Ezekiel 16:42

Eze 16:42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

Ver. 42. So I will make my fury toward thee to rest.] Sept., I will dismiss mine anger upon thee. Like as when Haman was hanged, Ahasuerus’s wrath was pacified; {Est 7:10} and as when Jonah was cast overboard, the sea was calmed.

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.

I will utterly destroy thee, and so my jealousy shall cease.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

my fury . . . rest--when My justice has exacted the full penalty commensurate with thy awful guilt (see on Eze 5:13). It is not a mitigation of the penalty that is here foretold, but such an utter destruction of all the guilty that there shall be no need of further punishment [CALVIN].

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

Verse 42. I will be quiet and will be no more angry.] I will completely abandon thee; have nothing more to do with thee; think no more of thee. When God in judgment ceases to reprehend, this is the severest judgment.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Although God seems here to promise some mitigation of his wrath, there is no doubt that he expresses what we formerly saw, namely, that such should be the destruction of the nation that there would be no need to return again to punish them. When, therefore, he says, I will make my indignation rest upon thee, it means that he would satiate himself with vengeance for all their crimes: so that the consumption of the people is here called the rest of God’s indignation, as if he had said, When I have utterly reduced you to nothing, then my indignation against thee shall rest. In the same way he afterwards adds, and my indignation shall depart from thee. But I cannot finish today.

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.

(42) My fury . . . to rest.—Not in pity but in satiety, as having accomplished the utter desolation of Israel.

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

42. make my fury … to rest] i.e. satisfy and appease it. Cf. ch. Eze_5:13.

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.

Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth,.... The low estate they were once in, and the great favours bestowed upon them, which laid them under great obligation to serve the Lord, and him only; but these they forgot, which highly provoked him, and caused him to do the things he did; see Eze 16:22,

and hast fretted me in all these things; irritated, provoked him, moved him to wrath and anger, stirred up in his breast a tumult, speaking after the manner of men; this they did by their ingratitude, idolatry, and other sins:

behold, therefore, I also will recompense thy way upon thine head,

saith the Lord God; retaliate their evils, punish them according as their sins deserved, and in a way which they led unto:

and thou shall not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations; or add to all thine abominable idolatries this shocking piece of wickedness, the sacrificing of their children to their idols: or rather the words may be rendered, "for thou hast not taken this thought" (or counsel) "upon" or "concerning all thine abominations" (u); to repent of them and turn from them So the Targum,

"and thou hast not taken counsel to thyself, to turn from all thine abominations.''

Or, as Jarchi,

"thou hast hot taken counsel to put the, heart upon thine abominations to turn from them;''

and he observes, that the word here used always signifies counsels either good or evil. There is a double reading of this clause; we follow the "Keri", or marginal reading; but the "Cetib", or textual writing or reading, is, "and I have not done according to this lewdness above all thine abominations"; and so expresses the mercy and long suffering of God (w).

(u) "et non fecisti cogitationem super omnibus abominationibus tuis", Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin; "nec tamen fecisti", &c. Vatablus, Grotius. (w) This is followed by the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Luther, Starckius, and others.

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

No more. I will entirely repudiate thee, so as to observe thy conduct no longer, (Calmet) with the eyes of an husband. (Haydock) --- This is the most terrible effect of God’s wrath, (Calmet) when the sinner is left to himself, Osee iv. 14. (St. Jerome)

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).

It may admit a doubt, whether this be spoken in way of promise and kindness, or of menace and wrath. This latter seems intended, as if God said, The jealousy whereto you have provoked me will never cease till these judgments have utterly destroyed you, and cut you off, as the anger of an abused husband ceaseth in the divorce and public punishment of the adulteress.

My jealousy shall depart from thee; I will no more concern myself for thee, nor be troubled at thy carriage, whatever it be, since thou art no more mine.

Will be no more angry, with the anger which is in the breast of a husband troubled for and angry at the miscarriages of a wife he loved.

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

42. Make my fury toward thee to rest — Literally, satisfy my fury upon thee. (See Eze_16:13.)

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

So will I make my fury, etc.; read, with the Revised Version, will satisfy. The words are not primarily words of comfort. They speak of the satisfaction of the jealous husband"s righteous anger, and therefore of a completed punishment. And vet that thought was, as the sequel shows (vers. 53, 60-63), the beginning of hope for the future, as the prophet thought of his people. For here the forms of punishment were not final The daughter of Zion survived the stoning, the sword, and the burning. And so, when wrath had done its work of retribution, it might become corrective and purgatorial. The injured husband, in the bold anthropomorphic language of the parable, would be no more angry. The Lord God of Israel would remember his covenant, and forgive.

How God"s anger ceases.

I IT CANNOT CEASE WHILE THE CAUSE FOR IT REMAINS. An irascible person is provoked to wrath by slight causes; but inasmuch as his anger springs chiefly from his own fiery disposition, the cooling of passion allays the rage of wrath, even though circumstances remain unchanged. But God is "slow to anger"; (Psa_103:8) he is not wrathful by nature, because in essence he is love. But the anger which is slow to begin is the more deep and terrible, as it does not arise without adequate reason. Further, a weak person may tire of his anger, even though the cause of it remains unchanged. An explosion of wrath exhausts him. He has not the energy for sustained anger. The fire simply burns out. But this cannot be the case with the great, the unexhaustible nature of God. God is ever the same, always true, just, active. Therefore so long as the cause for anger is unchanged, the anger too must remain. "God is angry with the wicked every day". (Psa_7:11) As long as men continue in sin, so long must God abide in wrath. An eternity of sin must, be accompanied by an eternity of Divine anger.

II IT WILL CEASE WHEN THE OBJECTS OF IT ARE DESTROYED. This appears to be the terrible goal of the text. Gracious as it reads in word, the purport of it is most fearful. It stands between passages of denunciation and condemnation; it cannot describe a kindly cessation of wrath. The anger of God will burn till it has nothing further to consume. Then his fury will rest. Thus it was with Israel nationally. The people were swept away, consumed off the land. Only a "remnant" was spared, a mere stump of the old tree, from which new growths could sprout. We see no more of God"s anger against a man when he has been killed. If nothing were interposed for the saving of his soul, the natural consequence of sin run out to its extremity would be destruction. Then God would cease to be angry with the sinner, for the plain reason that there would be no sinner left against whom his wrath would be called forth.

III IT WILL CEASE WHEN THE CAUSE FOR IT CEASES. There is another way by which the anger of God may be allayed. He is not desirous to see his children destroyed, for he is merciful and gracious. When sin is pardoned, God"s fury towards the sinner rests and his jealousy departs. But this pardon does not depend only on the will of God, or he would forgive all his children.

1. It is dependent on repentance. So long as the soul persists in impenitence, God"s anger cannot cease to burn. It is not simply a question of the amount and guilt of the sin which first provoked God"s wrath. The continued impenitence is virtually a prolongation of the guilt. But when the sinner truly repents, God"s anger abates.

2. It is also dependent on Christ"s atonement. We are able to read the words of Ezekiel with a more hopeful meaning than that which the prophet seems to have put upon them, because "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the Propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world". (1Jn_2:1, 1Jn_2:2) We read that "the mercy of the Lord eudureth forever," but never that the anger of the Lord endureth forever. On the contrary, "He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever". (Psa_103:9) Still, God only ceases to be angry either because sin destroys the sinner or because God destroys the sin.

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

My jealousy - The jealousy whereto you have provoked me, will never cease, 'till these judgments have utterly destroyed you, as the anger of an abused husband ceases in the publick punishment of the adulteress. No more angry - I will no more concern myself about thee.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.