Ezekiel 16:47

47 1Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time 2you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.

Ezekiel 16:47 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 16:47

Yet hast thou not walked after their ways
But in ways more evil; were not content to keep pace with them, and do as they did; but outwent them, outstripped them in wickedness: nor done after their abominations;
but committed greater abominations than they did; sins of a more heinous nature, and attended with more aggravated circumstances; having more power and wealth, more Wisdom and understanding; the means of grace, the word and ordinances of God: but, as [if that were] a very little [thing];
to commit the sins that Samaria and Sodom did: or, "it was loathing [to thee] as a little thing" F1; they despised and loathed their sins as too mean and little, and not flagitious and enormous, or bold and daring enough to be committed; and looked upon them, with contempt, as sneaking sinners, that had no soul nor spirit in them, or taste for sinful pleasures, in comparison of them: or the sense is, it would have been a little thing, comparatively speaking, had they only walked after the ways and abominations of Samaria and Sodom, and stopped there; but they had greatly exceeded them; and so the Targum,

``if thou hadst walked in their ways, and done according to their abominations, thy sin had been small.''
Kimchi interprets it of a small time that the Jews continued in the ways and worship of God, after the captivity of the ten tribes, which were carried away in the sixth year of Hezekiah; so that there were but three and twenty years left of his reign, when his son Manasseh succeeded him, and was more wicked than all before him; and these three and twenty years are the little time here spoken of and within a very little time, and thou wast corrupted more than they in all their ways;
this explains what is meant by not walking after their ways and abominations; they were greater sinners than they; more corrupt in their principles and practices; more hardened in them, and more difficult to be reclaimed from them; see ( Matthew 11:23 Matthew 11:24 ) .
FOOTNOTES:

F1 (jq jemk) "tanquam parvum, fastidio fuit hoc", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus; "velut parum fastidi", Starckius.

Ezekiel 16:47 In-Context

45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46 And your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters.
47 Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.
48 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom 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 pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Ezekiel 5:7
  • 2. ver. 48, 51, 52; Ezekiel 5:6; [2 Kings 21:9; 2 Chronicles 33:9; Jeremiah 2:10, 11]
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.