◄ Ezekiel 16:34 ►
So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite!
Study Bible
So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women:

In ancient Near Eastern cultures, prostitution was often a metaphor for idolatry and unfaithfulness to God. Typically, prostitutes were sought after and paid for their services. Here, the imagery is reversed to emphasize Israel's spiritual adultery. Unlike other nations that were pursued, Israel actively sought out foreign alliances and idolatrous practices, contrary to God's commands (Exodus 34:15-16). This highlights Israel's unique covenant relationship with God and their deliberate rebellion against it.

Hos 2:5 For their mother has played the harlot…
Jer 2:33 How skillfully you pursue love! Even the most immoral…
Pro 7:10-12 Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire…

No one solicited your favors,

This phrase underscores the idea that Israel was not pursued by other nations for alliances or idolatry; rather, they initiated these relationships. Historically, Israel was meant to be set apart as God's chosen people (Deuteronomy 7:6), yet they often sought the approval and practices of surrounding nations, contrary to their calling. This reflects a deeper spiritual truth about the human tendency to seek fulfillment outside of God's provision.

Hos 8:9 For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey…
Jer 2:25 You should have kept your feet from going bare…
Ezk 23:16-17 At the sight of them, she lusted for them…

and you paid a fee instead of receiving one;

In typical prostitution, the prostitute receives payment, but Israel is depicted as paying others to engage in idolatry and form alliances. This inversion illustrates the depth of Israel's spiritual degradation. It reflects the historical context where Israel, instead of relying on God, paid tribute to foreign powers like Assyria and Egypt for protection (2 Kings 16:7-9). This act of paying rather than receiving symbolizes the futility and cost of their unfaithfulness.

Mic 1:7 All her carved images will be smashed to pieces;…
Hos 9:1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations,…
Deu 23:18 You must not bring the wages of a prostitute…

so you are the very opposite!

This concluding phrase emphasizes the stark contrast between Israel's actions and the expected norm. It serves as a powerful indictment of their spiritual state. Theologically, it highlights the consequences of forsaking God's covenant and the reversal of roles that occurs when God's people abandon their unique identity. This passage serves as a warning and a call to repentance, urging a return to faithfulness and reliance on God alone.

Isa 1:21 See how the faithful city has become a harlot!…
Jer 3:20 But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed…

Persons / Places / Events
1. Ezekiel
A prophet of God who ministered to the Israelites during their Babylonian exile. He is known for his vivid visions and symbolic actions.

2. Jerusalem
The city personified as an unfaithful wife in Ezekiel 16, representing the people of Israel and their spiritual adultery against God.

3. God
The sovereign Lord who speaks through Ezekiel, expressing His judgment and disappointment over Israel's unfaithfulness.

4. Israelites
The people of God who have turned away from Him, engaging in idolatry and alliances with pagan nations, symbolized as prostitution.

5. Babylonian Exile
The historical context in which Ezekiel prophesied, a period of punishment and reflection for the Israelites due to their disobedience.
Teaching Points
Understanding Spiritual Adultery
Recognize that spiritual unfaithfulness is akin to adultery, where we replace God with idols or worldly pursuits.

The Cost of Sin
Sin often demands more from us than we realize, leading to spiritual bankruptcy rather than fulfillment.

God's Righteous Judgment
God's judgment is just and serves as a call to repentance and restoration.

The Opposite of Grace
Unlike grace, which is freely given, sin requires payment and leaves us empty, highlighting the futility of turning away from God.

Call to Repentance
This passage serves as a reminder to examine our lives, repent from idolatry, and return to a faithful relationship with God.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the metaphor of prostitution in Ezekiel 16:34 help us understand the severity of Israel's unfaithfulness to God?

2. In what ways do we see the concept of spiritual adultery manifest in today's world, and how can we guard against it?

3. How does the imagery in Ezekiel 16 compare to the messages in Hosea and Jeremiah regarding Israel's relationship with God?

4. What are some modern-day "idols" that can lead us away from a faithful relationship with God, and how can we identify them in our lives?

5. How can we apply the lessons from Ezekiel 16:34 to strengthen our commitment to God and avoid the pitfalls of spiritual unfaithfulness?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Hosea 1-3
Hosea's marriage to Gomer symbolizes Israel's unfaithfulness and God's enduring love, paralleling the themes in Ezekiel 16.

Jeremiah 3
Jeremiah also uses the metaphor of unfaithfulness to describe Israel's idolatry, reinforcing the message of spiritual adultery.

Revelation 17
The imagery of the great prostitute in Revelation echoes the themes of spiritual unfaithfulness and judgment found in Ezekiel 16.
Sermons
A Picture of Flagrant Apostasy from GodW. Jones Ezekiel 16:15-34
Inexcusable InfidelityJ.R. Thomson Ezekiel 16:15-59
Idolatry is Spiritual AdulteryJ.D. Davies Ezekiel 16:20-34
People
Aram, Assyrians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Ezekiel
Places
Chaldea, Jerusalem, Samaria, Sodom, Syria
Topics
A-whoring, Behaviour, Commerce, Commit, Contrary, Different, Favors, Followeth, Follows, Fornication, Gift, Givest, Giving, Goes, Harlot, Harlotries, Harlotry, Hire, Lewdness, Loose, Love, Money, None, Opposite, Payment, Play, Plays, Prostitute, Prostitution, Reward, Runs, Solicit, Solicited, Thus, Unlawful, Wast, Whereas, Whoredoms, Women
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ezekiel 16:1-63

     7241   Jerusalem, significance

Ezekiel 16:15-42

     8705   apostasy, in OT

Ezekiel 16:32-34

     5178   running

Ezekiel 16:33-34

     5861   favour, human

Library
How Saints May Help the Devil
One way in which sinners frequently excuse themselves is by endeavoring to get some apology for their own iniquities from the inconsistencies of God's people. This is the reason why there is much slander in the world. A true Christian is a rebuke to the sinner, wherever he goes he is a living protest against the evil of sin. Hence it is that the worldling makes a dead set upon a pious man. His language in his heart is, "He accuses me to my face; I cannot bear the sight of his holy character; it makes …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

Vile Ingratitude!
I. First, then, let us consider our iniquities--I mean those committed since conversion, those committed yesterday, and the day before, and to-day--and let us see their sinfulness in the light of what we were when the Lord first looked upon us. In the words of the prophet Ezekiel, observe what was our "birth and our nativity." He says of us, "Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canan. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite." Now, Canaan, as you know, was a cursed one, and the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 6: 1860

"Who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. "
Rom. viii. 1.--"Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is difficult to determine which of these is the greatest privilege of a Christian,--that he is delivered from condemnation, or that he is made to walk according to the Spirit, and made a new creature; whether we owe more to Christ for our justification, or sanctification: for he is made both to us: but it is more necessary to conjoin them together, than to compare them with each other. The one is not more necessary--to be delivered …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Humbled and Silenced by Mercy. Ezek 0. 711111111
 …
John Newton—Olney Hymns

For whom did Christ Die?
While man is in this condition Jesus interposes for his salvation. "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly"; "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," according to "his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins." The pith of my sermon will be an endeavour to declare that the reason of Christ's dying for us did not lie in our excellence; but where sin abounded grace did much more abound, for the persons for whom Jesus …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 20: 1874

The Use of Fear in Religion.
PROVERBS ix. 10.--"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Luke xii. 4, 5.--"And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him." The place which the feeling of fear ought to hold in the religious experience of mankind is variously assigned. Theories of religion are continually passing …
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

Certainty of Our Justification.
"Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."--Rom. iii. 24. The foregoing illustrations shed unexpected light upon the fact that God justifies the ungodly, and not him who is actually just in himself; and upon the word of Christ: "Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John xv. 3) They illustrate the significant fact that God does not determine our status according to what we are, but by the status to which He assigns us He determines …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Some Helps to Mourning
Having removed the obstructions, let me in the last place propound some helps to holy mourning. 1 Set David's prospect continually before you. My sin is ever before me' (Psalm 51:3). David, that he might be a mourner, kept his eye full upon sin. See what sin is, and then tell me if there be not enough in it to draw forth tears. I know not what name to give it bad enough. One calls it the devil's excrement. Sin is a complication of all evils. It is the spirits of mischief distilled. Sin dishonours …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

"And the Redeemer Shall Come unto Zion, and unto them that Turn,"
Isaiah lix. 20.--"And the Redeemer shall come unto Zion, and unto them that turn," &c. Doctrines, as things, have their seasons and times. Every thing is beautiful in its season. So there is no word of truth, but it hath a season and time in which it is beautiful. And indeed that is a great part of wisdom, to bring forth everything in its season, to discern when and where, and to whom it is pertinent and edifying, to speak such and such truths. But there is one doctrine that is never out of season, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Annunciation of Jesus the Messiah, and the Birth of his Forerunner.
FROM the Temple to Nazareth! It seems indeed most fitting that the Evangelic story should have taken its beginning within the Sanctuary, and at the time of sacrifice. Despite its outward veneration for them, the Temple, its services, and specially its sacrifices, were, by an inward logical necessity, fast becoming a superfluity for Rabbinism. But the new development, passing over the intruded elements, which were, after all, of rationalistic origin, connected its beginning directly with the Old Testament …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

"But Ye are not in the Flesh, but in the Spirit, if So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now, if any Man
Rom. viii. 9.--"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Application is the very life of the word, at least it is a necessary condition for the living operation of it. The application of the word to the hearts of hearers by preaching, and the application of your hearts again to the word by meditation, these two meeting together, and striking one upon another, will yield fire. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Covenant of Grace
Q-20: DID GOD LEAVE ALL MANKIND TO PERISH 1N THE ESTATE OF SIN AND MISERY? A: No! He entered into a covenant of grace to deliver the elect out of that state, and to bring them into a state of grace by a Redeemer. 'I will make an everlasting covenant with you.' Isa 55:5. Man being by his fall plunged into a labyrinth of misery, and having no way left to recover himself, God was pleased to enter into a new covenant with him, and to restore him to life by a Redeemer. The great proposition I shall go …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

An Exhortation to Love God
1. An exhortation. Let me earnestly persuade all who bear the name of Christians to become lovers of God. "O love the Lord, all ye his saints" (Psalm xxxi. 23). There are but few that love God: many give Him hypocritical kisses, but few love Him. It is not so easy to love God as most imagine. The affection of love is natural, but the grace is not. Men are by nature haters of God (Rom. i. 30). The wicked would flee from God; they would neither be under His rules, nor within His reach. They fear God, …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

Degrees of Sin
Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous? Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others. He that delivered me unto thee, has the greater sin.' John 19: 11. The Stoic philosophers held that all sins were equal; but this Scripture clearly holds forth that there is a gradual difference in sin; some are greater than others; some are mighty sins,' and crying sins.' Amos 5: 12; Gen 18: 21. Every sin has a voice to speak, but some …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

"And He is the Propitiation,"
1 John ii. 2.--"And he is the propitiation," &c. Here is the strength of Christ's plea, and ground of his advocation, that "he is the propitiation." The advocate is the priest, and the priest is the sacrifice, and such efficacy this sacrifice hath, that the propitiatory sacrifice may be called the very propitiation and pacification for sin. Here is the marrow of the gospel, and these are the breasts of consolation which any poor sinner might draw by faith, and bring out soul refreshment. But truly, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Spiced Wine of My Pomegranate;
OR, THE COMMUNION OF COMMUNICATION. I would cause Thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate."--Song of Solomon viii. 2.And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."--John i. 16. THE SPICED WINE OF MY POMEGRANATE. THE immovable basis of communion having been laid of old in the eternal union which subsisted between Christ and His elect, it only needed a fitting occasion to manifest itself in active development. The Lord Jesus had for ever delighted Himself with the …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come

The Section Chap. I. -iii.
The question which here above all engages our attention, and requires to be answered, is this: Whether that which is reported in these chapters did, or did not, actually and outwardly take place. The history of the inquiries connected with this question is found most fully in Marckius's "Diatribe de uxore fornicationum," Leyden, 1696, reprinted in the Commentary on the Minor Prophets by the same author. The various views may be divided into three classes. 1. It is maintained by very many interpreters, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Annunciation to Joseph of the Birth of Jesus.
(at Nazareth, b.c. 5.) ^A Matt. I. 18-25. ^a 18 Now the birth [The birth of Jesus is to handled with reverential awe. We are not to probe into its mysteries with presumptuous curiosity. The birth of common persons is mysterious enough (Eccl. ix. 5; Ps. cxxxix. 13-16), and we do not well, therefore, if we seek to be wise above what is written as to the birth of the Son of God] of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When his mother Mary had been betrothed [The Jews were usually betrothed ten or twelve months …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Epistle cxxii. To Rechared, King of the visigoths .
To Rechared, King of the Visigoths [82] . Gregory to Rechared, &c. I cannot express in words, most excellent son, how much I am delighted with thy work and thy life. For on hearing of the power of a new miracle in our days, to wit that the whole nation of the Goths has through thy Excellency been brought over from the error of Arian heresy to the firmness of a right faith, one is disposed to exclaim with the prophet, This is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High (Ps. lxxvi. 11 [83] …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Bunyan's Last Sermon --Preached July 1688.
"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;" John i. 13. The words have a dependence on what goes before, and therefore I must direct you to them for the right understanding of it. You have it thus,--"He came to his own, but his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God." In …
by John Bunyan—Miscellaneous Pieces

Effectual Calling
THE second qualification of the persons to whom this privilege in the text belongs, is, They are the called of God. All things work for good "to them who are called." Though this word called is placed in order after loving of God, yet in nature it goes before it. Love is first named, but not first wrought; we must be called of God, before we can love God. Calling is made (Rom. viii. 30) the middle link of the golden chain of salvation. It is placed between predestination and glorification; and if …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

Mr. Bunyan's Last Sermon:
Preached August 19TH, 1688 [ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR] This sermon, although very short, is peculiarly interesting: how it was preserved we are not told; but it bears strong marks of having been published from notes taken by one of the hearers. There is no proof that any memorandum or notes of this sermon was found in the autograph of the preacher. In the list of Bunyan's works published by Chas. Doe, at the end of the 'Heavenly Footman,' March 1690, it stands No. 44. He professes to give the title-page, …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Birth of Jesus.
(at Bethlehem of Judæa, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke II. 1-7. ^c 1 Now it came to pass in those days [the days of the birth of John the Baptist], there went out a decree [a law] from Cæsar Augustus [Octavius, or Augustus, Cæsar was the nephew of and successor to Julius Cæsar. He took the name Augustus in compliment to his own greatness; and our month August is named for him; its old name being Sextilis], that all the world should be enrolled. [This enrollment or census was the first step …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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