Commentary on Ezekiel Chapters 1-20 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
despises their pride by which they were blinded, and utters his prophecies openly as if God had executed whatever he had threatened. For this reason he says, the captivity of thy captivities shall be in the midst of them. But they might object, that they enjoyed their country, that they still cultivated their fields, and had sufficient food for their support although besieged by their enemies. But the Prophet looked down upon it all, because before God the city was as it were taken and all were exiles, since God had not threatened them in vain. Weakness here compels me to break off.
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, since in your inestimable mercy you have deigned to separate us from the profane nations, and to adopt us into thy family, that we may so conduct ourselves that you may not treat us as strangers: but while you acknowledge us as thy sons, may thy Spirit govern us until the end, so that thy name may be glorified in us, and at length we may be made partakers of that glory which has been acquired for us through Jesus Christ our Lord. --- Amen.
Lecture Forty-Ninth.
Ezekiel 16:56-57
56. For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,
56. Et non fuit Sodoma soror tua in sermonem in ore tuo in die superbiarum tuarum, 419
57. Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about.
57. Priusquam detegeretur malitia tua secundum tempus probri filiarum Syriae, et omnium quae in circuitu ejus sunt filiarum Philistim, quae spreverunt 420 te a circuitu.
God here blames the Jews because they did not attend to that remarkable judgment which he had executed against the Sodomites: for they had always before their eyes what ought to retain them in the fear of God; for that was a formidable spectacle, as it is this day. They knew that region to have been like the paradise of God, as it is called by Moses. (Genesis 13:10.) Since, then, the fertility and pleasantness of the place was so great, to see there the lake of sulphur and bitumen was sufficient material for instructing them, unless they had been utterly sluggish. But the Prophet says, that there was no mention of Sodom while the Jews lived happily; and we know that it was a great crime not to consider God's judgments, as we read in Isaiah. (Isaiah 5:12.) Among other things he says, that the Jews and Israelites were so corrupt that they did not regard God's works: hence as it is a useful exercise to consider God's judgments, yea, this is the chief prudence of the faithful; so, on the other hand, those who shut their eyes to the manifest judgments of God are like the brutes. And yet this is a very common fault, especially when the circumstance here expressed is added, that profane men do not attend to God's operations through being intoxicated by prosperity; for in this passage we have two ways of explaining
419Or, "loftiness." — Calvin. 420Or, "have seized." — Calvin.