Ezekiel 16:28

Eze 16:28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.

Ver. 28. Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians.] By making sinful leagues, and gadding so much about to change thy way. {Jer 2:36}

And yet couldest not be satisfied.] It is as easy to quench the fire of Etna as the thoughts set on fire by lust.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unsatiable--Not satisfied with whoredoms with neighbors, thou hast gone off to the distant Assyrians, that is, hast sought a league with them, and with it adopted their idolatries.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I interpret this verse also of the covenant by which the Jews had entangled themselves, when they willingly joined themselves to the Assyrians; for this was a sure sign of distrust, when they so desired foreign aid, as if they had been deprived of God’s protection. And it would be absurd to explain this verse of idolatries, since the prophets were not accustomed to speak in this way, that the people committed fornication with the Assyrians, because they imitated their superstitions and perverse worship. As, therefore, we formerly saw that the Jews had defiled themselves with idols, and prostituted themselves to impious ceremonies, forgetful of God’s law; so now the Prophet accuses them of a different kind of pollution, since they eagerly sought for aid from all quarters, as if God had not sufficient strength for their protection. For otherwise there was no religious reason for their not making peace with the Assyrians; but when they saw themselves oppressed by the kings of Israel and Syria, then they thought of sending for the Assyrians; and this was like thrusting God from his place. (2 Kings 16:7-9.) For God was willing to defend the land with extended wings, and to cherish the Jews as a hen does her brood, as Moses says, (Deuteronomy 32:11.) Now, in thinking themselves exposed to any danger, they really throw off the help of God. It is not surprising, then, that the Prophet says, that they had polluted themselves with the Assyrians, because they were not satisfied. He pursues the simile on which we have dwelt sufficiently; for he blames the Jews for their insatiable lust, just as when a woman is not content with a single follower, and attracting a crowd obtrudes herself without modesty or delicacy, and sells herself to wickedness. Such was the licentiousness of the Jews, that they united many acts of pollution together. They had already departed from the true faith in making a treaty with the Egyptians, and they added another imagination, that it was useful to have the Assyrians in alliance with them: hence that unbridled lust which the Prophet metaphorically rebukes. It follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(28) With the Assyrians.—The Assyrians and Egyptians were for many centuries in deadly hostility against each other, and it would seem that Israel could hardly have formed alliances with and adopted the idolatries of both. Nevertheless they had done so, and in addition to their Egyptian idolatries, had gone to the extent, in the time of Ahaz, of displacing the altar in the court of the Temple, and putting in its stead an altar of the gods of Assyria (2 Kings 16.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

28. Infidelity with Assyria.

The historical tense “didst play” is better. Already Amo_5:26 appears to mention the names of Assyrian gods, for the passage can hardly refer to any time but his own. Jer_2:18; Jer_2:36.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan,.... Or, "with the land of Canaan" (l); with the inhabitants of it, doing the same evils, committing the same idolatries, as the old inhabitants of Canaan did; and so the Targum,

"and thou hast multiplied thine idols, that thou mightest be joined to the people of Canaan:''

or, "to the land of Canaan" (m); like to the land of Canaan; according to the abominations of the Canaanites, doing as they did. Jarchi takes the word Canaan to signify a "merchant", as it does in Hos 12:7; and the land of Canaan to be the same with the land of Chaldea, called a land of traffic, and Babylon the city of merchants, Eze 17:4; since it follows,

unto Chaldea: but the sense is, that the Jews were not content with the idolatries in the land of Canaan, but sent even to Chaldea, a remote country, to fetch new idols from thence; see Eze 23:14. The Targum is,

"to walk in the laws of the Chaldeans;''

their religious ones, their rites and ceremonies respecting idolatrous worship:

and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith; but still wanted other idols and modes of worship; not being content with the gods of the Egyptians, nor of the Assyrians, nor of the Canaanites, nor of the Chaldeans.

(l) "cum terra Canaan", Munster, so some in Vatablus, Tigurine version, Noldius, p. 39. No. 288. (m) "ad terram Canaan", so some in Vatablus. Approved by Kimchi and Ben Melech.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Compare the marginal reference. Idolatry, spiritual adultery, invariably accompanied these unholy alliances, and brought with it disaster and ruin.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Assyrians, adoring the sun, Baal, &c. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Thou hast courted their friendship and alliance, and to obtain it hast entertained their religion, manners, and impieties, been all idolatress with them, and committed adulteries with them, though they were far from thee. When thou didst wickedly with thy neighbours, it might admit some little colour of excuse, but it is inexcusable to run to remotest nations.

Because thou wast unsatiable; without satisfying thyself (and so the Hebrew may be read); but our interpreters refer it to the boundless lusts of this lewd adulteress, and not to the issue and event of her practices; and in the endless lustings of a wicked heart idolaters and adulterers do agree.

Yea, thou hast played the harlot; it is repeated to shame her, and make her blush and repent.

Couldst not be satisfied; or, wast not satisfied. Assyrian gods proved, as other idols, a snare and a lie to the Jews, 2Ki 16:9,10; Jer 2:18,36; Ho 7:11,12; 14:3.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

28, 29. Hast played… hast… multiplied — Literally, didst play, didst multiply. Not content with having adopted the worst features of Canaanitish and Egyptian idolatry (Eze_16:20; Eze_16:26), she turns for novelties of wickedness to the Assyrians and Chaldeans. “Thou hast provoked me in all these ways, adding one sin upon another, because thy whoredoms were too few for thee.” — Mosheh Ben Shesheth.

In the land of Canaan unto Chaldea — Literally, unto the merchants’ land, even unto Chaldea. (Compare Eze_17:4.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

With the Assyrians. Here also the words include political alliances like that of Ahaz with Tiglath-Pileser, (2Ki_16:7) as well as the adoption of idolatrous worship. The latter probably followed under Ahaz as a consequence of the former, and afterwards spread through the influence of the Assyrian colonists each nation with its own deities in Samaria. (2Ki_17:24) The culture of the queen of heaven, (Jer_44:17) i.e. of the Assyrian Ishtar, may have had this origin. Yet couldest not be satisfied. One is reminded once more of Juvenal ("Sat.," 6:130).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

because you were not sated Because you were not sated with the abominations of Egypt.

and you played the harlot with them Heb. וַתִּזְנִים, from the term for harlotry (זְנוּת), e ansera[s] a els.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.