Therefore, 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.
Ezekiel 23 pictures Samaria and Jerusalem as two unfaithful sisters, Oholah and Oholibah. In verse 22 the charge turns into the sentence: God will summon against Jerusalem the very nations she once courted.
The word "therefore" points back to everything already said. God is not acting on impulse; He is answering a settled course of conduct.
In Ezekiel 23 the Lord justifies His judgment on Jerusalem. He points to the wickedness and unfaithfulness of her walk. Her unfaithfulness with the nations brought her early course to mind. The same conduct showed the same nature. She has ended as she began, because at heart she was the same. Samaria's fate would be hers.
The sentence fits the sin: what Jerusalem chose is what she receives.
Ezekiel 23 describes the sins of Samaria (Israel) and Jerusalem (Judah) in the most solemn terms. In each case forbidden dealings with the nations are the ground of the Lord's judgment. They were sisters in sin, and God would judge them alike. He defends His judgment: "Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring." They were to reap what they had sown.
The striking thing here is who God stirs up. Not strangers — her old friends, brought against her from every side.
When her day of lawless self-will is past, the day of the Lord finds all her former lovers gathered against her. The gathering has come now. The sons of Babylon head the list with all the Chaldeans. Assyria too follows with Babylon, under the power of Nebuchadnezzar.
What drew Jerusalem to these nations has not changed. It has only changed sides.
These qualities once spoke of the energy and ability that carried away the hearts of the Israelites. The same terms describe them here, but now they work in an opposite interest. How a person's old attractions face them in the day of reckoning that comes for each one! They work their will without mercy, though they are only the instruments of God's judgment, as He declares.
Verse 22 adds a detail easy to miss: Jerusalem had already grown sick of the lovers she pursued. The romance had died long before the armies arrived.
Not content with Assyria, she longed for the Chaldeans and their idol worship. The sons of Babylon defiled her; but even as they defiled her, her mind turned away from them. So it always is where the favour and the will of God are absent. Closeness in evil soon turns to mutual disgust. But there is worse. "My mind," says the Lord, "was turned away from her, as my mind was turned away from her sister." Jerusalem was given over to a corrupted mind.
Jerusalem had already watched this happen to Ephraim, the sister kingdom in the north.
Ephraim's history here is plain to read: "I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the sons of Assyria, on whom she doted. These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword, and she became a byword among women, and they executed judgment upon her."
Judah had received many mercies, and still learned nothing. God's patience had a limit.
Judah was morally worse than Israel. Yet God raised up some righteous kings there, to keep His visible connection with them. In the end He had to judge, and the kingdom of Judah was carried away captive, as Israel had been. They took no notice of the judgment that fell on the sister kingdom. The many mercies they received from God did not humble them. He waited long over the place where His name was recorded, even while He declared the sin of Judah to be greater than the sin of Israel. Their cup of wrongdoing was not yet full, but it was filling fast. At last the king of Babylon carries out the decree of God.
The invasion is not the last word in what God is doing here.
Yet on God's part all this severity is not mere judgment. As He puts it here, the effect is to make the lewdness of Oholibah stop, and to make her turn away in disgust from the things that once attracted her. A person must come to himself before he can come to God, and this is the process through which God was now bringing Israel.
- Cause. The word "therefore" ties the sentence to the story: she ended as she began, because at heart she was unchanged.
- Reaping. God defends His own judgment — Jerusalem forgot Him and cast Him behind her back, so she bears what she sowed.
- Reversal. The lovers she courted become the army at her gates. The qualities that once attracted her now work against her.
- Warning ignored. God had already given Samaria into the hand of her lovers. Judah watched it happen and learned nothing.
- Goal. The severity has an aim: to make the old attractions loathsome. A person must come to himself before he comes to God.
The children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the children of Asshur with them; all of them attractive young men, governors and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.
Jerusalem appears here as Oholibah, the unfaithful wife who chased one nation after another. God now names the army coming for her, and every people on the list is one she once admired — so why does He send her old lovers as her executioners?
Pekod, Shoa and Koa are not ordinary place names. One writer notes that Pekod carries a meaning that reads like a sentence already passed:
This name occurs in connection with Babylon, and is thought to be a symbolic name, meaning "visitation" or "punishment." It is linked with the name Merathaim, meaning "of the rebels," or "double rebellion." That is, God would visit Babylon "because of its rebellion." In Ezekiel 23:23 Pekod appears more as a proper name; but it is again linked with Babylon, and the three names Pekod, Shoa, and Koa are all judged to be symbolic names.
Earlier in the chapter Jerusalem had fallen for the Chaldeans on sight. One writer traces how that appetite grew out of an earlier one:
Oholibah once again chooses the human school instead of the school of God, and learns nothing from His rod on her sister. She too goes after the attractive Assyrians, but she adds to these the Chaldeans, whose images quickly carried her off. And these Chaldeans bring with them a power of evil that is more intense, less human, more supernatural. We learn this from more than the derivation of their name, which seems to mean "demon-like." … Yet Oholibah, as we see, is drawn at once; their mere images attract her.
The verse describes the men in flattering terms — desirable, officers, riders on horses. Those same words once made them attractive; now they muster against her:
When her day of lawless self-will is past, the day of the Lord finds all her former lovers gathered against her. The muster has 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. … Shoa means "wealth," "generous"; Koa, probably "prince." Maps of Chaldea show no such places, and the words remain an unsolved problem. From the connection they might seem to form part of the list of all that was brilliant and attractive in the land, now gathered with the desirable sons of Asshur against Jerusalem. Before, these qualities spoke of the energy and ability that carried away the hearts of the Israelites. The verse lists them again in the same terms, but now they serve an opposite interest. How a man's old attractions face him in the day of visitation that comes for each one! They work their will without mercy, though they are only the instruments of God's judgment, as He declares.
The passage calls these men her lovers, yet it also says her heart had turned from them. Both are true at once, and one writer explains why that pattern is so predictable:
The sons of Babylon defiled her; but though they defiled her, her mind turned away from them. It is always so where God's favour and will are absent. Closeness in evil quickly turns into mutual disgust.
The stripping that follows in the chapter is severe. One writer says God aims at more than punishment:
Yet all this severity is not, on God's part, mere judgment. As He puts it here, the effect is to make the immorality of Oholibah stop. The things once attractive to her become things she turns from with loathing. One must come to oneself to come to God, and this is the process through which God was now bringing Israel.
One writer takes what happened to Jerusalem as a standing principle, not a one-off case:
So it is always. Under God's righteous government our sin soon becomes our chastening and the world's grief. What our blindness built on as rock turns out to be quicksand, tossed about by waves and winds in the day of visitation that comes swiftly.
- Courted — Jerusalem admired the Assyrians, then the Chaldeans. She chose "the human school instead of the school of God" and learned nothing from her sister's punishment.
- Named — commentators read Pekod, Shoa and Koa as symbolic names. Pekod means "visitation" or "punishment" — the verdict written into the roll call.
- Turned — the same brilliance and energy that once won her heart now serves an opposite interest. Old attractions meet a person in the day of reckoning.
- Alienated — closeness in evil ends in mutual disgust. The lovers arrive as haters, yet they act only as instruments of God's judgment.
- Aimed — the severity is not bare punishment. It works to stop the sin and to make the old attractions loathsome, because a person must come to himself before he comes to God.
And they shall come against thee [with] armour, chariots and wheels, and with an assemblage of peoples; they shall set themselves against thee [with] target, and shield, and helmet round about; and I will put judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.
Ezekiel 23 pictures Samaria and Jerusalem as two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, who chased after the great empires around them. Here those courted nations arrive at last — not as allies but as an army, and God says He hands the judgment over to them.
The chapter is God's own defence of what He is about to do:
In Ezekiel 23 Jehovah justifies Himself for judging Jerusalem. The reason is the sin and unfaithfulness of the way she lived. Her unfaithfulness with the other nations brought her early history to mind. The same conduct showed the same nature. She has ended as she began, because at heart she was the same. Samaria's lot should be hers.
Jerusalem had already watched her sister kingdom fall. She learned nothing from it:
They took no notice of the judgment that fell on the sister kingdom. The many mercies they received from God did not humble them either. He lingered long over the place where He had recorded His name, even while He declared the sin of Judah to be greater than that of Israel. (Ezek. 23) Their cup of sin was not yet full, but it was filling fast; and at last the king of Babylon carries out the decree of God.
The army marching on her here is made of the very nations she once chased.
When her day of lawless self-will is past, the day of the Lord finds all her former lovers gathered against her. The roll call has come now. The sons of Babylon head the list with all the Chaldeans. Assyria is there too, following Babylon under the power of Nebuchadnezzar.
What she once admired in them is what now faces her:
The qualities that once showed the energy and ability that captured the hearts of the Israelites are listed again in the same terms, but now they serve the opposite side. How a man's old attractions face him on the day of reckoning that comes for each one! They work their will without mercy, though they are only the instruments of God's judgment, as He declares.
The verse names the armour piece by piece. The word translated "buckler" here means the largest shield of all:
This was a tsinnah, a large shield that covered the whole body, with a big knob in the centre rising to a point that could be used as a weapon. Scripture also uses it as a picture of God's protecting care of His people (Ps. 5:12; Ps. 91:4). The same word appears as "buckler" in Ps. 35:2; Ezek. 23:24; Ezek. 26:8.
The words "I will commit the judgment to them" put the invaders under God's hand. This is not the first time God has used a cruel nation this way:
God had taken up Assyria as the rod of His anger to punish many a nation that was far from Him — and Israel among them. Later God used the Chaldeans in the same way. This is what troubled Habakkuk. He protested that, bad as Israel might be, the Chaldeans, whom God was going to use to discipline them, were worse. We see here what we also see in Habakkuk: God may use an evil nation to punish His faithless people, but only under His strict supervision and control.
Serving as God's rod protected no one. Each of those powers faced its own reckoning:
God might use Jeroboam to punish Solomon and his house. He might use the kings of Assyria to punish Jeroboam's subjects. He might use Nebuchadnezzar to punish Judah and its kings. But God had to judge each of them in turn, for these rods of His anger (Isa. 10:5) were no more faithful to God than the people He used them against.
The severity has a purpose beyond punishment.
Yet all this severity is on God's part not mere judgment. Its effect, as He puts it here, is to end the corruption of Oholibah, and to make the things she once found attractive disgust her. A person must come to his senses to come to God, and this is the process God was now bringing Israel through.
- Courted — Jerusalem chased Babylon and Assyria herself. She was not just a victim of stronger neighbours.
- Warned — Samaria's fall stood in front of her as a lesson, and she took no notice of it.
- Gathered — what once attracted her now surrounds her: chariots, shield and helmet on every side.
- Commissioned — God hands the judgment to them. He keeps that evil nation under strict control, and judges it in its turn.
- Cured — God's aim is to end her corruption and make her old attractions disgust her.
And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee they shall cut off 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.
Ezekiel speaks to Jerusalem under the name Oholibah, a wife who chased foreign nations as lovers and is now given into their hands. Verse 25 is her sentence, and God's own jealousy sets it in motion.
The woman in this chapter is a picture. Her name, and her sister's, tell us which cities are meant.
A symbolic harlot representing Jerusalem, sister to Oholah, who symbolises Samaria. Jerusalem is said to exceed Samaria in her immorality. She was warned without success, and her downfall was predicted. The name means "my tent, or tabernacle, is in her."
God calls it His own jealousy. The prophets keep coming back to Israel as a wife, and to what her Husband feels.
The prophets dwell at length on Israel's conduct as a wife, and on Jehovah's jealousy on that account... Her unfaithfulness has been made plain. She has broken her vows. She has turned away from her Husband, the Holy One of Israel. He has poured out His burning jealousy on the faithless nation. He is a jealous God, and cannot bear the thought that the heart He claims as His own should be given to another.
The nations that now deal in fury are the ones Jerusalem once wanted.
Not content with Assyria, she desired the Chaldeans and their idolatrous worship. And the sons of Babylon defiled her; but if she was defiled by them, her mind was turned away from them. So it always is where the favour and the will of God are absent. Closeness in evil is quickly followed by mutual disgust. But sadly, there is worse. "My mind," says Jehovah, "was turned away from her, as my mind was turned away from her sister."... Those with whom she sinned would be the ones to punish her. They would deal in fury, punishing her without mercy and with every mark of shame. In the picture, the adulterous people lose their nose and their ears, and their sons and daughters are taken away. Fire and sword do the work of destruction.
This punishment is not random. It takes back something God Himself had given.
How the things that once attracted men now face them on the day when God comes to deal with each one! They work their will without mercy, though they are only the instruments of God's judgment, as He declares. Cutting off the nose and ears was the punishment of an adulteress. We may remember how God Himself had adorned these very features in an earlier chapter (Ezek. 16). That chapter shows us, as this one does not, the blessing God had poured out on those brought into this special relationship with Himself. Now the ornaments are not only removed; there is no place left for them — only disfigurement instead. And with the jewels the clothes are taken away too.
There is an aim in all this severity, and it reaches past punishment.
Yet all this severity is not, on God's part, mere judgment. The effect, as He puts it here, is to make the lewdness of Oholibah stop, and to make what once attracted her something she turns from with loathing. A person must come to himself to come to God. This was the process God was now bringing Israel through. It is a terrible thing to face. You are left stripped and with nothing. Everything is gone that once, while you were wasting it, made you feel and look rich to others.
The same pattern can appear in a believer's life today.
The heart can be drawn away from Christ and grow dissatisfied with the portion of grace. Then whatever drew it aside soon becomes nothing but a disappointment and a loathing... A common form of chastening is disappointment in the things once coveted, then obtained, and afterwards loathed. Disappointments like this are found among men, but with them it is simply the reaction of nature. With saints God uses these disappointments to wean them from the love of the world and draw them nearer to Himself.
- Jealousy — The fury of verse 25 starts with God's jealousy, the jealousy of a Husband who "cannot bear the thought that the heart He claims as His own should be given to another."
- Lovers — What she chased is what destroys her. Closeness in evil ends in disgust, and her old lovers arrive as her punishers.
- Disfigurement — Cutting off nose and ears was the adulteress's penalty. God had adorned those very features in Ezekiel 16. Now the ornaments go, and no place is left for them.
- Emptying — Sons, daughters, clothes, jewels. Everything that made her look rich to others is taken away.
- Purpose — The stripping is not the end. God means to stop the sin and to make the old attractions repulsive. A person must come to himself before he comes to God.
They shall also strip the of thy garments, and take away thy fair jewels.
Judah appears here as a woman named Oholibah. She has chased after the nations around her. Now God tells her what those nations will do to her. Two questions follow: where did her finery come from, and why does God let it be torn away?
The chapter tells of two sisters. Samaria stands for the northern kingdom, Jerusalem for the southern. Their names — written Aholah and Aholibah here — carry the point of the chapter, and one of them names God's own dwelling place.
In chapter 23 Samaria and Jerusalem appear as two sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, in their ungodly relationship with Assyria and Chaldea. Aholah means "her tent." Aholibah means "my tent is in her." The second name shows that the true sanctuary was in Judah.
The men who strip her are not strangers. They are the Assyrians and Chaldeans she once admired and chased. God now gathers them against her, and the same glowing words describe them.
Before, these qualities spoke of the energy and ability that carried away the hearts of the Israelites. The same terms come up again here, but now they serve the opposite interest. How a man's old attractions face him in the day of reckoning that comes for each one! They work their will without mercy, though they are only the instruments of God's judgment, as He declares. Now the ornaments are not just removed; there is no place left for them any longer — only disfigurement instead — and the garments are taken away along with the jewels.
The "beautiful jewels" were never hers by right. An earlier chapter tells how she began: a newborn left to die. God found her, and God dressed her.
She was a wretched outcast, without the most ordinary care or pity, left out in the field on the day she was born. Then Jehovah passed by and saw her lying polluted in her blood. He said to her in her blood, "Live" — and He said it with great force. Under His care she grew up to womanhood, dressed and decked with the most splendid ornaments. Jehovah entered into covenant with her and took her as His own.
That is what makes the loss fitting. She put on God's gifts to draw other men, and she did the chasing herself.
They were not simply the victims of others. Others had not merely made advances to them. They themselves made the advances. They worked to bring in from far away the very people who could only pollute them with their abominations. They had decked themselves with the ornaments God gave them, to welcome the men who corrupted them!
The stripping is not God venting. He is working toward something in her.
Yet on God's part all this severity is not mere judgment. Its effect, as He puts it here, is to make Oholibah's lewdness stop, and to make her turn with loathing from the things that once attracted her. A person must come to himself before he can come to God, and this is the process God was now bringing Israel through. What a terrible thing to face! You are left naked and with nothing. All that you wasted is gone — and while you were wasting it, it made you feel and look rich to others for a time.
The same principle holds wherever God deals with people.
It is only when we are really stripped of all nature's ornaments that God can deal with us. A naked sinner can be clothed; but a sinner decked in ornaments must be stripped. This is always true. We must be stripped of all that belongs to self, before we can be clothed with that which belongs to God.
God does not act here without stating His case. He points back to how Jerusalem began, and to her sister's end.
In Ezekiel 23 Jehovah shows that He is right to judge Jerusalem, and He points to the wickedness and unfaithfulness of her ways. Her unfaithfulness with the Gentiles brought her early course to mind. The same conduct showed the same nature. She has ended as she began, because at heart she was the same. Samaria's lot should be hers.
- Given. She never earned the clothes and jewels. God found an abandoned child, kept her alive, and dressed her Himself.
- Misused. She wore His gifts to attract the nations, and she did the chasing herself.
- Reversed. Those same admirers now march against her. They work their will without mercy, yet they are only God's instruments.
- Stripped. God takes everything that made her look rich, until nothing is left to hide behind.
- Aimed. The severity is not bare punishment. God wants the old attractions to become things she loathes. A naked sinner can be clothed; a sinner decked in ornaments must first be stripped.
And I will make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom [brought] from the land of Egypt; and thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.
Ezekiel 23 tells of two sisters: Oholah stands for Samaria in the north, and Oholibah for Jerusalem. God calls their chase after foreign nations prostitution, and verse 27 promises a cure for a craving that began in Egypt.
The verse reaches past Babylon and Assyria to name Egypt as the origin. One writer follows that trail from its first step to its last:
The idols that seduced them in Egypt exposed them at last to Assyria and to Babylon. In Egypt they showed their lewdness, and their old age matched the sins of their youth.
Jerusalem's new passion for Babylon burned hot but died fast:
This passion, as we know from their history, did not last long, except in its consequences. It was, as so often happens, as short-lived as it was sudden. Oholibah returned to her old passion for Egypt, and this brought on her doom.
The same nations Jerusalem courted are the ones God musters against her. Notice what becomes of the very qualities she admired:
The same qualities appear again — the energy and ability that once carried away the hearts of the Israelites. But now they work in the opposite interest. How a man's old attractions face him in the day of visitation that comes for each one! They do as they please without mercy, though God declares they are only the instruments of His judgment.
This is no accident of history. God ties sin to its judgment to wake man up:
Men's vices hatch the hordes that prey on them... God would wake man up by this constant connection of sin with its judgment. Man's pleasant vices are the whips that scourge him.
Verse 27 is where the sentence turns. God names the effect all this harshness is meant to have:
Yet all this severity is not, on God's part, mere judgment. The effect, as He puts it here, is to make Oholibah's lewdness cease. She will turn with loathing from the things that once attracted her. One must come to oneself before coming to God, and this is the process God was now bringing Israel through. What a terrible thing to face! One stands stripped bare, with nothing left. Everything is gone that once made one look and feel rich to others, even while one was squandering it. ... The true blessing, if anywhere, lies in this despair at oneself. But the chapter before us does not go on to that; it ends with judgment.
God kept His word. Israel lost her appetite for idols after Babylon. But nothing ever filled the empty space:
This captivity produced a reformation among them. From that time to this, "the unclean spirit," as the Lord Himself also puts it, has been "out." They have not practised idolatry since then. But though the Jewish house stands empty and swept, no one has furnished it with its true wealth and ornament.
Another writer marks the difference between a spirit that leaves and a spirit driven out, and says what that leaves open:
Up to the time of the Babylonian captivity this was Israel's besetting sin. After it, this unclean spirit did go out of them, according to the Lord's words — but it was not cast out, nor was the house occupied by One stronger than he. So the house is ready to be occupied by him afresh. This will happen in the last days, when idolatry is set up again in the very temple of God, among those who have returned to their own land.
- Root. The sin judged here did not start in Jerusalem. The idols taken up in Egypt later exposed the nation to Assyria and Babylon. Her old age matched the sins of her youth.
- Relapse. The craze for Babylon burned out fast. The return to the old passion for Egypt brought Jerusalem's doom.
- Recoil. God summons her own lovers as her judges. The traits that once attracted her now turn against her. A person's pleasant vices become the whips that scourge him.
- Remedy. Verse 27 names the aim of all that severity. God does not only punish. He ends the appetite itself, so that the old attraction now disgusts her. One must come to oneself before coming to God.
- Result. The promise held: idolatry never revived after the captivity. But commentators note that the house was only swept out, never furnished. The craving went, and the true Occupant never moved in — so the house stands open to be filled again.
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah Behold, I will give thee over into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy soul is alienated.
Ezekiel 23 tells the story of two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, who stand for Samaria and Jerusalem. Here the sentence falls on the younger one: why does God hand her over to the very nations she once chased?
The two names in this chapter are not decoration. They mark the difference between the worship of the northern kingdom and the worship of Jerusalem.
Their symbolic names are Oholah the elder, and Oholibah, her sister. The first means "her own tent," the second, "my tent is in her." You cannot miss how fitting these names are. The worship of Samaria was self-will. At best it was an imitation, but really it was independence of the Lord. In Jerusalem, though, the Lord Himself ordered the worship as His own appointment. Still, both sisters were His, not just one.
The verse does not name enemies she always feared. God hands her over to people she hates and has turned away from. Older translations read "from whom your soul is alienated." She once chased those same people. Commentators trace that reversal to something inside the sin itself.
Not content with Assyria, she desired the Chaldeans and their idolatrous worship. The sons of Babylon defiled her, yet her mind turned away from them. So it always is where the favour and the will of God are absent. Closeness in evil soon turns into mutual disgust.
The chapter gives a reason for the judgment, and it treats both sisters by one rule.
Ezekiel 23 gives a very solemn picture of the sins of Samaria (Israel) and Jerusalem (Judah). In each case the ground of the Lord's judgment is their forbidden dealings with the nations. They were sisters in sin, and should be judged alike… They were to reap what they had sown.
Another commentator puts the same principle more sharply. The ruin a person chases turns and hunts him.
Men's own vices hatch the hordes that prey on them… God would wake man up by this constant link between sin and its judgment. Man's pleasant vices are the whips that beat him.
The same qualities that once won Israel's heart appear again here, now serving the opposite side.
These qualities once spoke of the energy and ability that won the hearts of the Israelites. They are listed here in the same terms, but now they serve the opposite interest. How a man's old attractions face him on the day of reckoning that comes for each one! They work their will without mercy, though they are only the instruments of God's judgment, as He declares.
Both sides stand together. The invaders act without mercy, yet they do nothing beyond what God has announced. The verse opens with His own word: He is the one who hands her over.
Losing everything looks like the end of the story. Commentators see more than punishment in it. They also note where this chapter stops.
Yet all this severity is on God's part not mere judgment. The effect, as He puts it here, is to make Oholibah's lewdness stop, and to make her turn away with loathing from the things she once found attractive. A person must come to himself before he can come to God, and this is the process God was now bringing Israel through. What a terrible thing to face! A person is left naked and with nothing. Everything is gone that made him feel and look rich to others for a time, while he was wasting it.
- Chosen — Oholibah means "my tent is in her." Jerusalem had worship the Lord Himself appointed, not a copy of it. Yet both sisters belonged to Him.
- Courted — She desired the Chaldeans and their worship. The lovers in this verse are not strangers forced on her; they are her own choice.
- Cooled — Closeness in evil turns to mutual disgust. By the time judgment lands, she hates the very people she once chased after.
- Collected — The old attractions gather as an army. What once looked desirable now works its will without mercy. Yet it stays only an instrument in God's hand.
- Cleared — Stripped bare, she is left with nothing that once made her look rich. Commentators see the aim: her sin stops, and she turns from what she loved. This chapter itself ends in judgment and does not go on to restoring.
And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare; so that the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy fornications.
Ezekiel 23 pictures Samaria and Jerusalem as two sisters who chased foreign nations instead of trusting God. Now the nations Jerusalem courted turn on her, take all she worked for and leave her exposed — and God says this is His own judgment.
The hatred in this verse did not start with the invasion. Jerusalem had already turned against the very nation she once wanted.
Not content with Assyria, she desired the Chaldeans and their idolatrous worship. And the sons of Babylon defiled her; but though they defiled her, her mind turned away from them. That is always the way where God's favour and God's will are missing. Evil nearness soon breeds mutual disgust.
God does not judge without giving His reasons. He traces Jerusalem's ruin back to a nature that never changed.
In Ezekiel 23 Jehovah shows that He is right to judge Jerusalem, because her way of life was sinful and unfaithful. Her whoring with the nations brought her early days to mind. The same conduct showed the same nature. She has ended as she began, because at heart she was the same.
The qualities that first won Jerusalem's heart — strength, style, capability — are listed again as her attackers march in. Nothing about the Chaldeans has changed; only which side they are on.
The same qualities are listed again. Before, they spoke of the energy and ability that won the hearts of the Israelites. Now those same words serve the opposite interest. How the things that once lured men face them on the day of reckoning that comes to each one! They do as they please without mercy, though they are only the instruments of God's judgment, as He declares.
Jerusalem is called Oholibah in this chapter. She loses everything she worked for — yet even this has a purpose beyond punishment.
Yet on God's part all this severity is not mere judgment. As He says here, the effect is to make the lewdness of Oholibah stop, and to make her turn away in disgust from the things that once attracted her. A person must come to their senses to come to God, and this is the process God was now bringing Israel through. What a terrible thing to face! To be left naked and with nothing, everything gone that once made you feel and look rich to others for a time, even while you were throwing it away.
The stripping is not only material. Removing the clothes removes the disguise, and this verse is read alongside the end of the great harlot in Revelation, where the same pattern of hatred and exposure appears.
The punishment given to the harlot seems to come in stages. First, hated: her recent allies and supporters now look at her with loathing and disgust. Second, made desolate: robbed of her wealth and completely ruined. Third, naked: they strip off her purple and scarlet robes, and she stands before all in her true character, a shameless and abandoned woman (Ezek. 23:29; Rev. 3:18). Her moral nakedness and shame are plain to everyone.
The same danger reaches us. Friendship with the world ends in war with the world.
But if we fail — if we fall into idolatry, if we commit fornication with the world by taking its bait, if in any way at all we make friends with the world in the desert — then we bring wars on ourselves. And this kind of fighting does not even gain us any spiritual ground. God then has to change our relations with the world completely. If we had not formed intimacies with them, we should not have had that trouble; but since they deceive us as our friends, we must become enemies.
- Courted. Jerusalem chased the Chaldeans for their energy and ability. The same qualities later describe the army sent against her.
- Alienated. Sin does not hold its partners together. "Evil nearness soon breeds mutual disgust," so the hatred here was brewing long before the armies came.
- Stripped. Her old lovers take everything she worked for. Nothing remains of what once made her "feel and look rich to others."
- Exposed. Naked, she stands before everyone in her true character. One writer traces the same stages — hated, ruined, stripped — forward to Revelation.
- Restored? Writers differ in emphasis. One reads even this severity as God's method: He brings a person to their senses, so they can come to Him.
These things shall be done unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the nations, because thou hast defiled thyself with their idols.
Ezekiel 23 tells the story of two sisters, Samaria and Jerusalem, who both left God for the nations around them. Verse 30 is God's plain answer to the question "why is this happening to me?" — the judgment grows straight out of what the people themselves chose.
The chapter works by picture. It treats both kingdoms as daughters of one family, and their names carry the charge against them.
Here the holy city is compared with Samaria. They are two sisters of one parent, the Jewish people — sisters too in their idolatrous wickedness. The evil is traced back to its earliest appearance. The idols that seduced them in Egypt exposed them at last to Assyria and to Babylon... Their symbolic names here are Aholah the elder and Aholibah, her sister; the first meaning "her own tent," the second, "my tent is in her." The worship of Samaria was self-willed, at best an imitation, but really independence of Jehovah. But in Jerusalem Jehovah Himself arranged the divine service as His own appointment. Still, not one only but both were His.
God speaks verse 30 to Jerusalem. She had watched what happened to her sister and learned nothing, and her greater privilege only deepened her guilt.
Was Jerusalem warned? Did the sight of Aholah do Aholibah any good? On the contrary, "she was more corrupt in her lust than her sister." The younger and more favoured sister followed the elder and was even coarser in her idolatry... Not content with Assyria, she longed after the Chaldeans and their idol worship. And the sons of Babylon defiled her; but even though they defiled her, her mind turned away from them. So it always is where the favour and the will of God are absent. Close contact with evil is quickly followed by mutual disgust.
The verse traces the disaster back to Jerusalem's own choices. The very things that once won her heart now come against her.
The same qualities that once spoke of the energy and ability that carried away the hearts of the Israelites are listed again here in the same words. But now they serve the opposite interest. How a man's old attractions face him in the day of reckoning that comes for each one!
This is a settled principle in God's dealings with His people, not something unique to Ezekiel's day.
If the children of Israel would abandon Jehovah to serve idols, they are themselves given up by Jehovah to serve idolaters. It is so with us. If we sin, this sets the measure and shape of our chastisement. And so grace works repentance when we turn and cry to the Lord in our distress.
There is a reason the nations looked so attractive.
In a worldly course, the world in fact outdoes the people of God, whose own things fail them at the very start the moment they seek the world. In the outside world there is full room for all the energy, ambition, luxury and self-enjoyment that the words here speak of. They speak of youth, vigour, and the keen pursuit of what man counts as riches — riches that make him all he can hope to be. These things attract — alas, how much — the people of God themselves!
The same shocking comparison reaches believers who go the same way.
And let us also never forget this. As believers, God has brought us into such close and intimate relations with Him that if we play Him false and enter into guilty alliance with the world, only one sin among mankind can compare with it — the very terrible sin of adultery.
The chapter itself ends in judgment. But God names a purpose behind the stripping.
Yet all this severity is not, on God's part, mere judgment. The effect, as He puts it here, is to stop Oholibah's lewdness, and to make her turn away in loathing from the things that once attracted her. A person must come to his senses before he can come to God. This is the process God was now bringing Israel through.
- Chosen — Both sisters belonged to God. Aholah means "her own tent"; Aholibah means "my tent is in her." The names measure the privilege each one threw away.
- Courted — Jerusalem watched her sister fall and copied her anyway. She wanted Assyria, then Babylon. Greater favour produced greater guilt, not greater care.
- Cheapened — The world outbids God's people the moment they compete on its ground. It offers the energy, ambition and luxury that draw hearts away.
- Caught — The lovers become the executioners. What we chase defines the chastening we get: sin writes its own sentence.
- Cured — Even the stripping has an aim. It makes the old attraction disgusting, so a person comes to his senses and comes back to God.
Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; and I have given her cup into thy hand.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.