Ezekiel 23

I was once told, by a near relative of mine, that having in her childhood fallen into a river, and being on the very verge of death but for the critical assistance which reached her, she saw in a moment her whole life, in its minutest incidents, arrayed before her simultaneously as in a mirror, and she had a faculty developed as suddenly for comprehending the whole and every part. This, from some opium experiences of mine, I can believe. I have indeed seen the same thing asserted twice in modern books, and accompanied by a remark which I am convinced is true—viz., that the dread book of account which the Scriptures speak of is in fact the mind itself of each individual. Of this at least I feel assured, that there is no such thing as forgetting possible to the mind. A thousand accidents may and will interpose a veil between our present consciousness and the secret inscriptions on the mind—accidents of the same sort will also rend away the veil; but alike whether veiled or unveiled the inscription remains forever, just as the stars seem to withdraw before the common light of day, whereas, in fact, we all know that it is the light which is drawn over them as a veil, and that they are waiting to be revealed when the obscuring daylight shall have withdrawn. De Quincy.

History is as the world’s memory; and memory itself is a perpetual witness of immortality. Memory seems to be, as it were, our witness against time, our witness that we are independent of time, our witness that we have a greater being than one which depends on duration. “The soul of man,” as a powerful writer says, “grasping and gathering together a long series of duration into itself, makes an essay to free itself from the rigid laws of it, and to purchase to itself the freedom of a true eternity.” Memory lives in the past, as well as in the present. It throws itself into it with the vivid consciousness of its reality. It does not acknowledge the past to be gone, and done, and done away, as something only to be matter for reflection or ground of retribution, but as a still living and being reality, which the soul by its inherent immortal powers comprises as it were at a glance, never loses, and can, but for bodily imperfection, recall and render present at will.

This is the case with our own personal memories. Our life is indeed a series of successive acts, and a gradual growing; and there are changes, and gains and losses, and progressions and retrogressions in it, in all its duration. But in memory, the witness of immortality, they all live together. The whole is one picture; presented to the eye of memory, in some sort, as to the eye of God, presented as it were upon one plane—ourselves seen all at once—no question then of successive personal identity—ourselves in all our history. Bp. Moberly.

The memory of all present events will abide with the soul, saved or lost, in the future state. In this life we find ample evidence that nothing is absolutely forgotten, that all thoughts and feelings once cherished by the mind are graven indelibly upon it, and therefore susceptible of recall. The mind is so constructed as to secure their return by the operation of certain fixed laws of suggestion and association, which operate irresistibly, entirely apart from the mind’s own volition. By their operation it is possible that all things ever thought or felt, said or done, may be recalled and grouped together as a chain, so that taking hold of any link memory may flash backward and forward, and bring up with the vividness of a present reality every event of the past. Nor is there the least evidence that death will break or detach a single link from the chain. Facts are abundant in proof that the nearer the living approach to death the more effective, full and vivid does memory become. The very weakness and decay of the body seem to intensify and quicken it with new life. And inspiration declares that the deeds of men in the body, the evil as well as the good, shall follow them. It affirms that upon each guilty soul will be held a strict inquisition of its every word and act, that its own testimony concerning each shall determine the final award. “Son, remember” is the thrillingly conclusive expression which the Divine Teacher, He who was Truth itself, applies to the rich man in the very experience of torment. Assuredly, then, memory and reflection shall immovably abide with the unforgiven soul, perfect, unclouded memory and clear, unbroken reflection upon the long-wasted past, upon its minutest particulars of neglected duty, privilege and opportunity. And thus it shall be that in the self-revelation of the eternal world, by the inconceivable quickening and expanded power of memory and reflection, conscience shall be compelled to the undying remorse of a perpetuated self-revelation and confession. B.

Memory is not all within the power of the will on earth; and probably, memory in another world is still more involuntary and still more constant. Why? Because I read in the Bible that there is work in another world for God’s servants to do; but I do not read that there is work for anybody else but God’s servants to do. The work of an unforgiven sinner is done when he dies. And that not only because he is going into the state of retribution, but because no rebel’s work is going to be suffered in that world. The time for that is past. And so, if you will look, all the teachings of the Bible about the future state of those that are not in blessedness give us this idea—a monotonous continuance of idleness, shutting them up to their own contemplations, the memories of the past and the agonies of the future. There are no distractions for such a man in another world. He has thought, he has conscience, he has remembrance. He has a sense of pain, of sin, of wrong, of loss. He has one “passive, fixed endurance, all eternal and the same;” but I do not read that his pain is anodyned and his sorrow soothed by any activity that his hand finds to do. And in a most tragic sense, we may say, “there is neither work, nor labor, nor device” in that dark world where the fruits of sin are reaped in monotonous suffering and ever-present pain. A memory that will have its own way; what a field for sorrow and lamentation that is, when God says at last, “Now go—go apart; take thy life with thee; read it over; see what thou hast done with it!” One old Roman tyrant had a punishment in which he bound the dead body of the murdered to the living body of the murderer, and left them there scaffolded. And when that voice comes, “Son, remember!” to the living soul of the godless, unbelieving, impenitent man, there is bound to him the murdered past, the dead past, his own life; and in Milton’s awful and profound words,

“Which way I fly is hell—myself am hell!”

There is enough—without any ghastly, sensual external figures—there is enough to make the boldest tremble; a memory embracing all the past, a memory rapidly grasping and constantly bringing its burdens, a judgment which admits of no mistakes, and a conscience which has done with palliations and excuses!

It is not difficult to see how that is an instrument of torture. It is more difficult to see how such a memory can be a source of gladness; and yet it can. The old Greeks were pressed with that difficulty; they said to themselves, If a man remembers, there can be no Elysium for him. And so they put the river of forgetfulness, the waters of Lethe, betwixt life and the happy plains. Ah, we do not want any river of oblivion betwixt us and everlasting blessedness. Calvary is on this side, and that is enough! Certainly it is one of the most blessed things about “the faith that is in Christ Jesus,” that it makes a man remember his own would find that God never lacks agencies and resources for terrific punishment! How vain for frail, weak creatures to stand up against the Almighty! How surely will sinners learn this to their unutterable consternation when the wrath of God shall fall on them to the uttermost! H. C.

14. Estrange yourself from God by neglect of prayer, and He will estrange Himself from you: this is to shut out the fulness of God from your soul, to thrust away from you the overture of eternal life! The deathbed reserves its keenest anguish for those who, in the midst of religious advantages, never pray. How shall your heart endure or your hands be strong in the day when He shall deal with those who have thus neglected Him? R. Hall.

17-22. By a new and expressive figure the people are all said to be mere dross; not gold and silver, but only the refuse matter which is mixed with those precious metals and requires to be expelled by intense heat in the furnace. So the Lord would gather this wicked people, put them into His great furnace, blow upon them in the fierceness of His wrath, and expel all the impure, worthless matter.

23,24. By yet another figure, the land of Judah is like a field not cleansed of its briars, thorns and weeds, which are fatal to the production of useful plants—nor had it been rained upon. Of course it can be only barren. H. C.

30. We are not so to press these words as to assert literally that there was not one righteous man in Jerusalem. Ezekiel speaks in general terms and says that there is not in the city sufficient righteousness to save it from utter destruction. Prince, prophet, priest, all fail. B. C.

30,31. The moral power of the people to recover themselves from their horrible corruptions is prostrate; there is no recuperative force left. Not a man appeared to stem the torrent of this corruption. If the Lord could have found one such strong man to work with himself for the salvation of the people, he would at least have deferred this final outpouring of His wrath in exterminating judgments. But He found none, and hence their ruin was inevitable, and no reason existed for its being longer delayed. H. C.

23: 1, 2 THE word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: and they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bare sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah. And Oholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, which were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. And she bestowed her whoredoms upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them: and on whomsoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself. Neither hath she left her whoredoms since the days of Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the teats of her virginity: and they poured out their whoredom upon her. Wherefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and her they slew with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgements upon her. And her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her whoredoms which were more than the whoredoms of her sister. She doted upon the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbours, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. And I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way. And she increased her whoredoms; for she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, girdled with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look upon, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their nativity. And as soon as she saw them she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them. So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister. Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, remembering the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

20. And she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is 21 like the issue of horses. Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in the bruising of thy teats by the Egyptians for the breasts of thy youth. 22 Therefore, O Oholibah, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side; 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, 24 all of them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with an assembly of peoples; they shall set themselves against thee with buckler and shield and helmet round about; and I will commit the judgement unto them, 25 and they shall judge thee according to their judgements. And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal with thee in fury; they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy 26 residue shall be devoured by the fire. They shall also strip thee of thy clothes, and take 27 away thy fair jewels. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor re- 28 member Egypt any more. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hated, into the hand of them from whom thy soul is alienated; 29 and they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy 30 lewdness and thy whoredoms. These things shall be done unto thee, for that thou hast 31 gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols. Thou hast 32 walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. Thus saith the Lord God: Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup, which is deep and large: thou shalt be 33 laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunk- enness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister 34 Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it and drain it out, and thou shalt gnaw the sherds thereof, 35 and shalt tear thy breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. 36 The LORD said moreover unto me: Son of man, wilt thou judge Oholah and Oholibah? 37 then declare unto them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass through the fire unto them to be devoured. 38 Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and 39 have profaned my sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst 40 of mine house. And furthermore ye have sent for men that come from far: unto whom a messenger was sent, and, lo, they came; for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thine 41 eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments; and satest upon a stately bed, with a table pre- 42 pared before it, whereupon thou didst set mine incense and mine oil. And the voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets upon the hands of them twain, and 43 beautiful crowns upon their heads. Then said I of her that was old in adulteries, Now will 44 they commit whoredoms with her, and she with them. And they went in unto her, as they go in unto an harlot; so went they in unto Oholah and unto Oholibah, the lewd women. 45 And righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgement of adulteresses, and with the judgement of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their 46 hands. For thus saith the Lord God: I will bring up an assembly against them, and will 47 give them to be tossed to and fro and spoiled. And the assembly shall stone them with stones, and despatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, 48 and burn up their houses with fire. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that 49 all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. 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 God.

Chap. 23. The allegory of Aholah and Aholibah. This chapter closely resembles chap. 16. Idolatry is represented by the same figure, but here there are two sisters instead of one woman. Aholah (Israel) is, however, chiefly introduced in order to heighten Aholibah’s (Judah’s) guilt. In chap. 16 there is more expectation, appeal to God’s love and mercy shown in past time. Here the tone is that of warning and of judgment, the close of the sevenfold reply to the elders of Israel. (See Jer. 3: 7, on which the allegory may have been founded.) B. C.

In this chapter, the figure by which the Lord represents the idolatry of His people as adultery assumes a bolder form than usual, and is carried out with very great minuteness both in respect to the sin and its punishment. The whole representation is intensely keen and caustic, setting forth in a most revolting light the great crimes of the Jewish people in the line of idolatry, and adapted to fill them with a sense of shame and self-loathing. In a few passages our translation fails to give the full strength of the original, but the nature of the subject ought perhaps to excuse the omission of any more amplifying details. The ultimate sense of the whole is plain. Samaria and Jerusalem are called “Aholah” and “Aholibah.” As harlots, they began their harlot life with Egypt; continued it with Assyria, the Chaldeans and the people of the desert; pushed their idolatry even to the extent of burning alive their children, God’s own sons and daughters, and of desecrating His very sanctuary with their idols; and then, being put on trial under Hebrew law before righteous men, they suffer the doom of adulteresses, on whose hands is the blood of murder also; they are staged with stones and their houses burned with fire. Thus the land is cleansed of the abominations of its spiritual whoredom; it bears the sins of its idols, and Desolation sits upon the ruins of those cities—a living memorial of God’s righteous jealousy against His apostate people! H. C.

In this chapter there are many of what we would call indelicate expressions, because a parallel is run between idolatry and prostitution; and the circumstances of the latter illustrate the peculiarities of the former. Ezekiel was among the Jews what Juvenal was among the Romans—a rough reprover of the most abominable vices. They both spoke of things as they found them; stripped vice naked and scourged it publicly. A. C.—The style of this chapter, like that of chap. 16, is adapted to men among whom at that time no refinement subsisted. Large allowance must be made for language addressed to an ancient Eastern people, in the worst period of their history; all whose ideas were sensual, and whose grand inducement to idolatry seems to have been the brutal impurities which it encouraged. Abp. Newcome.

1-10. God had often spoken to Ezekiel, and by him to the people, to this effect, but now His word comes again; for God speaks the same thing once, yea twice, yea many a time, and all little enough, and too little, for man perceives it not. Note: To convince sinners of the evil of sin and of their misery and danger by reason of it, there is need of line upon line, so loath we are to know the worst of ourselves. The sinners that are here to be exposed are two women, two kingdoms, sister-kingdoms, Israel and Judah, daughters of one mother, having been for a long time but one people. Solomon’s kingdom was so large, so populous, that immediately after his death it divided into two. H.

4. And the names of them were. Both of these divided people had their names from a tent or tabernacle. Israel, which is the greater part of the Ten Tribes, is Aholah, “her own tabernacle,” which she would needs erect according to her own device, to draw away clients from My Temple. Judah is Aholibah, “My tent or tabernacle in her;” because of the place of My worship settled there. Bp. Hall.

11. Jerusalem was worse than Samaria as having sinned against greater light, more sacred vows and obligations, and especially in the presence of the very Temple of the holy God! H. C.

14. Portrayed upon the wall. The monuments of Nineveh recently discovered show how the walls of its palaces were adorned with figures precisely answering to this description. These figures represented princes and kings, warriors and battles; the head-dresses of the princes were high turbans, and the striking countenances and majestic appearances of the kings as thus represented accords well with Ezekiel’s words, all of them princes to look upon. There is evidence that these sculptures were highly colored with vermilion, or, rather, red ochre. (See Layard’s “Monuments of Nineveh” and Vaux’s “Nineveh and Persepolis.”) The Babylonians and Assyrians were so closely connected in origin and in customs, that there can be little doubt that the magnificent palaces of Nebuchadnezzar were similarly adorned, and that the Nineveh remains faithfully represent the sculptures of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was no less distinguished for his mighty buildings than for his vast conquests, and it is remarkable that the records of Nebuchadnezzar, hitherto deciphered, contain full particulars as to his buildings, but do not (as in the Assyrian palaces) refer to foreign conquests. These conquests are undoubted, and may be recorded in inscriptions yet to be discovered—but the prominence given to works of architecture is in accord with Dan. 4:30. (See Ménant’s “Babylone et la Chaldée,” p. 197 foll.) B. C.

14-16. This representation was specially pertinent from the lips of Ezekiel to the Jewish exiles then in Chaldea, being well adapted to make them abhor these seductive temptations which addressed themselves not unfrequently (we must suppose) to their eyes. H. C.

19. Egypt. The kings of Judah played alternately Egypt against Babylon, and Babylon against Egypt. Jehoahaz was displaced by Necho for Jehoakim, who then turned to the Chaldeans, and afterward in his rebellion sought aid from Egypt. So Zedekiah was continually meditating help from Egypt, against which Jeremiah and Ezekiel were continually protesting. B. C.

38,39. The figure is here in part dropped and literal statements appear, perhaps because no possible turn of the figure could adequately represent the enormity of burning their own children in the fire, or of desecrating the very Temple of the living God with their idols. The view given of the dreadful guilt of the Jews is heightened by the repeated statement that after burning their own children to idol gods they went on the same day into God’s holy Temple, and with bloody hands profaned His sanctuary.

Abating the intensely revolting nature of this description and the repugnance of its dedetails to our sense of delicacy, the whole description is pungent and thrilling, and must have been full of moral power upon the heart and conscience of the men to whom it was originally spoken. One may well suppose it would make their ears tingle and their cheeks crimson with a sense of shame for their people and their beloved city. We naturally incline to pass by such a chapter unread; yet let us not forget that to the Jewish exiles of Ezekiel’s day its features that are revolting to us would be scarcely if at all objectionable, and then that its caustic and terribly truthful severity must have made its testimony against the guilt of Jerusalem burn itself into the very heart and soul of the people. The siege was within a few months of its commencement. These were the last words of the prophet prior to his announcement that the siege had begun. H. C.