Commentary on Ezekiel Chapters 1-20 John Calvin
EZEKIEL
fixed method of worship. These, then, were the accustomed marriage rites. But God deservedly announces that he had come into covenant, because he then coupled the people to himself; whence also that eulogy of Moses --- What nation is so illustrious under heaven, which has God so near them, as thy God approaches unto thee? You shall be to me a kingdom of priests; you shall be my inheritance. (Deuteronomy 4:7; Exodus 19:6.) We should remark the word swear as emphatic, for God increases his indulgence when he says that he swore. If we think of the majesty of God, and of what his people was, this is surely incredible, that God should deign to descend so far as to swear like men accustomed to pledge their faith, and to sanction it by an oath. Now, therefore, we see the singular benefit expressed here with which God adorned his people, when, at the giving of the law, he chose them as his own, and appointed them to be a kingdom of priests. It now follows ---
Ezekiel 16:9
9. Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.
9. Et lavi te aquis, et mundavi 346 sanguines tuos abs te 347 et unxi te oleo.
Here God more clearly explains what had been formerly touched upon, namely, that he then married the people, as a young man marries his bride. But he here states that he endowed her; for they would not have been sufficiently adopted by God unless they had been adorned with superior presents; since if they had been left in that miserable slavery by which they were oppressed, God's favor would have been very obscure. Now, therefore, God means, that by his law he had entered into a new covenant with his people, so that he did not leave them naked and bare, but clothed with remarkable gifts. First of all, he says, I washed thee with water.
Although he had just said that the people were like a beautiful damsel, and had praised their beauty, yet the filth of which the prophet had spoken yet remained: it ought, therefore, to be cleansed from those stains: I have cleansed thee with water, says he, and washed off thy bloods, namely, the corrupt blood which the damsel whom Ezekiel mentions had retained from her birth. Lastly, Ezekiel says that God performed those offices which the nurse discharges for the child. Afterwards he adds
Ezekiel 16:10-13
10. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
10. Et vestivi te Phrygionica veste, 348 et calceavi te taxo, 349 et cinxi te bysso, et operui te serico.
11. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
11. Et ornavi te ornatu, et posui armillas in manibus tuis, et torquem in collo tuo.
12. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
346Or, "I wiped." — Calvin. 347Or, "down from thee." — Calvin. 348Or, "variegated." — Calvin. 349Or, "purple." — Calvin.