Ezekiel 23

God tells the story of two sisters, Oholah (Samaria) and Oholibah (Jerusalem), who were His own but chased after other nations and their idols. Samaria is handed over to Assyria, the very lover she courted. Jerusalem, who saw this and learned nothing, is warned that Babylon will do the same to her. The chapter ends with the charges of idolatry, child sacrifice and defiling God’s house, and the promise that judgment will lead them to know the Lord.

Ezekiel 23:1-2

Another message comes to Ezekiel. As in chapter 16, God uses a hard and shocking story to show His people what their behavior looks like to Him. Two sisters from one mother stand for the two kingdoms that came from one nation, Israel.

Ezekiel 23:3

The sisters’ unfaithfulness began in Egypt, in their youth. The words are crude on purpose. Israel’s long habit of giving herself to other powers and other gods started early. God does not soften it, so that His people will see how deep the problem runs.

BSA: prostituting (“fornicating, being unfaithful”): The word is about broken faithfulness, not only about sex. Israel was pledged to God and gave her loyalty elsewhere.

See also: Ezekiel 20:7-8.

Ezekiel 23:4

The sisters become God’s own and bear children. Then the names are explained: Oholah is Samaria, the northern kingdom, and Oholibah is Jerusalem, the southern. The names sound alike and both mean “tent.” God’s claim on them is real, which is why their unfaithfulness wounds Him.

BSA: Mine (“my wives, belonging to me”): God had entered a covenant with them as a husband does, so their unfaithfulness is betrayal of a marriage.

Hebrew: אָהֳלָה (ʼOholah, H170) — “her tent.” Oholah means “her tent,” a tent of her own making. Oholibah means “my tent is in her.” The younger sister was the one in whom God’s own dwelling, the temple, stood, so her sin was even worse.

Ezekiel 23:5-6

Samaria, though she belonged to God, lusted after the Assyrians. They are pictured as handsome officers in royal blue, mounted on horses. This describes Israel’s habit of trusting a powerful, glamorous empire for safety instead of trusting the Lord.

BSA: lusted (“doted, had a strong sensual desire”): Israel was infatuated with Assyria’s power and looks, not just making a cool political calculation.

See also: Hosea 8:9.

Ezekiel 23:7-8

Giving herself to Assyria meant taking up its idols as well. Alliances with pagan powers usually carried their gods along with them. Samaria never really left the habit she picked up in Egypt. She only found new partners for it.

See also: 2 Kings 17:7-8.

Ezekiel 23:9-10

God’s judgment is to give her over to the lovers she chased. Assyria stripped her, took her children and killed her. Samaria fell to Assyria in 722 BC, and her people were carried away. What she trusted became her destroyer, and she became a warning to others.

BSA: delivered (“to give, put, or set”): God does not need to send some new disaster. He lets her go into the hands she wanted.

See also: 2 Kings 17:5-6.

Ezekiel 23:11-13

Jerusalem watched Samaria fall and was supposed to learn from it. Instead she became worse, and she too lusted after the Assyrians. The Lord saw it, and both sisters were walking the same road. Seeing another’s judgment does not help us if we refuse to turn.

BSA: depraved (“corrupt, ruined”): Her corruption was not only equal to her sister’s. It ran deeper, even after she had been warned.

See also: Jeremiah 3:6-10.

Ezekiel 23:14-15

Jerusalem then went further. She saw carved and painted figures of Babylonian officers on a wall, in red paint and handsome dress, and she was drawn to them. The temptation entered through her eyes. A vivid picture of power can pull the heart away from God.

BSA: portrayed (“painted, engraved, depicted”): She fell in love with an image before she had met the real men. A picture of power was enough to win her heart.

Ezekiel 23:16

She did not wait to be approached. She sent envoys to Babylon, seeking an alliance. Judah did turn to Babylon, as when Hezekiah welcomed Babylon’s envoys, and later kings rebelled against it. The prophet shows these political deals as spiritual unfaithfulness.

See also: 2 Kings 20:12-13.

Ezekiel 23:17-18

Babylon came and used her, and then she turned from them in disgust. Her desire had been empty. Because she acted so openly, the Lord turned from her too, as He had from her sister. Sin promises satisfaction and leaves disgust behind.

BSA: disgust (“her soul was alienated, her mind was turned away”): The break was inward and deep, a wrenching of the soul and not a mere change of plans.

Hebrew: וַתֵּקַע (vattēqaʻ, H3363) — “was torn away, wrenched loose.” The Hebrew word pictures a joint pulled out of its socket. Her soul was violently wrenched away from the lovers she had chased. The same word is used of God’s turning away from her.

Ezekiel 23:19-21

Instead of repenting, Jerusalem multiplied her unfaithfulness and went back in memory to Egypt. The coarse language about the Egyptians shows how animal and shameless her appetite had become. God describes the state of her heart without polish, so she will see it.

See also: Ezekiel 16:26.

Ezekiel 23:22-23

Now the verdict. The Lord Himself will stir up the lovers she grew tired of, Babylon and its peoples, and bring them against her from all sides. Assyrians are named as well, in the Babylonian armies. The nations she courted become her judges.

BSA: incite (“stir up, rouse”): God is not a bystander. He rouses these nations to act, though they have their own reasons.

Ezekiel 23:24

A great army with chariots, wagons and a ring of shields will surround her. God hands judgment over to them, and they will carry it out by their own harsh customs. Their cruelty is their own, but God uses it to bring about His own purpose.

BSA: delegate (“commit, entrust”): God entrusts the judgment to Babylon without sharing in its cruelty.

Ezekiel 23:25-27

God’s jealousy is the fierce love of a wronged husband. Babylon will treat her as conquerors treated adulteresses and captives, with mutilation, killing, captivity, fire and plunder. The goal stated is to end the long habit that began in Egypt, so that she no longer looks longingly at her old ways.

BSA: jealous rage (“intense anger, fervent passion”): It is the zeal of a love that will not share the beloved with another.

See also: Exodus 20:5.

Ezekiel 23:28-30

God repeats the sentence. She will be given to those she hates and left stripped of all she worked for. The reason is plain: she gave herself to the nations and to their idols. Her own choices have caused this.

BSA: prostituted (“gone a whoring, acted as an immoral prostitute”): God’s charge is that she sold her loyalty to the nations, and the loss follows from it.

Ezekiel 23:31

God now uses the picture of a cup. Because Jerusalem took her sister’s road, she will be given her sister’s cup. In Scripture a cup often stands for the portion God hands out, here the cup of His wrath.

BSA: cup (“divine wrath”): The cup is judgment she must drink to the dregs. It is not a pleasant drink offered to her.

Hebrew: כּוֹס (kos, H3563) — “cup.” In the Old Testament, a cup often means the portion God assigns, and sometimes it is the cup of wrath. This is a familiar picture in the prophets, and it makes the sentence concrete.

See also: Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15.

Ezekiel 23:32-34

The cup is deep, wide and full. She will be drunk with sorrow, mocked, and left in devastation, and she will drain it. In her despair she will smash the cup and tear at her breasts. God has said it, so it is certain.

BSA: drunkenness (“intoxication, staggering”): Judgment will leave her reeling and unable to stand, as a drunk cannot.

See also: Psalm 75:8.

Ezekiel 23:35

Underneath it all is a heart problem. She forgot God and threw Him behind her back, treating Him as something to leave out of sight. Therefore she must carry the weight of what she has done. Every other sin follows from this one.

BSA: forgotten (“ignored, neglected, or overlooked”): She did not lose God’s name. She treated Him as unimportant.

Hebrew: שָׁכַח (shakach, H7911) — “to forget.” In the Bible, to forget God is not a slip of memory. It means to stop living as if He matters, which is why it is joined here with throwing Him behind her back.

See also: Jeremiah 2:32.

Ezekiel 23:36

God asks Ezekiel whether he will act as judge and set out the charges against both sisters. The prophet must say plainly what they have done, so that the sentence is shown to be fair. God does not judge without making the reasons known.

BSA: abominations (“detestable things, idolatry or unclean practices”): These are things God finds loathsome. They are not minor lapses.

Ezekiel 23:37

The charge is spelled out: unfaithfulness to God, blood on their hands, and the worst of all, killing the children they bore to God and offering them in fire to idols. The children were His, and they were treated as food for false gods.

BSA: hands (“a sign of responsibility, power”): Blood on the hands marks guilt that belongs to the people who did the deed.

Hebrew: לְאָכְלָה (leʼoklah, H402) — “as food.” The Hebrew word pictures the children being consumed, as if they were a meal for idols. This is why the Lord speaks of these sacrifices with such horror.

See also: Leviticus 20:2-5; Jeremiah 7:31.

Ezekiel 23:38-39

Worse still, on the very same day that they killed their children for idols, they walked into God’s temple as if nothing had happened. They tried to keep both gods. In doing so they defiled His house and His Sabbaths.

See also: Ezekiel 8:5-6; Jeremiah 7:9-11.

Ezekiel 23:40-41

The picture returns to the sisters. They sent for men from far away, then bathed, painted their eyes and put on jewelry, as for a banquet of seduction. They even set God’s own incense and oil on the table. Gifts that belonged to Him were used for rivals.

BSA: incense (“sweet smoke, pleasing aroma”): Incense belonged in worship of the Lord, so using it in this feast turned holy things to unholy use.

See also: Hosea 2:8.

Ezekiel 23:42

The scene is loud and careless. A rowdy crowd, drunkards brought from the wilderness and the dregs of society, gather around, and they adorn her with bracelets and crowns. She thinks she is honored, but she is only being used by whoever comes.

BSA: carefree (“multitude being at ease, carefree”): The crowd is at ease and does not guess that judgment is near.

Ezekiel 23:43-44

She is worn out by her adulteries, and still they come to her as to a prostitute. God lets them. Those she gave herself to treat her as nothing more than that. Sin that was chosen eventually costs the one who chose it.

BSA: grown old (“worn out, exhausted”): Years of unfaithfulness have not satisfied her. They have only used her up.

Ezekiel 23:45

In the end, just men will pass the sentence the Law gives to adulteresses and murderers. God’s judgment is not random. It matches the Law’s own standards, which the sisters had long known.

See also: Leviticus 20:10.

Ezekiel 23:46-47

A mob is summoned to bring terror and plunder. They will stone them, cut them down with swords, kill their children and burn their houses. These are the harsh pictures of war and of the old penalty for adultery, and they point to what is coming on Jerusalem.

See also: 2 Kings 25:8-9.

Ezekiel 23:48

God’s purpose reaches past the punishment. He will end this indecency in the land, and other women will take warning and not copy her. Judgment, hard as it is, is meant to teach.

BSA: admonished (“disciplined, taught”): The fall of the sisters becomes a lesson to everyone who sees it.

Ezekiel 23:49

The chapter closes with the Lord’s own words: they will bear the weight of their idolatry, and then they will know that He is the Lord GOD. The goal is that He is known, even through judgment, as the only God and the rightful Husband of His people.

Hebrew: וִידַעְתֶּם (vidaʻtem, H3045) — “and you will know.” This is Ezekiel’s refrain. In Hebrew, to know means to know by experience, not just to be told. They will come to know who God is by what happens to them.

See also: Ezekiel 6:7.