Thou art a comfort unto them - The degradation of Judah would be a kind of consolation to others. Compare Isaiah 14.

That thou mayest bear thine own shame,.... So long as the captivity remains; even until Sodom and Samaria, the Gentiles, and the ten tribes, are called and converted:

and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done; or, "for all that thou hast done" (e); for and because of all the abominable sins they had been guilty of:

in that thou art a comfort to them; to Sodom and Samaria; countenancing them in their sins; justifying their iniquities, and strengthening their hands in their wickedness, by doing the same, and greater abominations; or in partaking of the same punishment with them, captivity; this being a kind of solace to them, that they were not punished alone; so Jarchi.

(e) "propter omnia quae fecisti", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus, Piscator.

That thou mayest bear thy own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a {f} comfort to them.

(f) In that you have shown yourself worse than they and yet thought to escape punishment.

16:54 A comfort - Encouraging sinners like those of Sodom and Samaria.

54. bear thine own shame-by being put on a level with those whom thou hast so much despised.

thou art a comfort unto them-since they see thee as miserable as themselves. It is a kind of melancholy "comfort" to those chastised to see others as sorely punished as themselves (Eze 14:22, 23).

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.