16:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD to Jerusalem; Thy birth
and thy nativity [is] of the land a of Canaan; thy father
[was] an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.
(a) You boast to be of the seed of Abraham, but you are
degenerate and follow the abominations of the wicked
Canaanites as children do the manners of their fathers,
(Isa 1:4,57:3).
16:4 And [as for] thy nativity, in the day thou wast b born
thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to
cleanse [thee]; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled
at all.
(b) When I first brought you out of Egypt and planted you
in this land to be my Church.
16:6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy c
own blood, I said to thee [when thou wast] in thy blood,
Live; yea, I said to thee [when thou wast] in thy blood,
Live.
(c) Being thus in your filthiness and forsaken by all men,
I took you and gave you life: by which is meant that
before God wash his Church and give life, there is
nothing but filthiness and death.
16:8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold,
thy time [was] the time of love; and I spread my skirt over
thee, and covered d thy nakedness: yea, I swore to thee,
and entered into a covenant with e thee, saith the Lord
GOD, and thou becamest mine.
(d) These words as blood, pollution, nakedness and
filthiness are often repeated to beat down their pride,
and to cause them to consider what they were before God
received them to mercy, favoured them and covered their
shame.
(e) That you should be a chaste wife to me, and that I
should maintain you and endue you with all graces.
16:9 Then I washed thee with f water; yea, I thoroughly washed
away thy blood from thee, and I g anointed thee with oil.
(f) I washed away your sins.
(g) I sanctified you with my Holy Spirit.
16:12 And I put a jewel in thy nose, and earrings in thy ears,
and a beautiful h crown upon thy head.
(h) By this he shows how he saved his Church, enriched it,
and gave it power and dominion to reign.
16:14 And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy
beauty: for it [was] perfect through my i comeliness,
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
(i) He declares where the dignity of Jerusalem stood: that
is, in that the Lord gave them of his beauty and
excellency.
16:15 But thou didst k trust in thy own beauty, and didst play
the harlot because of thy renown, and didst pour out l
thy harlotries on every one that passed by; his it was.
(k) In abusing my gifts and in putting your confidence in
your own wisdom and dignity, which were the
opportunities of your idolatry.
(l) There was no idolatry with which you did not pollute
yourself.
16:16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and didst deck thy
high places with various colours, m and didst play the
harlot upon them: [the like things] shall not come,
neither shall it be [so].
(m) This declares how the idolaters put their chief
delight in those things which please the eyes and
outward senses.
16:17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my
silver, which I had given thee, and hast n made to
thyself images of men, and hast committed harlotry with
them,
(n) You have converted my vessels and instruments which I
gave you to serve me with to the use of your idols.
16:20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom
thou hast borne to me, and these hast thou sacrificed to
them to o be devoured. [Is this] of thy harlotries a
small matter,
16:26 Thou hast also committed harlotry with the p Egyptians
thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast multiplied thy
harlotry, to provoke me to anger.
(p) He notes the great impiety of this people, who first
falling from God to seek help at strange nations also
at length embraced their idolatry thinking by it to
make their amity more strong.
16:31 In that thou buildest thy eminent place in the head of
every way, and makest thy high place in every street; and
hast not been as an harlot, q in that thou scornest
hire;
(q) Meaning that some harlots contemn small rewards but no
lovers gave a reward to Israel, but they gave to all
others signifying that the idolaters bestow all their
substance which they receive from God for his glory to
serve their vile abominations.
16:37 Behold, therefore I will gather all r thy lovers, with
whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all [them] that thou
hast loved, with all [them] that thou hast hated; I will
even gather them on every side against thee, and will
uncover thy nakedness to them, that they may see all thy
nakedness.
(r) Egyptians, Assyrians and Chaldeans whom you took to be
your lovers will come and destroy you, (Eze 23:9).
16:38 And I will judge thee, as women that s break wedlock and
shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury
and jealousy.
(s) I will judge you to death as the adulterers and
murderers.
16:42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my t
jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and
will be no more angry.
(t) I will utterly destroy you and so my jealousy will
cease.
16:43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth,
but hast provoked me in all these [things]; behold,
therefore I also will u recompense thy way upon [thy]
head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this
lewdness above all thy abominations.
(u) I have punished your faults but you would not repent.
16:44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use [this]
proverb against thee, saying, As [is] the mother, x [so
is] her daughter.
(x) As the Canaanites, the Hittites and others were your
predecessors, so are you their successors.
16:45 Thou [art] thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband
and her children; and thou [art] the sister of thy y
sisters, who lothed their husbands and their children:
your mother [was] an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
(y) That is, of Samaria and Sodom.
16:46 And thy elder sister [is] Samaria, she and her z
daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger
sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, [is] Sodom and
her daughters.
(z) That is, her cities.
16:47 Yet hast thou a not walked after their ways, nor done
after their abominations: but, as [if that were] a very
little [thing], thou wast corrupted more than they in all
thy ways.
(a) But done far worse.
16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, b
pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in
her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the
hand of the poor and needy.
(b) He alleges these four vices, pride, excess, idleness
and contempt of the poor as four principal causes of
such abomination, wherefore they were so horribly
punished, (Ge 19:24).
16:51 Neither c hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but
thou hast multiplied thy abominations more than they, and
hast d justified thy sisters in all thy abominations
which thou hast done.
(c) Which worshipped the calves in Bethel and Dan.
(d) You are so wicked that in respect to you Sodom and
Samaria were just.
16:53 When I shall bring again e their captivity, the
captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of
Samaria and her daughters, then [will I bring again] the
captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
(e) This he speaks in comparison seeing that he would
restore Jerusalem when Sodom would be restored, that
is, never: and this is meant of the greatest part of
the Jews.
16:54 That thou mayest bear thy own shame, and mayest be
confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a
f comfort to them.
(f) In that you have shown yourself worse than they and
yet thought to escape punishment.
16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to
their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall
return to their former state, g then thou and thy
daughters shall return to your former state.
(g) Meaning that it would never come to pass.
16:56 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned h by thy mouth in
the day of thy pride,
(h) You would not call her punishment to mind when you
were aloft, to learn by her example to fear my
judgments.
16:57 Before thy wickedness was i uncovered, as at the time of
[thy] reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all [that
are] around k her, the daughters of the Philistines, who
despise thee on every side.
(i) That is, till you were brought under by the Syrians
and Philistines, (2Ch 28:19).
(k) Which joined with the Syrians, or compassed about
Jerusalem.
16:59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as
thou hast done, who hast despised the l oath in breaking
the covenant.
(l) When you broke the covenant which was made between you
and me, as in (Eze 16:8).
16:60 Nevertheless I will m remember my covenant with thee in
the days of thy youth, and I will establish to thee an
everlasting covenant.
(m) That is, out of mercy and love I will pity you and so
stand by my covenant though you have deserved the
contrary.
16:61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when
thou shalt receive n thy sisters, thy elder and thy
younger: and I will give them to thee for daughters, but
not o by thy covenant.
(n) By which he shows that among the most wicked, he
always had some seed of his Church, which he would
cause to bear fruit in due time: and here he declares
how he will call the Gentiles.
(o) But of my free mercy.
16:63 That thou mayest remember, and be p confounded, and
never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I
am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith
the Lord GOD.
(p) This declares what fruits God's mercies work in his,
that is, sorrow and repentance for their former life.
