a woman · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
adultery
הַמְּנָאָ֑פֶתha.me.na.'A.fet
H5003
to commit adultery · definite article + verb, piel active participle, feminine singular absolute
taketh
תִּקַּ֖חti.Kach
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
strangers
זָרִֽיםza.Rim
H2114
to turn aside (especially for lodging) · adjective, masculine plural absolute
husband
אִישָׁ֔הּ'i.Shah
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd 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
Jeremiah 2:28 But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the numb…
Jeremiah 2:25 Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and afte…
Jeremiah 3:8-9 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet he…
Jeremiah 3:20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.
Ezekiel 16:8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nak…
Ezekiel 23:37 That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused thei…
Ezekiel 23:45 And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they a…
Hosea 2:2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight,…
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…
instead of her husband--referring to Num 5:19-20, Num 5:29. FAIRBAIRN translates, "whilst under her husband."
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 16:32
But as a wife that committeth adultery,.... Who has a husband, and is provided for with all the necessaries of life, with food and clothing; and so has no need to prostitute herself for a livelihood, as common strumpets do; but does it purely for the satiating of her lust: and such were the people of the Jews, they were married to the Lord, who took care of them, and provided everything for them, and acted the part of a husband to them; so that it was the weakness of their hearts, and the strength of their corruptions, which led them to depart from him, and commit idolatry; which in them was adultery, while the sin of the Gentiles was as simple fornication:
which taketh strangers instead of…
Your cruelty is a false faith. An heretical congregation is an adulteress woman; for the Catholic hath never from the beginning left the couch and the chamber of her Spouse, nor gone after other and strange lovers. Ye have painted a divorced form in new colours, ye have withdrawn your couch from the old wedlock, ye have left the body of a mother, the wife of One Husband, decking yourselves out with new arts of pleasing, new allurements of corruption.
And while all women usually receive payment from their lovers, Jerusalem did the opposite, giving more than she received. And to show the extent of her generosity, she would burden them, saying, 'Come to me often,' so that there would be no neighbor who would not be mixed up in her dishonor. And indeed, Jerusalem surpassed other prostitutes in this as well, not only giving what she had earned through the shameful practice, but also giving marital gifts to her lovers and her adulterers. So great was the example of the adulteress in all its magnitude of shame, that it is preferred not only to those present, but also to future prostitutes.
(Verse 32 and following) But like an adulterous woman, who brings in strangers over her husband. All prostitutes receive payment: but you have given payment to all your lovers, and you would give them anything to come in to you from every direction to fornicate with you. And it happened in you contrary to the custom of women in your fornications, and there will be no fornication after you. For in that you have given payment, and have not received payment: it has become contrary to you. LXX: The adulterous woman − similar to you: receiving rewards from her husband: she gave rewards to all who fornicated with her, and you gave rewards to all your lovers, and you burdened them to come to you, going around in your fornication. And it happened in you that you turned against other women in your fornication, and they did not fornicate after you: because you gave rewards, and rewards were not given to you: and it happened in you that you turned against. What is written in the Septuagint is not found in Hebrew and disrupts the order of the reading, and it raises a significant question: which woman is being referred to when it is said that Jerusalem herself is an adulterous woman? So Jerusalem took all the abundance of things that had been given to her by the generosity of her husband, and she gave them to others, namely demons and idols, according to what is written in Hosea: 'And she did not know that I gave her grain, wine, oil, and multiplied her silver; but she made Baals, silver and gold' (Hosea 2:8). Therefore, in his anger, he immediately declares: 'Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time and my wine in its season; and I will take away my wool and my linen, so as not to cover her disgrace anymore. And now I will uncover her immorality in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.' And while all women usually receive payment from their lovers, Jerusalem did the opposite, giving more than she received. And to show the extent of her generosity, she would burden them, saying, 'Come to me often,' so that there would be no neighbor who would not be mixed up in her dishonor. And indeed, Jerusalem surpassed other prostitutes in this as well, not only giving what she had earned through the shameful practice, but also giving marital gifts to her lovers and her adulterers. So great was the example of the adulteress in all its magnitude of…
Dictionary and topics
Adultery — Conjugal infidelity. An adulterer was a man who had illicit intercourse with a married or a betrothed woman, and such a woman was an adulteress. Intercourse between a married man and an unmarried…
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…
High Places · Licentious practices at — Licentious practices at
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).
on Ezekiel 16:32
Ezekiel 16:32
32. But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
32. Mulier adultera loco viri sui sumit extraneos.
Some translate it an adulteress under her husband's roof, and tcht, thecheth, signifies "instead of:" and they explain it thus, that adulteresses do not divorce themselves from their husbands when they violate the marriage bond, but always remain at home for the purpose of admitting strangers; and they think the people's crime increased by this comparison, that they not only acted deceitfully towards God, but openly revolted from him, and left his home; for many shameless women remain at home, and hide their crimes as far as they can;…
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 16:32
the adulterous wife You are the adulterous wife.
who, under her husband, takes strangers While she is under her husband, [she] casts her eyes on others.
