What does Ezechiel Chapter 16 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

An abandoned child receives covenant gifts. Misused gifts and exceeded sisters receive judgment. Remembered covenant leads to shame and restoration.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 16 commands making Jerusalem's abominations known. The edition separately explains that the prophet in Babylon could do this by letters. Jerusalem is personified with a Chanaan origin, an Amorrhite father and a Cethite mother. At birth her navel was not cut; she was not washed, salted or swaddled, and nobody pitied her. Cast on the earth in abjection and trodden under foot in blood, she hears the Lord twice command life. Growth like a field's bud brings developed breasts and hair, yet nakedness and confusion remain. At the time of lovers he spreads his garment, swears an oath and enters a covenant. He washes the blood away, anoints her with oil, clothes her with embroidery, violet shoes and linen, and gives bracelets, a chain, a forehead jewel, earrings and a crown. Gold, silver, fine flour, honey and oil accompany beauty, royal advancement and renown derived from him. The edition identifies ornaments with spiritual benefits, law, sacrifices, sacraments and rites; these explanations remain separate from the allegory.

Trusting her beauty, she gives herself to passersby. Garments become high places and coverings for images made from his gold and silver. Oil, incense and the bread of flour, honey and oil are given to them. Sons and daughters borne to him are offered to be devoured and pass through fire. She forgets her naked, bloodied youth, builds a brothel and stews at street heads, and multiplies fornication with Egypt. The Lord diminishes her justification and delivers her to Philistine daughters who hate her and are ashamed of her conduct. Assyria and Chanaan with Chaldeans do not satisfy her. Unlike a harlot receiving payment, she gives gifts and hire to lovers. The passage does not specify treaty budgets or reduce all this imagery to political negotiations.

The Lord gathers lovers and those she hates to expose her disgrace. Judgment for adultery and bloodshed hands her over to destruction of brothels and stews, stripping of garments and vessels, stoning, sword and burning houses before women. Fornication and paid hire cease; indignation rests, jealousy departs and anger ends. Her forgotten youth and provocation bring recompense, with the verse's difficult statement about not having acted according to her wicked deeds preserved in the source outline. The mother-and-daughter proverb follows: the mother and sisters cast off husbands and children. Samaria is the elder sister on the left and Sodom the younger on the right. Jerusalem exceeds them: Sodom's pride, abundant bread and idleness included failure to help the poor and needy, while Samaria did not commit half Jerusalem's sins. Their comparative justification does not make their conduct innocent. The edition separately discusses the progression from pride and plenty toward lust and neglect of mercy.

The Lord promises restoration to Sodom, Samaria and Jerusalem, with shame and comfort for the sisters and return to an ancient state. The edition distinguishes former liberty and possessions from a spiritual return through faith in Christ as God's children, and interprets restoration in terms of Gentiles of all nations and many Jews entering Christ's church. Sodom was unheard in Jerusalem's proud mouth before exposed malice and reproaches from Syria and Palestine. Jerusalem bears wickedness after despising the oath and covenant. The Lord remembers the covenant of her youth and establishes an everlasting covenant. She remembers, is ashamed and receives the sisters as daughters, but not by her covenant. Knowing the Lord, she has no further open mouth because of confusion when he is pacified for all she has done.

The story inside

Opening: An abandoned child receives covenant gifts. Development: Misused gifts and exceeded sisters receive judgment. Conclusion: Remembered covenant leads to shame and restoration.

Lessons worth keeping

1
An abandoned child receives covenant gifts.
2
Misused gifts and exceeded sisters receive judgment.
3
Remembered covenant leads to shame and restoration.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 92617–92640
16:4. 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. 16:5. 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. 16:6. 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. 16:7. 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 wast naked, and full of confusion. 16:8. 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. 16:9. And I washed thee with water, and cleansed away thy blood from thee: and I anointed thee with oil.
Lines 92684–92698
16:20. 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? 16:21. Thou hast sacrificed and given my children to them, consecrating them by fire. Thou hast sacrificed, etc.... As there is nothing more base and abominable than the crimes mentioned throughout this chapter; so the infidelities of the Israelites in forsaking God, and sacrificing even their children to idols, are strongly figured by these allegories. 16:22. And after all thy abominations, and fornications, thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked, and full of confusion, trodden under foot in thy own blood.
Lines 92801–92821
16:49. 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. This was the iniquity of Sodom, etc.... 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 highroad to all kinds of lust; especially when they are accompanied with a neglect of the works of mercy. 16:50. And they were lifted up, and committed abominations before me: and I took them away as thou hast seen. 16:51. 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. 16:52. Therefore do thou also bear thy confusion, thou that hast surpassed thy sisters with thy sins, doing more wickedly than they: for they are justified above thee, therefore be thou also confounded, and bear thy shame, thou that hast justified thy sisters.
Lines 92853–92868
16:59. For thus saith the Lord God: I will deal with thee, as thou hast despised the oath, in breaking the covenant: 16:60. And I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth: and I will establish with thee an everlasting covenant. 16:61. 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. 16:62. And I will establish my covenant with thee: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, 16:63. That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and mayest no more open thy mouth because of thy confusion, when I shall be pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.