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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
E Z E K I E L.
CHAP. XVI.
Still God is justifying himself in the desolations he is about to bring
upon Jerusalem; and very largely, in this chapter, he shows the
prophet, and orders him to show the people, that he did but punish them
as their sins deserved. In the foregoing chapter he had compared
Jerusalem to an unfruitful vine, that was fit for nothing but the fire;
in this chapter he compares it to an adulteress, that, in justice,
ought to be abandoned and exposed, and he must therefore show the
people their abominations, that they might see how little reason they
had to complain of the judgments they were under. In this long
discourse are set forth,
I. The despicable and deplorable beginnings of that church and nation,
II. The many honours and favours God had bestowed upon them,
III. Their treacherous and ungrateful departures from him to the
services and worship of idols, here represented by the most impudent
whoredom,
IV. A threatening of terrible destroying judgments, which God would
bring upon them for this sin,
V. An aggravation both of their sin and of their punishment, by
comparison with Sodom and Samaria,
VI. A promise of mercy in the close, which God would show to a penitent
remnant,
And this is designed for admonition to us.
| The Meanness of Judah’s Origin. | B. C. 593. |
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1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth
and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an
Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.
4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy
navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple
thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have
compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field,
to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
Ezekiel is now among the captives in Babylon; but, as Jeremiah at
Jerusalem wrote for the use of the captives though they had Ezekiel
upon the spot with them
(ch. xxix.),
so Ezekiel wrote for the use of Jerusalem, though Jeremiah himself was
resident there; and yet they were far from looking upon it as an
affront to one another’s help both by preaching and writing. Jeremiah
wrote to the captives for their consolation, which was the thing they
needed; Ezekiel here is directed to write to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem for their conviction and humiliation, which was the thing
they needed.
I. This is his commission
(v. 2):
“Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations (that is, her sins);
set them in order before her.” Note,
1. Sins are not only provocations which God is angry at, but
abominations which he hates, as contrary to his nature, and
which we ought to hate,
2. The sins of Jerusalem are in a special manner so. The practice of
profaneness appears most odious in those that make a profession of
religion.
3. Though Jerusalem is a place of great knowledge, yet she is loth
to know her abominations; so partial are men in their own favour
that they are hardly made to see and own their own badness, but deny
it, palliate or extenuate it.
4. It is requisite that we should know our sins, that we may confess
them, and may justify God in what he brings upon us for them.
5. It is the work of ministers to cause sinners, sinners in Jerusalem,
to know their abominations, to set before them the glass of the
law, that in it they may see their own deformities and defilements, to
tell them plainly of their faults. Thou art the man.
II. That Jerusalem may be made to know her abominations, and
particularly the abominable ingratitude she had been guilty of, it was
requisite that she should be put in mind of the great things God had
done for her, as the aggravations of her bad conduct towards him; and,
to magnify those favours, she is in
made to know the meanness and baseness of her original, from what poor
beginnings God raised her, and how unworthy she was of his favour and
of the honour he had put upon her. Jerusalem is here put for the
Jewish church and nation, which is here compared to an outcast child,
base-born and abandoned, which the mother herself has no affection nor
concern for.
1. The extraction of the Jewish nation was mean: “Thy birth is of
the land of Canaan
(v. 3);
thou hadst from the very first the spirit and disposition of a
Canaanite.” The patriarchs dwelt in Canaan, and they were there but
strangers and sojourners, had no possession, no power, not one
foot of ground of their own but a burying-place. Abraham and Sarah were
indeed their father and mother, but they were only inmates with
the Amorites and Hittites, who, having the dominion, seemed to be as
parents to the seed of Abraham, witness the court Abraham made to the
children of Seth
the dependence they had upon their neighbours the Canaanites, and the
fear they were in of them,
If the patriarchs, at their first coming to Canaan, had conquered it,
and made themselves masters of it, this would have put an honour upon
their family and would have looked great in history; but, instead of
that, they went from one nation to another
(Ps. cv. 13),
as tenants from one farm to another, almost as beggars from one door to
another, when they were but few in number, yea, very few. And
yet this was not the worst; their fathers had served other gods in
Ur of the Chaldees
even in Jacob’s family there were strange gods,
Gen. xxxv. 2.
Thus early had they a genius leading them to idolatry; and upon this
account their ancestors were Amorites and Hittites.
2. When they first began to multiply their condition was really very
deplorable, like that of a new-born child, which must of necessity die
from the womb if the knees prevent it not,
The children of Israel, when they began to increase into a people and
became considerable, were thrown out from the country that was intended
for them; a famine drove them thence. Egypt was the open field
into which they were cast; there they had no protection or countenance
from the government they were under, but, on the contrary, were ruled
with rigour, and their lives embittered; they had no encouragement
given them to build up their families, no help to build up their
estates, no friends or allies to strengthen their interests. Joseph,
who had been the shepherd and stone of Israel, was dead; the
king of Egypt, who should have been kind to them for Joseph’s sake, set
himself to destroy this man-child as soon as it was born
(Rev. xii. 4),
ordered all the males to be slain, which, it is likely, occasioned the
exposing of many as well as Moses, to which perhaps the similitude here
has reference. The founders of nations and cities had occasion for all
the arts and arms they were masters of, set their heads on work, by
policies and stratagems, to preserve and nurse up their infant states.
Tantæ molis erat Romanam condere gentem–So vast were the
efforts requisite to the establishment of the Roman name. Virgil.
But the nation of Israel had no such care taken of it, no such pains
taken with it, as Athens, Sparta, Rome, and other commonwealths had
when they were first founded, but, on the contrary, was doomed to
destruction, like an infant new-born, exposed to wind and weather,
the navel-string not cut, the poor babe not washed, not
clothed, no swaddled, because not pitied,
v. 4, 5.
Note, We owe the preservation of our infant lives to the natural pity
and compassion which the God of nature has put into the hearts of
parents and nurses towards new-born children. This infant is said to be
cast out, to the loathing of her person; it was a sign that she
was loathed by those that bore her, and she appeared loathsome to all
that looked upon her. The Israelites were an abomination to the
Egyptians, as we find
Some think that this refers to the corrupt and vicious disposition of
that people from their beginning: they were not only the weakest and
fewest of all people
(Deut. vii. 7),
but the worst and most ill-humoured of all people. God giveth thee
this good land, not for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked
people,
Deut. ix. 6.
And Moses tells them there
(v. 24),
You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew
you. They were not suppled, nor washed, nor
swaddled; they were not at all tractable or manageable, nor cast
into any good shape. God took them to be his people, not because he saw
any thing in them inviting or promising, but so it seemed good in
his sight. And it is a very apt illustration of the miserable
condition of all the children of men by nature. As for our
nativity, in the day that we were born we were shapen in
iniquity and conceived in sin, our understandings darkened, our minds
alienated from the life of God, polluted with sin, which rendered us
loathsome in the eyes of God. Marvel not then that we are told,
You must be born again.
| God’s Kindness to Israel. | B. C. 593. |
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6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own
blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea,
I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
7 I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and
thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to
excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair
is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.
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 thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a
covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away
thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.
10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with
badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I
covered thee with silk.
11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon
thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine
ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment
was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat
fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding
beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty:
for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon
thee, saith the Lord GOD.
In there verses we have an account of the great things which God did
for the Jewish nation in raising them up by degrees to be very
considerable.
1. God saved them from the ruin they were upon the brink of in Egypt
(v. 6):
“When I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy own blood,
loathed and abandoned, and appointed to die, as sheep for the
slaughter, then I said unto thee, Live. I designed thee for
life when thou wast doomed to destruction, and resolved to save thee
from death.” Those shall live to whom God commands life. God looked
upon the world of mankind as thus cast off, thus cast out, thus
polluted, thus weltering in blood, and his thoughts towards it were
thoughts of good, designing it life, and that more abundantly.
By converting grace, he says to the soul, Live.
2. He looked upon them with kindness and a tender affection, not only
pitied them, but set his love upon them, which was
unaccountable, for there was nothing lovely in them; but I looked
upon thee, and, behold, thy time was the time of love,
v. 8.
It was the kindness and love of God our Saviour that sent Christ
to redeem us, that sends the Spirit to sanctify us, that brought us out
of a state of nature into a state of grace. That was a time of
love indeed, distinguishing love, when God manifested his love to
us, and courted our love to him. Then was I in his eyes as one that
found favour,
Cant. viii. 10.
3. He took them under his protection: “I spread my skirt over
thee, to shelter thee from wind and weather, and to cover thy
nakedness, that the shame of it might not appear.” Boaz spread
his skirt over Ruth, in token of the special favour he designed
her,
God took them into his care, as an eagle bears her young ones upon
her wings,
Deut. xxxii. 11, 12.
When God owned them for his people, and sent Moses to Egypt to deliver
them, which was an expression of the good-will of him that dwelt in
the bush, then he spread his skirt over them.
4. He cleared them from the reproachful character which their bondage
in Egypt laid them under
(v. 9):
“Then washed I thee with water, to make thee clean, and
anointed thee with oil, to make thee sweet and supple thee.” All
the disgrace of their slavery was rolled away when they were brought,
with a high hand and a stretched-out arm, into the glorious liberty
of the children of God. When God said, Israel is my son, my
first-born–Let my people go, that they may serve me, that word,
backed as it was with so many works of wonder, thoroughly washed
away their blood; and when God led them under the convoy of the
pillar of cloud and fire he spread his skirt over them.
5. He multiplied them and built them up into a people. This is here
mentioned
(v. 7)
before his spreading his skirt over them, because their
numbers increased exceedingly while they were yet bond-slaves in
Egypt. They multiplied as the bud of the field in spring time;
they waxed great, exceedingly mighty,
Exod. i. 7, 20.
Their breasts were fashioned when they were formed into distinct
tribes and had officers of their own
(Exod. v. 19);
their hair grew when they grew numerous, whereas they had been
naked and bare, very few and therefore contemptible.
6. He admitted them into covenant with himself. See what glorious
nuptials this poor forlorn infant is preferred to at last. How she is
dignified who at first had scarcely her life given her for a prey: I
swore unto thee and entered into covenant with thee. This was done
at Mount Sinai: “when the covenant between God and Israel was sealed
and ratified then thou becamest mine.” God called them his
people, and himself the God of Israel. Note, Those to whom God gives
spiritual life he takes into covenant with himself; by that covenant
they become his subjects and servants, which intimates their duty–his
portion, his treasure, which intimates their privilege; and it is
confirmed with an oath, that we might have strong consolation.
7. He beautified and adorned them. This maid cannot forget her
ornaments, and she is gratified with abundance of them,
We need not be particular in the application of these. Her wardrobe was
well furnished with rich apparel; they had embroidered work to
wear, shoes of fine badgers’ skins, linen girdles, and
silk veils, bracelets and necklaces, jewels and
ear-rings, and even a beautiful crown, or coronet.
Perhaps this may refer to the jewels and other rich goods which they
took from the Egyptians, which might well be spoken of thus long after
as a merciful circumstance of their deliverance, when it was spoken of
long before,
They shall come out with great substance. Or it may be taken
figuratively for all those blessings of heaven which adorned both their
church and state. In a little time they came to excellent
ornaments,
v. 7.
The laws and ordinances which God gave them were to them as
ornaments of grace to the head and chains about the neck,
Prov. i. 9.
God’s sanctuary, which he set up among them, was a beautiful crown
upon their head; it was the beauty of holiness.
8. He fed them with abundance, with plenty, with dainty: Thou didst
eat fine flour, and honey, and oil–manna, angels’ food–honey
out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock. In Canaan they did eat
bread to the full, the finest of the wheat,
Those whom God takes into covenant with himself are fed with the bread
of life, clothed with the robe of righteousness, adorned with the
graces and comforts of the spirit. The hidden man of the heart is
that which is incorruptible.
9. He gave them great reputation among their neighbours, and made them
considerable, acceptable to their friends and allies and formidable to
their adversaries: Thou didst prosper into a kingdom
(v. 13),
which speaks both dignity and dominion; and, They renown went forth
among the heathen for thy beauty,
v. 14.
The nations about had their eye upon them, and admired them for the
excellent laws by which they were governed, the privilege they had of
access to God,
Solomon’s wisdom, and Solomon’s temple, were very much the
renown of that nation; and, if we put all the privileges of the
Jewish church and kingdom together, we must own that it was the most
accomplished beauty of all the nations of the earth. The beauty of it
was perfect; you could not name the thing that would be the honour of a
people but it was to be found in Israel, in David’s and Solomon’s time,
when that kingdom was in its zenith-piety, learning, wisdom, justice,
victory, peace, wealth, and all sure to continue if they had kept close
to God. It was perfect, saith God, through my comeliness which I had
put upon thee, through the beauty of their holiness, as they were a
people set apart for God, and devoted to him, to be to him for a
name, and for a praise, and for a glory. It was this that put a
lustre upon all their other honours and was indeed the perfection of
their beauty. We may apply this spiritually. Sanctified souls are
truly beautiful; they are so in God’s sight, and they themselves may
take the comfort of it. But God must have all the glory, for they were
by nature deformed and polluted, and, whatever comeliness they have, it
is that which God has put upon them and beautified them with, and he
will be well pleased with the work of his own hands.
| Ingratitude of Israel; Shameful Idolatry of Israel. | B. C. 593. |
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15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the
harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications
on every one that passed by; his it was.
16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high
places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon:
the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my
silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of
men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
18 And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and
thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and
honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them
for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom
thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them
to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to
cause them to pass through the fire for them?
22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast
not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and
bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.
23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto
thee! saith the Lord GOD😉
24 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and
hast made thee a high place in every street.
25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and
hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to
every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.
26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy
neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to
provoke me to anger.
27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee,
and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee
unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the
Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.
28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because
thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them,
and yet couldest not be satisfied.
29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of
Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou
doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;
31 In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of
every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast
not been as a harlot, in that thou scornest hire;
32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh
strangers instead of her husband!
33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to
all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on
every side for thy whoredom.
34 And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy
whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and
in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee,
therefore thou art contrary.
In these verses we have an account of the great wickedness of the
people of Israel, especially in worshipping idols, notwithstanding the
great favours that God had conferred upon them, by which, one would
think, they should have been for ever engaged to him. This wickedness
of theirs is here represented by the lewd and scandalous conversation
of that beautiful maid which was rescued from ruin, brought up and well
provided for by a kind friend and benefactor, that had been in all
respects as a father and a husband to her. Their idolatry was the great
provoking sin that they were guilty of; it began in the latter end of
Solomon’s time (for from Samuel’s till then I do not remember that we
read any thing of it), and thenceforward continued more or less the
crying sin of that nation till the captivity; and, though it now and
then met with some check from the reforming kings, yet it was never
totally suppressed, and for the most part appeared to a high degree
impudent and barefaced. They not only worshipped the true God by
images, as the ten tribes by the calves at Dan and Bethel, but they
worshipped false gods, Baal and Moloch, and all the senseless rabble of
the pagan deities.
This is that which is here all along represented (as often elsewhere)
under the similitude of whoredom and adultery,
1. Because it is the violation of a marriage-covenant with God,
forsaking him and embracing the bosom of a stranger; it is giving that
affection and that service to his rivals which are due to him alone.
2. Because it is the corrupting and defiling of the mind, and the
enslaving of the spiritual part of the man, and subjecting it to the
power and dominion of sense, as whoredom is.
3. Because it debauches the conscience, sears and hardens it; and
those who by their idolatries dishonour the divine nature, and change
the truth of God into a lie and his glory into shame, God justly
punishes by giving them over to a reprobate mind, to dishonour the
human nature with vile affections,
&c. It is a besotting bewitching sin; and, when men are given up to it,
they seldom recover themselves out of the snare.
4. Because it is a shameful scandalous sin for those that have joined
themselves to the Lord to join themselves to an idol. Now observe
here,
I. What were the causes of this sin. How came the people of God to be
drawn away to the service of idols? How came a virgin so well taught,
so well educated, to be debauched? Who would have thought it? But,
1. They grew proud
(v. 15):
“Thou trustedst to thy beauty, and didst expect that that should
make thee an interest, and didst play the harlot because of thy
renown.” They thought, because they were so complimented and
admired by their neighbours, that, further to ingratiate themselves
with them and return their compliments, they must join with them in
their worship and conform to their usages. Solomon admitted idolatry,
to gratify his wives and their relations. Note, Abundance of young
people are ruined by pride and particularly pride in their beauty.
Rara est concordia formæ atque pudicitiæ–Beauty and
chastity are seldom associated
2. They forgot their beginning
(v. 22)
“Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, how poor, and
mean, and despicable thou wast, and what great things God did for thee
and what lasting obligations he laid upon thee thereby.” Note, It
should be an effectual check to our pride and sensuality to consider
what we are and how much we are beholden to the free grace of God.
3. They were weak in understanding and in resolution
(v. 30):
How weak is thy heart, seeing thou dost all these things. Note,
The strength of men’s lusts is an evidence of the weakness of their
hearts; they have no acquaintance with themselves, nor government of
themselves. She is weak, and yet an imperious whorish woman. Note,
Those that are most foolish are commonly most imperious, and think
themselves fit to manage others when they are far from being able to
manage themselves.
II. What were the particulars of it.
1. They worshipped all the idols that came in their way, all that they
were ever courted to the worship of; they were at the beck of all their
neighbours
(v. 15):
Thou pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his
it was. They were ready to close with every temptation of this
kind, though ever so absurd. No foreign idol could be imported, no new
god invented, but they were ready to catch at it, as a common trumpet
that prostitutes herself to all comers and multiplies her
whoredoms,
v. 25.
Thus some common drunkards will be company for every one that puts up
the finger to them; how weak are the hearts of such!
2. They adorned their idol-temples, and groves, and high places, with
the fine rich clothing that God had given them
(v. 16, 18):
Thou deckedst thy high places with divers colours, with the
coats of divers colours, like Joseph’s, which God had given them as
particular marks of his favour, and hast played the harlot (that
is, worshipped idols) thereupon. Of this he saith, “The like
things shall not come, neither shall it be so; that is, this is a
thing by no means to be suffered; I will never endure such practices as
these without showing my resentments.”
3. They made images for worship of the jewels which God had given them
(v. 17):
The jewels of my gold and my silver which I had given thee.
Note, It is God that gives us our gold and silver; the products of
trade, of art and industry, are the gifts of God’s providence to us, as
well as the fruits of the earth. And what God gives us the use of he
still retains a property in. “It is my silver and my
gold, though I have given it to thee.” It is his still, so
that we ought to serve and honour him with it, and are accountable to
him for the disposal of it. Every penny has God’s image upon it as well
as Cæsar’s. Should we make our silver and gold, our plate, money,
and jewels, the matter of our pride and contention, our covetousness
and prodigality, if we duly considered that they were God’s silver and
his gold? The Israelites began betimes to turn their jewels into idols,
when Aaron made the golden calf of their earrings.
4. They served their idols with the good things which God gave them for
their own use and to serve him with
(v. 18):
“Thou hast set my oil and my incense before the, upon their
altars, as perfumes to these dunghill-deities; my meat, and fine
flour, and oil, and that honey which Canaan flowed with, and
wherewith I fed thee, thou hast regaled them and their hungry
priests with, hast made an offering of it to them for a sweet
savour, to purify them, and procure acceptance with them: and
thus it was, saith the Lord God; it is too plain to be denied,
too bad to be excused. These things thou hast done. He that
knows all things knows it.” See how fond they were of their idols, that
they would part with that which was given them for the necessary
subsistence of themselves and their families to honour them with, which
may shame our niggardliness and strait-handedness in the service of the
true and living God.
5. They had sacrificed their children to their idols. This is insisted
upon here, and often elsewhere, as one of the worst instances of their
idolatry, as indeed there was none in which the devil triumphed so much
over the children of men, both their natural reason and their natural
affection, as in this (see
Jer. vii. 31; xix. 5; xxxii. 35):
Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, and not only made
them to pass through the fire, or between two fires, in token of their
being dedicated to Moloch, but thou hast sacrificed them to be
devoured,
v. 20.
Never was there such an instance of the degenerating of the paternal
authority into the most barbarous tyranny as this was. Yet that was not
the worst of it: it was an irreparable wrong to God himself, who
challenged a special property in their children more than in their gold
and silver and their meat: They are my children
(v. 21),
the sons and daughters which thou hast borne unto me,
v. 20.
He is the Father of spirits, and rational souls are in a
particular manner his; and therefore the taking away of life, human
life, unjustly, is a high affront to the God of life. But the
children of Israelites were his by a further right; they were the
children of the covenant, born in God’s house. He had said to
Abraham, I will be a God to thee and to thy seed; they had the
seal of the covenant in their flesh from eight days old; they were to
bear God’s name, and keep up his church; to murder them was in the
highest degree inhuman, but to murder them in honour of an idol was in
the highest degree impious. One cannot think of it without the utmost
indignation: to see the pitiless hands of the parents shedding the
guiltless blood of their own children, and by offering those pieces of
themselves to the devil for buying sacrifices openly avowing the
offering up of themselves to him for living sacrifices! How absurd was
this, that the children which were born to God should be sacrificed
to devils! Note, The children of parents that are members of the
visible church are to be looked upon as born unto God, and his
children,; as such, and under that character, we are to love them, and
pray for them, bring them up for him, and, if he calls for them,
cheerfully part with them to him; for may he not do what he will
with his own? Upon this instance of their idolatry, which indeed
ought not to pass without a particular brand, this remark is made
(v. 20),
Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter? which intimates that
there were those who made a small matter of it, and turned it into a
jest. Note, There is no sin so heinous, so apparently heinous, which
men of profligate consciences will not make a mock at. But is
whoredom, is spiritual whoredom, a small matter? Is it a small matter
for men to make their children brutes and the devil their god? It will
be a great matter shortly.
6. They built temples in honour of their idols, that others might be
invited to resort thither and join with them in the worship of their
idols: “After all thy wickedness of this kind committed in
private, for which, woe, woe, unto thee” (that comes in in a sad
parenthesis, denoting those to be in a woeful condition who are going
on in sin, and giving them warning in time, if they would but take it),
“thou hast at length arrived at such a pitch of impudence as to
proclaim it; thou hast long had a whore’s heart, but now thou hast come
to have a whore’s forehead, and canst not blush,”
Thou hast built there an eminent place, a brothel-house
(so the margin reads it), and such their idol temples were. Thou
hast made for thyself a high place, for one idol or other, in
every street, and at every head of the way; and again
They did all they could to seduce and debauch others, and to spread the
contagion, by making the temptations to idolatry as strong as possibly
they could; and hereby the ringleaders in idolatry did but make
themselves vile, and even those that had courted them to it,
finding themselves outdone by them, began to be surfeited with the
abundance and violence of their idolatries: Thou hast made thy
beauty to be abhorred, even by those that had admired it. The
Jewish nation, by leaving their own God, and doting on the gods of the
nations round about them, had made themselves mean and despicable in
the eyes even of their heathen neighbours; much more was their
beauty abhorred by all that were wise and good, and had any
concern for the honour of God and religion. Note, Those shame
themselves that bring a reproach on their profession. And justly will
that beauty, that excellency, at length be made the object of the
loathing of others which men have made the matter of their own
pride.
III. What were the aggravations of this sin.
1. They were fond of the idols of those nations which had been their
oppressors and persecutors. As,
(1.) The Egyptians. They were a people notorious for idolatry, and for
the most sottish senseless idolatries; they had of old abused Israel by
their barbarous dealings, and of late by their treacherous
dealings-were always either cruel or false to them; and yet so
infatuated were they that they committed fornication with the
Egyptians their neighbours, not only by joining with them in their
idolatries, but by entering into leagues and alliances with them, and
depending upon them for help in their straits, which was an adulterous
departure from God.
(2.) The Assyrians. They had also been vexatious to Israel: “And yet
thou hast played the whore with them
(v. 28);
though they lived at a greater distance, yet thou hast entertained
their idols and their superstitious usages, and so hast multiplied
thy fornications unto Chaldea, hast borrowed images of gods,
patterns of altars, rites of sacrificing, and one foolery or other of
that kind, from that remote country, that enemy’s country, and hast
imported them into the land of Canaan, enfranchised and
established them there.” Thus Mr. George Herbert long since foretold,
or feared at least,
| That Seine shall swallow Tiber, and the Thames
By letting in them both pollute her streams. |
2. They had been under the rebukes of Providence for their sins, and
yet they persisted in them
(v. 27):
I have stretched out my hand over thee, to threaten and frighten
thee. So God did before he laid his hand upon them to ruin and
destroy them; and that is his usual method, to try to bring men to
repentance first by less judgments. He did so here. Before he brought
such a famine upon them as broke the staff of bread he diminished
their ordinary food, but them short before he cut them off. When
the overplus is abused, it is just with God to diminish that which is
for necessity. Before he delivered them to the Chaldeans to be
destroyed he delivered them to the daughters of the Philistines
to be ridiculed for their idolatries; for they hated them, and, though
they were idolaters themselves, yet were ashamed of the lewd way of the
Israelites, who had grown more profane in their idolatries than any of
their neighbours, who changed their gods, whereas other nations did not
change theirs,
For this they were justly chastised by the Philistines. Or it may
refer to the inroads which the Philistines made upon the south of Judah
in the reign of Ahaz, by which it was weakened and impoverished, and
which was the beginning of sorrows to them
but they did not take warning by those judgments, and therefore were
justly abandoned to ruin at last. Note, In the account which impenitent
sinners shall be called to they will be told not only of the mercies
for which they have been ungrateful, but of the afflictions under which
they have been incorrigible,
3. They were insatiable in their spiritual whoredom: Thou couldst
not be satisfied,
v. 28
and again v. 29.
When they had multiplied their idols and superstitious usages beyond
measure, yet still they were enquiring after new gods and new fashions
in worship. Those that in sincerity join themselves to the true God
find enough in him for their satisfaction; and, though they still
desire more of God, yet they never desire more than God. But those that
forsake this living fountain for broken cisterns will find themselves
soon surfeited, but never satisfied; they have soon enough of the gods
they have, and are still enquiring after more.
4. They were at great expense with their idolatry, and laid out a great
deal of wealth in purchasing patterns of images and altars, and hiring
priests to attend upon them from other countries. Harlots generally had
their hire; but this impudent adulteress, instead of being hired to
serve idols, hired idols to protect her and accept her homage. This is
much insisted on,
“In this respect the contrary is in thee from other women in thy
whoredoms: others are courted, but thou makest court to those that
do not follow thee, art fond of making leagues and alliances with those
heathen nations that despise thee; others have gifts given them, but
thou givest thy gifts, the gifts which God had graciously given thee,
to thy idols; herein thou art like a wife that commits adultery, not
for gain, as harlots do, but entirely for the sin’s sake.” Note,
Spiritual lusts, those of the mind, such as theirs after idols were,
are often as strong and impetuous as any carnal lusts are. And it is a
great aggravation of sin when men are their own tempters, and, instead
of proposing to themselves any worldly advantage by their sin, are at
great expense with it; such are transgressors without cause
(Ps. xxv. 3),
wicked transgressors indeed.
And now is not Jerusalem in all this made to know her abominations? For
what greater abominations could she be guilty of than these? Here we
may see with wonder and horror what the corrupt nature of men is when
God leaves them to themselves, yea, though they have the greatest
advantages to be better and do better. And the way of sin is down-hill.
Nitimur in vetitum–We incline to what is forbidden.
| Grievous Punishment of Israel; Punishment Threatened. | B. C. 593. |
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35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:
36 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured
out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy
lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the
blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;
37 Behold, therefore I will gather all 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
round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto
them, that they may see all thy nakedness.
38 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed
blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and
jealousy.
39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall
throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high
places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take
thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.
40 They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they
shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their
swords.
41 And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute
judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause
thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give
no hire any more.
42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy
shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more
angry.
43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but
hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also
will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD:
and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine
abominations.
Adultery was by the law of Moses made a capital crime. This notorious
adulteress, the criminal at the bar, being in the foregoing verses
found guilty, here has sentence passed upon her. It is ushered in with
solemnity,
The prophet, as the judge, in God’s name calls to her, O harlot!
hear the word of the Lord. Our Saviour preached to harlots, for
their conversion, to bring them into the kingdom of God, not as the
prophet here, to expel them out of it. Note, An apostate church is a
harlot. Jerusalem is so if she become idolatrous. How has the
faithful city become a harlot! Rome is so represented in the
Revelation, when it is marked for ruin, as Jerusalem here.
Come, and I will show thee the judgments of the great whore.
Those who will not hear the commanding word of the Lord and obey it
shall be made to hear the condemning word of the Lord and shall tremble
at it. Let us attend while judgment is given.
I. The crime is stated and the articles of the charge are summed up
(v. 36)
and (as is usual) with the attendant aggravations
(v. 43);
for when God speaks in wrath he will be justified, and clear when he
judges, clear when he is judged; and sinners, when they are condemned,
shall have their sins so set in order before them that their mouth
shall be stopped and they shall not have a word to object against the
equity of the sentence. The crimes which this harlot stands convicted
of, and is now to be condemned for, are,
1. The violation of the first two commandments of the first table by
idolatry, which is here called her whoredoms with her lovers (so
she called them,
because she loved them as if they had been indeed her benefactors),
that is, with all the idols of her abominations, the abominable
idols which she served and worshipped. This was the sin which provoked
God to jealousy.
2. The violation of the first two commandments of the second table by
the murder of their own innocent infants: The blood of thy children
which thou didst give unto them. It is not strange if those that
have cast off God and his fear break through the strongest and most
sacred bonds of natural affection. Their sins are aggravated from the
consideration,
(1.) Of the dishonour they had thereby done to themselves: “Hereby
thy filthiness was poured out; the uncleanness that was in thy
heart was hereby discovered and brought to light, and thy nakedness was
exposed to view, and thou wast there by exposed to contempt.” God is
displeased with his professing people for shaming themselves by their
sins.
(2.) Their base ingratitude is another aggravation of their sins:
“Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, and the
kindness that was done thee then, when otherwise thou wouldst have
perished,”
And,
(3.) The vexation which their sins gave to God, whom they ought to have
pleased: “Thou hast fretted me in all these things, not only
angered me, but grieved me.” It is a strange expression, and, one would
think, enough to melt a heart of stone, that the great God, who cannot
admit any uneasiness, is pleased to speak of the sins and follies of
his professing people as fretting to him. Forty years long
was I grieved with this generation.
II. The sentence is passed in general: I will judge thee as women
that break wedlock and shed blood are judged
(v. 38),
and those two crimes were punished with death, with an ignominious
death. “Thou hast shed blood, and therefore I will give thee
blood; thou hast broken wedlock, and therefore I will give
it thee, not only in justice, but in jealousy, not only as a righteous
Judge, but as an injured and incensed husband, who will not spare in
the day of vengeance,”
He will recompense their way upon their head,
v. 43.
In all the judgments God executes upon sinners we must see their own
way recompensed upon their head; they are dealt with not only as
they deserved, but as they procured. It is the end which their sin, as
a way, had a direct tendency to. More particularly,
1. This criminal must be (as is usually done with criminals) exposed to
public shame,
Malefactors are not executed privately, but are made a spectacle to the
world. Care is here taken to bring spectators together: “All those
whom thou hast loved, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, shall
come to be witnesses of the execution, that they may take warning and
prevent their own like ruin; and those also whom thou hast
hated, who will insult over thee and triumph in thy fall.” Both
ways the calamities of Jerusalem will be aggravated, that they will be
the grief of her friends and the joy of her foes. These shall not only
be gathered around her, but gathered against her; even
those with whom she took unlawful pleasure, with whom she contracted
unlawful leagues, the Egyptians and Assyrians, shall now contribute to
her ruin. As, when a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his
enemies to be at peace with him, so when a man’s ways displease the
Lord he makes even his friends to be at war with him; and justly makes
those a scourge and a plague to sinners, and instruments of their
destruction, who were their tempters, and with whom they were partakers
in wickedness. Those whom they have suffered to strip them of their
virtue shall see them stripped, and perhaps help to strip them, of all
their other ornaments; to see the nakedness of the land will
they come. It is added, to the same purport
(v. 41),
I will execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women;
thou shalt be made an example of in terrorem–that others may see
and fear and do no more presumptuously.
2. The criminal is condemned to die, for her sins are such as
death is the wages of
(v. 40):
They shall bring up a company (that is, a company shall be
brought up) against thee, and they shall stone thee with
stones, and thrust thee through with their swords; so great
a death, so many deaths in one, is this adulteress adjudged to. When
the walls of Jerusalem were battered down with stones shot against
them, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were put to the sword, then this
sentence was executed in the letter of it.
3. The estate of the criminal is confiscated, and all that belonged to
her destroyed with her
(v. 39):
They shall throw down thy eminent place, and
(v. 41)
they shall burn thy houses, as the habitations of bad women are
destroyed, in detestation of their lewdness. Their high places, erected
in honour of their idols, by which they thought to ingratiate
themselves with their neighbours, shall be an offence to them, and even
they shall break them down. It was long the complaint,
even in some of the best reigns of the kings of Judah, that the high
places were not taken away; but now the army of the Chaldeans, when
they lay all waste, shall break them down. If iniquity be not taken
away by the justice of the nation, it shall be taken away by the
judgments of God upon the nation.
4. Thus both the sin and the sinners shall be abolished together, and
an end put to both: Thou shalt cease from playing the harlot;
there shall be no remainders of idolatry in the land, because the
inhabitants shall be wholly extirpated, and they shall give no more
hire because they shall have no more to give. Some that will not
leave their sins live till their sins leave them. When all that with
which they honoured their idols is taken from them they shall not
give hire any more
(v. 41):
“Then thou shalt not commit this lewdness of sacrificing thy
children, which was a crime provoking above all thy
abominations, for thy children shall all be cut off by the sword or
carried into captivity, so that thou shalt have none to sacrifice,”
Or it may be meant of the reformation of those of them that escape and
survive the punishment; they shall take warning, and shall do no
more presumptuously. The captivity in Babylon made the people of
Israel to cease for ever from playing the harlot; it effectually
cured them of their inclination to idolatry. And then all shall be
well, when this is the fruit, even the taking away of sin; then
(v. 42)
my jealousy shall depart. I will be quiet, and no more angry.
When we begin to be at war with sin God will be at peace with us; for
he continues the affliction no longer than till it has done its work.
When sin departs God’s jealousy will soon depart, for he is never
jealous but when we give him just cause to be so. Yet some understand
this as a threatening of utter ruin, that God will make a full
end and the fire of his anger shall burn as long as there is any
fuel for it. His fury shall rest upon them, and not remove.
Compare this with that doom of unbelievers,
The wrath of God abideth on them. They shall drink the dregs of
the cup, and then God will be no more angry, for he is eased
of his adversaries
(Isa. i. 24),
is satisfied in the abandoning of them, and therefore will be no
more angry, because there are no more for his anger to fasten upon.
They had fretted him, when judgment and mercy were contesting; but now
he is quiet, as he will be in the eternal damnation of sinners,
wherein he will be glorified, and therefore he will be satisfied.
| The Wickedness of Jerusalem; Punishment of Jerusalem. | B. C. 593. |
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44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this
proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her
daughter.
45 Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that loatheth her husband
and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which
loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was an
Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
46 And thine 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.
47 Yet hast thou 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.
48 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not
done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy
daughters.
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, 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.
50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me:
therefore I took them away as I saw good.
51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou
hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast
justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast
done.
52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own
shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than
they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded
also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy
sisters.
53 When I shall bring again 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:
54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be
confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort
unto them.
55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to
their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return
to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return
to your former estate.
56 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the
day of thy pride,
57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of
thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are
round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise
thee round about.
58 Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith
the LORD.
59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as
thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the
covenant.
The prophet here further shows Jerusalem her abominations, by comparing
her with those places that had gone before her, and showing that she
was worse than any of them, and therefore should, like them, be utterly
and irreparably ruined. We are all apt to judge of ourselves by
comparison, and to imagine that we are sufficiently good if we are but
as good as such and such, who are thought passable; or that we are not
dangerously bad if we are no worse than such and such, who, though bad,
are not of the worst. Now God by the prophet shows Jerusalem,
I. That she was as bad as her mother, that is, as the accursed
devoted Canaanites that were the possessors of this land before her.
Those that use proverbs, as most people do, shall apply that proverb to
Jerusalem, As is the mother, so is her daughter,
v. 44.
She is her mother’s own child. The Jews are as like the
Canaanites in temper and inclination as if they had been their own
children. The character of the mother was that she loathed her
husband and her children, she had all the marks of an adulteress;
and that is the character of the daughter: she forsakes the guide of
her youth, and is barbarous to the children of her own bowels. When
God brought Israel into Canaan he particularly warned them not to do
according to the abominations of the men of that land, who went
before them (for which it had spued them out,
Lev. xviii. 27, 28),
the monuments of whose idolatry, with the remains of the idolaters
themselves, would be a continual temptation to them; but they learned
their way, and trod in their steps, and were as well affected to the
idols of Canaan as ever they were
(Ps. cvi. 38),
and thus, in respect of imitation, it might truly be said that their
mother was a Hittite and their father an
Amorite
(v. 45),
for they resembled them more than Abraham and Sarah.
II. That she was worse than her sisters Sodom and Samaria, that were
adulteresses too, that loathed their husbands and their
children, that were weary of the gods of their fathers, and were
for introducing new gods, a-la-mode–quite in style, that came
newly up, and new fashions in religion, and were given to change. On
this comparison between Jerusalem and her sisters the prophet
here enlarges, that he might either shame them into repentance or
justify God in their ruin. Observe,
1. Who Jerusalem’s sisters were,
Samaria and Sodom. Samaria is called the elder sister, or rather
the greater, because it was a much larger city and kingdom,
richer and more considerable, and more nearly allied to Israel. If
Jerusalem look northward, this is partly on her left hand. This
city of Samaria, and the towns and villages, that were as
daughters to that mother-city, these had been
lately destroyed for their spiritual whoredom. Sodom, and
the adjacent towns and villages that were her daughters, dwelt at
Jerusalem’s right hand, and was her less sister, less
than Jerusalem, less than Samaria, and these were of old destroyed for
their corporeal whoredom,
2. Wherein Jerusalem’s sins resembled her sisters’, particularly
Sodom’s
(v. 49):
This was the iniquity of Sodom (it is implied, and this is
thy iniquity too), pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of
idleness. Their going after strange flesh, which was Sodom’s
most flagrant wickedness, is not mentioned, because notoriously known,
but those sins which did not look so black, but opened the door and led
the way to these more enormous crimes, and began to fill that measure
of her sins, which was filled up at length by their unnatural
filthiness. Now these initiating sins were,
(1.) Pride, in which the heart lifts up itself above and against both
God and man. Pride was the first sin that turned angels into devils,
and the garden of the Lord into a hell upon earth. It was
the pride of the Sodomites that they despised righteous Lot, and
would not bear to be reproved by him; and this ripened them for ruin.
(2.) Gluttony, here called fulness of bread. It was God’s great
mercy that they had plenty, but their great sin that they abused it,
glutted themselves with it, ate to excess and drank to excess, and made
that the gratification of their lusts which was given them to be the
support of their lives.
(3.) Idleness, abundance of idleness, a dread of labour and a
love of ease. Their country was fruitful, and the abundance they had
they came easily by, which was a temptation to them to indulge
themselves in sloth, which disposed them to all that abominable
filthiness which kindled their flames. Note, Idleness is an inlet to
much sin. The men of Sodom, who were idle, were wicked, and
sinners before the Lord exceedingly,
Gen. xiii. 13.
The standing waters gather filth and the sitting bird is the fowler’s
mark. When David arose from off his bed at evening he saw
Bathsheba. Quæritur, Ægisthus quare sit factus adulter?
In promptu causa est; desidiosus erat–What made Ægisthus an
adulterer? Indolence.
(4.) Oppression: Neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor
and needy; probably it is implied that she weakened their hands and
broke their arms; however, it was bad enough that, when she had
so much wealth, and consequently power and interest and leisure, she
did nothing for the relief of the poor, in providing for whose wants
those that themselves are full of bread may employ their time
well; they need not be so abundantly idle as too often they are. These
were the sins of the Sodomites, and these were Jerusalem’s sins. Their
pride, the cause of their sins, is mentioned again
(v. 50):
They were haughty, with the horrid effects of their sins, their
abominations which they committed before God. Men arrive
gradually at the height of impiety and wickedness. Nemo repente fit
turpissimus–No man reaches the height of vice at once. But, where
pride has got the ascendant in a man, he is in the high road to all
abominations.
3. How much the sins of Jerusalem exceeded those of Sodom and Samaria;
they were more heinous in the sight of God, either in themselves or by
reason of several aggravations: “Thou hast not only walked after
their ways, and trod in their steps, but hast quite outdone them in
wickedness,
Thou thoughtest it a very little thing to do as they did; didst
laugh at them as sneaking sinners and silly ones; thou wouldst be more
cunning, more daring, in wickedness, wouldst triumph more boldly over
thy convictions, and bid more open defiance to God and religion: ‘if a
man will break, let him break for something.’ Thus thou wast
corrupted more than they in all thy ways.” Jerusalem was more
polite, and therefore sinned with more wit, more art and ingenuity,
than Sodom and Samaria could. Jerusalem had more wealth and power, and
its government was more absolute and arbitrary, and therefore had the
more opportunity of oppressing the poor, and shedding malignant
influences around her, than Sodom and Samaria had. Jerusalem had the
temple, and the ark, and the priesthood, and kings of the house of
David; and therefore the wickedness of that holy city, that was so
dignified, so near, so dear to God, was more provoking to him than the
wickedness of Sodom and Samaria, that had not Jerusalem’s privileges
and means of grace. Sodom has not done as thou hast done,
v. 48.
This agrees with what Christ says.
It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of
judgment than for thee. The kingdom of the ten tribes had been very
wicked; and yet Samaria has not committed half thy sins
(v. 51),
has not worshipped half so many idols, nor slain half so many prophets.
It was bad enough that those of Jerusalem were guilty of Sodom’s sins,
Sodomy itself not excepted,
1 Kings xiv. 24; 2 Kings xxiii. 7.
And though the Dead Sea, the standing monument of Sodom’s sin and ruin,
bordered upon their country
and that sulphureous lake was always under their nose (God having
taken away Sodom and her daughters in such way and manner as he
saw good, as he says here,
so as that one thing should effectually make their overthrow an
example to those that afterwards should live ungodly,
2 Pet. ii. 6),
yet they did not take warning, but multiplied their abominations
more than they; and,
(1.) By this they justified Sodom and Samaria,
v. 51.
They pretended, in their haughtiness and superciliousness, to judge
them, and in the days of old, when they retained their integrity,
they did judge them,
But now they justify them comparatively: Sodom and Samaria are
more righteous than thou, that is, less wicked. It will look
like some extenuation of their sins that, bad as they were, Jerusalem
was worse, though it was God’s own city. Not that it will serve for a
plea to justify Sodom, but it condemns Jerusalem, against which Sodom
and Samaria will rise up in judgment.
(2.) For this they ought themselves to be greatly ashamed: “Thou who
hast judged thy sisters, and cried out shame on them, now
bear thy own shame, for thy sins which thou hast committed,
which, though of the same kind with theirs, yet, being committed by
thee, are more abominable than theirs,”
This may be taken either as foretelling their ruin (Thou shalt bear
thy shame) or as inviting them to repentance: “Be thou
confounded and bear thy shame; take the shame to thyself that is
due to thee.” It may be hoped that sinners will forsake their sins when
they begin to be heartily ashamed of them. And therefore they shall go
into captivity, and there they shall lie, that they may be
confounded in all that they have done, because they had been a
comfort and encouragement to Sodom and Samaria,
Note, There is nothing in sin which we have more reason to be ashamed
of than this, that by our sin we have encouraged others in sin, and
comforted them in that for which they must be grieved or they are
undone. Another reason why they must now be ashamed is because in the
day of their prosperity they had looked with so much disdain upon their
neighbours: Thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thee in the day of
they pride,
v. 56.
They thought Sodom not worthy to be named the same day with Jerusalem,
little dreaming that Jerusalem would at length lie under a worse and
more scandalous character than Sodom herself. Those that are high may
perhaps come to stand upon a level with those they contemn. Or “Sodom
was not mentioned, that is, the warning designed to be given to
thee by Sodom’s ruin was not regarded.” If the Jews had but talked more
frequently and seriously to one another, and to their children,
concerning the wrath of God revealed from heaven against
Sodom’s ungodliness and unrighteousness, it might have kept them
in awe, and prevented their treading in their steps; but they kept the
thought of it at a distance, would not bear the mention of it, and (as
the ancients say) put Isaiah to death for putting them in mind of it,
when he called them rulers of Sodom and people of
Gomorrah,
Isa. i. 10.
Note, Those are but preparing judgments for themselves that will not
take notice of God’s judgments upon others.
4. What desolations God had brought and was bringing upon Jerusalem for
these wickednesses, wherein they had exceeded Sodom and Samaria.
(1.) She has already long ago been disgraced, and has fallen into
contempt, among her neighbours
(v. 57):
Before her wickedness was discovered, before she came to be so
grossly and openly flagitious, she bore the just punishment of her
secret and more concealed lewdness, when she fell under the reproach
of the daughters of Syria, of the Philistines, who were said to
despise her and be ashamed of her
(v. 27),
and under the reproach of all that were round about her, which
seems to refer to the descent made upon Judah by the Syrians in the
days of Ahaz, and soon after another by the Philistines,
Note, Those that disgrace themselves by yielding to their lusts will
justly be brought into disgrace by being made to yield to their
enemies; and it is observable that before God brought potent enemies
upon them, for their destruction, he brought enemies upon them
that were less formidable, for their reproach. If less judgments
would do the work, God would not send greater. In this thou hast
borne thy lewdness,
v. 58.
Those that will not cast off their sins by repentance and reformation
shall be made to bear their sins to their confusion.
(2.) She is now in captivity, or hastening into captivity, and
therein is reckoned with, not only for her lewdness
(v. 58),
but for her perfidiousness and covenant-breaking
(v. 59):
“I will deal with thee as thou hast done; I will forsake thee as
thou hast forsaken me, and cast thee off as thou hast cast me off, for
thou hast despised the oath, in breaking the covenant.” This
seems to be meant of the covenant God made with their fathers at Mount
Sinai, whereby he took them and theirs to be a peculiar people to
himself. They flattered themselves with a conceit that because God had
hitherto continued his favour to them, notwithstanding their
provocations, he would do so still. “No,” says God, “you have broken
covenant with me, have despised both the promises of the covenant
and the obligations of it, and therefore I will deal with thee as
thou hast done.” Note, Those that will not adhere to God as their
God have no reason to expect that he should continue to own them as his
people.
(3.) The captivity of the wicked Jews, and their ruin, shall be as
irrevocable as that of Sodom and Samaria. In this sense, as a
threatening, most interpreters take
“When I shall bring again the captivity of Sodom and Samaria, and
when they shall return to their former estate, then I will bring again
the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them, and as it were
for their sakes, and under their shadow and protection, because they
are more righteous than thou, and then thou shalt return to
thy former estate,” But Sodom and Samaria were never brought back,
nor ever returned to their former estate, and therefore let not
Jerusalem expect it, that is, those who now remained there, whom God
would deliver to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for
their hurt,
Jer. xxiv. 9, 10.
Sooner shall the Sodomites arise out of the salt sea, and the
Samaritans return out of the land of Assyria, than they enjoy their
peace and prosperity again; for, to their shame be it spoken, it is
a comfort to those of the ten tribes, who are dispersed and in
captivity, to see those of the two tribes who had been as bad as they,
or worse, in like manner dispersed and in captivity; and therefore they
shall live and die, shall stand and fall, together. The bad ones of
both shall perish together; the good ones of both shall return
together. Note, Those who do as the worst of sinners do must expect to
fare as they fare. Let my enemy be as the wicked.
| Mercy in Reserve; Promise of Mercy. | B. C. 593. |
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60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the
days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting
covenant.
61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou
shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I
will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt
know that I am the LORD:
63 That thou mayest remember, and be 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.
Here, in the close of the chapter, after a most shameful conviction of
sin and a most dreadful denunciation of judgments, mercy is remembered,
mercy is reserved, for those who shall come after. As was when God
swore in his wrath concerning those who came out of Egypt that they
should not enter Canaan, “Yet” (says God) “your little ones shall;” so
here. And some think that what is said of the return of Sodom and
Samaria
(v. 53, 55),
and of Jerusalem with them, is a promise; it may be understood so, if
by Sodom we understand (as Grotius and some of the Jewish writers do)
the Moabites and Ammonites, the posterity of Lot, who once dwelt in
Sodom; their captivity was returned
as was that of many of the ten tribes, and Judah’s with them. But
these closing verses are, without doubt, a previous promise, which was
in part fulfilled at the return of the penitent and reformed Jews out
of Babylon, but was to have its full accomplishment in gospel-times,
and in that repentance and that remission of sins which
should then be preached with success to all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. Now observe here,
I. Whence this mercy should take rise-from God himself, and his
remembering his covenant with them
(v. 60):
Nevertheless, though they had been so provoking, and God had
been provoked to such a degree that one would think they could never be
reconciled again, yet “I will remember my covenant with thee,
that covenant which I made with thee in the days of thy youth,
and will revive it again. Though thou hast broken the covenant
(v. 59),
I will remember it, and it shall flourish again.” See how much it is
our comfort and advantage that God is pleased to deal with us in a
covenant-way, for thus the mercies of it come to be sure mercies
and everlasting
(Isa. lv. 3);
and, while this root stands firmly in the ground, there is hope of
the tree, though it be cut down, that through the scent
of water it will bud again. We do not find that they put him in
mind of the covenant, but ex mero motu–from his own mere good
pleasure, he remembers it as he had promised.
Then will I remember my covenant, and will remember the land. He
that bids us to be ever mindful of the covenant no doubt will himself
be ever mindful of it, the word which he commanded (and what he
commands stands fast for ever) to a thousand generations.
II. How they should be prepared and qualified for this mercy
(v. 61):
“Thou shalt remember thy ways, thy evil ways; God will put thee
in mind of them, will set them in order before thee, that thou mayest
be ashamed of them.” Note, God’s good work in us commences and
keeps pace with his good-will towards us. When he remembers his
covenant for us, that he may not remember our sins against us, he puts
us upon remembering our sins against ourselves. And if we will but be
brought to remember our ways, how crooked and perverse they have been
and how we have walked contrary to God in them, we cannot but be
ashamed; and, when we are so, we are best prepared to receive the
honour and comfort of a sealed pardon and a settled peace.
III. What the mercy is that God has in reserve for them.
1. He will take them into covenant with himself
(v. 60):
I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant; and again
(v. 62),
I will establish, re-establish, and establish more firmly than
ever, my covenant with thee. Note, It is an unspeakable comfort
to all true penitents that the covenant of grace is so well ordered in
all things that every transgression in the covenant does not throw us
out of the covenant, for that is inviolable.
2. He will bring the Gentiles into church-communion with them
(v. 61):
“Thou shalt receive thy sisters, the Gentile nations that are
found about thee, thy elder and thy younger, greater than thou
art and less, ancient nations and modern, and I will give them unto
thee for daughters; they shall be founded, nursed, taught, and
educated, by that gospel, that word of the Lord, which shall
go forth from Zion and from Jerusalem; so that all the
neighbours shall call Jerusalem mother, while the church
continues there, and shall acknowledge the Jerusalem which is from
above, and which is free, to be the mother of us all,
Gal. iv. 26.
They shall be thy daughters, but not by thy covenant, not
by the covenant of peculiarity, not as being proselytes to the Jewish
religion and subject to the yoke of the ceremonial law, but as being
converts with thee to the Christian religion.” Or not by thy
covenant may mean, “not upon such terms as thou shalt think fit to
impose upon them as conquered nations, as captives and homagers to whom
thou mayest give law at pleasure” (such a dominion as that the carnal
Jews hope to have over the nations); “no, they shall be thy daughters
by my covenant, the covenant of grace made with thee and them in
concert, as in indenture tripartite. I will be a Father, a
common Father, both to Jews and Gentiles, and so they shall become
sisters to one another. And, when thou shalt receive them, thou
shalt be ashamed of thy own evil ways wherein thou wast
conformed to them. Thou shalt blush to look a Gentile in the face,
remembering how much worse than the Gentiles thou wast in the day of
thy apostasy.”
IV. What the fruit and effect of this will be.
1. God will hereby be glorified
(v. 62):
“Thou shalt know that I am the Lord. It shall hereby be known
that the God of Israel is Jehovah, a God of power, and faithful to his
covenant; and thou shalt know it who hast hitherto lived as if thou
didst not know or believe it.” It had often been said in wrath, You
shall know that I am the Lord, shall know it to your cost; here it
is said in mercy, You shall know it to your comfort; and it is one of
the most precious promises of the new covenant which God has made with
us that all shall know him from the least to the greatest.
2. They shall hereby be more humbled and abased for sin
(
v. 63):
“That thou mayest be the more confounded at the
remembrance of all that thou hast done amiss, mayest reproach
thyself for it and call thyself a thousand times unwise, undutiful,
ungrateful, and unlike what thou wast, and mayest never open thy
mouth any more in contradiction to God, reflection on him, or
complaints of him, but mayest be for ever silent and submissive
because of thy shame.” Note, Those that rightly remember their
sins will be truly ashamed of them; and those that are truly ashamed of
their sins will see great reason to be patient under their afflictions,
to be dumb, and not open their mouths against what God does. But that
which is most observable is, that all this shall be when I am
pacified towards thee, saith the Lord God. Note, It is the gracious
ingenuousness of true penitents that the clearer evidences and the
fuller instances they have of God’s being reconciled to them the more
grieved and ashamed they are that ever they have offended God. God is
in Jesus Christ pacified towards us; he is our peace, and it is
by his cross that we are reconciled, and in his gospel that God is
reconciling the world to himself. Now the consideration of this should
be powerful to melt our hearts into a godly sorrow for sin. This is
repenting because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The
prodigal, after he had received the kiss which assured him that his
father was pacified towards him, was ashamed and confounded, and
said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. And
the more our shame for sin is increased by the sense of pardoning mercy
the more will our comfort in God be increased.
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