Ezekiel 23
BBCEzekiel 23:1
V. The Parable of the Two Harlot Sisters (Chap. 23)
- Oholah (23:1-10)23:1-4 This is the parable of two harlot sisters, Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. Oholah was Samaria, and Oholibah was Jerusalem. 23:5-10 Oholah means [she has] her own tent. Samaria had set up her own center of worship. God’s temple was in Jerusalem. Oholah played the harlot to the good-looking and macho horsemen of Assyria; therefore, she was abandoned to her lovers by God, and they uncovered her nakedness and slew her with the sword.
Ezekiel 23:11
- Oholibah (23:11-21)Oholibah (my tent is in her) went even further in her idolatrous harlotry and immorality. First she lusted after the Assyrians, just as Israel had done (vv. 12, 13). Then she doted on the images of the men of Babylon portrayed in vermilion. She lusted for them and sent messengers to them, inviting them to her land (2Ki_16:7). Recalling her youthful sins in the land of Egypt, she also multiplied her harlotry and gave herself over to the Babylonians to commit terrible immorality.
Ezekiel 23:22
- The Invasion of the Babylonians (23:22-35)As a result, God would destroy Oholibah by her Babylonian lovers. Those desirable young men she lusted after would treat her hatefully. She tried to find satisfaction in the fleshly world, apart from God. Now her sins must be judged. Verses 33 and 34 describe the symptoms of depression and despair, which we find all over today. Only if we drink of God’s living water, will we never thirst again.
Ezekiel 23:36
- The Judgment of Oholah and Oholibah (23:36-49)Both sisters were guilty of the same sins: adultery (literal and spiritual), murder, offering human sacrifices (v. 37); desecration of the temple, Sabbath-breaking (v. 38); mixing idolatry with worship of God (v. 39); committing spiritual adultery with foreign nations (vv. 40-44). Righteous men (nations chosen by God) would repay the sisters for their lewdness with well-deserved destruction (vv. 45-49). Judah’s religion was syncretistic, that is, it combined the worship of Jehovah with idolatry and paganism. Much of modern Christendom, sad to say, combines elements of the Bible with Judaism, paganism, eastern religion, humanism, and psychology.