Ezekiel 22:16

Eze 22:16 And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 16. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself,] q.d., I will abandon thee. Or, Thou shall be profaned and polluted.

And thou shalt know that I am the Lord.] Thou shalt know me by my punishments, whom thou wouldst not know by my benefits.

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.

Eze_22:16

Thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself.

Inheritance in thyself

Man, as a moral being, cannot have happiness or misery independently of his inner life. Each man in some sense farms his own nature, and reaps the harvest planted by his own hands. Man is a wealthy proprietor. No lordly acres, no wide domain of forest land can ever equal the enclosure of his own heart.

I. In a human sense we take our inheritance in ourselves. Most certainly we are inheritors of our past human delinquencies, or of the joy of duties fulfilled. All other inheritances drop off from us; like gathered flowers they fade! These are rooted in our hearts. Men may blame us and be wrong, or praise us and be wrong! But our conscience is a true rest, and happy the man whose smile is as bright, whose voice as cheery, and whose step is as elastic, whether the world crowns him with garlands or stones him with scorn!

II. In a mental sense we take our inheritance in ourselves. Mind is a most productive soil. Tend it well, and do not hurry the crops, and there is nothing so wonderful in the universe of God. When you enter the British Museum, remember that from year to year every little and every large volume has to be received and registered there. What a registry it is, but it is nothing to the registry of the human brain! How easily it works, how quickly it shelves for future use the rarest thoughts, how wonderfully at call it brings the fact or the illustration, not by some stately messenger, but by the swift telegraphy of its own sensations.

III. In a moral sense we take our inheritance in ourselves.

1. How true it is of national life. Rome took her inheritance when, ceasing the virtues of simplicity, honour, and home life, she chose luxury, pleasure, and the pomp of war. Greece took her inheritance when, choosing philosophic disquisitions and sophistical debates, she darkened the moral sense by mere casuistry. Jerusalem took her inheritance when, forsaking the sublime simplicity and tender spirituality of her faith, she became rabbinical in her theology, inhuman in her neglect of the needy, and proud in the speciality of her privileges. In each ease the inheritance came: the military strength of the northern armies crushed the power of Rome; the enfeeblement of Epicureanism and refined libertinism seized upon the heart of Greece; and the pride, prejudice, and pernicious formalism of the Pharisees slew the soul of Hebrew piety.

2. We, too--each of us--take the inheritance in ourselves; the harvests of life are either tares or wheat, according to our past sowing. Nor does the Gospel of Jesus Christ interfere with this law. When we become Christians our past sins are forgiven us through the precious blood of Christ., but their influence on our after character and life growth is not hereby destroyed. Old habits, old pursuits, old readings, old companionships are not dead and forgotten in a day. They, too, still will be helping or hindering our progress in the Divine life, and elevating or depressing the spirituality of our minds.

IV. In all these aspects of life we mark the Divine fitness of things. If men tell us that we have no business to occupy our thoughts with moral fitnesses, that Gods yea is yea, and Gods nay is nay, whatever we may judge, we answer that God is more considerate than such critics, for He has condescended to appeal to us, that we may judge between Him and His vineyard; He has permitted the record of those early cries--This be far from Thee, Lord, to destroy the righteous with the wicked. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? And he has sanctioned St. Pauls appeal not to every mans blind obedience, but to every mans conscience in the sight of God. Thus we can rest our arguments upon the unimpeachable bases of Scripture and conscience.

V. In the ministry of Christ we see this great fact recognised. The Divine Lord saw, as we never can, the hearts of men. He not only saw rich publicans and lowly Nazarenes, not only lordly Pharisees and impoverished Samaritans, but He saw the great heart burthens men were everywhere bearing.. Surely He was a Prophet, and more than a Prophet; for prophets came to warn and to condemn, to lift up the cry, Repent! repent! But this face was not like one of the old prophets. No! There were touches of tenderness in it such as they had not, womanly almost, yet weak. Out, out, they went to Christ. Surely the voice was strange, for great souls fill words with love as well as thought, and what would not the Divine soul do? Yes! they heard Jesus. Never man spake as He spake. And what was His theme? Ah! it is well that we know it. Come, ye inheritors of shame and woe and ill-gotten wealth, and long-repented lives of sensual sin! Come! you cannot lose your memories of life, you cannot cut off their influence on mind and heart; but the bitter, bitter inheritance of shame and agony and woe and guilt--you, even you, may lose all these! Listen to me: I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

VI. In the future days the inheritance will work itself out. Yes! Thou shalt take it. As a pilgrim of eternity, you take the life burthen with you. He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; and he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. This is in exact harmony with moral law. (W. M. Statham.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22:16 when I have been dishonored among the nations because of you: Having his people scattered among the nations instead of dwelling in the land of promise inevitably dishonored the Lord, since it appeared that he was unable to give them what he had promised. However, the Lord was willing to endure that dishonor so that his forgetful people could learn to remember him.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Thou shalt be no more the inheritance of the Lord, but forsaken.

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

take thine inheritance in thyself--Formerly thou wast Mine inheritance; but now, full of guilt, thou art no longer Mine, but thine own inheritance to thyself; "in the sight of the heathen," that is, even they shall see that, now that thou hast become a captive, thou art no longer owned as Mine [VATABLUS]. FAIRBAIRN and others needlessly take the Hebrew from a different root, "thou shalt be polluted by ('in,' [HENDERSON]) thyself," &c.; the heathen shall regard thee as a polluted thing, who hast brought thine own reproach on thyself.

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 16. Thou shalt know that I am the Lord.] I shall so deal with and punish thee, that thou shalt be obliged to own the vindictive hand of a sin-avenging God.

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

(16) Shalt take thine inheritance.—Rather, thou shalt be profaned by thyself. The same word occurs in Eze_7:24, and is there rendered “shall be defiled;” it admits of either sense, according to its derivation. The meaning is that through their own misconduct they forfeit the privileges of a holy nation, and become profaned or dishonoured in the sight of the heathen. The first prophecy of this chapter closes with the terrible warning of Eze_22:14-16, showing the extreme suffering necessary for the purification of Israel.

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

16. take thine inheritance] According to the points: and thou shalt be profaned in (through) thyself. The idea that Jehovah “profanes” his people by casting them out of their land is not uncommon, Isa_43:28; Isa_47:6, cf. Eze_24:21 (Eze_28:16). It is doubtful if it be anywhere said that this casting out of the people is a profanation of them “in the sight of the heathen.” On the other hand that phrase is often used when Jehovah himself, or his name, is spoken of as being profaned, ch. Eze_20:9; Eze_20:14; Eze_20:22. Particularly it is said that Israel’s dispersion among the nations profaned Jehovah’s name, ch. Eze_36:20-23, and in Eze_39:7 Jehovah says, I will not pollute (let be polluted) my name any more (by the humiliation of his people). A slight change of reading gives: and I will be profaned in thee in the sight.… The whole passage speaks of the chastisement of Israel, not of the purging away their uncleanness (Eze_22:15), which is mentioned incidentally (cf. Eze_22:22). This chastisement is dispersion among the nations, by which Jehovah is profaned and by which Israel learns to know that he who disperses them is the Lord. Corn. suggests: by which (uncleanness) I have been profaned in thee. Does the idea appear in the prophet that Jehovah was profaned in the eyes of the nations by Israel’s idolatries?

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.

And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the Heathen,.... No longer be the inheritance of God, but their own; and not have God to be their portion and inheritance, but themselves; and a poor portion and inheritance that must be, being in captivity, poverty, and distress; enjoying neither their civil nor religious liberties, as heretofore; it would be now manifest to the Heathens that they were forsaken of God, and left to themselves. Some render it, "and thou shalt be profaned, or polluted in thyself" (e); shalt be known to be so to thyself, as well as appear so to others. The Targum is,

"I will be sanctified in thee before the people:''

and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; able to do what I say; faithful to my word; omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent; and this thou shalt not only know, but own and acknowledge, when these calamities take place, and have their effect.

(e) "et prophana effecta in te", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus; "prophana efficeris", Piscator; "et polluta eris in te", Grotius; "et prophnata eris in te", Starckiss; "et prophanaberis in te", Cocceius.

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

Thou shalt take ... - Better as in the margin. Thou shalt by thine own fault forfeit the privileges of a holy nation.

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

Possess, "as an inheritance:" (Septuagint; Haydock) "I will defile:" (Aquila) "wound thee." (Symmachus) Hebrew is very different: (Calmet) "thou hast inherited in thyself," (Haydock) being no longer willing to be subject.

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).

Whereas I was thine inheritance, and thou enjoyedst all riches, delight, safety, peace, and honour in me, so long as thou wert a holy, obedient people; now that you are polluted, a very sink of all filthiness, for which I have cast thee off, and sent thee into captivity, there be to thyself what thou canst be, for I will not be thine inheritance. And this forlorn, abject, helpless state shall be so visible, that the very heathen shall discern, and know, that you are rejected of your God, and he very just in doing so.

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

16. And thou shalt take thine inheritance — Rather, as margin, thou shalt be profaned. The name of the holy people, like the holy name of Jehovah, is profaned by their idolatries and consequent punishment (note Eze_20:9). Jerusalem had sought by all manner of wickedness to win the applause and love of the heathen, but gains only their contempt.

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

Thou shalt take thine inheritance, etc.; better, with the Revised Version, Keil, and most other commentators, shalt be profaned in thyself, etc. The prophet is still speaking of punishment, not of restoration.

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

In thyself - Whereas I was thine inheritance so long as thou wert a holy, obedient people; now be an inheritance to thyself, if thou canst.

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

And you shall be profaned within yourself Heb. וְנִחַלְתָּ בָּךְ, you shall be profaned within yourself for what you have done.

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.