Ezekiel 44

Ezekiel 44:1

Comfort you - That is, you will be comforted, when you compare their case with your own: when they tell you how righteous God was, in bringing these judgments upon them. This will reconcile you to the justice of God, in thus punishing his own people, and to the goodness of God, who now appeared to have had kind intentions in all.

Ezekiel 44:2

The vine - tree - Israel is here compared to a vine, which, when fruitless, is utterly unprofitable. This the prophet minds them of to humble them, and awaken them to fruitfulness. A branch - One branch of a tree in the forest is of more use than the whole vine - tree is, except for its fruit.

Ezekiel 44:3

A pin - Will it afford even a pin to drive into a wall or post, on which you may safely fasten any weight.

Ezekiel 44:4

For fuel - When for its barrenness it is cut down, it is fit only to burn.

Ezekiel 44:6

Given - Doomed for food to the fire.

Ezekiel 44:8

Because - They have been so perpetually trespassing, that it seems a continued act.

Ezekiel 44:10

Because - They have been so perpetually trespassing, that it seems a continued act.

Ezekiel 44:11

Because - They have been so perpetually trespassing, that it seems a continued act.

Ezekiel 44:12

Jerusalem - The whole race of the Jews. Thy birth - Thy root whence thou didst spring. Thy father - Abraham, before God called him, (as his father and kindred) worshipped strange gods beyond the river, Joshua 24:14. An Amorite - This comprehended all the rest of the cursed nations.

Ezekiel 44:13

In the day - In the day I called Abraham to leave his idolatry. Salted - Salt was used to purge, dry, and strengthen the new - born child. Nor swaddled - So forlorn was the state of the Jews in their birth, without beauty, without strength, without friend.

Ezekiel 44:14

To the loathing - In contempt of thee as unlovely and worthless; and in abhorrence of thee as loathsome to the beholder. This seems to have reference to the exposing of the male children of the Israelites in Egypt. And it is an apt illustration of the Natural State of all the children of men. In the day that we were born, we were shapen in iniquity: our understandings darkened, our minds alienated from the life of God: all polluted with sin, which rendered us loathsome in the eyes of God.

Ezekiel 44:15

When I passed by - God here speaks after the manner of men. Live - This is such a command as sends forth a power to effect what is commanded; he gave that life: he spake, and it was done.

Ezekiel 44:16

Thou art come - Thou wast adorned with the choicest blessings of Divine Providence. Thy breasts - Grown up and fashioned under God’s own hand in order to be solemnly affianced to God.

Ezekiel 44:17

When I passed - This second passing by, may be understood of God’s visiting and calling them out of Egypt. Thy time - The time of thy misery was the time of love in me towards thee. I spread my skirt - Espoused thee, as Ruth 3:9. Entered into a covenant - This was done at mount Sinai, when the covenant between God and Israel was sealed and ratified. Those to whom God gives spiritual life, he takes into covenant with himself. By this covenant they become his, his subjects and servants; that speaks their duty: and at the same time his portion, his treasure; that speaks their privilege.

Ezekiel 44:18

Washed - It was a very ancient custom among the eastern people, to purify virgins who were to be espoused. And I anointed - They were anointed that were to be married, as Ruth 3:3.

Ezekiel 44:19

Broidered - Rich and beautiful needle - work. Badgers skin - The eastern people had an art of curiously dressing and colouring the skins of those beasts, of which they made their neatest shoes, for the richest and greatest personages.

Ezekiel 44:20

A chain - Of gold, in token of honour and authority.

Ezekiel 44:23

My comeliness - “That is, thro’ the beauty of their holiness, as they were a people devoted to God. This was it that put a lustre upon all their other honours, and was indeed the perfection of their beauty. Sanctified souls are truly beautiful in God’s sight, and they themselves may take the comfort of it. But God must have all the glory for whatever comeliness they have, it is that which God has put upon them.”

Ezekiel 44:24

Playedst the harlot - Thou didst go a whoring after idols. Thy renown - Her renown abroad drew to her idolatrous strangers, who brought their idols with them. Pouredst out - Didst readily prostitute thyself to them; every stranger, who passed thro’ thee, might find room for his idol, and idolatry. He it was - Thy person was at the command of every adulterer.

Ezekiel 44:25

Thy garments - Those costly, royal robes, the very wedding clothes. High places - Where the idol was. With divers colours - With those beautiful clothes I put upon thee. The like things - As there was none before her that had done thus, so shall there be none to follow her in these things.

Ezekiel 44:26

Images - Statues, molten and graven images. Commit whoredom - Idolatry, spiritual adultery. And possibly here is an allusion to the rites of Adonis, or the images of Priapus.

Ezekiel 44:27

Coveredst - Didst clothe the images thou hadst made. Set mine oil - In lamps to burn before them.

Ezekiel 44:28

For a sweet savour - To gain the favour of the idol. Thus it was - All which is undeniable.

Ezekiel 44:29

And those - These very children of mine hast thou destroyed. Sacrificed - Not only consecrating them to be priests to dumb idols; but even burning them in sacrifice to Molech. Devoured - Consumed to ashes. Is this - Were thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast proceeded to this unnatural cruelty?

Ezekiel 44:30

For them - For the idols.