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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Ezekiel 16:15-34

In these verses we have an account of the great wickedness of the people of Israel, especially in worshipping idols, notwithstanding the great favours that God had conferred upon them, by which, one would think, they should have been for ever engaged to him. This wickedness of theirs is here represented by the lewd and scandalous conversation of that beautiful maid which was rescued from ruin, brought up and well provided for by a kind friend and benefactor, that had been in all respects as a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 16:20

Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters ,.... Their own flesh and blood; which were more than to take their clothes, and cover their idols with them, and their food, and set it before them to part with them was much, but to part with these, and that in such a shocking manner as after mentioned, was so irrational and unnatural, as well as impious and wicked, as is not to be paralleled; and what increased their wickedness was, that these were not only their own, but the Lord's: ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 16:21

That thou hast slain my children ,.... By creation, as all born into the world are; and by national adoption, as all the Jewish children were; and particularly the firstborn were eminently his, and which are here designed, as Jarchi interprets it; for they were the children that were slain and sacrificed to Molech; see Ezekiel 20:26 ; and delivered, them to cause them to pass through the fire for them ? for the sake of idols, for the worship of them; this they did before they were... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 16:22

And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms ,.... Or idolatries, which were abominable to God, and were many; of which that just mentioned was not one of the least: thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth ; the destitute and forlorn condition then in, and what favours were then bestowed: when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood ; See Gill on Ezekiel 16:6 ; See Gill on Ezekiel 16:7 ; which is mentioned to upbraid the Jews with their ingratitude;... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 16:21

To cause them to pass through the fire - Bp. Newcome quotes a very apposite passage from Dionysius Halicarnass. Ant. Romans lib. i., s. 88, p. 72, and marg. p. 75, Edit. Hudson: Μετα δε τουτο, πυρκαΐας προ των σκηνων γενεσθαι κελευσας, εξαγει τον λεων τας φλογας ὑπερθρωσκοντα,της ὁσιωσεως των μιασματων ἑνεκα . "And after this, having ordered that fires should be made before the tents, he brings out the people to leap over the flames, for the purifying of their pollutions." This example... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 16:20

Verse 20 Here God blames them for another crime, that of sacrificing their offspring to idols. This was a very blind superstition, by which parents put off the sense of humanity. It is indeed a detestable prodigy when a father rejects his children, and has no regard or respect for them. Even philosophers place among the principles of nature those affections which they call natural affections. (98) When, therefore, the affection of a father towards his children ceases, which is naturally... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 16:21

Verse 21 He strengthens the same sentence, and more clearly explains that they offered their sons and daughters by cruelly sacrificing them when they passed them through the fire. This was a kind of purifying, as we have seen elsewhere. When, therefore, they passed their children through the fire, it was a rite of illustration and expiation; and they brought them to the fire, as I have lately explained, in two different ways. Here the Prophet speaks especially of that cruel and brutal offering.... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 16:22

Verse 22 Here God accommodates to his own ends what he has hitherto related, namely, the extreme wickedness and baseness of the people’s ingratitude in thus prostituting themselves to idols. Hence he recalls to mind their condition when he espoused them. For if the wretched slavery from which they had been delivered had been present to their mind, they had not been so blinded with perverse confidence, nor had they exulted in their lasciviousness. But since they had forgotten all God’s benefits,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Ezekiel 16:1-63

The thought that underlies Ezekiel's parable, that Israel was the bride of Jehovah, and that her sin was that of the adulterous wife, was sufficiently familiar. Isaiah ( Isaiah 1:21 ) had spoken of the "faithful city that had become a harlot." Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 2:2 ) had represented Jehovah as remembering "the kindness of her youth, the love of her espousals." What is characteristic of Ezekiel's treatment of that image is that he does not recognize any period in which Israel had been... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Ezekiel 16:15-34

A picture of flagrant apostasy from God. "But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown," etc. The prophet row passes from what God had done for his people Israel to set forth how they had requited him. He had shown how, under his fostering care, the outcast child had grown into a beautiful maiden, whom he had espoused and arrayed in robes and ornaments of beauty, until she had become renowned amongst the nations. Now he exhibits the apostasy of... read more

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