EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 23

PARABLE OF TWO HARLOTS, JUDAH AND SAMARIA

Verses 1-10:

Verses 1-3 describe the harlotry of two sisters, Jerusalem and Samaria, capitals of the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel, who had one mother, the Hebrew people, whose name both daughters had defamed with their harlotry and whoredoms, from the days of Egypt. These two kingdoms of Israel are described as having their origin in Egypt in the tribes of Ephraim and Judah. Their sin of idolatry began in Egypt, in their youth, when they “bruised the teats of their virginity,” while yet unmarried, yet betrothed to be married to Jehovah, indicated by their having the covenant of circumcision there before they were married to Jehovah at Sinai, Exo 19:1-8; Deu 2:23-24. They were yet practicing the idolatrous whoredoms of Egypt under the judgment of their offended God, though cared for by Him, Exo 16:15; Jos 24:14, Lev 17:7.

Verse 4 asserts that once both sisters, Aholah and Aholiban were His and bare sons and daughters whose names were Samaria which is Aholah and Jerusalem which is Aholibah. Samaria was the location of a temple of worship erected by the northern kindom of Israel, without Divine order or sanction, 1Ki 12:31-33. Jehovah had ordained temple worship at Jerusalem, in Mt Zion where He had set or fixed His name, Psa 132:13-14. Before the division of the kingdom of Israel, under the apostacy of Jeroboam, both people, as one, worshipped God at His sanctuary in Jerusalem, Eze 16:8; Eze 16:10; Psa 68:16; Psa 27:4.

Verse 5 charges that Aholah, the elder sister, played the harlot when she was betrothed to the Lord, doting on her Assyrian lovers, her neighbors to the east, 2Ki 15:19; Hos 8:9; Hos 12:1. The term “Assyrian” refers to her kinsmen; Ashur was a brother to Afphaxad, Abraham’s ancestor, Gen 10:22; Gen 10:24; Gen 11:16-26.

Verse 6 describes Aholah the harlot’s idolatrous consorts clothed in blue uniforms, captains and rulers; All of them were desirable young men, attractive young horsemen, riding on horses, inciting and seducing the lecherous lust of this wanton virgin, gone prostitute after idolatry, with its lustful amenities, Isa 10:8.

Verse 7 certifies that this Aholah harlot of Samaria gave her body, in sexual, lustful abandon, to all the cavaliers whom she could attract, refusing nothing of herself to her paramour lovers. In association with all their idols she defiled herself repeatedly before God, Exo 20:4-5.

Verse 8 adds that “neither left or deserted she her whoredoms brought out of Egypt,” the calf gods, as set up by Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel, answering to the Egyptian Bull-god, Apis; She also allied herself with Egypt politically, Isa 30:2-3; Isa 31:1; 2Ch 12:2-4.

Verse 9 concludes that because of her abominations and pollutions before God, He delivered her into the harsh judgment hands of the Assyrians, to humiliate her as a “used-up” former lover, to cut her throat, leave her to die in her shame, Ezr 4:2; Ezr 4:10.

Verse 10 explains the base results of the Aholah prostitute’s fall. She became an example and a warning to neighboring people and countries of certain punishment for obstinate sins against an holy God; Thus her nakedness was said to be discovered, found out, Eze 16:37; Eze 16:41; Hos 2:3; Hos 2:10.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

THE SINS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH REPRESENTED UNDER THE FIGURE OF TWO HARLOTS. (Chap 23)

EXEGETICAL NOTES.Samaria and Jerusalem are the capitals and representations of the two kingdoms Israel and Judah. These two cities are presented under the allegory of two harlots who are sisters, and who have practiced whoredom from the days of Egypt onwards. (Eze. 23:2-4.)

Eze. 23:1-4. The two harlot sisters are briefly described.

Eze. 23:2. Two women, the daughters of one mother. These two cities had a common motherthe Hebrew people; regard being had to what they had become in the possession of that people.(Henderson).

Eze. 23:3. They committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth. The prophet regards this two-fold divisions of the people as dating long before the time of the separation of the kingdoms. The two kingdoms existed virtually in Egypt in the tribes of Ephraim and Judah. The origin of their idolatry is to be traced to Egypt, where all the tribes alike fell into that sin. It was in the very youth of the people that they had become alienated from God. There they bruised the teats of their virginity.At that time Israel was still unmarried. The marriage with Jehovah took place when the covenant was made at Sinai. But she was even at that time betrothed. This is proved by what God had done to the Patriarchs, and by the circumcision to which they had submitted; and hence their unchaste conduct fell under the judgment of (Deu. 22:23, &c.). Their business was to prepare themselves as a pure virgin for marriage.(Hengstenberg). On account of the legitimate relation in which the nation stood to God from its very origin, namely, of a marriage covenant, the political and religious departure of both kingdoms from the principles laid down in the law, appears as wantonness (Eze. 16:15). Egypt was the means of exciting the first carnal impulses of the youthful people to a heathenish mode of feeling and action, whereby they were robbed of their virgin purity.(Lange.)

Eze. 23:4. Aholah the elder. This name signifies, Her own tent. Thus it is implied that the worship of the Samaritans was of their own invention and was never appointed of Jehovah. The northern kingdom had erected an altar of her own will (1Ki. 12:31-33). Aholibah her sister. The meaning of this name is, My tent is in her. Jehovah had ordained the temple-worship at Jerusalem. He had chosen Zion for an habitation to set His name there (Psa. 132:13-14). And they were Mine. Previous to the apostasy under Jeroboam, Samaria, equally with Jerusalem, worshipped the true God. Their inhabitants were sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. He never renounced His right to the Israelites as subjects of theocracy, but sent prophets to disclose His will to them and warn them against idolatry. The northern kingdom was the sphere of the special labours of Elijah and Elisha.(Henderson).

HOMILETICS

SPIRITUAL ADULTERY

I. It consists in forsaking the Creator to love and serve the creature. The children of Israel committed whoredoms in Egypt by worshipping its idols. They forsook their God, who had called them to love and serve Himself, and to forsake all other. Idolatry is the perversion of a true religious instinct, as lust is the perversion of a passion which should inspire the devotion of love and self sacrifice. The worship and service of the creature is unauthorised. And it also debases.

II. The sin of it is manifest from the nature of the relations in which we stand to God. There were two women, the daughters of one mother. God was a Father unto Israel. The people were His own peculiar heritage. By their idolatry they were bringing dishonour upon the name of God. Duties arise out of our relation to God which cannot be set aside without bringing upon ourselves the stain and the consequences of transgression.

III. In the youth of a people they are especially exposed to this sin They committed whoredoms in their youth. The allurements of Egyptian idolatry soon corrupted Israel in the days of her youth. Their feelings were fresh, their experience small, and the pleasures of Egypt were novel and strange. Young societies are greatly exposed to the dangerous fascinations of those by whom they are surrounded. So the early Christian Church was soon corrupted by false philosophy; and in a later age, by the seductions of wordly power and grandeur. Also, in the youth of human life, the lusts and pleasures of the world are most powerful to seduce.

IV. This sin may be prevalent amidst all the refinements of civilization. The Israelites found in Egypt an advanced civilization. Yet amidst all this were to be found the coarsest and most debasing forms of idolatry. How much grovelling and degrading superstition is still to be found in the midst of the highest civilization!

V. This sin should be denounced in plain terms. The fleshly sins, which are here used as a figure of spiritual sins, are described in plain language. They are set forth in all their naked deformity; spoken of exactly as they are. Those who counsel such sins would like (if they hear of them at all) to have their loathsomeness hidden under the veil of elegant speech. Plain speaking is not attractive; flowery ambiguities are of the devil(Lange). Those who blame the prophet for his great plainness of speech should rather concern themselves with the thought of the baseness of those sins which demanded so faithful a narration and exposure. The whole of this passage teaches us that true religion leads to fellowship with God, His love and service. And all love and service inconsistent with this belongs to a class of sins which can best be described under the images of the worst and most degrading of fleshly lusts.

1. The Lord takes notice where and when those who are in relation to Him do sin. In Egypt, and in their youth. They sinned amidst the grand and bitter enemies of God, among Egyptians, and then when they were growing up to be a people. They should have considered what enemies the Egyptians were to their God and His worship, how odious their ways and worship were to Him. They should have walked circumspectly, so that they might have kept His name from being polluted; and likewise they, being in their youth under bondages, should have minded Gods kindnesses in preserving them, and making them to prosper. When God is beginning to show kindness to a people in misery, and raising them up to some height and greatness, and then for them to turn aside to lewdness, to superstitions, idolatrous, and heathenish practices, this God observes in a special manner, and it provokes Him greatly (Psa. 106:7). When states, cities, families, degenerate in their youth, it sorely displeases God.

2. Wheresoever a devised worship is brought in, there mans tabernacle is set up; where true worship is advanced, there is Gods tabernacle. The ten tribes had a worship of Jereboams devising, like unto the worship of Jerusalem in many things; but this was Aholah, their own tabernacle. God owned it not, He was not in their assemblies, He accepted not their sacrifices, their incense was a stink in His nostrils. But Jerusalem was Aholibah, My tabernacle, there Gods own worship was set up, and so long as His worship was there, He acknowledged His tabernacle to be in her. Where His worship is, there He dwells (Psa. 68:16); and is to be seen and enquired of (Psa. 27:4).Greenhill.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

II. A SAD HISTORY 23:149

In chapter 23 Ezekiel vividly portrays the history of the sister kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Israel is represented here by Samaria, and Judah by Jerusalem. They are allegorically compared to two wicked sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, who were unfaithful to their lawful husband. Both sisters sought liaisons with strange men. So also Israel and Judah had committed spiritual adultery against God. Samaria had already been punished for her unfaithfulness. Judah had failed to learn from the experiences of her sister kingdom, and was headed for the same fate. Such is the overall import of Ezekiel 23.

A, Introduction of the Two Sisters 23:14

TRANSLATION

(1) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of the same mother; (3) and they committed harlotry in Egypt; they committed harlotry in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there their virgin breasts were fondled. (4) And their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister; and they became Mine, and bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

COMMENTS

The allegory begins with the introduction of the two women, daughters of one mother. The two women are identified in Eze. 23:4 as Samaria and Jerusalem. Both cities had their origins in the nation Israel (Eze. 23:2). The tribes of Judah (represented by Jerusalem) and Ephraim (represented by Samaria) had both experienced the Egyptian bondage. But even in that formative period of Israels history they had shown inclinations toward idolatry. Using the figure of sexual license the fondling of the breasts Ezekiel describes how Gods people lost their virgin chastity even before leaving Egypt (Eze. 23:3). Nonetheless, the Lord married the sisters and produced children by them. The covenant relationship between God and Israel is frequently depicted in terms of a marriage in the Old Testament. The names of the sisters are given in Eze. 23:4. Samaria is Oholah (she who has a tent) and Jerusalem is Oholibah (a tent is in her). Both cities were noted for their religious shrines (tents).

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

The Two Daughters.

“The word of Yahweh came again to me saying, Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. And they committed whoredoms in Egypt. They committed whoredoms in their youth. There were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. And the names of them were Oholah, the eldest, and Oholibah her sister. And they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholoibah.”

The theme of two daughters occurs simply because it was a fact of history. God’s people had divided into two nations after the death of Solomon. There is no need to seek any further antecedents to the idea. Israel was the mother, Samaria and Jerusalem, capital cities of north (Israel) and south (Judah) as representing the two nations that came from her, were the daughters.

Their nationhood had begun in Egypt, and it had been an unhappy beginning. The picture of Israel in Egypt was not a pleasant one. They had worshipped a selection of foreign gods, and that worship had led them into sexual perversion and evil living. They had allowed themselves to be manhandled by what was unworthy. They had fallen not only into slavery but into degradation and idolatry.

‘And they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters.’ Their deliverance is mentioned in the briefest of terms, but it is full of glory none-the-less. ‘They became Yahweh’s.’ He delivered them and as it were entered into a marriage covenant with them at Sinai. And from then on they were clean from their degradation because they were His and He had provided for their cleansing. The result was that ‘they bore sons and daughters’. This may refer to the fact that they multiplied and grew, or it may have reference to those of other nations who joined with them in their intimacy with Yahweh e.g. Exo 12:38), or in fact to both. Things had begun to look promising for a wonderful family life.

The names Oholah and Oholibah mean ‘her tent’ and ‘my tent is in her’. Compare Esau’s wife Oholibamah, ‘tent of the high place’ (Gen 36:2). Thus the tents are cultic. Samaria had established her own sanctuary, but Jerusalem’s contained the true Tabernacle of Yahweh. Yet both could have been acceptable if the people had proved worthy. (God had demonstrated this by sending prophets to both). The way ahead had seemed rosy.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Eze 23:10  These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

Eze 23:10 “and slew her with the sword” – Comments – God’s judgment.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Spiritual Adultery of the two Kingdoms

v. 1. The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, in an inspired allegory setting forth the fact that both kingdoms were ripe for God’s judgment,

v. 2. Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother, namely, Israel and Judah, one nation by descent;

v. 3. and they committed whoredoms in Egypt, being guilty of idolatry even at that time; they committed whoredoms, spiritual adultery, in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there they, the people with whom they sinned, bruised the teats of their virginity, both being immoral acts and a species of adultery.

v. 4. And the names of them were Aholah, the elder, the meaning, “Her tent,” referring to the fact that the first worship of God in Israel was in a tent, or tabernacle, and Aholibah, her sister, this name for Judah, meaning, “My tent in her,” indicating that God appointed His worship in the midst of Judah. And they were Mine, they belonged to the Lord in the most peculiar sense before the apostasy under Jeroboam; and they bare sons and daughters, for they were at that time still considered the Lord’s brides. Thus were their names: Samaria is Aholah, called the elder, or rather, greater, on account of the larger size of her territory, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

v. 5. And Aholah played the harlot when she was Mine, forsaking the Lord in her idolatry; and she doted on her lovers, inflamed with her evil passion, on the Assyrians, her neighbors, with whom the people of the northern kingdom sought alliance and whose heathenish customs they aped,

v. 6. which were clothed with blue, the royal purple of ancient times, Israel being seduced by the splendor and pomp of Assyria, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses, making a bold show intended to impress passionate Samaria.

v. 7. Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, bestowing her wantonness upon them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria and with all on whom she doted, with the same passion for spiritual adultery; with all their idols she defiled herself, this being the essence of her transgression, shameless idolatry.

v. 8. Neither, in addition to this new transgression, left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt, since the calves set up by Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel were copies of Egyptian idols, of the Apis statues; for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her, the full measure of their idolatrous wickedness.

v. 9. Wherefore, in just punishment, I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, who professed an affection for her which they were far from feeling, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted, with such foolishly passionate desire.

v. 10. These, in making sport of her wantonness, discovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, leading them into exile, and slew her with the sword, destroying the kingdom of which Samaria was the capital; and she became famous among women, the object of jeering speech and mockery; for they had executed judgment upon her, her shameful overthrow was notorious throughout the known world.

v. 11. And when her sister Aholibah saw this, having the evil example of Samaria before her eyes always, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, Judah going even beyond Samaria in the extent of her idolatry, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms, outranking the northern kingdom in the spiritual adultery practiced in Jerusalem.

v. 12. She doted upon the Assyrians, her neighbors, having conceived a sinful affection for the heathenish neighbors and seeking an alliance with them, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men, whose pomp and political splendor dazzled the Jews.

v. 13. Then I saw, the Lord says in a statement of the true situation, that she was defiled, that they, Samaria and Jerusalem, took both one way, the way of transgression and wickedness,

v. 14. and that she increased her whoredoms, becoming, with the passing of time, ever more shameless in her idolatry; for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, probably in bas-reliefs colored in ocher,

v. 15. girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, with the flowing turbans which are so familiar from Assyrian sculpture, all of them princes to look to, appearing majestic amid imposing, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity, between the Black and the Caspian Sea;

v. 16. and as soon as she saw them with her eyes, probably when her merchants went to the East on business trips, or when Assyrian sculpture was brought to Jerusalem to adorn the palaces of the wealthy, she doted upon them, desiring entangling alliances which God had expressly forbidden, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea, soliciting the friendship of the mightier empire.

v. 17. And the Babylonians, gladly availing themselves of this opportunity, came to her into the bed of love, in the unholy alliance forbidden by the Lord, and they defiled her with their whoredom, with the excess of their idolatry, and she was polluted with them, as committing spiritual adultery, and her mind was alienated from them, for now the fickle Jews turned once more to the Egyptians.

v. 18. So she discovered her whoredoms, openly parading them before the whole world, and discovered her nakedness, her most shameful condition. Then My mind was alienated from her, so that He turned from her in disgust and loathing, like as My mind was alienated from her sister.

v. 19. Yet, in spite of this experience, which should have sobered her, she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, the lusts she had then practiced, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt, practicing idolatry even before the Exodus.

v. 20. For she doted upon their paramours, upon her lovers, the eunichs, princes, and courtiers who were instrumental in bringing about the alliance, whose flesh, the member concerned, is as the flesh of asses, said in bitter irony, and whose issue is like the issue of horses, said of carnal desire.

v. 21. Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising the teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth, literally, “on account of thy youthful breasts. ” In the early history there had at least been an explanation of Judah’s conduct, namely, the inexperienced sensuousness and carnality of the people. But here, in their later history, they were acting against better knowledge, willfully prostituting themselves and their sacred honor upon the altar of idolatry.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

After another pause, the prophet enters on another elaborate parallel, after the pattern of Eze 16:1-63; but with a marked variation. There we have the history of one harlot, s.c. of Israel in its collective unity. There we have two sister harlots, the daughters of one mother, and they are Samaria and Jerusalem, as both belonging to Israel. For the purpose of the parable, they are represented as having had a separate existence, even during the period of the sojourn in Egypt. This was probably historically true, the line of cleavage caused by the claims of Ephraim to supremacy appearing again and again long before the revolt of the tea tribes under Jeroboam (Jdg 8:1; Jdg 12:1; 2Sa 19:43). Both were alike tainted with idolatry, as in the history of the golden calf, when they came out of Egypt (comp. Eze 16:7; Eze 20:7, Eze 20:8). Yet even then Jehovah, like Hoses in the personal history which was to be to him as a parable of that of Israel, had compassion on them, harlots though they were (Hos 1:2). They became his, and “bare sons and daughters.”

Eze 23:4

The occurrence of proper names is almost unique in the parables of the Bible, the Lazarus of Luk 16:20 being the only other instance. Their meaning is sufficiently clear. Aholah (but both names should begin with O rather than A) means “Her tent;” Aholibah, “My tent is in her.” A parallel, which may have suggested the names, is found in the Aholibamah (equivalent to “My tent is in the high place”) of Gen 36:2, and another in the use of Ohel as a proper name in 1Ch 3:20. The common element of the two names is the word that is commonly used for the sacred tent or tabernacle in the Pentateuch and elsewhere. The distinctive element of each points to the fact that the worship in Samaria was unauthorized. Her “tent” was hers, not Jehovah’s. Of Jerusalem with its temple Jehovah could say, “My tent is in her,” and this, as magnifying her privilege, also aggravated her guilt. Keil and others take the adjective here, as in Eze 16:46, as meaning “greater” rather than “older.” The former adjective is, of course, applicable to the greater power of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, and, even if we retain the renderings of the Authorized Version, is probably the explanation of Samaria being named as the elder of the two.

Eze 23:5

The history of both the sisters passes from the time of the Exodus to that of their separate existence, and starts, in fact, from their first intercourse with the great monarchies of Asia. So far it is less a survey of their successive stages of degradation, like that of Eze 16:1-63; than a retrospect of their political alliances. Aholah played the harlot. The lovers, as in Eze 16:33, are the nations with which the kings of Israel were in alliance, and of these the Assyrians are named as pre-eminent. The word neighbors, which in its literal sense is hardly applicable, is probably to be taken of spiritual affinity, or may be taken as “come near” is in Gen 20:4; Eze 18:6; Le Eze 20:16. The Assyrians were those who, in that sense, came near to the harlot city. We have in 2Ki 15:20 the fact that Menahem paid tribute to Pul. Hos 5:13 and Hos 7:11 speak generally of such alliances. The black obelisk of Shalmaneser records the fact that Jehu paid tribute to him (‘Records of the Past,’ 5.41). In the last-named case the tribute consisted chiefly of vessels of gold, bowls, goblets, etc.

Eze 23:6

Clothed with blue. The same word as that used in the description of the tabernacle (Exo 26:4; Exo 26:31, et al.). It was probably some hue of the Tyrian purple kind which marked the official dress of the “captains” of the Assyrian armies. The words, with those that follow, bring before us the magnificent array of the Assyrian cavalrya force in which Israel, throughout its history, was deficient (Jdg 5:10; Zec 9:9; Isa 36:8.).

Eze 23:7-10

The next two verses paint the consequence of the alliance first with Assyria and then with Egypt. She adopted the religion of Assyria, probably in the form of the worship of Ishtar (Ashtoreth) as the queen of heaven. Having done this, the kings of Israel sought to play off one kingdom against the other (see Hos 7:11; 2Ki 17:4). It was, in fact, the discovery of Hoshea’s treachery in this matter that led Shalmaneser to besiege Samaria. The result of that siege is described in general terms in Eze 23:10. She, the city of Samaria, was slain with the sword, tier sons and daughters were taken into exile. So she became famous (i.e. infamous, like the Latin famosus), literally, a name among women, so. among the neighboring nations.

Eze 23:11, Eze 23:12

The issue of the Assyrian alliance in the fall of Samaria might have served as a warning to the kings of Judah. But it did not. They also ‘courted the alliance of the kings of Assyria, as in the case of Ahaz (2Ki 16:7-10) and Tiglath-Pileser. Hezekiah followed in the same line, though he too trusted in Egypt, and afterwards rebelled. Manasseh too paid tribute, and made Jerusalem the scene of a confluent idolatry, which included that of Assyria. Even Josiah went forth against Pharaoh-Necho as the faithful vassal of either Assyria or Babylon. The splendor which had fascinated Samaria fascinated her also. Here clothed most gorgeously takes the place of “clothed in blue” in Verse 6, describing, probably, the same fact.

Eze 23:14

The sin of Judah went a stop further than that of Samaria. She courted the alliance of the Chaldeans. Probably the sojourn of Manasseh at Babylon (2Ch 33:11) led him to see in that city a possible rival to Assyria. The embassy of Merodach-Baladan to Hezekiah (Isa 39:1-8.) implies, on the other hand, that Babylon was looking to Judah for support against Assyria. The prophet represents this political coquetting, so to speak, as another act of whoredom. Aholibah saw the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion (probably “red ochre:” colors seem to have been used largely both in Assyrian and Babylonian sculpture as in Egyptian, and Judah seems to have copied them, Jer 22:14) and fell in love with them. As the passions of a Messalina might be roused by sensuous pictures of masculine beauty, so Judah was led on by what her envoys reported of the magnificence of the palaces, the strength of the armies, of the Chaldeans. The journey of Jonah to Nineveh, and those implied in Hos 7:11, as well as the prophecy of Nahum, all indicate a more or less intimate knowledge of the Mesopotamian monarchies. The mission of Merodach-Baladan would be naturally followed by a return embassy from Judah. A later instance under Zedekiah meets us in Jer 29:3.

Eze 23:15

Exceeding in dyed attire; better, with dyed turbans, or tiaras, such as are seen on the Assyrian monuments of Nimrud, Khorsabad, and Kouyunyik.

Eze 23:17

The words paint the intimate alliance, the political prostitution, as it were, involved in the alliance with Babylon. Her mind was alienated from them. Interpreted by the history, the words point to the fact that Judah soon found out how hollow was the help gained by the alliance with Babylon, and turned, after Josiah’s death, to Egypt as a counterpoise. As in the history of Amnon (2Sa 13:15), lust, when it had wrought its will, passed into loathing and disgust. Jehoiakim and Zedekiah were examples of what we may well call this distracted policy. But, as it was, this alienation did but increase her guilt. As things were, it would have been better, as Jeremiah all along counseled, to accept the rule of the Chaldeans. The mind of Jehovah was alienated from Jerusalem as hers had been from the Chaldeans.

Eze 23:19

Yet she multiplied her whoredoms. The disappointment and failure, however, did not lead to repentance. Foreign alliances, and with them foreign idolatries, were courted more eagerly than ever, though in a different direction. The lovers were changed, but the harlotry went on.

Eze 23:20

She doted on her paramours. Commonly the word is used of a concubine (Gen 22:24; Jdg 8:31). Here it is used in scorn of the Egyptian princes whose favor Judah courted, reminding us of Homer’s , as indicating their political weakness. All that need be said of the comparison that follows is that here also Ezekiel follows in the footsteps of Jeremiah (Jer 5:8). What is indicated is that Judah threw herself into the idolatrous ritual of Egypt with an almost orgiastic passion. The harlot nation returned, as it were, to her first love, and renewed the whoredoms of her youth.

Eze 23:22, Eze 23:23

The lovers from whom the mind of Judah was alienated were, as in Eze 23:17, the Chaldeans. With these are joined Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa. The Authorized and Revised Versions, following the LXX. take these as proper names, and Ewald Smend, and Furst find in them those of Chaldean tribes. The Vulgate, followed by Luther, gives nobiles, tyrannosque, et principes, and Keil and Hengstenberg substantially adopt this rendering, giving “rulers, lords, and nobles.” “Pekod” appears as a place in Jer 50:20, but the ether names are unknown to history. On the whole, the balance seems in favor of the rendering in the text. With these are joined all the Assyrians, who, under Nebuchadnezzar, fought, of course, in his armies.” Now she should see her desirable young men riding upon horses (the prophet repeats with sarcasm the phrase of Jer 50:12) in another guise than she had expected.

Eze 23:24

With chariots, wagons, and wheels, etc. The first word is only found here, and probably means” armor.” So the Revised Version, with weapons, chariots, and wagons. They shall judge thee according to their judgments; sc. shall execute the judgment which God has assigned to them after their own manner, so their usual cruel treatment of barbarous nations.

Eze 23:25

They shall take away thy nose and thine ears, etc. Possibly it may have been known to Ezekiel as a punishment for the adulterer or adulteress in Egypt and other countries, and if so, he might have selected it as specially appropriate to his parable (Martial, ‘Epigr.,’ 2.83; 3.85). Thy residue shall be consumed with fire. The Hebrew word for “residue” (not that usually so translated) is the same as that previously translated “remnant.” In the first clause it clearly points to the men of Jerusalem who are left after the capture. In the second its meaning is determined by the fact that it follows after the deportation of the sons and daughters. All that was leftin the parable, of the mutilated trunk of the adulteress, in the history, of the devastated city, sc. the empty housesshould be destroyed by fire.

Eze 23:27

Thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt; i.e. the last political alliance between Judah and Egypt. This, together with the Egyptian cultus that accompanied it, should be made to cease. That would no longer be in the thoughts of the exiles; their hopes from that quarter were extinguished forever.

Eze 23:28

Once again with incisive sarcasm the prophet reiterates the phrase of Eze 23:17. The punishment should be all the more terrible as coming from those whom the adulteress had once loved with the love that had passed into loathing.

Eze 23:29

All thy labor; sc. all the results of labor, all thy wealth.

Eze 23:31-33

I will give her cup into thine hand. (For the image of the cup as the symbol of good or evil fortune, see Psa 23:5; Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15; Mat 20:22; Mat 26:39.) The cup, in this case, was to be deep and large as that of Samaria. The adulteress was to be “drunk, but not with wine” (Isa 29:9). And that “cup,” over and above the laughter and derision, would contain much of unknown calamities, the astonishment and desolation of Eze 23:33.

Eze 23:34

Thou shalt break the shards thereof. The picture of the desolate adulteress becomes yet more terrible. Like a forlorn and desperate castaway, she does shameful execution on herself; breaks her cup, and completes the work of mutilation in its most terrible form. That is the doom decreed for her, because she had forgotten her true husband and the love of her espousals. Revised Version gives gnaw the shards thereof, painting yet more vividly the despair of the outcast.

Eze 23:36

As often, Ezekiel emphasizes by reiteration, begins yet a fresh discourse with the same words, wilt thou judge, as in Eze 20:4 and Eze 22:2, and enters on another summary of the sins of the two harlot sisters, in which Moloch-worship (Verse 37) and sabbath-breaking (Verse 38) were conspicuous elements. The nature of the guilt is emphasized (Verses 38, 39) by the fact that the idolatrous ritual was performed on the very day in which the people sacrificed in the temple; that it found a local habitation even there (comp. Eze 8:17; 2Ki 21:1-26.; Jer 32:34).

Eze 23:40

Ye have sent for men to come from far, etc. The words obviously refer to the embassies which had been sent from time to time by both Samaria and Jerusalem to Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. The imagery of the earlier stage of the harlot’s progress is resumed, and we have a picture almost the counterpart of that in Pro 7:10-21. She takes her bath, paints her eyelashes with kohol, the black pigment still used in the East, as Jezebel had done (2Ki 9:30). She decks herself with jewels, and sits on a divan (a sofa-conch, rather than bed), and prepares a table for a banquet. And on that table are the incense and the oil, symbols alike of wealth and worship, which Jehovah claims as his, and which she offers to her lovers (comp. Eze 16:13, Eze 16:19; Hos 2:5, Hos 2:8).

Eze 23:42

A voice of a multitude, etc. The word for “multitude” is strictly tumult, and Keil and Currey render, The voice of tumult became still,” sc. the threats of the alien powers whom Judah courted were for a time hushed by the tributes thus paid to them. With the men of the common sort; literally, as in the margin, of the multitude of men. Sabeans from the wilderness. The Revised Version, with Keil and almost all recent commentators, follows the margin, drunkards (LXX; ). “Sabeans” rests on a Jewish rendering of the text, but, as a people, the Sabeans, who dwelt south of Meroe, though named in Isa 45:14, were too remote to come within the horizon of the parable. What Ezekiel dwells on is the ever-growing degradation of the harlot city. Not only the officers of the Chaldeans, but the mixed multitude, the very drunkards from the wilderness of Babylon, were admitted to her embraces. Possibly the word may point to the false gods to whom libations of wine were offered, but I incline to refer it rather to those who got drunk at their idol-festivals even in Jerusalem. Drunkenness was one of the vices of the Babylonians, and the prophets, who admired the Rechabites and the Nazarites (Jer 35:1-19.; Amo 2:11), must have looked on Judah’s participation in that sin as a measureless degradation. The bracelets and crowns symbolize the wealth and prestige which the Chaldean alliance was supposed to bring with it.

Eze 23:43

The whole verse is obscure, and has been very differently rendered.

(1) The Authorized Version may be paraphrased, “Then said I to her that was worn out with her whoredoms, passed her prime and enfeebled, Will they (the foreign nations) commit whoredoms (enter into alliances) with her? sc. What is there to attract now? And yet the habit is inveterate. She has grown old in her vice, and cannot cease from it.”

(2) The Revised Version takes it not as a question, but as a statement: Now said I of her that was old in adulteries, Now will they commit, etc. So, in the main, Keil. The text is probably corrupt, and resists conjectural emendation. In any ease the general meaning is clear. The sin is of too long standing to be cured.

Eze 23:45

The righteous men are in effect the ministers of God’s wrath. The doom comes at last on both the sisters, who are murderers as well as adulteresses. They shall suffer the punishment of stoning which the Law commanded (Le Eze 20:10; Deu 22:22, Deu 22:24; Joh 8:5), and after that their bodies were to be hacked to pieces. The result of that judgment would be that all women should learn not to do after their lewdness, i.e. that idolatry should cease from being the sin of the cities of Israel.

HOMILETICS.

Eze 23:4

Aholah and Aholibah.

“Her tent” and “My tent is in her.” These names stand respectively for Israel and Judah. Israel, the northern kingdom, had her own tent, i.e. she was independent after secession from Judah, like a woman who has left her mother’s tent and has one of her own. Judah retained the temple, the representative of the tabernacle of the wilderness; therefore God’s tent was in her. These prosaic facts were suggestive of deeper traits of national character, which the symbolical names suggested.

I. INDEPENDENCE. Israel is named Aholah. She has her own tent; she is independent. This national independence has its counterpart in individual independence. Jacob leaves his home and fights his own battle with the world. Joseph is sent away from his family, and cast in his youth among the grand opportunities of a great nation and the direful temptations of a dissolute society. The young man going out into the world enters on the exhilarating but trying career of independent life. There are special opportunities, duties, and dangers in having one’s own tent.

1. Opportunities. The independent position is not hampered with restrictions. Freedom means a wide range for individual activity. Now is the time to realize the long-cherished dreams of earlier days.

2. Duties. Duty dogs the footsteps of opportunity. As our scope for choice and individual activity is enlarged, the obligations of service are correspondingly increased. The slave has few duties; the free man great obligations. The liberty of manhood brings the burden of a man’s duty. Christian liberty increases the obligations of Christian service.

3. Dangers. Israel gained in freedom by her rebellion against the petty tyranny of Rehoboam; but the liberty which was got by separation brought its own great dangers. Cut off from the temple-worship, excluded from the national festivals, deprived of the highest religious ministrations, the freed people were tempted to fall into the idolatry of their ancestors and their neighbors. This temptation was too great for them, and they apostatized earlier than Judah. It is dangerous to be separated from religious ordinances. The young man who leaves the Christian home of his childhood for new scenes of worldly life is entering on a path of peril. A self-contained life is open to temptation. To seek to be independent of God is to court ruin.

II. DIVINE FELLOWSHIP. Judah is named Aholibah. God’s tent is in her. She has the outward means and symbols, at least, of the Divine presence. This fact represents high privileges, with corresponding guilt when God is forsaken.

1. High privileges.

(1) Prosperity. God’s presence brings joy and true welfare.

(2) Protection. If God’s tent is in our midst, the Captain of salvation is with us, and though a host should encamp around us, we need fear no evil.

(3) Spiritual grace. The temple was not a mere meeting-place, sanctuary, and fortress. Its services were “means of grace.” God is with us to enlighten, purify, quicken.

2. Heavy guilt. Aholibah apostatized. Her guilt was all the greater that she bore such a name, and could claim the symbol of God’s presence as peculiarly her own. The greatest guilt is that of men who know God and have enjoyed his presence and grace in the past, and who, sinning openly against light, have spurned those privileges and willfully rebelled against their chosen God. No sinners are so guilty as apostatized Christians. Mark: it is possible to be Aholibah and to enjoy God’s presence, and yet to turn against him, fall, and be ruined.

Eze 23:12

Doting on the Assyrians.

This foolish, fatal infatuation of Israel for the Assyrians may be taken as a striking instance of the fascination of worldliness. Israel had known the true God, and had been called to a peculiar destiny as a holy and. separate nation; yet she turned aside from her high vocation, lured by the fatal charms of military splendor and sensuous luxury in a great heathen empire.

I. GOD‘S PEOPLE ARE REQUIRED TO SEPARATE THEMSELVES FROM THE WORLD, who hear the call of God must follow him into the wilderness, or, if he gives them a land flowing with milk and honey, must still keep themselves apart from the evil world. This does not mean the physical separation of a hermit’s exile or a monk’s cloistered imprisonment. The true separation is spiritual, not local. We are called to forsake the spirit of the world, to renounce its evil practices, and to repudiate its low, material, sensuous tone of life.

II. THE WORLD ENDEAVORS TO ENSNARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD. It is not content to let them stand aloof; it appears as a tempter trying to charm the bride of Christ into infidelity. We cannot afford to despise its fascinating influence, for this is most subtle and potent. It comes through various means.

1. Proximity. Assyria was a “neighbor” of Israel. The Church is in the world. Christian men are in daily intercourse with worldly men. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.”

2. Earthly attractiveness. There was a material splendor in the great empire of Assyria which the marvelous sculptures and inscriptions that have been made familiar to us by Layard and others put beyond question. The “governors and rulers clothed most gorgeously,” and the horsemen, “all of them desirable young men,” awoke the admiration of the poor little semi-barbarous nation, Israel. The luxury of the world, its luscious literature and sensuous art, its enormous resources, and its elaborate culture of earthly refinement, are necessarily most fascinating.

3. Natural inclination. The world could not touch us for harm if it found nothing sympathetic in us. But it easily discovers remains of its old dominion. The old Adam is not quite dead. Passion within may be roused to answer to temptation from without.

III. THE SNARES OF THE WORLD ARE FATAL TO THOSE WHO ARE ENTANGLED IN THEM. Israel’s doting upon the Assyrians was fatal to her religion, her morals, and her national existence. To succumb to the spirit of the world is to make shipwreck of life.

1. Religious ruin. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” The spirit of worldliness is antagonistic to God. As surely as this spirit gains ground in our lives, the spirit of devotion will recede.

2. Moral ruin. True worldliness is morally evil. It is not a mere habit of external and earthly living. It carries with it the indulgence of the lower life. At least it tends to this, and all its fascinations drag the soul down.

3. Life-ruin. In the end the Christian man who gives himself up to the attractions of worldly living will reap the consequences of his tin in corruption and death.

Eze 23:31

A bad example.

Judah followed the bad example of her sister Israel; consequently, she was to share the fate of Israel We see here an instance of the evil influence of a bad example, and of its fatal consequences.

I. THE EVIL INFLUENCE OF A BAD EXAMPLE. Consider how this fell power is exerted.

1. By the fascination of suggestion. The path is made by the pioneer, and the follower has only to walk in it. The sight of a predecessor indicates the road, calls attention to it, suggests the idea of walking in it. The publications of the details of a horrible crime in the newspaper exerts a most deleterious influence in this way by filling the minds of people with thoughts of a kindred character. Hence the common occurrence of an epidemic of similar crimes.

2. By the attraction of sympathy. Judah is drawn to follow her sister Israel When Israel goes wrong, Judah accompanies her and goes wrong in a similar manner. Affection is fatal when it induces us to copy the vices of those whom we love. Even sisters must part when one chooses an evil way, if the other would not also choose sin. But it is hard to resist the charms of affection.

3. By the delusion of a false excuse. Judah pleads the example of her sister as an excuse. What others are doing seems to be justified by their action. Instead of measuring our conduct by the Law of God, we are tempted to test it by the corresponding conduct of others.

II. THE SIN OF FOLLOWING A BAD EXAMPLE. Judah is blamed for following the bad example of Israel. It is not for one moment supposed that the misconduct of her sister could be pleaded as a justification for her own repetition of it. We cannot be excused in our own sin on the ground that we are simply treading in the footsteps of predecessors. See how this sin is inexcusable.

1. Because the evil of the way is known. The foolish follower is not deceived. Judah knows that Israel has taken an evil course. Bad examples may ensnare the careless, but those who have minds to think for themselves cannot be blind to the wrong character of the example before them.

2. Because of the freedom of the will. A bad example is a temptation to evil; but it is not a force compelling men to follow. Its attraction can only work through the will, never contrary to it. Therefore one must consent voluntarily to follow the evil pattern before doing so, and this free consent destroys the excuse that the example is to blame rather than the man who imitates it.

3. Because of one‘s own advantages. Judah might plead that she was sorely tempted by her sister’s example. But then she possessed higher privileges than Israel. She was Aholibah, while her sister was only Aholah. She had the temple of God in her midst, while Israel was left to her own resources. Christians are doubly guilty in following the bad example of godless men. They sin in spite of higher influences which should suffice to keep them in the right path.

III. THE FATAL CONSEQUENCES OF FOLLOWING A BAD EXAMPLE. Judah was walking in the way of her sister; therefore she must drink of her sister’s cup. Companions in guilt will be companions in doom. It is impossible to walk in the same path as another without going towards the same goal. Moreover, if higher religious privileges do not keep us from following the sinful practices of worldly men, most certainly they will not protect us from sharing their fate. He who treads the sinner’s flowery path will drink of the sinner’s bitter cup.

Eze 23:35

(first half of verse)

Forgetting God.

I. FORGETTING GOD IMPLIES THAT HE HAS FORMERLY BEEN KNOWN. We cannot forget what we have never known. The lower animal, which is incapable of entertaining a thought of God, cannot forget him. If I forget much, I must have known much.

1. Men have a natural knowledge of God. Few races, if any, are without a trace of religion. The Andaman islanders and the Fuegians are said to have been discovered in that state. If so, they are just the exception that proves the rule. The science of comparative religion reveals an underlying primitive theism beneath the tangled growth of later mythology. St. Paul appealed to the natural knowledge of God among the heathen (Act 17:28; Rom 1:21).

2. They who have seen the Jewish and Christian revelation have a larger knowledge of God. Israel had known God by his special manifestations in the Law, in his providence and miracles, in the prophets. All Christendom is open to the higher knowledge of God in Christ. Children in Christian homes and Sunday schools have known God, though they may have forsaken him in later days.

3. The people of God have the fullest knowledge of God. True Israelites and Christians know God as he is never known to the outer world. They have the knowledge of experience, spiritual sympathy, and fellowship (Joh 14:7).

II. THERE ARE MANY INDUCEMENTS TO FORGET GOD.

1. He is invisible. The knowledge of God is held only by faith. The decay of faith leads to forgetting God. It requires some spiritual effort to keep our hold on the Unseen.

2. Earthly interests distract our thoughts. These things are seen, present and pressing; they crowd about us and force themselves upon us. They make themselves felt as intensely real. Pleasures of life and cares of life, fascinating delights and absorbing anxieties, all tend. to put out the thought of God.

3. Sinful inclinations rouse an aversion to the thought of God. He is holy; lie disapproves of sin. It is not pleasant to think of God when we are choosing the evil way.

III. FORGETTING GOD IS ITSELF A GREAT SIN. We can control our memory by fixing our thoughts upon God. This is not a case of mere brain failure. There is a moral defect behind it. Apart from all active deeds, the very forgetting God is itself wicked on several grounds.

1. God has never forgotten us. He has provided for our daily needs, while we have been ignoring the hand from which the provision came. He is our Father. Gratitude and love should keep the thought of God warm in our heart. To forget God implies gross unthankfulness and a base lack of natural affection.

2. God claims our attention and obedience. He is our Lord. He expects us to listen to his voice, give heed to his commands, and obey his will. But to forget God is to ignore these duties.

IV. FORGETTING GOD IS HURTFUL TO MAN. They know not what they miss who forsake their true life and forget their Father in heaven. Seeking liberty, they court death.

1. This is the loss of the best blessings of Heaven. The light of God’s countenance is despised. His guidance, comfort, support, and salvation are neglected. The joy of communion is renounced.

2. This incurs a fatal doom. God cannot let us forget him forever. If we do not remember his love today, we may encounter his wrath tomorrow (Psa 44:20, Psa 44:21).

V. GOD MERCIFULLY INTERFERES TO SAVE US FROM FORGETTING HIM.

1. He reveals himself in his Word. The revelation of nature is daily spread before us. But when that is despised, God adds the more clear voice of prophecy. We have the open Bible to remind us of God.

2. God comes to us in his Son. As men had forgotten him, God came right down among them, looked at them through a human countenance, and spoke in a human voice. Christ comes to save us from forgetting God.

3. God rouses us by his providence. We are forgetting God while all goes smoothly. Then his thunders burst over us. They startle and alarm, but they awaken. Thus God saves us from forgetting him.

Eze 23:36

(last clause)

Abominations declared.

I. ABOMINATIONS MAY BE HIDDEN.

1. They may be committed in secret. Then they are unknown to every one but the guilty persons and their accomplices.

2. Their corrupt character may not be admitted. Then they may be done in open daylight without shame or rebuke. Not only the outside public, but even the guilty persons themselves, may not perceive the full evil of what they are doing.

3. They may be forgotten. People do not wish to call to mind a disagreeable past. As the years glide by it slides further and further into the dim land of forgetfulness. By dint of reiterated self-flattery the guilty persons almost persuade themselves that they did not do the evil things of those old bad years, or that somehow they have left their former selves behind them in that evil past; or they put the thought of it quite out of their minds.

II. ABOMINATIONS CANNOT BE HIDDEN FOREVER. God does not forget them. The recording angel has written them in his awful book with ink that never fades. The subtle poison of them lingers in the souls of the guilty. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Some seeds take long to germinate. But the seeds of evil deeds have a fatal vitality, though they be slow to make an appearance. We cannot escape the consequences of our misdeeds by forgetting them.

III. IT IS BEST THAT ABOMINATIONS SHOULD BE REVEALED TO THE GUILTY ON EARTH. It is no piece of idle vengeance that tortures Israel with a revelation of its abominations.

1. It is well for the guilty to know them. There is no chance of repentance until the heinousness of sin is acknowledged. But that this may be the case, the abominations must first be revealed to the sinner. There may be little good in proclaiming his guilt aloud to the world. What is needed is that it should be brought well home to his own conscience.

2. It is well that they should be known now. If men wait for the certain revelation of final judgment, the abominations will be declared in trumpet-tones of denunciation, and burned into the soul in memories of fire. It is infinitely better to become conscious of them first, that the awakening knowledge of guilt may perchance lead to contrition and repentance.

IV. GOD DECLARES THEIR ABOMINATIONS TO SINNERS. He is too merciful to permit his children to perish without warning. The Bible contains awful revelations of human sin. If we take it as a lamp, and turn its light on our own lives and into our own hearts, it will reveal many an abomination of wickedness hitherto calmly ignored. The prophets of Israel were required to reveal man’s sin quite as much as to make known the thoughts and will of God. John the Baptist came to prepare for Christ by declaring to men the abominations of their ways. Christ himself makes men feel their sin by his own holy presence. So Peter feared to be near him (Luk 5:8). A vision of Christ throws a wholesome light on the hideous condition of an impenitent soul. This is to lead to repentance and salvation through Christ. Then the abominations may be blotted out (1Jn 1:7).

Eze 23:40 and Eze 23:42

The foreign and the common.

In Eze 23:40 Israel is seen to be seeking distant foreign connections, like a faithless wife who goes far afield for companions in sin. In Eze 23:42 the charm of the distant and the foreign is swallowed up in the vulgarity of sin, which is the same in essence all the world over.

I. THE CHARM OF THE FOREIGN. The Jews were especially warned against foreign alliances, as they meant distrust in God, and as they led to the introduction of corrupting heathen influences. Nevertheless, the foolish people gave way to the fatal fascination of foreigners.

1. There is a charm in novelty. We are tempted to accept alien ideas just because they strike us with a certain freshness. Thus all sorts of earthly notions and practices have been imported into God’s Israel, the Christian Church, by have peculiarly wide and varied relations with the world, and Christianity claims all the earth as its domain. But the fatal charm is that of following the example of the various practices of mankind instead of impressing a Christian influence on the race. This was Israel’s mistake. Called to carry out a mission to the world, she succumbed to the spirit of the world. There is great danger lest the Church should follow her example in this respect. Indeed, this has happened already to a deplorable extent. A pseudo-liberalism claims to be following the zeit-geist, and so to be adapting Christianity to the world. This means unfaithfulness to Christ. St. Paul would be all things to all men, but only that he might win all men to Christ, never so as to surrender Christ to please the world. That is the part of a Judas.

II. THE DISILLUSION OF THE COMMON. Israel and Judah cast wistful glances on the foreigner. But when they had accomplished their purpose and were indulging in revelry with a multitude of people who had adorned them with the barbaric magnificence of golden bracelets and crowns, what did it all amount to but the shame of a low, drunken debauch? Novelty in sin does not elevate the evil thing, which is essentially the same, however it may be clothed and decorated. The so-called refinement of vice is but a veneer on the surface which leaves the rottenness beneath untouched. Cosmopolitanism does not save from moral corruption. The whole world is essentially one in its sin. There is a horrible vulgarity about all wickedness. If we would be saved from this we must in a sense become a “separate people.” We may and we should still sympathize with all our fellow-men, send the gospel to every nation and ourselves learn such lessons as a wide view of mankind may teach us. Yet for all the higher efforts of life the inspiration must be found in the retired and secret chamber of prayer.

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON

Eze 23:1-49

Inexcusable infidelity.

What it must have cost the patriotic prophet to write this chapter passes our power to imagine. The Jew was naturally and pardonably proud of his country and of its history. No thoughtful Jew could, indeed, be insensible to imperfections and flaws in the national character, to stains upon the nation’s annals. But in this passage of his prophecies the dark shading is relieved by no gleam of light. Israel is depicted as bad from the days of Egyptian bondage down to the days of Babylonian captivity. The figurative language employed is such as could only be justified by facts most discreditable to the character of the Hebrew people. That there were exceptions to the rule, Ezekiel was well aware. But the rule was that the people were, at every stage of their existence, prone to depart from the God to whom they owed every privilege, every blessing; that they resisted no temptation to idolatry; that they were incessantly provoking the anger and just condemnation of the theocratic king. To complete the horror of the representation, the northern and southern tribes are alike included in the indictment and in the guilt. Penetrating beneath the faithful but very repulsive, yet necessary and just, similitude employed by the prophet, to the moral and spiritual lessons thus conveyed, we may trace the story of the inexcusable infidelity of Judah and Israel as related without exaggeration by one of their own race.

I. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS COMMON TO JUDAH AND ISRAEL. We have but to turn to the Books of Kings and of Chronicles to see that in this respect the northern and southern kingdoms were alike, if not equally, guilty. In the record we find, notwithstanding certain remarkable exceptions in the case of Judah, that kings and people continually forsook their Divine Deliverer and rightful King, and addicted themselves to the degrading idolatries practiced by the surrounding nations.

II. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH COMMENCED IN THE NATION‘S YOUTH, DURING THE EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. The record of the wanderings in the wilderness is a sufficient proof of this. The worship of the golden calf is a well-known instance of the readiness of Israel to fall back into the Egyptian idolatry, which, it might have been supposed, they had forever left behind them when they crossed the Red Sea, and witnessed the powerlessness of the gods of Egypt to save Pharaoh and his mighty but misguided host.

III. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS REPEATED WHEN ISRAEL WAS BROUGHT INTO CONTACT WITH THE ASSYRIANS. In the frank and painful language of the prophet is depicted the fatal readiness of the Israelites to yield themselves to the seductions of the Oriental idolatries, and even to go out of their way to court the corruption which they should have eschewed. Compared with the pure and stately rites instituted by Divine command, and celebrated in the temple courts of Jerusalem, the worship of the Assyrians was inexpressibly degrading. The length of time during which the Hebrews had enjoyed peculiar privileges increased their culpability in transferring, at this period, the allegiance they owed to the true God from him to the contemptible idols of Assyria.

IV. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH ALIENATED HIM FROM THE PEOPLE WHOM HE HAD CHOSEN. As the soul of a husband is estranged from the adulteress who has deserted him, so the Lord declared his soul to be alienated from her whom he had signalized by his favor. Israel had forsaken the one incomparably holy and gracious God, and had attached herself to the lords many and the gods many of the surrounding peoples; and such conduct could not but raise a barrier between Jehovah and the nation that had shown such insensibility to his favor, and such readiness to yield to the advances of his enemies.

V. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS PUNISHED THROUGH THE AGENCY OF THE VERY PEOPLE THROUGH WHOSE INSTIGATION IT WAS COMMITTED. How remarkable the threat, “I will raise up thy lovers against thee!” By Assyria Judah and Israel were corrupted; and by Assyria they were chastened. They alienated the Lord, and yet found no help from the false gods for whose sake they had deserted him.

VI. PARTNERS IN DISLOYALTY WERE PARTNERS IN PUNISHMENT. Alike they sinned, and alike they suffered. They incurred the same fate, and from the same sword. Samaria and Judah alike endured the sorrows of the Eastern captivity and the shock of the Eastern armies.

VII. DISLOYALTY TO JEHOVAH WAS SEVERELY DEALT WITH. In various figures, each with its own dark shade of significance, the prophet portrays the impending fate of the guilty, apostate nations. They were mutilated; they were compelled to drink the cup of astonishment and desolation; they were consumed with fire and slain with the sword.

VIII. THE AIM OF THUS PUNISHING DISLOYALTY WAS TO BRING IT TO AN END. “Thus will I cause lewdness [i.e. idolatry] to cease out of the land, that all women [i.e. nations] may be taught not to do after your lewdness.”

IX. JEHOVAH THUS VINDICATES HIS OWN CLAIM TO THE LOYALTY OF ALL MEN, AVENGING HIMSELF UPON THOSE WHO WRONG HIM. “Ye shall know that I am the Lord God.” His honor he will not give unto another. To our reverence and our obedience, to our devotion and service, our Creator and Redeemer has an indisputable and indefeasible claim; and this he will assuredly assert and maintain. He will be honored, both by the condemnation of the unfaithful and rebellious, and by the salvation of the penitent, the submissive, and the loyal.T.

HOMILIES BY W. JONES

Eze 23:5

Exalted relationship and enormous sin.

“And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine.”

I. A RELATIONSHIP OF THE HIGHEST PRIVILEGE. “She was mine.” Aholah is intended to represent the people of Israel as distinguished from the people of Judah. The Lord here says that she was his. In common with all other peoples, Israel was his:

(1) By creation. God “himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” He is “the Father of spirits.”

(2) By sustentation. He is “the God in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways.” With Job, we may say to him, “Thou hast granted me life and favor, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.” But:

(3) Israel was his by redemption. He redeemed them from their bondage in Egypt by mighty works and marvelous signs. That emancipation is an illustration of the redemption of man from sin effected by our Savior Jesus Christ. “The Lord hath anointed him to proclaim liberty to the captives,” etc. (Isa 61:1, Isa 61:2). He “gave himself a ransom for all.”

(4) Israel was his pre-eminently by covenant engagement. “I aware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine” (Eze 16:8). They belonged to him as a wife belongs to her husband. This is the relationship to which the text points, and which is treated of in Eze 16:1-63. It is great condescension on the part of God to authorize the prophets thus to represent his relation to his people. “Thy Maker is thy Husband; the Lord of hosts is his name” (Isa 54:5). “Return, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am a Husband unto you” (Jer 3:14). This relationship should be characterized by:

1. Tender affection. We may see this in the way in which St. Paul writes of the love between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:23-32). When marriage is contracted without true mutual affection, the relation is desecrated.

2. Exalted privilege. In taking the Israelites to be his, God gave himself to them as their supreme Portion. “They shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Jer 32:38). “This of God’s being our God,” says Charnocke, “is the quintessence of the covenant, the soul of all the promises: in this he hath promised whatsoever is infinite in him, whatsoever is the glory and ornament of his nature, for our use; not a part of him, or one single perfection, but the whole vigor and strength of all. As he is not a God without infinite wisdom, and infinite power, and infinite goodness, and infinite blessedness, etc; so he passes over, in this covenant, all that which presents him as the most adorable Being to his creatures: he will be to them as great, as wise, as powerful, as good, as he is in himself. And the assuring us, in this covenant, to be our God, imports also that he will do as much for us as we would do for ourselves, were we furnished with the same goodness, power, and wisdom: in being our God, he testifies it is all one as if we had the same perfections in our power to employ for our use; for he being possessed with them, it is as much as if we ourselves were possessed with them for our own advantage, according to the rules of wisdom, and the several conditions we pass through for his glory.”

3. Scrupulous fidelity. The relationship imperatively demands this. God would not fail in one jot or tittle on his part. “If we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for he cannot deny himself.” And Israel was required to be true to him in obeying his commands, and above all in worshipping him alone. “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before me,” etc. (Exo 20:1, seg.). Through Jesus Christ we may each enter into this exalted relationship. Through him we may each be enabled, without presumption, to say of the great God, “He is my God and my Father.”

II. A SIN OF THE GREATEST HEINOUSNESS. “And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine.” Israel is here represented as a wife who has been unfaithful to her husband. The primary reference is to the sin of Jeroboam in setting up the golden calves at Bethel and at Dan, and calling upon the people to worship God through them (1Ki 12:26-33). And this was but the beginning of Israel’s sin. Afterwards they worshipped Baal and Astarte. Their sin involved:

1. Positive injustice. They robbed God of his rights. He has a just claim on our obedience, our reverence, and our love. This claim is firmly based upon what he is in himselfthe Supremely Great and Good; and upon what he is and does in relation to usour Creator, etc. Not to comply with his claims is to defraud him o; his due.

2. Base ingratitude. How shameful were the returns which Israel made for his great kindness to them! Very strikingly is this set forth in Eze 16:1-63. And their conduct has been too closely reproduced by us. For his fidelity we have returned unbelief; for his love, coldness of heart; for his beneficence, disobedience. How heinous this ingratitude is! And yet, alas, how common!

“Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind

As man’s ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

“Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot:

Though thou the Waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remember’d not.”
(Shakspeare.)

3. Heinous infidelity. This is the aspect of Israel’s sin to which prominence is given in the text. In forsaking the Lord God for idols they committed a treacherous breach of a sacred engagement. Their conduct is an illustration of the action of those who, having avowed their allegiance to him, turn their backs upon him and upon his cause. Terrible is their guilt, and deplorable their condition. “It is a miserable thing,” says Bishop Ryle, “to be a backslider. Of all unhappy things that can befall a man, I suppose it is the worst. A stranded ship, a broken-winged eagle, a garden overrun with weeds, a harp without strings, a church in ruins,all these are sad sights; but a backslider is a sadder sight still.” And appalling will be their doom, even “a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries.” Says Bunyan, “They fall deepest into hell who fall backwards into hell.” Let backsliders return unto the Lord while there is yet time. “Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; I will not look in anger upon you,” etc. (Jer 3:12,Jer 3:14; Hos 14:1-4).W.J.

Eze 23:9

Sinners left to themselves and to their sins.

“Wherefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers,” etc. The aspect of the sin of Israel which is most conspicuous in this chapter is not their idolatry so much as their contracting political alliances which were forbidden by God. “The imagery,” as Fausset remarks, “is similar to that in Eze 16:1-63.; but here the reference is not, as there, so much to the breach of the spiritual marriage-covenant with God by the people’s idolatries, as by their worldly spirit, and their trusting to alliances with the heathen for safety, rather than to God.” Our text suggests two observations

I. DETERMINED PERSISTENCE IN SIN LEADS GOD TO ALLOW THE SINNER TO TAKE HIS OWN COURSE. The Israelites would trust in Egypt or in Assyria rather than in the Lord their God. Remonstrances against political alliances with heathen nations, or conformity to their religious observances, with warnings of the consequences of so doing, had been addressed to them in vain. Exhortations to trust in Jehovah alone had proved fruitless. All moral means had been employed to secure their fidelity to their duty and their God, but without avail. Wherefore the Lord “delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.” The Israelites would have their own way, and God at length allowed them to take it (cf. Psa 81:11, Psa 81:12). There are some today in whom we fear the same process is at work. Here is a man who makes riches the object of his supreme concern. Money is the god in which he trusts, and to which he is devoted. His great and constant efforts are made in order to acquire and retain riches. Remonstrances and rebukes for the course he is pursuing are unheeded by him. Exhortations and encouragements to cherish a different and nobler ambition, to trust a worthy object, and to live to God, are addressed to him in vain. He will go on in his own way. And at length God allows him to take his course, and live for money. The same thing takes place with others who make a god of pleasure, or who will trust supremely in their own sagacity and judgment, or whose grand ambition and ruling purpose is to attain conspicuous position or commanding power. If they are invincibly determined to follow their own course, God allows them to do so. The case is thus forcibly stated by Dr. Joseph Parker: “A man sets his mind on standing on some high place; he points to a pillar, and says that if he could ascend to its summit he would see from that lofty elevation glimpses of heaven, and he determines that he will stand upon that summit, whatever hazards he may incur. At length God grants him his request; and when the man has ascended to the eminence which he coveted, what does he find? Sand, sand, sand! Mile on mile of sandsand for mile on mile! And now he wishes to descend; but bow to get down is his great difficulty. There may be no way down but that which involves suicide. Yet the man was determined to reach that elevation; nothing could stand between him and his wish; he urged God to grant him his request; with importunate desire he besought that he might have his own way; and there is no punishment heavier than that which falls upon any man when God allows him to take his own course.” God does much to lead men to forsake sin and follow holiness; he gave his own beloved Son as a sacrifice for the abolition of sin and the salvation of the sinner; he is working for these ends by many and powerful agencies; for these objects he will do everything that he can, everything that is consistent with his own holiness and with the moral constitution which he has given to man. But one thing he will not dohe will not compel men to forsake their own evil ways and walk in his way of holiness. And if men were forced into righteousness of action, what would such righteousness be worth? The obedience which is not willing is mechanical, not moral. The goodness which is not hearty is in the sight of God but a dead and hypocritical form.

II. THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN GENERALLY ARISES OUT OF THE SIN ITSELF. “Wherefore I delivered her up into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.” “The cause which at last brought destruction on Israel was that the King of Assyria found conspiracies in Hosea, who was intriguing with Egypt at the same time that he acknowledged himself a tributary to Assyria (2Ki 17:4).” Says Matthew Henry, “The neighboring nations, whose idolatries she had conformed to and whose friendship she had confided in, and in both had affronted God, are now made use of as the instruments of her destruction. The Assyrians, on whom she doted, soon spied out the nakedness of the land, discovered her blind side, on which to attack her, stripped her of all her ornaments and all her defenses, and so uncovered her, and made her naked and bare, carried her sons and daughters into captivity, slew her with the sword, and quite destroyed that kingdom and put an end to it . And that the Assyrians, whom they had been so fond of, should be employed in executing judgments upon them, was very remarkable, and shows how God, in a way of righteous judgment, often makes that a scourge to sinners which they have inordinately set their hearts upon. The devil will for ever be a tormentor to those impenitent sinners who now hearken to him and comply with him as a tempter.” “God excites those against us for punishment to please whom we had sinned.” Scott says truly, “God commonly employs tempters to punish those who listen to them.” And Shakespeare

“Heaven is most just, and of our pleasant vices
Makes instruments to scourge us.”

In the righteous government of God punishment is not arbitrarily annexed to sin: it grows out of the sin. As Hesiod observes, “The seeds of our own punishment are sown at the same time we commit sin.” “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” etc. (Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8). If men will trust in riches or rank, in pleasure or power; if they will live for these things, their life will bear its appropriate fruit. These their gods will prove their ruin. Their hopes will be utterly disappointed, their lives deplorably impoverished and degraded, and their souls lost. Let us take heed to the object of our trust. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is,” etc. (Jer 17:7, Jer 17:8).W.J.

Eze 23:27

A severe judgment and its satisfactory consequences.

“Thus will! make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt,” etc. The sin referred to in this verse is the idolatry of the people. Two of its clauses make this quite clear. “Thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt; thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them.” The form of the idols which Jeroboam set up he derived from Egypt, where he had resided for some time. In setting up the golden calves at Bethel and Dan he “translated to Israelitish soil the worship which he had seen at Memphis and Heliopolis” (1Ki 12:26 -36). And, what is more important for the elucidation of our text, which is addressed to the people of Judah, the whole Israelitish people brought with them their deep-rooted tendency to idolatry when they came out of Egypt. Two chief points are presented to our notice.

I. A JUDGMENT OF GREAT SEVERITY FOLLOWED BY SATISFACTORY CONSEQUENCES. God had already visited the kingdom of Israel with his judgments because of their idolatries. He had sent famine upon them (1Ki 17:1; 1Ki 18:1, 1Ki 18:2); he had allowed them to suffer by the invasions of their enemies (2Ki 6:24-29; 2Ki 10:32, 2Ki 10:33; 2Ki 13:3, 2Ki 13:4, 2Ki 13:7). Amos the prophet forcibly sets forth these visitations of Israel by reason of their sins (Amo 4:6-11). And as all these judgments failed to turn them from idolatry, the Lord suffered them to be carried captive into Assyria (2Ki 17:3-6). These things should have been a warning to the people of Judah to keep clear of idolatry; yet they frequently lapsed into it. God had caused them also to suffer by reason of it (2Ki 18:13-16; 2Ki 21:1-15; 2Ki 23:31-35; 2Ki 24:1-4, 2Ki 24:10-16). But these judgments did not cleanse the kingdom of Judah of idolatry. Checked for a time, the- sinful practice broke out vigorously again. And in consequence, the complete destruction of Jerusalem, the utter overthrow of the kingdom, and the captivity of the people, are declared to be at hand. And the text asserts that, by means of this severe judgment, the people would be finally and forever freed from idolatry. And the result has proved the prophetic assertion true. One effect of the Captivity was the complete eradication of the tendency of the Jews to idolatry; “so that whereas, before the Captivity, no nation (all things considered) was more impetuously bent upon idols and idolatry than they were, after that Captivity no nation was more vehemently set against idols and idolatry than they were.” The sin of idolatry is not limited to those who are called heathen. Dr. Thomas Guthrie says truly, “In a sense all men are idolaters. In the days of old, it is said that Egypt had more gods than men. Elsewhere than in Egypt, everywhere, as the Bible says, ‘there be lords many and gods many.’ The Hindu reckons his divinities by thousands and tens of thousands; yet the world has a larger pantheonas many gods as it has objects, be they innocent or guilty, which usurp the place of Jehovah, and dethrone him in the creature’s heart. Nor are men less idolaters if drunkards, though they pour out no libation to Bacchus, the god of wine; nor less idolaters, if impure, that they burn no incense at the shrine of Venus; nor less idolaters, if lovers of wealth, that they do not mould their god into an image of Plutus, and, giving a shrine to what lies hoarded in their coffers, offer it their morning and evening prayers. He has been an idolater, who, rebelling against Providence, follows the hearse of a coffined god; he made an idol of wife or child; and now, when the robber of all our homes has stolen these his gods away, and bears off his plunder to the grave, the feelings of that man’s heart may be expressed in Micah’s complaint to the Danite robbers, ‘Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and what have I more? and what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee?’ ‘Let no one deem it strange if God should visit him for his idolatries. He may do so by forcibly removing the idol, by depriving the idolater of the riches which he has worshipped, or by taking to himself the child or other relative which has been made an idol. Or he may visit those who sin thus by making the idol the occasion of sharp sorrow or bitter trial, as when a child has been idolized by his parents, and grows up to “bring down their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.” Blessed will it be if such visitation leads to the turning of the heart entirely to God.

II. A PROPHETIC PREDICTION WHICH WAS REMARKABLY FULFILLED. “Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee,” etc. “This prediction is frequently repeated; and the accomplishment of it has been most wonderful. It might have been expected that a nation, ever prone to idolatry in a country where the worship of the true God was established and none else tolerated, would have readily conformed to the idolatrous usages of the nations among whom they were scattered by the Captivity, and so have been incorporated with them. Yet neither the authority, the frowns, the examples, or the favor of their conquerors or powerful neighbors; nor their own fears, hopes, interests, or predilection for the sensual, jovial worship of idols, could prevail with them to run into gross idolatry, during the Captivity or afterwards! Nay, they were instrumental to the proselyting of numbers of idolaters to the worship of Jehovah, in the countries where they were dispersed” (Scott). This is certainly a remarkable fulfillment of prophetic prediction; and it furnishes:

1. Evidence of the omniscience of God. He clearly and certainly foresaw what the result of the Captivity would be in this respect. Such foreknowledge points to the omniscience of him who possesses it. “O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me,” etc. (Psa 139:1-4). This knowledge should prove:

(1) A restraint to the evildoer. There is no possibility of sinning in secret (cf. Job 34:21, Job 34:22; Psa 90:8; Heb 4:13).

(2) An inspiration and consolation to every one who trusts in God. “Our individual life,” to use the words of Dr. Parker, “is all understood by him. That life is but dimly known to ourselves. We catch glimpses of it here and there, but its scope and meaning are still unrevealed to us. We are often in shadow. There are scattered rays of light, but no steady shining of the sun which protects us from the mystery of much darkness. It is enough that God knows our life, and that his wisdom is pledged as our defense. Tomorrow is coming upon us, and we know not with what messages and revelations, with what joys and troubles; but God is coming with it, and in his path is the brightness of all-sufficient wisdom.”

2. Evidence of the Divine inspiration of the prophet. The influence of past judgments upon the people could not have led Ezekiel to have predicted such a result of the Captivity, but one of an opposite character. The character of the people and the circumstances of their captivity were not calculated to inspire a declaration like this. It could not have been the product of mere human genius in an exalted mood, or human foresight in a condition of intense activity. Such a prediction must have been communicated to the prophet by him to whom all things are known.

CONCLUSION. “Guard yourselves from idols.”W.J.

Eze 23:38, Eze 23:39

The exclusiveness of the worship of the Lord God.

“Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day,” etc. The chief practical suggestions of our text may be arranged under three heads.

I. MEN INSTRUCTED IN THE TRUE RELIGION PRACTISING THE GREATEST ABOMINATIONS OF HEATHENISM. “They had slain their children to their idols” (Eze 23:39). “They have caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass through the fire unto them to be devoured” (Eze 23:37). We have already noticed the offering of children to Moloch (on Eze 16:20, Eze 16:21). And in this age and in this professedly Christian land people make sacrifices which bear some resemblance to these in spirit. How many respectable and avowedly Christian parents sacrifice their daughters in marriage to mammon l The man may be unsuitable in age, uncongenial in temper, immoral in character and conduct; but, if he be rich, he is welcomed as a suitor. How frequently, too, are the best and the abiding interests of childrentheir intellectual, spiritual, and eternal interestsrisked, or even sacrificed, by their parents, in order that they may attain unto higher social status or gain worldly honors and distinctions! And in other ways practices which are worthy only of heathen intelligence and morality are at work amongst us.

II. MEN PASSING AT ONCE FROM THE PRACTICE OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF HEATHENISM INTO THE SANCTUARY AND SERVICE OF THE LIVING GOD. “When they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house.” The Prophet Jeremiah complains of a similar sin: “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye have not known; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my Name, and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations?” (Jer 7:9, Jer 7:10). The sin is not unknown amongst us in these days. Men are on the racecourse, with its cruelty, profanity, and gambling, on the weekday, and on Sunday they enter the sanctuary of God, and take part in its services. There are those who, during the week, visit scenes of drunkenness and profligacy, and on the Lord’s day they go to church and unite in the forms of worship. It is an ill preparation for the sacred engagements of the house of God to spend the Saturday evening in the public house, worshipping Bacchus. Nor is the character of the case much altered when persons attend church on Sunday morning, and spend the remainder of the day in social festivity and dissipation.

III. THAT SUCH CONDUCT IS A PROFANATION BOTH OF THE SABBATH AND THE SANCTUARY OF GOD. “Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols,” etc. We may show this by noticing:

1. That these things should be held in reverence.

(1) Because they were instituted by God. He ordained the sabbath and the sanctuary. They rest upon the basis of Divine authority.

(2) Because they were instituted for his glory. Both the sabbath and. the sanctuary are for the worship of the Most High. Both are intended to promote the best interests of man, to elevate him as a spiritual and immortal being, and thus to enable him more fully to glorify God. As man grows in spiritual purity and power, in righteousness and kindness towards men, and in reverence and devotion towards God, his life contributes to the honor of God. The sabbath and the sanctuary, when properly used, further these ends.

2. The conduct exhibited and condemned in the text is most irreverent in relation to these things.

(1) Because it puts the sanctuary and. the sabbath on the low level of heathen institutions and customs. So did the people of Israel and of Judah. How many today attend religious services for no higher reason than this, that it is socially respectable to do so.

(2) Because it disparages them in the eyes of observers. If men form their opinion of religious services and ordinances from such persons as take part in them on Sunday, and during the rest of the week lead lives of a character which is in utter opposition to them, they must conclude that they are shams and unworthy of the regard of true men.

(3) Because it is insulting to God. Such conduct implies that our outward and empty forms and ceremonies can please him, or that he will accept our attendance upon his worship as a compensation for our disregard of his will when we are absent from his house. “But the Lord looketh on the heart,” He rejects the worship which is offered to him by such persons as hypocritical service and offensive to him (cf. Psalm 1:7-23; Isa 1:11-15).

CONCLUSION. The worship of God is exclusive. “Thou shalt have none other gods before me;” “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve;” “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Let us cultivate decision and thoroughness in his service. How different from the conduct condemned in the text was that of Cyprian! On his way to martyrdom he was told by the emperor that he would give him time to consider if he had not better cast a grain of incense into the fire in honor of the idol-gods than die so ignominiously. Cyprian replied, “There needs no deliberation in the case.” John Huss, at the stake, was offered a pardon if he would recant. His reply was, “I am here, ready to suffer death.” Thomas Hawkes, in like circumstances, said, “If I had a hundred bodies, I would suffer them all to be torn in pieces, rather than recant.” Let us seek to be alike true, whole-hearted, and firm in our allegiance to our Lord.W.J.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

(b) Judah and Israels Ripeness for Judgment (Ezekiel 23.)

1And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 2Son of man, there were 3two women, the daughters of one mother; And in Egypt they played the wanton; in their youth they wantoned, there were their breasts pressed, and 4there were the teats of their virginity bruised. And their names were Oholah, the great [greater], and Oholibah her sister; and they were mine, and bare sons and daughters; and their names were SamariaOholah, 5and JerusalemOholibah. And Oholah when under me played the wanton, 6and doted upon her lovers,on Assyria, her neighbours, Clothed in purple, captains and rulers, all of them comely young men, knights riding on 7horses. And she bestowed her wantonness upon them, all the choice of the sons of Assyria; and with all on whom she doted, with all their idols she 8polluted herself. And her whoredoms brought from Egypt she did not leave; for they lay with her in her youth, and they bruised her virgin breasts, 9and poured their whoredoms upon her. Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the sons of Assyria, upon whom she doted. 10These discovered her nakedness [shame]; they took her sons and daughters, and herself they slew with the sword, and she became a name to women, and 11they executed judgment upon her. And her sister Oholibah saw it, and made her wantonness more corrupt than she, and her whoredoms more than 12the whoredoms of her sister. She doted on the sons of Assyria,captains and rulers, her neighbours, clothed gorgeously, knights riding upon horses, all 13of them comely young men. And I saw that she was defiled; they had both 14one way. And she still added to her whoredoms; and she saw men portrayed 15upon the wall, likenesses of the Chaldeans, painted with vermilion, Girdled with a girdle on their loins, flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of leaders, the likeness of the sons of Babylon, of the Chaldeans 16in the land of their birth. And she doted upon them as soon as her17eyes saw them, and sent messengers unto them to Chaldea. And the sons of Babylon came to her into the bed of love, and defiled her through their whoredoms; and she was polluted with them, and her soul was estranged 18from them. And she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness; and My soul was estranged from her, as My soul had been estranged 19from her sister. And she multiplied her whoredoms, so that she remembered the days of her youth, when she played the wanton in the land of Egypt. 20And she doted on their paramours, whose flesh is the flesh of asses, and their 21issue the issue of horses. Yea [and] thou didst seek after the lewdness of thy youth, when the Egyptians bruised thy teats on account of thy youthful 22breasts. Therefore, Oholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will stir up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul is estranged, and I will 23bring them against thee from every side; The sons of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, all the sons of Assyria with them, comely young men, captains and rulers all of them, leaders and men of renown, every one riding on horses. 24And they shall come against thee with weapons, chariot and wheel, and with an assembly of peoples; target and shield and helmet they shall set against thee round about; and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee with their judgments. 25And I will set My jealousy upon thee, and they shall deal with thee in fury; they shall take away thy nose and thine ears, and thy remnant shall fall by the sword; they shall take thy sons and thy daughters, 26and thy remnant shall be devoured by the fire. And they shall strip thee of 27thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. And I will make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom from the land of Egypt; and thou shalt not lift up thine eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more. 28For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of those whom thou hatest, into the hand of those from whom thy soul is estranged. 29And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy earning, and leave thee naked and bare; and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, and thy lewdness and thy wanton courses. 30This shall be done unto thee because thou hast gone a-whoring after the 31heathen, because thou hast defiled thyself with their idols. In the way of thy sister thou hast gone, and I give her cup into thy hand. 32Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The cup of thy sister, the deep and wide, thou shalt drink; it shall be for laughter and mockery according to its measure. 33Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow; a cup of wasting and desolation is the 34cup of thy sister Samaria. And thou shalt drink it and suck it out; and thou shalt gnaw its sherds, and tear off thy breasts; for I have spoken,sentence of the Lord Jehovah. 35Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou hast forgotten Me, and hast cast Me behind thy back, do thou 36also bear thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. And Jehovah said to me, Son of man, wilt thou judge Oholah and Oholibah, then show them their abominations. 37For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols they have committed adultery; and also their sons whom 38they bare unto Me they have made to pass through the fire to them. This besides they did to Me; they defiled My sanctuary in the same day, and profaned 39My Sabbaths. And when they had slain their sons [children] to their idols, they came to My sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and lo! 40thus have they done in the midst of My house. Yea, they sent even to men coming from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came, for whom thou didst wash thyself, paint thine eyes, and deck thyself with ornaments; 41And thou satest upon a stately bed, and a table was laid before it, 42and My incense and My oil didst thou set upon it. And the voice of a loose crowd [was] in her [Jerusalem], and to people of the multitude were brought drunkards from the wilderness, who put bracelets on their hands, and a 43beautiful crown upon their heads. And I said of her worn out with adulteries, 44Will they now commit her adulteries? And she [also]? And they went in to her as they go in to a harlot. Thus they went in to Oholah and 45to Oholibah, the lewd women. But righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and the judgment of those that shed blood; for they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. 46For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will bring up a company against them, and give them to maltreatment and spoiling. 47And the company shall cast stones upon them, and cleave them with their swords; their sons and their daughters 48they shall slay, and burn their houses with fire. And I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, so that all women shall be warned, and shall not do after your lewdness. 49And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols, and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

Eze 23:3. Sept.: … .

Eze 23:12. Vulg.: indutis veste varia

Eze 23:13.

Vet. 15. .

Eze 23:20. . , Vulg.: insanivit libidine super concubitum

Eze 23:21. Sept., Vulg., Syr. read: .

Eze 23:23. . nobiles, tyrannosque et principes duces et magistratus principes principum et nominats

Eze 23:24. , ., , . .

Eze 23:29. .

Eze 23:31. Sept., Syr., Arab, read: .

Eze 23:32-33. , . Eris in derisum subsannationem, qu est capacissima repleberis, calice mroris et tristiti

Eze 23:34. Sept.: … . .

Eze 23:37. ;

Eze 23:41-42. , . vox multitudinis exultantis in ea et in viris qui de adducebantur et veniebant de deserto

Eze 23:41. Vulg. reads: . Syr., Chald., Arab, read: .42. Some codd.: ; some also: .

Eze 23:43. K. ; ; Vulg.: ei, qu attrita est in Nunc fornicabitur in fornicatione sua etiam hc.

Eze 23:44. Another reading: .

Eze 23:46. Many codd.: .

Eze 23:47. .

Eze 23:49. Codd. and Syr.: .

EXEGETICAL REMARKS

The allegory in which the ripeness for judgment of Judah and Israel is represented, is closely allied to that of Ezekiel 16. The remarks made on it are to be compared with the present chapter. In contradistinction to Ezekiel 16, which gave prominence to the love borne to the faithless one by her lawful husband, Ezekiel 23 directs our attention rather to the seductive power and splendour of the lovers for whom Jehovah was forsaken. The prospect of pardon presented by the earlier chapter here disappears behind the penal judgment.

[Fausset: The imagery is similar to that in Ezekiel 16; but here the reference is not, as there, so much to the breach of the spiritual marriage-covenant with God by the peoples idolatries, as by their worldly spirit, and their trusting to alliances with the heathen for safety, rather than to God.W. F.]

Eze 23:1-4. Preface

Eze 23:2. The one mother may be presupposed from Ezekiel 16 as the Hittite. Comp. at Eze 23:3; Eze 23:44 sq. As, however, it is not the present object to give prominence to the ancestry in the sense of Ezekiel 16, the word simply describes the original unity of the people. This also explains what is said in Eze 23:3 relative to Egypt. The two kingdoms which form the theme of the chapter are assumed as already two in Egypt; but in point of fact, what is said holds as to the yet undivided people. [Hengst., indeed, appeals to Genesis 49, in which the two tribes of Judah and Ephraim appear as two independent powers.]On account of the legitimate relation in which the nation stood to God from its very origin, namely, of a marriage-covenant, the political and religious departure of both kingdoms from the principles laid down in the law, appears as wantonness (), Eze 16:15 (Jam 4:4).Here also (comp. Eze 20:7 sq.) they are said to be tainted with the spirit of Egypt. Comp. also at Eze 16:26. In their youth, points (comp. Eze 16:22; Eze 16:43) to their innate corruption, showing itself early in sinful lust.Even when still unwedded (Eze 16:8), as Jehovahs betrothed, the conduct of the people was to be judged according to Deu 22:23. Comp. farther, Eze 16:7; Hos 2:4 [2]., the Egyptians (Eze 23:8). Egypt was the means of exciting the first carnal impulses of the youthful people to a heathenish mode of feeling and action, whereby they were robbed of their virgin purity. The Sept. explains their virginity according to Deu 22:20. Hitz. repels the idea of any allusion to idolatry, and makes the reference to be to the oppression by the Egyptians.

Eze 23:4. Oholah = her tent, i.e. either generally (Hengst.): that has a house of her own, an independent existence, or (on account of the contrast to Oholibah): who possesses her wilfully erected sanctuary (1Ki 12:28 sq., 16), which makes it unnecessary to think of an abbreviation of , her tent in her. Hv., while maintaining the Hittite reference, Eze 16:3, etc., makes prominent the allusion found in it to the history of Esau, and explains Oholibah relative to Gen 36:2, inasmuch as Aholibamah [Oholibamah], who is called Judith in an earlier passage (Gen 26:34), could most appropriately represent the kingdom of Judah. While Aholibamah merely means (tent of the high place): My tent (house, family) is a height (I have a high tent), in the name OholibahMy tent (namely, Jehovahs, who speaks) in herthe reference is taken from the tabernacle; whereby one is reminded of the habit which prevailed among the exiles of naming their children from the temple and similar objects (1Ch 3:20; Ezr 2:43; Ezr 2:59), to express their yearning for restoration. (Moreover, the members of a family in the East often bear the same or like-sounding names.) The kingdom of Judah had also the advantage of possessing the one true sanctuary, which, however, made its guilt the more aggravated. The great is to be rendered, as in Eze 16:46, and not with Hengst.: the elder, with an allusion to Josephs precedence, Gen 49:26, to that of Ephraim in the time of Joshua and the judges, and to that of Benjamin which belonged to the ten tribes in the time of Saul, while Judah attained supremacy only in the time of David (Psalms 78.). Hv. combines with the political importance of Samaria, owing to its greater extent, its priority in sin as well as in punishment.Comp. Eze 16:8; Eze 16:20. Hv. translates : And they belonged to me as wives, with emphasis.The explanation of the names as those of Samaria and Jerusalem (representing Judah as hitherto) closes this introduction.

Eze 23:5-10. Oholahs Adulterous Wantonness (Eze 23:5-8) and Punishment (Eze 23:9-10)

Eze 23:5-8. The Harlotries

Eze 23:5. Comp. at Eze 16:32. Hitz.: When she turned her back on me (?). So also the Chaldee. But rather is the marriage relation pointed to, in the line of Eze 23:4 (Hos 4:12). Umbr.: While she rests under her husband, her thoughts run wantonly after others., found only in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, means: to desire, to burn. The description of the Assyrians begins with . If is in apposition, like all that follows. The nearness is to be taken neither locally, nor yet morallyof inward relationship, but it brings into prominence the historical element, the time when the Assyrians became neighbours of Israel; comp. 2Ki 15:17 sq., Eze 16:9, Eze 17:3. [The supposition of a loose connection of the words=and neighbours, who were somewhere in her neighbourhood, is not consistent with what follows. Others: Who came near her lustfully (Gen 20:4). Hv.: So closely related, intimate, trusted friends, that alliances were made with them, and their favour courted, until, from being bosom friends, they became deadly enemies. There is nothing of all this in the context, which only states that on the first opportunity, namely, when the Assyrians approached, Israel was captivated by the carnal glory of the world-power, which is then portrayed with greater minuteness.]This political power is Assyria, which does not come into view, in the first place, on the side of its idolatry; but when Israel wantoned after it from political motives, this infidelity to the idea of their complete dependence on God could not fail to issue, from the first, in apostasy from God, and the other natural consequences of the forbidden relationship.

Eze 23:6. Description of the Assyrians from the view-point of Israels apostate heart, to whom this world-power seemed most imposing, as Hengst. remarks: with a touch of irony. The impressions are entirely such as are made on the mind of a carnal woman, whereby the previously mentioned doting gaze is accounted for., either from its thick, hard shell, or from its dark colour, is the name of a mussel (helix ianthina) with a purple shell, from which a blue or violet purple was made. is a foreign word, denoting the military governor of a province. Similarly () = the representative of the prince, commander-in-chief. (Something like governors and generals.)The special mention of horses is intended to distinguish the noblest and proudest class of riders from those riding on asses and camels.

Eze 23:7. briefly resumes Eze 23:6, in order, perhaps, to suggest, besides the choice, etc., those who were of less account; at all events, she doted also on others, as the Egyptians, who are presently mentioned. , the one illustrating the other; the political confederation with the heathen led to idolatry. (Hengst.: The idols of the world-powers are not beyond and above them, but themselves made objective.)

Eze 23:8. Thither Jeroboams calf-worship pointed back, so that their ancient deliverance from Egypt, instead of remaining a fact, had become a mere tradition. As to the political application (Rashi), 2Ki 17:4 is to be compared. Hitzig takes it in an exclusively political sense.

Eze 23:9-10. The Punishment

Eze 23:9. The recompense for Eze 23:7 : And she bestowed, Therefore I gave. Comp. 2 Kings 17

Eze 23:10. The shame of her wantonness is succeeded by the shame of punishment, executed by her paramours themselves. Comp. besides, Eze 16:37. So in the figure; as to the fact, it was accomplished by the captivity of the people, the slaughter of those on whom the existence of the kingdom depended, of the men who were able to bear arms, so that Israel became notorious among the nations on account of its shameful overthrow, Eze 16:41.

Eze 23:11-35. Oholibahs Guilt (Eze 23:11-21) and Punishment (Eze 23:22-35)

Eze 23:11-21. The Guilt

Eze 23:11. She saw both the transgressions and their recompense. The former should have filled her with loathing, by the latter she should have been warned. But her corrupt conduct was still worse than that of Samaria (Eze 16:47).

Eze 23:12. Comp. 2Ki 16:7 sq.; 2Ch 28:19 sq.Comp. at Eze 23:6; Eze 23:5. (in Eze 23:6, ) means: perfection, therefore: splendour; not exactly (Sept.): with beautiful (purple) fringe, as Hitz. Ewald: clothed in martial coats of mail.

Eze 23:13. And I saw, counterpart to , Eze 23:11. (Comp. Jer 3:8) The way and end of both sisters were the same.

Eze 23:14. The description of Judahs baser conduct follows. Her relations with the Assyrians were similar to those of Samaria. They had in reality approached the kingdom of Judah, as they had the kingdom of Israel. In regard to the Chaldeans, on the other hand, the relation to them was brought about by means of likenesses, which Judah saw,, partic. Pual, something engraven or sketched, painted. (Hv.: probably coloured bas-reliefs), in vermilion (which would be all the more appropriate for warriors); or perhaps in ochre, as frescoes of this description for the glorification of the Chaldean commanders and their victories were sufficiently common in Ezekiels neighbourhood. The representation here, therefore, may possibly be the mere drapery of the thought, that the bare report of the military prowess of the Chaldeans had inflamed the imagination and the senses of Judah. So Hengst. Owing to the undeniable intercourse between nations in the Old World, which certainly obtained between Palestine and Babylon, it is not in itself unimaginable that such wall-pictures of representatives of foreign nations may have existed in the royal palaces of Judah. Hitz. here takes note of the influence (of pictures) on a womans imagination, under which figure Judah is personified. Hv. cites Eze 8:10, and thinks of pictorial representations from the circle of Chaldean mythological ideas. The Chaldean embassy of 2Ki 20:12 sq., 2Ch 32:31 (comp. Delitzsch on Isaiah 39), shows that the Chaldeans kept up intercourse with Judah, even when Assyria was still the dominant world-power. May not this embassy have been perpetuated by a painting as the occasion of an alliance with the Chaldeans against Assyria? Ewald supposes: beautiful idol-pictures, which, as e.g. Mithras, were represented in the human form, and cites Eze 8:16.

Eze 23:15. The flowing turbans are such as may be seen on the monuments of ancient Nineveh, with which the following descriptions correspond throughout. See Layards Nineveh and Babylon. [ refers not so much to the colour (gay), but rather means originally to twist round. Layard remarks, by the way: The general was clothed in embroidered robes, and wore on his head a fillet adorned with rosettes, and long tasselled bands. Probably, waving head-bands. The Kurds, who still preserve the most ancient Eastern customs, wear on their bright-coloured turbans, appendages which hang over their neck and shoulders.] in the plural betokens the charioteers, of whom there were three, in each chariot, one driving, one bearing the shield, and a third fighting. (Appearance and likeness; see Eze 1:5.) The emphasizing of: the land of their birth, according to Hengst., is intended to form a contrast to the Assyrians, whom Judah saw in her own land,to point perhaps to Ur (Gen 11:28) of the Chaldees (Abrahams native land), so that the original blood – relationship may have been alluded to in this political intercourse (?). Hv.: The Chaldeans fatherland theirs, which sarcastically places side by side, the original home of the once fierce and warlike people, and the idolatrous pictures, which resemble them, but not the existing faineant Babylonians. The statement made by the sentence is simpler: that even they were not farther removed than Abraham, the founder of the Jewish people,whose fathers served strange gods in Ur of the Chaldees (Jos 24:2), so that he was called thence, etc., as Cocc. remarks.

Eze 23:16. Apodosio to Eze 23:14 : And she saw, resumed by: as soon as her eye saw. The messengers mentioned here can scarcely be those of Jer 29:3. They were probably, says Hengst., the occasion of the embassy sent from the Chaldeans, who were to take a view of the resources of the people proposing an alliance. This side of the history of Judah is not described elsewhere. Enough that Judah, as is in itself probable, made the first advances (Eze 16:29).

Eze 23:17. The political alliance led to religious defilementwas itself, in fact, religious defection; and after the defilement was effected, it led again to political hostility. Judah found that it had only changed its masters. Jehoiakim and Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon, 2 Kings 24.In (the weaker form is , from which the fut. is derived) there lies the idea of satiety and loathing; in this sense the meaning of the verb is: to push away any one, to break a relationship, to be alienated from any one. Comp. 1Co 6:16; Eze 18:6; Eze 18:11.

Eze 23:18. Yet the satiety was not absolute. Others take the connection thus: and when she had discovered, etc., then was, etc. But more is meant to be stated as the ground of Jehovahs estrangement, for Judahs alienation from the Chaldeans might also have led her back to Jehovah. More general prostitution, however, was the result, by which is especially meant alliances with the lesser states against Babylon, and at the same time breaches of faith towards men, Eze 17:15. Jehovahs estrangement from Judah is a suggestive parallel to Judahs from the Chaldeans.

Eze 23:19. Comp. Eze 23:3; Eze 23:8, Eze 16:51. But Judah multiplied, etc. Instead of remembering the misery of her youth, and the grace then shown (Eze 16:22; Eze 16:43), she thought only of renewing quite another first love than that of Jehovah.

Eze 23:20. is unjustifiably pressed by some interpreters (beyond, more than the neighbouring people of Egypt, or, together with, Eze 16:37), as its construction with in the chapter sufficiently shows. Nor does this single masculine form of , which is elsewhere fem., justify the interpretation of Kimchi, that Judah wished to be the concubine of the Egyptians. It is rather a derision of the Egyptian eunuchs, i.e. courtiers and officers who mediated the alliance with Egypt. ( does not mean the men-concubines, which the Egyptians are, nor is it to be taken in the sense of eunuchus imbellis, or puer mollis, or polyandry.) The representation which follows is sufficiently explained by the particularly lecherous character of the animals mentioned, and describes the obscene character of the Egyptians (Eze 16:26). Hengst.: The falling power of Egypt sought to provide a prop for itself by diplomatic art.

Eze 23:21 sums up. The sudden transition to the address in Eze 23:21 is explained by this, that the prophet has the actual state of affairs (the union with Egypt) before his eyes (Hengst.). explains in accordance with Eze 23:3, to which the inexperienced sensuousness and carnality of the youthful people presented the inducement.

Eze 23:22-35. Oholibahs Punishment

Eze 23:22. She is punished by those with whom she had wantoned. Comp. Eze 23:9. The following verse shows who are meant. Those from whom she would (Eze 23:17) escape out of loathing, will not allow her to escape punishment.

Eze 23:23. The sons, etc., are more definitely personified. Ewald regards the three names as the proper names of three subordinate Chaldee tribes, which are placed together from similarity of sound. As there is no proof of this, nor even of their being nomina propria, modern interpreters for the most part regard them as the titles of Chaldee dignitaries (Hengst.: Pekod =supremacy; Shoa = the chief; Koa, of uncertain meaning), or three classes of the people, three branches of the military force, or three ranks in it (Hitz.: noble and prince and lord). From the description, the assembly which is to be gathered together to execute punishment, shall be great and imposing. The Assyrians figure as part of it, and are ironically represented in the manner of Eze 23:12 (6)., therefore the form Eze 23:15 are named. , Ew.: renowned, which Hitz. questions. For the purpose in hand, the word is either formed after Num 1:16; Num 16:2 : formally appointed, or means generally: summoned.

Eze 23:24. The assembly was not more conspicuous for its numbers than for the completeness of its equipments, () . . (something hard, cutting, sharp), signifying indefinitely: weapon, so that a threefold equipment is specified. [Meier: battle-axe. Hengst.: sabre (a Chaldee military word). Ewald: with shoulder, bridle, and wheel, as the three modes in which soldiers advance,shouldering (with bent arm), riding, and driving.] The missing is easily understood; but it is not required, as the three expressions standing for the concretes, foot, horse, and chariots, could be the subject to . ( explic.), since the assembly of peoples in the manner of the Israelitish congregation (Eze 23:23) supplies the proper element for the judgment which is to be held. To indicate that they (while on Jehovahs mission) are secured against any anxiety as to the result, three pieces of exclusively defensive armour are now mentioned, which correspond to the above threefold description,the shield which covered the whole person, the smaller shield of the light-armed soldier, and the helmet. They received from God the right to judge according to their judgments, their ideas of judgment. Thus it was a divine judgment. They were judges in Gods stead. But with a reference, at the same time, to the fact that Judah had been in fellowship with them politically, religiously, and morally.

Eze 23:25. The jealousy of God was turned against Israel; in consequence of it the judgments of the heathen were fierce. The mutilation is to be understood in conformity with common Asiatic and Chaldee usages, but, in the present connection, of the severing of portions of the national body-corporate (Hitz.), or with Hengst., of the annihilation of their military strength, which is to a people what nose and ears are to a woman. The older interpreters understood Judahs royal splendour, or (Kimchi) kingdom and priesthood. The remnant is defined the first time by nose and ears, so that there is pronounced, on the one hand, mutilation, and on the other, slaughter; the meaning of the expression in the second instance is defined by the carrying away of the children, so that it can only refer to the empty houses (Eze 16:41).

[Henderson: Eze 23:25-26. Punishment by cutting off the nose and ears was inflicted for adultery, not only among the Chaldeans, but also among the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. It was therefore most appropriate to represent that which adulterous Judah was to suffer, under the image of such ignominious and cruel treatment. They were also to be stripped of what lewd females set most value upontheir rich dresses and costly jewels, by which they attract the notice of their paramours, Eze 16:39.W. F.]

Eze 23:26. Eze 16:39; Eze 16:17. The plundering is either symbolical or actual.

Eze 23:27. The lewdness is made to cease by God as to subject and object.

Eze 23:28. Comp. Eze 16:37.See Eze 23:17; Eze 23:22.

Eze 23:29. Hatred (Eze 23:28) and counter-hatred instead of all the former intimacy. Despoiling by the Chaldeans till she is reduced to her original condition in Egypt (Eze 16:7), from which results the discovery of her guilt and accumulated infamy (Eze 16:37).

Eze 23:31 (Eze 23:13). The figure of the cup, to represent the final issue, under the idea of drinking out.

Eze 23:32. The cup described as containing much. is the 3d, not the 2d pers., and the subject to it, is either the cup or (amplitude, wideness); but the former is preferable, with the latter as epexegetical. The cup, from its capacity, occasions the derisive laughter of the enemies,that the person, formerly so wide-mouthed and haughty, now become so insignificant, requires to swallow so much.

Eze 23:33. What the cup contains for those who have to empty it, and hence what cup it is. Stupefaction with sorrow and woe, until they are distracted by the wasting and desolation ! (The verse begins with , and ends with .)

Eze 23:34. Not so much an intensification of the figure (Keil), as of the drunkenness, arising from the anguish of thought. In the madness of her pain she licks up the last drops of the cup. Her affliction is her thirst.The sherds point to an earthen cupnothing is gilded or splendid in this Nemesis-songand presuppose a breaking in pieces, which is incidentally set forth in the madness which follows; but the word is especially intended to fit in with , which expresses the idea of crushing or gnawing the sherds with the teeth, in order to suck out the last drops of moisture left in them. (Hengst. says merely: Thou shalt break the sherds thereof, as one who, having taken a very disagreeable potion, shatters the vessel in ill-humour.) The tearing of the breasts is placed beside the breaking of the sherds, as if it were done by means of the sherd-fragments. Or it may even have been done in frenzy by her own nails. See Eze 23:3; Eze 23:8, in reference to the breasts. We find a historical illustration of this in the treatment they gave Gedaliah, the Chaldean governor, for which they were compelled to suffer, Jeremiah 41. (Hengst.)

Eze 23:35. Eze 22:12.She followed after the heathen and their gods (Eze 23:30).Eze 16:43; Eze 16:52; Eze 16:58.

Eze 23:36-49. Oholahs and Oholibahs Abominations together. Eze 23:36-45. The Abominations. Eze 23:46-49. The Judgment

Eze 23:36-45. The Abominations

Eze 23:36. Eze 22:2; Eze 20:4. Since the ripeness of both of them for judgment is evident, this refrain is most appropriate.(Eze 16:2)

Eze 23:37. Adultery with the idols, and blood-shedding, as in Eze 22:3, etc. Eze 16:38. The latter illustrated by the bloody sacrificing of children. (Eze 23:4. Eze 16:20; Eze 20:31)

Eze 23:38. Eze 20:27.Eze 5:11. (2Ki 21:4-5; 2Ki 21:7) In the same day, makes the shocking contrast more obvious. Desecration of the sanctuary and Sabbath, as in Eze 22:8.

Eze 23:39. (Eze 16:21.) To their idols, explains to them at the close of Eze 23:37.The doing of the one and the other,this was the special affront to Jehovah. Not that children were sacrificed in the temple, but Jehovah was repaired to after Moloch, each in their several places. That which was defilement of the sanctuary in Eze 23:38, when the idea of offering to Moloch was included, is here called profanation, when both are treated separately. To profane it, however, seems to mean something more, namely: that they came to the temple to profane it also by alien rites of all sorts, as the clause: and lo in the midst of My house, evinces (Eze 8:3 sq.). The immediately following change from the plural to the singular shows that the background is here supplied, by the period subsequent to the destruction of Israel; Judah appears before the prophets eye for Israel, partly on account of the temple, but also in consideration of all Israels relations to Judah both before and after (2Ch 15:9; 2Ch 30:11).

Eze 23:40. Climax, a non plus. is not the 2d plur. (address), but is said of both, although it could also be the 3d sing. The signification of the imperf. shows the conduct as continuous; not once and again, but they were wont to do so. Ew.: They sent repeatedly. Unless it be merely a repetition of Eze 23:16 from a new point of view? The point of the coming from afar is not in its contrast to the near (Eze 23:5; Eze 23:12), but in the exertions which it presupposes, so that it is expressly added: to whom a messenger was sent, although this was already involved in: they sent. And, lo, they came, seems to say this, that those who were far off were at last moved, and actually came. Which may apply to others besides the Chaldeans. To this correspond the special exertions she makes to prepare herself for those whom she has addressed, as washing; then painting the eyes (, to make dark)staining the eyelashes and eyebrows with a powder, so as to make the glance of the eye more brilliant (comp. Winer, Realw.); and finally the attire in general, 2Ki 9:30; Jer 4:30.

Eze 23:41. Sitting is the most natural rendering with , couch, cushion; with which also the rest harmonizes. The placing of the table betokens the preparation of a meal (according to the prevalent custom). Hengst.: Eating and drinking play an important part in harlotry, either in the usual or the spiritual sense. (, to be referred, not to , which is masc., but to .) Every effort was made to fill the hearts emptiness in relation to Jehovah, by other and remote associations. For this purpose she placed even Jehovahs holy incense (Exo 30:1 sq.) and oil beside herself on the couch, so that nothing was any longer sacred to her. Comp. Eze 16:18. [Hengst.: The bed is made fragrant by the incense and oil; whereby are meant the rich gifts by which Judah sought to purchase the favour of the heathen sovereigns, Isa 30:6; Isa 57:9 (?). Hitz.: The oil is used at table for anointing, and the incense kindled to excite sensuous feeling. Adultery through commercial intercourse is meant, so that it can be the merchants table, where oil could be exchanged for incense. Hv. understands it of the lascivious worship of the Babylonish Mylitta. The wanton Israel is described as preparing herself for one of the high festivals of this goddess, and as abandoning herself to strangers like the young women of Babylon; incense and oil, therefore, for the purposes of a religious ceremony.]

Eze 23:42. (), a humming; hence, from the sound of the noise it makes: a crowd. Loose, in a bad sense. In her, pointing away from the figure to the fact. [Hengst.: Secure murmur, arising from the self-confident intercourse of the adulterers with the adulteresses, from the festivals which were held for the sealing of political friendship. Ew.: While a godless shouting resounded thereat. Keil: The loud noise became still (!?). Hv. recalls the reckless wantonness which characterized the worship of Aphrodite in the East.] The loud, dominant voice, which is alone heard in Jerusalem, is further explained as loose, from the fact that it is the voice of the great (godless) multitude, rich and poor, high and low, with whom those brought from the wilderness (Eze 23:40, men coming from afar) associate themselves (, Hoph. makes a paronomasia with ). By this the coalition against Nebuchadnezzar, already frequently referred to, must be meant, not (as Hengst.) the great anti-Assyrian coalition in the time of Hezekiah, which can be no element in the ripeness for judgment referred to in this chapter. [According to Hengst., is a mixed form that signifies both Sabeans and topers, loose barbarians, besides many others from all the world; and the verse should be referred to political connections with Ethiopia. (Isa 37:9; Isa 43:3; Isa 45:14; 2Ki 19:9; Isaiah 18)] That the people of the multitude, who are the same as the men coming from afar of Eze 23:40, represent the Assyrians (Keil) cannot be evidenced by Isa 39:3, since those mentioned there are Babylonians, therefore Chaldeans; nor can the drunkards from the wilderness (here Keil makes correspond to (!)) be the Chaldeans, who are afterwards called righteous men. The addition: from the wilderness, does not (as Hv.) refer to the Arabian-Syrian wilderness, which separated Babylon from Palestine, but must be taken as an antithesis to ,from the region outside Jerusalem. Jerusalem accordingly appears as a political harlot-house, in which the counterpart to the native multitude, with their noisy watch-cry, is formed by the foreign dissolute rabble, the political sots of the coalition against Babylon. [Hitz. supposes the Arabians, Dedanites, and Sabeans, who had in their hands the commerce between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. But commercial relations are not in question, apart from the fact whether such could be depicted as harlotry. As the commercial highways did not pass through Jerusalem, they must have been induced (according to Hitz.) to go thither by special circumstances. Ew. regards as a pathetic repetition of , since he translates: And for men brought from the wilderness, they laid bracelets, etc.] The giving of the bracelets and the crown suggests how the combination against Nebuchadnezzar, referred to, promised to reunite Judah and Israel as one kingdom (therefore crown, in the singular), and generally, as the expressive parallel in Eze 16:11-12 shows, to restore them to their ancient glory. Such was the harlot-reward given to the adulterous women on this side. [According to Hv., the words betoken the self-adornment of the women with an eye to the crowd (?). Jerome supposes that the women had so adorned their lovers, that even men wore bracelets. Hitz. finds in it that both lands had become not only rich, but also luxurious, through commerce.]

Eze 23:43. The judgment-boding sentence of God upon such abominations. If be taken with , the translation would be. And I said to, or of, etc. The older translators connect the latter word with , and supply , in adulteries; the more modern take it in the same connection, but accusatively: In relation to, no more capable of, etc. Hitz. as a question: Does the faded one prosecute adultery? So also Hengst.: Are adulteries to the faded? i.e. shall her adulteries still go on to the worn out? The subject to (for which the Qeri reads: ) is, according to some, the woman in question (?); as Ewald: Now she also prosecutes her whoredoms, i.e. Judah is as Samaria; according to others: , taken generally as adulterous character and conduct; and personifies her still surviving, indestructible lewdness, although the woman herself has become shrivelled: Now shall her lewdness itself go a-whoring (Hitz.). It is less forced to assume a question, which applies the resultant to paramour, adulteries, and adulteress, which expresses what should be the consequence of sin, even before judgment decrees and executes punishment. [Hengst.: Shall adulteries be still committed even with her? The Lord cannot possibly suffer this, He must at length make an end (Eze 23:45). Philippson renders : when she is so (withered)! Rashi: Yet she continues to play the wanton.]

Eze 23:44. justifies our exposition of in the previous verse. On this account, therefore, judgment is influenced to descend upon those who are ripe for it. Jerusalem, as stated, and as is expressly added, represents the whole people. Comp. also Eze 16:30., a unique plural.

Eze 23:45. The judges and executioners are called righteouscomp. at Eze 23:24because they carry out Gods judgment conformably to the judgment appropriate to such women (Isa 49:24). A moral comparison between the Chaldeans and the Jews is not intended, nor are prophets and righteous men among the people themselves to be imagined.Comp. Eze 16:38.Comp. at Eze 23:37.

Eze 23:46-49. The Judgment

Eze 23:46. According to Hengst. and many others, an address to the prophet: Bring up in the might of prophecy. Others suppose the infin, absol to stand either for the indefinite 3d pers. fut., or (Hitz.) the 1st pers. (Eze 21:31).The company retains the character of the previous description of the Chaldeans as righteous, Eze 16:40. The heathen are thus solicitous about that which Israel, as a congregation, had neglected to do (Judges 20).As in the previous verse, the masc. suffix interchanges with the fem., the reference passing over from the figurative to the actualthe men in question. Comp. besides, Eze 7:21, and at Deu 28:25.

Eze 23:47. The companythe Chaldeansagain made specially prominent. Cleave (comp. at Eze 21:24) is here used in its natural sense.Comp. Eze 23:25.

Eze 23:48. Eze 23:27, Eze 16:41., according to Gesen., for , if the Rabbin, punctuation be maintained; otherwise it could be read: , Niph. instead of a mixed Nithpael. Deterrent beacon for all peoples, as Eze 23:10; Eze 5:15.

Eze 23:49 , according to some: the women, namely, with their tongues; according to most: the avengers noted in Eze 23:45,in very deed. [Hitz.: the heavenly powers.] In consequence of this recompense, those who are thus judged bear in their punishment the sins of the idols, those occasioned by them, committed with, i.e. by means of them. (Eze 23:7; Eze 23:30; Eze 23:37)Eze 16:58.

[The closing part of the description represents the two women, and especially the one that personated the people of Judah, as persevering to the last in their wicked and profligate courses. Like persons in the final stages of abandonment, they went on rioting in the ways of evil, unchecked by all the troubles and humiliations they had experienced in the past; and now, therefore, as utterly reprobate and hardened and hopeless, they must be adjudged to the doom appointed against such incorrigible and shameless offenders. So the doleful story ends. The prophet looks only, from first to last, to the course of crime and its deserved recompense; and he allows the curtain to drop without one gleam of hope as to the future. He sees that the hammer of the law in its strongest form is needed to break the hard and stony heart of the people. So urgent was the call for a work of conviction, and so great the danger of that not being effectually wrought, that he would not drop a word which might lighten the impression of guilt upon their minds, or afford the least excuse for delay. His message was, Now or never. Judged by the sense of right and wrong current among men, your conduct toward God calls for judgment without mercy. And if there be not immediately awakened the contrition of sincere repentance, you have nothing to expect but the most unsparing visitations of wrath.Fairbairns Ezekiel, p. 257.W. F.]

DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS

(See Doct. Reflec. on Ezekiel 20 and Ezekiel 16)

1. As contrast is an inherent element in all human development, so through the people , among the peoples, a dualism immediately accompanies the evolution of the triad of the patriarchs to the dodecad, in its relativeness (of the 3 to the 4) to the world as a permeating influence. The two foci of the ellipse illustrate for us the history of the chosen people in their orbit. Even in Genesis 49 (comp. therewith Deuteronomy 33), Joseph, as against Judah, is prominent compared with the others. If the first position in the camp was allotted to Judah, and a signally large extent of territory in Canaan bestowed on it, to Joseph (and Ephraim took precedence of Manasseh, Genesis 48) belonged the distinction of furnishing the nation with Joshua, the leader of the host and conqueror of Canaan, as well as of long retaining the tabernacle in its midst. (For the independence of Ephraim in the time of the judges, comp. Jdg 8:12; Psalms 78) The jealousy which obtained between the two appears, after Sauls death, in the kingdom of Ishbosheth. Only the centralizing personality of a David was capable of unifying the existing dualism. Yet the fire of discord, which continued to smoulder beneath outward harmony, nourished the rebellion of Absalom and the revolt of Sheba. Under Solomon, it is true, the glory of the nation silenced for the time the variance of the two tribes; but Solomons polytheistic aberration from the monotheistic path introduced an additional element of division. When sin, including that of Rehoboam and the seceding tribes, had in this way accomplished the division into the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, this result of sin was at the same time a judgment of God; for which, however, the foundation was laid in that original dualism between Judah and Joseph-Ephraim, and the way paved, in the course of history. The form of the representation in our chapter rests on this view of the subject.

2. One may regard Solomons polytheistic aberrations (e.g. 1Ki 11:5) as a refined pantheism, or a more universal, more cosmical Jehovism; yet his marriage with Pharaohs daughter, at the very beginning of his reign, must have exerted some influence on the religious attitude of the kingdom of the ten tribes. And how could the calf-worship of Jeroboam have been introduced without meeting universal opposition, unless previously, during Solomons reign, religion and politics had taken a decided outward bias? Note also Solomons commercial relations with different countries, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and especially his alliance with the Phnicians. Thus a toleration sprang up under the influence of trade and intercourse, which necessarily became a religious toleration, and which was still farther defined by politics as a doctrine. The example of the king acted on the people, and it is not surprising that Solomons connections with the world, and his heathen culture, found their echo in the craving of Ephraim and her associates for a heathen-worldly, revolutionary, anti-theocratic government. Solomon is herein to be compared to the church-father Augustine, to whom Roman Catholicism links itself, as the Reformation also falls back on him; so with Solomon are connected the Song of Songs and the form of the apostasy of the ten tribes.

3. The Egyptian bias of Solomon, which gained national expression in the worship of the calves, was seconded by the policy of Jeroboam, who, imitating the example of Aaron at Sinai, transplanted to Israelitish soil the worship which he ad seen at Memphis and Heliopolis, 1Ki 12:26 sq., 2. The Egyptian animal symbolism, which was thereby applied to Jehovah, was a new growth from old roots. Comp. Eze 23:8 in our chapter. This corrupt worship of Jehovah moved on the same line as ordinary idolatry (1Ki 14:9), so that the one was as closely related to the other, as the second commandment to the first. Hengst. remarks very justly: By the introduction of the worship of images, a breach was made for heathenism, through which it rushed irresistibly.

4. As Egypt has a very ancient, original significance for the sacred history, so on the Egyptian monuments, even at a very early time, the Assyrians, under the name Shari, are represented as in conflict with the Egyptians. The Assyrians, who first broke into the kingdom of Israel under Menahem, are, no doubt, to be considered in historical connection with that ancient kingdom; but their military valour, which they made Israel feel, and which excited its longing for association, appears, however, to point to a recent fresh revival of the ancient Assyrian glory. Pul, to whom Menahem was tributary, was succeeded by Tiglath-Pileser, who led into captivity a portion of the inhabitants of the kingdom of the ten tribes; to him Shalmaneser succeeded, who conducted a still more comprehensive deportation to Assyria, which became complete under his second successor, Esar-haddon, so that the Israelitish kingdom was then made a full end of.

5. The subversion of the kingdom of Israel under its last king, Hosea, whom Shalmaneser had made tributary, took place, besides, on account of the hankering of the people after alliances with Egypt, which one might call the hereditary sin of the whole people (Eze 23:8); the attempted combination with Egypt against Assyria had provoked a new expedition by Shalmaneser. The destruction of Israel was for Judah a Remember whence thou art fallen, a memento mori (Eze 23:10). But even before this, Ahaz, the Ahab of the kings of Judah, as he had offered one of his sons to Moloch, so also he regarded the might of the Assyrians as better than the help of Jehovah. Comp. the passage of Isaiah relative to him, and Eze 23:11 of our chapter. Thy servant and thy son am I, he had said to Tiglath-Pileser; come up and deliver me.

6. The Babylonian-Chaldean power, which, like Judah, was dependent on Assyria, affected the imagination of Jerusalem so seductively in the time of the pious son of the godless Ahaz, that even Hezekiah succumbed to the temptation. The expectations entertained from Egypt had faded away, and the Lord had overwhelmed the Assyrians by His hand before Jerusalem (2Ki 18:19); yet Hezekiahs imagination lingers upon his treasures, and upon the embassy which the then vice-king of Babylon had sent to him (perhaps also, as Bunsen conjectures, Eze 23:14, frescoes of Babylonish heroes and warriors). The preponderating world-power seems to incline from Nineveh to Babylon. Perhaps the destruction of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib incited the Babylonians to revolt from Assyria. Niebuhr (The History of Assyria and Babylon) says concerning the relation of Babylon to Assyria: Assyria was by no means the foremost and most ancient people. The inhabitants of Shinar, the Babylonians, were so. The Ninevites had elevated themselves above them through bravery and good fortune, and the older race, to whom belonged the religious metropolis, the most fertile soil, the origin of history, was compelled to submit to the younger. Their constantly repeated attempts at revolt showed how bitterly the Babylonians felt this disgrace, etc. Ezekiel confirms what Isaiah had formerly predicted to Hezekiah, to cool his carnal expectations from Babylon. The Chaldeans, after destroying Nineveh in combination with the Medes, stepped into the place of the Assyrians for Judah as well as generally, and this also on the same arena (Hitz.). Egypt maintained the same attitude toward Assyria as toward Babylon, and the kingdom of Judah, like that of Israel, was subverted through its political harlotries (Eze 23:19 sq., 27) with Egypt.

7. Through this fatal significance of Egypt for the whole people, that motive of the Decalogue, Who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, acquires a striking political prominence.
8. When the people which had come out of Chaldea in Abraham, in the end returns to Chaldea, the circle of their natural history is completed. The beginning is also the end. Moreover it is noteworthy, says Ziegler, that as the dispersion of mankind into all lands proceeded from Babylon, now the Jewish people, or at least the kingdom of Judah, is carried away to Babylon. The whole history, from the exodus till now, was a constant provoking of God; therefore it must at last drink a cup full of indignation.

HOMILETIC HINTS

Eze 23:1 sq. We are called Christians, children of the one heavenly Father; but do we also bear ourselves worthily of the name? (Stck.)The two women, Oholah and Oholibah, in their resemblance and difference.Oh that all young women from their youth up would deport themselves modestly and chastely! What honour and peace of conscience it would procure for them in old age ! Job 27:6 (Stck.).One can fall from the greatest light into the greatest darkness and folly, if one be faithless to the grace which has been received (Tb. Bib.).That is spiritual adultery, when souls fall away from the Creator to the creature (Luther).Since body and soul are the temple of the Holy Ghost, He wills that we should preserve both pure and holy, and forbids all unchaste deeds, gestures, words, thoughts, desires, and whatever may excite one thereto (Heid. Cat., quest. 109).The youth of a people in its charm and perils.Harlotry, in all its forms, stains before God, burdens the conscience, and also brings disgrace before men.The allurements of Egypt for Israel.The coarseness of apostasy from God amid all the refinement of so-called culture.For the sake of truth, Gods word speaks of fleshly things as they are, and as men practise them; discloses hidden things, and shows them in their naked deformity.Plain speaking is not attractive; flowery ambiguities are of the devil.True religion leads to fellowship with God.A Christian congregation is a spiritual mother, which should honour God through its sons and daughters (Cr.).

Eze 23:5 sq. Under the guise of piety they committed the worst abominations. As adulteresses foist the children which are the fruit of adultery upon their own husbands, so would Jeroboam also serve the true God under the calf-image (Stck.).To yield oneself unreservedly to God is not to throw oneself away (Hengst.).To expect help from men, to rely on them, to depart from God for the sake of profit, honours, etc., is adultery or harlotry in religion (Stck.).To fear God is the true politics.

Eze 23:6. He who forsakes God is easily carried away by semblances, dress, splendour, honours, and such like (Stck.).How highly the earthly and carnal mind values the friendship and favour of the rich and great! (B. B.)

Eze 23:7. He who holds fellowship with the world must also go after its idols.The friendship of the world is enmity with God, is idolatry.

Eze 23:8. Behold the power of youthful habit! What has been instilled into one in the years of youth usually remains with one all life through (Heim.-Hoff.).[M. Henry: This corrupt disposition in the children of Israel, when they were first formed into a people, is an emblem of that original corruption which is born with us and is woven into our constitution, a strong bias towards the world and the flesh. This sinful tendency of theirs was bred in the bone with them, and would never out of the flesh, though Egypt had been a house of bondage to them. Thus the corrupt affections and inclinations which we brought into the world with us we have not lost, nor got clear of, but still retain them, though the iniquity we were born in was the source of all the calamities which human life is liable to.W. F.]

Eze 23:9 sq. God excites those against us for punishment, to please whom we have sinned (O.).Lovers and scourges.Honour makes a name for one, so also does dishonour.

Eze 23:11 sq. Judah must therefore have been more corrupt, since she did not take warning by Israels punishment, and since she misused, or at least neglected to use, so much greater grace, which would have enabled her to resist.Those who go the same way also reach the same place (Stck.).The dangerous power of the imagination.Worldly glory seduces the worldly mind (Stck.).

Eze 23:14 sq. Seeing and longing.So men now-a-days are chiefly enamoured of that which is nothing; for what is all our honour, delight, external prosperity, nobility, dignity, and glory, our power and strength, but a picture in which there is no reality! (B. B.)

Eze 23:16. So it comes to pass, unless one makes a covenant with his eyes not to look on worldly glory, and that which is alien to him, that he is presently absorbed in it, and turns away from God (B. B.).

Eze 23:17. One must not paint the devil on the wall.Love becomes passion, and passion becomes satiety, yea, hatred.Estrangement is the usual end of impure love, of the selfishness concealed under it (Hengst.).Friendship and fellowship in sin are of short duration (St.).

Eze 23:18. He who gives himself up to false friends often loses thereby the true Friend, the Lord.

Eze 23:19 sq. It is sad when one goes back to his earlier sins.When one lives bestially, he cannot be pictured otherwise than as a beast (B. B.).

Eze 23:21. The falling back into the old sin is like a visit which is made to her whom one should hate and avoid (Hengst.).

Eze 23:22 sq. The wicked are punished through the wicked.At a death-bed there is often a great gathering from bygone days. Our sins, and those with whom we have sinned, surround us on every side.

Eze 23:25 sq. The ungodly have no power over Gods people, unless they are given up to them by God (St.).Dreadful judgments presuppose dreadful sins.We should not wait till God drags us away from sin with violence (O.).

Eze 23:27. What Gods goodness and patience could not accomplish, that the wickedness and tyranny of men shall bring about (Stck.).Every one receives at last his due.

Eze 23:28 sq. He who surrenders himself to sin shall be surrendered to punishment. Hate spares not.What love covers, hate discloses. The unclothing through punishment shows well what the clothing through grace is.

Eze 23:30 sq. Yea, he who expects to cleanse himself otherwise than through the blood and Spirit of Christ, pollutes himself still more by idolatry.Like sins, like punishments (Tb. Bib.).Him whom thou hast followed in life, thou shalt also follow in death (Stck.).He who accepts not the cup of salvation, must drink the cup of wrath (St.).

Eze 23:34. It must be drunk out. As we have sided with lust, God sides with punishment.The dreadful nail-test.In righteous judgment God causes sinners to be punished in the members in which they have sinned (St.).

Eze 23:35. To remember God is the summary of all godliness, as, on the contrary, to forget God is a summary of all ungodliness; therefore God comprehends all in this one, at the close of the catalogue of sins (Jablonsky).The sieve of mans memory retains only husksthat which is useless (St.).[Men need no more to sink them than the weight of their own sins; and those who will not part with their lewdness and whoredoms must bear them.M. Henry.]

Eze 23:36 sq. Comp. at Eze 20:4.God is not silent with His sentence, and even the judgments of God hasten like His grace. That which seems to be delay is long-suffering; but during it, sin ripens all the more quickly for judgment.

Eze 23:37. As they literally shed blood, so also in the services of idolatry, fleshly impurity found place.Judah and Israel as Medea.He who serves Venus and Bacchus offers to them also his children.

Eze 23:38 sq. How largely profanation of the Sabbath is the fashion now-a-days also!To run from the harlot-house to Gods house, from murder to the place of prayer, from sin to singing, is not pleasing to God (Stck.).Self-invented, hypocritical worship of God dishonours Him, more than love of the world (Richt.).From sin to sin,thus ruin is reached; that was the way of Oholah and Oholibah.What holy thing is there which the sinner does not profane! (Stck.)They considered neither place nor time (Jerome).

Eze 23:40 sq. The society of the ungodly should not be wished, still less sought for (Stck.).Those who are separate from God go in quest of men (Stck.).The sinner wishes in all things to be pleasing to men; why not to God? (Stck.)Washing themselves for men, remaining unclean before God: thus hypocrites act.How much of the activity of social organizations is here literally described !

Eze 23:43 sq. The longer a man continues in sin, the more shameless he becomes (St.).

Eze 23:45. Gods righteousness makes even of the Chaldeans righteous men.

Eze 23:46. When the judgment-hour strikes, judge and executioner are found so ready that they only require to be called (Stck.).

Eze 23:48 sq. Even still, although men will not depart from sin, they must depart from life (L.).Bad examples, through Gods overruling, may serve a good end.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

Under the similitude of two adulterous women, the Prophet is here taught to speak of the spiritual fornication of Samaria and Jerusalem . The Prophet sets forth the iniquity at large, and the just displeasure of Israel’s God upon the occasion.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Reader will enter into the beauties of this Chapter, and the design of it also, if he takes with him the consideration all the way along as he reads it, that the whole scope of the Chapter is to set forth the wonderful baseness and stupidity of the Lord’s Israel in committing fornication against the Lord. The Reader will not, I should hope, need to be put in mind, that the Lord all along, and in every part of his blessed scripture, is continually expressing his attachment to Israel, under the figure of the marriage state. And while we consider that sweet union of our nature with the person of Christ the Son of God, it will appear, that nothing can be more just and proper. Now then, when the Son of God by the assumption of our nature, becomes one with his people, for his Church to commit fornication with stocks and stones, and to set up dunghill gods, when brought into covenant relation with the Lord of life and glory; surely such base, worthless, unprincipled conduct, could not but be most glaringly offensive to the Lord God. And accordingly we find, not only in this Chapter, but in the writings of other Prophets, with what indignation the Lord speaks of it. See Hos 1 ; Hos 2 ; Hos 3 throughout, Jer 2 ; Jer 3 etc. I hope the Reader will not fail to follow up the doctrine as relating to the Gospel Church in the present hour. Is not every one, who calls himself a truly converted soul to God in Christ, in the present day of the Church in a greater or less degree guilty of the same spiritual fornication, that is, not living wholly to the Lord, in resting altogether for salvation upon the merits, blood, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? To mingle anything with this, or to be looking to any object in a way of salvation but Christ, is in the language of this Chapter, to be doting upon our lovers, whose flesh is the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses: neither of which can profit or bring advantage. The Lord deliver all his redeemed ones from so dreadful a delusion!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

XVI

PROPHECIES ON THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM (CONTINUED)

Ezekiel 15-24

We may ask ourselves at the outset, What purpose did Jeremiah serve in preaching forty years the downfall of the city, warning the people of their sins, though he knew that downfall was absolutely certain, yet all the time seeking to save the city? Why should God require a man to give forty years of his life to guard the people against the inevitable? Why should he require of a man like Ezekiel so many years of preaching to those already in exile concerning the fall of the city of Jerusalem? Why should he exert himself in the manner in which he did, to warn those in Babylon of the fall of Jerusalem?

Jeremiah’s preaching had this effect: It prepared the people in a measure for the downfall of their Temple and their capital and thus helped them to keep faith in God. Whereas, the fall of their capital and city without such a warning would have inevitably shattered their faith in God. Jeremiah’s prophecies of the restoration and the glorious future also helped the earnest heart to prepare for that future and for that restoration. Ezekiel’s preaching to the exiles in Babylon also prepared them for the fall of Jerusalem and also preserved their faith in God. It furnished them with truth to keep alive their faith during the period when their Temple was gone; it also served as a stay during the period of the exile and prepared them for the return. Though it seems that Jeremiah’s and Ezekiel’s long ministries were temporarily fruitless, yet they were the means of preparing the people for a possible future and their work abides.

Why did Ezekiel use all these symbols, figures and metaphors to those people who were already in exile in Babylon? It was to prepare their faith, so that when the shock came they might withstand it and be ready to return when God called them. As a result of Jeremiah’s and Ezekiel’s preaching, nearly 50,000 people were prepared to return as soon as the decree of Cyrus was sent forth. One may see no immediate result of his preaching, yet when he is preaching what God wants him to preach, the fruits may be all the greater because they are delayed.

In Eze 15 we have the parable of the vine tree and its interpretation. This is a parable in which Israel is likened to a vine tree among the trees of the forest. The vine tree is a very lowly tree. It is of comparatively little use. The wood thereof is not taken for fire, nor do people make pins or pegs from it. It is simply cast forth to be burned as rubbish. It is not profitable for anything. Then what does he mean? The Kingdom of Judah was among the great kingdoms of the world as the lowly vine tree was among the trees of the forest. It was of little use; it would not do for wood to burn; it would not do to make furniture or anything useful. It was simply cast off. All this we readily see would have its effect upon the people. It is a blow at their national pride. It goes to show that a mere vine of the forest that is cast away and burned as rubbish may be destroyed, while the lordly trees of the forest are still preserved. Judah is a lowly, contemptible kingdom beside the other kingdoms, and it is no great thing if she does perish. Notice, he makes no mention of the fruit of the vine. There was no fruit to this vine. In the case of the grape the vine is useless when there is no fruit; the vine is utterly valueless and fit only to be cast off. Thus he prophesied that Jerusalem should be burned with fire and its inhabitants destroyed.

In Eze 16 we have an allegory of the foundling child and its interpretation. This whole chapter is an allegory. Judah is described as a wretched outcast infant on the very day of its birth, thrown out into the field, a thing all too frequently done among Semitic and other Oriental peoples. There the infant lay, ready to perish. Jehovah comes along and sees the child thus in its neglected, wretched, forsaken condition; takes pity upon it; cares for it in the best way possible; rears it up until the child, a female child, becomes a young woman. She becomes of marriageable age, and then she is espoused to her husband, Jehovah. He adorns her with all the beauties with which a bride can possibly be adorned, and crowns her with a beautiful crown, and as Eze 16:14 says, “Thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put upon thee.” All went well for a time, but the foundling child which had the disposition of the Amorite and of the Hittite, very soon became the faithless bride and then rapidly degenerated into a shameless and abandoned prostitute. She prostituted herself with Egypt, with Assyria, and with Babylonia and their gods; then went into the very extreme of wickedness and sank to the very lowest depths of shame.

As a result of this absolute abandonment to wickedness, this prostitution of herself to idol worship, the nation is doomed to destruction at the hands of the very people after whom she had gone, and whose gods she had sought and worshiped. They were to gather around her from every side and were to destroy and lay waste the very bride of Jehovah. This passage is doubtless the analogue of that famous passage in Rev 17 , where the apostate church is compared to the harlot sitting upon the beast. He goes on and compares Jerusalem with Samaria and with Sodom. Notice verse Eze 16:46 : “Thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, that dwelleth at thy left hand; and thy younger sister that dwelleth at thy right hand is Sodom and her daughters.”

In Eze 16:48 he says that Jerusalem is worse and more shameless than even Sodom: “As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.” In Eze 16:49 he gives the sin of Sodom: “Pride, fulness of bread, and prosperous ease,” the besetting sins of the society women of every city of the land. Eze 16:51 says, “Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations,” and Eze 16:53 says, “I will turn again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them.”

What does he mean by saying that Sodom shall return from her captivity? No Sodomite was preserved; everyone perished. I think it means that in a future age all the land shall be reclaimed and even the place of Sodom shall be repeopled and, when restored and repeopled, will be like unto the inhabitants of Samaria and Jerusalem; that they will be loyal and true with new hearts and right spirits. It cannot be taken literally, for it is impossible that a Sodomite could return from captivity. It is necessary to read carefully all this allegory at one sitting to get its effect, to see and feel its force. It is powerful. Israel was not the descendant of an Amorite nor a Hittite. She had the blood of Chaldea and of Aram, but what he means is that there was in Israel from the very first the seeds of idolatry that existed in those Amorites among whom she lived. Thus Ezekiel prophesies the return of Samaria, the return and restoration of Jerusalem as well as Sodom, the last no doubt in a figurative sense.

We have had symbols, symbolic actions, and parables; now we have a riddle. The riddle is this, Eze 17:3 f: “A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar; he cropped off the topmost of the young twigs thereof, and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.” And in Eze 17:5 it says, “He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside many waters; he set it as a willow tree.” Verse Eze 17:6 : “And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.” Then it began to send its roots in another direction as we see from verse Eze 17:7 : “There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him, that he might water it.”

What is the meaning of it? The first great eagle was Nebuchadnezzar who came from Babylon and lopped off the top of the cedar, Jehoiachin, the son of Josiah, and carried him away to Babylon with seven thousand of the best people. He then set Zedekiah upon the throne and made him a feeble, weak vassal, with the hope that Zedekiah would depend upon him, pay him tribute, seek strength and power from Babylon, i.e., send out his roots to Babylon. But instead of that, Zedekiah begins to plot with Pharaoh-Necho of Egypt and instead of sending roots toward Babylon, he sent them toward Egypt. This is the riddle and the explanation. The riddle found in Eze 17:1-10 and the explanation in Eze 17:11-21 .

In Eze 17:22-23 we have the promise of a universal kingdom. He uses the same figure, that of the lofty top of the cedar, the symbol of the lawful descendant, the legitimate heir to the throne of Israel. After the return, God is going to take the lofty top of the cedar and crop off a twig from the topmost limb and plant it in the top of a high mountain in Israel. The latter part of Eze 17:23 says, “And under it shall dwell all birds of every wing; in the shade of the branches thereof shall they dwell.” Here he means that from the royal family of David, a twig, the topmost twig, shall be taken by Almighty God, and shall be set upon a high and lofty throne and his kingdom shall become so large, so wide, so broad, that its dominion will be universal, and all the peoples of the world will come to lodge under its branches and enjoy its protection. This, of course, is the messianic kingdom.

In Eze 18 we have Ezekiel’s discussion on the moral freedom and responsibility of the individual before God. This is the most important theological contribution which Ezekiel made to the thought of his age. In this chapter he meets one of the most perplexing problems that ever troubled men. It was the great religious problem of his age. When Jeremiah prophesied the restoration of the people to their land, he said that the time would come when they would no longer say, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” but each one should bear and suffer for his own sins and sustain an individual, personal relationship to God. Individualism, liberty in religion, was a messianic principle with Jeremiah, but Ezekiel is already living in the new order of things, and he takes up the problem that confronted Jeremiah: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are on edge.”

What does he mean? It was a proverbial saying and there is implied in it a reproach against divine providence; a suggestion that God is unjust in his administration of the laws of the world; that the children are suffering wrongfully for sins they never committed, but which their fathers committed. All that is implied in it, but the real significance of the proverb is this: “The sins of which you accuse us were born in us; we can’t help them; we must sin; our fathers sinned and the evil has been transmitted to us; we can’t help ourselves.”

The proverb rose out of the fact that God dealt with nations as units, and the individual shared the effects of that dealing. That was the case with Israel all down through the ages until this period. But now when the greatest crisis in the history of the nation had come, the nation destroyed, the city burned, the Temple gone, the ceremonial and ritual at an end, the national religious life collapsed, what would be the effect? The only way in which religion could be preserved was for them to realize that each individual soul had an individual and personal relationship to God. This was something new in the history of religion, this idea of individual responsibility to and relationship with God.

Ezekiel meets this great problem and deals with it fairly and squarely. There are two principles brought out in this chapter, which are these:

1. “All souls [individual personalities] are mine, saith the Lord.”

2. “I have no pleasure in the death of any one of these persons. I do not wish any one of them to perish. It grieves me that they do. I have no pleasure in it.”

And then, arising from these two principles are two conclusions:

1. Each soul’s destiny depends upon its relation to God.

2. It is their privilege to repent and turn from sin.

The following is an analysis of the chapter:

1. The individual man is not involved in the sins and fate of his people or his forefathers (Eze 18:1-20 ). He says in Eze 18:5 , “If a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,” and the latter part of Eze 18:9 , “he is just, he shall surely live.” Verse Eze 18:10 : “And if he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood he [the robber] shall surely die.” Verse Eze 18:13 : “But hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase shall he then live? He shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.” In the latter part of Eze 18:17 , he says, “The righteous man shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.” In other words, no man shall die because of his father’s sins, but because of his own, and no man shall be responsible for his son’s sins, but for his own. Each individual shall bear his own personal relationship to God and that alone.

2. The individual soul does not lie under the ban of its own past (Eze 18:21-23 ). Ezekiel means to say this: “If any man going on in sin, should turn from his sin and should repent and get right with God, he shall live. He is no slave to his moral environment, no victim of the sins of his ancestors, he is not compelled to go on in sin. He means to say also that if a man going on and doing right should fall into sin and do unrighteousness, then he shall die in his iniquity; he shall suffer its consequences; he shall not have attributed to him anything of his past righteousness; that would be completely nullified. He shall not have an average made of his righteousness and wickedness, but according to the condition of his heart at that time he shall either live or die. Now, that does not abrogate the law of heredity; it does not say that we do not inherit evil tendencies; it does not say that the result of our past lives will not continue with us, but it does say that everything depends upon the man’s personal and individual relationship to his sins and to his God; that the trend of his mind, the bent of his character, is that which fixes his destiny.

In other words, it is the doctrine of moral freedom which implies individual responsibility, with a possibility of repentance, a possibility of sin, a possibility of individual relationship to God, a possibility of life or death. This chapter is worthy of long and careful study.

There is a lamentation in Eze 19 , set forth in two parables. Here Ezekiel represents Jerusalem as a lioness. She brought up one of her cubs, or whelps, and he became a young lion; the nations came, caught him, bound him, and he was carried away to Egypt. That was Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah. When he was gone, the lioness brought up another one of her whelps and he grew up to be a young lion. The nations came against him and he was caught and carried away to Babylon that his voice should be no more heard on the mountains of Judah. That was Jehoiachin. He makes no mention of Jehoiakim for he was only a vassal set upon the throne by Pharaoh, not the chosen heir to the throne. He makes no mention of Zedekiah for he also was a vassal placed upon the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, not by the choice of the people, and he was not one of the lioness’s whelps.

Then, Eze 19:10-14 , he describes the mother as a vine, and shows how the vine is to be plucked up, burned, and destroyed, signifying the end of the reign of Zedekiah with the destruction of his capital.

The prophet reviews the past history of Israel in Eze 20:20 and emphasizes the principle that has saved Israel, viz: Jehovah’s regard for his own name. The elders came to inquire of Ezekiel about the law, or about the fate of the city. Ezekiel said that God would not be inquired of by them. He then goes on to review the history of Israel, and shows them the principle which actuated Jehovah in the saving of that nation. It is this: In Eze 20:9 he says, “I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.” And in Eze 20:14 he refers to their salvation in the wilderness: “I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations” and in Eze 20:22 , referring to his dealing with them while in the wilderness, he says, “Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations.” And from Eze 20:30-44 Ezekiel, in prophetic vision, sees that the return from captivity, the restoration from Babylon, the setting up of the glorious messianic kingdom in Jerusalem and Judah, will be done on this very same principle, viz: Jehovah’s regard for his own name.

The following is a summary of the contents of Eze 20:45-21:32 :

1. The fire in the forest of the South (Eze 20:35-49 ). The South refers to Judah and Jerusalem. Ezekiel sees from his situation in Babylon a fire raging in the South and burning the nation. It is a fire that shall not be quenched.

2. The sword of Jehovah shall be on Jerusalem (Eze 21:1-27 ). In substance, it is this: The sword of Jehovah is the sword of Nebuchadnezzar. It is coming against the city. When it is drawn it shall be sheathed no more. From Eze 21:8-17 we have Ezekiel’s “Song of the Sword,” a peculiar dirge picturing the sharpness of the sword and the anguish of the people. From Eze 21:18-27 the prophet represents the king of Babylon as undecided whether he should attack Ammon or Jerusalem first. He stands at the parting of the ways, and uses divination; he shook the arrows to and fro, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver. He drew forth the arrow marked, “Jerusalem.” Hence he marches there first.

3. Threatening prophecy against Ammon (Eze 21:28-32 ). This contains very little that is different from the prophecy against Jerusalem and from what shall follow. The prophet repeats in Eze 21:22 , in new form, the same charge he has been making over and over again; the same that Jeremiah had made so repeatedly: the sins of Jerusalem are idolatry, bloodshed, open licentiousness, incest, and almost every other conceivable form of evil. Because of all this her destruction was certain and necessary, and all nations were involved in it.

We have the symbolism of two harlot women in Eze 23 . This is a history of two harlot women, Samaria and Jerusalem, under the names of Aholah and Aholibah. This is largely a repetition of Eze 16 . The chief thoughts are as follows:

1. The infidelities of Samaria with Assyria and Egypt (Eze 23:1-10 ).

2. The infidelities of Jerusalem with Assyria, Babylon and Egypt (Eze 23:11-21 ).

3. Therefore, her fate shall be like that of Samaria (Eze 23:22-35 ).

4. A new description of their immoralities and another that of punishment (Eze 23:36-49 ).

The date of the prophecy in Eze 24 is the very day upon which Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, August 10, 588 B.C. The prophet here performs a symbolic action just as the siege begins. He takes a caldron, a great iron pot. The Lord tells him to pour water into it, to gather pieces of flesh, good pieces, the thigh and shoulder and choice bones; to take from the choicest of the flock, and to pile the wood up under it and to make it boil well. “Let the bones thereof be boiled in the midst of it.” Thus the symbolic action is carried on by Ezekiel.

What does it mean? At the moment Nebuchadnezzar began to surround Jerusalem the prophet performs this action. Jerusalem was the caldron; the inhabitants were the flesh therein, Jehovah was kindling the fire; he was piling up the wood and setting it ablaze, so that the unfortunate city would be seething and boiling and roasting as the flesh in a caldron. It was made so hot that the very rust of the iron was purged out and left it clean. In other words, Jerusalem should be so cleansed by the captivity and destruction of its city, that there would be left only the pure and clean (Eze 24:1-14 ). (See the author’s sermon on this paragraph in The River of Life.)

Another symbolic action occurs on the death of Ezekiel’s wife (Eze 24:15-27 ). The prophet mourns not. There is a very remarkable statement in the Eze 24:16 . God says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet thou shalt neither mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind thy headtire upon thee, and put thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.” Then he says, “So I spake unto the people in the morning; at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.” This symbolic action actually happened.

He says in Eze 24:18 , “I spake unto the people in the morn under the overwhelming grief that had fallen upon him so suddenly, he showed no signs of grief, he shed no tears, and heaved not an audible sigh. The people were unable to understand his actions, verse Eze 24:19 : “And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?” He tells them: “And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.” He means that very soon, as by a single stroke, a swift and inevitable stroke of justice, their fair and beloved city, Jerusalem, shall be destroyed, and they will be so stunned, so bewildered, so dumbfounded, so paralyzed that they will be unable to eat bread or even to sigh. In that stunned and dazed condition they shall bear their almost unbearable burden. It was a striking symbol, very touching, and it must have bad great effect.

QUESTIONS

1. To what end were the ministries of Jeremiah and Ezekiel?

2. What the parable of the vine tree and its interpretation? (Eze 15 .)

3. Give the allegory of the foundling child and its interpretation (Eze 16 ).

4. What the riddle of Eze 17 , what is its explanation, and what is the great promise in the latter part of this chapter?

5. What is Ezekiel’s discussion on the moral freedom and responsibility of the individual before God? (Eze 18 .)

6. What the lamentation in Eze 19 , and bow is it act forth in two parables? Give their interpretation.

7. What the principle upon which Jehovah acted toward Israel discussed in Eze 20 , and what the details of the discussion?

8. Give a summary of the contents of Eze 20:45-21:32 .

9. What the renewed charge against Jerusalem? (Eze 22 )

10. Who the two harlot women of Eze 23 and what the chief thoughts of this chapter?

11. What the meaning and application of the boiling pot and the blood on a rock? (Eze 24:1-14 .)

12. Explain the prophet’s action at the death, of his wife.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Eze 23:1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord. ] See Eze 18:1 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Ezekiel Chapter 23

The prophet still continues the exposure of Israel’s sin, especially of Jerusalem’s. The holy city is here compared with Samaria, as two sisters of a common parent – the Jewish people; sisters too in their idolatrous iniquity. The evil is traced up to its earliest exhibition. The idols which beguiled them in Egypt exposed them at last to Assyria and to Babylon. In Egypt they manifested their lewdness, and their old age was according to the sins of their youth. Their symbolic names are here given as Aholah the elder, and Aholibah, her sister; the former meaning “her own tent,” the latter, “my tent is in her.” The reader will not fail to observe the striking appropriateness of these symbolic names. The worship of Samaria was of self-will, at best an imitation, but really independence of Jehovah. But in Jerusalem the divine service was ordered of Jehovah as His own appointment; nevertheless not one only but both were His. “They were mine, and they begat sons and daughters.” Jeroboam’s usurpation did not destroy the title of Jehovah but rather drew out the special ministry of Elijah and Elisha as well as of others in God’s grace, if peradventure they might be warned. The elder Aholah, or Samaria, speedily showed the old evil unremoved. (Vers. 5, 8) The worship of the calves led to worse and brought finally judgment, through those who last of all allured her from Jehovah, and the Assyrian executed judgment on Samaria. (Vers. 9, 10)

Was Jerusalem admonished? Did the sight of Aholah act for good upon Aholibah? On the contrary, “she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she.” The younger and more favoured sister followed the elder and was even grosser in the indulgence of her idolatry. (Ver. 11) Nay, on the sons of Assyria she doted; “Then I saw that she was defiled, that they both took one way.” Not content with Assyria, she desired after the Chaldeans and their idolatrous worship. And the sons of Babylon defiled her; but if she was defiled by them, her mind was alienated from them. So it ever is where the favour and the will of God are not. Evil nearness is quickly followed by mutual disgust. But alas! there is worse. “My mind, saith Jehovah, was alienated from her, as my mind was alienated from her sister.” Jerusalem was given over to a reprobate mind. (Vers. 19, 20) From verse 22 the Lord Jehovah threatens Jerusalem: –

“Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side; the Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments. And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated: and they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.” (Ver. 22-31) Those with whom she sinned should be her chastisers and they should deal in fury, punishing her without mercy, and with every mark of ignominy. The adulterous people should, according to the symbol, lose their nose and their ears, should have their sons and daughters taken away: fire and sword should do the work of destruction. Does a licentious woman pride herself on her dress and her jewels? Of all should Jerusalem be stripped, but not in vain. This wickedness should cease, and Egypt should be looked to no more. Judah should suffer no less than the rebellious ten tribes.

From verse 32 there is a taking up of the cup named in verse 31, and this figure is applied with all fulness to express the judicial dealings of Jehovah with Jerusalem.

“Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup, deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the shreds thereof and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and whoredoms.” (Ver. 32-30)

Thus the judgment of favoured Judah should even exceed that of Samaria, as indeed her guilt was greater. The dregs should be drained, the shreds should be ground with their teeth, and their guilty breasts torn. From verse 36 to the end there is a comparison which closes the account of the two sisters. They were both licentious, both bloody. They carried their idolatrous adultery to such an extent as to burn their children to Moloch, and on that day to pollute Jehovah’s sanctuary and desecrate His sabbaths. “Lo! thus have they done in the midst of mine house.” No means were untried to entice those without to the dishonour of Jehovah, iniquitously misapplying to them Jehovah’s incense and Jehovah’s oil. And as Jerusalem had sought strangers from afar, so she deigned to court the most vulgar drunkards from the desert. Thoroughly profligate were those two women, Aholah and Aholibah. Not God only, but righteous men should judge them with the judgment of adultresses, and the judgment of those who shed blood, for such they really were. (Ver. 45)

Their judgment however should not slumber. The adulterous woman must be stoned till she died. “For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled. And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.” (Ver. 46-49)

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 23:1-4

1The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, 2Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother; 3and they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and there their virgin bosom was handled. 4Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

Eze 23:2 The NKJV sees most of the chapter as poetry.

1. Eze 23:2-4

2. Eze 23:5-8

3. Eze 23:9-10

4. Eze 23:12-16

5. Eze 23:17-18

6. Eze 23:19-21

7. Eze 23:22-24 e

8. Eze 23:24 f-27

9. Eze 23:32-35

10. Eze 23:35

Most other modern English translations only view Eze 23:32-34 as poetry. It is hard to distinguish elevated, emotional, figurative prose from poetry.

Eze 23:3 bosom This term (BDB 186) occurs uniquely in this chapter (i.e., Eze 23:3; Eze 23:8; Eze 23:21 [with emendation]) and possibly in Pro 5:19. The other Hebrew word for breasts (BDB 994) is also found in Eze 23:3; Eze 23:21, and often in Song of Songs.

It seems unusual to have the term virgin (BDB 144) in this context because this refers to the wives of YHWH figuratively bearing His children (cf. Eze 23:4; Eze 23:37). NIDOTTE, vol. 1, p. 782, says that this refers to reputable and not wanton.

Eze 23:4 Oholah and Oholibah Their Hebrew names are a play on the Hebrew word for tent (BDB 14). This is an allegory similar to chapter 16 based on Israel’s and Judah’s infidelity to the covenant (i.e., marriage vow) with YHWH. Oholah (BDB 14, lit. her tent, which may be an allusion to pagan tent-shrines or to false temples at Dan and Bethel) stands for the capital of Israel, Samaria, Oholibah (BDB 14, lit. my tent is in her, i.e., temple) stands for the capital of Judah, Jerusalem.

Notice how their disobedience is characterized.

1. played the harlot in Egypt, Eze 23:3

2. played the harlot in their youth

a. breasts pressed, Eze 23:3

b. virgin bosom handled, Eze 23:3

3. they were wed to YHWH and bore children, Eze 23:4

Israel’s idolatry in Egypt is a recurrent theme unique to Ezekiel, see Eze 16:26; Eze 20:4-17. The judgment of Egypt is described in Eze 29:1 to Eze 32:21.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 23

Now in chapter 23:

The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying, Son of man there were two women, who were the daughters of one mother: Now they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed ( Eze 23:1-3 ),

And he goes on to speak of these two daughters. The one’s name is Aholah; she is the older one. And her younger sister is Aholibah. Now Aholah means her tent. Aholibah means her tent is in her. And in the interpreting of this little parable of these two sisters who were prostitutes, the one sister, the older sister is Samaria, the Northern Kingdom which first went into idolatry. Turned against God when Jeroboam became king over the Northern Kingdom. He set up the calf in Bethel and in Dan and he said, “Now these are the gods that brought you out of Egypt. These are the gods that you worship.” And he installed calf worship; later on Baal worship and Molech. And they introduced all of these gods of the Assyrians and the gods of the nations round about and they turned from the true and the living God and they began to worship idols. And thus, prostituted themselves, giving themselves unto idolatry in love and all for these false religions instead of giving themselves in their love for the Lord.

Now, as the result of Aholah and her lewd acts that is against God, God’s judgment, He used the Syrians, the Assyrians to destroy the Northern Kingdom. And thus, Samaria was destroyed by Assyria. Now, when Samaria was destroyed, you would think that that would have been a lesson to Judah, the younger sister. “Her tent is in her,” referring to the fact that the tabernacle, the place of worship was established in Jerusalem, in the Southern Kingdom, Aholibah. But rather than learning from the idolatry of the north that perpetrated its fall, they started doing the very same things. In fact, king Ahaz went up to Assyria, and he makes mention of this here, how they went to Assyria. And her sister Aholibah saw this and she was more corrupt in her inordinate love that she in her whoredoms more than her sister. She doted upon the Assyrians.

So king Ahaz in Second Kings about chapter 16 or so tells about this. He went up to Assyria and there he saw the altar of the gods of the Assyrians. And he sent a design and all back to the priest in Jerusalem and ordered that an altar be built in Jerusalem like this altar of the false gods in Assyria so that when he returned to Jerusalem the priest had made this altar that was fashioned after the altar of the Assyrian gods. And Ahaz, of course, began to worship at this altar fashioned like unto the altar of the Assyrian gods. And he speaks about that here. But not only did they embrace the gods of the Assyrians, but they saw pictures of the Babylonians and this vermilion color and all that was endemic to the Babylonians and they desired.

Also, they sent for some of the Babylonians, “Come and share with us.” And then they began to pollute themselves with the Babylonian religion. And so even became worse than her wicked sister Samaria in that she multiplied her whoredoms. And God said, “My mind was alienated from her like as My mind was alienated from her sister.” They had turned away from their love for God from their serving God, and they began to worship at these false idols, false altars, and God said, naturally, “My mind was alienated from them.” And so God then speaks of His jealousy that is against them and how the Babylonians will come and they will deal furiously with you and you’ll fall by the sword and the residue that remains will be devoured by the fire.

They will strip thee of thy clothes, they’ll take away your fair jewels. Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from thee, thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated: And they shall deal with thee hatefully, they shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. I will do these things unto thee, because you have gone a whoring after the heathen, and because you are polluted with their idols. And you have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD ( Eze 23:26-34 ).

And God said, verse Eze 23:36 ,

Moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations; That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them ( Eze 23:36-37 ).

They were destroying their own children in the fires to the god Molech and to the god Baal. Throwing them into the fire, their little baby boys.

Moreover this have they done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and they have profaned my sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to the idols, then ( Eze 23:38-39 )

They would go out and they would throw their children into these fires or place them into the arms of these little molten hot gods until they burned to death. And then they would go to the temple and worship God. And God said, “I can’t stand it. I can’t understand it. It’s too much. I don’t want it. I won’t have it.” And so God speaks of the judgment that must come upon Jerusalem for this. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Eze 23:1-5

ALLEGORY OF OHOLAH AND OHOLIBAH;

SAMARIA AND JERUSALEM

Several of the authors whose works we have consulted with reference to this chapter have called the language of it repulsive, erotic, crude, indelicate and disgusting. We do not agree with such an attack. Our society has almost removed the common words for sin from their vocabulary.

The prodigal waster refers to himself as “generous,” or “liberal.” The stingy miser thinks of himself as “thrifty.” The drunkard parades as “sociable,” or as an innocent sufferer from “alcoholism.” The adulterers like to appear as, “modern,” or subscribers to the “new morality.” Homosexuals call themselves “gay”; but God’s Word indulges no such euphemisms. Sins are described in brutal language that refers to them in terms of what they actually are. “Ezekiel selected the marriage metaphor here (we believe the selection was God’s choice, not Ezekiel’s) for the purpose of showing in a glaring light the full horror of the people’s disloyalty.” “It should be remembered that Ezekiel is here using the normal thought forms of his day to convey weighty teachings from God regarding the ways of men.

“The adultery in this chapter symbolizes primarily the foreign alliances with pagan nations (which indeed always involved the acknowledgement of the gods of the allied nations). Since the worship of those evil pagan gods was depraved and licentious almost beyond imagination, the representation of God’s Chosen People here under the figure of two sisters, insatiable in their lewdness, must be accepted as authentic and appropriate.

It is a bit shocking that Samaria is presented here as the older of the two sisters, since historically, this is incorrect. “What seems to be meant is that the Northern kingdom was larger and more powerful than the southern kingdom.

Eze 23:1-5

“The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying, Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: and they played the harlot in Egypt; they played the harlot in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity. And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister; And they became mine, and they bare sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.”

“The daughters of one mother ..” (Eze 23:2). Both were of the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

“They played the harlot in Egypt …” (Eze 23:3). The only proof of this needed is Genesis 32, where is recorded the apostasy of Israel in the matter of the Golden Calf, a development of just a little over a month during Moses’ absence. The cooperation of the people in giving their gold for the making of this copy of an Egyptian God, and the wholesale adultery and fornication with which it was “worshipped” dramatically demonstrate that all Israel were without doubt habitual practitioners of such licentious “worship.” Where? In Egypt, of course. Also, see Jos 24:14. “Oholah and Oholibah …” (Eze 23:4). “The names of these two sisters are not identical in meaning, despite the claims of some to that effect. Oholah signifies `her tent’; and Oholibah signifies `my tent is in her. Thus these names indicate that God never approved or recognized the worship of the Northern Israel which Jeroboam I instituted following the rebellion of the Ten Tribes against the House of David. As Plumptre wrote, “The distinctive element in both of these names is that the worship in Samaria was not authorized by God.

“They became mine …” (Eze 23:4). This is the formal statement of God that he indeed accepted racial Israel as his wife, or “bride.” God knew, of course, about the adulterous tendencies of his people, nevertheless he consented to become their husband.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The next prophecy dealt with the sins of Samaria and Jerusalem under the figures of two women, Oholah and Oholibah. The prophet first described their sins. Samaria was charged with unfaithfulness in her confederacy with the Assyrians in that she allowed herself to be seduced by their wealth and their strength, from her loyalty to Jehovah. He also reminded her of her former confederacy with Judah. In consequence of this double sin she was handed over to the Assyrians who overcame and oppressed her.

The sin of Jerusalem was even more heinous than that of Samaria, and that notwithstanding the judgment she had seen falling on Samaria. She also made confederacy with Assyria, and subsequently more directly with Egypt, wherein she violated her Covenant with Jehovah. Against her also therefore Jehovah raised up those with whom she had been in unholy alliance, bringing them against her in full force, and allowing them to despoil and strip her.

Proceeding at the command of Jehovah, the prophet pronounced judgment on Oholah and Oholibah. In terrible language he again described the wickedness of the alliances formed between these two cities and the surrounding nations. Righteous men would judge them with the judgment of adulteresses. Under the figure of the Hebrew method of dealing with the sin of adultery, namely, stoning, the prophet described an assembly against these cities, carrying out this judgment, and destroying the people utterly. Again the purpose was declared to be to make lewdness cease out of the land in the interests of other cities here referred to under the figure of women, all this still in order to vindicate the honor of Jehovah.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

Chapter Twenty-three

The Apostasy Of Israel And Judah

In this lengthy chapter God once more goes over the ground of His controversy with Israel and Judah, picturing them as two sisters whom He brought up out of the land of Egypt and charged to be faithful to Him, but who both turned away from Him, following idolatry in its vilest forms.

The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying, Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: and they played the harlot in Egypt; they played the harlot in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity. And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became Mine, and they bare sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah-vers. 1-4.

The word Oholah means her tent; whereas Oholibah means My tent is in her. Tent and tabernacle are of course the same thing, so that the meaning is clear. Jehovah never identified Himself with the worship which Jeroboam set up for the ten tribes. The sanctuary to which the people there went was simply their own tabernacle, but it was otherwise with Judah: God Himself had set up His tabernacle in the midst of her; He dwelt in Judah and linked His name with Jerusalem in a way He never did with the ten tribes after they revolted from subjection to the house of David. At last they went wholly over to the same type of idolatry as that which characterized Israel up to the time that they were carried away into Assyria.

As we have already seen, spiritual adultery is idolatry, turning away from the one true and living God to idols; and God uses the figure of an unchaste woman to represent both Israel and Judah in their grave sin of infidelity toward Him. People of fastidious taste and delicacy of sentiment naturally shrink from reading such verses as these, but we need to remember the words that describe sin are in themselves not unclean or unholy; it is the evils that are back of the words that are so vile in the sight of God and should be detested by every right-minded person.

And Oholah played the harlot when she was Mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. And she bestowed her whoredoms upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whomsoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself. Neither hath she left her whoredoms since the days of Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their whoredom upon her. Wherefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they slew with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments upon her-vers. 5-10.

Under the figure of harlotry God here sets forth the sin to which Israel in the north had given herself. She had followed after all the evil ways of her unclean idolatrous neighbors, and so eventually God Himself had forsaken her. One might have supposed that all this would have had a salutary effect upon the people of Judah and would have led them to abhor the sins that had brought ruin upon their neighbors to the north; but alas, alas, so prone is the heart of man to evil, and so true is it that evil communications corrupt good manners, that Judah soon went just as far into the same type of wickedness and spiritual lewdness as did her sister in the north. All this comes out clearly in verses 11 to 21.

And her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her whoredoms which were more than the whoredoms of her sister. She doted upon the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. And I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way. And she increased her whoredoms; for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, with flowing turbans upon their heads, all of them princes to look upon, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their nativity. And as soon as she saw them she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them. So she uncovered her whoredoms, and uncovered her nakedness: then My soul was alienated from her, like as My soul was alienated from her sister. Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, remembering the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. And she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in the handling of thy bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of thy youth-vers. 11-21.

Because of her vileness God, the Holy One, could no longer condone her offenses, and must deal with her as her sins deserved in accordance with His warnings.

Therefore, O Oholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side: the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against thee with buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will commit the judgment unto them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments. And I will set My jealousy against thee, and they shall deal with thee in fury; they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. They shall also strip thee of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt; so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy soul is alienated; and they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare; and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms-vers. 22-29.

Such words as these require very little comment. They are too plain to need exposition. The language used is so clear that any reader will understand readily why God was thus dealing with His people. In spite of all His expostulations they had persisted in their unclean behavior and had laughed to scorn the admonitions of the prophets He sent to them.

These things shall be done unto thee, for that thou hast played the harlot after the nations, and because thou art polluted with their idols. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thy hand. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou shalt drink of thy sisters cup, which is deep and large; thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it and drain it out, and thou shalt gnaw the sherds thereof, and shalt tear thy breasts; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast forgotten Me, and cast Me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms-vers. 30-35.

God was about to give them up to the same kind of punishment that had been meted out already to Sa- maria, and they should learn in bitterness of soul what it meant to depart from the living God-from Him who would so gladly have cast all their sins behind His back if they had but turned to Him in contrition of heart.

He chides them because, having forgotten Him, they had cast His Word behind their backs and given themselves up to every type of idolatry.

Jehovah said moreover unto me: Son of man, wilt thou judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare unto them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto Me, to pass through the fire unto them to be devoured. Moreover this they have done unto Me: they have denied My sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned My sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into My sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of My house. And furthermore ye have sent for men that come from afar, unto whom a messenger was sent, and, lo, they came; for whom thou didst wash thyself, paint thine eyes, and deck thyself with ornaments, and sit upon a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon thou didst set Mine incense and Mine oil. And the voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets upon the hands of them twain, and beautiful crowns upon their heads-vers. 36-42.

Israel and Judah both had been warned of the peril involved in apostasy; yet both had deliberately turned away from the truth they had once known and given themselves over to following after the ways of the surrounding nations. They had defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah and profaned His sabbaths, doing for their idols what God never would have asked them to do for Him-sacrificing their own children at the behest of the demon-inspired priests of their high places. Like an unchaste woman who sought in every way to at- tract men to her, they had made every effort to incorporate into their own economy the ways of the heathen, both religious and political; and thus had so dishonored God that He could do no other than repudiate them and visit judgment upon their heads.

Then said I of her that was old in adulteries, Now will they play the harlot with her, and she with them. And they went in unto her, as they go in unto a harlot: so went they in unto Oholah and unto Oholibah, the lewd women. And righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed to and fro and robbed. And the company shall stone them with stones, and despatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols; and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah-vers. 43-49.

Solemn indeed are the words with which this section closes. How unspeakably sad the state into which Judah had fallen! She who had once been a bright gem in the diadem of Jehovah now had fallen to the very lowest depth, and God was about to cast her out of His sight, to send her down to Babylon-there to learn in bitterness of soul what a mistake she had made in rejecting Him and refusing to heed His Word and following after the strange gods of the nations, which, in reality, are no gods but simply demons seeking the destruction of those who sacrifice to them.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

In Eze 23:1-49 Samaria and Jerusalem are called two sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, in their ungodly relation with Assyria and Chaldea. Aholah means her tent. Aholibah, my tent is in her. The latter denotes the fact that the true sanctuary was in Judah. The sins and vileness of both are portrayed throughout this long chapter, as well as the deserved punishment.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Reciprocal: Jer 2:23 – see Eze 2:3 – a rebellious nation Eze 22:2 – her abominations Hos 1:2 – for Hos 4:12 – gone Zec 5:7 – is

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Eze 23:1-2. This entire chapter is on the subject of spiritual adultery which always means Idolatry in the Old Testament. The figures and other terms will be directly those pertaining to the unfaithfulness of women in the marriage relation, but. I am anxious that the reader always bear in mind that the real subject is idolatry. After all, the comparison is wholly fitting. When a woman becomes the wife of a certain man she cannot share her affections, either mentally or bodily, with any other man without being guilty of adultery against her husband. Likewise, when a man or group of men profess to have become united with God in their religious life, they have no right to patronize any other god or participate in any strange religious activities. If they do so they are guilty of spiritual adultery. So let me once more caution the reader not to get lost to the real subject as he sees the detailed picture of immoral conduct presented in this chapter. The women are the kingdom of Israel and Judah.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Section 4 (Eze 23:1-49).

Yielding themselves to the world.

We have now once more one of those apparent repetitions which, as such, emphasize the importance of what they speak. Yet there is perhaps no mere repetition in all Scripture, and it is important for us to realize what constitutes the difference between things which at first sight seem absolutely similar. The present chapter gives us, as is evident, substantially the theme of the 16th; Israel’s departure from God being symbolized by the sin of adultery; Jehovah’s exclusive relationship to Israel among all the nations of the earth being compared in this way to marriage. God has taken up the most intimate relations of human life to show us the fulness of His love towards men, and the nearness in which His heart delights to bring us to Himself. All the greater therefore is the sin which breaks through a love so manifested, and we cannot wonder if the foulest of human sins becomes a shadow of that which is symbolized by it here. We shrink from these descriptions. How thoroughly God would teach us by it to loathe that which in His sight is so much worse: the human symbol is but a shadow of the greater sin!

It has been truly said that the present chapter, as compared with the former one, speaks of political, rather than of spiritual, departure from God; yet this only shows the more how intimately the two are related to one another. Religion is necessarily the most powerful bond that unites men together, and thus it is no wonder that when men no longer recognized the one true God, supreme over all, each nation came naturally to have. its own gods whose glory or decay became identified with that of the nation to which they belonged. We see in Nebuchadnezzar’s policy, in the setting up of his golden image in the plain of Dura, the recognition of the power of such a motive. The different gods of the subjected nations were acknowledged in what was owned as supreme over them still. As Nebuchadnezzar was a king of kings, so naturally in his thought was his god a god of gods. Such then being the condition of things, and idolatry set up everywhere among the nations dispersed at Babel, God bad necessarily to separate to Himself politically a people who were to be in true spiritual relationship to Himself. Where the nations ruled, their gods must rule; and thus to lose national independence threatened the loss of all else. This could not have been as to Israel, had they not been untrue to themselves as the people of Jehovah. The captives in Babylon show what the change meant for the true-hearted under its imperial power.

Christianity, indeed, openly disclaimed any separate political existence for its converts; this was necessary; for, in the first place, it was a gospel for the world, going out freely to men apart from all question of nationality. Judaism had not such a gospel; and as long as Judaism lasted, the time for it had not come. The people whom God took up to reveal Himself to them showed this by their ready acceptance of the legal system after their own demonstrated inability, and on this account it was necessary that they should have it, that they should be allowed to prove in the fullest way that inability. The “due season” for the gospel did not come until man was shown not only to be “ungodly,” but “without strength.” Then and thus it was Christ died for us. But if God would prove in the completest way what man was, He must give them, and did give them, all the assistance in His power to walk aright according to a law. Thus they were fenced off from the intrusion of the nations, and assured of God’s protection in preserving the fence. Among themselves they were bound together by family relationships, by the promises to their forefathers, which embraced them all, by the earthly blessings attached to obedience, by a central worship which drew them together from all parts of the land, while through all their tribes the cities of the priests and Levites were, as it were, a garrison to keep them for God -men separate from all other interests and devoted to God alone.

This all broke down, as we know; the hands of the people themselves broke it down. Christianity fully accepts the fact of this, being itself a complete salvation for men who can no longer trust in themselves at all; and it accepts the fact of a hostile world through which, kept by the power of God alone, His people have to make their way, finding in Christ at once their Leader and the Captain of their salvation. To the Jewish policy we cannot go back; and while on the one hand it is no wonder that men should have sought the advantage of this, it should be just as plain that for Christians themselves it is absolutely impossible. We stand by faith, and faith is not helped by circumstances, or by any natural conditions, but rather by the very difficulties which exercise and develop it. A higher blessing is thus secured for us as we have higher privileges and a perfect Example. We are strangers and pilgrims, and not citizens of earth at all. Yet there will be a time when God’s present purpose completed, and His heavenly people taken to Himself, the world will be delivered from the power of evil which now rules it; and what we find in Israel of old will be reproduced again, with all the imperfection of it removed, in restored Israel, no longer in the midst of hostile nations, but under the dominion of Him who will be owned over all the earth, one Lord, and His name one.

1. In what is before us, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel are seen as distinct, but in closest relation to one another; alas, clearly related also in the common course that they pursue. “And the word of Jehovah came unto me saying, Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother.” There is no need to question as to that mother now, nor to speak of Amorite or Hittite. The heredity which they exemplify goes further back, and lust, in whatever way displayed, is the beggar’s badge which marks out everywhere fallen man. As the apostle has shown us, the full condition of man is reached and judged in that one commandment: “Thou shalt not lust.” Of these lusts, the idols of the nations are the exhibition, and meant for their gratification. They represent an imaginary freedom of souls who have got away from God, seeking to satisfy themselves, apart from His way and will, with things incompetent to do so.

Such as these women here, all the children of Adam are in all their generations. And if we ask, as we look at their history, How could God take up such as these? the answer is found in another question: Where could He find any better? As we see their common origin, so we are taken back to Egypt to see them from the very beginning of their course nationally. And this licentious free-will marks them from the start. God had appointed them in Egypt a school which should have been profitable for them. No land could more fairly and fully exhibit the folly and degradation of heathen idolatry, while God made them also to realize the rod of the school-master in what they suffered at their hands. There was as plainly, on one side, God’s meaning in all this, as on the other was exhibited the natural perverseness of the human heart. Little cause had Israel to take up with Egypt, themselves having the revelation of the true God and such promises of blessing as might well have won their hearts to obedience. Yet, it is plain, they accepted Egypt as their school in another way entirely from that in which God meant it. Egypt was the land of independence, the type of the world in that way, nurtured by the constant overflow of its river, with no need of the rain of heaven, which was, however, the source of the abundance that was round about them. But these sources were afar off, unnoticed and unknown, and if they were not content to make the river itself their god, as we know they did, there was another course, yet more satisfactory to human pride: “My river is mine, and I have made it” -the complete folly of which was no hindrance to its adoption. Manifestly, Oholah (“her own tent”) made this the text upon which her conduct was the comment. Oholah is Ephraim, characterized by her chief city, Samaria, a name which speaks of the desire to preserve that which they stood for. Samaria (Shomeron) means “keeper” or “guard.” It was Omri’s city, set up against Jerusalem, and as Micah says (Mic 6:16), “the statutes of Omri were kept” but too faithfully in it. But before this, at the very commencement of their independence as a kingdom, the calves which Jeroboam set up remind us of Egyptian worship. In fact, he had been in Egypt and manifestly brought them from thence.* Jerusalem, on the other hand, the capital city and representative of Judah, characterized by its glorious temple, was Oholibah (“my tent is in her”) in contrast with Oholah, “her own tent.” How far this affected her after-course we have already had intimated.

{*Israel worshiped the golden calf at Sinai. Thus the Egyptian idolatry was manifest both in the earlier and the later apostasy. -S. Ridout.}

2. We have first the history of Oholah; and, under the strong figure of adultery, we find how the world outside at once attracted her. Assyria was her main attraction: “She doted upon her lovers, upon the Assyrians her neighbors, clothed in blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.” In a worldly course, the world in fact surpasses the people of God, whose own things, the moment they seek the world, fail with them at the start. In the outside world there is full room for all the energy, ambition, luxury, self-enjoyment, which the terms speak of here: youth, vigor, the keen pursuit of that which man counts to be riches, and which makes him all that he can hope to be, these things attract, alas, how much, the people of God themselves!

And what does Asshur stand for? If we go back to the neglected book of national genealogy, Gen 10:1-32, we find that Asshur has his place as the second son of Shem. He is, therefore, in the line of revelation, of which Shem speaks. Shem means “name;” the name of God revealed in connection with him, which makes him all that he is; and, as is well known, revelation as a whole has come to us through the line of Shem; and as has been said elsewhere (see Jdg 3:1-31, Notes) the genealogy of Shem, as God has given it to us, shows in its necessary order the unfolding of this revelation.

We begin with Elam, which is only, in another form, Olam, “eternity;” and the first necessary revelation of God is that He is the Eternal. His name, therefore, which stands for what He is, must be eternal as Himself. Nevertheless, there is a gradual unfolding of this, of which Asshur in the next place speaks. Asshur means “step,” and the steps of Gad, His activities, are also His manifestation. In every act of God, He more or less reveals Himself; and there has been, as we surely know, an adaptation of this revelation to the conditions and needs of men which has made it a revelation, gradual indeed, far more so than we should have thought could be; but our thoughts are not as God’s thoughts. It has been shown, in what has just been referred to, that the names following show the continued development of the revelation.

Arphaxad, in the third place, brings us to what God’s manifestation for the need of man is, the mystery in which He is truly manifest, the mystery of the cross being spoken of in it; while the next name, in the fourth place, Lud, “born,” shows that He has revealed God in manhood; this humiliation of His being followed by what the last name speaks of, Aram, “exalted.” The depths and the heights that we find in Christ are surely before us here. “Beautiful, however, as are these names thus joined together, we easily understand how in a world like this, and as connected with the human generations for which they stand, they soon scatter and fall away from one another, and thus lose their meaning and their beauty as united. The sentences become but broken words, capable of very different, even of opposite suggestion. The Shem families, as they scattered and multiplied into nations, lost almost entirely the promise of their origin. Their primitive worship became corrupted into a dark and debasing idolatry” in which, however, we find still as we look into them, the fragments of primitive revelation. Still, as a whole, the meaning is lost. Cut off from the Name of which they speak, there is no purpose of God really left. What should have been God’s “steps” become in fact but a reflection of man himself and of his lusts. Strikingly in this way does Asshur’s god speak for what he is. Asshur’s god was Asshur. Man serves but himself -himself, alas, the miserable object of his worship! Even as the apostle puts it, with regard to some professing Christians, “whose god is their belly, whose glory is in their shame” (Php 3:19). Yet he is successful, as men say; his energies are spent undividedly upon that which is within his reach, and “the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” He is successful; and what is his success like? Look at the 73rd psalm for the answer, and see how perplexed even the godly can be at what he finds it. Only in the sanctuary can you learn the truth about it -the end of it.

After Asshur, therefore, Oholah goes with her whole heart. She still carries her Egyptian idolatries with her, for evil, as we know, is tolerant of evil, while the good is not. Yet at last, as we find in her history here, out of men’s vices are hatched the hordes that prey on them, and out of this has arisen the fable that Satan is the torturer of men in God’s final place of judgment; but this is only the reflection of present things. He is indeed here the torturer, not there; and God would wake man up by this constant connection of sin with its judgment. Man’s pleasant vices are the whips that scourge him.

The history here in the case of Ephraim is plainly read: “I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the sons of Asshur upon whom she doted. These uncovered her nakedness, they took her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword, and she became a name among women, and they executed judgment upon her.”

3. Oholibah’s history now follows. In it we see once more the power of example, as we see also how one evil develops out of another, and the consequent progress made in a downward path. Once more Oholibah chooses the human school instead of the school of God, and learns nothing by His rod upon her sister. She too goes after the attractive Assyrians, but she adds to these the Chaldeans, the images of whom promptly carried her off. And these Chaldeans, as we learn by more than the derivation of their name, which seems to be “demon-like,” bring with them a power of evil more intense, less human, more supernatural. As James teaches us, it is how the wisdom that cometh not from above develops; it is “earthly, sensual, devilish.” These Chaldeans had their own tongue and learning, practised occult arts, “wore a peculiar dress like that seen upon the gods, and deified men in Assyrian sculptures.” Added to this, they were not Shemites, but Cushites, and belonged fully to the darkness of this their origin. Yet Oholibah, as we see, is immediately attracted; their mere images attract her: “As soon as she saw them, she doted on them and sent messengers to them, unto Chaldea.” This passion, as we know by their history, did not last long, except in its consequences. It was, as is so often the case, as short-lived as it was sudden. Oholibah returned to her old passion for Egypt, and this brought on her doom.

When her day of lawless self-will is past, the day of the Lord finds all her former lovers gathered against her. The mustering is come now, the sons of Babylon heading the list with all the Chaldeans; and Asshur too, with Babylon, Assyria following under the power of Nebuchadnezzar.

Numbered among the Chaldeans, we have three names which present a special difficulty. Pekod is, in Jer 1: 21, an allegorical name for Babylon itself as the land of “visitation” -there, visited of God; here a visitation of God upon others; or it may mean her “charge,” “office,” for officer. Shoa means “wealth,” “liberal;” Koa, probably “prince.” Geographically no such names are found within the limits of Chaldea, and the words remain a problem yet unsolved, while from the connection they might seem to form part of the enumeration of all that was brilliant and attractive in the land, now gathered with the desirable sons of Asshur against Jerusalem. The qualities which before spoke of the energy and ability which carried away the hearts of the Israelites are now enumerated in the same terms, but realized now in an opposite interest. How men’s old allurements face them in the day of visitation which comes for each one! They work their will without mercy, though the mere instruments of God’s judgment, as He declares. The punishment of cutting off the nose and ears was the punishment of an adulteress and we may remember how these, on God’s part, were ornamented in a former chapter (Eze 16:1-63) which gives us, as the present does not, the blessing which God had poured out upon those brought into this peculiar relationship to Himself. Now, not only the ornaments are removed, but there is no place for them any longer, mere deformity instead, and with the jewels the garments are also taken away.

Yet all this severity is on God’s part not mere judgment. The effect is, as He puts it here, to make the lewdness of Oholibah cease from her, and the objects formerly attractive to be turned from with loathing. One must come to one’s self in order to come to God, and this is the process through which God was now bringing Israel. What a terrible thing to face, when one is left naked and destitute, all that gone which, while it was being squandered, made one for a time feel and look rich to others! But the cup now must be drained to its bitter dregs, wrung out in desperation by the soul that has lost its all, but cannot yet fully awake to it; the very sherds of the broken cup, as represented here, gnawed in madness to obtain that which is impossible, while the tearing off of the breasts is but the self-despair under which, if anywhere, the true blessing lies. But this is not gone on to in the chapter before us, which ends with judgment: “Because thou hast forgotten Me and cast Me behind thy back, therefore bear also thy lewdness and thy fornications.”

4. God now appeals to man himself in the person of the prophet against both these debauched and uncensured women: “And Jehovah said unto me, Son of man, wilt thou judge Oholah and Oholibah? Yea, declare unto them their abominations.” And the story is repeated briefly with all the circumstances of its aggravation and the persistency of wickedness, which seems as if it would go on to the end -the scum of a pot, as in the next chapter, which will never be cleansed. Adultery and blood are both in the count against them here. Their idolatries contained both features: unfaithfulness to God, and causing their sons to pass through the fire to their idols to be devoured; and all the while shamelessly entering Jehovah’s sanctuary, which could but be defiled by their presence; and His sabbaths, the sign of His covenant with them, profaned by all their actions. They had not been the victims of others, simply; they had not merely been solicited by others; they themselves had been the solicitresses, laboring to bring from afar those who could only pollute them with their abominations; they had decked themselves with the ornaments that God had given, for the reception of their corrupters!

The picture is painted for us in a few brief touches: the insensate profligate sitting upon a stately bed, with a table prepared before it whereon were placed the incense and the oil that belonged to her forsaken God. Around her the voices of a loose crowd in utter abandonment, even the Sabeans of the wilderness, the men who lived by pillage, as their name here may indicate, brought in to join with them, and all this when plainly old age was come upon her, hastened by her excesses.* The two sisters, every way such, are joined together in this count, and men of mere human righteousness are called to pronounce the judgment upon them which they so well deserve. Thus a divine judgment is executed, but with the approbation of the human conscience everywhere. God and man are united together against them, but with the end in God’s thoughts still of getting rid, by whatever severe measures, of the wickedness which else would never end, but which shall at last make them recognize their covenant-God in the holiness which compels Him thus to afflict them. The end for Israel and for the nations alike is ever that they shall know that He is the Lord Jehovah.

{*There is a resemblance to Jezebel, the apostate queen of Israel, 2Ki 9:30,who in her old age “painted her face and tired her head.” She is also the symbolic adulteress in the professed church, the Thyatira of Rev 2:1-29, whose adulteries bring down the Lord’s judgments. -S. Ridout.}

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

Eze 23:2. There were two women, the daughters of one mother. Samaria and Jerusalem, cities introduced in the female character, as in Eze 23:10; Eze 23:48.

Eze 23:4. Samaria is Aholah, or her tent, because they worshipped local divinities, and assembled under the shadow of trees and tents. Samaria is first mentioned under this comparison, because the kingdom of the ten tribes was the first to go astray, soon after the time of Solomon. She also doted on the invading cavalry of Assyria. Manahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver to be confirmed in the kingdom. 2Ki 15:19. Jerusalem is Aholibah. A tabernacle, or my habitation is in it. Jerusalem is so called because of the holy temple, in which the Lord dwelt in the midst of his people; there also he had pitched his tent in the time of David.

Eze 23:9. Wherefore I have delivered her (Aholah) into the hands of her lovers. This was the case with Israel no less than eight times, during the government of the Judges. Every time they adopted the gods of a neighbouring nation, the Lord presently gave them into the hands of that nation. The Hebrews, so illustrious in the days of Joshua, basely bled under the tributary yoke of contemptible powers.

Eze 23:14. When she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall. The princes and gods of Chaldea, painted with warm and glowing tints, seduced and corrupted her eyes and her heart. The pencil goes as far in the style of nudity as the public can possibly bear, and often so far as puts modesty to the blush. Better destroy the picture, than that the picture should destroy the soul.

Eze 23:23. Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa. These were ancient names for provinces of the Babylonian empire. Jer 50:21. But the versions vary; some read, captains, prefects, princes, satraps and tyrants. It is difficult to decide here, as the names of gods, of men, and of countries were often similar.

Eze 23:33-34. The cup of thy sister Samaria: thou shalt even drink it, and suck it out. The Lord here announces by this mixed cup, the full and bitter round of afflictions from the sword, the famine, the pestilence, and all the gloom of dying in captivity, which this revolted nation should sustain.

Eze 23:37. Blood is in their handsthey have caused their sons to pass through the fire, to devour them. Here is positive proof that the ancients actually burnt their children to Moloch. Lustration seems to have been a more modern mode of devoting children. Manasseh also shed much innocent blood. 2Ki 24:4.

Eze 23:38. They have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and profaned my sabbaths. These were the sins which completed the career of crime, and filled up the measure of Judahs iniquity.

Eze 23:40. Thou didst paint thine eyes. The LXX read, with stibium, the red calces of lead, to give a fine colour and clearness to the eyes. This would ultimately injure the sight. In our potteries, those who dip the vases in lead, in a few years lose the power to open their hand.

Eze 23:45. Righteous men shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses. Those who chastised Israel are called Gods sanctified ones, set apart and commissioned to invade with the sword, and avenge the wrongs which heaven had sustained by this vile and apostate nation.

Eze 23:48. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land. zimmah, which Montanus renders fditatem, a word comprehending every species of crime. Others read, and all the dung and uncleanness of gentile worship. What sort of men were those to whom the prophets preached! Et peccata stercorum suorum.

REFLECTIONS.

The navet of the language here, as in chap. 16., may be thought by some to demand an apology, because nature should not be too much exposed. But how could a gross and degenerate people be moved by images less affecting; and how could the base conduct of Israel to their fathers God be made manifest by a portrait less mortifying to the pride of man. The whole must therefore be regarded as a fine take-off of the profligacy of a degenerate church.

The shame and degeneracy of Judah is traced to its source. The people had a frantic passion for the dress, the manners, and the worship of the Assyrians. Samaria had indeed prepared the way; but when Judah, led by her wicked princes, began the career of paganism, she excelled her sister in every view, nor could the Assyrians long boast of preference, either in the effusion of blood or in profligacy of morals. In this view, if one could modestly convey a word to England, it might not be unseasonable. We have confessedly showed a strong partiality to the dress, the morals, and the etiquette, and have too much sacrificed the manly gravity of Britons to the volatile character of the French. In theatres, in amusements, in a desecration of the sabbath, we make too near an approach. The character also of our subscription libraries, and general course of reading, is nearly similar. In point of villas and mansions, of equipage, festivity and wastes, we may fairly be allowed to excel them, being aided by unexampled resources of commerce. But the moral and the issue of the parallel are the most interesting. When Judah became completely enslaved to the opinions and manners of the heathen, God, as is often noticed, gave them into the hands of the heathen. And shall we ever see the day, the fatal day I stop myself before I have said too much. The praying remnant can never desire that evil day. May the uplifted rod sanctify and save a forgetful nation. It is however a grand truth, that this nation has no medium between its present splendour; and a ruin greater than has before been witnessed. And where is the man, where the christian, properly impressed with the balance of nations which heaven holds in its hands, who would not unceasingly pray for the pardon of our sins, and do all he can to instruct the rising age, and to save his country from the growing mass of crimes, which have ultimately proved the destruction of every nation. May our country be precious in thy sight, oh Lord; and may we be heirs of thine everlasting covenant. Amen.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Ezekiel 23. Fatal Alliance with Foreigners.This is the third and last of the three great indictments (Ezekiel 16, 20) which draw their material from the past rather than (as Ezekiel 22) from the present. Its underlying imagery is the same as that of ch. 16, but it differs from that chapter in dealing with the northern and southern kingdoms separately (cf. Eze 16:46) and in emphasizing political rather than religious entanglements, though of course foreign alliances did as a matter of fact involve the recognition of foreign gods, i.e. idolatry (Eze 22:7).

Samaria and Jerusalem, the capitals of Israel and Judah respectively, are described as sisters married to Yahweh (cf. Jacob with his two sister wives). Their names, Oholah and Oholibah, are significantly connected with the word for tent (hel), and probably suggest the tents associated with the false worship (Eze 16:16). First is described Samarias coquetry with the brilliant and powerful Assyriansan allusion to king Menahems tribute to Assyria about 738 B.C. (2Ki 15:19). This introduction of Assyrian lovers to Israel eventually led to her destruction in 721 B.C. (Eze 22:5-10). Judah, who might have learnt the lesson, actually behaved worse, courting first the Assyrians (an allusion to Ahazs appeal to Tiglath Pileser 735 B.C., 2Ki 16:7), then the Babylonians (Eze 23:11-21). She too will be stripped bare by the very lovers she had courted, she will have to drink the dreadful cup to the dregs (Eze 23:22-31). (Pekod, etc., in Eze 23:23 are on the borders of Elam, E. of Babylonia.) Again the sisters crimes are passed in review, especially their wanton invitations to foreigners with their pernicious political and religious consequences, and just judgment is pronounced upon them in terms of the cruelties perpetrated upon prisoners of war (Eze 23:25) and adulteresses (Eze 23:45)a warning to the whole world. The allusion is chiefly to the impending fall of Jerusalem (Samaria had fallen over 130 years before).

Eze 23:40. paintedst thine eyes: Jer 4:30*.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Israel’s lustful youth 23:1-4

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The Lord gave Ezekiel a story about two sisters who had one mother (cf. Jer 3:7). These young girls became prostitutes in Egypt and allowed men to fondle their breasts. That is, they allowed the Egyptians to become intimate with them even though they were to be faithful to the Lord alone (cf. Eze 16:26; Eze 20:7-8; Num 25:3-9; Jos 24:14; 2Ki 21:15; Hos 1:2). One evidence of the idolatry that the Israelites had adopted from the Egyptians came to the surface in the Golden Calf incident in the wilderness (Exodus 32). Joshua later warned the Israelites about the dangers of idolatry, which had persisted since they had departed from Egypt (Jos 24:14).

Israel and Judah became separate entities after the division of the kingdom following Solomon’s reign, though relations between the northern and southern tribes had become increasingly unfriendly long before that (cf. Jdg 8:1; Jdg 12:1; 2Sa 19:43). However, God projected their identities back to the time when they were still within their mother, ancient Israel, in Egypt. The common origin of these sisters accounts in part for their similar behavior. Their father, unstated, was Yahweh.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

OHOLA AND OHOLIBAH

Eze 23:1-49

THE allegory of chapter 23 adds hardly any new thought to those which have already, been expounded in connection with chapter 16 and chapter 20. The ideas which enter into it are all such as we are now familiar with. They are: the idolatry of Israel, learned in Egypt and persisted in to the end of her history; her fondness for alliances with the great Oriental empires, which was the occasion of new developments of idolatry; the corruption of religion by the introduction of human sacrifice into the service of Jehovah; and, finally, the destruction of Israel by the hands of the nations whose friendship she had so eagerly courted. The figure under which these facts are presented is the same as in chapter 16, and many of the details of the earlier prophecy are reproduced here with little variation. But along with these resemblances we find certain characteristic features in this chapter which require attention, and perhaps some explanation.

In its treatment of the history this passage is distinguished from the other two by the recognition of the separate existence of the northern and southern kingdoms. In the previous retrospects Israel has either been treated as a unit (as in chapter 20), or attention has been wholly concentrated on the fortunes of Judah, Samaria being regarded as on a level with a purely heathen city like Sodom (chapter 16). Ezekiel may have felt that he has not yet done justice to the truth that the history of Israel ran in two parallel lines, and that the full significance of Gods dealings with the nation can only be understood when the fate of Samaria is placed alongside of that of Jerusalem. He did not forget that he was sent as a prophet to the “whole house of Israel,” and indeed all the great pre-exilic prophets realised that their message concerned “the whole family which Jehovah had brought up out of Egypt”. {Amo 3:1} Besides this the chapter affords in many ways an interesting illustration of the workings of the prophets mind in the effort to realise vividly the nature of his peoples sin and the meaning of its fate. In this respect it is perhaps the most finished and comprehensive product of his imagination, although it may not reveal the depth of religious insight exhibited in the sixteenth chapter.

The main idea of the allegory is no doubt borrowed from a prophecy of Jeremiah belonging to the earlier part of his ministry. {Jer 3:6-13}

The fall of Samaria was even then a somewhat distant memory, but the use which Jeremiah makes of it seems to show that the lesson of it had not altogether ceased to impress the mind of the southern kingdom. In the third chapter he reproaches Judah the “treacherous” for not having taken warning from the fate of her sister the “apostate” Israel, who has long since received the reward of her infidelities. The same lesson is implied in the representation of Ezekiel (Eze 23:2); but, as is usual with our prophet, the simple image suggested by Jeremiah is drawn out in an elaborate allegory, into which as many details are crowded as it will bear. In place of the epithets by which Jeremiah characterises the moral condition of Israel and Judah, Ezekiel coins two new and somewhat obscure names – Ohola for Samaria, and Oholibah for Jerusalem.

These women are children of one mother, and afterwards become wives of one husband-Jehovah. This need occasion no surprise in an allegorical representation, although it is contrary to a law which Ezekiel doubtless knew. {Lev 18:18} Nor is it strange, considering the freedom with which he handles the facts of history, that the division between Israel and Judah is carried back to the time of the oppression in Egypt. We have indeed no certainty that this view is not historical. The cleavage between the north and the south did not originate with the revolt of Jeroboam. That great schism only brought out elements of antagonism which were latent in the relations of the tribe of Judah to the northern tribes. Of this there are many indications in the earlier history, and for what we know the separation might have existed among the Hebrews in Goshen. Still, it is not probable that Ezekiel was thinking of any such thing. He is bound by the limits of his allegory; and there was no other way by which he could combine the presentation of the two essential elements of his conception-that Samaria and Jerusalem were branches of the one people of Jehovah, and that the idolatry which marked their history had been learned in the youth of the nation in the land of Egypt.

That neither Israel nor Judah ever, shook off the spell of their adulterous connection with Egypt, but returned to it again and again down to the close of their history, is certainly one point which the prophet means to impress on the minds of his readers (Eze 23:8, Eze 23:19, Eze 23:27). With this exception the earlier part of the chapter (to Eze 23:35) deals exclusively with the later developments of idolatry from the eighth century and onwards. And one of the most remarkable things in it is the description of the manner in which first Israel and then Judah was entangled in political relations with the Oriental empires. There seems to be a vein of sarcasm in the sketch of the gallant Assyrian officers who turned the heads of the giddy and frivolous sisters and seduced them from their allegiance to Jehovah: “Ohola doted on her lovers, on the Assyrian warriors clad in purple, governors and satraps, charming youths all of them, horsemen riding on horses; and she lavished on them her fornications, the elite of the sons of Asshur all of them, and with all the idols of all on whom she doted she defiled herself” (Eze 23:6-7). The first intimate contact of North Israel with Assyria was in the reign of Menahem, {2Ki 15:19} and the explanation of it given in these words of Ezekiel must be historically true. It was the magnificent equipment of the Assyrian armies, the imposing display of military power which their appearance suggested, that impressed the politicians of Samaria with a sense of the value of their alliance. The passage therefore throws light on what Ezekiel and the prophets generally mean by the figure of “whoredom.” What he chiefly deplores is the introduction of Assyrian idolatry, which was the inevitable sequel to a political union. But that was a secondary consideration in the intention of those who were responsible for the alliance. The real motive of their policy was undoubtedly the desire of one party in the state to secure the powerful aid of the king of Assyria against the rival party. None the less it was an act of infidelity and rebellion against Jehovah.

Still more striking is the account of the first approaches of the southern kingdom to Babylon. After Samaria had been destroyed by the lovers whom she had gathered to her side, Jerusalem still kept up the illicit connection with the Assyrian empire. After Assyria had vanished from the stage of history, she eagerly sought an opportunity to enter into friendly relations with the new Babylonian empire. She did not even wait till she had made their acquaintance, but “when she saw men portrayed on the wall, pictures of Chaldaeans portrayed in vermilion, girt with waist-cloths on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them champions to look upon, the likeness of the sons of Babel whose native land is Chaldaea-then she doted upon them when she saw them with her eyes, and sent messengers to them to Chaldaea” (Eze 23:14-16). The brilliant pictures referred to are those with which Ezekiel must have been familiar on the walls of the temples and palaces of Babylon. The representation, however, cannot be understood literally, since the Jews could have had no opportunity of even seeing the Babylonian pictures “on the wall” until they had sent ambassadors there.

The meaning of the prophet is clear. The mere report of the greatness of Babylon was sufficient to excite the passions of Oholibah, and she began with blind infatuation to court the advances of the distant strangers who were to be her ruin. The exact historic reference, however, is uncertain. It cannot be to the compact between Merodach-baladan and Hezekiah, since at that time the initiative seems to have been taken by the rebel prince, whose sovereignty over Babylon proved to be of short duration. It may rather be some transaction about the time of the battle of Carchemish (604) that Ezekiel is thinking of; but we have not as yet sufficient knowledge of the circumstances to clear up the allusion.

Before the end came the soul of Jerusalem was alienated from her latest lovers-another touch of fidelity to the historical situation. But it was now too late. The soul of Jehovah is alienated from Oholibah (Eze 23:17-18), and she is already handed over to the fate which had overtaken her less guilty sister Ohola. The principal agents of her punishment are the Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans; but under their banner marches a host of other nations-Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and, somewhat strangely, the sons of Asshur. In the pomp and circumstance of war which had formerly fascinated her imagination, they shall come against her, and after their cruel manner execute upon her the judgment meted out to adulterous women: “Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister, and I will put her cup into thy hand. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The cup of thy sister shalt thou drink, -deep and wide, and of large content, -filled with drunkenness and anguish-the cup of horror and desolation, the cup of thy sister Samaria. And thou shalt drink it and drain it out, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah” (Eze 23:31-34).

Up to this point the allegory has closely followed the actual history of the two kingdoms. The remainder of the chapter (Eze 23:36-49) forms a pendant to the principal picture, and works out the central theme from a different point of view. Here Samaria and Jerusalem are regarded as still existent, and judgment is pronounced on both as if it were still future. This is thoroughly in keeping with Ezekiels ideal delineations. The limitations of space and time are alike transcended. The image, once clearly conceived, fixes itself in the writers mind, and must be allowed to exhaust its meaning before it is finally dismissed. The distinctions of far and near, of past and present and future, are apt to disappear in the intensity of his reverie. It is so here. The figures of Ohola and Oholibah are so real to the prophet that they are summoned once more to the tribunal to hear the recital of their “abominations” and receive the sentence which has in fact been already partly executed. Whether he is thinking at all of the ten tribes then in exile and awaiting further punishment it would be difficult to say. We see, however, that the picture is enriched with many features for which there was no room in the more historic form of the allegory, and perhaps the desire for completeness was the chief motive for thus amplifying the figure. The description of the conduct of the two harlots (Eze 23:40-44) is exceedingly graphic, and is no doubt a piece of realism drawn from life. Otherwise the section contains nothing that calls for elucidation. The ideas are those which we have already met with in other connections, and even the setting in which they are placed presents no element of novelty.

Thus with words of judgment, and without a ray of hope to lighten the darkness of the picture, the prophet closes this last survey of his peoples history.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary