Ezekiel 16:15

"But thou didst trust in thy beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and poured out thy whoredoms on every one that passed by; his it was. And thou didst take of thy garments, and madest for thee high places decked with divers colors, and playedst the harlot upon them: like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. Thou didst also take thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest for thee images of men, and didst play the harlot with them; and thou tookest thy broidered garments and coveredst them, and didst set my oil and my incense before them."

THE SHAMEFUL PROFLIGACY OF ISRAEL

This extensive paragraph encompasses Ezekiel 16:15-34, but we shall subdivide it.

"Playedst the harlot ... poured out thy whoredoms ..." (Ezekiel 16:15). Although the particular sins of Israel mentioned in this long paragraph are here listed as "whoredoms," the reference is inclusive of such things as seeking alliances with foreign nations, and the adoption of the religious idols and customs of the pagan world around them. Nevertheless, the allegory is very proper and accurate, because, as May noted, "As in Hosea and other prophets, such terminology here carries with it a connotation of association with the sexual rites of the Canaanite cults."[20] The unbelievable licentiousness which marked the worship of the various fertility gods and goddesses was extremely immoral and depraved.

"God had warned Israel not to forget him when she came into all the benefits that he would give her in the Promised land (Deuteronomy 6:10-12);"[21] But no sooner had God given them a magnificent and glorious kingdom under Solomon, than the nation, led by the scandalous Solomon, did exactly what is outlined here. "They committed spiritual adultery with every nation on earth"[22] Solomon had seven hundred wives, each of them representing an alliance he had made with some foreign state or principality, and three hundred concubines. This was not merely "spiritual adultery." It was unmitigated, lustful adultery practiced on a Gargantuan scale. There's no better word for it than the harsh realism of this allegory. All of that reprehensible conduct showed that Israel was no longer trusting God who had so richly blessed them. They were trusting their own ability to take care of themselves by their alliances with other states.

The evil outlined in this long paragraph, "Began when Israel adopted the Canaanite sanctuaries of Palestine (Jeremiah 2:5-7, also 5:28 here)";[23] but, as noted in the previous paragraph, it was Solomon who brought the whole pantheon of pagan gods into Israel. All of Solomon's pagan wives brought their own religion, their own pagan priests, and all of the evil practices of their religion. And of course, Solomon built every one of them a temple, or shrine, or high place. There is nothing more scandalous than Solomon's debauchery of the whole nation.

"And madest for thee images of men ..." (Ezekiel 16:17). "There is reference here to a certain form of very abominable idolatry, namely, the worship of the phallus, or the membrum virile, which the Egyptians regarded as the emblem of fecundity, and which is still licentiously worshipped by the Hindus under the name of lingam."[24]

These verses stress the fact that it was the very gifts of God Himself which the Israelites used to construct their pagan shrines and to be wasted in pagan worship. "This was a crowning aggravation of their guilt, that the very valuables designed for God's worship were prostituted in the worship of his pagan rivals."[25]