Ezekiel 16:46

46 Your older sister is Samaria, who lived north of you with her daughters; your younger sister is Sodom, who lived south of you 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 "'Everyone who uses wise sayings will say this about you: "The daughter is like her mother."
45 You are like your mother, who hated her husband and children. You are also like your sisters, who hated their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father was an Amorite.
46 Your older sister is Samaria, who lived north of you with her daughters; your younger sister is Sodom, who lived south of you with her daughters.
47 You not only followed their ways and did the hateful things they did, but you were soon worse than they were in all your ways.
48 As surely as I live, says the Lord God, this is true. Your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.