35 Therefore , O harlot , hear the word of the Lord . 36 Thus says the Lord GOD , "Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your detestable idols , and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols, 37 therefore , behold , I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure , even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated . So I will gather them against you from every direction and expose your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness . 38 "Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged ; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy . 39 "I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines , demolish your high places , strip you of your clothing , take away your jewels e , and will leave you naked and bare . 40 "They will incite a crowd against you and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords . 41 "They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women . Then I will stop you from playing the harlot , and you will also no longer pay your lovers . 42 "So I will calm My fury against you and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be pacified and angry no more . 43 "Because e you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me by all these things , behold , I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head ," declares the Lord GOD , "so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations .
44 "Behold , everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying , 'Like mother , like daughter .' 45 "You are the daughter of your mother , who loathed her husband and children . You are also the sister of your sisters , who loathed their husbands and children . Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite . 46 "Now your older sister is Samaria , who lives north of you with her daughters ; and your younger sister , who lives south of you, is Sodom with her daughters . 47 "Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations ; but, as if that were too little , you acted more corruptly in all your conduct than they. 48 "As I live ," declares the Lord GOD , "Sodom , your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done . 49 "Behold , this was the guilt of your sister Sodom : she and her daughters had arrogance , abundant food and careless ease , but she did not help e the poor and needy . 50 "Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it. 51 "Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins , for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have committed . 52 "Also bear your disgrace in that you have made judgment favorable for your sisters . Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes , be also ashamed and bear your disgrace , in that you made your sisters appear righteous .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ezekiel 16:35-52
Commentary on Ezekiel 16:1-58
(Read Ezekiel 16:1-58)
In this chapter God's dealings with the Jewish nation, and their conduct towards him, are described, and their punishment through the surrounding nations, even those they most trusted in. This is done under the parable of an exposed infant rescued from death, educated, espoused, and richly provided for, but afterwards guilty of the most abandoned conduct, and punished for it; yet at last received into favour, and ashamed of her base conduct. We are not to judge of these expressions by modern ideas, but by those of the times and places in which they were used, where many of them would not sound as they do to us. The design was to raise hatred to idolatry, and such a parable was well suited for that purpose.