Ezekiel 16:2

2 Son of man, make known to Jerusalem their abominations;

Ezekiel 16:2 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 16:2

Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.
] That is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as the Targum; these are mentioned instead of the whole body of the people, because that Jerusalem was the metropolis of the nation, whose sins were very many and heinous: called "abominations", because abominable to God, and rendered them so to him; particularly their idolatries are meant; which, though committed by them, and so must be known to them, yet were not owned, confessed, and repented of by them, they not being convinced of the evil of them; in order to which the prophet is bid to set them before them, and show them the evil nature of them; and which he might do by writing to them, for he himself was now in Chaldea with the captives there. The Targum is,

``son of man, reprove the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and show them their abominations.''

Ezekiel 16:2 In-Context

1 And the word of the Lord was made to me, and he said,

2 Son of man, make known to Jerusalem their abominations;

3 and thou shalt say, The Lord God saith these things. A! thou Jerusalem, thy root and thy generation is of the land of Canaan; thy father is Amorite, and thy mother is Hittite. (and thou shalt say, The Lord God saith these things. O! thou Jerusalem, thy roots and thy generation be from the land of Canaan; thy father is an Amorite, and thy mother is a Hittite.)

4 And when thou were born, thy navel was not cut away in the day of thy birth (thy navel-string was not cut on the day of thy birth), and thou were not washed in water into health, neither salted with salt, neither wrapped in (swaddling) ?clothes.

5 An eye spared not on thee, that it having mercy on thee, did to thee one of these things; but thou were cast forth on the face of (the) earth, in the casting out of thy soul, in the day in which thou were born. (An eye spared thee not, that it having mercy on thee, did to thee one of these things; but thou were thrown forth onto the face of the earth, or onto the ground, in the casting out of thyself, on the day on which thou were born.)