Ezekiel 16:17 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Thy fair jewels; she forgot the property was in God, she reckoned them her own. The word in Hebrew is of larger extent, and includes vessels, instruments, furniture of all sorts, with which, she was abundantly stored, even from their departure out of Egypt, when they spoiled the Egyptians, Exodus 11:2, where the selfsame phrase is used, and more since Solomon made gold and silver so common in Jerusalem, with which they made vessels for use, and furniture of all sorts for ornament. My gold: the greater was the sin of this harlot, her ingratitude, and her injustice, that she robbed God, committed sacrilege, that she might have idols with which to defile herself by her idolatry. I had given thee: had she received them of any other hand, the wrong had been the less; but she received them, every one of them, of the hand of God: lie gave her what the Egyptians lent, what David won from enemies, and what Solomon brought in by traffic; so Ho 2 aggravates Israel's idolatry. Madest; brutish stupidity! to make an idol, and account it a god! Images; statues, molten and graven images; not one single image, but many; so idolatry, as adultery, is boundless. Of men: idolaters had male and female idols; and this idolatress here, as mostly they did, doted on male idols. It is not unlike to that Ezekiel 8:14, which see. And possibly the Egyptian idolatry with Osiris or Adonis may be noted, or some more lewd image or portrait of Priapus, which might be confirmed from Ezekiel 16:26, Ezekiel 23:19,20. Didst commit whoredom with them; provoked by such representations to speculative uncleanness, and prepared for bodily uncleanness also, and proceeding to spiritual adultery with these shameful images.

Ezekiel 16:17

17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men,g and didst commit whoredom with them,