Jerusalem’s Adultery

Ezekiel 16:31–43
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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

Adultery

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.