E
Z E K I E L
CHAP. XXIII.
This
long chapter (as before ch. xvi. and xx.) is a history of the
apostasies of God's people from him and the aggravations of those apostasies
under the similitude of corporal whoredom and adultery. Here the kingdoms of
Israel
and Judah, the ten tribes and the two, with
their capital cities, Samaria
and Jerusalem, are considered distinctly. Here is, I. The
apostasy of
Israel
and Samaria
from God (ver. 1-8) and their ruin for it,
ver. 9, 10. II. The apostasy of Judah and Jerusalem
from God (ver. 11-21) and sentence passed upon
them, that they shall in like manner be destroyed for it, ver. 22-35. III. The
joint wickedness of them both together (ver. 36-44) and the joint ruin of them
both, ver. 45-49. And all that is written for warning against the sins of
idolatry, and confidence in an arm of flesh, and sinful leagues and
confederacies with wicked people (which are the sins here meant by committing
whoredom), is that others may hear and fear, and not sin after the similitude
of the transgressions of Israel and Judah.
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The
Sins of Samaria and
Jerusalem.
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B.
C. 591.
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1 The word of the LORD
came again unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, there were two women,
the daughters of one mother: 3 And they committed whoredoms in
Egypt
; they committed whoredoms in their youth:
there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their
virginity. 4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder,
and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters.
Thus were their names;
Samaria
is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.
5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers,
on the Assyrians her neighbours, 6 Which were
clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men,
horsemen riding upon horses. 7 Thus she committed her whoredoms
with them, with all them that were the chosen men of
Assyria
, and with all on whom she doted: with all
their idols she defiled herself. 8 Neither left she her whoredoms brought
from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts
of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her. 9 Wherefore
I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the
Assyrians, upon whom she doted. 10 These discovered her nakedness:
they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she
became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
God had often spoken to Ezekiel, and by him to the people, to this effect, but
now his word comes again; for God speaks the same thing once,
yea, twice, yea, many a time, and all little enough, and too little, for man
perceives it not. Note, To convince sinners of the evil of sin, and of
their misery and danger by reason of it, there is need of line upon line,
so loth we are to know the worst of ourselves. The sinners that are here to be
exposed are two women, two kingdoms, sister-kingdoms, Israel and Judah,
daughters of one mother, having been for a long time but one people.
Solomon's kingdom was so large, so populous, that immediately after his death
it divided into two. Observe, 1. Their character when they were one (v.
3): They committed whoredoms in Egypt, for there they were guilty of
idolatry, as we read before, ch. xx. 8. The representing of those sins
which are most provoking to God and most ruining to a people by the sin of
whoredom plainly intimates what an exceedingly sinful sin uncleanness is, how
offensive, how destructive. Doubtless it is itself one of the worst of sins,
for the worst of other sins are compared to it here and often elsewhere, which
should increase our detestation and dread of all manner of fleshly lusts,
all appearances of them and approaches to them, as warring against the
soul, infatuating sinners, bewitching them, alienating their minds from
God and all that is good, debauching conscience, rendering them odious in the
eyes of the pure and holy God, and drowning them at last in destruction and
perdition. 2. Their names when they became two, v. 4. The kingdom of
Israel is called the elder sister, because that first made the breach,
and separated from the family both of kings and priests that God had
appointed--the greater sister (so the word is), for ten tribes belonged
to that kingdom and only two to the other. God says of them both, They were
mine, for they were the seed of Abraham his friend and of Jacob his
chosen; they were in covenant with God, and carried about with them the
sign of their circumcision, the seal of the covenant. They were
mine; and therefore their apostasy was the highest injustice. It was
alienating God's property, it was the basest ingratitude to the best of
benefactors, and a perfidious treacherous violation of the most sacred
engagements. Note, Those who have been in profession the people of God, but
have revolted from him, have a great deal to answer for more than those who
never made any such profession. "They were mine; they were
espoused tome, and to me they bore sons and daughters;" there were
many among them that were devoted to God's honour, and employed in his
service, and were the strength and beauty of these kingdoms, as children are
of the families they are born in. In this parable Samaria and the kingdom of
Israel shall bear the name of Aholah--her own tabernacle, because the
places of worship which that kingdom had were of their own devising, their own
choosing, and the worship itself was their own invention; God never owned it. Her
tabernacle to herself (so some render it); "let her take it to
herself, and make her best of it." Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah
bear the name of Aholibah--my tabernacle is in her, because their
temple was the place which God himself had chosen to put his name
there. He acknowledged it to be his, and honoured them with the tokens of
his presence in it. Note, Of those that stand in relation to God, and make
profession of his name, some have greater privileges and advantages than
others; and, as those who have greater are thereby rendered the more
inexcusable if they revolt from God, so those who have less will not thereby
be rendered inexcusable. 3. The treacherous departure of the kingdom of Israel
from God (v. 5): Aholah played the harlot when she was mine.
Though the ten tribes had deserted the house of David, yet God owned them for his
still; though Jeroboam, in setting up the golden calves, sinned, and made
Israel to sin, yet, as long as they worshipped the God of Israel only,
though by images, he did not quite cast them off. But they way of sin is
down-hill. Aholah played the harlot, brought in the worship of Baal (1 Kings
xvi. 31), set up that other god, that dunghill-god, in competition with
Jehovah (1 Kings xviii. 21), as a vile adulteress dotes on her lovers,
because they are well dressed and make a figure, because they are young and
handsome (v. 6), clothed with blue, captains and rulers, desirable
young men, genteel, and that pass for men of honour, so she doted upon her
neighbours, particularly the Assyrians, who had extended their conquests near
them; she admired their idols and worshipped them, admired the pomp of their
courts and their military strength and courted alliances with them upon any
terms, as if her own God were not sufficient to be depended upon. We find one
of the kings of Israel giving a thousand talents to the king of
Assyria, to engage him in his interests, 2 Kings xv. 19. She doted on the chosen
men of Assyria, as worthy to be trusted and employed in the service of the
state (v. 7), and on all their idols with which she defiled herself.
Note, Whatever creature we dote upon, pay homage to, and put a confidence in,
we make an idol of that creature; and whatever we make an idol of we defile
ourselves with. And now again the conviction looks back as far as the original
of their nation: Neither left she her whoredoms which she brought from
Egypt, v. 8. Their being idolaters in Egypt was a thing never to be
forgotten--that they should be in love with Egypt's idols even when they were
continually in fear of Egypt's tyrants and task-masters! But (as some have
observed) therefore, at that time, when Satan boasted of his having walked
through the earth as all his own, to disprove his pretensions God did not
say, Hast thou considered my people Israel in Egypt? (for they had
become idolaters, and were not to be boasted of), but, Hast thou considered
my servant Job in the land of Uz? And this corrupt disposition in them,
when they were first formed into a people, is an emblem of that original
corruption which is born with us and is woven into our constitution, a strong
bias towards the world and the flesh, like that in the Israelites towards
idolatry; it was bred in the bone with them, and was charged upon them
long after, that they left not their whoredoms brought from Egypt. It
would never out of the flesh, though Egypt had been a house of bondage
to them. Thus the corrupt affections and inclinations which we brought into
the world with us we have not lost, nor got clear of, but still retain them,
though the iniquity we were born in was the source of all the calamities which
human life is liable to. 4. The destruction of the kingdom of Israel for their
apostasy from God (v. 9, 10): I have delivered her into the hand of
her lovers. God first justly gave her up to her lust (Ephraim is joined
to idols, let him alone), and then gave her up to her lovers. The
neighbouring nations, whose idolatries she had conformed to and whose
friendship she had confided in, and in both had affronted God, are now made
use of as the instruments of her destruction. The Assyrians, on whom she
doted, soon spied out the nakedness of the land, discovered her
blind side, on which to attack her, stripped her of all her ornaments and all
her defences, and so uncovered her, and made her naked and bare,
carried her sons and daughters into captivity, slew her with the
sword, and quite destroyed that kingdom and put an end to it. We have the
story at large 2 Kings xvii. 6, &c., where the cause of the ruin of that
once flourishing kingdom by the Assyrians is shown to be their forsaking the
God of Israel, fearing other gods, and walking in the statutes of
the heathen; it was for this that God was very angry with them and
removed them out of his sight, v. 18. And that the Assyrians, whom
they had been so fond of, should be employed in executing judgments
upon them was very remarkable, and shows how God, in a way of righteous
judgment, often makes that a scourge to sinners which they have inordinately
set their hearts upon. The devil will for ever be a tormentor to those
impenitent sinners who now hearken to him and comply with him as a tempter.
Thus Samaria became famous among women, or infamous rather; she became
a name (so the word is); not only she came to be the subject of discourse,
and much talked of, as the desolations of cities and kingdoms fill the
newspapers, but she was thus ruined for her idolatries in terrorem--for
warning to all people to take heed of doing likewise; as the public
execution of notorious malefactors makes them such a name, such an ill
name, as may serve to frighten others from those wicked courses which have
brought them to a miserable and shameful end. Deut. xxi. 21, All Israel
shall hear and fear.
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The
Sins of Samaria and Jerusalem.
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B.
C. 591.
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11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this,
she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms
more than her sister in her whoredoms. 12 She doted upon
the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most
gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young
men. 13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took
both one way, 14 And that she increased her whoredoms: for
when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans
portrayed with vermilion, 15 Girded with girdles upon their loins,
exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to,
after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their
nativity: 16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted
upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. 17 And the
Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their
whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from
them. 18 So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her
nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated
from her sister. 19 Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling
to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the
land of Egypt. 20 For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is
as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of
horses. 21 Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy
youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.
The prophet Hosea, in his time, observed that the two tribes retained their
integrity, in a great measure, when the ten tribes had apostatized (Hos. xi.
12, Ephraim indeed compasses me about with lies, but Judah yet rules with
God and is faithful with the saints; and this was justly expected from
them: Hos. iv. 15, Though thou Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah
offend); but this lasted not long. By some unhappy matches made between
the house of David and the house of Ahab the worship of Baal had been brought
into the kingdom of Judah, but had been by the reforming kings worked out
again; and at the time of the captivity of the ten tribes, which was in the
reign of Hezekiah, things were in a good posture: but it lasted not long. In
the reign of Manasseh, soon after the kingdom of Judah had seen the
destruction of the kingdom of Israel, they became more corrupt than Israel had
been in their inordinate love of idols, v. 11. Instead of being made
better by the warning which that destruction gave them, they were made worse
by it, as if they were displeased because the Lord had made that breach
upon Israel, and for that reason became disaffected to him and to his
service. Instead of being made to stand in awe of him as a jealous God,
they therefore grew strange to him, and liked those gods better that would
admit of partners with them. Note, Those may justly expect God's judgments
upon themselves who do not take warning by his judgments upon others, who see
in others what is the end of sin and yet continue to make a light matter of
it. But it is bad indeed with those who are made worse by that which should
make them better, and have their lusts irritated and exasperated by that which
was designed to suppress and subdue them. Jerusalem grew worse in her
whoredoms than her sister Samaria had been in her whoredoms. This
was observed before (ch. xvi. 51), Neither has Samaria committed
half of thy sins.
I. Jerusalem, that had been a faithful city, became a harlot, Isa. i.
21. She also doted upon the Assyrians (v. 12), joined in league
with them, joined in worship with them, grew to be in love with their captains
and rulers, and cried them up as finer and more accomplished gentlemen
than any that ever the land of Israel produced. "See how richly, how
neatly, they are dressed, clothed most gorgeously; how well they sit a
horse; they are horsemen riding on horses; how charmingly they look, all
of them desirable young men." And thus they grew to affect every
thing that was foreign and to despise their own nation; and even the religion
of it was mean and homely, and not to be compared with the curiosity and
gaiety of the heathen temples. Thus she increased her whoredoms; she
fell in love, fell in league, with the Chaldeans. Hezekiah himself was faulty
this way when he was proud of the court which the king of Babylon made to him
and complimented his ambassadors with the sight of all his treasures, Isa.
xxxix. 2. And the humour increased (v. 14); she doted upon the pictures
of the Babylonian captains (v. 15, 16), joined in alliance with that
kingdom, invited them to come and settle in Jerusalem, that they might refine
the genius of the Jewish nation and make it more polite; nay, they sent for
patterns of their images, altars, and temples, and made use of them in their
worship. Thus was she polluted with her whoredoms (v. 17), and
thereby she discovered her own whoredom (v. 18), her own strong
inclination to idolatry. And when she had had enough of the Chaldeans, and
grew tired of them and disposed to break her league with them, as Jehoiakim
and Zedekiah did, her mind being alienated from them, she courted the Egyptians,
doted upon their paramours (v. 20), would come into an alliance
with them, and, to strengthen the alliance, would join with them in their
idolatries and then depend upon them to be their protectors from all other
nations; for so wise, so rich, so strong, was the Egyptian nation, and came to
such perfection in idolatry, that there was no nation now which they could
take such satisfaction in as in Egypt. Thus they called to remembrance the
days of their youth (v. 19), the lewdness of their youth, v.
21. 1. They pleased themselves with the remembrance of it. When they began to
set their affections upon Egypt, they encouraged themselves to put a
confidence in that kingdom, because of the old acquaintance they had with it,
as if they still retained the gust and relish of the leeks and onions
they ate there, or rather of the idolatrous worship they learned there, and
brought up with them thence. When they began an acquaintance with Egypt they
remembered how merrily their fathers worshipped the golden calf, what music
and dancing they had at that sport, which they learned in Egypt; and they
hoped they should now have a fair pretence to come to that again. Thus she
multiplied her whoredoms, repeated her former whoredoms, and encouraged
herself to close with present temptations, by calling to remembrance the
days of her youth. Note, Those who, instead of reflecting upon their
former sins with sorrow and shame, reflect upon them with pleasure and pride,
contract new guilt thereby, strengthen their own corruptions, and in effect
bid defiance to repentance. This is returning with the dog to his vomit.
2. They called it God's remembrance, and provoked him to remember it
against them. God had said indeed that he would reckon with them for the
golden calf, that idol of Egypt (Exod. xxxii. 34); but such was his
patience that he seemed to have forgotten it till they, by their league now
with the Egyptians against the Chaldeans, did, as it were, put him in mind of
it; and in the day when he visits he will now, as he has said, visit
for that. It is very observable how this adulteress changes her lovers:
she dotes first on the Assyrians; then she thought the Chaldeans finer and
courted them; after a while her mind was alienated from them, and she thought
the Egyptians more powerful (v. 20) and she must contract an intimacy
with them. This shows the folly, (1.) Of fleshly lusts; when they are indulged
they grow humoursome and fickle, are soon surfeited but never satisfied; they
must have variety, and what is loved one day is loathed the next. Unius
adulterium matrimonium vocant--One adultery is called marriage, as Seneca
observes. (2.) Of idolatry. Those who think one God too little will not think
a hundred sufficient, but will still be for trying more, as finding all
insufficient. (3.) Of seeking to creatures for help; we go from one to
another, but are disappointed in them all, and can never rest till we have
made the God of Israel our help.
II. The faithful God justly gives a bill of divorce to this now faithless
city, that has become a harlot. His jealousy soon discovered her
lewdness (v. 13): I saw that she was defiled, that she was
debauched, and saw which way her inclination was, that the two sisters both
took one way, and that Jerusalem grew worse than Samaria. For, if we
stretch out our hand to a strange god, will not God search this out? No
doubt he will; and when he has found it can he be pleased with it? No (v.
18): Then my mind was alienated from her, as it was from her sister.
How could the pure and holy God any longer take delight in such a lewd
generation? Note, Sin alienates God's mind from the sinner, and justly, for it
is the alienation of the sinner's mind from God; but woe, and a thousand woes,
to those from whom God's mind is alienated; for whom he turns from he will
turn against.
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The
Punishment of Jerusalem.
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B.
C. 591.
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22 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up
thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring
them against thee on every side; 23 The Babylonians, and all the
Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them:
all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and
renowned, all of them riding upon horses. 24 And they shall come
against thee with chariots, waggons, and wheels, and with an assembly of
people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet
round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee
according to their judgments. 25 And I will set my jealousy
against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away
thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall
take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the
fire. 26 They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take
away thy fair jewels. 27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease
from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that
thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any
more. 28 For thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest,
into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated: 29
And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour,
and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall
be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. 30 I will do
these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the
heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols. 31
Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into
thine hand. 32 Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to
scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. 33 Thou shalt be
filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and
desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. 34 Thou shalt even
drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and
pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
35 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD;
Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear
thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.
Jerusalem stands indicted by the name of Aholibah, for that she, as a
false traitor to her sovereign Lord the God of heaven, not having his fear
before her eyes, but moved by the instigation of the devil, had revolted from
her allegiance to him, had compassed and imagined to shake off his government,
had kept up a correspondence had joined in confederacy with his enemies, and
the pretenders to a deity, in contempt of his crown and dignity. To this
indictment she has pleaded, Not guilty: I am not polluted; I have not gone
after Baalim. But it is found against her by the notorious evidence of the
fact, and she stands convicted of it, nor has any thing material to offer why
judgment should not be given and execution awarded according to law. In these
verses, therefore, we have the sentence.
I. Her old confederates must be her executioners; and those whom she had
courted to be her leaders in sin are now to be employed as instruments of her
punishment (v. 22): "I will raise up thy lovers against thee,
the Chaldeans, whom formerly thou didst so much admire and covet an
acquaintance with, but from whom thy mind is since alienated and with whom
thou hast perfidiously broken covenant." They are called thy lovers
(v. 22) and yet (v. 28) those whom thou hatest. Note, It
is common for sinful love soon to turn into hatred; as Amnon's to Tamar. Those
of headstrong and unreasonable passions are often very hot against those
persons and things that a little before they were as hot for. Fools run into
extremes; nay, and wise men may see cause to change their sentiments. And
therefore, as we should rejoice and weep as if we rejoiced not and wept not,
so we should love and hate as if we loved not and hated not. Ita ama
tanquam osurus--Love as one who may have cause to feel aversion.
II. The execution to be done upon her is very terrible.
1. Her enemies shall come against her on every side (v. 22),
those of the several nations that constituted the Chaldean army (v.
23), all of them great lords and renowned, whose pomp, and grandeur,
and splendid appearance made them look the more amiable when they came as
friends to protect and patronise Jerusalem, but the more formidable when they
came to chastise its treachery and aimed at no less than its ruin. (1.) They
shall come with a great deal of military force (v. 24), with chariots
and wagons furnished with all necessary provisions for a camp, with arms
and ammunition, bag and baggage, with a vast army, and well armed. (2.) They
shall have justice on their side: "I will set judgment before them"
(they shall have right with them as well as might; for the king of Babylon had
just cause to make war upon the king of Judah, because he had broken his
league with him), "and therefore they shall judge thee, not only
according to God's judgments, as the instruments of his justice, to punish
thee for the indignities done to him, but according to their judgments,
according to the law of nations, to punish thee for thy perfidious dealings
with them." (3.) They shall prosecute the war with a great deal of fury
and resentment. It being a war of revenge, they shall deal with thee
hatefully, v. 29. This will make the execution the more severe that
their swords will be dipped in poison. Thou hatest them, and they shall deal
hatefully with thee; those that hate will be hated and will be hatefully dealt
with. (4.) God himself will lead them on, and his anger shall be mingled with
theirs (v. 25): I will set my jealousy against thee; that shall
kindle this fire, and then they shall deal furiously with thee. If men
deal ever so hatefully, ever so furiously, with us, yet, if we have God on our
side, we need not fear them; they can do us no real hurt. But if men deal
furiously with us, and God set his jealousy against us too, what will become
of us?
2. The particulars of the sentence here passed upon this notorious adulteress
are, (1.) That all she has shall be seized on. The clothes and the fair
jewels, with which she had endeavoured to recommend herself to her lovers,
these she shall be stripped of, v. 26. All those things that were the
ornaments of their state shall be taken away: "They shall take away
all thy labour, all that thou hast gotten by thy labour, and shall leave
thee naked and bare," v. 29. Both city and country shall be
impoverished and all the wealth of both swept away. (2.) That her children
shall go into captivity. "They shall take thy sons and thy daughters,
and make slaves of them (v. 25); for they are children of whoredoms,
unworthy the dignities and privileges of Israelites," Hos. ii. 4. (3.)
That she shall be stigmatized and deformed: "They shall take away thy
nose and thy ears, shall mark thee for a harlot, and render thee for ever
odious," v. 25. This intimates the many cruelties of the Chaldean
soldiers towards the Jews that fell into their hands, whom, it is probable,
they used barbarously. Some will have this to be understood figuratively; and
by the nose they think is meant the kingly dignity, and by the ears that of
the priesthood. (4.) That she shall be exposed to shame: Thy lewdness and
thy whoredoms shall be discovered (v. 29), as, when a malefactor is
punished, all his crimes are ripped up, and repeated to his disgrace; what was
secret then comes to light, and what was done long since is then called to
mind. (5.) That she shall be quite cut off and ruined: "The remnant
of thy people that have escaped the famine and pestilence shall fall by the
sword; and the residue of thy houses that have not been battered down
about thy ears shall be devoured by the fire," v. 25. And
this shall be the end of Jerusalem.
III. Because she has trod in the steps of Samaria's sins, she must expect no
other than Samaria's fate. It is common, in giving judgment, to have an eye to
precedents; so has God in passing this sentence on Jerusalem (v. 31,
&c.): "Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister,
notwithstanding the warning thou hast had given thee, by the fatal
consequences of her wickedness; and therefore I will give her cup, her
portion of miseries, into thy hand, the cup of the Lord's fury, which
will be to thee a cup of trembling." Now, 1. This cup is said to
be deep and large, and to contain much (v. 32), abundance
of God's wrath and abundance of miseries, the fruits of that wrath. It is such
a cup as that which we read of, Jer. xxv. 15, 16. The cup of divine vengeance
holds a great deal, and so those will find into whose hand it shall be put. 2.
They shall be made to drink the very dregs of this cup, as the wicked
are said to do (Ps. lxxv. 8): "Thou shalt drink it and suck it out,
not because it is pleasant, but because it is forced upon thee (v. 34);
thou shalt break the shreds thereof, and pluck off thy own breasts,
for indignation at the extreme bitterness of this cup, being full of the
fury of the Lord (Isa. li. 20), as men in great anguish tear their hair,
and throw every thing from them. Finding there is no remedy, but it must be
drank (for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God), thou shalt have no
manner of patience in the drinking of it." 3. They shall be intoxicated
by it, made sick, and be at their wits' end, as men in drink are, staggering,
and stumbling, and ready to fall (v. 33): Thou shalt be filled with
drunkenness and sorrow. Note, Drunkenness has sorrow attending it, to such
a degree that the utmost confusion and astonishment are here represented by
it. Who would think that that which is such a force upon nature, such a
scandal to it, which deprives men of their reason, disorders them to the last
degree, and is therefore expressive of the greatest misery, should yet be with
many a beloved sin, that they should damn their own souls to distemper their
own bodies? Who has woe and sorrow like them? Prov. xxiii. 29.
4. Being so intoxicated, they shall become, as drunkards deserve to be, a
laughing-stock to all about them (v. 32): Thou shalt be laughed to
scorn and had in derision, as acting ridiculously in every thing thou
goest about. When God is about to ruin a people he makes their judges fools
and pours contempt on their princes, Job xii. 17, 21.
IV. In all this God will be justified, and by all this they will be reformed;
and so the issue even of this will be God's glory and their good. 1. They have
been bad, very bad, and that justifies God in all that is brought upon them (v.
30): I will do these things unto thee because thou hast gone a whoring
after the heathen, and (v. 35) because thou hast forgotten me
and cast me behind thy back. Note, Forgetfulness of God, and a contempt of
him, of his eye upon us and authority over us, are at the bottom of all our
treacherous adulterous departures from him. Therefore men wander after
idols, because they forget God, and their obligations to him; nor could
they look with so much desire and delight upon the baits of sin if they did
not first cast God behind their back, as not worthy to be regarded. And
those who put such an affront upon God, how can they think but that it should
turn upon themselves at last? Therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy
whoredoms; that is, thou shalt suffer the punishment of them, and
thou alone must bear the blame. Men need no more to sink them than the
weight of their own sins; and those who will not part with their lewdness and
their whoredoms must bear them. 2. They shall be better, much better, and this
fire, though consuming to many, shall be refining to a remnant (v. 27):
Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee. The judgments which
were brought upon them by their sins parted between them and their sins, and
taught them at length to say, What have we to do any more with idols?
Observe, (1.) How inveterate the disease was: Thy whoredoms were brought
from the land of Egypt. Their disposition to idolatry was early and
innate, their practice of it was ancient, and had gained a sort of
prescription by long usage. (2.) How complete the cure was notwithstanding:
"Though it has taken root, yet it shall be made to cease, so that thou
shalt not so much as lift up thy eyes to the idols again, nor remember
Egypt with pleasure any more." They shall avoid the occasions
of this sin, for they shall not so much as look upon an idol, lest their
hearts should unawares walk after their eyes. And they shall abandon
all inclinations to it: "They shall not remember Egypt; they shall
not retain any of that affection for idols which they had from the very
infancy of their nation." They got it, through the corruption of nature,
in their bondage in Egypt, and lost it, through the grace of God, in their
captivity in Babylon, which this was the blessed fruit of, even the taking
away of sin, of that sin; so that whereas, before the captivity, no
nation (all things considered) was more impetuously bent upon idols and
idolatry than they were, after that captivity no nation was more vehemently
set against idols and idolatry than they were, insomuch that at this day the
image-worship which is practised in the church of Rome confirms the Jews as
much as any thing in their prejudices against the Christian religion.
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Israel
and Judah Accused; Judgments Predicted.
B. C. 591.
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36 The LORD
said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea,
declare unto them their abominations; 37 That they have committed
adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they
committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me,
to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.
38 Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the
same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. 39 For when they had
slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my
sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine
house. 40 And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from
far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou
didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with
ornaments, 41 And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared
before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil. 42
And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men
of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put
bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.
43 Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now
commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? 44 Yet they
went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went
they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women. 45 And the
righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and
after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are
adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. 46 For thus
saith the Lord GOD;
I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and
spoiled. 47 And the company shall stone them with stones, and
dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their
daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. 48 Thus will I
cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to
do after your lewdness. 49 And they shall recompense your lewdness
upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am
the Lord GOD.
After the ten tribes were carried into captivity, and that kingdom was made
quite desolate, the remains of it by degrees incorporated with the kingdom of
Judah, and gained a settlement (many of them) in Jerusalem; so that the two
sisters had in effect become one again; and therefore, in these
verses, the prophet takes those to task jointly who were thus conjoined:
"Wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah together? v. 36. Wilt
thou go about to frame an excuse for them? Thou seest the matter is so bad as
not to bear an excuse." Or, rather, "Thou shalt now be employed, in
God's name, to judge them, ch. xx. 4. The matter is rather worse
than better since the union."
I. Let them be made to see the sins they are guilty of: Declare unto them
openly and boldly their abominations. 1. They have been guilty of gross
idolatry, here called adultery. With their idols they have committed
adultery (v. 37), have broken their marriage-covenant with God,
have lusted after the gratifications of a carnal sensual mind in the worship
of God. This is the first and worst of the abominations he is to charge them
with. 2. They have committed the most barbarous murders, in sacrificing their
children to Moloch, a sin so unnatural that they deserve to hear of it upon
all occasions: Blood is in their hands, innocent blood, the blood of
their own children, which they have caused to pass through the fire (v.
37), not that they might be dedicated to the idols, but that they might be
devoured, a sign that they loved their idols better than that which was
dearest to them in the world. 3. They have profaned the sacred things with
which God had dignified and distinguished them: This they have done unto
me, this indignity, this injury, v. 38. Every contempt put upon
that which is holy reflects upon him who is the fountain of holiness, and from
a relation to whom whatever is called holy has its denomination. God had set
up his sanctuary among them, but they defiled it, by making it a house of
merchandise, a den of thieves; nay, and much worse; there they set up their
idols and worshipped them, and there they shed the blood of God's prophets.
God had revealed to them his holy sabbaths, but they profaned them, by doing
all manner of servile work therein, or perhaps by sports and recreations on
that day, not only practised, but allowed and encouraged by authority. They defiled
the sanctuary on the same day that they profaned the sabbath.
To defile the sanctuary was bad enough on any day, but to do it on the sabbath
day was an aggravation. We commonly say, The better day the better deed;
but here, the better day the worse deed. God takes notice of the circumstances
of sin which add to the guilt. He shows (v. 39) what was their
profanation both of the sanctuary and of the sabbath. They slew their
children, and sacrificed them to their idols, to the great
dishonour both of God and of human nature; and then came, on the same day,
their hands imbrued with the blood of their children and their clothes stained
with it, to attend in God's sanctuary, not to ask pardon for what they
had done, but to present themselves before him, as other Israelites did,
expecting acceptance with him, notwithstanding these villanies which they were
guilty of; as if God either did not know their wickedness or did not hate it.
Thus they profaned the sanctuary, as if that were a protection to the
worst of malefactors; for thus they did in the midst of his house.
Note, It is a profanation of God's solemn ordinances when those that are
grossly and openly profane and vicious impudently and impenitently so intrude
upon the services and privileges of them. Give not that which is holy unto
dogs. Friend, how camest thou in hither? 4. They have courted foreign
alliances, been proud of them, and reposed a confidence in them. This also is
represented by the sin of adultery, for it was a departure from God, not only to
whom alone they ought to pay their homage and not to idols, but in
whom alone they ought to put their trust, and not in creatures. Israel was a
peculiar people, must dwell alone and not be reckoned among the
nations; and they profane their crown, and lay their honour in the dust,
when they covet to be like them or in league with them. But this they
have now done; they have entered into strict alliances with the Assyrians,
Chaldeans, and Egyptians, the most renowned and potent kingdoms at that time;
but they scorned alliances with the petty kingdoms and states that lay near
them, which yet might have been of more real service to them. Note, Affecting
an acquaintance and correspondence with great people has often been a snare to
good people. Let us see how Jerusalem courts her high allies, thinking thereby
to make herself considerable. (1.) She privately requested that a public
embassy might be sent to her (v. 40): You sent a messenger for men
to come from far. It seems, then, that the neighbours had no desire to
come into a confederacy with Jerusalem, but she thrust herself upon them, and
sent under-hand to desire them to court her: and, lo, they came. The
wisest and best may be drawn unavoidably into company and conversation with
profane and wicked people: but it is no sign either of wisdom or goodness to
covet an intimacy with such and to court it. (2.) Great preparation was made
for the reception of these foreign ministers, for their public entry and
public audience, which is compared to the pains that an adulteress takes to
make herself look handsome. Jezebel-like, thou paintedst thy face and deckedst
thyself with ornaments, v. 40. The king and princes made themselves
new clothes, fitted up the rooms of state, beautified the furniture, and made
it look fresh. Thou sattest upon a stately bed (v. 41), a
stately throne; a table was prepared, whereon thou has set my oil and my
incense. This was either, [1.] A feast for the ambassadors, a noble treat,
agreeable to the other preparations. There was incense to perfume the room and
oil to anoint their heads. Or, [2.] An altar already furnished for the
ambassadors' use in the worship of their idols, to let them know that the
Israelites were not so strait-laced but that they could allow foreigners the
free exercise of their religion among them, and furnish them with chapels,
yea, and complimented them so far as to join with them in their devotions;
though the law of their God was against it, yet they could easily dispense
with themselves to oblige a friend. The oil and incense God calls his,
not only because they were the gift of his providence, but because they should
have been offered at his altar, which was an aggravation of their sin in
serving idols and idolaters with them. See Hos. ii. 8. (3.) There was great
joy at their coming, as if it were such a blessing as never happened to
Jerusalem before (v. 42): A voice of a multitude being at east was
with her. The people were very easy, for they thought themselves very safe
and happy now that they had such powerful allies; and therefore attended the
ambassadors with loud huzzas and acclamations of joy. A great confluence of
people there was to the court upon this occasion. The men of the common
sort were there to grace the solemnity, and to increase the crowd; and with
them were brought Sabeans from the wilderness. The margin reads it drunkards
from the wilderness, that would drink healths to the prosperity of this
grand alliance, and force them upon others, and be most noisy in shouting upon
this occasion. Whoever they were, in honour of the ambassadors they put bracelets
upon their hands and beautiful crowns upon their heads, which made the
cavalcade appear very splendid. (4.) God by his prophets warned them against
making these dangerous leagues with foreigners (v. 43): "Then
said I unto her that was old in adulteries, that from the first was fond
of leagues with the heathen, of matching with their families (Judg. iii. 6),
and afterwards of making alliances with their kingdoms, and, though often
disappointed therein, would never be dissuaded from it (this was the adultery
she was old in), I said, Will they now commit whoredoms with her and she
with them? Surely experience and observation will by this time have
convinced both them and her that an alliance between the nation of the Jews
and a heathen nation can never be for the advantage of either." They are iron
and clay, that will not mix, nor will God bless such an alliance, or smile
upon it. But, it seems, her being old in these adulteries, instead of weaning
her from them, as one would expect, does but make her the more impudent and
insatiable in them; for, though she was thus admonished of the folly of it, yet
they went in unto her, v. 44. A bargain was soon clapped up, and a
league made, first with this, and then with the other, foreign state. Samaria
did so, Jerusalem did so, like lewd women. They could not rest satisfied in
the embraces of God's laws and care, and the assurances of protection he gave
them; they could not think his covenant with them security enough. But they
must by treaties and leagues, politic ones (they thought) and well-concerted,
throw themselves into the arms of foreign princes, and put their interests
under their protection. Note, Those hearts go a whoring from God that take a
complacency in the pomp of the world and put a confidence in its wealth, and
in an arm of flesh, Jer. xvii. 5.
II. Let them be made to foresee the judgments that are coming upon them for
these sins (v. 45): The righteous men, they shall judge them.
Some make the instruments of their destruction to be the righteous men that
shall judge them. The Assyrians that destroyed Samaria, the Chaldeans that
destroyed Jerusalem, those were comparatively righteous, had a sense of
justice between man and man and justly resented the treachery of the Jewish
nation; however, they executed God's judgments, which, we are sure, are all
righteous. Others understand it of the prophets, whose office it was, in God's
name, to judge them and pass sentence upon them. Or we may take it as an
appeal to all righteous men, to all that have a sense of equity; they shall
all judge concerning these cities, and agree in their verdict, that forasmuch
as they have been notoriously guilty of adultery and murder, and the guilt is
national, therefore they ought to suffer the pains and penalties which by law
are inflicted upon women in their personal capacity that shed blood and are
adulteresses. Righteous men will say, "Why should bloody filthy cities
escape any better than bloody filthy persons? Judge, I pray thee,"
Isa. v. 3. This judgment being given by the righteous men, the righteous God
will award execution. See here, 1. What the execution will be, v. 46,
47. The same as before, v. 23, &c. God will bring a company
of enemies upon them, who shall be made to serve his holy purposes even
when they are serving their own sinful appetites and passions. These enemies
shall easily prevail, for God will give them into their hands to be
removed and spoiled; this company shall stone them with stones as
malefactors, shall single them out and dispatch them with their
swords; and, as was sometimes done in severe executions (witness that of
Achan), they shall slay their children and burn their houses. 2. What
will be the effects of it. (1.) Thus they shall suffer for their sins: Their lewdness
shall be recompensed upon them (v. 49); and they shall bear the
sins of their idols, v. 35, 49. Thus God will assert the honour of
his broken law and injured government, and let the world know what a just and
jealous God he is. (2.) Thus they shall be broken off from their sins: I
will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, v. 27, 48. The
destruction of God's city, like the death of God's saints, shall do that for
them which ordinances and providences before could not do; it shall quite take
away their sin, so that Jerusalem shall rise out of its ashes a new lump, as
gold comes out of the furnace purified from its dross. (3.) Thus other cities
and nations will have fair warning given them to keep themselves from idols.
That all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. This is the
end of the punishment of malefactors, that they may be made examples to
others, who will see and fear. Smite the scorner and the simple will
beware. The judgments of God upon some are designed to teach others, and
happy are those who receive instruction from them not to tread in the steps of
sinners, lest they be taken in their snares; those who would be taught this
must know God is the Lord (v. 49), that he is the governor of
the world, a God that judges in the earth, and with whom there is no
respect of persons.
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