Ezekiel 16:4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

As for thy nativity, &c. “Jerusalem is here represented under the image of an exposed infant, whom God preserved from destruction, brought up, espoused and exalted in sovereignty. But she proved faithless and abandoned; and therefore God threatens her with severe vengeance, but graciously promises that afterward he would fulfil his early covenant with her. The allegory is easily understood; and has much force, liveliness, and vehemence of eloquent amplification. The images are adapted to a people immersed in sensuality.” Bishop Newcome. Thy navel was not cut The navel-string, by which thou wast held to the body of thy mother, none took care to cut. By this and the other metaphorical expressions in this and the next verse, the prophet hints how despised a people Israel was, and in what a forlorn condition when they went first into Egypt. Neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee Hebrew, למשׁעי, ad aspectum meum, as Buxtorf renders it, that is, when I first beheld thee, or, ut jucunda aspectu esses, that thou mightest be pleasant to behold. Some render it, To make thee shine. The meaning is, to cleanse thee from the pollutions of thy birth. Thou wast not salted at all It seems it was then customary to rub new-born infants over with salt; probably to dry up the humours of their bodies. All the expressions here used allude to the custom observed by the eastern nations at the birth of their children; and “the design of the prophet is to mark out that state of impurity wherein the Hebrews were found in Egypt, plunged in idolatry and ignorance, and oppressed with cruel servitude.”