5And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; ⁶And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; ⁷And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. ⁸For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. ¹⁰Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: ¹¹For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

II Peter 1

⁴⁴Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter. ⁴⁵Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. ⁴⁷Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways. ⁴⁸As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. ⁴⁹Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. ⁵⁰And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. ⁵¹Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done. ⁵²Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters. ⁵³When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them: ⁵⁴That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them. ⁵⁵When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate. ⁵⁶For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride, ⁵⁷Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about. ⁵⁸Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the LORD. ⁵⁹For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

Ezekiel 16

The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

16:3 Ezekiel began this section of historical narrative with a reminder that Jerusalem’s past was rooted in Canaanite history. Ezekiel drew a condemning comparison between the Jews and the idolatrous Canaanite inhabitants of Jerusalem in the days before Israel captured the city. The Amorites were Semitic inhabitants of Canaan before the conquest. The Hittites were non-Semitic peoples who settled in Canaan before the conquest (see Gen. 9:25; Josh. 15:63; Judg. 1:21).

16:4–6 Rubbing the infant with salt, water, and oil and wrapping the baby in cloth strips for seven days and repeating the process for 40 days after the umbilical cord had been cut was done for hygienic purposes (v. 4). This process promoted the good health of the baby. Unwanted newborns, especially girls, often were abandoned to die in the ancient world. The female child depicted in these verses was deprived of the normal, postnatal cleansing and health care procedures.

16:8 Wing also referred to the corner or extremity of a garment. In the ancient Near East, clothing often served a symbolic function. The spreading of one’s garment over another symbolized entry into a marriage relationship (see Deut. 22:30; Ruth 3:9).

16:10–12 God used the imagery of the bridal costume to describe His care for His people. According to what the family could afford, brides wore lavish clothing, expensive jewelry, and a crown (see Ps. 45:13, 14; Song 3:11).

16:15 The accusation that Israel "played the harlot" is significant in two ways. First, in the OT this language often describes turning away from the Lord to worship other gods. Second, worship in Canaanite fertility cults involved prostitution (see Hos. 2:2–13; 4:11, 12). Jerusalem had been crowned with beauty and fame but began to trust in her own devices instead of the God who had given her all she had. Thus, her gifts merely led to her downfall.

16:17 The beloved wife is charged with taking the gifts of precious jewelry and exquisite garments lavished on her by her husband and turning them into male images and worshiping these images with incense and offerings to satisfy her lusts.

16:20–22 Child sacrifice, part of Canaanite cultic rituals, was practiced to some extent by Israel, even though this practice was expressly prohibited in the Law (Lev. 18:21; Deut. 12:31). This crime appears in its starkest horror by contrasting God’s rescue of Israel when she was abandoned to infanticide with the nation’s subsequent sacrifice of its own children (see Judg. 11:39; 2 Kin. 16:3). Anyone who would slaughter a helpless child has forgotten that children are a blessing from God (see Ps. 128, Children). Every generation has had to deal with this issue (see Gen. 9, Sancitity of Life; Jer. 1, Abortion). Children are indeed a precious gift from the Creator and an awesome responsibility in the kingdom (Is. 49, Motherhood).

16:23–29 Israel repeatedly had been warned to avoid political alliances because such alliances often resulted in idol worship (see Josh. 24:14, 15; 2 Chr. 7:19–22).

16:33, 34 The senselessness of Israel’s apostasy is highlighted. Unlike those who practiced prostitution in exchange for compensation, Israel practiced "prostitution" for pleasure and was willing to compensate others rather than to receive payment herself.

16:37 The woman, representing Israel or Jerusalem, was stripped of her clothing. Her nakedness served as a reminder of the exposed and unattended situation in which God found her (v. 7).

16:38 The death penalty was proscribed by God Himself as the husband as judgment for adultery (see Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:21–24).

16:44 The proverbial saying, "Like mother, like daughter!" was meant to cause sober reflection, as it drove home Jerusalem’s Canaanite origins (see v. 3). The phrase refers to the fact that God’s people were pagan and immoral like the original residents of Canaan. Mothers in every generation do well to consider their unique influence on their daughters.

16:46, 47 Sodom served as a type for the sinful city in the OT because of its rampant sexual perversion, violence, and injustice (Gen. 18:20; 19:24, 25). Ezekiel could not have used stronger language to depict the depths of Jerusalem’s depravity than to say that the city was worse than Sodom (see Deut. 29:23; 32:32; Is. 1:9, 10; Jer. 23:14).

16:60 God displayed His utter love and faithfulness to His people despite Jerusalem’s covenant-breaking (v. 59). He promised to establish an everlasting covenant with them.

Dorothy Kelley Patterson, general editor; Rhonda Harrington Kelley, managing editor, Woman’s Study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1995.

EZEKIEL § 16:1–63 Ezekiel tells the story of an unwanted child, her marriage, and infidelity. Hosea used marriage as an analogy of the covenant relationship between God and Israel (Hos. 1–3; see also Eph. 5:22–33; Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9). Ezekiel’s speech appears to have a judicial setting; he recounts God’s charge against the nation from its earliest days to his own time.

EZEKIEL § 16:3 nativity. Jerusalem was originally a pagan city; the first inhabitants are variously described as Amorites, Canaanites, Jebusites, and Hittites (v. 45; Gen. 10:15, 16; Josh. 10:5; Judg. 1:21; 19:10; 2 Sam. 5:6). In this respect the city was not unlike the patriarchs, who were of pagan Syrian stock (Deut. 26:5; Josh. 24:14).

EZEKIEL § 16:5 thrown out. Undesired infants were often abandoned and left to die. The baby girl Ezekiel describes was abandoned before even being washed.

EZEKIEL § 16:7 grew. The unwanted child grew to beautiful maturity. The onset of puberty appears with development of breasts (cf. 23:3) and the growth of hair; later the girl reaches the age of lovemaking (v. 8).

EZEKIEL § 16:8 spread My wing over you. Covering a woman with one’s garment is symbolic of entering into marital relations (Ruth 3:9). To "uncover" this relation is to violate it (Deut. 22:30).

I swore an oath. The covenant relationship of God with Israel had been sealed with the oath, "you shall be My people, and I will be your God" (36:28; Lev. 26:12; Jer. 11:4; 30:22; contrast Hos. 1:9). For the divine oath, see Gen. 15:7–21; 26:3; Deut. 1:8.

EZEKIEL § 16:9–14 The foundling has become a queen. She has received all the care she lacked when born and far more. Her life, status, wealth and beauty all derive from the gracious gift of the One who chose her.

EZEKIEL § 16:17 All that the foundling-become-queen had received from her loving husband and king is now turned to wantonness and promiscuity (cf. Deut. 6:10–12). Her actions demonstrate the irrationality of sin: there could be no sound reason for such behavior.

EZEKIEL § 16:20 sacrificed. For the practice of child sacrifice in Israel and among neighboring states, see v. 36; 20:31; Gen. 22:2, 13; Lev. 18:21; 20:2–5; Deut. 12:31; 18:10; 2 Kin. 16:3; 17:17; 21:6; 23:10; Ps. 106:37, 38; Jer. 32:35; Mic. 6:7. In Jerusalem these practices were associated with the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, south of the city.

EZEKIEL § 16:26 harlotry. Israel’s failure to obey God was not a matter of overt idolatry alone. Foreign alliances were also regarded as evidence of a failure to trust God in the face of political difficulty. Such alliances were a breach of Israel’s exclusive allegiance to the Lord (cf. 23:7; 29:16; Is. 7; 8; 30; 31; Jer. 2:36, 37; 22:20–22; Hos. 7:11–13). The writer of Chronicles emphasizes this point particularly (2 Chr. 14:9–15; 16:1–9; 19:1, 2; 20; 25:6–8; 28).

EZEKIEL § 16:37 gather them … against you. She sought the loyalty and affection of her lovers; but instead, they become the instruments of her humiliation and punishment. Though the nations were used by God to punish His people, they would bear the guilt of the sins they committed (ch. 25; Is. 10:5, 12; Zech. 1:14, 15); see note 14:9.

uncover your nakedness. Public degradation by exposing the nakedness of prostitutes or adulteresses is also mentioned in Jer. 13:22, 26; Hos. 2:10; Nah. 3:5.

EZEKIEL § 16:38 I will bring blood. For the wrath of a jealous husband, see Prov. 6:34. The wealth and garments of the woman will be taken, and she will be left as naked as she was when the story began. She would be covered not with the blood of childbirth (v. 6) but the blood from her wounds. Adultery was a capital offense, punishable by stoning (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:21–24; cf. John 7:53–8:11).

EZEKIEL § 16:41 burn. See 23:47; cf. Jer. 32:29; 34:22; 37:8; 38:18. A large part of Jerusalem was burned by the Babylonian army (Jer. 39:8).

EZEKIEL § 16:44 proverbs. Ezekiel more than once refers to popular proverbs (12:21–28; 18).

EZEKIEL § 16:45 Hittite … Amorite. The moral depravity of the Hittites and Amorites is assumed; cf. v. 3.

EZEKIEL § 16:49 Sodom. Readers of the Bible often think of the sins of Sodom as mainly sexual (Gen. 19:5–9), but Ezekiel indicts the city for materialism and neglect of the poor and needy. Jesus made a similar comparison with Capernaum in Matt. 11:23, 24. The sins of Jerusalem exceeded those of her sisters, the nearby cities.

EZEKIEL § 16:60 everlasting covenant. Jerusalem would once again have primacy over her sisters, but not on the basis of the previous covenant relationship between God and the city. There will be a new covenant, a new relationship between God and the city in the future. God Himself would atone for her sins.

Luder Whitlock, Jr., executive director; R.C Sproul, general editor, New Geneva Study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1995 by Foundation for Reformation.

What happened to this city? God says that when she became grown, a beautiful young lady, she played the harlot. She went over into idolatry and turned her back on Him. God have mercy on the Christian who will sell himself to the world for a bowl of pottage. Yes, Esau did sell out cheap, but many Christians also sell out cheap to the world today. The Devil could buy a lot of us, my friend. We so easily find ourselves going off again and again away from God and away from fellowship with Him. Oh, to be true to God in this hour in which we live!

When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:

That thou mayest bear thine own shame and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.

When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate [Ezek. 16:53–55].

Verses 53 and 55 (as well as chapter 37) have been used by several cults to teach the doctrine of restitutionalism; that is, that everybody ultimately will be saved. Again, this is a case of resting doctrine on a few isolated verses of Scripture which will result in weird and unscriptural doctrine. In these verses and in Ezekiel 37:12, where God says, "I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves," God is not talking about the resurrection of the wicked to eternal life. In both instances He is talking about the restoration of a city or a nation, and it has no reference to the people who lived there years ago. Here in Ezekiel 16 He is saying that the city of Sodom is to be rebuilt. Now, personally, I don’t see anything there to attract anybody, but there is tremendous development today along the coast of the Dead Sea in that area. And in chapter 37 the Lord is speaking of the restoration of a nation, the nation of Israel.

Actually, in the Old Testament we do not have the divine revelation concerning the future state that we have in the New Testament. God had no plan to bring back from the dead the saints of the Old Testament and to take them out yonder to a place prepared for them. He has told us that is His plan for us, but nowhere did He tell the Old Testament saints that. He told them there was to be a heaven down here on this earth, and that is the resurrection Abraham looked for. There is to be a restoration of the nation. You cannot read what is New Testament development of this doctrine into this Old Testament passage. However, every Old Testament passage will conform also to New Testament teaching. The New Testament makes it very clear that there will be a twofold resurrection: the resurrection of the saved, and the resurrection of the lost who are lost when they are raised from the dead. Therefore, these verses deal only with the restoration of a nation. We must read them in their context and not draw any more from them than is there.

This chapter concludes in a most glorious way: God is going to make good His covenants with the nation Israel. The sin of these people, their rebellion, their constant departure from Him, their backsliding, will not annul, abrogate, or destroy God’s covenant with them.

Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.

Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.

And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord:

That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God

Ezekiel 16:60–63

God says that not only will He make good on the past covenants but He is also going to make a new covenant with them. Unfortunately, these passages of Scripture are not studied very much at all. When they are, they make it very clear that God still has a future purpose with the nation Israel.

J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1981 by J. Vernon McGee.

16:1–7 The Lord here traces the history of Jerusalem, as a type of the people. It began as a foundling child, unwashed and unwanted. The Lord had pity on her and cared for her lovingly, and she grew, matured, and became very beautiful.

16:8–22 When she came to young womanhood, Jehovah betrothed Himself to her, purified her for marriage, lavished kindnesses upon her, and adorned her. But because she trusted in her own beauty, she turned from Him to idols, becoming a harlot ... to everyone who passed by.

16:23–34 Instead of trusting in the Lord, she played the prostitute to such Gentiles as the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the traders of Chaldea. As someone has said, "She outheathened the heathen." She was unlike the usual harlot in that she hired others to sin with her! Who would do something like that? Is it possible that the harlot will pay the man? That she will give her precious possessions away? And yet many who say they follow the Lord give up their precious rewards and inheritance above, spend their money and time on worldly pleasures instead of laying up treasures in heaven. They compromise with the world and lose eternal reward and blessing. This is called spiritual adultery, and whoever is engaged in it pays a high price.

16:35–43 The judgment on her filthiness was that she would be destroyed by the Gentile nations which she solicited as lovers for hire. Those who turn from God like an unfaithful lover and make compromises with the world will be destroyed by the world they wanted to befriend. This is a solemn warning to us (compare with James. 4:4–10).

16:44–52 The abominations committed by Jerusalem (Judah) were worse than those of her heathen predecessors, the Hittites, Amorites, Samaria, or Sodom. Sexual perversion was only one of Sodom’s sins. The iniquity of Sodom also included fullness of food and abundance of idleness. This reads only too much like a description of modern Christendom! Feinberg comments:

Notice how pride was singled out as the root of Sodom’s sin when her abominations were traced to their source. God had blessed her abundantly with fullness of bread (Genesis 13:10), but she monopolized these blessings for her own pleasures and basked in prosperous ease. Provision for her own needs made her insensible to the needs of others; she had no social conscience. Then she committed the abominations and enormities which are linked inseparably with her name. God took her away with a final blow when He saw it (Genesis 18:21).

16:53–58 In grace, God will restore Sodom and Samaria and Jerusalem in a day yet future. Verse 53 describes the restoration of cities but in no way suggests the eventual salvation of the wicked dead.

16:59–63 He will establish an everlasting covenant with His people, and Judah will be ashamed that she ever forsook the Lord for idols. This is an unconditional covenant of blessing with the patriarchs which the Lord will fulfill in the future.

John Newton was right when he wrote that the bright glories of God’s grace above His other wonders shine.

William MacDonald; edited with introductions by Arthur Farstad, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1995 by William MacDonald.

16:1–63. In chapter 16 we have before us a parable of the spiritual adultery of Israel, likened unto the wife of the Lord. From the beginning, when God instituted marriage, it was meant that a man and woman who entered into the holy covenant of marriage would be faithful and true to each other till death separated them. Likewise, when God chose Israel to be His wife and Israel chose to accept the Lord God as her Lord, it was expected that she would ever be faithful to Him and never have intimacies with any other lovers.

But we find that Israel very soon defected from her love to the Lord, in spite of the fact that God had dealt with her in grace, first in selecting her and then in abundantly lavishing upon her His riches and protection.

Adultery and idolatry are very closely related. In idolatry, an individual gives his love, worship, adoration, and looks to some other god than the Lord God for blessing and protection. This was the way with Israel. When the heart turns from the Lord, the pattern of the world’s system is quickly adopted.

Not every detail of a parable should be expected to have a particular spiritual significance. However, in this parable we do have an amazing number of details with spiritual applications for Israel.

Though Israel was actively involved in the immorality and idolatry of the land, the primary emphasis has to do with a spiritual disaffection from the Lord. As is so graphically pictured in this chapter, Israel looked to fame, riches, worldly nations, etc. to be her strength and satisfaction, rather than the Lord. Israel’s wickedness is seen as greater than her neighbor’s; in fact, at times it was an embarrassment even to them. The holiness and justice of God thus demanded His judgment to curb and purge Israel of these things.

But God had entered into an everlasting covenant with Israel, and she must be chastised by the ones with whom she had committed fornication. In the latter days she will be reinstated into His favor. At that time she will be ashamed of her past vileness and will be saved; and this will happen at the Lord’s second advent (Zech 12:10–13:1)

Jerry Falwell, executive editor; Edward E. Hinson and Michael Kroll Woodrow, general editors, KJV Bible Commentary [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1994.