And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you 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.
Why judgment came at all
The chapter is God's own defence of what He is about to do:
J. N. DarbyIn 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:
The Bible TreasuryThey 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 lovers arrive as enemies
The army marching on her here is made of the very nations she once chased.
Numerical Bible NotesWhen 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:
Numerical Bible NotesThe 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.
Buckler, shield, and helmet
The verse names the armour piece by piece. The word translated "buckler" here means the largest shield of all:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThis 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.
Instruments, not innocents
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:
F. B. HoleGod 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:
W. W. FeredayGod 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.
Why God goes this far
The severity has a purpose beyond punishment.
Numerical Bible NotesYet 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.
Summary
- 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.