Ezekiel 16:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 16:6
And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
to cross over · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
saw
וָֽאֶרְאֵ֔ךְva.'er.'Ekh
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
polluted
מִתְבּוֹסֶ֖סֶתmit.bo.Se.set
H947
to trample (literally or figuratively) · verb, hithpael active participle, feminine singular absolute
blood
בְּדָמָ֑יִךְbe.da.Ma.yikh
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
said
וָאֹ֤מַרva.'O.mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
blood
בְּדָמַ֣יִךְbe.da.Ma.yikh
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Live
חֲיִ֔יcha.Yi
H2421
to live · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
said
וָאֹ֥מַרva.'O.mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
blood
בְּדָמַ֥יִךְbe.da.Ma.yikh
H1818
blood (as that which when shed causes death) of man or… · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Live
חֲיִֽיcha.Yi
H2421
to live · verb, qal imperative, 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
Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
John 5:25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear sha…
Titus 3:3-7 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful,…
Acts 7:34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. A…
Exodus 19:4-6 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.
Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to…
Exodus 2:24-25 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exodus 3:7-8 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmaster…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 16:6-14
In there verses we have an account of the great things which God did for the Jewish nation in raising them up by degrees to be very considerable. 1. God saved them from the ruin they were upon the brink of in Egypt (Eze 16:6): "When I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy own blood, loathed and abandoned, and appointed to die, as sheep for the slaughter, then I said unto thee, Live. I designed thee for life when thou wast doomed to destruction, and resolved to save thee from death." Those shall live to whom God commands life. God looked upon the world of mankind as thus cast off, thus cast out, thus polluted, thus weltering in blood, and his thoughts towards it were thoughts of good,…
when I passed by--as if a traveller.
polluted in . . . blood--but PISCATOR, "ready to be trodden on."
I said--In contrast to Israel's helplessness stands God's omnipotent word of grace which bids the outcast little one "live."
in thy blood--Though thou wast foul with blood, I said, "Live" [GROTIUS]. "Live in thy blood," that is, Live, but live a life exposed to many deaths, as was the case in the beginnings of Israel's national existence, in order to magnify the grace of God [CALVIN]. The former view is preferable. Spiritually, till the sinner is made sensible of his abject helplessness, he will not appreciate the provisions of God's grace.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 16:6
I said - Live - I received the exposed child from the death that awaited it, while in such a state as rendered it at once an object of horror, and also of compassion.
- Modo primos Edere vagitus,
et adhuc a matre rubentem.
John Gill on Ezekiel 16:6
And when I passed by thee,.... Alluding to a traveller passing by where an infant lies, exposed, and looks upon it, and takes it up; or it may be to Pharaoh's daughter walking by the river side, when she spied the ark in which Moses was, and ordered it to be taken up, and so saved his life:
and saw thee in thine own blood; keeping up the simile of a newborn infant, that has nothing done to it, but is all over covered with menstruous blood; denoting the wretched and miserable estate the Jews were in when in Egypt; when they were not only loathsome and abominable to the Egyptians, and ill used and unpitied by them; but were in danger of being utterly destroyed, and ready to expire. The word r…
The Church Fathers
But see the mercy of God, see his extraordinary goodness. Even though Jerusalem was thrown into the open field, he does not look down on it as thrown out forever, he does not leave it in a state of perversion as entirely forgotten, as not in the end to lift up the fallen. You were thrown out, but I still return to you; my visit is not lacking after your ruin."
And when she was prepared for marriage, and had the beauty of the body, she did not have the coverings of clothing, nor was she protected by the help of God. If anyone does not have the clothing of Christ, they are naked. If anyone is not clothed with the bowels of mercy, goodness, humility, modesty, meekness, patience, they lie face down on the ground: and their beauty is marred by shame and nakedness.
(Verse 6, 7.) But passing by you, I saw you trampled in your own blood. And I said to you when you were in your own blood, live: I said to you, indeed, in your own blood, live. I made you multiply like the growth of the field, and you entered and came to womanhood. Your breasts swelled, and your hair grew: and you were naked and full of confusion. LXX: And I passed by you, and saw you mixed in your own blood, and I said to you, multiply your life from your blood, as I gave you growth like the plants of the field, and you multiplied, and you were magnified, and you entered into cities of cities. Your breasts were erect, and your hair was grown; but you were naked and full of shame. After you were cast down on the face of the field, or on the face of the earth, because of the wickedness of your soul, I no longer deserved to help you. Nevertheless, passing by, I saw you trampled upon, or mixed in your own blood, that is, guilty of mortal crimes. And I provoked you, granting you repentance, and said to you: Though you are in blood, nevertheless live in conversion; and there was such an abundance of all things in you, that you had the likeness of the most fertile land, and the blessing of Jacob, with which his father blessed him, saying: Behold the smell of my son is like the smell of a full field, which the Lord has blessed (Gen. XXVII, 27); and you would enter the inner chambers of the Lord, and say with the bride: The king brought me into his chamber (Cant. I, 3); and you would go to the world of women, for which the Seventy translated: and you entered into the cities of cities; so that just as the Song of Songs is called the world of worlds; so let cities be called the cities of cities. Concerning which it is said in the Gospel: You have authority over ten, or over five cities (Luke 19:17, 18): so that you may be called not only a city, but a metropolis city, according to what is read in Isaiah: Faithful mother of cities, Zion (Isaiah 1:26, 27). Moreover, what Symmachus interpreted, and you have reached the adornment of women, or as Theodotio, and you have entered the adornment of adornments, for which we have stated the Hebrew sense: and you have reached the world of women, it shows the time of puberty, when young girls are called marriageable, and can be united with the embrace of husbands. Finally it follows: your breasts have swelled, and your hair has…
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…
Adoption · Is of God’s grace — Is of God’s grace
Children · Treatment of, at birth — Treatment of, at birth
Depravity Of Man · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Ingratitude To God · Illustrated — Illustrated
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 16:6
6. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
6. Et transivi juxta te, et vidi te foedatam [68] in sanguinibus tuis: et dixi tibi, in sanguinibus tuis, Vive: et dixi tibi, in sanguinibus tuis, Vive.
I have already explained the time to which the Prophet alludes, when the seed of Abraham began to be tyrannically oppressed by the Egyptians. For God here assumes the character of a traveler when he says that he passed by. For he had said that the Jews and all the Israelites were like a girl cast forth and deserted. Now, therefore, he adds, that…
Israel therefore owes its preservation and exaltation to honour and glory to the Lord its God alone. - Eze 16:6. Then I passed by thee, and saw thee stamping in thy blood, and said to thee, In thy blood live! and said to thee, In thy blood live! Eze 16:7. I made thee into myriads as the growth of the field, and thou grewest and becamest tall, and camest to ornament of cheeks. The breasts expanded, and thy hair grew, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Eze 16:8. And I passed by thee, and saw thee, and, behold, it was thy time, the time of love; and I spread my wing over thee, and covered thy nakedness; and I swore to thee, and entered into covenant with thee, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah,…
While Jerusalem was in a helpless and hopeless condition, the Lord intervened with his life-giving word. Without that, she would certainly have died. The Lord had no obligation to rescue this abandoned child, for she would simply have been one among many facing such a fate. Yet out of his grace and mercy, the Lord enabled her not merely to survive but to thrive. Instead of dying in the field, she grew up like a plant into maturity and beauty. The city of Jerusalem prospered before becoming an Israelite city, and it was the Lord’s doing.
Rashi on Ezekiel 16:6
downtrodden Heb. מִתְבּוֹסֶסֶת, downtrodden, as (Ps. 60:14): “and He will trample (יָבוּס) our adversaries.”
With your blood, live Even with this loathsomeness of yours you shall not die. He repeats this a second time because they were redeemed with the blood of the Passover sacrifice and the blood of circumcision (Pirke d’Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 29). Another explanation of מִתְבּוֹסֶסת: souillee in French, soiled, sullied.
