Ezekiel 16:5
None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
The verse pictures Jerusalem and Israel as a newborn abandoned in the open country on the day of birth, pitied by no eye, shown no compassion, and cast out as loathsome in person and life. It belongs to a most searching parable of reproof that lays bare the fearful wickedness of Judah's and Israel's apostasy under the figure of lewd women, while God pleads with His children to return to Him. A woman stands for a church, and a harlot or licentious woman stands for a corrupt, fallen, apostate church. The chapter sets forth the Lord's covenant with His people as a marriage bond in which they became His, yet the Jewish church played the harlot by breaking that covenant and seeking the friendship of the world in unlawful union with the kings of the earth, after the manner of the Babylon of Revelation 17. So Israel's unfaithfulness stands as the pattern for the apostate church, for union of God's church with the world is spiritual adultery, mixing heaven with earth and righteousness with sin.
Setting and Wording
Ezekiel 16:5 is an awful message of warning and reproof to sinners among Ezekiel's own people. Ezekiel belonged to a priestly family and prophesied among the captives of Israel between the years 595 and 574, beginning and closing his work just a little later than Jeremiah. Before he began his prophetic work God gave him wonderful visions revealing His glory and great majesty, so that having once seen God he would not fear the face of man when sent with these messages. He served as God's mouthpiece among the captives in Babylonia by the river Chebar, while Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem.
The verse belongs to a very strong parable concerning the apostasy of Judah and Israel. It rebukes sin in its awful wickedness by portraying Judah's and Israel's awful sins under the figure of lewd women, while God earnestly pleads with His children to turn to Him. It pictures Jerusalem and Israel as an abandoned newborn cast out in the open field on the day of birth, with no eye pitying or having compassion and with her life treated as loathsome. That image of being forsaken and rejected at birth belongs to the prophet's picture of Israel's unfaithfulness, cited in connection with the charge of spiritual fornication and adultery.
The word person translates the Hebrew nephesh, which occurs 745 times in the Old Testament and is translated soul about 473 times. Here it is one of 29 places where nephesh is rendered person, in the phrase loathing of thy person. It means in the ordinary sense a human person, life, or individual human being. It denotes the person who was cast out at birth, left without pity or compassion and regarded with loathing.
Corrupt Church Symbol
The chapter sets forth the Lord's covenant with His people in a marriage-like bond, in which they became His own, yet broke that covenant and leaned upon another. A woman stands for a church, and a harlot, a sexually immoral and licentious woman, is the Bible symbol for a corrupt, fallen, apostate church. On that showing the woman of Revelation 17 is an ecclesiastical body, and the great harlot Babylon is not abstract earthly civil power but a corrupt professedly religious body, distinct from the kings of the earth though unlawfully united with them.
The Jewish church was espoused to the Lord and then became a harlot through apostasy, turning away from its rightful covenant relationship. It did so by seeking the friendship of the world in unlawful union with the kings of the earth, in the same manner as the Babylon of Revelation 17. The harlot Babylon of Revelation 17 must therefore be read in the same way as the woman of Revelation 12 who represents the true church. The harlot and her daughters are the entire corrupt church, not limited to a single ecclesiastical body but made up of many bodies united to the world.
The chapter presents the Jewish church as a harlot and its fall as its rejection by God. Destruction did not fall at once but was delayed for a considerable time before it followed. The opening picture of a newborn cast out in the open field on the day of birth, with no eye to pity or have compassion and with her life counted loathsome, belongs to this charge of spiritual fornication and adultery and to the account of a people forsaken and rejected at birth.
Israel's unfaithfulness in this record is the prototype for the apostate church's rejection of God and reliance on earthly powers instead of seeking the Lord. Union between God's church and the world is spiritual adultery. The Lord names Israel's departures from Him adultery, in which to mix heaven with earth and righteousness with sin is spiritual adultery.