Ezekiel 16:55 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 16:55
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.
a sister (used very widely (like brother) · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Sodom
סְדֹ֤םse.Dom
H5467
Sedom · proper noun, a place name
daughters
וּבְנוֹתֶ֙יהָ֙u.ve.no.Tei.ha
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
return
תָּשֹׁ֣בְןָta.Shoe.na
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
estate
לְקַדְמָתָ֔ןle.kad.ma.Tan
H6927
priority (in time) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine plural
Samaria
וְשֹֽׁמְרוֹן֙ve.sho.me.rOn
H8111
Shomeron · conjunction + proper noun, a place name
daughters
וּבְנוֹתֶ֔יהָu.ve.no.Tei.ha
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
return
תָּשֹׁ֖בְןָta.Shoe.na
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
estate
לְקַדְמָתָ֑ןle.kad.ma.Tan
H6927
priority (in time) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine plural
daughters
וּבְנוֹתַ֔יִךְu.ve.no.Ta.yikh
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
return
תְּשֻׁבֶ֖ינָהte.shu.Vei.nah
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
estate
לְקַדְמַתְכֶֽןle.kad.mat.Khen
H6927
priority (in time) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine plural
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
Ezekiel 16:53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then wil…
Ezekiel 36:11 And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will…
Malachi 3:4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 16:44-59
The prophet here further shows Jerusalem her abominations, by comparing her with those places that had gone before her, and showing that she was worse than any of them, and therefore should, like them, be utterly and irreparably ruined. We are all apt to judge of ourselves by comparison, and to imagine that we are sufficiently good if we are but as good as such and such, who are thought passable; or that we are not dangerously bad if we are no worse than such and such, who, though bad, are not of the worst. Now God by the prophet shows Jerusalem,
I. That she was as bad as her mother, that is, as the accursed devoted Canaanites that were the possessors of this land before her. Those that use…
They are more righteous than thou - תצדקנה ממך tetsuddaknah mimmech, "They shall be justified more than thou." They are less guilty in the sight of God, for their crimes were not accompanied with so many aggravations. This phrase casts light on Luk 18:14 : "This man went down to his house justified rather than the other." Less blame in the sight of God was attached to him. He always had fewer advantages, and now he was a true penitent; while the other was boasting of what he had done, and what he had not done.
John Gill on Ezekiel 16:55
When thy sisters, Sodom, and her daughters, shall return to their former estate,.... The Jews, as Jerom says, are of opinion, that in the days of their vainly expected Messiah Sodom will be restored to its ancient state, and be as the garden of God, and as the land of Egypt; and Jarchi interprets the bringing again the captivity of Sodom, in Ezekiel 16:53; by the Lord's healing the land of brimstone and salt, and placing inhabitants in it; and it is asserted by the Jews (f) that Sodom and Gomorrah shall be rebuilt in future times, in the times of the Messiah, according to the sense of this passage: but this is not to be understood in a literal sense, of the rebuilding of Sodom and cities adj…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 55) And your sister Sodom and her daughters will return to their former state. And Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state. And you and your daughters will return to your former state. LXX: And your sister Sodom and her daughters will be restored as they were at the beginning, and Samaria and her daughters will be restored as they were at the beginning. And you and your daughters will be restored as you were from the beginning. The Jews, among their many fables and endless genealogies and delusions that they invent, even dream of this: that in the coming of their Christ, whom we know to be the Antichrist, and in his thousand-year reign, Sodom will be restored to its ancient state, so that it may be like the paradise of God, and like the land of Egypt; and that ancient Samaria will regain its prosperity, so that the Assyrians may return to the land of Judah (2 Kings 17, 18). For we read that the ten tribes were captured by the kings of Assyria, namely Phul, and Salmanassar, and Teglathphalassar, and they have remained captive there until today. Also, at that time, Jerusalem must be rebuilt, along with all its daughters, that is, the cities, villages, and castles that will be under its future power, they will flourish as they once did, and Jerusalem itself must be built with gold, silver, and precious stones, as prophesied by Isaiah: I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning, and after this you will be called the city of righteousness, the faithful mother of cities, Zion (Isa. I, 26); and our Apocalypse speaks of this (Apoc. XXI): And David sings: Do good, O Lord, in your good will to Zion, and let the walls of Jerusalem be rebuilt (Ps. L, 20). And in another place: The cities of Judah shall be built, and they shall dwell there, and they shall remain there, and their offspring shall be established forever (Ps. LXVIII, 36). But we, leaving the perfect knowledge of these things to the judgment of God, or rather, confidently confessing, after the second coming of the Lord and Savior, that nothing humble, nothing earthly will be in the future; but the heavenly kingdoms which are first promised in the Gospel, we say that in the state of the Church, all things are complete and are being completed daily. Sodom returns to its ancient state, when it regains its original nature and the impious soul…
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…
Sodom — Burning; the walled, a city in the vale of Siddim (Gen. 13:10; 14:1-16). The wickedness of its inhabitants brought down upon it fire from heaven, by which it was destroyed (18:16-33; 19:1-29; Deut.…
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…
Lasciviousness · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Sodom · .Of wickedness — .Of wickedness
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).
Ezekiel 16:55
55. 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.
55. Et sorores tuae Sodoma, et filiae ejus revertentur ad pristina sua, [146] et Samaria et filiae, ejus revertentur ad antiquitatem suam, [147] et tu et filiae tuae revertimini ad pristinum statum.
A clearer explanation of the former doctrine now follows, that the Jews, should thus feel God merciful when his mercy reached Samaria and Sodom; but that never could be done, and hence the Jews were reduced to despair; for, as I have said, the Prophet argues from what…
But this disgrace will not be the conclusion. Because of the covenant which the Lord concluded with Israel, Jerusalem will not continue in misery, but will attain to the glory promised to the people of God; - and that in such a way that all boasting will be excluded, and Judah, with the deepest shame, will attain to a knowledge of the true compassion of God. - Yet, in order that all false confidence in the gracious promises of God may be prevented, and the sinful nation be thoroughly humbled, this last section of our word of God announces the restoration of Sodom and Samaria as well as that of Jerusalem, so that all boasting on the part of Israel is precluded. - Eze 16:53. And I will turn th…
The power of God’s grace, even more than his judgment, would make Jerusalem feel ashamed of her association with such “parents” and “sisters” (16:44-52).
Rashi on Ezekiel 16:54
in that you consoled them when you became more wicked than they, and you gave them an excuse [to neglect righteousness]. Another explanation: in that you consoled them When the evil comes upon you, they will be consoled, saying, We have not suffered alone.
