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More Ezekiel commentaries
Ezekiel 13:1-9
False Prophets Condemned
Ezekiel 13:10-23
The Wall That Will Fall
Ezekiel 14:1-11
Idolatry Will be Punished
Ezekiel 14:12-23
Judgment on Persistent Unfaithfulness
Ezekiel 15:1-8
The Outcast Vine
Ezekiel 16:1-14
God’s Love for Jerusalem
Ezekiel 16:15-30
Jerusalem’s Harlotry
Ezekiel 16:31-43
Jerusalem’s Adultery
Ezekiel 16:44-63
A Symbol of Total Corruption
Ezekiel 17:1-24
Two Eagles and the Vine
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Jerusalem’s Adultery
Ezekiel 16:31–43
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)
Listen to the words of a Minister who ended up with a ruined marriage and a ruined ministry after a one night stand “adultery isn’t something that happens with the act – it happens months beforehand. It’s an attitude. You disconnect yourself from the person you’ve sai … More
Israel wasn’t a whore, because she paid her lovers for the privilege of their alliances (vv. 30-34). She was willing to sleep with anyone except her husband. She did not commit harlotry for payment like a prostitute. In fact she paid her lovers to come in unto her! Now God is going to expose Israel’s shame and turn her lovers into enemies (vv. 35-39). She will be destroyed by them as God’s judgment on her unfaithfulness (vv. 40-43).
Jerusalem was deserving of divine punishment. She had “poured out” her lewdness and “uncovered her nakedness.” She had been involved in harlotries with her lovers (foreign nations) and idols. She had given the blood of her sons to her idols. For these reasons God would gather all her lovers, those she had loved (the Egyptians), and those she had hated (the Chaldeans). These would come against Jerusalem from every direction. God would expose Jerusalem’s “nakedness,” her deprivation and need. Jerusalem would be as harshly punished as women who commit adultery or shed blood. She would experience a violent bloodshed such as one might experience who was punished in “wrath and jealousy” (vv. 35-38).
The executioners of the harlot would be her former lovers. They would destroy Jerusalem’s pagan shrines. They would confiscate the clothing and jewels which the harlot had misused in pagan worship. Then a “crowd,” would stone the harlot and thrust her through with swords. The daughters of the harlot (satellite cities), would be burned. “Many women” (neighboring nations), would observe this execution. No longer could she “pay her lovers” (vv. 39-41). By the execution of this sentence God’s “fury” and righteous “jealousy” would depart from his people. Once the problem of unfaithfulness had been corrected, God would be angry with his people no more. Whatever He did to them they would deserve. His justice demanded that he repay them in accordance with their sin.
Application
I pray that I will never be guilty of Spiritual adultery like Israel was in this passage.
Ezekiel 16:31-43 (English Standard Version)
Building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different. "Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. And I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places. They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare. They shall bring up a crowd against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. I will make you stop playing the whore, and you shall also give payment no more. So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry. Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations?"
View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway) »
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