Commentary - Ezekiel 16:35-43

Bird's-eye view

In this section of Ezekiel's prophecy, the Lord moves from indictment to sentencing. Having detailed Jerusalem's origin as a helpless foundling, her glorious marriage to Yahweh, and her subsequent descent into unparalleled spiritual harlotry, God now pronounces a judgment that is as severe as it is just. This is a formal covenant lawsuit, and the verdict is guilty on all counts. The sentence pronounced is a perfect outworking of the principle of lex talionis, or an eye for an eye. The very lovers Jerusalem courted, the pagan nations she trusted in and committed idolatry with, will become the instruments of her destruction. She sought to please them by uncovering herself; God will have them strip her bare in public shame. This is not the capricious rage of a jilted lover; it is the holy, judicial wrath of a covenant-keeping God whose jealousy for His own name and His own bride will not be trifled with. The purpose of this terrible judgment is ultimately to bring an end to the harlotry, to cauterize the wound of idolatry so that God's wrath might finally be at rest.

The passage serves as a terrifying illustration of the principle that God is not mocked; whatsoever a man, or a nation, sows, that will he also reap. Jerusalem sowed the wind of political and spiritual infidelity and would reap the whirlwind of invasion, destruction, and exile. The entire ordeal is a public spectacle, designed to be a lesson to the surrounding nations about the gravity of breaking covenant with the living God.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

Ezekiel 16 is one of the longest and most graphic chapters in the entire Bible. It functions as an extended allegory, or parable, tracing the history of Jerusalem's relationship with Yahweh. The chapter begins with Jerusalem as an abandoned infant, bloody and dying in a field (Ezek 16:1-5). Yahweh rescues her, cleans her, and raises her. When she comes of age, He enters into a marriage covenant with her, lavishing her with fine clothes, jewelry, and food, making her famously beautiful (Ezek 16:6-14). But then, trusting in her own beauty, she turns from her husband and becomes a prostitute, using the very gifts He gave her to solicit illicit lovers, the pagan nations and their gods (Ezek 16:15-34). Her harlotry is unique in that she pays her lovers instead of being paid by them, showing the depth of her rebellion. The section we are considering, verses 35-43, is the direct judicial consequence of this history of infidelity. It is the formal sentencing that follows the detailed list of charges, and it sets the stage for the prophecy of Jerusalem's destruction that is a central theme of Ezekiel's ministry.

Key Issues

The Harlot's Wages

The language in this chapter is shocking to our modern, sanitized sensibilities. But it has to be. God is using the most powerful metaphor available to communicate the ugliness and betrayal of idolatry. Idolatry is not a simple mistake in theological judgment. It is not merely having a faulty epistemology. It is spiritual adultery. It is a breach of the marriage covenant between God and His people. When Israel went after other gods, she was cheating on her husband, Yahweh. And so, when the time for judgment comes, God, the aggrieved husband and righteous judge, speaks in the language of a divorce court. The sentence He hands down is not random; it is perfectly tailored to the crime. The wages of this kind of sin is a particular kind of death.

Verse by Verse Commentary

35 Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Yahweh.

The verdict has been reached, and the time for sentencing has come. God begins with a direct address. There is no more gentle wooing, no more pet names for His bride. He calls her what she is, what she has made herself to be: a harlot. This is a formal, legal summons. The command to "hear the word of Yahweh" is not a suggestion. It is the call of the court officer for the defendant to rise and receive her sentence. She has ignored His word of grace for centuries; now she will be made to hear His word of judgment.

36 Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols,

The judge now reads the basis for the sentence, summarizing the charges. The sin is described in four ways. First, her "lewdness was poured out" and her "nakedness uncovered." Her sin was not private or subtle; it was flagrant, public, and shameless. She flaunted her infidelity. Second, this was done with her "lovers," the foreign nations with whom she made political and military alliances, trusting in them instead of her divine Husband. Third, it was done with her "abominable idols," the false gods she imported from these nations. Fourth, and most heinously, was "the blood of your sons which you gave to idols." This refers to the horrific practice of child sacrifice, particularly to the god Molech. She had not only broken her marriage vows but had murdered the children of the covenant to prove her devotion to her new lovers. This is the absolute depth of depravity.

37 therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated. So I will gather them against you from all around and uncover your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness.

Here begins the description of the punishment, and it is a masterpiece of divine, poetic justice. The word "therefore" connects the crime directly to the consequence. God says He will gather all her lovers, the very ones she sought to please, and turn them against her. This includes the ones she currently favored ("whom you loved," like Egypt) and the ones she had grown to fear ("whom you hated," like Babylon). God in His sovereignty will unite all her paramours into one consolidated force for her destruction. And the central act of this judgment will be a reciprocal shaming. She uncovered her nakedness for them in sinful pleasure; God will have them uncover her nakedness in public judgment, so that "they may see all your nakedness." Her glory will be turned to shame before the very audience she sought to impress.

38 Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

God makes it clear that this sentence is not arbitrary. It is based on His own revealed law. The penalty for adultery and for murder under the Mosaic code was death. Jerusalem was guilty of both, spiritually and literally. So the sentence is death. The phrase "the blood of wrath and jealousy" is potent. This is not just any death; it is a death that satisfies the demands of God's holy wrath against sin and His righteous jealousy for the covenant. A husband's jealousy over his wife is a good and right thing. How much more is God's jealousy for the exclusive devotion of His people a righteous passion. This judgment is the outworking of that holy jealousy.

39 I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will pull down your shrines, tear down your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your splendid jewelry, and will leave you naked and bare.

God is the primary actor, but He uses secondary means. He will "give you into the hands of your lovers," specifically the Babylonians. They will become the instruments of His wrath. And notice what they destroy first: the infrastructure of her idolatry. They will tear down her pagan "shrines" and "high places." Then they will plunder her, stripping her of the "clothing" and "splendid jewelry" that God Himself had given her (v. 10-13) and which she had used to adorn herself for her lovers. The result is a complete reversal of her original state. God found her naked and bare, and He clothed her in splendor. Now, she will be returned to that state of utter destitution, "naked and bare."

40 They will bring up an assembly against you, and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.

The imagery continues to follow the penalties of the Mosaic Law. Stoning was the prescribed method of execution for an adulteress, carried out by the assembly of the people. Here, the "assembly" is the Babylonian army, and the stoning is a metaphor for the barrage of siege weaponry and the violence of the conquering soldiers. They will be "cut to pieces with their swords." The punishment is corporate and it is capital.

41 They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will make you cease from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer give your earnings to your lovers.

The destruction will be total; the city will be burned. And it will be a public spectacle, executed "in the sight of many women," which refers to the surrounding nations. They will all see what happens to the people who betray a covenant with Yahweh. But there is a purpose in all this destruction. The last half of the verse reveals the goal: "Then I will make you cease from playing the harlot." The judgment is a severe, divine surgery. It is designed to cut the cancer of idolatry out of the nation. The exile will be a harsh medicine, but it will cure Israel of her overt idolatry. After the return from Babylon, this particular sin is no longer the besetting sin of the Jewish people. The judgment, in its severity, works.

42 So I will cause My wrath against you to be at rest, and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be quiet, and I will not be provoked anymore.

This is a remarkable statement. The judgment is not an end in itself. The goal is the satisfaction of God's justice, so that His wrath can be pacified. Once the sin has been punished and purged, God's wrath will be "at rest." His righteous jealousy will be vindicated and will "depart." He will be "quiet" and no longer provoked by their constant infidelity. This points beyond the judgment to a future state of peace. For God's wrath to be at rest, it must be fully spent. This is what happened at the cross, where the full measure of God's wrath against the sins of His people was poured out upon His Son, so that He might be quiet and at peace with us.

43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me by all these things, behold, I in turn will bring your way down on your own head,” declares Lord Yahweh, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations.

God concludes the sentencing by returning to the root of the problem: ingratitude. "You have not remembered the days of your youth." She forgot her miserable beginnings. She forgot the unmerited grace that rescued and exalted her. Forgetting God's grace is the first step toward all other sins. Because she forgot, she enraged God. The consequence is simple justice: "I in turn will bring your way down on your own head." She is getting exactly what she deserves. Her destruction is the logical and moral consequence of her own choices. And again, the purpose is stated negatively: this judgment will ensure that this particular kind of flagrant, idolatrous lewdness will not be added to her other sins. The judgment is a check, a stop, a divine intervention to halt the downward spiral.

Application

The Church is the new Jerusalem, the bride of Christ. This passage should therefore come to us as a sobering and familial warning. We have been rescued from a state of utter spiritual destitution, washed not with water but with the blood of Christ, and adorned with the robes of His righteousness. He has betrothed us to Himself forever. How then shall we live? This passage warns us against the great sin of spiritual adultery.

Spiritual adultery is trusting in anything other than our Husband, Jesus Christ. When we trust in political solutions, in financial security, in our own moral performance, or in worldly philosophies to give us what only Christ can give, we are playing the harlot. We are taking the good gifts He has given us and using them to court other lovers. God's jealousy for us is a holy and righteous thing. He will not share His bride with idols.

The central lesson here is to remember. We must constantly "remember the days of our youth," our state of spiritual death and rebellion before Christ called us. We must remember the price He paid to make us His own. Gratitude for grace is the fuel of faithfulness. When we forget the gospel, we begin to flirt with the world. But when we remember that Jesus was stripped naked and publicly shamed for us, that the full cup of God's wrath and jealousy was poured out on Him in our place, then our hearts will be captured by Him alone. He took the harlot's judgment so that we, the harlot, could be made a pure and spotless bride.