37 therefore , behold , I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure , even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated . So I will gather them against you from every direction and expose your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness . 38 "Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged ; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy . 39 "I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines , demolish your high places , strip you of your clothing , take away your jewels e , and will leave you naked and bare . 40 "They will incite a crowd against you and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords . 41 "They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women . Then I will stop you from playing the harlot , and you will also no longer pay your lovers . 42 "So I will calm My fury against you and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be pacified and angry no more . 43 "Because e you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me by all these things , behold , I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head ," declares the Lord GOD , "so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations .
44 "Behold , everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying , 'Like mother , like daughter .'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ezekiel 16:37-44
Commentary on Ezekiel 16:1-58
(Read Ezekiel 16:1-58)
In this chapter God's dealings with the Jewish nation, and their conduct towards him, are described, and their punishment through the surrounding nations, even those they most trusted in. This is done under the parable of an exposed infant rescued from death, educated, espoused, and richly provided for, but afterwards guilty of the most abandoned conduct, and punished for it; yet at last received into favour, and ashamed of her base conduct. We are not to judge of these expressions by modern ideas, but by those of the times and places in which they were used, where many of them would not sound as they do to us. The design was to raise hatred to idolatry, and such a parable was well suited for that purpose.