Ezekiel 16:28 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 16:28
Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
to commit adultery (usually of the female · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
Assyrians
בְּנֵ֣יbe.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
because
מִבִּלְתִּ֖יmi.bil.Ti
H1115
properly · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
unsatiable
שָׂבָֽעַתְּsa.Va.'at
H7646
to sate · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
harlot
וַתִּזְנִ֕יםva.tiz.Nim
H2181
to commit adultery (usually of the female · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
satisfied
שָׂבְעָתֵ֑ךְsa.ve.'a.Tekh
H7654
satiety · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Kings 16:7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of th…
2 Kings 16:10-18 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah…
Jeremiah 2:18 And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the…
Jeremiah 2:36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
Hosea 10:6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own couns…
2 Chronicles 28:23 For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will…
Judges 10:6 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of…
2 Kings 21:11 Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 16:15-34
In these verses we have an account of the great wickedness of the people of Israel, especially in worshipping idols, notwithstanding the great favours that God had conferred upon them, by which, one would think, they should have been for ever engaged to him. This wickedness of theirs is here represented by the lewd and scandalous conversation of that beautiful maid which was rescued from ruin, brought up and well provided for by a kind friend and benefactor, that had been in all respects as a father and a husband to her. Their idolatry was the great provoking sin that they were guilty of; it began in the latter end of Solomon's time (for from Samuel's till then I do not remember that we read…
unsatiable--Not satisfied with whoredoms with neighbors, thou hast gone off to the distant Assyrians, that is, hast sought a league with them, and with it adopted their idolatries.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 16:27
Have diminished thine ordinary - חקך chukkech means here the household provision made for a wife - food, clothing, and money.
John Gill on Ezekiel 16:28
Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians,.... By entering into alliances with them, and worshipping their idols; which was done in the times of Ahaz, who sent to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria for help, and to Damascus for the fashion of the altar there, and built one according to it, 2 Kings 7:10;
because thou wast unsatiable; not content with the alliance and idolatries of the Egyptians:
yea, thou hast played the harlot with them; with the Assyrians:
and yet couldest not be satisfied; with their idols, and the worship of them, but sought out for new gods, and new modes of worship; like a lewd woman, who having prostituted herself to one, and to another, yet remains insatiable,…
When God makes covenants with us and we consent to them, we are blessed. But when we prostitute ourselves to the spirits of evil, then we turn the covenants of God into the land of Canaan, and we make a pact with her.
(Verse 28, 29.) And you have committed fornication with the sons of Assyria: because you were not yet satisfied, and after you committed fornication, you were still not satisfied. And you multiplied your fornication in the land of Canaan with the Chaldeans, and even then you were not satisfied. LXX: You have acted impiously, and you have committed fornication with the sons of Assyria; and even then you were not satisfied: you have committed fornication, and you have not been filled; and you have multiplied your agreements with the land of Canaan, and with the Chaldeans; and you have not been satisfied with them either. The above is written, Jerusalem fornicated with the sons of Egypt, her neighbors, who are of great flesh: this signifies the other neighboring of the Assyrians. And for this reason, both are handed over to the nations, because they worshiped the idols of both, and entering into Chaldea, which is the land of Canaan, they imitated the errors of those whom they were subject to. According to allegory, we often pass from one sin to another. And when we do not repent of our previous sins, we increase sins with sins, and we are satisfied with no error, but like calves tied with a long rope and an unceasing strap, we drag our sins, and we multiply our covenant, or fornication, in the land of Canaan, which is interpreted as fluctuation, and with the Chaldeans, who also sound like demons (Psalm 39:3). And we always have footprints in the salt, and we can never say: 'He has set my feet upon a rock'. And we are subjected to the malice of heretics, who have the likeness of demons: whether they are Demons themselves, of whom Paul writes: 'For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places' (Ephesians 6:12).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Fornication — In every form of it was sternly condemned by the Mosaic law (Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16). (See ADULTERY.) But this word is more frequently used in a symbolical than in…
Solomon, Song of — Called also, after the Vulgate, the “Canticles.” It is the “song of songs” (1:1), as being the finest and most precious of its kind; the noblest song, “das Hohelied,” as Luther calls it. The…
Assyria · The Jews condemned for following the idolatries of — The Jews condemned for following the idolatries of
High Places · Licentious practices at — Licentious practices at
Idolatry · The Jews: Followed the Assyrians in — The Jews: Followed the Assyrians in
Lasciviousness · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Ezekiel 16:28
Ezekiel 16:28
28. Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
28. Et scortara es cum fills Assur, [107] quia, non esse satietatem tibi, [108] scortata es inquam cum illis, et ne sic quidem fuisti satiata.
I interpret this verse also of the covenant by which the Jews had entangled themselves, when they willingly joined themselves to the Assyrians; for this was a sure sign of distrust, when they so desired foreign aid, as if they had been deprived of God's protection. And it would be absurd to explain this verse of idolatries, since the prophets were not accustomed to speak i…
Extent and Magnitude of the Idolatry
Eze 16:23. And it came to pass after all thy wickedness - Woe, woe to thee! is the saying of the Lord Jehovah - Eze 16:24. Thou didst build thyself arches, and didst make thyself high places in all the streets. Eze 16:25. Thou didst build thy high places at every cross road, and didst disgrace thy beauty, and stretch open thy feet for every one that passed by, and didst increase thy whoredom. Eze 16:26. Thou didst commit fornication with the sons of Egypt thy neighbours, great in flesh, and didst increase thy whoredom to provoke me. Eze 16:27. And, behold, I stretched out my hand against thee, and diminished thine allowance, and gave thee up to the desire…
Jerusalem actively promoted promiscuity in pursuing Egypt, the Assyrians, and Babylonia in alliances that were financially costly and that rarely delivered the expected benefits. These alliances would have been just as reprehensible if they had delivered tangible political benefits, because they demonstrated lack of trust in the Lord. Inevitably, they also led Israel into worship of the allied nations’ gods.
Rashi on Ezekiel 16:28
because you were not sated Because you were not sated with the abominations of Egypt.
and you played the harlot with them Heb. וַתִּזְנִים, from the term for harlotry (זְנוּת), e ansera[s] a els.
