Ezekiel 16:42, commentary and pictures

The verse declares the end of the Lord's judgment upon Jerusalem for breaking her marriage covenant with Him, when His fury and jealousy rest in her contempt, wretchedness and final desolation. It belongs to a strong parable rebuking the apostasy of Judah and Israel under the figure of lewd women, where the marriage portrays the covenant union of God's people with their Lord as husband to wife. A harlot is the symbol of a corrupt church, exemplified when the Jewish church once espoused to the Lord turned from Him to join herself to surrounding nations and worship their gods. That adultery is God's espoused church seeking unlawful union and friendship with the world and with the kings of the earth in backsliding, idolatry and mixture of righteousness with sin. The same unlawful union makes Babylon the great harlot of Revelation 17, the entire universal worldly corrupt church.

Context and Judgment

Ezekiel 16:42 stands within chapters 14-17, which are awful messages of warning and reproof directed to sinners among God's own people. Ezekiel prophesied among the captives of Israel between 595 and 574, beginning and closing his work just a little later than Jeremiah, and he belonged to the priestly family. Before his prophetic work began God revealed His glory to him in wonderful visions, and the great majesty of God was so impressed upon him that, having seen God, he would not fear the face of man when sent with those messages.

The chapter is a strong parable rebuking the apostasy of Judah and Israel under the figure of lewd women, showing sin's awful wickedness and God's earnest plea for His children to turn to Him. Its marriage language represents the union of God's people with their Lord under His covenant, together with their unfaithfulness and reliance on others and the Lord's response. In that figure the Lord is the husband and the land, Jerusalem, is the wife and the people are the children.

The verse marks the end of the Lord's judgment on Jerusalem for breaking her marriage covenant with Him, with His fury and jealousy coming to rest in her contempt, wretchedness and final desolation after her wanton violation of wedlock and the withdrawal of His gifts and tokens of affection. It belongs to God's response to Israel's unfaithfulness, in which backsliding, idolatry, and turning from God are presented as adultery. It belongs to the account of the Jewish church's fall and rejection by God, and its declaration that God's anger and jealousy would cease belongs to that judgment, while her destruction was deferred for a considerable time.

It belongs to the old covenant pattern in which Jerusalem knew her abominations, and it prepares for a later marriage under an everlasting covenant that restores Jerusalem to the Lord with her sisters Samaria and Sodom. That restoration denotes receiving the Jerusalem that is to be His throne when the kingdom is the Lord's, the Jerusalem called by a new name under the new covenant. The chapter's marriage language does not mean that the marriage of the Lamb has been taking place throughout history, since that event is at the end.

Harlot Church Symbolism

A harlot is the symbol of a corrupt church. The Jewish church, once represented as espoused to the Lord, exemplifies this by becoming unfaithful and turning from God to seek an unlawful relationship with the world. Jerusalem portrayed as an unfaithful woman symbolizes the spiritual unfaithfulness of the apostate people when God's chosen people joined themselves to surrounding nations and worshiped their gods.

That adultery is God's church, though espoused to God alone, joining with the world and seeking the friendship of the world in unlawful union with the kings of the earth. It is Israel's backsliding, idolatry, and turning from God, turning toward Babylon and casting off God's precepts. It is mixing righteousness with sin, or heaven with earth, which is spiritual adultery, and union of God's church with the world is fornication and adultery against God. The same unlawful union constitutes Babylon the great harlot of Revelation 17 as the entire universal worldly church, understood as the broad, worldly, corrupt church rather than a single ecclesiastical body.