---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible"
author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 453 of 927
url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/453/
cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 453. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/453/"
---

# Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

*Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown*

The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation.

## 453. Ezekiel · 14 of 41

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/453/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/453/#p-N

[¶0] to be devoured--not merely to pass through the fire, as sometimes children were made to do ([Le 18:21]) without hurt, but to pass through so as to be made the food of the flame in honor of idols (see on [Is 57:5]; [Jr 7:31]; [Jr 19:5]; [Jr 32:35]).

[¶1] Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children--rather, "Were thy whoredoms a small matter (that is, not enough, but) that thou hast slain (that is, must also slay)," &c. As if thy unchastity was not enough, thou hast added this unnatural and sacrilegious cruelty ([Mi 6:7]).

[¶2] 22. not remembered ... youth--Forgetfulness of God's love is the source of all sins. Israel forgot her deliverance by God in the infancy of her national life. See [Eze 16:43], to which [Eze 16:60] forms a lovely contrast ([Jr 2:2]; [Ho 11:1]).

[¶3] 23. woe, woe unto thee, &c.--This parenthetical exclamation has an awful effect coming like a lightning flash of judgment amidst the black clouds of Israel's guilt.

[¶4] 24. eminent place--rather, "a fornication-chamber," often connected with the impure rites of idolatry; spiritual fornication, on "an eminent place," answering to "fornication-chamber," is mainly meant, with an allusion also to the literal fornication associated with it ([Jr 2:20]; ).

[¶5] 25. at every head of the way--in the most frequented places ([Pr 9:14]).

[¶6] thy beauty ... abhorred, ... opened ... feet to every one--The wanton advances were all on Israel's part; the idolatrous nations yielded to her nothing in return. She had yielded so much that, like a worn-out prostitute, her tempters became weary of her. When the Church lowers her testimony for God to the carnal tastes of the world, with a view to conciliation, she loses everything and gains nothing.

[¶7] 26. fornication with ... Egyptians--alliances with Egypt, cemented by sharing their idolatries.

[¶8] great of flesh--of powerful virile parts; figuratively for the gross and lustful religion of Egypt (for example, Isis, &c.), which alone could satisfy the abominable lust of Israel ([Eze 20:7], ; , [20, 21]).

[¶9] to provoke me--wantonly and purposely.

[¶10] 27. The consequent judgments, which, however, proved of no avail in reforming the people ([Is 9:13]; [Jr 5:3]).

[¶11] delivered thee unto ... Philistines--([2Ki 16:6]; [2Ch 28:18], ).

[¶12] ashamed of thy lewd way--The Philistines were less wanton in idolatry, in that they did not, like Israel, adopt the idols of every foreign country but were content with their own ([Eze 16:57]; [Jr 2:11]).

[¶13] 28. unsatiable--Not satisfied with whoredoms with neighbors, thou hast gone off to the distant Assyrians, that is, hast sought a league with them, and with it adopted their idolatries.

[¶14] 29. multiplied ... fornication in ... Canaan unto Chaldea--Thou hast multiplied thy idolatries "in Canaan" by sending "unto Chaldea" to borrow from thence the Chaldean rites, to add to the abominations already practised "in Canaan," before the carrying away of Jehoiachin to Chaldea. The name "Canaan" is used to imply that they had made Judea as much the scene of abominations as it was in the days of the corrupt Canaanites. The land had become utterly Canaanitish ([Eze 23:14], &c.).

[¶15] 30. weak ... heart--Sin weakens the intellect ("heart") as, on the contrary, "the way of the Lord is strength to the upright" ([Pr 10:29]).

[¶16] 31. Repetition of [Eze 16:24].

[¶17] not ... as ... harlot ... thou scornest hire--Unlike an ordinary harlot thou dost prostitute thy person gratis, merely to satisfy thy lust. Jerome translates, "Thou hast not been as a harlot in scorning (that is, who ordinarily scorns) a hire offered," in order to get a larger one: nay, thou hast offered hire thyself to thy lovers ([Eze 16:33], ). But these verses show English Version to be preferable, for they state that Israel prostituted herself, not merely for any small reward without demanding more, but for "no reward."

[¶18] 32. instead of her husband--referring to [Nu 5:19], [20, 29]. Fairbairn translates, "whilst under her husband."

[¶19] 33-34. Israel hired her paramours, instead of being, like other harlots, hired by them; she also followed them without their following her.

[¶20] 35. Here begins the threat of wrath to be poured out on her.

[¶21] 36. filthiness--literally, "brass"; metaphor for the lowest part of the person [Calvin]. English Version is better: thy filthy lewdness is poured out without restraint (compare [Jr 13:27]). As silver is an emblem of purity, brass typifies "filthiness," because it easily contracts rust. Henderson explains it, "Because thy money was lavished on thy lovers" ([Eze 16:31], 33, 34).

[¶22] blood of thy children--([Eze 16:20]; [Jr 2:34]).

[¶23] 37. thy lovers--the Chaldeans and the Assyrians. The law of retribution is the more signally exemplified by God employing, as His instruments of judgment on Israel, those very nations whose alliance and idols Israel had so eagerly sought, besides giving her up to those who had been always her enemies. "God will make him, who leaves God for the world, disgraced even in the eyes of the world, and indeed the more so the nearer he formerly stood to Himself" [Hengstenberg], ([Is 47:3]; [Jr 13:26]; [Ho 2:12]; [Na 3:5]).

[¶24] all ... thou hast hated--the Edomites and Philistines; also Moab and Ammon especially ([De 23:3]).

[¶25] I ... will discover thy nakedness--punishment in kind, as she had "discovered her nakedness through whoredoms" ([Eze 16:36]); the sin and its penalty corresponded. I will expose thee to public infamy.

[¶26] 38-40. judge thee, as women that break wedlock--([Le 20:10]; compare [Eze 16:2]). In the case of individual adulteresses, stoning was the penalty ([Joh 8:4], ). In the case of communities, the sword. Also apostasy ([De 13:10]) and sacrificing children to Molech ([Le 20:1-5]) incurred stoning. Thus the penalty was doubly due to Israel; so the other which was decreed against an apostate city ([De 13:15], ) is added, "they shall stone thee with stones and thrust thee through with ... swords." The Chaldeans hurled stones on Jerusalem at the siege and slew with the sword on its capture.

[¶27] shed blood ... judged--([Ge 9:6]).

[¶28] jealousy--image taken from the fury of a husband in jealousy shedding the blood of an unfaithful wife, such as Israel had been towards God, her husband spiritually. Literally, "I will make thee (to become) blood of fury and jealousy."

[¶29] 41. The result of the awful judgment shall be, when divine vengeance has run its course, it shall cease.

[¶30] burn--([De 13:16]; [2Ki 25:9]).

[¶31] women--the surrounding Gentile nations to whom thou shalt be an object of mocking ([Psa 137:7]).

[¶32] I will cause thee to cease ... harlot--([Eze 23:27]). Thou shalt no longer be able to play the harlot through My judgments.

[¶33] thou ... shall give ... no hire ... any more--Thou shalt have none to give.

[¶34] 42. my fury ... rest--when My justice has exacted the full penalty commensurate with thy awful guilt (see on [Eze 5:13]). It is not a mitigation of the penalty that is here foretold, but such an utter destruction of all the guilty that there shall be no need of further punishment [Calvin].

[¶35] 43. ([Eze 16:22]; [Psa 78:42]). In gratitude for God's favors to her in her early history.

[¶36] fretted me--([Is 63:10]; [Ep 4:30]).

[¶37] thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations--that is, this the wickedness (compare [Zec 5:8]), peculiarly hateful to God, namely, spiritual unchastity or idolatry, over and "above" (that is, besides) all thine other abominations. I will put it out of thy power to commit it by cutting thee off. Fairbairn translates, "I will not do what is scandalous (namely, encouraging thee in thy sin by letting it pass with impunity) upon all thine abominations"; referring to [Le 19:29], the conduct of a father who encouraged his daughter in harlotry. English Version is much better.

[¶38] 44. As ... mother ... her daughter--"Is," and "so is," are not in the original; the ellipsis gives the proverb (but two words in the Hebrew) epigrammatic brevity. Jerusalem proved herself a true daughter of the Hittite mother in sin ([Eze 16:3]).

[¶39] 45. mother's ... that loatheth her husband--that is, God ("haters of God," [Ro 1:30]); therefore the knowledge of the true God had originally been in Canaan, handed down from Noah (hence we find Melchisedek, king of Salem, in Canaan, "priest of the most high God," [Ge 14:18]), but Canaan apostatized from it; this was what constituted the blackness of the Canaanites' guilt.

[¶40] loathed ... children--whom she put to death in honor of Saturn; a practice common among the Phoenicians.

[¶41] sister of thy sisters--Thou art akin in guilt to Samaria and Sodom, to which thou art akin by birth. Moab and Ammon, the incestuous children of Lot, nephew of Abraham, Israel's progenitor, had their origin from Sodom; so Sodom might be called Judah's sister. Samaria, answering to the ten tribes of Israel, is, of course, sister to Judah.

[¶42] 46. elder sister ... Samaria--older than Sodom, to whom Judah was less nearly related by kindred than she was to Samaria. Sodom is therefore called her younger sister; Samaria, her "elder sister" [Grotius]. Samaria is called the "elder," because in a moral respect more nearly related to Judah [Fairbairn]. Samaria had made the calves at Dan and Beth-el in imitation of the cherubim.

[¶43] her daughters--the inferior towns subject to Samaria (compare [Nu 21:25], Margin).

[¶44] left--The Orientals faced the east in marking the directions of the sky; thus the north was "left," the south "right."