the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.
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?
The Names in the List
Pekod, Shoa and Koa are not ordinary place names. One writer notes that Pekod carries a meaning that reads like a sentence already passed:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThis 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.
Why She Wanted These Men
Earlier in the chapter Jerusalem had fallen for the Chaldeans on sight. One writer traces how that appetite grew out of an earlier one:
F. W. GrantOholibah 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 Same Charms, Now Armed
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:
F. W. GrantWhen 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.
Lovers She No Longer Loved
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:
William KellyThe 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.
Judgment with an Aim
The stripping that follows in the chapter is severe. One writer says God aims at more than punishment:
F. W. GrantYet 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.
The Warning Carried Forward
One writer takes what happened to Jerusalem as a standing principle, not a one-off case:
William KellySo 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.
Summary
- 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.