Ezekiel 16:39, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 16:39 belongs to a parable in which Jerusalem, the Jewish church once espoused to the Lord as wife to a husband, stands as the symbol of a corrupt, fallen, apostate church among the professed people of God. Her harlotry was apostasy from God by breaking His covenant through unlawful friendship and union with the world, joining herself to surrounding nations and the kings of the earth, worshiping their gods, and seeking their power instead of seeking the Lord. Her building the eminent place and high places was that turning to Babylon and the world in spiritual adultery, and her punishment is the withdrawing of His gifts, the throwing down of her eminent place and high places, and her stripping of clothes and fair jewels to leave her contemptible, wretched, naked, bare, and desolate. That fall means rejection by God rather than immediate destruction, for her destruction was deferred and came only after a considerable period, and in the same manner it illustrates the fall of Babylon announced in the second angel's message as a moral fall and rejection by God, not physical destruction. Therefore when God's church, espoused to Christ as a chaste virgin to one husband, turns from Him and joins itself to the world, it becomes an unfaithful woman and harlot, for union with the world is fornication and adultery against God.

Symbol and Setting in Ezekiel

Ezekiel 16:39 stands within a parable in which a lewd, unfaithful woman is the symbol of a corrupt, fallen, apostate church. The combined figure of a city and a woman represents a church, or the professed people of God. As Jerusalem is portrayed as a lewd woman playing the harlot with many lovers, the meaning is the chosen people apostatizing from God and joining themselves to surrounding nations and worshiping their gods.

The woman is Jerusalem, Judah and Israel, the Jewish church once espoused to the Lord. The figure sets the Lord as husband, the land or Jerusalem as wife, and the people as children. Her becoming an unfaithful harlot was apostasy after espousal to the Lord.

That harlotry was apostasy from God by unlawful friendship and union with the world. It was seeking the friendship of the world through unlawful union with the kings of the earth, in the same manner as the Babylon of Revelation 17. It meant joining surrounding nations, worshiping their gods, and, after breaking the covenant He had made with them, relying on another rather than Him.

Building the eminent place and high places represents turning from God's precepts to follow Babylon and the world. It portrays alliance with Babylon as spiritual adultery, by which Israel and Babylon came to share the same life. It is the prototype of an apostate church seeking the power of earthly rulers instead of seeking the Lord. It shows the attempt to mix devotion to God with the world as a corrupt union of righteousness and sin, with idolatry and departure from God set forth as adultery.

The chapter is a strong parable rebuking the apostasy of Judah and Israel and showing the wickedness of sin. It portrays the grave sins of Judah and Israel through the figure of an unfaithful woman, giving searching moral instruction. In it God earnestly pleads with His people to turn to Him while exposing backsliding and idolatry as adultery.

Judgment and Restoration Promised

The verse sets forth part of the punishment of Jerusalem as an unfaithful wife for violating wedlock. She had broken covenant love shown in promise, covenant, gifts and beauty, and therefore her gifts were withdrawn. Her eminent place was thrown down and her high places were broken down, and she was stripped of clothes and fair jewels and left contemptible, wretched, outcast, naked, bare and desolate.

Her fall in this sense was rejection by God rather than immediate destruction. Her destruction was deferred and came only after a considerable period afterward.

That desolation is followed by marriage under an everlasting covenant that restores Jerusalem to the Lord together with Samaria and Sodom. This denotes Christ receiving the Jerusalem that is to be His throne when the kingdom is the Lord's. It is the new-name Jerusalem under the new covenant.

The marriage imagery concerns the people's covenant relationship to the Lord, in which He made a covenant with them but they broke it and relied on another. It does not establish that the marriage of the Lamb has been taking place throughout the ages.

Babylon and Present Warning

Ezekiel 16 shows a harlot to be the symbol of a corrupt church, portraying the Jewish church espoused to the Lord and becoming a harlot by seeking the friendship of the world through unlawful union with the kings of the earth. In this she became a harlot in the same manner as the Babylon of Revelation 17. Her fall illustrates the fall of Babylon announced in the second angel's message. That fall is a moral fall and rejection by God, not physical destruction or immediate destruction, for her destruction was deferred and came only after a considerable period afterward.

The harlot in Revelation therefore represents corrupt religious bodies rather than a literal woman or city, since a woman is the symbol of the church and a harlot the symbol of a corrupt church. Babylon the great harlot is not the earthly power of human government nor an abstract evil, but a distinct corrupt professedly religious body unlawfully united with the kings of the earth. The people of God are still in her just before her overthrow.

God's church, when it turns from Him and joins itself to the world, becomes an unfaithful woman and a harlot. This is because God is married to His church as a husband and has espoused her to Christ as a chaste virgin to one husband. Union of His church with the world is therefore fornication and adultery and unfaithfulness to God.