Page 75 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XVI. 69
grounds of sovereign grace. As things were then,
the prophet could but announce 44 I will make the
land desolate, because they have trespassed a trespass,
saith the Lord Jehovah.”

CHAPTER XVI.
I f in the preceding chapter the symbol of the fruitless
vine destined only for the fire set forth the negative
side of Jerusalem’s condition with its sure consequences,
its positive iniquity is vividly represented in the alle­
gory of our chapter. “ Again the word of Jehovah
came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to
know her abominations.” (Yer. 1, 2.)
As the chosen people were intended and bound to
supplant the nations which the land spued out because
of their abominations, no figure can be conceived more
cutting than that which represents the origin and
nativity of Jerusalem to be of Canaan, with the
Amorite for a father and the Hittite a mother. (Yer. 3.)
It is of course moral, not historical: so Isaiah branded
the rulers as 44 of Sodom,” and the people as 44 of Go­
morrah.” From the earliest days we see how the two
races specified by Ezekiel stood in the eyes of the
fathers. (Gen^xv. 16; xxvii. 46.)
But scripture itself shews us that a base birth can­
not bind to evil where God is drawn and leant on in
the least. How was it here ? A wretched outcast void
of the commonest care or pity, exposed in the field on
the day when she was born. (Yer. 4, 5.) Then Je-