Ezekiel 16:47

47 You didn't follow their ways. You didn't do the same disgusting things that they did. It only took you a little time to be more corrupt than they ever were.

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 your mother's daughter. She rejected her husband and her children. You are exactly like your sisters. They rejected their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father was an Amorite.
46 "'Your older sister was Samaria. She and her daughters lived north of you. Your younger sister is Sodom. She lives south of you with her daughters.
47 You didn't follow their ways. You didn't do the same disgusting things that they did. It only took you a little time to be more corrupt than they ever were.
48 As I live, declares the Almighty LORD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.
49 This is what your sister Sodom has done wrong. She and her daughters were proud that they had plenty of food and had peace and security. They didn't help the poor and the needy.
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