Ezekiel 16:46

46 "Now your 1older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is 2Sodom with her daughters.

Ezekiel 16:46 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 16:46

And thine elder sister [is] Samaria
The metropolis of the ten tribes; "sister" to the Jews, because of the same descent, having one and the same father; the "elder" or "greater" F24, because more in number and power; the kingdom of Israel consisted of ten tribes, and the kingdom of Judah but of two; and the ten tribes also were the first in the apostasy from the true worship of God: she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand;
as Samaria the sister was the metropolis of the ten tribes, her daughters are the other cities and towns belonging thereunto; and so the Targum renders it, she and her villages; these were situated to the north of the land of Israel, as Judah was to the south, which with the Jews were left and right; as a man standing with his face to the east has the north on his left and the south on his right side: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, [is] Sodom and
her daughters;
where Lot the kinsman of Abraham lived, and from whom sprung the Ammonites and Moabites. Sodom was a lesser kingdom than that of Judah, and which lay to the south; that is, to the right of it; even that and the other cities, which perished with it, called her daughters, as Admah, Zeboim


FOOTNOTES:

F24 (hlwdgh) "major", V. L. Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.

Ezekiel 16:46 In-Context

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.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Jeremiah 3:8-11; Ezekiel 23:4
  • 2. Genesis 13:10-13; Genesis 18:20; Ezek 16:48, 49, 53-56, 61

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Lit "on your left"
  • [b]. I.e. environs; so through v 55
  • [c]. Lit "from your right"
  • [d]. I.e. environs; so through v 55
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