But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot
because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every
one that passed by; his it was. And of thy garments thou didst take,
and deckedst thy high places with divers colors, and playedst the
harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it
be so. Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my
silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men,
and didst commit whoredom with them. And tookest thy broidered
garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine
incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and
oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before
them for a sweet savor: and thus it was, saith the Lord God.
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast
borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be
devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter. That thou has
slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through
the fire for them? And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms
thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked
and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood. And it came to pass after
all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord God,) That
thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee
a high place in every street. Thou hast built thy high place at
every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and
hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy
whoredoms. Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians
thy neighbors, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to
provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I have stretched out my hand
over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered
thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the
Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. Thou hast played the
whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea,
thou hast played the harlot with them, and couldest not be
satisfied. Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land
of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all
these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; in that thou
buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest
thine high place in every street; and hast not been as a harlot, in
that thou scornest hire; but as a wife that committeth adultery,
which taketh strangers instead of her husband! They give gifts to
all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest
them, that they may come unto thee on every side of thy whoredom.
And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms,
whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou
givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou
art contrary (verses 15-34).
Upon the beautiful background of Jehovah's love and mercy, there is now
written the dark picture of Jerusalem's whoredoms, symbolical of her
wicked idolatries. "But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and played
the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on
every one that passed by; his it was" (verse 15). It started all with
pride. Jerusalem did not acknowledge the giver, who had made her great.
Instead of worshipping in Jehovah's appointed way, they established the
"high places" and conformed to all the wicked Canaanitish practices. The
wickedness of the Amorites and Hittites, from which she came, were
reproduced in her. Their little ones were given to Moloch as a
sacrifice. "Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom
thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be
devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain
thy children, and delivered them to pass through the fire for them?"
(verses 20-21). From the Second Book of Kings we learn that Ahaz was the
first king who committed this atrocity. "He made his son pass through
the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord
cast out from before the children of Israel" (2 Kings xvi:3). And
Manasseh, the wicked son of a pious father, also followed the same
horrible practice (2 Kings xxi:6). The historical books of Second Kings
and Second Chronicles must be read to understand more fully the
symbolical language used by Ezekiel and to learn the idolatry and
degradation of Jerusalem. All Jehovah had given and bestowed upon her
was devoted to practice this spiritual fornication. What Jehovah had
done for her was forgotten.
"And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not
remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and
wast polluted in thy blood" (verse 22). But worse than that followed.
Not enough that Jerusalem had her high places and revived the practices
of the Canaanitish natives, she began to have also idolatrous
intercourse with the idol-gods of Egypt, Assyria and Chaldea (verses
23-34). She sought them out and courted them all to increase her
harlotry. So great became Jerusalem's abominations that the daughters of
the Philistines became ashamed of her lewd way (verse 27). And while
such was the religious degradation of Jerusalem in following the basest
and most corrupt idolatries, a corresponding moral degradation was
linked with it. All the rites of the Canaanites and the other nations
consisted in the grossest immoralities. The most shameless and the
vilest things of the flesh were practiced in the midst of the idolatrous
city. "How is the faithful city become a harlot!" (Isaiah i:21). In the
next section the Lord addresses her by that title and once more her
judgment doom is announced. "Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the
Lord" (verse 35).
The spiritual adultery which characterizes the end of the present age is
even greater than that of Jerusalem. The apostacy of Jerusalem is
overshadowed by the rising tide of an approaching, final apostasy in
which Satan's man and masterpiece will demand and receive the worship
which belongs to the Lord. Antichrist, yet to come, his shadow cast so
sharply in our days, will be the consummation of the greatest departure
from God and defiance of God the world has ever seen. And therefore the
coming judgment will also be greater.
After the beautiful parable of the abandoned child, from which we
learned Jehovah's grace and mercy shown to Jerusalem, and the
description of Jerusalem's idolatries and moral degradation, we find her
judgment doom announced once more. In connection with this the prophet
beholds the time when Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her
daughters, as well as Jerusalem and her daughters, will return to their
former estate.