girded with girdles upon their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them captains in appearance, [after] the likeness of the children of Babylon, of Chaldea, the land of their nativity.
Ezekiel 23 tells the story of two sisters, Samaria and Jerusalem, pictured as unfaithful wives. Verse 15 stops on what Jerusalem was looking at: painted Babylonian officers, belted and turbaned. The question it raises is how a picture could capture a nation.
The chapter is a parable, and the names carry the argument. One writer traces the evil back to its root and explains what each sister stood for:
Here the holy city is compared with Samaria: two sisters born to one parent — the Jewish people; sisters in their idolatry too. The evil traces back to its first appearance. The idols that lured them in Egypt exposed them at last to Assyria and to Babylon… Their symbolic names are given here as Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister; the first means "her own tent," the second, "my tent is in her."
The figures Jerusalem stared at were a real Babylonian art form. Not one of them was a man; each only had the appearance of an officer:
The walls in Babylon were decorated with pictures on glazed bricks. This seems to be what Ezekiel 23:14 points to.
The "flowing turbans" name a real piece of Babylonian dress. Older translations call it "dyed attire":
The word translated "dyed attire" in Ezekiel 23:15 means head-bands, tiaras and turbans of different colours.
Jerusalem did not stop at Assyria. She added Babylon, and that step marked a new stage down:
She too goes after the attractive Assyrians, but she adds the Chaldeans as well, and their images sweep her away at once. These Chaldeans… bring with them a power of evil that is more intense, less human, more supernatural… They had their own language and learning. They practised occult arts, and "wore a strange dress like the one seen on the gods and on deified men in Assyrian sculptures." On top of that, they were not descendants of Shem but of Cush, and belonged wholly to the darkness of that origin. Yet Oholibah is drawn at once; their mere images pull her in.
Jerusalem's ruin started with nothing more than a look. One writer draws out the warning for today:
With the eye you can look either at what is good or at what is evil, and the heart is affected in line with what it sees. So avoid looking at sights you should not see… If evil gets in through the gate of the eye, it has a clear road to the heart… A large part of the world's pleasures today is made up of attractive pictures for the eye to enjoy.
The belts and turbans of verse 15 are not a side detail. One writer reads Israel's whole history in the land through the foreign clothes that mark its opening and its close:
We saw that a Babylonian garment spoiled the start of Israel's history in their own land (Joshua 7:21). How very strange that a Babylonian garment also brings that history to a close. Babylon speaks to us of the world. It is the same place as Babel, meaning Confusion. If we bring the things of this world into the things of God, nothing can follow but confusion… The clothes our children wear are the badge and mark and proof of where their hearts belong — either to Heaven, which should be their native air, or to the world with its fashions and ways.
Her love for the painted Chaldeans did not last. The same chapter records both the desire and the disgust that followed:
Not content with Assyria, she longed for the Chaldeans and their idol worship. The sons of Babylon defiled her; but once they had defiled her, she turned away from them in her mind. It is always so where the favour and the will of God are missing. Closeness in evil soon turns into disgust on both sides.
In the end the same nations she chased turned against her:
When her day of lawless self-will is over, the day of the Lord finds all her former lovers gathered against her.
- Likeness. Babylonian officers in belts and coloured turbans, painted on glazed brick walls — an image, not a man.
- Look. Sight alone did it. What gets in through the eye has a clear road to the heart.
- Longing. Jerusalem wanted more than Assyria. She added the Chaldeans, whose evil was more intense, less human, more supernatural.
- Loyalty. Clothes show where the heart belongs. A Babylonian garment spoiled the start of Israel's history in the land, and a Babylonian garment closed it.
- Loathing. Closeness in evil soon turns to disgust on both sides. The lovers she chased gathered against her in the end.
And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she lusted after them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
Ezekiel tells Judah's history as the story of a woman. She fell for images on a wall, then sent for the men themselves. The chapter raises two questions. Why did a nation with God's own sanctuary look abroad? And what happened when what she wanted arrived?
The chapter names two sisters: Samaria, the northern kingdom, and Jerusalem. Their names carry the argument.
Their symbolic names are given here as Oholah the elder and Oholibah, her sister. Oholah means "her own tent"; Oholibah means "my tent is in her." Notice how well these names fit. Samaria's worship came from self-will. At best it was an imitation, but it was really independence from Jehovah. In Jerusalem, Jehovah Himself ordered the worship as His own appointment. Still, both sisters were His, not one only.
Verse 16 belongs to the younger sister, Jerusalem. It marks a fresh stage: Assyria was not enough, so she added Chaldea. One writer describes the people behind those images.
Once more Oholibah chooses man's school instead of God's school. She learns nothing from the way He punished her sister. She too goes after the attractive Assyrians, and she adds the Chaldeans to them. Their images carried her off at once. And these Chaldeans bring with them a power of evil that is more intense, less human, more supernatural. We learn this from more than their name, which seems to mean "demon-like." As James teaches us, this is how the wisdom that does not come from above grows. It is "earthly, unspiritual, demonic." These Chaldeans had their own language and learning. They practised occult arts, and "wore a distinctive dress like the one seen on the gods and on men treated as gods in Assyrian sculptures."
Nothing more than a picture was needed. The order here — she looked, she wanted, she acted — runs through the account of Achan too, the man who stole plunder from Jericho.
The eyes are how the accursed thing takes possession of the heart and stirs it to lust: "I coveted them." "Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin": "I took them." The fine Babylonian garment could adorn the pride of life. The silver and gold could satisfy every lust. They became Achan's prey — or rather, these things make him their prey!
Behind the whole chapter stands a simple diagnosis of what idols are for.
The idols of the nations put these lusts on display, and they exist to satisfy them. The idols stand for an imagined freedom. Souls who have got away from God try to satisfy themselves apart from His way and will, with things that cannot do it.
The detail that condemns her is the sending. She did not wait to be courted. She sent first, and her invitation travelled far to reach them.
They had not simply been the victims of others. Others had not merely tempted them. They themselves were the tempters. They worked to bring from far away the very people who could only pollute them with their abominations. They dressed themselves in the ornaments God had given them, so as to receive their corrupters!
Chaldea answered her messengers — but not in the way she imagined. When the day came, the nations she had courted were the army at her gates.
When her day of lawless self-will is past, the day of the Lord finds all her former lovers gathered against her. They are gathered for battle now. The sons of Babylon head the list with all the Chaldeans. Asshur is there too, with Babylon — Assyria now following under the power of Nebuchadnezzar.
Commentators read these alliances with foreign nations as a picture of a sin that returns in every age.
So they disobeyed on purpose when they made these shameful alliances with the world. That is what these marriages picture — the sin that God's people keep falling into in every age. The apostle James says, "You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." ... So for the Jew or for the Christian, joining himself to the world is both unfaithfulness and sin.
- Saw — an image on a wall was enough. The eye is the door. Through it the forbidden thing takes hold of the heart and stirs desire.
- Wanted — idols are lust put on display. They offer an imagined freedom. People who have left God try to satisfy themselves with things that cannot do it.
- Added — Assyria had already ruined her sister, yet she learned nothing. She took on the Chaldeans too, a darker power than the one before.
- Sent — Judah was no victim. She invited her corrupters from far off, dressed in the ornaments God Himself had given her.
- Seized — every lover she wrote to came back as an army. The world she courted became the world that judged her. That is why James calls friendship with the world enmity with God.