EZEKIEL 16-20

Chapter 16:

:38 I will judge you as women who break wedlock.

A wife leaving a husband is, in God's eyes, worthy of judgment.



Ezekiel 16:44 - 52 (NASB) ⁴⁴“Behold, everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ ⁴⁵“You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶“Now your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. ⁴⁷“Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your conduct than they. ⁴⁸“As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹“Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰“Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it. ⁵¹“Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have committed. ⁵²“Also bear your disgrace in that you have made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your disgrace, in that you made your sisters appear righteous.


There is hope, though, for Israel:

Ezekiel 16:60 - 63 (NASB) ⁶⁰“Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. ⁶¹“Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. ⁶²“Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, ⁶³so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,” the Lord GOD declares.


17:15

Ezekiel 17:15 (NASB) ¹⁵‘But he rebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt that they might give him horses and many troops. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Can he indeed break the covenant and escape?

Chapter 18

Ezekiel 18:3 - 4 (NASB) ³“As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. ⁴“Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.


Ezekiel 18:21 - 23 (NASB) ²¹“But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ²²“All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his righteousness which he has practiced, he will live. ²³“Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord GOD, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?


Ezekiel 18:31 - 32 (NASB) ³¹“Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? ³²“For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord GOD. “Therefore, repent and live.”

CHAPTER 20

The purpose of Sabbaths:

Ezekiel 20:12 - 17 (NASB) ¹²“Also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. ¹³“But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; and My sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness, to annihilate them. ¹⁴“But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, before whose sight I had brought them out. ¹⁵“Also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, ¹⁶because they rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they did not walk in them; they even profaned My sabbaths, for their heart continually went after their idols. ¹⁷“Yet My eye spared them rather than destroying them, and I did not cause their annihilation in the wilderness.


Ezekiel 20:20 - 21 (NASB) ²⁰‘Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’ ²¹“But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes, nor were they careful to observe My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; they profaned My sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath on them, to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness.