Ezekiel 16:33, commentary and pictures

A woman stands for a church, and a lewd woman stands for a corrupt, fallen church, here the Jewish church once joined to the Lord turned harlot by joining herself to the surrounding nations and their gods. Contrary to custom, where lovers pay the prostitute, she pays her lovers and hires them to come to her from every side. That paying shows actively seeking and buying the favor and alliance of worldly powers and taking up their ways instead of keeping God's precepts and remaining devoted to Him as a wife to her husband. So the professed Christian church likewise becomes Babylon the great harlot, a false church professedly allied to Christ but really united to the world through unlawful connection with the kings of the earth, even courting the state to enforce its doctrines. Her fall is a moral fall by rejection from God, not her immediate destruction, as with the Jewish church in refusing Christ at His first advent.

Unfaithful Wife and Gifts

A woman is the symbol of a church, and a harlot or lewd and licentious woman is the symbol of a corrupt, fallen, apostate church. The chapter portrays the Jewish church, once espoused to the Lord, becoming a harlot through unfaithfulness to God and unlawful attachment to the world, with corruption coming by unlawful connection with the kings of the earth through seeking the friendship of the world. Jerusalem as a harlot with many lovers means the chosen people apostatized and joined themselves to the surrounding nations and worshiped their gods. The combined symbol of a city and a woman means a church or the professed people of God, with Jerusalem above as the mother of all true believers.

The Lord is the husband, the land or Jerusalem is the wife, and the people are the children. Ezekiel 16:15-43 shows wanton violation of the wedlock covenant followed by withdrawal of gifts, contempt and wretchedness as an outcast, and final desolation. That desolation is reversed when marriage under an everlasting covenant restores Jerusalem in connection with the restoration of her sisters Samaria and Sodom, denoting Christ receiving the New Jerusalem to be his throne when the kingdom is the Lord's as the new-covenant fulfillment of what old Jerusalem was under the old covenant. The marriage imagery describes the Lord's covenant in which the people became his but broke that covenant, turned from him and relied on another. It describes the people's present relationship to the Lord, not the marriage of the Lamb at the end of time.

Unlike the custom in which prostitutes receive gifts from their lovers, Jerusalem gives gifts and rewards to all her lovers and hires them to come to her on every side. Giving gifts to lovers shows active seeking and paying for alliances with foreign powers and adopting their ways. It is rejection of God's precepts for the world's influence and seeking the favor of worldly powers, reversing the faithful relation of a wife to her husband.

The chapter is a strong parable rebuking the apostasy of Judah and Israel and showing the awful wickedness of sin, with earnest pleading to turn to God. Backsliding, conformity to the world, idolatry and departures from God are represented as adultery that mixes heaven with earth and righteousness with sin.

Babylon's Corruption and Fall

The harlot figure establishes that a harlot is the symbol of a corrupt church just as a woman is the symbol of a church, and this supports identifying the woman called Babylon in Revelation 17 as a corrupt church rather than a literal city. Babylon the great harlot is not earthly human government or civil power as an abstraction, but a corrupt, professedly religious body unlawfully united with the kings of the earth yet distinct from them. As the Jewish church espoused to the Lord became a harlot, so the professed Christian church becomes the great harlot Babylon, and corruption comes by unlawful connection with the kings of the earth through seeking the friendship of the world. Jerusalem as a harlot with many lovers means the chosen people apostatized from Him and joined themselves to the surrounding nations and worshiped their gods, and the combined symbol of a city and a woman means a church or the professed people of God. Zion or Jerusalem above is the mother of all true believers, while the false church professedly allied to Christ but really united to the world is Babylon the great the mother of harlots.

Spiritual fornication figured by prostitution means departing from God's law and worship to form an unlawful connection with idolatrous or false religious groups, not using civil laws to manage the church's temporal affairs. The church is lawfully married to God alone, so union of God's church with the world is fornication and adultery that breaks that marriage and is unfaithfulness to Him. A church joined to the world instead of remaining devoted to God is counted a harlot, for God's people give themselves to worldly powers and seek their favor, reversing the faithful relation of a wife to her husband.

Unlike the custom in which an ordinary prostitute receives gifts from her lovers, Jerusalem gives gifts and rewards to all her lovers and hires them to come to her on every side to draw them to her. Giving gifts to lovers shows apostasy as an unfaithful people actively seeking and paying for alliances with surrounding powers, and the image is applied to churches that court the State and offer enticements in pursuit of civil enforcement for their religious doctrines. The church's appeal to earthly kings for help in promoting a false gospel is the same spiritual unfaithfulness as paying lovers and seeking their favor instead of merely receiving gifts from them. Her fall illustrates the fall of Babylon: the Jewish church's fall as a harlot espoused to the Lord was her rejection by God for refusing Christ at His first advent, not her destruction, for her destruction was deferred for a considerable period and that rejection preceded its destruction by a considerable time. Likewise Babylon's fall is a moral fall by rejection and not destruction, since the people of God are still in Babylon after her fall and are then called out before her plagues and destruction by fire come.