Ezekiel 16:30, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel spoke as God's mouthpiece to the captives in Babylonia to warn and reprove sinners among them, and this chapter is a strong parable rebuking the apostasy of Judah and Israel through the figure of a lewd woman and pleading with them to turn back to God. It is an allegory of marriage in which the Lord is the husband and Jerusalem is the wife joined to Him in covenant, who then broke that holy bond by turning to another and was left contemptible and desolate. Her heart is called weak because with a bold and imperious spirit she abandoned God and His precepts and gave herself to persistent spiritual adultery, which is backsliding from His law and worship to idolatry and false religion by mixing righteousness with sin. A lewd and corrupt woman is the symbol of a corrupt, fallen, apostate church, just as a pure woman is the symbol of the true church, and the Jewish church once espoused to the Lord became such a harlot by seeking the friendship of the world, joining herself to the surrounding nations and their gods, and entering into unlawful connection with the kings of the earth in the same manner as the Babylon of Revelation. Any union of God's church with the world in which it turns from exclusive faithfulness to God to seek the support of earthly powers is fornication and adultery, and this helps identify the great harlot Babylon as a corrupt professedly religious body distinct from yet unlawfully united with the kings of the earth rather than civil government itself or a single church body.

Setting and Imagery

Ezekiel's messages of warning and reproof were addressed to sinners among the Israelite captives, and he prophesied among them between 595 and 574 BC. The verse falls within the first twenty chapters of the book, where he served as God's mouthpiece among the captives in Babylonia by the river Chebar. It belongs to a strong parable rebuking the apostasy of Judah and Israel, condemning their sin and showing God earnestly pleading with them to turn back to Him. The chapter portrays Judah's awful sins through the figure of a lewd woman, as part of searching moral instruction.

The passage is an allegory of marriage in which the Lord is the husband, Jerusalem or the land is the wife, and the people are her children. It describes the Lord's covenant relationship with His people, Jerusalem's marriage to Him, her breaking of that holy bond by turning to another, losing the gifts given to her, and being left contemptible and desolate. Its image of an unfaithful wife portrays the people's departure from the Lord. Its marriage language by itself does not identify the bride in the marriage of the Lamb at the end.

The weak heart means persistent spiritual adultery carried out with a bold, imperious spirit. Jerusalem's heart is called weak because she abandoned God, cast off His precepts, followed Babylon, and joined herself to the world. Union of God's church with the world is fornication and adultery, the work of a bold unfaithful woman done with a weak heart. The image of prostitution represents apostasy and backsliding from God, especially turning from God's law and worship to idolatrous or false religious groups. Departures from God and idolatry, mixing heaven with earth and righteousness with sin, are spiritual adultery. It does not describe a church's use of civil laws for its temporal affairs as spiritual fornication.

Apostate Church and Babylon

A lewd, corrupt and licentious woman, a harlot, is the symbol of a corrupt, fallen, apostate church, just as a pure woman is the symbol of the true church. The combined symbol of a city and a woman is the chosen representative of a church, or the professed people of God. This figure of a lewd woman as a corrupt or apostate church explains the woman symbol used for Babylon in Revelation 17.

The Jewish church was once espoused to the Lord and became a harlot through unfaithfulness and apostasy from God. In the same manner as the Babylon of Revelation, she entered into unlawful connection with the kings of the earth and sought the friendship of the world. She joined herself to the surrounding nations and worshiped their gods, and so became a false, corrupt professed people, professedly allied to God but really united to the world.

Any union of God's church with the world is fornication and adultery, the work of a bold unfaithful woman done with a weak heart. It is a sign of backsliding from God, in which an apostate church turns from exclusive faithfulness to God and joins itself to the world. Such an apostate church turns from God and seeks the support of earthly powers instead of seeking the Lord. Israel's spiritual unfaithfulness in this portrait is the prototype of such an apostate church.

The Jewish church's fall as such an unfaithful woman who became a harlot through apostasy was her rejection by God, while her destruction was deferred for a considerable time and comes later. This symbolism identifies the harlot Babylon as the corrupt professed church rather than a single church body. Babylon, called the great harlot in Revelation, is not the earthly power of human government and not an abstract evil, but a corrupt professedly religious body, distinct from the kings of the earth though unlawfully united with them. The woman as a symbol of a church in Ezekiel 16 is the same prophetic image also used for Babylon in Revelation 17.