to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Lord
אֲדֹנָ֣י'a.do.Nai
H136
the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
GOD
יְהוִ֔הYah.weh
H3069
YHWH · proper noun, a title
deal
וְעָשִׂ֥יתִיve.'a.sit
H6213
to do or make · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
done
עָשִׂ֑ית'a.Sit
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
despised
בָּזִ֥יתba.Zit
H959
to disesteem · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
oath
אָלָ֖ה'a.Lah
H423
an imprecation · noun, common feminine singular absolute
breaking
לְהָפֵ֥רle.ha.Fer
H6565
to break up (usually figuratively) · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
covenant
בְּרִֽיתbe.Rit
H1285
a compact (because made by passing between pieces of fl… · noun, common feminine singular absolute
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
Isaiah 24:5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlast…
Ezekiel 17:19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely mine oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that he hath broken, even it will I re…
Exodus 24:1-8 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar o…
Deuteronomy 29:10-15 Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Isr…
Deuteronomy 29:25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them f…
2 Chronicles 34:31-32 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimon…
Isaiah 3:11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
Jeremiah 2:19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter…
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…
the oath--the covenant between God and Israel (Deu 29:12, Deu 29:14). As thou hast despised it, so will I despise thee. No covenant is one-sided; where Israel broke faith, God's promise of favor ceased.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 16:52
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 16:59
For thus saith the Lord God,.... And what he says may be depended upon as truth, and what will certainly come to pass:
I will even deal with thee as thou hast done; reward them according to their works; or execute the law of retaliation upon them; and reject them, as they had rejected him; and cast them off from being his people, since they had forsook him as their God; they being the aggressors and transgressors of the covenant, he was under no obligation by virtue of that to bless and protect them:
which hath despised the oath by breaking the covenant; the covenant at Mount Sinai; or which was made in the plains of Moab, which had an oath annexed to it, Deuteronomy 29:12; but by breaking…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 59 and following) Thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath and broken the covenant. But I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both the older and the younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of the covenant. I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord, so that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I forgive you for all that you have done, says the Lord God. LXX: Thus says the Lord God: And I will do to you as you have done, as you have despised these things, in order to go against my covenant. And I will remember my covenant, which I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant, and you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older sisters with your younger ones, and I will give them to you as a test, not according to your covenant. And I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, so that you may remember and be ashamed, and there shall be no more opening of your mouth from the face of your disgrace, when I have been propitious to you according to all that you have done, says the Lord God. Therefore I said to you: your crime and your disgrace you carry, whether you have carried or will carry; in order to receive what you deserve: because you have despised my oath, and nullified my covenant. But when it is fulfilled, I will kill, and I will give life: I will strike, and I will heal (Deut. XXXII, 39): then I will remember my covenant, which I once had with you. And I will raise up for you a covenant, not of the Law that has passed, but an eternal covenant of the Gospel: so that when you remember your ways, and receive your older and younger sisters, Samaria and Sodom and their companions, I will give them to you as daughters, or as a proof (for there must be factions (I Cor. XI, 19) and heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest), not based on your merit, but based on my mercy, and then you will know that I am the Lord; and you will remember my benefits, and be confounded, and say according to the Apostle: I…
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…
Jews, The · National character of: Unfaithful to covenant engagements — National character of: Unfaithful to covenant engagements
Judgment · ACCORDING TO OPPORTUNITY AND WORKS — ACCORDING TO OPPORTUNITY AND WORKS
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 16:59
59. For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
59. Quia sic dicit Dominator Iehovah, et faciam tibi quemadmodum fecisti, quae [151] sprevisti jusjurandum ad dissipandum [152] foedus.
Here, also, God meets the false objection by which the Jews might strive with him; for whatever they were, yet God had entered into covenant with them. They might, therefore, fly to this refuge, that God had bound himself in covenant with them, since he had adopted Abraham with his seed. Although they had provoked God's anger a thousand times, yet this exception remained, that God ought to stand to his agreeme…
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…
Jerusalem’s sins were serious and had to be judged, but judgment was not God’s last word on Jerusalem. She had been comprehensively breaking God’s covenant and deserved the consequence of death, but God would remember the covenant he had made with her in the beginning. God’s purposes for his people cannot be derailed even by their sin, for his covenant commitment is everlasting (Ps 136). God’s forgiveness of her sins would finally bring Jerusalem to repentance.
Rashi on Ezekiel 16:59
I have done with you, etc. I have done evil to you commensurate to your [ungrateful] repayment [to Me] which you made.
that you despised an oath, etc. That one that you accepted upon yourself in Horeb (Deut. 29:11): “That you pass into the covenant of the Lord your God, etc.” But I shall not violate the covenant by not remembering it, because I am not like you.
