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Ezekiel 16:24

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

Thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place - גב gab, a stew or brothel; Vulg. lupanar; Septuag. οικημα πορνικον . So my old MS. Bible, a bordel house. "Thou hast builded thy stewes and bordell houses in every place." - Coverdale's Bible, 1636. Bordel is an Italian word: how it got so early into our language I know not. Our modern word brothel is a corruption of it. Diodati translates, Tu hai edificato un bordello, "Thou hast built a brothel." Houses of this kind were of a very ancient date.

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

That thou … - Render it: after that thou didst build “unto thee an eminent place,” and didst make “thee an high place in every street” - after that thou didst build “thy high place at the head of every way and” didst make … ”it came to pass, that thou” didst “also” commit “fornication” etc.

An eminent place - literally, “an arched building.” Such places were used as brothels, and so the word is used metaphorically for a place of idol-worship.

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
In this chapter God's dealings with the Jewish nation, and their conduct towards him, are described, and their punishment through the surrounding nations, even those they most trusted in. This is done under the parable of an exposed infant rescued from death, educated, espoused, and richly provided for, but afterwards guilty of the most abandoned conduct, and punished for it; yet at last received into favour, and ashamed of her base conduct. We are not to judge of these expressions by modern ideas, but by those of the times and places in which they were used, where many of them would not sound as they do to us. The design was to raise hatred to idolatry, and such a parable was well suited for that purpose.