And Jehovah said unto me, Son of man, wilt thou judge Oholah and Oholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations.
Earlier in the chapter God describes two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah. They stand for Samaria and Jerusalem, and their unfaithfulness goes all the way back to Egypt. Now God turns from them to the prophet. He asks Ezekiel to judge them, and tells him to name their sins to their faces.
The two names are not decoration. They mark the difference between the worship of Samaria and the worship God ordered in Jerusalem. Yet both sisters belonged to Him.
The holy city is here compared with Samaria, as two sisters of a common parent — the Jewish people; sisters too in their worship of idols. The evil goes back to where it first appeared. The idols that lured them in Egypt left them open at last to Assyria and Babylon... Their symbolic names are here given as Oholah the elder, and Oholibah, her sister; the former meaning "her own tent," the latter, "my tent is in her."... The worship of Samaria came from self-will. At best it copied the true worship; in truth it was independence from Jehovah. But in Jerusalem the worship was ordered by Jehovah Himself, as He appointed it. Still, not one only but both were His. "They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters."
God does not just pass sentence. He puts the case to a man and asks him to judge it.
God now appeals to man himself, in the person of the prophet, against both these corrupt women whom no one had rebuked: "And Jehovah said to me, Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Yes, declare to them their abominations." The story is told again in short, with everything that makes it worse, and with a wickedness so stubborn that it seems it would never end... Adultery and blood are both in the count against them here.
The same writer notes that these women were not just led astray by others: "They were the ones who did the tempting. They worked to bring in men from far away who could only pollute them with their abominations. They dressed themselves in the ornaments God had given them, to welcome the men who corrupted them!"
Verse 36 opens the last section of the chapter. Here God charges both sisters together. The shock is not only what they did, but that they did it and then walked straight into God's house.
From verse 36 to the end there is a comparison which closes the account of the two sisters. Both were immoral, both were bloody. They took their unfaithfulness to idols so far that they burned their children to Moloch. On the same day they polluted Jehovah's sanctuary and desecrated His sabbaths. "Look! this is what they have done inside My house." They tried every means to lure in outsiders, to Jehovah's dishonour, sinfully using Jehovah's own incense and oil on them.
God charges both sisters, but their records were not equal. Judah had some good kings and blessing through them — and still sank lower.
But in point of fact Judah became more offensive than Israel, Jerusalem more guilty than Samaria. Israel had pleading and warning, promise and threat, but never one ray of goodness from her throne. Judah had some good kings, and blessing flowed to the people through them. Yet the prophets testify that Oholibah was worse than Oholah.
Naming the abominations is not cruelty. Judgment here has an end beyond itself.
So a divine judgment is carried out, but with the approval of human conscience everywhere. God and man stand together against them. Yet God's aim is still to get rid of the wickedness that would otherwise never end, whatever harsh measures that takes. And at the last it will make them recognize their covenant-God in the holiness that forces Him to afflict them like this. The end for Israel and for the nations alike is ever that they shall know that He is the Lord Jehovah.
God still works this way today, and it shapes how His servants speak.
This is always God's way. He never glosses over sin, but exposes it before men's eyes, that they may be brought to repentance. The preacher of the Gospel today had better recognize this fact. The deeper the work of repentance in the soul the more solid the conversion-work that follows.
- Owned. Both sisters were God's — "they became mine" — and that is what makes their unfaithfulness so serious.
- Named. Oholah means "her own tent" — worship people chose themselves. Oholibah means "my tent is in her" — worship God Himself appointed. Privilege raised the charge, it did not lower it.
- Declared. God asks the prophet to judge, and to say their sins out loud. Adultery and blood. Children burned, the sanctuary polluted, the sabbaths profaned — all on the same day.
- Exceeded. The more favoured city became the more guilty one. Judah had good kings and real blessing, yet the prophets say Oholibah was worse than Oholah.
- Aimed. The severity has a goal: that wickedness end and that they know He is the Lord. God never smooths over sin, because exposure is the road to repentance.
For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also passed over unto them their children, whom they bore unto me, to be devoured.
Ezekiel 23 tells the story of two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah — Samaria and Jerusalem — pictured as unfaithful wives. Verse 37 is the formal charge against both. It names two crimes at once: adultery, and blood on their hands — the blood of their own children, children God calls His.
The verse names two sins, not one, and binds them together. One writer sets out the count:
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 they shamelessly entered Jehovah's sanctuary, which their presence could only defile. Every one of their actions profaned His sabbaths, the sign of His covenant with them.
The same writer asks who took the first step:
They were not simply the victims of others. Others had not merely invited them; they themselves did the inviting. They worked hard to bring in from far away those who could only pollute them with their abominations. They had decked themselves with the ornaments that God had given, to receive those who would corrupt them!
Adultery is a word about marriage. It fits here because of the bond Israel stood in — and that bond is why her story does not end with the divorce:
Adultery, or idolatry — "With their idols they have committed adultery" (Ezekiel 23:37) — is the special sin charged against Israel of old. She was the married wife of Jehovah. For this she was divorced. But in the purpose and grace of Jehovah, Israel will be restored to her former blessed relationship. She will never forfeit it again, as long as the sun and moon endure.
Another writer draws the line forward to anyone who claims to belong to God:
And let us never forget this. God has brought us, as believers, into such close and intimate relations with Himself. So if we play Him false and enter into guilty alliance with the world, only one sin among mankind can be compared with it — the very terrible sin of adultery.
The verse says these children were borne to God — and then handed over to an idol. What that handing over meant has been questioned:
Passing their children through the fire might seem to imply that they were dedicated to the idol by being passed quickly through a fire without being burnt. This may have been done. But some passages do not allow this interpretation. Of the Canaanites it is said, "they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:31).
Another writer sets side by side what God accepted and what the idol took:
Burning their children was the fullest, though not the only, profanation of the name of Israel's God. Jehovah accepted a sheep or an ox, or even a much smaller sacrifice; Satan under these names demanded their sons.
The idols in this verse were not empty statues. One writer traces the whole system back to a single source:
The secret of all the abominations in idolatry is that Satan is the grand mover of it. To Israel it was said that they were no longer to offer sacrifices to demons (Leviticus 17:7). They "sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons" (Psalm 106:37). They made their children pass through the fire to Molech (2 Kings 23:10; Ezekiel 23:37, 39).
The sentence matches the two crimes. And it is one any honest conscience would also pass:
Those two women, Oholah and Oholibah, were utterly corrupt. Not God only, but righteous men should judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and the judgment of those who shed blood, for that is what they truly were.
Yet the judgment is not the last word. It has a purpose beyond itself:
God and man are united together against them. But God still has His end in view: to get rid, by whatever severe measures, of the wickedness that would otherwise never end. And that wickedness shall at last make them recognise their covenant-God in the holiness that compels Him to afflict them in this way.
- Bond — Israel was the married wife of Jehovah. That bond is why turning to idols is called adultery.
- Betrayal — the sisters were not merely seduced. They went looking for their corrupters, wearing the ornaments God gave them.
- Blood — the second charge is murder. Children borne to God were handed to idols. Softer readings of "pass through the fire" do not survive what Scripture plainly says.
- Behind it — Satan is the mover of idolatry. God accepted a sheep or an ox; Satan demanded their sons.
- Beyond it — God and honest men agree in the verdict. Yet its aim is to end the evil and bring Israel to know Him at last.
Moreover this have they done unto me in the same day have they defiled my sanctuary and profaned my sabbaths.
Ezekiel 23 tells the story of two sisters. Oholah stands for Samaria and Oholibah for Jerusalem, and the chapter pictures their unfaithfulness to God as adultery. Verse 38 adds the hardest charge of all: on the very day these people sacrificed their children, they walked into God's house and kept His holy days as if nothing had happened.
From verse 36 the prophet stops telling two stories. One writer shows how he brings a single charge against both sisters:
From verse 36 to the end there is a comparison which closes the account of the two sisters. Both were sexually immoral, and both shed blood. They carried their idolatrous adultery so far as to burn their children to Molech, and on that same day to pollute Jehovah's sanctuary and desecrate His sabbaths. "See, this is what they have done inside My house."
This was not only false worship. Another writer names the two strands in the charge:
Adultery and blood are both in the count against them here. Their idolatries contained both features: unfaithfulness to God, and making their sons pass through the fire to their idols to be devoured. All the while they shamelessly entered Jehovah's sanctuary, which their presence could not help but defile. And they profaned His sabbaths, the sign of His covenant with them, by everything they did.
Profaning the sabbaths was no small matter. One writer shows what that day stood for:
From then on the sabbath was a memorial of the deliverance out of Egypt (Deut. 5:15). So the prophets plainly treat it as a sign of Israel's separation from all other nations to God, and of God's covenant with them (Ezek. 20:12-20; 22:8; 23:38; 44:24; Isa. 56, 58; Jer. 17:21-27). But in the past Israel was a sinful people, and they had the sabbath as a legal ordinance. So the sabbath condemns them, just as everything else does.
Notice also how personal the verse is. God says this was done "to me." Both things they ruined were His own — His sanctuary, His sabbaths.
These people still came to the sanctuary. That closeness did not protect them:
Judgment must begin at the house of God. It always begins there. Responsibility matches privilege. Outward nearness to God, with the heart away, only invites judgment more.
The same writer insists that judgment here is not God's last word:
So a divine judgment is carried out, and the human conscience everywhere agrees with it. God and man are united together against them. But God's aim is still to be rid of the wickedness, by whatever severe measures, since it would otherwise never end. That wickedness shall at last make them recognise their covenant-God in the holiness that compels Him to afflict them like this. The end for Israel and for the nations alike is always that they shall know that He is the Lord Jehovah.
The two things dishonoured in this verse are the two things with a future. One commentator looks past the ruin to what lies ahead for both:
The sabbath is in no way abolished or changed or turned into a symbol. It must be fulfilled in all its own blessedness for man on earth, and for Israel, God's firstborn among all nations. That will be when idols vanish for ever, and Jehovah's sanctuary is never profaned again.
- Same day. The shock of the verse is its timing. They burned their children and walked into God's own house on the same day.
- Two counts. The charge has two strands: unfaithfulness to God, and blood. Their presence defiled the sanctuary, and everything they did profaned the sabbaths.
- Broken sign. The sabbath was the sign of God's covenant, marking Israel off from every other nation. Profaning it turned their badge of belonging into evidence against them.
- Privilege weighs. Judgment starts at God's house. Responsibility grows with privilege, and nearness with the heart far off only draws judgment faster.
- Severity's end. The judgment is not bare punishment. God's aim is to end the evil for good and bring them to know Him as the Lord, with sabbath and sanctuary restored.
For when they had slaughtered their children unto their idols, they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, thus have they done in the midst of my house.
Ezekiel 23 sets Samaria and Jerusalem side by side as two sisters who sold themselves to the nations around them. Verse 39 brings the heaviest charge: on the day they killed their children for idols, they walked into God's house and carried on with their worship.
The two sisters in this chapter have symbolic names. The second name bears on the charge of profaning the sanctuary.
In chapter 23 Samaria and Jerusalem appear as two sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, in their ungodly dealings 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.
Jerusalem is the sister where God's own tent stood. That is what makes her entry into His sanctuary on that day so appalling.
The idol here is Molech. One reference work asks whether the children were only passed through the fire, or actually burned.
Passing their children through the fire might seem to mean that the children were dedicated to the idol by being passed quickly through a fire without being burned. This may have been done. But some passages do not allow that reading. Of the Canaanites it says, "they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods."
The same reference work traces idolatry back to its source.
The secret of all the abominations in idolatry is that Satan is the great power driving it. Israel was told to offer no more sacrifices to demons. They "sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons."
The timing is the sting. They kept no gap at all between the idol's altar and the courts of God.
They pushed their idolatrous adultery so far that they burned their children to Molech. On that same day they polluted Jehovah's sanctuary and desecrated His sabbaths.
Two crimes are counted here at once. The sabbaths are named alongside the sanctuary, and they carry their own weight.
Adultery and blood are both in the charge against them here. Their idolatries held both: unfaithfulness to God, and sending their sons through the fire to their idols to be devoured. All the while they shamelessly entered Jehovah's sanctuary, which their presence could only defile. And His sabbaths, the sign of His covenant with them, they profaned by everything they did.
They did not just bring defilement in with them. Their presence was the defilement. The verse ends by naming the place: they did this inside His house.
Ezekiel is describing something more common than child sacrifice. Why do people keep up the forms of worship when their life with God has died?
When a soul has drifted away from God, the outward forms of godliness often continue, and sometimes with even greater zeal. As inward life decays, attention turns to rites and ceremonies. So the soul deceives itself, and slides into ignorance of its real condition.
That last line explains the strangest part of the verse. People who do this are often unaware of it.
The same danger reaches the Lord's Table, where Christians gather to remember Christ.
What we are during the week we will be while at the Lord's Table. Whatever has filled our heart through the past six days will fill it on the first day of the week at His Table. We cannot keep our hearts in a worldly atmosphere all week and then be free of it when we come to remember Him on the Lord's Day.
The chapter ends in judgment, but writers point past the severity to its purpose.
God and man are united against them. But God's aim in it is still to get rid of the wickedness that would otherwise never end, by whatever severe measures it takes. And this will at last make them recognise their covenant-God in the holiness that forces Him to afflict them in this way.
- Sanctuary. Aholibah's name means "my tent is in her." God's own dwelling was in Jerusalem, so her walking in defiled the one place that was His.
- Slaughter. The charge is literal. Children were burned to Molech, sacrificed, commentators say, to demons behind the idol.
- Same day. They left no gap between the idol's fire and God's house. The worship and the killing belonged to one day.
- Sabbaths. They profaned two things at once: the sanctuary, by their presence, and the sabbaths, the sign of God's covenant, by everything they did.
- Self-deception. Outward religion often grows more zealous as inward life decays. The warning reaches anyone who carries a worldly week into the place of worship.
And furthermore, they sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thine eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments;
Ezekiel is telling the story of two sisters, and at verse 40 the charge shifts to what she began herself. Why does God describe a nation's politics as a woman dressing for her lovers?
The two sisters in this chapter stand for Samaria and Jerusalem, and their names carry the point. Both belonged to God, but only one had God's own dwelling in her.
The elder sister is named Aholah, and her sister Aholibah. The first name means "her own tent," the second, "my tent is in her." The reader will not fail to notice how fitting these names are. Samaria's worship came from self-will. At best it was an imitation, but really it was independence from the Lord. In Jerusalem, though, the Lord Himself arranged the worship as His own appointment. Yet both sisters were His, not one only. "They were mine, and they had sons and daughters."
The men she sends for stand for foreign nations. So is this sin about politics, or about God?
Others have rightly said that this chapter, compared with the earlier one, speaks of political rather than spiritual departure from God. Yet that only shows more clearly how closely the two are tied together. Religion is by nature the strongest bond that unites people... Where the nations ruled, their gods had to rule too. So losing national independence threatened the loss of everything else.
The verse never says anyone approached her first. She sent the messenger, and she dressed for the arrival. That reversal is what makes the verse so damning.
They had not simply been the victims of others. Others had not merely enticed them. They themselves did the enticing. They worked to bring in, from far away, people who could only pollute them with their detestable practices. And they put on the ornaments God had given them, in order to welcome the very men who corrupted them!
The painted eyes are not just poetry. They describe a real cosmetic, and one other woman in the Bible is remembered for using it.
Jezebel "painted her eyes," as 2 Kings 9:30 should read. Israel is compared to a lewd woman who painted her eyes. Ezek. 23:40... They painted the eyelids and eyebrows with antimony or some other pigment, and this made the eyes look larger. Small bottles and the short sticks used to apply the moistened powder have been found in the tombs of Egypt.
What she set out for her guests was not hers. The incense and the oil belonged to the worship of God. And she would reach very low for company.
They left no means untried to entice outsiders, to the dishonour of the Lord, wrongly using on them the Lord's incense and the Lord's oil. Jerusalem had sought strangers from afar. She even stooped to court the most vulgar drunkards from the desert.
Readers flinch at this imagery. God chose it on purpose, and He built it on something good.
God has taken up the closest relationships in human life. He does it to show us how full His love for people is. He also shows how near His heart delights to bring us to Himself. So the sin that breaks through such love is all the greater. No wonder the foulest of human sins becomes a shadow of the sin pictured here. We shrink from these descriptions. See how fully God would teach us by them to loathe what in His sight is so much worse! The human symbol is only a shadow of the greater sin.
- Relationship first. Aholibah means "my tent is in her." God Himself arranged her worship, so her sin is unfaithfulness, not just folly.
- She sent. Foreigners did not seduce her. She sent for them, and worked to bring in people from far away who could only defile her.
- She dressed. The bathing, the painted eyes and the ornaments are the props of a lewd woman — the same paint Jezebel used.
- She spent God's things. The incense and oil she set out belonged to the Lord. She used them to entice outsiders — even drunkards from the desert.
- Why it disgusts. God's love brings people as close as marriage. That is why unfaithfulness here is the foulest of sins, and why the picture is meant to make us loathe what God loathes.
and satest upon a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hadst set mine incense and mine oil.
Ezekiel 23 tells the story of two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah. They stand for Samaria and Jerusalem. Verse 41 freezes one image from that story: a woman at a set table, using God's own incense and oil to entertain her lovers. It asks the sharpest question of the chapter. What does a person do with God's gifts after shutting God out?
Each sister has a symbolic name, and the names fit the two cities. One writer draws out the meanings, and notes that both sisters still belonged to God:
Here their symbolic names are Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister. The first name means "her own tent," the second, "my tent is in her." The reader will not fail to notice how fitting these names are. The worship of Samaria was self-will. At best it was an imitation, but it was really independence of Jehovah. In Jerusalem, though, Jehovah Himself arranged the divine service as His own appointment. Yet not one only but both were His. "They were mine, and they bore sons and daughters."
Every detail in the scene — the seat, the spread table, the perfume — belonged to God:
A few brief touches paint the picture for us. The senseless, wasteful woman sits on a grand bed. A table stands ready in front of it, and on it lie the incense and the oil that belonged to the God she has forsaken.
Incense and oil were not ordinary luxuries. God set them apart for His own worship. Here they become bait for outsiders, while the same people still walked into His sanctuary:
They carried their idolatrous adultery so far that they burned their children to Moloch, an idol. On that same day they polluted Jehovah's sanctuary and desecrated His sabbaths. "Look, this is what they have done inside My house." They left no means untried to entice outsiders, to the dishonour of Jehovah, misusing on them Jehovah's incense and Jehovah's oil. And just as Jerusalem had sought strangers from far away, so she stooped to court the most common drunkards from the desert.
It would be easier to read the chapter if the sisters were prey. They were not. The invitation went out from them, and they dressed for their guests in gifts from God:
Others had not simply made victims of them; others had not merely propositioned them. They themselves did the asking. They worked hard to bring in from far away those who could only pollute them with their abominations. They had decked themselves with the ornaments God gave them, to welcome the very people who would corrupt them!
Why would anyone trade God for an idol? The same writer traces the problem back past Israel to something in every human being:
What they inherited goes back further still. Lust, however it shows itself, is the beggar's badge that marks out fallen man everywhere. As the apostle has shown us, that one commandment reaches and judges the full condition of man: "You shall not covet." The idols of the nations put these lusts on display, and exist to gratify them. They stand for an imagined freedom of souls who have got away from God. Such souls try to satisfy themselves apart from His way and His will, with things that cannot do it.
Earlier in the chapter God strips her of her clothes and jewels. Commentators see a purpose behind that severity:
Yet all this severity is not, on God's part, mere judgment. As He puts it here, the effect is to stop the lewdness of Oholibah, and to make her turn in disgust from what once attracted her. A person must come to himself to come to God, and God was now bringing Israel through that process. What a terrible thing to face! You are left stripped and penniless, and everything is gone that once made you look and feel rich to others while you spent it.
- Owned. Both sisters belonged to God — "they were mine." That is why their behaviour counts as unfaithfulness, not just bad religion.
- Borrowed. The couch, the table, the incense and the oil all came from God. The sin is not that she had nothing. It is that she laid out His gifts for someone else.
- Bait. Holy things became the lure that drew outsiders in — and on the same day the sisters polluted God's sanctuary.
- Willing. She was not seduced; she sent for her lovers and dressed for them in God's own gifts.
- Emptied. God strips her to end the evil itself. A person must first come to himself before he comes back to God.
And the voice of a multitude living carelessly was with her; and with people of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, and they put bracelets upon their hands, and a beautiful crown upon their heads.
This verse shows a party: a crowd at ease, drink, and jewellery handed round to guests brought in from the desert. But Ezekiel is describing a city, not a woman — so what do the noise, the drunkards and the crowns stand for?
The whole chapter runs on two symbolic names. One commentator sets out where the two sisters came from and what each name means:
Here the holy city is compared with Samaria. They are two sisters of one parent — the Jewish people. They are sisters too in their sinful idol worship. The prophet traces the evil back to where it first appeared. The idols that lured 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 means "her own tent," the second, "my tent is in her."... The worship of Samaria was self-willed, at best an imitation, but really independence from Jehovah. In Jerusalem, though, Jehovah Himself ordered the worship as His own appointment. Still, not one only but both were His.
So the woman at the table in verse 42 is Jerusalem — the city where God had placed His own tent.
One writer gathers the details of the scene and names the desert guests:
A few brief touches paint the picture for us. The senseless, reckless woman sits on a grand bed. A table stands ready before it, and on it are the incense and the oil that belonged to her forsaken God. Around her sound the voices of a loose crowd with no restraint left. Even the Sabeans of the wilderness were brought in to join them — men who lived by robbery, as their name here may show. And all this when old age had clearly come upon her, hurried on by her excesses.
Note the age: this is not youthful folly but a worn-out life. Where the ESV has drunkards brought from the wilderness, the older translation this writer used reads "Sabeans."
Earlier in the chapter Jerusalem had courted the great powers — Assyria, then Babylon. This verse shows what she settled for in the end:
They tried every means to entice outsiders into dishonouring Jehovah, sinfully misusing Jehovah's incense and Jehovah's oil on them. Just as Jerusalem had sought strangers from far away, so she stooped to court the most vulgar drunkards from the desert.
She was spending what was never hers: the incense and oil of God's worship, served to her guests.
The bracelets and crowns sharpen the charge. One writer asks who took the first step:
They were not simply the victims of others. Others did not merely ask them. They themselves did the asking, working to bring in from far away the very people who could only pollute them with their abominations. They had decked themselves with the ornaments that God had given, ready to receive their corrupters!
Every bracelet and crown in the verse was first a gift from God. Wearing His gifts to greet her corrupters turned the party into an insult.
The same writer follows the ornaments to their end:
Cutting off the nose and ears was the punishment of an adulteress. We may remember how God Himself had adorned these in an earlier chapter (Ezekiel 16). That chapter, unlike this one, shows us the blessing God had poured out on those He brought into this special relationship to Himself. Now God does not only remove the ornaments. There is no place left for them at all — only disfigurement. The jewels go, and the garments with them. Yet this severity is not mere judgment on God's part. Its effect, as He puts it here, is to make her lewdness stop, so that she turns with loathing from what 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.
The crowns do not stay on. The stripping answers the decking, and God's aim in it reaches past punishment to her cure.
- Given. The bracelets and crowns in the scene were God's gifts to the city where His tent stood — Aholibah means "my tent is in her."
- Misused. She wore those gifts to welcome her corrupters. She served them the incense and oil that belonged to her forsaken God.
- Cheapened. She courted Assyria and Babylon first, then stooped to the most vulgar drunkards from the desert.
- Stripped. God does not only take the ornaments away. He leaves no place for them at all, and the garments go with the jewels.
- Restored. God's severity is not mere judgment. It is meant to make her loathe what she once chased, and so bring Israel back to Himself.
And I said of her that was old in adulteries, Will she now commit her fornications, even she.
Ezekiel 23 pictures Samaria and Jerusalem as two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, who left God for the idols of the nations. Verse 43 finds the second sister old and worn out by her sin, and asks whether a life like that ever stops by itself.
The chapter looks back over her whole history, from her first unfaithfulness to her last.
In Ezekiel 23 Jehovah shows why He is right to judge Jerusalem: her way of life was sinful and unfaithful. Her prostitution 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 chapter is not describing sexual sin among the people. It is describing the nation turning to other gods. It calls that turn "adultery" because of the bond the turn broke.
Adultery, or idolatry — "With their idols they have committed adultery" (Ezek. 23:37) — is the special sin charged against Israel long ago, because she was the married wife of Jehovah (Jer. 3:14; Isa. 54:1). For this God divorced her. But in His purpose and grace, Jehovah will restore Israel to the blessed relationship she had before. She will never lose it again, as long as the sun and moon last.
The woman of verse 43 is worn out. The life she chose is what aged her.
The picture is painted for us in a few brief touches. The senseless, immoral woman sits on a grand bed. In front of it stands a table set with the incense and the oil that belonged to the God she had forsaken. Around her are the voices of a loose crowd, given over completely. Even the Sabeans of the wilderness are brought in to join them — desert men who lived by robbery, as their name here may show. And all this comes when old age has clearly overtaken her, brought on early by her excesses.
The ESV states that men will keep using her; older translations read it as a question — will she still go on? Either way, nothing in her was going to stop it. And she was never only a victim of others.
The story is told again, briefly, with every detail that makes it worse. The wickedness keeps on, and seems as if it would go on to the end — like the scum of a pot in the next chapter, which nothing will ever clean... They had not simply been the victims of others. They had not merely been enticed by others. They themselves did the enticing. They worked to bring in men from far away who could only pollute them with their detestable practices. They dressed themselves in the ornaments God had given them, to welcome the very men who corrupted them!
God is not the only one who condemns these sisters. Plain human justice reaches the same verdict, and the sister with more privilege carries the heavier sentence.
Judah was the favoured one, and her judgment should be even greater than Samaria's, because her guilt was greater. Those two women, Oholah and Oholibah, were thoroughly corrupt. Not God only, but righteous men should judge them as adulteresses, and as women who shed blood — because that is what they really were.
If the woman will not stop, God will stop her. Commentators read the harshness of the chapter as having an aim beyond punishment.
Yet all this severity is on God's part not mere judgment. The effect, as He puts it here, is to end Oholibah's lewdness, and to make her turn with loathing from the things she once found attractive. One must come to oneself in order to come to God, and this is the process God was now bringing Israel through.
And the goal reaches further than Israel.
God and man are united together against them. But God's purpose in it is still to get rid, by whatever severe measures, of the wickedness which would otherwise never end... The end for Israel and for the nations alike is always that they shall know that He is the Lord Jehovah.
- Bond. Israel stood to God as a wife stands to her husband. That is why the chapter calls her idolatry adultery, and why God set her aside for it.
- Betrayal. She was no passive victim. She sent for her corrupters, and dressed for them in the ornaments God Himself had given her.
- Habit. Verse 43 catches her old and worn out. Her own excesses aged her, and the same loose crowd is still around her.
- Verdict. God judges both sisters together. Upright men would pass the same sentence, so no one can call it unfair.
- Mercy. The stripping aims past punishment: to end the sin, and to make her hate what she once loved. One must come to oneself before coming to God — and the end of it all is that she will know He is the Lord.
And they went in unto her, as they go in unto a whorish woman so went they in unto Oholah and unto Oholibah the lewd women.
Ezekiel 23 tells of two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, and traces their unfaithfulness back to Egypt. This verse gives the verdict on both, and it raises a hard question: how did a nation God called His own come to be described like this?
The two names hold the key. One writer explains the family tie, and what each name says about the way each sister worshipped:
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 prophet traces the evil back to its earliest appearance. The idols that lured 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. Here are their symbolic names: Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. The first means "her own tent." The second means "my tent is in her." The reader will not fail to notice how fitting these names are. Samaria's worship came from self-will. At best it was an imitation, but in truth it was independence from Jehovah. In Jerusalem, Jehovah Himself ordered the divine service as His own appointment. Still, not one only but both were His. "They were mine, and they bore sons and daughters."
Both cities belonged to God. That is what makes the charge so severe.
The picture behind this language is marriage:
Adultery, or idolatry — "they committed adultery with their idols" (Ezek. 23:37) — is the special sin charged against Israel of old, since she was the married wife of Jehovah (Jer. 3:14; Isa. 54:1). For this God divorced her. But in His purpose and grace, Jehovah will restore Israel to her former blessed relationship. She will never forfeit it again, as long as sun and moon endure.
So the charge is not only about idols. It is about a wife who went to other men.
The elder sister's example stood in front of Jerusalem:
Was Jerusalem warned? Did the sight of Oholah do Oholibah any good? On the contrary, "she was more corrupt in her lust than she was." The younger and more favoured sister followed the elder and was even coarser in indulging her idolatry. Not content with Assyria, she wanted the Chaldeans and their idol worship. The sons of Babylon defiled her; but once they had defiled her, her mind turned away from them. So it always is where God's favour and God's will are absent. Closeness in evil is quickly followed by mutual disgust.
One writer sketches the scene, and names who must pass sentence on it:
A few brief touches paint the picture. The senseless woman sits on a grand bed. A table stands ready in front of it, and on it are the incense and the oil that belonged to the God she has forsaken. Around her are the voices of a loose crowd in complete abandonment — even the Sabeans of the wilderness, men who lived by plunder... The two sisters are alike in every way, and this charge joins them together. God calls in men of mere human righteousness to pronounce on them the judgment they so well deserve.
Where does all this severity lead?
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 to turn her with loathing from what once attracted her. A person must come to themselves before coming to God, and this is the process through which God was now bringing Israel.
One writer applies the figure to believers today:
And let us also never forget this. As believers, we are brought into such close and intimate relations with God that if we play Him false and enter into guilty alliance with the world, only one sin among mankind compares with it — the very terrible sin of adultery.
- Both were His. "Oholah" means "her own tent," "Oholibah" means "my tent is in her" — one worshipped by self-will, one by God's appointment, but God says of both, "they were mine."
- Both went the same way. The idols that lured them in Egypt exposed them at last to Assyria and Babylon. Their old age matched the sins of their youth.
- Nearness raises the stakes. The more favoured sister was the more corrupt in her lust. Believers too are brought close to God, and unfaithfulness to Him compares with nothing lighter than adultery.
- The treatment matched the conduct. She sat on her bed with God's own incense and oil set out for her guests. Even human righteousness is called in to pass sentence on her.
- The severity had an aim. God worked to make her lewdness cease and to turn her from what once attracted her. A person must come to themselves before coming to God. In Jehovah's purpose and grace, Israel will be restored, never to forfeit that place again.
And righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women that shed blood; for they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
Ezekiel 23 tells of two sisters, Aholah and Aholibah. They stand for Samaria and Jerusalem, the two halves of God's people, and the chapter traces their unfaithfulness. This verse gives the verdict. It raises two questions: who are these "righteous men," and why two charges instead of one?
The two names carry the difference between the two kingdoms. One writer explains what each name means:
The symbolic names given here are Aholah the elder, and Aholibah, her sister. The first means "her own tent," the second, "my tent is in her." The reader will not fail to see how fitting these symbolic names are. The worship of Samaria came from self-will. At best it was an imitation, but in truth it was independence from Jehovah. In Jerusalem, though, Jehovah Himself arranged the divine service as His own appointment. Still, not one only but both were His. "They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters."
Because both sisters belonged to Him, both are on trial. But the sister with God's own service and the better kings proved the worse of the two:
But in fact Judah became more offensive than Israel, Jerusalem more guilty than Samaria. Israel had pleading and warning, promise and threatening, but never one ray of goodness from the throne. Judah had some good kings, and the channels of governmental blessings. Yet the prophets testify that Aholibah was worse than Aholah. God had His own among them. The righteous stand apart from the wicked, but Judah as a whole appears sunk far deeper in idolatry and iniquity.
The verse passes two sentences: adulteresses, and women who shed blood. One idolatry produced both crimes, and the sisters did the courting:
Adultery and blood are both in the count against them here. Their idolatries held both features: unfaithfulness to God, and making their sons pass through the fire to their idols to be devoured. All the while they walked into Jehovah's sanctuary without shame, and their presence could only defile it. His sabbaths were the sign of His covenant with them, and all their actions profaned them. They were not simply the victims of others. Others had not merely courted them; they themselves did the courting. They worked to bring in from far away those who could only pollute them with their abominations. They decked themselves with the ornaments that God had given, to welcome their corrupters!
The striking phrase is that righteous men pass the sentence. One writer notes that God is not the only judge here:
Thoroughly corrupt were those two women, Aholah and Aholibah. Not God only, but righteous men should judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and the judgment of those who shed blood, for that is what they really were.
Another writer asks what their verdict achieves:
The two sisters, alike in every way, stand joined together in this count. God calls men of mere human righteousness to pronounce the judgment they so well deserve. So a divine judgment goes out, but the human conscience everywhere approves it. God and man stand united against them. Yet God still keeps His end in view: to get rid, by whatever severe measures, of the wickedness that would otherwise never end. That wickedness shall at last make them recognise their covenant-God in the holiness that compels Him to afflict them like this. The end for Israel and for the nations alike is always that they shall know that He is the Lord Jehovah.
The long charge in this chapter has a purpose. God gives His reasons:
In Ezekiel 23 Jehovah justifies Himself for judging Jerusalem by the iniquity and unfaithfulness of her walk. Her whoredom 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.
The verses that follow carry out the sentence:
Their judgment, however, would not sleep. The adulterous woman had to be stoned until she died… "Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done."
- Both were His. Samaria worshipped by self-will — "her own tent." Jerusalem had the service God Himself appointed — "my tent is in her." Both belonged to Him, so both must answer.
- Privilege raised the charge. The sister with God's own service and the better kings proved the more guilty. Light received is light accounted for.
- Two crimes, one root. One idolatry made them unfaithful wives and killers of their own children. They did the courting; no one seduced them.
- Conscience agrees. God does not judge alone. He calls ordinary human righteousness to pass the sentence, and heaven and the human conscience say the same thing.
- The aim beyond the sentence. The severity is meant to end the evil and bring them to know Him — that they shall know He is the Lord.
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah I will bring up an assemblage against them, and will give them to be driven hither and thither and spoiled.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the assemblage shall stone them with stones, and despatch them with their swords; they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire.
Ezekiel 23 ends like a courtroom: two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, stand for Samaria and Jerusalem, and verse 47 reads out their sentence. Why does God's judgment on His own people take this shape, and what is it for?
For most of the chapter God describes sin. Here He acts. The stoning in this verse is the penalty the law gave for adultery.
Their judgment, however, would not stay asleep. The adulterous woman had to be stoned until she died.
The sentence is not God's alone. Earlier in the chapter God calls upright men to judge these two sisters as well.
Those two women, Oholah and Oholibah, were utterly corrupt. Not God only, but righteous men were to judge them with the judgment given to adulteresses, and the judgment given to those who shed blood, because that is what they were.
One writer draws out what that shared verdict means. The judgment comes from God, yet no honest conscience can object to it.
…men of merely human righteousness are called to pass the sentence on them that they so well deserve. So God carries out His judgment, and the human conscience everywhere approves it. God and man stand united against them…
The killing of the sons and daughters sounds like extra cruelty until you read the charge sheet. God answers two crimes here, not one, and the second one involved these very children.
Adultery and blood are both in the charge against them here. Their idol worship held both: they were unfaithful to God, and they made their sons pass through the fire to their idols to be devoured. All the while they walked without shame into the Lord's sanctuary, which their presence could only defile. They also profaned His sabbaths, the sign of His covenant with them, by everything they did. They had not simply been the victims of others, or only invited by others. They themselves did the inviting, working to bring in from far away the very people who could only pollute them.
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Another writer names what the judgment rests on, and how it comes back on them.
In each case the ground of the Lord's judgment is their forbidden dealings with the nations around them. They were sisters in sin, and were to be judged alike. They were to reap what they had sown.
Stoning, sword and fire are not the end of the story. God states His purpose, and it is not revenge. He means to remove the evil and to be known.
…but God's aim in it all is still the same: to get rid of the wickedness that would otherwise never end, by whatever severe measures it takes. In the end that will make them recognise their covenant God in the holiness that compels Him to afflict them like this. For Israel and for the nations alike, the goal is always that they shall know that He is the Lord.
Jerusalem had seen this happen once before. Judgment had already swept her sister Samaria away.
They paid no attention to the judgment that fell on the sister kingdom. The many mercies they received from God did not humble them either. 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 sin was not yet full, but it was filling fast. At last the king of Babylon carries out God's decree.
- Sown — the sisters' idol worship was adultery against God and blood-guilt against their own children. Verse 47 is the harvest of both: they reap what they sowed.
- Sentenced — judgment stops sleeping. The adulteress's penalty falls in full: stones, swords and fire.
- Seconded — upright men are called to pass the same sentence. God and human conscience stand together in one verdict.
- Swept — God's stated aim is removal. He will clear out a wickedness that would otherwise never stop, however severe the cost.
- Seen — past the ruin the goal is knowledge. Israel and the nations were to recognise their covenant God and know He is the Lord. Judah could have learned that from Samaria's fall, and did not.
And I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, and all women shall receive instruction and shall not do according to your lewdness.
Here God speaks the last word of a long picture of two sisters, and He aims it past the guilty woman to everyone watching. He has named them, exposed them and sentenced them. Now He gives the sentence a purpose: to teach.
The chapter is not about two literal women. It is a picture of the two halves of a divided nation, and their names carry the whole point.
Here the holy city is compared with Samaria. They are two sisters of one parent — the Jewish people; sisters too in their idol worship and sin... Their symbolic names are given here as Aholah the elder, and Aholibah, her sister. The first name means "her own tent," the second, "my tent is in her."
Another writer explains what the second name points to.
Chapter 23 calls Samaria and Jerusalem two sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, in their godless dealings 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 verse says all women should take warning from what happens. That is just what the younger sister refused to do. She watched the elder fall and learned nothing.
Did Jerusalem take the warning? Did the sight of Aholah do Aholibah any good? No. She was more corrupt in her uncontrolled lust than her sister was. The younger and more favoured sister followed the elder, and went even further in her idol worship.
Because she had more and used it worse, her sentence went further than her sister's.
So the judgment on favoured Judah would go even beyond Samaria's, since her guilt was indeed greater.
To "put an end to lewdness" is no gentle phrase. It means the punishment of an adulteress, carried out in full.
Their judgment, however, would not sleep. The adulterous woman had to be stoned until she died.
The lesson is public on purpose. God is not the only one who condemns her.
The two sisters, alike in every way, stand together in this charge, and men of merely human righteousness are called to pass on them the judgment they so fully deserve. So God carries out a divine judgment, but the human conscience everywhere approves it. God and man stand united against them... The end for Israel and for the nations alike is always that they shall know that He is the Lord Jehovah.
To "put an end to lewdness" is not merely to punish it. The stripping away is meant to change what she wants.
Yet on God's part all this severity is not mere judgment. The effect, as He puts it here, is to make Oholibah's lewdness stop, and to make her turn in disgust from the things that once attracted her. A person must come to himself to come to God. This is the process God was now bringing Israel through.
God's aim runs past the sentence itself. It does not stop until they know that He is the Lord.
The warning was never meant to stop with Israel.
The thing that tempted them is what tempts us — not the gross sin itself, necessarily, but what it stands for, that is, worldliness. The New Testament clearly and often uses the sins of the flesh in the Old Testament to warn us to stay clear of the world in all its ways. In doing so it shows how awful in God's sight is the giving up on the part of His people of their unworldly and heavenly character.
One writer puts the same danger in terms of loyalty to Christ.
Let us beware of any flirting with the world. The Church was betrothed to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Cor. 11:2); all her heart's affection belongs to Christ, who gave Himself for her. Friendship with the world is spiritual adultery (James 4:4).
- Warning given. God judged Aholah first, in full view of her younger sister.
- Warning refused. The more favoured sister became the more corrupt. So her judgment went further than Samaria's.
- Warning enforced. The sentence is that of an adulteress — carried out fully, with no delay.
- Warning made public. God calls upright men to give the verdict, so every conscience agrees with His sentence.
- Warning aimed at the heart. The severity is not bare punishment. It aims to make the old attractions disgusting and to bring her back to God.
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.
Ezekiel 23 tells a long parable about two sisters, Samaria and Jerusalem. This closing verse hands their own conduct back to them, and raises two questions. Why does the penalty take the shape of the sin? And how does such a judgment end in people knowing God?
Ezekiel 23 spends forty-eight verses on what the two sisters did. The last verses turn to what God will now do to them. One commentator points to the law behind the sentence — the punishment for an unfaithful wife:
Their judgment, however, would not sleep. The adulterous woman had to be stoned until she died.
The verse speaks to both sisters at once. Samaria had already fallen. One writer explains why Jerusalem's end matches hers:
In Ezekiel 23 Jehovah justifies Himself for judging Jerusalem, because her way of life was wicked and unfaithful. Her adultery 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.
Their punishment grows out of their own conduct:
In Ezekiel 23 the sins of Samaria (Israel) and Jerusalem (Judah) are portrayed with great solemnity. In each case the ground of Jehovah's judgment is their sinful dealings with the nations, which He had forbidden. They were sisters in sin, and should be judged in the same way… They were to reap what they had sown.
The second half of the verse ties the penalty to its source: their idolatry. One writer traces how a person reaches that point:
A long course of tampering with evil has not only blunted the conscience, but turned the evil into a pleasure. Every sense of what is due to God is dulled. So the idols assert their authority, and God is forsaken… A man's way is his reward. What he sows he reaps. The object of his worship gives form to his life and character to his future. Such is the nature of God's government.
The same rule appears earlier in Israel's story. The punishment is cut to the pattern of the sin:
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 measures and defines our chastisement; and so grace works repentance when we turn and cry to the Lord in our distress.
The verse does not end in ruin but in recognition. One writer looks at the whole closing scene, and at what God is after in it:
The two sisters, alike in every way, are joined together in this charge. Men of merely human righteousness are called to pass on them the judgment they so well deserve. So God carries out His judgment, yet the human conscience everywhere agrees with it. God and man are united together against them. But God's purpose in it is still to get rid of the wickedness, by whatever severe measures it takes. That wickedness would otherwise never end. Yet it will at last make them recognise their covenant-God in the holiness that compels Him to afflict them in this way. The end for Israel and for the nations alike is always that they shall know that He is the Lord Jehovah.
The verse ends with knowing God. In some passages that knowledge comes from the blow itself, not from a changed heart:
So this knowledge of Jehovah comes by the judgment itself, not by any spiritual knowledge of Him that follows… It will be through judgment that all the nations shall know that Jehovah is God.
- Sown. The sisters' ruin was not random. Their sinful dealings with the nations were the ground of the judgment, and "they were to reap what they had sown."
- Shaped. The penalty takes the shape of the sin. What a person worships "gives form to his life and character to his future." Our sin itself "measures and defines our chastisement."
- Shared. Jerusalem's conduct matched Samaria's, and the same conduct showed the same nature. So Samaria's fate became hers.
- Sealed. God carries out the sentence, and the human conscience everywhere agrees. God and man are united in the verdict.
- Seen. The severity has a goal: to end the wickedness, and to bring them at last to recognise their covenant-God. In some passages, commentators note, that knowledge comes through the judgment itself, not through a changed heart.