Ezekiel 16:16 | |
16. And of thy garments you did take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colors, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. | 16. Et sumpsisti e vestibus tuis, et fecisti tibi excelsa conspersa maculis,1 et scortata es cum illis: non venientes:2 deinde et non erit. |
He says that the Jews erected houses of ill fame for themselves; and the language is mixed, because the Prophet, expresses simply the kind of harlotry of which he is speaking, and yet in the meantime mingles another figure; for he says that they took garments and made themselves altars. No doubt he compares the high places to tents, just as if a harlot wished to attract a number of eyes to herself, and, through desire of a crowd, should place her standard on a lofty place. So also the Prophet says that the Jews, when they gave themselves up to fornication, made high places for themselves. When he says high places with different colors, some refer this to ornaments; yet it may be taken in a bad sense, since those high places were stained, so that they could be distinguished from chase and modest dwellings; as if he had said, If you had been a modest woman, you had remained in retirement at home, as honest matrons do, and you would not have done anything to attract men to thee; but you has erected thy high places, like conspicuous houses of ill fame, as if a female, forgetful of modesty and delicacy, should set up a sign, and show her house to be open to all, and especially to her own adulterers. It seems to me that the Prophet intends this; for when he adds, that they committed fornication with them, he means doubtless with their lovers, and all besides; but this is not the sense of the words
PRAYER.
Grant, Almighty God, that we may diligently consider in how many ways we are bound to thee, and may deservedly magnify thy fatherly indulgence towards us, so that in return we may desire to devote ourselves to thee: Grant also, that as you have adorned us with thy glory, we may endeavor to glorify thy name, until at length we arrive at the enjoyment of that eternal glory which you have prepared for us in heaven by Christ our Lord. -- Amen.
Lecture Forty-Fourth.
1 Or, "tinged with divers colors," as some translate. -- Calvin.
2 But it is in the feminine gender. -- Calvin.