Ezekiel 16:44 - Meaning and Application

The prophet goes on to show Jerusalem her sins by comparing her with places that came before her. He proves that she was worse than any of them, so her ruin was deserved and complete. We often judge ourselves by comparison and think we are fine if we are only as good as others. We may even feel safe if we are not as bad as the worst people around us.

God, through the prophet, first shows that Jerusalem was as bad as her mother, meaning the cursed Canaanites who lived in the land before Israel. People often use a saying like this: as is the mother, so is her daughter (Ezekiel 16:44). Jerusalem was truly her mother’s child, because the Jews had become just like the Canaanites in temper and desires. The mother’s character was one of adultery and hatred for husband and children, and the same was true of the daughter. She abandoned the guide of her youth and treated the children of her own body cruelly.

When God brought Israel into Canaan, he clearly warned them not to follow the abominations of the people already living there, because those sins had brought judgment on them (Leviticus 18:27, 28). The monuments of their idol worship, and even the surviving idolaters, would have been a constant temptation. But Israel learned their ways and followed their steps. They grew just as attached to the idols of Canaan as the Canaanites themselves had been (Psalm 106:38). In that sense, it could truly be said that their mother was a Hittite and their father an Amorite (Ezekiel 16:45), because they looked more like those nations than like Abraham and Sarah.

Second, Jerusalem was worse than her sisters, Sodom and Samaria, who were also adulteresses, weary of the true God and eager for new gods and new religious fashions. The prophet develops this comparison to shame Jerusalem into repentance, or to show that God was right to judge her. Samaria is called the older sister, or rather the greater one, because it was a larger city and kingdom, richer and more important, and more closely tied to Israel. Sodom is the smaller sister, and its surrounding towns are included with it. Samaria had been destroyed not long before for spiritual unfaithfulness, while Sodom had long ago been destroyed for bodily immorality (Jude 1:7).

Jerusalem shared Sodom’s sins, especially the ones listed in Ezekiel 16:49. This was the guilt of Sodom, and it is implied that it was Jerusalem’s guilt too: pride, full stomachs, and lazy comfort. The most shocking sin of Sodom, their pursuit of strange flesh, is not mentioned here because it was already well known. Instead, the prophet points to the sins that opened the door to that evil and helped fill up the measure of their guilt.

Pride is the heart lifting itself above God and above other people. It was the first sin that turned angels into devils, and the garden of the Lord into a scene of misery. The pride of the Sodomites showed itself in their contempt for righteous Lot, and in their refusal to be corrected by him. That pride led them toward destruction. Gluttony is called here fullness of bread. God had shown them mercy by giving them abundance, but they sinned by abusing it. They stuffed themselves with food and drink and used God’s gifts to feed their lusts instead of their lives.

The third sin was idleness, or an abundance of laziness, a dislike of work and a love of ease. Their land was fruitful, and they came by their wealth easily, which made them careless and slothful. That sloth prepared them for the filthy sins that brought fire down on them. Idleness opens the door to much sin. The men of Sodom, who were idle, were wicked and great sinners against the Lord (Genesis 13:13). Still water gathers filth, and a bird that sits still becomes an easy target for the hunter. When David stayed home instead of going out, he saw Bathsheba. As an old saying puts it, why did Aegisthus become an adulterer? The answer is plain, he was idle.

The fourth sin was oppression. Sodom did not strengthen the hands of the poor and needy. It may even mean that she weakened and crushed them. At the very least, it was evil that, with so much wealth, power, and leisure, she did nothing for the relief of the poor. People who have full stomachs can make good use of their time by helping those in need, and they do not need to be so idle as they often are.

These were the sins of Sodom, and they were also the sins of Jerusalem. Their pride, which was the root of their evil, is mentioned again in Ezekiel 16:50. They were haughty, and they committed horrible abominations before God. People usually rise step by step into great wickedness. No one becomes fully corrupt all at once. But when pride takes control of a person, he is already on the road to every kind of evil.

Finally, Jerusalem’s sins were even worse than those of Sodom and Samaria. Her guilt was heavier in God’s sight, either because of the sins themselves or because of the extra advantages she had. She did not merely copy their ways, she went beyond them in wickedness (Ezekiel 16:47). She thought it was a small thing to do what they did. She mocked them as timid and foolish sinners, and wanted to be more bold, more clever, and more daring in evil. She wanted to sin more openly against conviction, and to defy God and religion with greater confidence.

Jerusalem was more refined, and so she sinned with more skill and cleverness than Sodom or Samaria. She also had more wealth and power, and her government was more absolute. That gave her more chances to oppress the poor and spread harmful influence around her than the other two cities had.

Jerusalem had the temple, the ark, the priesthood, and the kings from David’s family. So her wickedness was more provoking to God than the sins of Sodom and Samaria, because Jerusalem had greater privileges and more means of grace. Sodom had not done as Jerusalem had done (Ezekiel 16:48). This matches what Christ says, that it will be more bearable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for those who rejected Him (Matthew 11:24).

The northern kingdom of the ten tribes had also been very sinful, and yet Samaria had not committed half Jerusalem’s sins (Ezekiel 16:51). It had not worshiped half as many idols, or killed half as many prophets. It was bad enough that the people of Jerusalem shared Sodom’s sins, including the sins that gave Sodom its shameful name (1 Kings 14:24; 2 Kings 23:7). Even though the Dead Sea, the lasting sign of Sodom’s sin and ruin, bordered their land (Numbers 34:12), they still did not take warning. God destroyed Sodom and her daughters in the way He chose, so that their downfall would stand as a lesson for later generations who live ungodly lives (2 Peter 2:6).

Because of this, Jerusalem actually ended up justifying Sodom and Samaria, in a comparative sense (Ezekiel 16:51). They had once looked down on those cities and judged them, and in earlier days, when they still kept some integrity, they did judge them (Ezekiel 16:52). But now, compared with Jerusalem, Sodom and Samaria looked less guilty. This does not clear Sodom, but it condemns Jerusalem even more strongly, because Sodom and Samaria will rise up in judgment against her.

For that reason, Jerusalem ought to have been deeply ashamed. She had judged her sisters and called shame on them, but now she must carry her own shame for the sins she had committed, which were all the more offensive because they were her own (Ezekiel 16:52). This can be read as a warning of coming ruin, “You will bear your shame,” or as a call to repentance, “Be ashamed and own your guilt.” Sinners often begin to turn from sin when they truly feel ashamed of it.

So they would go into captivity and remain there, so that they would be put to shame by all they had done, especially because they had become a comfort and example to Sodom and Samaria in evil (Ezekiel 16:54). One of the worst things about sin is that our own sin can encourage other people to sin. It is a serious guilt to comfort others in what will only grieve them if they do not repent.

Jerusalem should also have been ashamed because in her time of pride she had treated Sodom with scorn. “Sodom was not mentioned by you in the day of your pride” (Ezekiel 16:56). They acted as if Sodom was beneath notice, never imagining that Jerusalem herself would come to bear a worse and more shameful name than Sodom. Those who stand high may yet end up beside those they despise. Or this may mean that they ignored the warning Sodom’s ruin was meant to give them. If the Jews had often spoken seriously about God’s wrath against Sodom’s wickedness, it might have kept them in fear and stopped them from following the same path. Instead, they kept that warning at a distance and would not hear it.

Now God tells what desolations He had already brought, and would bring, on Jerusalem because of these sins, sins in which she had gone beyond Sodom and Samaria. She had already been disgraced among her neighbors before her wickedness was fully exposed (Ezekiel 16:57). Before her sin became open and shameless, she had already tasted the just punishment of her hidden lusts when she was reproached by the daughters of Syria and the Philistines, and by all around her. This may point to the invasions in the days of Ahaz, when Syria and the Philistines humbled Judah (2 Chronicles 28:5, 18). Those who disgrace themselves by giving in to lusts will justly be brought into disgrace before their enemies.

It is also worth noting that God first sent less severe enemies to shame them before sending stronger enemies to destroy them. If a smaller judgment would do the work, He would not send a greater one. “In this you have borne your lewdness” (Ezekiel 16:58). Those who will not leave sin by repentance and change will be made to bear the burden of their sin in shame.

Jerusalem was now in captivity, or close to it, and God would deal with her as she had dealt with Him (Ezekiel 16:59). He would abandon her as she had abandoned Him, and cast her off as she had cast Him off, because she had despised the oath by breaking the covenant. This likely refers to the covenant God made with their fathers at Mount Sinai, by which He took them and their children to be His special people. They had comforted themselves by thinking that, since God had kept showing them favor despite their rebellion, He would keep doing so. But God says no, they had broken covenant with Him and despised both its promises and its obligations. Those who will not stay faithful to God have no reason to expect Him to keep owning them as His people.

The captivity and ruin of the wicked Jews would be as final and irreversible as the ruin of Sodom and Samaria. Most interpreters understand Ezekiel 16:53 and 16:55 this way, as a warning.

When I say, “I will bring back the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria,” and when they return to their former condition, then I will also bring back the fortunes of your captives in the midst of them, and, as it were, for their sake, and under their shelter and protection, because they are more righteous than you, and then you will return to your former condition. But Sodom and Samaria were never brought back, and they never returned to their former state. So Jerusalem, that is, the people who still remained there, should not expect it. God would instead remove them and hand them over to all the kingdoms of the earth, to their harm (Jeremiah 24:9, Jeremiah 24:10).

It would be sooner for the Sodomites to rise out of the salt sea, and for the Samaritans to return from the land of Assyria, than for Jerusalem to enjoy peace and prosperity again. To the shame of the people of Judah, it is even a comfort to the ten tribes, who were scattered and captive, to see the two tribes, who had been just as bad as they were, or worse, scattered and captive in the same way. So they will live and die, stand and fall, together. The wicked people of both will perish together, and the good people of both will return together.

The lesson is clear: those who do what the worst sinners do must expect to suffer as they do. “Let my enemy be like the wicked.”