Ezekiel 16:15

Trust in thine own beauty. A striking fulfillment of Deuteronomy 32:15; cf. Hosea 13:6. Raised to the pinnacle of glory under Solomon’s early beneficent reign, Israel began to trust in her greatness and prosperity. Losing sight of God’s high destiny for the Hebrews, Solomon set to work to make Israel a great and powerful empire among the nations of the earth. To do this he entered into foreign contracts and alliances directly contrary to the express command of God. Apparently greatly benefited by his treaty with the king of Egypt, which he sealed by his marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter, he entered into other similar agreements with other nations. But the deception was fatal. His multitude of wives introduced idolatry into his realm, until king and subject alike bowed to foreign gods. Thus the very means Solomon employed to aggrandize his empire were the means of its fall. The enormous taxes levied to sustain the magnificence of the realm became the pretext for revolt. The empire outside of Palestine fell apart and the kingdom itself was divided.

Playedst the harlot. A metaphor to describe foreign alliances for political advantages, which God had emphatically forbidden (Deuteronomy 7:2; Judges 2:2), or to describe the substitution of any form of worship for that of the true God. The figure is common in the Scriptures (see Exodus 34:15, 16; Leviticus 17:7; Deuteronomy 31:16; Judges 2:17; Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; James 4:4). The various alliances with the heathen that Solomon initiated and the subsequent adoption of the idolatrous worship of these nations are here referred to.