*H And thou shalt say: Thus saith the Lord God to Jerusalem: Thy root, and thy nativity is of the land of Chanaan, thy father was an Amorrhite, and thy mother a Cethite.
Ver. 3. Cethite, or "Hethite." These two were probably the most abandoned of Chanaan. Daniel (xiii. 56.) gives the infamous judges the like appellation; and Isaias (i. 10.) calls the Jews princes of Sodom. C. — So Dido says to Eneas:
*H And when thou wast born, in the day of thy nativity thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed with water for thy health, nor salted with salt, nor swaddled with clouts.
Ver. 4. Cut. By this the infant received nourishment in the womb. Now it seems to be exposed by its parents. C. — The Jews in Egypt were abandoned to idolatry and distress. Theod. in Cant. — Health. Many plunged the infant in cold water to brace its nerves, (C.) or to wash it. Salt was also used to dry up the humidity and stop the pores, (S. Jer.) or it was mixed with water to harden the skin and navel. Avicen. Gall. San. i. 7. — Clouts, to keep the body straight. The negroes who neglect this are stronger and better proportioned, (C.) and too much restraint is known to be detrimental to the tender limbs. H.
*H No eye had pity on thee to do any of these things for thee, out of compassion to thee: but thou wast cast out upon the face of the earth in the abjection of thy soul, in the day that thou wast born.
Ver. 5. Born, as it were in Egypt. He represents the Jews as a female from her infancy, till she be advanced in years.
*H And passing by thee, I saw that thou wast trodden under foot in thy own blood: and I said to thee when thou wast in thy blood: Live: I have said to thee: Live in thy blood.
Ver. 6. Thy blood, unwashed after being born. v. 4. C. — The Jews were solicitous to increase their numbers, and exposed none. Tacit. Hist. v. — But other nations did, if they thought the child would be troublesome, or a disgrace. C. — The prophet sends this admonition from Chaldea, and shews how God had selected his people from among the barbarous nations, and decorated them with many privileges of the law, sacrifices, &c. W.
*H I caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field: and thou didst increase and grow great, and advancedst, and camest to woman's ornament: thy breasts were fashioned, and thy hair grew: and thou was naked, and full of confusion.
Ver. 7. Woman's. Heb. "the ornament of ornaments;" hadaiim instead of harim in Sept. "the citeis of cities," (C.) or the highest glory, being arrived at that age when decorations are most sought after. — Fashioned. Lit. "swelling." Sept. "erect." H. — Hair, (pilus.) Women are allowed by the canon law to marry at twelve. C.
*H And I passed by thee, and saw thee: and behold thy time was the time of lovers: and I spread my garment over thee, and covered thy ignominy. and I swore to thee, and I entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God: and thou becamest mine.
Ver. 8. Lovers. Heb. dodim, "breasts, (H.) or espousals;" (Aq.) "loving." Sym. — Garment, as a husband. Ruth iii. 9. Jer. ii. 2.
*H And I washed thee with water, and cleansed away thy blood from thee: and I anointed thee with oil.
Ver. 9. Oil, used after bathing, or with perfumes. C.
*H And I clothed thee with embroidery, and shod thee with violet coloured shoes: and I girded thee about with fine linen, and clothed thee with fine garments.
Ver. 10. Embroidery. Lit. "various colours." H. — But this is the import. Ps. xliv. 10. — Violet, or dark blue, appropriated to princes. — Linen, or cotton. Ex. xxv. Prov. xxxi. 24. C. — Fine. Lit. "thin." Heb. Mesi, (H.) "silken." Jarchi. Pagn. &c. Silk was used much later at Rome, (C.) and was reprobated as not covering the body sufficiently.
*H And I put a jewel upon thy forehead and earrings in thy ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.
Ver. 12. Forehead. Lit. "mouth." Heb. "nose." H. — Women wore rings where spectacles are placed, and had others hung at their noses, so as to touch the mouth. People who are not acquainted with this odd custom, which is still prevalent in Africa and Asia, suppose that the ornament hung upon the forehead, as S. Jerom does. See Gen. xxiv. 22. C.
*H And thou wast adorned with gold, and silver, and wast clothed with fine linen, and embroidered work, and many colours: thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil, and wast made exceeding beautiful: and wast advanced to be a queen.
Ver. 13. Linen. Heb. mossi. v. 11. H. — Chal. understands these ornaments to pertain to the tabernacle, which was set up in the wilderness. — Oil, enjoying a most fertile country, (C.) and the noblest sacrifices. H. — And wast, &c. The kingdom had subsisted 1500 years. C. — Sept. omit this, for fear of giving umbrage to the Egyptians, according to S. Jerom, as if they could be ignorant of this circumstance. C. — Grabe supplies, "thou wast directed to the kingdom." H.
*H But trusting in thy beauty, thou playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and thou hast prostituted thyself to every passenger, to be his.
Ver. 15. Renown, or name; thus dishonouring me, thy husband. Is. iv. 1.
*H And taking of thy garments thou hast made thee high places sewed together on each side: and hast played the harlot upon them, as hath not been done before, nor shall be hereafter.
Ver. 16. Places: pavilions, (A. Lap. 4 K. xvii. 30. C.) or idols stuffed, (S. Jer. Theod.) and outwardly adorned. Such might easily be procured or removed. 1 K. xix. 13. — Hereafter, with impunity. The Jews were guilty of greater ingratitude than other nations.
*H And thou tookest thy beautiful vessels, of my gold, and my silver, which I gave thee, and thou madest thee images of men, and hast committed fornication with them.
Ver. 17. My gold, for the temple, or thy most precious ornaments, which were sacrificed to gratify thy lubricity, (C.) or to form the golden calf, &c. Ex. xxxii. H. — Obscene representations were also used in the worship of Osiris. Herod. ii. 48.
*H And thou tookest thy garments of divers colours, and coveredst them: and settest my oil and my sweet incense before them.
Ver. 18. Oil, or perfume. which no man was allowed to use. Ex. xxx. 9. 38.
*H And thou hast taken thy sons, and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne to me: and hast sacrificed the same to them to be devoured. Is thy fornication small?
Ver. 20. Thy sons: so he calls them to shew his indignation, though he acknowledges them for his, (v. 21.) to enhance the crime. Who could have thought that such cruel sacrifices would ever take place! 4 K. xxiii. C. — Adulteresses bring in the children of others; but the Jews sacrifice their own to idols. 4 K. xvi. &c. W.
*H At every head of the way thou hast set up a sign of thy prostitution: and hast made thy beauty to be abominable: and hast prostituted thyself to every one that passed by, and hast multiplied thy fornications.
Ver. 25. Sign; altars of idols. H. — She makes no secret of her apostacy. The Greeks and Romans marked the houses of prostitutes, that honest men might avoid them. "The deemed the profession of such a crime a sufficient punishment to repress impure women." Tacit. Annal.
*H And thou hast committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, men of large bodies, and hast multiplied thy fornications to provoke me.
Ver. 26. Bodies. Lit. "flesh." H. Juv. ix. 34. M. — The Egyptians are tall, but meagre. Valle. Ep. xi. — They were the most dissolute in their worship, and corrupted most other nations as well as the Jews. C. xx. 8. and xxiii. 3.
*H Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and will take away thy justification: and I will deliver thee up to the will of the daughters of the Philistines that hate thee, that are ashamed of thy wicked way.
Ver. 27. Justification; law, &c. Heb. "thy right," or allowance. Ex. xxi. 10. — Hate thee. To be abandoned to the will of a rival, is most dreadful for a woman. The Jews were subjected to the nations which they had despised, as they are still to Christians. Even other less favoured idolaters were astonished (C.) at their apostacy. H.
*H Thou hast also committed fornication with the Assyrians, because thou wast not yet satisfied: and after thou hadst played the harlot with them, even so thou wast not contented.
Ver. 28. Assyrians, adoring the sun, Baal, &c. C.
*H Because thou hast built thy brothel house at the head of every way, and thou hast made thy high place in every street: and wast not as a harlot that by disdain enhanceth her price,
Ver. 31. Price, before she will yield, (H.) or who follow such practices for a livelihood. C. — Heb. "in that thou scornest hire." Prot. Sept. "gathering rewards." The difference consisted in Jerusalem's sinning through mere wantonness, and even to her loss.
*H And it hath happened in thee contrary to the custom of women in thy fornications, and after thee there shall be no such fornication, for in that thou gavest rewards, and didst not take rewards, the contrary hath been done in thee.
Ver. 34. Fornication unpunished, or comparable with thine. v. 16. H. — All such actions are abominable; but still more so, when the woman solicts. W.
*H Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy money hath been poured out, and thy shame discovered through thy fornications with thy lovers, and with the idols of thy abominations, by the blood of thy children whom thou gavest them:
Ver. 36. Money. Lit. "brass," (H.) to adorn idols. C. — Prot. "thy filthiness;" (H.) virus. Pagn. &c. C.
*H Behold, I will gather together all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all whom thou hast loved, with all whom thou hast hated: and I will gather them together against thee on every side, and will discover thy shame in their sight, and they shall see all thy nakedness.
Ver. 37. Nakedness. Friends and enemies (H.) saw that idols afforded no protection. C. vi. 3. Jer. xiii. 26.
*H And I will judge thee as adulteresses, and they that shed blood are judged: and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.
Ver. 38. Judge; punish thee by stoning to death. Lev. xx. 10. The walls of the Jews were battered to the ground.
*H And I will deliver thee into their hands, and they shall destroy thy brothel house, and throw down thy stews: and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take away the vessels of thy beauty: and leave thee naked, and full of disgrace.
Ver. 39. House; the temple, which thou hast profaned, and the high places. The idols shall be plundered, in which thou hast trusted.
*H And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and shall execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and thou shalt cease from fornication, and shalt give no hire any more.
Ver. 41. Women: nations assembled against Jerusalem.
* Footnote * 4_Kings 25 : 9
And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burnt with fire.*H And my indignation shall rest in thee: and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will cease and be angry no more.
Ver. 42. No more. I will entirely repudiate thee, so as to observe thy conduct no longer, (C.) with the eyes of an husband. H. — This is the most terrible effect of God's wrath, (C.) when the sinner is left to himself. Osee iv. 14. S. Jerom.
*H Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast provoked me in all these things: wherefore I also have turned all thy ways upon thy head, saith the Lord God, and I have not done according to thy wicked deeds in all thy abominations.
Ver. 43. Youth, when thou wast destitute, (v. 4.) and more grateful for my favours. Jer. ii. 2. — Head. I have punished thee, yet not as thy deeds require. H.
*H Behold every one that useth a common proverb, shall use this against thee, saying: As the mother was, so also is her daughter.
Ver. 44. Daughter. They too commonly (C.) follow bad parents. Juv. vi. 239. and xiv. 25. — Jerusalem is more wicked than the Cethite, (H.) her mother, v. 3. C. — Even this nation had once received the principles of true religion from the patriarchs, but cast them off to embrace idolatry, and to destroy her children. H. — Jerusalem was formerly and is still wicked. W.
*H And thy elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister that dwelleth at thy right hand is Sodom, and her daughters.
Ver. 46. Right: southward. — Sodom. The city was more ancient than Jerusalem. Hence it here designates Ruben, (H.) and the Jews east of the Jordan; (Prado) or rather Moab and Ammon, (v. 55. C.) and the rest of the Gentiles. H. — Samaria shewed Jerusalem the road to idolatry, and therefore is called her elder sister. The number of the ten tribes was also greater than that of the kingdom of Juda, which became corrupt as Sodom, only by degrees. Theod.
*H But neither hast thou walked in their ways, nor hast thou done a little less than they according to their wickednesses: thou hast done almost more wicked things than they in all thy ways.
Ver. 47. Ways, but hast done even worse. — Almost. He seems to diminish their crimes, (C.) as if it could hardly be believed that Jerusalem should be more abandoned. Heb. and Sept. "that would be but little: yea, thou hast done more," &c. H.
*H Behold this was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance, and the idleness of her, and of her daughters: and they did not put forth their hand to the needy, and the poor.
Ver. 49. Sodom, &c. That is, these were the steps by which the Sodomites came to fall into those abominations for which they were destroyed. For pride, gluttony, and idleness, are the high road to all kinds of lust; especially when they are accompanied with a neglect of the works of mercy. Ch. — These crimes alone are great enough; (Lu. xvi. 19.) and the prophets never accuse the Jews of unnatural lust. Hence Ezechiel takes no notice of it here, as he probably refers to the manners of the Moabites, &c. who were then living. Is. xvi. 6. C. — Abundance and idleness produce crimes; temperance and labour bring forth good fruit. W.
* Footnote * Genesis 19 : 24
And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.*H And they were lifted up, and committed abominations before me: and I took them away as thou hast seen.
Ver. 50. Seen. This would seem to allude to the Israelites beyond the Jordan, who had been led away into Assyria. The Moabites, &c. beheld the downfall of Jerusalem, (H.) and were treated in like manner, only five years later. Jos. Jer. xlviii. &c.
*H And Samaria committed not half thy sins: but thou hast surpassed them with thy crimes, and hast justified thy sisters by all thy abominations which thou hast done.
Ver. 51. Justified, as they are comparatively innocent. S. Aug. c. Faust. xxii. 61. — They had not the like advantages, (Mat. xi. 23.) nor the example of others' punishment to open their eyes. Thou hast pleaded for or with them, and hast lost thy cause. C.
*H And I will bring back and restore them by bringing back Sodom, with her daughters, and by bringing back Samaria, and her daughters: and I will bring those that return of thee in the midst of them.
Ver. 53. Back, &c. This relates to the conversion of the Gentiles out of all nations, and of many of the Jews, to the Church of Christ. Ch. — Cyrus also liberated the tribes on the east as well as on the west of the Jordan, (H.) and in general all the captive nations. C. — And restore. Heb. "the captivity, even the captivity of Sodom." Sept. "I will turn away their aversions, the," &c. I will give them a more docile spirit. H.
*H That thou mayest bear thy shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, comforting them.
Ver. 54. Them. It affords some consolation to have partners in misery. C.
*H And thy sister Sodom and her daughters shall return to their ancient state: and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their ancient state: and thou and thy daughters shall return to your ancient state.
Ver. 55. Ancient state. That is, to their former state of liberty, and their ancient possessions. In the spiritual sense, to the true liberty and the happy inheritance of the children of God, through faith in Christ. Ch. — All will be treated alike, whether Jew or Gentile. H. — When Sodom or the Gentiles shall have embraced the gospel, then also will the Jews. Rom. x. W.
*H And Sodom thy sister was not heard of in thy mouth, in the day of thy pride,
Ver. 56. Pride. Thou scornedst to mention her, (Ps. xv. 4. C.) or wouldst not take warning. S. Jerom.
*H For thus saith the Lord God: I will deal with thee, as thou hast despised the oath, in breaking the covenant:
Ver. 59. Covenant at Sinai, or under Josue. viii. Ex. xix. 7.
*H And I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth: and I will establish with thee an everlasting covenant.
Ver. 60. Covenant. After punishing thee I will fulfil my promises, as we see was done (C.) after the captivity, and (H.) in the Christian Church. C. — All shall be converted, not by the Jewish but by the evangelical covenant. W.
*H And thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed: when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thy elder and thy younger: and I will give them to thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
Ver. 61. Daughters. The countries were conquered by the Machabees. All nations embrace the gospel. — Covenant. It is broken. I will, out of pity, re-establish it, or a better, to last for ever under Christ, free from the servitude and fear of the old law. C.