Ezekiel 16:29

29 So you extended your promiscuity to Chaldea, ^[a] the land of merchants—but even with this you were not satisfied!

Ezekiel 16:29 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 16:29

Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of
Canaan
Or, "with the land of Canaan" ^F12; with the inhabitants of it, doing the same evils, committing the same idolatries, as the old inhabitants of Canaan did; and so the Targum,

``and thou hast multiplied thine idols, that thou mightest be joined to the people of Canaan:''

or, "to the land of Canaan" ^F13; like to the land of Canaan; according to the abominations of the Canaanites, doing as they did. Jarchi takes the word Canaan to signify a "merchant", as it does in ( Hosea 12:7 ) ; and the land of Canaan to be the same with the land of Chaldea, called a land of traffic, and Babylon the city of merchants, ( Ezekiel 17:4 ) ; since it follows, unto Chaldea:
but the sense is, that the Jews were not content with the idolatries in the land of Canaan, but sent even to Chaldea, a remote country, to fetch new idols from thence; see ( Ezekiel 23:14-16 ) . The Targum is,

``to walk in the laws of the Chaldeans;''

their religious ones, their rites and ceremonies respecting idolatrous worship: and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith;
but still wanted other idols and modes of worship; not being content with the gods of the Egyptians, nor of the Assyrians, nor of the Canaanites, nor of the Chaldeans.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 (Nenk Ura la) "cum terra Canaan", Munster, so some in Vatablus, Tigurine version, Noldius, p. 39. No. 288.
F13 "ad terram Canaan", so some in Vatablus. Approved by Kimchi and Ben Melech.

Ezekiel 16:29 In-Context

27 Therefore I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct.

28 Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied.

29 So you extended your promiscuity to Chaldea, the land of merchants—but even with this you were not satisfied!

30 How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute!

31 But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or Babylonia