Thy filthiness was poured out - נחשתך nechushtech . As this word signifies a sort of metal, (brass), it is generally supposed to mean money. They had given money literally to these heathen nations to procure their friendship and assistance; but the word also means verdigris, the poisonous rust of copper or brass. It is properly translated in our version filthiness, poisonous filth. Does it not refer to that venereal virus which is engendered by promiscuous connexions?
Judah is now represented as undergoing the punishment adjudged to an adulteress and murderess. Only in her utter destruction shall the wrath of the Lord, the jealous God, cease.
Ezekiel 16:36
Filthiness - Or, brass, i. e., money, is lavished. The Hebrews generally speak of money as gold Isaiah 46:6, but brass coins were not unknown in the time of the Maccabees. Compare Matthew 10:9; Mark 12:41. Ezekiel may here have put brass for gold contemptuously. Compare Isaiah 1:22-25; Isaiah 48:10.
Ezekiel 16:38
I will give thee blood in fury - Rather, “I will make thee a bloody sacrifice to fury and jealousy.” By the Law of Moses, death was the penalty for murder Exodus 21:12, and for adultery (Leviticus 20:10; e. g., by stoning, Ezekiel 16:40). The circumstances of the siege of Jerusalem corresponded with the punishment of the adulteress; the company gathered around her were the surrounding armies, the fury of the jealous husband was the fury of the attacking army, the stripping off her ornaments was the rapine of the siege, the stoning the battering-rams, the bloody death being the slaughter in the battle.
Ezekiel 16:42
So rest - Or, “My fury shall not rest until thou art utterly ruined.”
Ezekiel 16:43
Thou shalt not abominations - Others render it: “I will not do wickedly because of all thine etc.” i. e., by allowing jerusalem to remain unpunished