Verse 1
THE ALLEGORY OF THE UNFAITHFUL WIFE
The sole purpose of this tremendous chapter was stated bluntly in the second verse: "Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations." Ezekiel discharged this assignment in the most realistic, and some would say the most revolting, chapter in the Bible. Under the influence of Christ, men today would not speak in such harsh, realistic, even vulgar language which we find here; but the sad truth was that only this kind of brutally frank and honest language could get the attention of Israel.
The problem was the national attitude of the whole Jewish nation. Remembering their past glory, the miraculous aid which had given them their eminence, the extravagant luxury of their formerly great empire, and their constant appropriation unto themselves of the most surpassing thoughts relative to their being "God's chosen people," "the choicest among the nations," etc., the Jewish mind utterly despised all of the other races on earth. Had not God wiped out Samaria? and Sodom? Their national expectation looked forward to "the Lord's Day," when God would appear, probably on a white horse, kill all the Gentiles, and turn the whole world over to his favorite people, the Jews.
It was this national conceit which had prevented the Jews, up to this point, in catching the point of Ezekiel's many prophecies concerning the worthlessness and reprobacy of the "Once Chosen" people. That is the background of this chapter.
Ezekiel seized upon the metaphor of the marriage covenant, so dramatically depicted in Hosea 2:2-14, expanded and elaborated it, and made it the startling "Allegory of the Unfaithful Wife," fully meriting the brutal and sadistic punishment of adulteresses in ancient times.
This whole chapter was summarized by Halley. "It is a graphic, vivid portrayal of Israel's idolatry under the figure of a bride, rescued from her exposure as an infant, who became the wife of her benefactor, who made her a queen and lavished upon her silks, sealskins, and every beautiful thing; who then made herself a prostitute to every man that passed by, thereby becoming even worse than Samaria and Sodom."[1]
Plumptre described the language here as unmatched by anything else except some passages in Dante, but cautioned us to remember that, "The scenes brought forth by the prophet here were a very familiar thing to the men of the generation addressed by Ezekiel."[2] The picture of Israel is so revolting in this chapter that the distinguished Jewish Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, "Forbade the chapter either to be read or translated in public!"[3] Plumptre noted that Israel is here revealed as, "The Messalina of the nations."[4] Messalina was the profligate third wife of the Emperor Claudius, executed in 48 A.D.[5]
According to Jamieson, there are five great paragraphs in the chapter. (1) The Great Benefactor rescues the outcast infant foundling (vv. 1-7). (2) Later married to her Benefactor, she is made a queen (vv. 8-14). (3) She becomes a gross, unprincipled sinner (vv. 15-34). (4) She incurs the terrible punishment of an adulteress (vv. 35-52). (5) Her restoration is promised, but it is also extended to Samaria and Sodom! (vv. 53-63).
The proposition to be exploited in this chapter is the unmitigated wickedness of Israel from its very beginning and throughout its history.
HEREDITY; BIRTH; INFANCY; EXPOSURE; AND RESCUE
"Again, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations; and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto Jerusalem: Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was thy father, and thy mother was a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, the day thou wast born, thy navel wast not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to cleanse thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor wast thou swaddled at all. No eye pitied thee, to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, for that thy person was abhorred, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee weltering in thy blood, I said unto thee, Though thou art in thy blood, live; and I said unto thee, Though thou art weltering in thy blood, live. I caused thee to multiply as that which groweth in the field, and thou didst increase and wax great, and thou attainedst to excellent ornament; thy breasts were fashioned, and thy hair was grown; yet thou wast naked and bare."
"The word of the Lord unto Jerusalem ..." (Ezekiel 16:3). Although Jerusalem alone is mentioned here, "The city is used as a representative of the whole Jewish nation."[6]
The metaphor is that of a baby girl mercilessly exposed in an open field, for whom none of the necessary services for a newborn child were performed. Unwashed, abhorred, thrown out to die, just like that newborn child recently picked up by the garbage men in Houston. McFadyen noted that, "In a similar way, Israel's sins from the beginning to the end of her history constituted one unbroken record of black apostasy."[7]
The picture of an unattended, abandoned new-born baby girl, with uncut navel and wallowing in the refuse of its afterbirth is described here in very indelicate language; "But Ezekiel meant it that way; he was exposing ugly sins, and he made the allegory fit the facts."[8]
Those were cruel times in world history; and the exposure of unwanted children for the purpose of getting rid of them was widely known. Furthermore, as Plumptre said, "Everyone was familiar with scenes of this kind."[9] In fact, it must be supposed that, the captives themselves were particularly familiar with such things; because in that long terrible march, lasting a month or more, from Jerusalem to Babylon, the heartless captors would have allowed no time or consideration for the women whose children were born on the bitter march. Such unfortunate children as were born under those conditions were left by the side of the road to die.
"Thy nativity is of the land of the Canaanites ..." (Ezekiel 16:3). "Ezekiel here moved far beyond other prophets, asserting that from their very birth, Israel had the genes of depravity in her being."[10]
The allegory here is somewhat inexact, because, strictly speaking, Abraham and the patriarchs were not Canaanites; however, what is said here indicates that the Chosen People did indeed become the children, in the spiritual sense, of the Canaanites. The Amorite father, and the Hittite mother, through their abominable idols with their licentious rites, won Israel over, and became the spiritual parents of the Jews, who actually became "Canaanites" in every spiritual sense (Hosea 12:7).
The allegory fits especially in the matter of when the "infancy" of the Jewish nation actually occurred; it was not in the days of Abraham, but at the time of their coming up out of Egypt. The covenant from the days of Israel's youth, however, referred to the Abrahamic promise, and not to the Mosaic covenant (verse 60).
The comparison of the Jewish nation with an exposed and abandoned infant was extremely appropriate; because, "The Jews in Egypt were held to be contemptible by the Egyptians; and the Pharaoh's determined to exterminate them through the murder of their male children. Moses, as a type of the whole nation, was himself exposed, and delivered from actual death, only by God's providence."[11]
"I said unto thee ... live ..." (Ezekiel 16:6). The repetition of this speaks of the miracle of God in the preservation and blessing of the infant nation, threatened as they were, by Egyptian intentions to destroy them.
"Thou attainedst to excellent ornaments ... thy breasts were fashioned ... thy hair was grown ..." (Ezekiel 16:7). The ornaments here are the natural beauty of womanhood, as distinguished from those mentioned in Ezekiel 16:11. "Her breasts were fashioned" was rendered by Keil as, "Her breasts expanded."[12]
"Thy hair was grown ..." (Ezekiel 16:7). This is not a reference merely to "longer hair," but as Greenberg noted, to hair not visible at all previously, "Lo, hair is grown on thy vulva."[13]
"I caused thee to multiply ..." (Ezekiel 16:7). This is a reference to the marvelous growth of Israel, which is indicated here as being due to the special providence of God.
"Yet thou wast naked and bare ..." (Ezekiel 16:7). "This represents the days of their sojourn in Egypt, before the Sinaitic covenant."[14]
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