Ezekiel 16:53 - Exposition

When I shall bring again ; better, with the Revised Version, both here and in Ezekiel 16:55 , and I will turn again. The Authorized Version reads like a sentence of hopeless and perpetual condemnation, as per impossible. When Sodom and Samaria should be pardoned, then, and not till then, should there be hope for Judah. But all that follows in the chapter shows that what is meant is a promise of restoration, not for Judah only, but also for her less guilty sisters. Ezekiel sees a far off hope for his own nation, and he cannot limit the mercy of God in bringing them also, as she was to be brought, to repentance. For them also punishment was a means to an end beyond itself, corrective, and not merely retributive. The language of Isaiah ( Isaiah 19:23-25 ) as to Egypt and Assyria presents a striking parallel, and may have been in Ezekiel's thoughts.