Ezekiel 16:47

47 But thou wentest not in the ways of them, neither thou didest after the great trespasses of them; hast thou done almost a little less curseder deeds than they, in all thy ways? (But wentest thou not in their ways, and didest thou not after their great trespasses? hast thou done any less cursed deeds than they, in all thy 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 Thou art the daughter of thy mother, that casted away her husband and her sons; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, that casted away their husbands and their sons. Thy mother is (an) Hittite, and thy father is (an) Amorite;
46 and thy greater sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, that dwell at thy left side; but thy sister less than thou, that dwelleth at thy right side, is Sodom, and her daughters. (and thy elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, that live at thy left side, or to the north; and thy younger sister, that liveth at thy right side, or to the south, is Sodom, and her daughters.)
47 But thou wentest not in the ways of them, neither thou didest after the great trespasses of them; hast thou done almost a little less curseder deeds than they, in all thy ways? (But wentest thou not in their ways, and didest thou not after their great trespasses? hast thou done any less cursed deeds than they, in all thy ways?)
48 (Yea, as) I live, saith the Lord God, for Sodom, thy sister, did not, she and her daughters (neither she nor her daughters), as thou didest, and thy daughters.
49 Lo! this was the wickedness of Sodom, thy sister, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance, and (the) idleness of her, and of her daughters; and they putted not hand to a needy man and poor (and they gave not their hand, or their help, to the poor and the needy).
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.