Ezek — Capítulo 16

16:1-63 Jerusalem is exposed as a wanton prostitute. Even in the relatively mild form of the English translation, ch 16 is hard to read, and it was at least as shocking in the ancient context. Ezekiel was graphically communicating the full ugliness and offensiveness of Judah’s sin. He refused to be polite when discussing his people’s depravity. In fact, his refusal to tone down the offensiveness of Jerusalem’s sin is precisely the point of the passage. The offensive nature of the portrayal was critical to its effectiveness because Ezekiel’s hearers could understand that God’s awful judgment upon them was justified only if they first understood the magnitude of their sin in his sight. A less graphic presentation would not have adequately communicated this message. 16:1-3 Ezekiel begins with Jerusalem’s unpromising origins; it came from Canaanite roots and was the offspring of an Amorite and . . . a Hittite. The city of Jerusalem predated the conquest under Joshua and was never captured during that campaign. Instead, it retained its native Canaanite population even after David conquered it.

16:4-5 Jerusalem’s parents were heartless and did not perform the usual obstetrical practices. Ordinarily, someone cut the umbilical cord, washed the infant, smeared salt and oil over her body, and swaddled her tightly in cloth. Instead, as was common with baby girls in the ancient world, Jerusalem was abandoned: dumped in a field and left to die.

16:6-7 While Jerusalem was in a helpless and hopeless condition, the Lord intervened with his life-giving word. Without that, she would certainly have died. The Lord had no obligation to rescue this abandoned child, for she would simply have been one among many facing such a fate. Yet out of his grace and mercy, the Lord enabled her not merely to survive but to thrive. Instead of dying in the field, she grew up like a plant into maturity and beauty. The city of Jerusalem prospered before becoming an Israelite city, and it was the Lord’s doing.

16:8 At this time, the Lord wrapped his cloak around her, an act that represented a commitment to marriage (cp. Ruth 3:9). The Lord made a covenant with Jerusalem, and in the terms of the metaphor, he married her. When the Lord entered into a covenant with David and his descendants, he also chose Jerusalem as the place for his name to be honored (see 1 Kgs 9:3-4; Ps 132).

16:9-10 The Lord did for Jerusalem what her parents had never done: he washed, anointed, and clothed her, thus reversing the circumstances of her birth. • The Lord provided Jerusalem with adornments fit for a queen, including materials elsewhere associated with the Tabernacle (see Exod 25:3-5; 26:1-14). This reminded the people of Jerusalem that she was chosen as the home of God’s sanctuary and the king’s palace.

16:11-14 She was adorned with jewelry and fed with the very finest foods. She was known throughout the world for her beauty and splendor—both gifts from the Lord.

16:15-19 Instead of appreciating the good things God had given her, Jerusalem prostituted her fame and beauty to false gods and offered to idols the clothes, jewels, food, and oil that the Lord had given her.

16:20-22 Jerusalem even gave her sons and daughters as sacrifices to false gods. Child sacrifice was practiced among the nations around Israel as a sign of total commitment to a deity, especially in the worship of the gods Molech and Chemosh (see Deut 12:31; 2 Kgs 3:27). Israel sometimes participated in this detestable sin.

16:23-25 Prophets commonly described idolatry in terms of adultery (see Hos 2), but Ezekiel goes into much more detail than any other prophet. He depicts Jerusalem as not just foolish or misguided, but rotten to the core. Her adultery had taken place on every street corner, and she had an inexhaustible appetite for increasingly depraved entertainments.

16:26-29 Jerusalem actively promoted promiscuity in pursuing Egypt, the Assyrians, and Babylonia in alliances that were financially costly and that rarely delivered the expected benefits. These alliances would have been just as reprehensible if they had delivered tangible political benefits, because they demonstrated lack of trust in the Lord. Inevitably, they also led Israel into worship of the allied nations’ gods.

16:35-38 Since Jerusalem behaved like an adulteress, it was fitting that she should face an adulteress’s death sentence. God would strip her naked in a symbolic act of divorce, thus reversing the clothing metaphor of marriage (see 16:8; Hos 2:2-3). Then the people would stone her (Lev 20:10; Deut 22:22). Since this would cover her naked body with blood, she would leave the world just as she came into it. This metaphor was fulfilled when the Babylonians destroyed the city in 586 BC.

16:39-43 Ironically, Jerusalem’s lovers would turn against her and destroy her. The Lord’s fury would not be requited until the city had paid for all its former sins.

16:44-45 Jerusalem’s “parents” were a Hittite and an Amorite. Hittites and Amorites were previous occupants of Canaan who were cut off from the land because of their sins (cp. Gen 15:16). The pagan city of Jerusalem was captured and incorporated into Israel in David’s time (2 Sam 5:6-10). Jerusalem’s subsequent behavior was in keeping with her heredity.

16:46-50 Samaria, Jerusalem’s older (or larger) sister, had practiced deviant worship ever since Jeroboam introduced golden calves into his national shrines at Dan and Bethel (1 Kgs 12:28-33). • Sodom, Jerusalem’s younger (or smaller) sister, was a byword for sexual sin (Gen 19:4-9) and for pride, gluttony, laziness, and neglect of the poor and needy.

16:51-52 In comparison to Jerusalem, Samaria and Sodom seemed virtuous. If God had justly destroyed both of Jerusalem’s sisters for their sins, how would Jerusalem escape God’s coming wrath?

16:53-54 The power of God’s grace, even more than his judgment, would make Jerusalem feel ashamed of her association with such “parents” and “sisters” (16:44-52).

16:59-63 Jerusalem’s sins were serious and had to be judged, but judgment was not God’s last word on Jerusalem. She had been comprehensively breaking God’s covenant and deserved the consequence of death, but God would remember the covenant he had made with her in the beginning. God’s purposes for his people cannot be derailed even by their sin, for his covenant commitment is everlasting (Ps 136). God’s forgiveness of her sins would finally bring Jerusalem to repentance.