Ezekiel 23

3 in Egypt. The Israelites had been greatly contaminated with idolatry in Egypt: see note, xx. 8.

4. Aholah . . . . . Aholibah. “Oholah,” “Oholibah” (R.V.). Oholah means, “her own tent,” or “tabernacle”; Oholibah, “my tabernacle [is] in her.” Recent scholarship, however, regards the words as practically identical (Oxford Hebrew Lexicon; Gray’s Hebrew Proper Names; J. A. Selbie in Hastings’ Dict. of Bible, and Skinner, Expositor’s Bible). Samaria (or the kingdom of the Ten Tribes) openly deserted the sanctuary of Jehovah, which was in Jerusalem, and set up “her own tabernacle” for the worship of the golden calf. “The key to all the realistic language of the chapter is to be found in the last words of ver. 7, ‘with all their idols she defiled herself,’” (Dr. H. A. Redpath in Westminster Commentaries).

5 on the Assyrians [her] neighbours. Or, “on the Assyrians drawing near to her.” This alliance was first the disgrace and then the ruin of the Ten Tribes.

6 riding upon horses. The employment of cavalry was a main distinction between the Assyrian and the Israelite armies.

10 famous. Rather, “notorious”; i.e., infamous. “She became a byword among women,” R.V.

11 she was more corrupt. i.e., in the days of Manasseh (2 Kings xxi. 1-16).

12. She doted upon the Assyrians [her] neighbours. As in the friendly intercourse between Ahaz and Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings xvi.).

14 men pourtrayed upon the wall. Either deified men, such as most of the gods of the nations were—in other words, Babylonian gods painted in human form; or Babylonian princes, with whom the Jews were led to form alliances, and by whom they were allured to idolatry: see viii. 10.

pourtrayed with vermilion. At Khorsabad, among other sculptures, there are figures in a sacerdotal dress, supposed to be diviners or magicians, which have more of the vermilion and of the black pigment in their hair than any others on the walls (15). See Bonomi’s Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 206.

15 girded with girdles. The Assyrians generally wore flowing robes, mantles of various shapes, long fringed scarfs, and embroidered girdles.

16 sent messengers unto them. There was alliance and friendly intercourse between Chaldea and the kings of Judah (2 Kings xx. 12; xxiv. 1).

17 alienated. i.e., through satiety, and the wish to have other lovers in their room.

23. Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa. Most translators regard these words as proper names, of Babylon itself or of some of its provinces. But others, with the Vulgate, render them, “powerful, and rich, and noble.” (For Pekod, see Jer. 1. 21.)

24 with chariots, wagons, and wheels. Perhaps, “with weapons, chariots, and wagons,” as R.V.

25 thy nose and thine ears. In Egypt the noses of adulterers were cut off; and in Babylonia both their ears and noses.

34 break. Rather, “gnaw” (R.V.), or “scrape”; i.e., thou shalt completely exhaust the “cup.”

pluck off. Or, “tear,” R.V.

35 thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. i.e., the consequences of these sins.

36 wilt thou judge Aholah, etc.? See note on xx. 4.

39 the same day into My sanctuary. The treating of the Eternal as one of the deities of polytheism was in the worst spirit of idolatry.

40 that ye have sent for men, etc. They not merely yielded to temptation, but courted it. The imagery here is that of a stately and voluptuous feast. The “bed” is the divan or couch on which the feasters reclined.

42. Sabeans. Mentioned in Isa. xlv. 14 in connexion with Ethiopia. The rendering of R.V. and Moffatt, though supported by the Septuagint, “drunkards,” is not generally accepted.

45 the righteous men. The nations whom God would employ as the instruments of His righteous purposes.

46 to be removed. Rather, as R.V., “to be tossed to and fro.”