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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Ezekiel XXIII].</TITLE>
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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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on the Whole Bible</h1>
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1712)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>E Z E K I E L.</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XXIII.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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This long chapter (as before
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:1-62,20:1-44"><I>ch.</I> xvi. and xx.</A>)
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is a history of the apostasies of God's people from him and the
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aggravations of those apostasies under the similitude of corporal
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whoredom and adultery. Here the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the ten
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tribes and the two, with their capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem,
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are considered distinctly. Here is,
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I. The apostasy of Israel and Samaria from God
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:1-8">ver. 1-8</A>)
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and their ruin for it,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:9,10">ver. 9, 10</A>.
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II. The apostasy of Judah and Jerusalem from God
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:11-21">ver. 11-21</A>)
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and sentence passed upon them, that they shall in like manner be
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destroyed for it,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:22-35">ver. 22-35</A>.
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III. The joint wickedness of them both together
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:36-44">ver. 36-44</A>)
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and the joint ruin of them both,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:45-49">ver. 45-49</A>.
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And all that is written for warning against the sins of idolatry, and
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confidence in an arm of flesh, and sinful leagues and confederacies
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with wicked people (which are the sins here meant by committing
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whoredom), is that others may hear and fear, and not sin after the
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similitude of the transgressions of Israel and Judah.</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Eze23_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_4"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_5"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_6"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_7"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_8"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_9"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_10"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Sins of Samaria and Jerusalem.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 591.</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 The word of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> came again unto me, saying,
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2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one
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mother:
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3 And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed
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whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and
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there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
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4 And the names of them <I>were</I> Aholah the elder, and Aholibah
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her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters.
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Thus <I>were</I> their names; Samaria <I>is</I> Aholah, and Jerusalem
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Aholibah.
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5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted
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on her lovers, on the Assyrians <I>her</I> neighbours,
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6 <I>Which were</I> clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of
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them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
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7 Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them
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<I>that were</I> the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she
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doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
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8 Neither left she her whoredoms <I>brought</I> from Egypt: for in
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her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her
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virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
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9 Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers,
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into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
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10 These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her
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daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous
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among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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God had often spoken to Ezekiel, and by him to the people, to this
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effect, but now his word <I>comes again;</I> for <I>God speaks</I> the
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same thing <I>once, yea, twice,</I> yea, many a time, and all little
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enough, and too little, for <I>man perceives it not.</I> Note, To
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convince sinners of the evil of sin, and of their misery and danger by
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reason of it, there is need of <I>line upon line,</I> so loth we are to
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know the worst of ourselves. The sinners that are here to be exposed
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are <I>two women,</I> two kingdoms, sister-kingdoms, Israel and Judah,
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<I>daughters of one mother,</I> having been for a long time but <I>one
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people.</I> Solomon's kingdom was so large, so populous, that
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immediately after his death it divided into two. Observe,
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1. Their character when they were one
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>):
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<I>They committed whoredoms in Egypt,</I> for there they were guilty of
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idolatry, as we read before,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+20:8"><I>ch.</I> xx. 8</A>.
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The representing of those sins which are most provoking to God and most
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ruining to a people by the sin of whoredom plainly intimates what an
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exceedingly sinful sin uncleanness is, how offensive, how destructive.
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Doubtless it is itself one of the worst of sins, for the worst of other
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sins are compared to it here and often elsewhere, which should increase
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our detestation and dread of all manner of <I>fleshly lusts,</I> all
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appearances of them and approaches to them, as <I>warring against the
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soul,</I> infatuating sinners, bewitching them, alienating their minds
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from God and all that is good, debauching conscience, rendering them
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odious in the eyes of the pure and holy God, and drowning them at last
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in destruction and perdition.
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2. Their names when they became two,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>.
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The kingdom of Israel is called the <I>elder sister,</I> because that
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first made the breach, and separated from the family both of kings and
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priests that God had appointed--the <I>greater sister</I> (so the word
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is), for ten tribes belonged to that kingdom and only two to the other.
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God says of them both, <I>They were mine,</I> for they were the seed of
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Abraham <I>his friend</I> and of Jacob <I>his chosen;</I> they were in
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covenant with God, and carried about with them the sign of <I>their
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circumcision,</I> the seal of the covenant. <I>They were mine;</I> and
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therefore their apostasy was the highest injustice. It was alienating
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God's property, it was the basest ingratitude to the best of
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benefactors, and a perfidious treacherous violation of the most sacred
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engagements. Note, Those who have been in profession the people of God,
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but have revolted from him, have a great deal to answer for more than
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those who never made any such profession. "<I>They were mine;</I> they
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were espoused tome, and to me <I>they bore sons and daughters;</I>"
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there were many among them that were devoted to God's honour, and
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employed in his service, and were the strength and beauty of these
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kingdoms, as children are of the families they are born in. In this
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parable Samaria and the kingdom of Israel shall bear the name of
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<I>Aholah--her own tabernacle,</I> because the places of worship which
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that kingdom had were of their own devising, their own choosing, and
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the worship itself was their own invention; God never owned it. <I>Her
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tabernacle to herself</I> (so some render it); "let her take it to
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herself, and make her best of it." Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah
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bear the name of <I>Aholibah--my tabernacle is in her,</I> because
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<I>their</I> temple was the place which God himself had <I>chosen</I>
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to <I>put his name there.</I> He acknowledged it to be his, and
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honoured them with the tokens of his presence in it. Note, Of those
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that stand in relation to God, and make profession of his name, some
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have greater privileges and advantages than others; and, as those who
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have greater are thereby rendered the more inexcusable if they revolt
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from God, so those who have less will not thereby be rendered
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inexcusable.
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3. The treacherous departure of the kingdom of Israel from God
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>):
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<I>Aholah played the harlot when she was mine.</I> Though the ten
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tribes had deserted the house of David, yet God owned them for
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<I>his</I> still; though Jeroboam, in setting up the golden calves,
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<I>sinned, and made Israel to sin,</I> yet, as long as they worshipped
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the God of Israel only, though by images, he did not quite cast them
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off. But they way of sin is down-hill. Aholah played the harlot,
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brought in the worship of Baal
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ki+16:31">1 Kings xvi. 31</A>),
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set up that other god, that dunghill-god, in competition with Jehovah
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ki+18:21">1 Kings xviii. 21</A>),
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as a vile adulteress <I>dotes on her lovers,</I> because they are well
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dressed and make a figure, because they are young and handsome
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>),
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<I>clothed with blue, captains and rulers, desirable young</I> men,
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genteel, and that pass for men of honour, so she doted upon her
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neighbours, particularly the Assyrians, who had extended their
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conquests near them; she admired their idols and worshipped them,
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admired the pomp of their courts and their military strength and
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courted alliances with them upon any terms, as if her own God were not
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sufficient to be depended upon. We find one of the kings of Israel
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giving a <I>thousand talents</I> to the <I>king of Assyria,</I> to
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engage him in his interests,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+15:19">2 Kings xv. 19</A>.
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She doted on the <I>chosen men of Assyria,</I> as worthy to be trusted
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and employed in the service of the state
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>),
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and <I>on all their idols with which she defiled herself.</I> Note,
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Whatever creature we dote upon, pay homage to, and put a confidence in,
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we make an idol of that creature; and whatever we make an idol of we
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defile ourselves with. And now again the conviction looks back as far
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as the original of their nation: <I>Neither left she her whoredoms
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which she brought from Egypt,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>.
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Their being idolaters in Egypt was a thing never to be forgotten--that
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they should be in love with Egypt's idols even when they were
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continually in fear of Egypt's tyrants and task-masters! But (as some
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have observed) therefore, at that time, when Satan boasted of his
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having <I>walked through the earth</I> as all his own, to disprove his
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pretensions God did not say, Hast thou considered <I>my people Israel
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in Egypt?</I> (for they had become idolaters, and were not to be
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boasted of), but, <I>Hast thou considered my servant Job in the land of
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Uz?</I> And this corrupt disposition in them, when they were first
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formed into a people, is an emblem of that original corruption which is
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born with us and is woven into our constitution, a strong bias towards
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the world and the flesh, like that in the Israelites towards idolatry;
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it was <I>bred in the bone</I> with them, and was charged upon them
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long after, that they <I>left not their whoredoms brought from
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Egypt.</I> It would never <I>out of the flesh,</I> though Egypt had
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been a house of bondage to them. Thus the corrupt affections and
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inclinations which we brought into the world with us we have not lost,
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nor got clear of, but still retain them, though the iniquity we were
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born in was the source of all the calamities which human life is liable
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to.
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4. The destruction of the kingdom of Israel for their apostasy from God
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:9,10"><I>v.</I> 9, 10</A>):
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<I>I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers.</I> God first
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justly gave her up to her lust (<I>Ephraim is joined to idols, let him
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alone</I>), and then gave her up <I>to her lovers.</I> The neighbouring
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nations, whose idolatries she had conformed to and whose friendship she
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had confided in, and in both had affronted God, are now made use of as
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the instruments of her destruction. The <I>Assyrians, on whom she
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doted,</I> soon spied out the <I>nakedness of the land,</I> discovered
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her blind side, on which to attack her, stripped her of all her
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ornaments and all her defences, and so <I>uncovered</I> her, and
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<I>made her naked and bare,</I> carried her <I>sons and daughters</I>
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into captivity, <I>slew her with the sword,</I> and quite destroyed
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that kingdom and put an end to it. We have the story at large
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+17:6">2 Kings xvii. 6</A>,
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&c., where the cause of the ruin of that once flourishing kingdom by
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the Assyrians is shown to be their forsaking the God of Israel,
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<I>fearing other gods,</I> and <I>walking in the statutes of the
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heathen;</I> it was for this that God was very <I>angry with them and
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removed them out of his sight,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>.
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And that the Assyrians, whom they had been so fond of, should be
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employed in <I>executing judgments</I> upon them was very remarkable,
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and shows how God, in a way of righteous judgment, often makes that a
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scourge to sinners which they have inordinately set their hearts upon.
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The devil will for ever be a tormentor to those impenitent sinners who
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now hearken to him and comply with him as a tempter. Thus Samaria
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became <I>famous among women,</I> or <I>infamous</I> rather; she
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<I>became a name</I> (so the word is); not only she came to be the
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subject of discourse, and much talked of, as the desolations of cities
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and kingdoms fill the newspapers, but she was thus ruined for her
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idolatries <I>in terrorem--for warning</I> to all people to take heed
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of doing likewise; as the public execution of notorious malefactors
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makes them such <I>a name,</I> such an ill name, as may serve to
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frighten others from those wicked courses which have brought them to a
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miserable and shameful end.
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+21:21">Deut. xxi. 21</A>,
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<I>All Israel shall hear and fear.</I></P>
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<A NAME="Eze23_11"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_12"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_13"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_14"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_15"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_16"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_17"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_18"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_19"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_20"> </A>
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<A NAME="Eze23_21"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Sins of Samaria and Jerusalem.</I></FONT></TD>
|
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 591.</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>11 And when her sister Aholibah saw <I>this,</I> she was more
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corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms
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more than her sister in <I>her</I> whoredoms.
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12 She doted upon the Assyrians <I>her</I> neighbours, captains and
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rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all
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of them desirable young men.
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13 Then I saw that she was defiled, <I>that</I> they <I>took</I> both one
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way,
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14 And <I>that</I> she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men
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portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed
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with vermilion,
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15 Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed
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attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after
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the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their
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nativity:
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16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon
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them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
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17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and
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they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with
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them, and her mind was alienated from them.
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18 So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her
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nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind
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was alienated from her sister.
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19 Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance
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the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the
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land of Egypt.
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20 For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh <I>is as</I> the
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flesh of asses, and whose issue <I>is like</I> the issue of horses.
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21 Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth,
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in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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|
|
The prophet Hosea, in his time, observed that the two tribes retained
|
|
their integrity, in a great measure, when the ten tribes had
|
|
apostatized
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+11:12">Hos. xi. 12</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>Ephraim indeed compasses me about with lies, but Judah yet rules
|
|
with God and is faithful with the saints;</I> and this was justly
|
|
expected from them:
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+4:15">Hos. iv. 15</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>Though thou Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend</I>);
|
|
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,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
Instead of being made better by the warning which that destruction gave
|
|
them, they were made worse by it, as if they were <I>displeased because
|
|
the Lord had made that breach upon Israel,</I> and for that reason
|
|
became disaffected to him and to his service. Instead of being made to
|
|
stand in awe of him as a <I>jealous God,</I> 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 <I>in her whoredoms</I> than her sister Samaria
|
|
had been <I>in her whoredoms.</I> This was observed before
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+16:51"><I>ch.</I> xvi. 51</A>),
|
|
|
|
<I>Neither has Samaria committed half of thy sins.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. Jerusalem, that had been a <I>faithful city, became a harlot,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+1:21">Isa. i. 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
She also <I>doted upon the Assyrians</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>),
|
|
|
|
joined in league with them, joined in worship with them, grew to be in
|
|
love with their <I>captains and rulers,</I> 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, <I>clothed
|
|
most gorgeously;</I> how well they sit a horse; they are <I>horsemen
|
|
riding on horses;</I> how charmingly they look, <I>all of them
|
|
desirable young men.</I>" 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 <I>increased her whoredoms;</I>
|
|
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,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+39:2">Isa. xxxix. 2</A>.
|
|
|
|
And the humour increased
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>);
|
|
|
|
she doted upon the pictures of the Babylonian captains
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:15,16"><I>v.</I> 15, 16</A>),
|
|
|
|
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 <I>polluted with her whoredoms</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>),
|
|
|
|
and thereby she <I>discovered her own whoredom</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>),
|
|
|
|
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, <I>her mind being alienated
|
|
from them,</I> she courted the <I>Egyptians, doted upon their
|
|
paramours</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>),
|
|
|
|
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 <I>called to remembrance the
|
|
days of their youth</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>),
|
|
|
|
the <I>lewdness of their youth,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
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 <I>leeks
|
|
and onions</I> 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 <I>she multiplied her
|
|
whoredoms,</I> repeated her former whoredoms, and encouraged herself to
|
|
close with present temptations, by calling <I>to remembrance the days
|
|
of her youth.</I> 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 <I>with the
|
|
dog to his vomit.</I>
|
|
|
|
2. They called it <I>God's remembrance,</I> and provoked him to
|
|
remember it against them. God had said indeed that he would reckon
|
|
with them for <I>the golden calf,</I> that <I>idol of Egypt</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+32:34">Exod. xxxii. 34</A>);
|
|
|
|
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 <I>when he
|
|
visits he will now,</I> as he has said, <I>visit for that.</I> 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
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>)
|
|
|
|
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. <I>Unius adulterium
|
|
matrimonium vocant--One adultery is called marriage,</I> 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.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The faithful God justly gives a bill of divorce to this now
|
|
faithless city, that has <I>become a harlot.</I> His jealousy soon
|
|
discovered her lewdness
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>I saw that she was defiled,</I> that she was debauched, and saw
|
|
which way her inclination was, that the <I>two sisters both took one
|
|
way,</I> and that Jerusalem grew worse than Samaria. For, <I>if we
|
|
stretch out our hand to a strange god, will not God search this
|
|
out?</I> No doubt he will; and when he has found it can he be pleased
|
|
with it? No
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Then my mind was alienated from her, as it was from her sister.</I>
|
|
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.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_22"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_23"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_24"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_25"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_26"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_27"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_28"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_29"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_30"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_31"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_32"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_33"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_34"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_35"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Punishment of Jerusalem.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 591.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>22 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>; 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, <I>and</I> 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, <I>which</I> 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 <I>brought</I> 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 G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>; Behold, I will deliver thee
|
|
into the hand <I>of them</I> whom thou hatest, into the hand <I>of them</I>
|
|
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 <I>things</I> unto thee, because thou hast gone a
|
|
whoring after the heathen, <I>and</I> 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 G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>; 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 <I>it</I> out, and thou shalt
|
|
break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I
|
|
have spoken <I>it,</I> saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>.
|
|
35 Therefore thus saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>; Because thou hast
|
|
forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou
|
|
also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Jerusalem stands indicted by the name of <I>Aholibah,</I> 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>I am not polluted; I have not gone after Baalim.</I> 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.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>I will raise up thy lovers against thee,</I> 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 <I>thy lovers</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>)
|
|
|
|
and yet
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:28"><I>v.</I> 28</A>)
|
|
|
|
<I>those whom thou hatest.</I> 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.
|
|
<I>Ita ama tanquam osurus--Love as one who may have cause to feel
|
|
aversion.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The execution to be done upon her is very terrible.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Her enemies shall come against her <I>on every side</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>),
|
|
|
|
those of the several nations that constituted the Chaldean army
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:23"><I>v.</I> 23</A>),
|
|
|
|
all of them <I>great lords and renowned,</I> 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
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>),
|
|
|
|
with <I>chariots and wagons</I> 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>I will set judgment
|
|
before them</I>" (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
|
|
<I>shall judge thee,</I> not only according to God's judgments, as the
|
|
instruments of his justice, to punish thee for the indignities done to
|
|
him, but <I>according to their judgments,</I> 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, <I>they shall deal with thee
|
|
hatefully,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>.
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>I will set my jealousy against thee;</I> that shall kindle this
|
|
fire, and then <I>they shall deal furiously with thee.</I> 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?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The particulars of the sentence here passed upon this notorious
|
|
adulteress are,
|
|
|
|
(1.) That all she has shall be seized on. The <I>clothes</I> and the
|
|
<I>fair jewels,</I> with which she had endeavoured to recommend herself
|
|
to her lovers, these she shall be stripped of,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:26"><I>v.</I> 26</A>.
|
|
|
|
All those things that were the ornaments of their state shall be taken
|
|
away: "<I>They shall take away all thy labour,</I> all that thou hast
|
|
gotten by thy labour, and shall <I>leave thee naked and bare,</I>"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>.
|
|
|
|
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 <I>take
|
|
thy sons and thy daughters,</I> and make slaves of them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>);
|
|
|
|
for they are <I>children of whoredoms,</I> unworthy the dignities and
|
|
privileges of Israelites,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+2:4">Hos. ii. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
(3.) That she shall be stigmatized and deformed: "They shall <I>take
|
|
away thy nose and thy ears,</I> shall mark thee for a harlot, and
|
|
render thee for ever odious,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
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: <I>Thy lewdness and thy
|
|
whoredoms shall be discovered</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:29"><I>v.</I> 29</A>),
|
|
|
|
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 <I>remnant</I> of
|
|
thy people that have escaped the famine and pestilence shall fall <I>by
|
|
the sword;</I> and the residue of thy houses that have not been
|
|
battered down about thy ears shall be <I>devoured by the fire,</I>"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>.
|
|
|
|
And this shall be the end of Jerusalem.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:31"><I>v.</I> 31</A>,
|
|
|
|
&c.): "<I>Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister,</I>
|
|
notwithstanding the warning thou hast had given thee, by the fatal
|
|
consequences of her wickedness; and therefore I <I>will give her
|
|
cup,</I> her portion of miseries, <I>into thy hand,</I> the cup of the
|
|
Lord's fury, which will be to thee a <I>cup of trembling.</I>" Now,
|
|
|
|
1. This cup is said to be <I>deep and large,</I> and to <I>contain
|
|
much</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>),
|
|
|
|
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,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+25:15,16">Jer. xxv. 15, 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
<I>wicked</I> are said to do
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+75:8">Ps. lxxv. 8</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Thou shalt drink it and suck it out,</I> not because it is
|
|
pleasant, but because it is forced upon thee
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:34"><I>v.</I> 34</A>);
|
|
|
|
<I>thou shalt break the shreds thereof,</I> and <I>pluck off thy own
|
|
breasts,</I> for indignation at the extreme bitterness of this cup,
|
|
being <I>full of the fury of the Lord</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+51:20">Isa. li. 20</A>),
|
|
|
|
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>I have
|
|
spoken it, saith the Lord God</I>), 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
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:33"><I>v.</I> 33</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow.</I> 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? <I>Who has woe</I> and <I>sorrow</I> like them?
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+23:29">Prov. xxiii. 29</A>.
|
|
|
|
4. Being so intoxicated, they shall become, as drunkards deserve to be,
|
|
a laughing-stock to all about them
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision,</I> as acting
|
|
ridiculously in every thing thou goest about. When God is about to ruin
|
|
a people he <I>makes their judges fools</I> and <I>pours contempt on
|
|
their princes,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+12:17,21">Job xii. 17, 21</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:30"><I>v.</I> 30</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>I will do these things unto thee because thou hast gone a whoring
|
|
after the heathen,</I> and
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:35"><I>v.</I> 35</A>)
|
|
|
|
<I>because thou hast forgotten me and cast me behind thy back.</I>
|
|
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. <I>Therefore</I> men wander after
|
|
idols, because they forget <I>God,</I> 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 <I>behind their back,</I> 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?
|
|
<I>Therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms;</I> that
|
|
is, thou shalt <I>suffer the punishment</I> of them, and thou alone
|
|
must <I>bear the blame.</I> 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
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee.</I> The judgments
|
|
which were brought upon them by their sins parted between them and
|
|
their sins, and taught them at length to say, <I>What have we to do any
|
|
more with idols?</I> Observe,
|
|
|
|
(1.) How inveterate the disease was: <I>Thy whoredoms were brought from
|
|
the land of Egypt.</I> 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
|
|
<I>lift up thy eyes</I> to the idols again, nor <I>remember Egypt</I>
|
|
with pleasure <I>any more.</I>" They shall avoid the occasions of this
|
|
sin, for they shall not so much as look upon an idol, lest their hearts
|
|
should unawares <I>walk after their eyes.</I> And they shall abandon
|
|
all inclinations to it: "They shall <I>not remember Egypt;</I> 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 <I>the taking away of sin,</I> of <I>that</I> 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.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_36"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_37"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_38"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_39"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_40"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_41"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_42"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_43"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_44"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_45"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_46"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_47"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_48"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Eze23_49"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec4"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Israel and Judah Accused; Judgments Predicted.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 591.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>36 The L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> 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 <I>is</I> 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 <I>the fire,</I> to devour <I>them.</I>
|
|
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 <I>was</I> 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 <I>was</I> with her: and
|
|
with the men of the common sort <I>were</I> brought Sabeans from the
|
|
wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful
|
|
crowns upon their heads.
|
|
43 Then said I unto <I>her that was</I> old in adulteries, Will they
|
|
now commit whoredoms with her, and she <I>with them?</I>
|
|
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 <I>are</I> adulteresses, and blood <I>is</I> in their
|
|
hands.
|
|
46 For thus saith the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>; 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 <I>am</I>
|
|
the Lord G<FONT SIZE=-1><B>OD</B></FONT>.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
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 <I>two sisters</I> had in effect become <I>one</I> again;
|
|
and therefore, in these verses, the prophet takes those to task jointly
|
|
who were thus conjoined: "<I>Wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah</I>
|
|
together?
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:36"><I>v.</I> 36</A>.
|
|
|
|
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 <I>judge them,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+20:4"><I>ch.</I> xx. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
The matter is rather worse than better since the union."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. Let them be made to see the sins they are guilty of: <I>Declare unto
|
|
them</I> openly and boldly <I>their abominations.</I>
|
|
|
|
1. They have been guilty of gross idolatry, here called <I>adultery.
|
|
With their idols they have committed adultery</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>),
|
|
|
|
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: <I>Blood is in their hands,</I> innocent
|
|
blood, the blood of their own children, which they have <I>caused to
|
|
pass through the fire</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>),
|
|
|
|
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 <I>they have done unto me,</I> this
|
|
indignity, this injury,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:38"><I>v.</I> 38</A>.
|
|
|
|
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 <I>defiled the sanctuary</I> on <I>the same day</I>
|
|
that they <I>profaned the sabbath.</I> To defile the sanctuary was bad
|
|
enough on any day, but to do it on the sabbath day was an aggravation.
|
|
We commonly say, <I>The better day the better deed;</I> but here, the
|
|
better day the worse deed. God takes notice of the circumstances of sin
|
|
which add to the guilt. He shows
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:39"><I>v.</I> 39</A>)
|
|
|
|
what was their profanation both of the sanctuary and of the sabbath.
|
|
<I>They slew their children,</I> and sacrificed them <I>to their
|
|
idols,</I> to the great dishonour both of God and of human nature; and
|
|
then came, on <I>the same day,</I> their hands imbrued with the blood
|
|
of their children and their clothes stained with it, to attend in
|
|
<I>God's sanctuary,</I> 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 <I>profaned the sanctuary,</I> as if that were a
|
|
protection to the worst of malefactors; for thus they did <I>in the
|
|
midst of his house.</I> 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. <I>Give not that which is holy unto dogs. Friend, how camest
|
|
thou in hither?</I>
|
|
|
|
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 <I>to whom</I> alone they
|
|
ought to pay their homage and not to idols, but <I>in</I> whom alone
|
|
they ought to put their trust, and not in creatures. Israel was a
|
|
peculiar people, must <I>dwell alone</I> and not be <I>reckoned among
|
|
the nations;</I> and they profane their crown, and lay their honour in
|
|
the dust, when they covet to be like them or in <I>league</I> 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
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:40"><I>v.</I> 40</A>):
|
|
|
|
You <I>sent a messenger for men to come from far.</I> 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, <I>lo, they came.</I> 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 <I>paintedst thy face</I> and <I>deckedst
|
|
thyself with ornaments,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:40"><I>v.</I> 40</A>.
|
|
|
|
The king and princes made themselves new clothes, fitted up the rooms
|
|
of state, beautified the furniture, and made it look fresh. Thou
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<I>sattest upon a stately bed</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:41"><I>v.</I> 41</A>),
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a stately throne; <I>a table was prepared, whereon thou has set my oil
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and my incense.</I> This was either,
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[1.] A feast for the ambassadors, a noble treat, agreeable to the other
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|
preparations. There was incense to perfume the room and oil to anoint
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their heads. Or,
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[2.] An altar already furnished for the ambassadors' use in the worship
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|
of their idols, to let them know that the Israelites were not so
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|
strait-laced but that they could allow foreigners the free exercise of
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their religion among them, and furnish them with chapels, yea, and
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|
complimented them so far as to join with them in their devotions;
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|
though the law of their God was against it, yet they could easily
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|
dispense with themselves to oblige a friend. The oil and incense God
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|
calls <I>his,</I> not only because they were the gift of his
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|
providence, but because they should have been offered at his altar,
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|
which was an aggravation of their sin in serving idols and idolaters
|
|
with them. See
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+2:8">Hos. ii. 8</A>.
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(3.) There was great joy at their coming, as if it were such a blessing
|
|
as never happened to Jerusalem before
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:42"><I>v.</I> 42</A>):
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<I>A voice of a multitude being at east was with her.</I> The people
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|
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
|
|
<I>men of the common sort</I> were there to grace the solemnity, and to
|
|
increase the crowd; and <I>with them were brought Sabeans from the
|
|
wilderness.</I> The margin reads it <I>drunkards from the
|
|
wilderness,</I> 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 <I>bracelets upon their hands and beautiful crowns
|
|
upon their heads,</I> which made the cavalcade appear very splendid.
|
|
|
|
(4.) God by his prophets warned them against making these dangerous
|
|
leagues with foreigners
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:43"><I>v.</I> 43</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries,</I> that from the
|
|
first was fond of leagues with the heathen, of matching with their
|
|
families
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jdg+3:6">Judg. iii. 6</A>),
|
|
|
|
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, <I>Will they now commit whoredoms
|
|
with her and she with them?</I> 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 <I>iron and clay,</I> 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, <I>yet
|
|
they went in unto her,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:44"><I>v.</I> 44</A>.
|
|
|
|
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 <I>arm of flesh,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+17:5">Jer. xvii. 5</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. Let them be made to foresee the judgments that are coming upon them
|
|
for these sins
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:45"><I>v.</I> 45</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>The righteous men, they shall judge them.</I> 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? <I>Judge, I pray
|
|
thee,</I>"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+5:3">Isa. v. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
This judgment being given by the righteous men, the righteous God will
|
|
award execution. See here,
|
|
|
|
1. What the execution will be,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:46,47"><I>v.</I> 46, 47</A>.
|
|
|
|
The same as before,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:23"><I>v.</I> 23</A>,
|
|
|
|
&c. God will <I>bring a company</I> of enemies <I>upon them,</I> 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 <I>give them</I> into their hands <I>to be
|
|
removed and spoiled;</I> this company shall <I>stone them with
|
|
stones</I> as malefactors, shall <I>single them out</I> and <I>dispatch
|
|
them with their swords;</I> and, as was sometimes done in severe
|
|
executions (witness that of Achan), they shall <I>slay their children
|
|
and burn their houses.</I>
|
|
|
|
2. What will be the effects of it.
|
|
|
|
(1.) Thus they shall suffer for their sins: Their <I>lewdness shall be
|
|
recompensed upon them</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:49"><I>v.</I> 49</A>);
|
|
|
|
and they shall <I>bear the sins of their idols,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:35,39"><I>v.</I> 35, 49</A>.
|
|
|
|
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>I will cause
|
|
lewdness to cease out of the land,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:27,48"><I>v.</I> 27, 48</A>.
|
|
|
|
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 <I>all women may be taught not to do
|
|
after your lewdness.</I> This is the end of the punishment of
|
|
malefactors, that they may be made examples to others, who will <I>see
|
|
and fear. Smite the scorner and the simple will beware.</I> 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 <I>know God is the Lord</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+23:49"><I>v.</I> 49</A>),
|
|
|
|
that he is the governor of the world, a God that judges in the earth,
|
|
and with whom there is <I>no respect of persons.</I></P>
|
|
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