Ezekiel 23:1-49
1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
3 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.
4 And the names of them were Aholaha the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.
5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
6 Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
7 Thus she committedb her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
8 Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
9 Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
10 These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famousc among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.
12 She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,
14 And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,
15 Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:
16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
17 And the Babyloniansd came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.
18 So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.
19 Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
20 For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
21 Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.
22 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind 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: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.
24 And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.
25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.
26 They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy faire jewels.
27 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 remember Egypt any more.
28 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated:
29 And they shall deal with thee hatefully, 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 lewdness and thy whoredoms.
30 I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.
31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.
32 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much.
33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.
34 Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
35 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 judgef Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations;
37 That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.
38 Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.
39 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 of mine house.
40 And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to comeg from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments,
41 And satest upon a statelyh bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.
42 And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.
43 Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredomsi with her, and she with them?
44 Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.
45 And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
46 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.
47 And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatchj them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.
48 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
49 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.
Ezekiel 23:2. There were two women, the daughters of one mother. Samaria and Jerusalem, cities introduced in the female character, as in Ezekiel 23:10; Ezekiel 23:48.
Ezekiel 23:4. Samaria is Aholah, or her tent, because they worshipped local divinities, and assembled under the shadow of trees and tents. Samaria is first mentioned under this comparison, because the kingdom of the ten tribes was the first to go astray, soon after the time of Solomon. She also doted on the invading cavalry of Assyria. Manahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver to be confirmed in the kingdom. 2 Kings 15:19. Jerusalem is Aholibah. A tabernacle, or my habitation is in it. Jerusalem is so called because of the holy temple, in which the Lord dwelt in the midst of his people; there also he had pitched his tent in the time of David.
Ezekiel 23:9. Wherefore I have delivered her (Aholah) into the hands of her lovers. This was the case with Israel no less than eight times, during the government of the Judges. Every time they adopted the gods of a neighbouring nation, the Lord presently gave them into the hands of that nation. The Hebrews, so illustrious in the days of Joshua, basely bled under the tributary yoke of contemptible powers.
Ezekiel 23:14. When she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall. The princes and gods of Chaldea, painted with warm and glowing tints, seduced and corrupted her eyes and her heart. The pencil goes as far in the style of nudity as the public can possibly bear, and often so far as puts modesty to the blush. Better destroy the picture, than that the picture should destroy the soul.
Ezekiel 23:23. Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa. These were ancient names for provinces of the Babylonian empire. Jeremiah 50:21. But the versions vary; some read, captains, prefects, princes, satraps and tyrants. It is difficult to decide here, as the names of gods, of men, and of countries were often similar.
Ezekiel 23:33. The cup of thy sister Samaria: thou shalt even drink it, and suck it out. The Lord here announces by this mixed cup, the full and bitter round of afflictions from the sword, the famine, the pestilence, and all the gloom of dying in captivity, which this revolted nation should sustain.
Ezekiel 23:37. Blood is in their hands they have caused their sons to pass through the fire, to devour them. Here is positive proof that the ancients actually burnt their children to Moloch. Lustration seems to have been a more modern mode of devoting children. Manasseh also shed much innocent blood. 2 Kings 24:4.
Ezekiel 23:38. They have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and profaned my sabbaths. These were the sins which completed the career of crime, and filled up the measure of Judah's iniquity.
Ezekiel 23:40. Thou didst paint thine eyes. The LXX read, ετιβιζου τους οφθαλμος σου with stibium, the red calces of lead, to give a fine colour and clearness to the eyes. This would ultimately injure the sight. In our potteries, those who dip the vases in lead, in a few years lose the power to open their hand.
Ezekiel 23:45. Righteous men shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses. Those who chastised Israel are called God's sanctified ones, set apart and commissioned to invade with the sword, and avenge the wrongs which heaven had sustained by this vile and apostate nation.
Ezekiel 23:48. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land. זמה zimmah, which Montanus renders fœditatem, a word comprehending every species of crime. Others read, and all the dung and uncleanness of gentile worship. What sort of men were those to whom the prophets preached! Et peccata stercorum suorum.
REFLECTIONS.
The naïveté of the language here, as in chap. 16., may be thought by some to demand an apology, because nature should not be too much exposed. But how could a gross and degenerate people be moved by images less affecting; and how could the base conduct of Israel to their fathers' God be made manifest by a portrait less mortifying to the pride of man. The whole must therefore be regarded as a fine take-off of the profligacy of a degenerate church.
The shame and degeneracy of Judah is traced to its source. The people had a frantic passion for the dress, the manners, and the worship of the Assyrians. Samaria had indeed prepared the way; but when Judah, led by her wicked princes, began the career of paganism, she excelled her sister in every view, nor could the Assyrians long boast of preference, either in the effusion of blood or in profligacy of morals. In this view, if one could modestly convey a word to England, it might not be unseasonable. We have confessedly showed a strong partiality to the dress, the morals, and the etiquette, and have too much sacrificed the manly gravity of Britons to the volatile character of the French. In theatres, in amusements, in a desecration of the sabbath, we make too near an approach. The character also of our subscription libraries, and general course of reading, is nearly similar. In point of villas and mansions, of equipage, festivity and wastes, we may fairly be allowed to excel them, being aided by unexampled resources of commerce. But the moral and the issue of the parallel are the most interesting. When Judah became completely enslaved to the opinions and manners of the heathen, God, as is often noticed, gave them into the hands of the heathen. And shall we ever see the day, the fatal day… I stop myself before I have said too much. The praying remnant can never desire that evil day. May the uplifted rod sanctify and save a forgetful nation. It is however a grand truth, that this nation has no medium between its present splendour; and a ruin greater than has before been witnessed. And where is the man, where the christian, properly impressed with the balance of nations which heaven holds in its hands, who would not unceasingly pray for the pardon of our sins, and do all he can to instruct the rising age, and to save his country from the growing mass of crimes, which have ultimately proved the destruction of every nation. May our country be precious in thy sight, oh Lord; and may we be heirs of thine everlasting covenant. Amen.