And I decked thee with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck;
God speaks here as a husband. He is remembering what He once did for a bride who had nothing. The bracelets and the chain are not her purchases but His gifts. The chapter then asks what she will do with beauty she never earned.
The verse belongs to a story that begins with an abandoned newborn. One writer follows the story from that opening to the jewels:
She was a wretched outcast, without the most ordinary care or pity, left in the open field on the day she was born. Then the LORD passed by and saw her lying in her blood, and said to her in her blood, Live; and He said it with all emphasis. Under His care she grew up to womanhood, dressed and decked with the most splendid ornaments. Then the LORD entered into covenant with her and took her as His own. He had made her clean and beautiful and adorned. So she grew into a kingdom, and her fame spread abroad because of the splendour the LORD put on her.
Another writer fixes on the timing, quoting verse 8 in an older translation:
Then the LORD says, "your time was the time of love." Man's time of need was God's time of love.
God gives His people more than they need. One writer takes each ornament in turn and reads the Hebrew word behind it:
Now we come to what is more simply ornament. God is not satisfied with meeting the needs of His people. He must enrich those whom He has delivered. Hands, neck, nose, ears, head are all covered with them. The bracelet (tsamid) speaks of what is "joined together," and tsemed means a "yoke." So the hands that labour in the service of Christ still wear an ornament. The chain for the neck (rabhid, "collar for the throat") points to the throat, through which the high praises of God should sound, as Psalm 149 shows. Both of these last things mark out the activities of the divine life as the true ornament of God's people.
Verse 14 closes the account by naming the source of everything the nations admired:
In Ezekiel 16 the LORD is reasoning with the people about their ingratitude. He likens Israel to an outcast baby which He adopted and cared for with gracious kindness. "And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD" (v. 14).
The adorning of verse 11 makes the fall of verse 15 worse, not lighter. Kelly puts the two side by side:
And what was the return? "But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown." It is a sorrowful picture, and no less true for being sad… Her idolatry was marked by this: she squandered all the countless favours of her divine husband — for such her Maker was to her — on the filthy idols of the nations.
The same danger is not confined to ancient Jerusalem:
The heart is so deceitful that we are prone to turn the highest favours God gives us into a reason for self-exaltation… The subtlety is this: we grow proud of some special grace the Lord has given us. Anyone who has never detected it in his own heart has been little exercised in his soul.
The setting aside was not the end. One writer reads this marriage as a story with a further chapter:
In the past the LORD acted as husband to Jerusalem (Ezekiel 16:8-14). Then her unfaithfulness with the nations, her lovers, forced Him to set her aside for a time. She has learned to her sorrow what widowhood and shame are. In time she will enjoy restoration to divine favour. God will openly put her back in her proper relation to Him who is Israel's King and her husband.
- Found — God's love arrived at the point of total helplessness: "Man's time of need was God's time of love."
- Dressed — The bracelets and chain are His gifts, marking hands that serve and a throat that praises Him.
- Owned — Her fame among the nations came from the splendour He gave her, never from anything she made herself.
- Squandered — She trusted the beauty instead of the Giver. She spent His favours on idols. The same instinct still turns God's best gifts into self-exaltation.
- Restored — Set aside for a time, Jerusalem will return openly to her place as the wife of Israel's King.
and I put a ring on thy nose, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.
Ezekiel 16 tells Jerusalem's story as the story of an abandoned newborn, left in a field until God passed by and said, "Live." Verse 12 is the moment rescue turns into royalty: God adds the last ornaments to a girl who owned nothing.
These ornaments only make sense next to where the girl came from. One writer traces that whole movement in a few lines.
A wretched outcast, without the most basic care or pity, left out in the field on the day she was born. Then Jehovah passed by. He saw her stained with her blood, and He said to her in her blood, Live — and He said it with the strongest emphasis. Under His fostering care she grew up to womanhood, dressed and decked with the most splendid ornaments. Jehovah entered into covenant with her and took her as His own. And she, whom He had cleansed and made beautiful and adorned, prospered into a kingdom. Her fame went abroad because of the splendour Jehovah put on her.
Older translations call this first ornament a jewel on the forehead. A closer look at the Hebrew corrects that.
Isaiah 3:21 lists nose jewels among the other ornaments of women, and God's judgements were to take them all away. Ezekiel 16:12 lists the ornaments God used to adorn Jerusalem as a symbol. One of them reads "a jewel on your forehead," which should however read "a ring upon your nose."
Nothing in this verse is necessary. A rescued child needs washing and clothing; she does not need earrings. That excess is the point.
This brings in what is more simply ornament. God is not satisfied with meeting the necessities of His people; He must enrich those whom He has delivered. Ornaments cover the hands, the neck, the nose, the ears and the head… The nose-ring seems to give us the effect for the whole life here. Nezem al appaim means, word for word, "the device for the nostrils." In Scripture the nostrils are tied to the human life, which is like a vapour in the poor, weak creature man is. But by God's "device" — the wonderful plan these things bring before us — He redeems that life from emptiness.
The same writer takes the earrings as the sign of an ear that has already learned its first lesson. That lesson is not a flattering one.
So the ear is truly beautified, and able to hear everything else in the right way, once it has first heard the condemnation on man himself. And when a man accepts that condemnation, it always brings him to the never-failing blessing God has for him.
The order matters. The crown is not where the story starts but where it ends.
After all this comes the beautiful crown. A people of whom the former things were true could not lack it. Israel, when true to her God, had to be a queen among the nations. If she failed, the cause of the failure is obvious. For when Israel acknowledged God even in some measure, she stood unconquerable by all enemies. So the next words picture her in the exaltation God gave her. In Solomon's time we see her truly come to royal estate.
Her renown came from a beauty God had put on her. The tragedy is that she came to treat it as her own.
And what was the return? "But you trusted in your own beauty and played the whore because of your renown." It is a sorrowful picture, and no less true for being sorrowful… She squandered all the countless favours of her divine husband — and such her Maker was to her — on the filthy idols of the nations.
One writer follows that crown to the end of Jerusalem's story. What lies in between is bitter.
Jerusalem was untrue to the Lord and as a result has lost that royal glory. She sank so low that when her Messiah came she cruelly mocked Him, crowned Him with thorns and spat in His face. But the time will come when Jerusalem will repent and rejoice in the Lord's forgiveness. He will lift her again to the head of the nations… What a triumph for His grace, when He will again crown Jerusalem with royal glory, the fruit of His redemption and the work of His Spirit in the heart.
- Rescued first. The girl wearing the ring, the earrings and the crown was an outcast baby left in a field. Every ornament sits on top of that.
- Given, not earned. God does not stop at meeting need; He enriches those He has delivered. The ornaments are surplus, not wages.
- Heard, then adorned. The ear only hears everything else rightly after it accepts God's verdict on man.
- Crowned last. The crown comes after the cleansing, the clothing and the jewels. While Israel stayed true to God, no enemy could conquer her.
- Kept or squandered. She trusted the beauty instead of the Giver and spent His gifts on idols — yet grace will crown that same city again.