BackTopContentsNext

Ezekiel 16:17

17. You has also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and made to thyself images of men, and did commit whoredom with them.

17. Et sumpsisti vasa pulchritudinis tuae ex auro meo et ex argento meo quae dederam tibi: et fecisti tibi imagines masculi,1 et scortata es cum illis.

 

The Prophet reproves them because they used silver and gold in making idols for themselves. He not only condemns idolatry, but ingratitude, since they turned to God's dishonor the gifts which he had bestowed. First, the profanation of his gifts was base; besides this, they had rashly and purposely abused his liberality to his dishonor, and that was not to be endured. He reproves at the same time their blind intemperance, since they willingly gave themselves up to licentiousness, and buried themselves in their superstitions. But he does not say that they simply took gold and silver, but vessels of elegance or beauty of gold and silver. Whence it appears that they were blinded by furious lusts, as we have seen. He still pursues the simile of fornication, when he calls these manufactured deities images of males; and it seems obliquely to mark the excess of lust in having to do with shadows; by which he means that they were hurried away about nothing by their unbridled appetites, just as a woman feeds her passion by the mere picture of her paramour. It now follows --


1 That is, "masculine." -- Calvin.

BackTopContentsNext

Back to BibleStudyGuide.org.

These files are public domain. This electronic edition was downloaded from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.