The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. 3 They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled. 4 Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.
5 “Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors 6 clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. 7 She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted. 8 She did not give up her whoring that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her. 9 Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. 10 These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her.
11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. 12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. 13 And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. 14 But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, 15 wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. 16 When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust. 18 When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. 19 Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt 20 and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. 21 Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.”
22 Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side: 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. 24 And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments. 25 And I will direct my jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire. 26 They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels. 27 Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring begun in the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.
28 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust, 29 and they shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your whoring 30 have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. 31 You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand. 32 Thus says the Lord God:
“You shall drink your sister's cup
that is deep and large;
you shall be laughed at and held in derision,
for it contains much;
33 you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow.
A cup of horror and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria;
34 you shall drink it and drain it out,
and gnaw its shards,
and tear your breasts;
for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. 35 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring.”
36 The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations. 37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me. 38 Moreover, this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my Sabbaths. 39 For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And behold, this is what they did in my house. 40 They even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments. 41 You sat on a stately couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil. 42 The sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and with men of the common sort, drunkards were brought from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of the women, and beautiful crowns on their heads.
43 “Then I said of her who was worn out by adultery, ‘Now they will continue to use her for a whore, even her!’ 44 For they have gone in to her, as men go in to a prostitute. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, lewd women! 45 But righteous men shall pass judgment on them with the sentence of adulteresses, and with the sentence of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.”
46 For thus says the Lord God: “Bring up a vast host against them, and make them an object of terror and a plunder. 47 And the host shall stone them and cut them down with their swords. They shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses. 48 Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done. 49 And they shall return your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and you shall know that I am the Lord God.” Ezekiel 23 ESV
Ezekiel 23 Oholah and Oholibah
1-4 Oholah is Samaria - This is in parable form, and the first 3 and a half verses introduces the listeners to someone based upon their behavior, their character, so already we have a picture developed in our mind. These sisters were whores in Egypt, and Egypt was a place that the Hebrews were once in bondage to. While the Egyptians may have been okay with using Hebrews as slaves and even sex slaves, good enough for the bed, yet not good enough to be equals, because historically it was a taboo to even eat at the same table with a Hebrew. The kings of Israel were directed not to return to Egypt, but they did. Now after King Solomon there was a divide in the kingdom, which split it into the northern tribes, known as Samaria, and the southern kingdom, which was Judah and Benjamin.
Oholibah is Jerusalem - Jerusalem is the capital city in the southern kingdom, the city of David, who was of the tribe of Judah. In Jerusalem was the temple that God did not allow David to build, but was built by Solomon, his son. This is the center religious hub, where the feasts were to be held and the sacrifices made, and it was also the seat of the Theocracy, kings from the line of David, established by God, to carry out His law, to do justice. Now the prostitute has been given a name, and note that this is not politically correct by our standards, but God calls it like it is. He doesn't spare their feelings, for those won't save anyone, and He doesn't ask them to draw a picture of how they see themselves, no, He tells them what they are. Their perception does not define reality.
5-10 Her lovers the Assyrians - The northern kingdom, led by Jeroboam, moved straight into idolatry. He didn't want the people of the northern kingdom to return to Jerusalem for worship, fearing that when they made these pilgrimages to Passover and other feasts their hearts might turn back to the Davidic kings. Jeroboam created a new Judaism, an easier one, that allowed them the benefit of not having to travel to Jerusalem, so he could maintain control. Some of those, who feared God, fled to Jerusalem, including priests from the Levitical line. In Jeroboam's Samaria anyone could be a priest that paid the price, and he made two calves, which calls back to Egyptian practices, so that they could worship those. They worshiped the God of Israel through the image of the calves, only the true God had said:
…3You shall have no other gods before Me. 4You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,… Exodus 20: 3-5
This was an immediate and hard turn from the law of Moses, the Levitical priesthood, and the keeping of the feasts and Sabbaths to total apostasy, which held from that day on, so much so that in Jesus time, He corrects the Samaritan woman at the well. She was still lost in this false Judaism hundreds of years later.
…20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.… John 4: 20-22
We imagine the small kingdom of Israel looking with awe and envy upon the mighty empire of the Assyrians. Though they feared them, they also noticed their power and wealth, their influence and fame. Israel thought that by worshipping Assyria’s gods, adopting their morals, and embracing their customs they also could gain some of that power and fame. They foolishly rejected their covenant God and embraced idolatry. - E Word
ii. “Samaria had no true faith in the living God, so she looked to the Assyrians to help her. The picture here is that of a prostitute seeking a lover to care for her and the language is quite graphic. Samaria not only welcomed Assyria’s soldiers but also Assyria’s idols, and the religion of the Northern Kingdom became a strange mixture of Mosaic Law and Assyrian idolatry (2 Kings 17:6–15).” (Wiersbe)
As for her - She was easily impressed by finery, nice clothes, shiny things, but though she embraced Assyria, yet Assyria stole her children and left her for dead. This is not just an old thing, for it is popular in our age to look at Europe, and then remember when it was cool to want to follow in the footsteps of Venezuela, until Socialism failed yet again. People go after trends, love big promises, and they hate God for steeping them into reality.
11-21 Her sister, Oholibah, saw this - Quite a damning statement, you saw what happened to your own kin when they did the same thing and were destroyed. You could go further, when your mother Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and your father Adam did not step in to his God given role to prevent it, to protect his wife from the deceiver, and then they both lied and played the finger pointing game, though he chose Eve over God. It didn't work out well for them or the rest of humanity that followed. Remember your father Noah, and how only he and seven other people survived the world wide flood, that came as God's punishment on the evil of that day. How about Sodom and Gomorrah, seeing God's displeasure at their sin, and the complete annihilation of their city and the surrounding cities that followed. You saw your sister go down this road, leaving the God of her youth, the only true God, aligning herself with and in the same manner as those that were heading for destruction, and you did the same. You did the same, but worse even, for you had more light and warning.
Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion - Now Judah was enticed by the Babylonians, and dazzled by their glamour. It's the way Hollywood sells life styles, everyone is drunk and happy, yet marvelously dressed. It is the same as the corporate world where they tell you to dress for success, and our commercials try to sell meaning through materialism. Many dress to play for a part, but give me sincerity and a heart after God any day; you can keep your ridiculous clothes. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for cleaning the outside of the cup only, pretending at what they were not, only concerned with the eyes of men, yet unworried about the all seeing eyes of God.
“Bas-reliefs were common decorations in Mesopotamian palaces and temples. Perhaps this statement was an allusion to some Judean envoys who were sent to Babylonia and saw the witness of her great power demonstrated on such walls.” (Alexander)
ii. “Rich clothes are oft but fine covers of the foulest shame. If every silken suit did cover a sanctified soul, it would be brave.” (Trapp)
Whose members were like those of donkeys - This is normal language for us, in this age, where everything is broadcast and pushing the envelope has been played out for so long that men have to find the even more extraordinary. With their idolatry was always immorality, always a departure from God's original design of one man and one woman, the two becoming one flesh. They, like us, have given prominence the private members, and sex is what drives and sells everything. Whenever you eat something different, like oysters are said to arouse, in some places certain roots are good for a long lasting erection, men take Viagra, many statues are in the form of a phallic symbol. Women are judged by that which they should be modest about, yet they are paraded for their parts. In the Victorian age they would wear corsets to have a certain sized waist and shape, and this much to their physical harm. When they saw how their husbands looked at the protruding buttocks of their servant girls, they then had cages made to go underneath their dress, and make their own bottom appear more prominent. Now we have cosmetic surgery so you can get hair if you are bald, large breasts if you are flat, fuller lips, a robust bottom, and a larger penis or even no penis if that's what you think will make you happy.
22-35 Thus I will put an end to your lewdness - Those that she entertained she will now be given over to. It was fun during the courting, but now the downside to relationships has shown itself, and though she may now be tired of them, or no longer wish to be associated, yet they keep coming to take. Remember from past chapters, she pursued them, and most differently than other prostitutes, for she paid tribute to be used. Now they are her punishers. It reminds me of a U2 line, "I have held hands with the devil, and it was warm in the night, but now cold as a stone."
You shall drink your sister's cup - Ah, the temple, the city, the wall, and though God had turned Assyria away from you once, killed 185,000 on your behalf, yet no more. Having the temple won't save you, it is to your shame, that you could freely worship God, know the truths of God, and be worse than your sister. It is sin that God hates, that it what filled her cup and now you shall drink the same.
36-49 Whom they had borne to me - God viewed Israel as His, and the children belonged to Him as well, as all life does since He created it. They sacrificed their children to idols, oddly to fertility gods too, and we do the same to protect the act of procreation which we put above the purpose and result. We can't be bothered with the life that it produces, so we sacrifice that to our lewd and autonomous ideals.
On the same day - Not only did they sacrifice to Molech, but they entered the temple of the God, Who was the only God, Who said thou shalt have no other Gods, Who said you shall have no graven images nor pass your children through the fire, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; they entered His sanctuary. This is the height of hypocrisy, the God that is opposed to sin and promises to judge the world for it, we commit those acts and then come to church pretending to be saints. The world, that is dying in it's unbelief, we celebrate with it the things that God does not condone, and we stand by knowing what God has said, but we don't love them as much as we love their approval, their money, their friendship. Ultimately, the grossest sin is that we too are unbelievers, for we were told, given the most light, came into the church, did something that we called worship, but it was neither in spirit or in truth, so we mocked God by making Him out to be a god that we control, that we set the bar for, and that we sin against with no fear of retribution. That is not the God of the Bible.
…8‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’” 10Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen and understand.… Matthew 15: 8-10
…21Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’… Matthew 7: 21-23
“They dared to worship in the temple of God on the same day that they made their sacrifice of their children to Molech worship.” (Feinberg)
Men of the common sort - It became difficult to see her reasoning even to the worldly eye; it was the sin for the sake of sin, but also to try and punish God, for it requires a great love to hurt over such, how wicked.
“The irony was that she used the gifts which God had bestowed upon her to advance the cause of idolatry. She created a festive atmosphere, the sound of a multitude at ease. The harlot was not particular about who shared her table and her bed. Men of the common sort and even drunkards from the desert were all welcome.” (Smith)
18Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.… 1 Corinthians 6: 18-20
But righteous men - These men will not be drawn by the painted faces, the vulgar acts, the seductive stares. They have an eye unto righteousness, for they are jealous for God.
Thus I will put an end to lewdness - God is patient, but there is a time limit upon this, and no man knows the hour or the day that he will depart, or that the Lord will return, so choose ye this day whom you will serve.
“The similarity of this penalty with the state of siege of a city bombarded with sling-stones and incendiary missiles can scarcely have been coincidence. The shame of the guilty person’s end under Mosaic law will be exactly matched by the fate of Samaria and Jerusalem.” (Taylor)
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