze 16:3-5). II. The many honours and favours God had bestowed upon them (Eze 16:6-14). III. Their treacherous and ungrateful departures from him to the services and worship of idols, here represented by the most impudent whoredom (v. 15-34). IV. A threatening of terrible destroying judgments, which God would bring upon them for this sin (Eze 16:35-43). V. An aggravation both of their sin and of their punishment, by comparison with Sodom and Samaria (v. 44-59). VI. A promise of mercy in the close, which God would show to a penitent remnant (Eze 16:60-63). And this is designed for admonition to us.

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 16 In this chapter the Jewish nation is represented under the simile of a female infant, whose birth, breeding, marriage, grandeur, and conduct, are described, in order to show the wickedness and ingratitude of, his people; who, on account thereof, are threatened with judgments; though mercy is promised to a remnant that should repent. The prophet is directed to make known to Jerusalem her abominable sins, Eze 16:1; and, in order to this, is bid to take up the following parable of a female infant; whose descent, birth, and wretched condition, at the time of it, are pointed at, Eze 16:3; which are expressive of the low and forlorn estate of the Jews originally; and then follow the benefits and blessings of God bestowed upon them, both in their infant and adult state; the preserving them alive in Egypt, and their multiplication there; and afterwards the covenant made with them, when brought out from thence; and the Lord's espousal of them to himself, as his own people, having a strong affection for them, Eze 16:6; the large provision of good things he made for them, both in the wilderness, and especially in the land of Canaan; the riches he bestowed upon them, and the flourishing and prosperous kingdom he raised them to, which made them famous among all the nations round about them, Eze 16:9; and yet, after all this, such was the ingratitude of this people, as to commit spiritual whoredom, that is, idolatry, to a very great degree, Eze 16:15; which is aggravated by their converting and applying the good things which the Lord gave them to idolatrous uses, Eze 16:16; by sacrificing their sons and daughters to idols, which were the Lord's, Eze 16:20; by not calling to mind the former wretched estate out of which they were brought, Eze 16:22; by building high places in every street and way, and there committing idolatries, Eze 16:23; by the various nations, whose examples they followed, and with whom they joined, as the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans, Eze 16:26; and by the great difference between them and all other harlots, whom they exceeded, Eze 16:30; wherefore, on account of all this, they are threatened to be dealt with as an adulterous woman; made a spectacle of; condemned to die, to be stripped, stoned, and burned, Eze 16:35; and, that the Lord might appear to be just in executing such judgments on them, they are declared to be as bad as the Hittites and Amorites their parents; and worse than their sisters Samaria and Sodom; and therefore could expect to fare no better than they; and should become proverb and a byword, and bear their sins, shame, and punishment, in the sight of their neighbours, and be despised by them, Eze 16:44; nevertheless, the covenant of grace made with his chosen people among them should stand firm; which being manifested to them, would be a means of bringing them to a sense of sin, shame for it, and an acknowledgment of the Lord's grace and goodness to them Eze 16:60.

And when I passed by thee,.... Alluding to a traveller passing by where an infant lies, exposed, and looks upon it, and takes it up; or it may be to Pharaoh's daughter walking by the river side, when she spied the ark in which Moses was, and ordered it to be taken up, and so saved his life: and saw thee in thine own blood; keeping up the simile of a newborn infant, that has nothing done to it, but is all over covered with menstruous blood; denoting the wretched and miserable estate the Jews were in when in Egypt; when they were not only loathsome and abominable to the Egyptians, and ill used and unpitied by them; but were in danger of being utterly destroyed, and ready to expire. The word rendered "polluted" signifies "trodden underfoot" (l); like mire in the streets; and so denotes both pollution and distress; so the Israelites were trodden under foot by the Egyptians, when they made them to serve with rigour, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field; and so the Targum paraphrases it, "for it was manifest before me that you were afflicted in your bondage;'' as they then sighed and cried because of their bondage, the Lord looked upon them with an eye of pity and compassion, and delivered them, Exo 1:14; I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live: yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live; the Lord preserved them and saved them alive, when they were near to ruin, and delivered them by the hands of Moses, which was as life from the dead; and this he did of his own sovereign good will and pleasure, and not for any worth or merit, in them, any goodness or righteousness of theirs; for this he did when they were in their blood, pollution, and guilt; and which, that it might be observed, is repeated. The word for "blood", which is thrice mentioned, is in the plural number, "bloods"; and denotes not the blood of circumcision, and the blood of the passover; for, or by which, the Lord had mercy upon them, and redeemed them, as the Targum and Jarchi interpret it; but the abundance of it, as upon a newborn infant; and the great pollution and distress in which the Israelites were, through the many murders committed on them by their enemies. The whole is an emblem of the state and condition the elect of God are in, when they are quickened by him; who are by their first birth unclean; under the pollution, power, and guilt of sin; wallowing and weltering in it; deserving of the wrath of God, and liable to punishment for it; trodden under foot, quite neglected and despised in all appearance; and are both hopeless and helpless: when the Lord "passes" by them, not by chance, but on purpose, knowing where they are; and this he often does by the ministry of the word, under which they are providentially cast; and where he "sees" them, and looks upon then, not merely with his eye of omniscience, much less with an eye of scorn, contempt, and abhorrence; but with an eye of pity and compassion, and even of complacency and delight in their persons, though not in their sins: and when he speaks life into them, a principle of spiritual life; or quickens them by his word, so that they live a life of faith and holiness, which issues in everlasting life: this flows from divine love, and is the effect of divine power; it is of pure rich grace, and not of man's merit; as his case, being in his blood, and dead in sins, show; see Eph 2:4. (l) "conculcatam", Pagninus, Montanus, Starckius; "praebentem conculcandam te", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus, Piscator.

(Verse 4, 5.) And when you were born, on the day of your birth your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were not washed in water for your own health, nor were you sprinkled with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. No eye had pity on you, to do any of these things out of compassion for you: but you were thrown out into the open field, in the abjection of your soul, on the day you were born. LXX: And on the day you were born, they did not bind your breasts, and your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were not washed in water for your own health, nor were you sprinkled with salt, and you were not wrapped in swaddling clothes; no eye had pity on you, to do any of these things for you, and allow anything to happen to you, and you were thrown out into the open field, in the corruption of your soul, on the day you were born. Let us discuss each point in the order of the reading. When Jerusalem was born from her father Amorite and her mother Hittite, and was poured out from the womb, her umbilicus was not cut, with which fetuses are nourished in the womb like trees and plants, which are nourished by the hidden moisture of the earth through their roots. And just as the seed of men is signified in the loins, so the genitalia of women are called umbilicus in honorable speech according to the custom of the Scriptures, as witnessed by Job, who speaks figuratively of the devil as a dragon: His strength is in his loins, and his power is in the navel of his belly (Job 40:11). For this ancient dragon serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, deceives the world; he has power over men in their loins, and over women in their navels. But this refers to Jerusalem: that it did not immediately receive the law, and that the beginnings of its shameful birth were not cut off; but it first lived a Gentile life; for this reason the Seventy translated: 'On the day you were born, they did not bind your breasts' (Ezek. 7:8), having this holy Scripture custom, that it might use the words heart, bosom, or breast, and breasts according to each appropriate context. Priests in whom there should be doctrine, and they seek the law from their mouth, receive a small breast. John reclines upon the Lord's breast, so that he may draw from the most abundant fountain the flows of wisdom (John 13). In the Song of Songs, the Virgin has two breasts, like two twin young goats that feed among lilies until the day breathes and the shadows flee away (Song of Songs 4). A loving mother, as soon as her little child is born, binds her breasts so that they may cease from tender swelling and preserve her virgin beauty. But when she reaches the age of puberty, it will be said of her: Will the bride forget her adornment, or the virgin her breastband? (Jeremiah II, 32) It follows: And you were not washed in water for salvation. The bodies of babies, as soon as they are born from the womb, are usually washed with water: so too does the spiritual generation require the saving washing. For no one is clean from filth, not even if his life were of only one day (Job XXVI, 14, 15). And in the Psalms we read: In iniquities I was conceived, and in sins my mother conceived me (Psalm 50:6). The second birth dissolves the first birth. For it is written: Unless one is born of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). Many are the baptisms that the Pagans have in their mysteries, and the heretics promise: they all cleanse; but they do not cleanse for salvation. Therefore, it is added: and in which you have not been cleansed for salvation. This can be understood not only about heretics, but also about ecclesiastics who do not receive baptism with full faith. It must be said about them that they receive water, but they do not receive the spirit, just like Simon Magus who wanted to buy the grace of God with money. He was indeed baptized in water, but he was by no means baptized unto salvation (Acts 8). Thirdly, it is said: 'not seasoned with salt.' When the tender bodies of infants still hold the warmth of the womb, and they announce the beginnings of laborious life with their first cries, they are usually touched with salt by the midwives to make them drier and more constricted. Furthermore, Jerusalem, which was born of wicked parents, has achieved nothing of taste, nothing of diligence. But those who are reborn in Christ are said to: 'You are the salt of the earth' (Matthew 5); and it is commanded to them by the Apostle: 'Let your speech always be seasoned with grace' (Colossians 4). Hence, both the wise are commonly called salty, and the foolish are called tasteless. And in the book of Leviticus it is established by law: 'All your sacrifices shall be seasoned with salt.' The salt of the Testament of the Lord will not cease from your sacrifices: you shall offer salt with all your offerings (Leviticus 2:13). He who is seasoned with this salt, and has dried up every harmful decay and moisture by its mixture, will no longer say: My wounds have festered and become rotten because of my foolishness (Psalm 37:6). I know that I have read in a certain volume about the Lord Savior, that he himself is the heavenly salt; and not only the earthly and infernal, but also the celestial things are seasoned by its flavor: so that what is written may be fulfilled: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke 2:14). The fourth thing is: not wrapped in swaddling clothes. And the Savior was wrapped in swaddling clothes as an infant, and everyone who is born needs God's protection through the swaddling clothes. It is natural, however, that where the diligence of parents is not lacking, the infants' umbilical cords are first cut after birth: then they are washed with water to cleanse the blood. Thirdly, the moisture of the infants' bodies is dried with the addition of salt. Fourthly, so that the tender bodies of infants are wrapped in swaddling clothes, for two reasons: so that the body is dried with salt, and so that it is kept and tightened with the clothes so that it does not flow away; and so that the most delicate limbs are not easily deformed. And even the bodies of the barbarians are more upright than Roman bodies. Until the second and third year, they are always wrapped in cloths. But not such is Jerusalem, whose navel is not cut off, nor are her breasts bound, nor is she washed with water for health, nor seasoned with salt, nor wrapped and bound with infancy cloths. But why she deserved none of these, the following Scripture testifies. The eye has not spared you: to do one of these things, being moved with compassion for you. For which reason, the Seventy determined: 'Your eye spared not over you: that it might make you one of all these.' And it is necessary, that a double edition have a double understanding. The prior signifies this: 'Your eye spared not over you, that it might make one of these things be merciful to you.' And the sense is: No one had mercy on you, having offended God; no one's bowels were moved for you, that out of the four higher Tensions at least one might be made for you; because you did not deserve to receive all things at once. In the second it is said: Your eye did not spare you, so that I may do this one thing for you out of pity for you. And this has the meaning: You have acted in this way, and thus you were born in sin and conceived in guilt by your mother, so that even she does not have pity on you. And when you acted in this way, so that you emerged as cruel against yourself through evil deeds: what could I have done for you, who did not even deserve to receive one thing from your superiors? Therefore, since none of the things that are commonly done for infants was done for you; and this not without cause or without judgement, but due to your fault and sin, for which even you have no pity on yourself: therefore you are cast down upon the face of the earth, or the wayside; and cast down because of the wickedness of your soul on the day you were born. Let us not be thrown down into the face of the field by the wickedness of the soul, in which there is a wide and spacious road that leads to death; in which the cavalry of the Chaldeans revels. It must also be considered that no one can commit any evil on the day of their birth, except at the time of the bath, when the wise generation of the faithful is assumed.

In this chapter the mercy of God to Jerusalem, (or the Jewish Church and nation), is set forth by the emblem of a person that should take up an exposed infant, bring her up with great tenderness, and afterwards marry her, Eze 16:1-14. She is then upbraided with her monstrous ingratitude in departing from the worship of God, and polluting herself with the idolatries of the nations around her, under the figure of a woman that proves false to a tender and indulgent husband, vv. 15-52. But, notwithstanding these her heinous provocations, God promises, after she should suffer due correction, to restore her again to his favor, Eze 16:53-63. The mode of describing apostasy from the true religion to the worship of idols under the emblem of adultery, (a figure very frequent in the sacred canon), is pursued with great force, and at considerable length, both in this and the twenty-third chapter; and is excellently calculated to excite in the Church of God the highest detestation of all false worship.

Thou wast cast out in the open field - This is an allusion to the custom of some heathen and barbarous nations, who exposed those children in the open fields to be devoured by wild beasts who had any kind of deformity, or whom they could not support.

DETAILED APPLICATION OF THE PARABOLICAL DELINEATION OF THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER TO JERUSALEM PERSONIFIED AS A DAUGHTER. (Eze. 16:1-63) cause Jerusalem to know--Men often are so blind as not to perceive their guilt which is patent to all. "Jerusalem" represents the whole kingdom of Judah.

cast . . . in . . . open field--The exposure of infants was common in ancient times. to the loathing of thy person--referring to the unsightly aspect of the exposed infant. FAIRBAIRN translates, "With contempt (or disdainful indifference) of thy life."