Ezekiel 16:40, commentary and pictures

The verse shows the judgment on unfaithful Jerusalem as a violent assault in which enemies are brought against her to stone her with stones and thrust her through with swords, leaving her in contempt, wretchedness and desolation as an outcast. In the allegory the Lord is the husband and Jerusalem the wife, whom He loved, covenanted with, gifted and beautified, but she wantonly broke the covenant and violated the marriage bond by relying on another. A woman stands for the church, and a harlot or lewd woman stands for a corrupt, fallen and apostate church, as the Jewish church espoused to the Lord became a harlot by turning from Him to many lovers among the nations and their gods. She fell in the same manner as Babylon, by seeking the friendship of the world through unlawful union with the kings of the earth and turning to earthly powers for help instead of seeking the Lord. This judgment under the old covenant is set against restoration under an everlasting covenant, when restored Jerusalem denotes Christ receiving the New Jerusalem for His throne, showing that the harlot of Revelation 17 is a professedly religious, ecclesiastical body and not civil power itself.

Allegory and Punishment

Ezekiel 16 is a strong parable rebuking the apostasy of Judah and Israel and showing the awful wickedness of sin by picturing their sins under the figure of lewd women. In it Jerusalem is caused to know her abominations in Ezekiel 16:15-43. The verse belongs to the judgment against the unfaithful people in that parable.

In the allegory the Lord is the husband, the land or Jerusalem is the wife, and the people are the children. After love at first sight, covenant promise, gifts and beautifying, Jerusalem wantonly broke the covenant, violated the holy ties of wedlock and the marriage bond with the Lord, and relied on another. The chapter is an Old Testament picture of the Lord's marriage bond with his people, in which they became his.

The verse depicts the punishment of the unfaithful people and of the Jewish church as an unfaithful wife who turned from God, as a violent assault in which enemies are brought against her. A hostile company, a company attacking and killing her, stones her with stones and thrusts her through with swords, stoning and killing them. This leaves her in contempt, wretchedness, and desolation as an outcast, ending in final desolation.

Her fall was her rejection by God, while her destruction came later and was deferred for a considerable time after that rejection. The stoning and killing by the company is that destruction which followed the rejection after a delay.

This judgment under the old covenant is contrasted with marriage and restoration under an everlasting covenant by which Jerusalem is restored to the Lord. Jerusalem restored to the Lord denotes Christ receiving the New Jerusalem to be his throne when the kingdom is the Lord's, in connection with the restoration of her sisters Samaria and Sodom. What old Jerusalem was under the old covenant the Jerusalem called by a new name will be under the new covenant. It is not the marriage of the Lamb at the end.

Symbol of Apostate Church

A woman is the symbol of the church, and a harlot, immoral woman, or lewd woman is the symbol of a corrupt, fallen, and apostate church. The Jewish church was espoused to the Lord and became a harlot through apostasy, with apostate Jerusalem as God's people turned from Him who joined themselves to surrounding nations and their gods and prostituted herself to many lovers. That turning is set forth as an unfaithful wife turning from God and meeting apostasy in the assault and killing brought upon her by an attacking company.

She fell in the same manner as Babylon, by seeking the friendship of the world through unlawful union with the kings of the earth. Judah turned from God her husband to Babylon and the world, rejecting God's precepts and joining in Babylon's way of life, and God's church is portrayed as an unfaithful woman when she joins herself to the world. That turning to earthly powers for help instead of seeking the Lord belongs to the prophetic picture of Israel's apostasy and judgment, which serves as a prototype of the apostate church's course.

This makes the harlot in Revelation a symbol of the corrupt church rather than a literal woman, for Babylon the great harlot is a professedly religious body distinct from the kings of the earth and not earthly civil power itself, supporting the identification of the woman in Revelation 17 as an ecclesiastical body. The church's unfaithful union with the world is called fornication and adultery, and the verse belongs both to the warning against that union and to the description of God's judgment upon it. Israel's backsliding, idolatry, and departure from God are adultery, showing that mixing righteousness with sin is spiritual adultery.