16:51 Neither {c} hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thy abominations more than they, and hast {d} justified thy sisters in all thy abominations which thou hast done.
(c) Which worshipped the calves in Bethel and Dan.
(d) You are so wicked that in respect to you Sodom and Samaria were just.
16:51 Hast justified - Not made them righteous, but declared them less unrighteous, than thou; of the two they are less faulty.
16:1-58 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.
