Ezekiel 23:22-35

D. The Punishment of Jerusalem 23:22-35

TRANSLATION

(22) Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold I am about to stir up your lovers against you, those from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you round about; (23) the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shea and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, governors and rulers all of them, captains and counselors, all of them riding upon horses. (24) And they shall come against you with hosts,[359] chariots, wheels, and with an assembly of peoples; with shield, buckler, and helmet they shall set themselves against you round about; and I will commit judgment to them, and they will judge you with their judgments. (25) And I will set My jealousy against You, and they shall deal with you in wrath; they shall remove your nose and your ears, and the rest of you shall fall with the sword; they shall take your sons and daughters, and the rest of you shall be consumed with fire. (26) And they shall strip off your garments, and lake away your fair jewels. (27) And I will cause your lewdness to cease from you, and your Egyptian harlotry, so that you will not lift up your eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. (28) For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold I am about to give you into the hand of the one you hate, into the hand of the one from whom your soul is alienated; (29) and they shall deal with you in hatred, and they will take away all your labor, and they will leave you naked and bare; the nakedness of your harlotries shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotries. (30) These things shall be done to You because you have whored after nations, and because you were defiled by their idols. (31) You walked in the way of your sister; therefore, I will place her cup in your hand. (32) Thus says the Lord GOD: You will drink the cup of your sister which is deep and large; it shall be for scorn and derision; it is full to the uttermost. (33) You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria. (34) And you shall drink it, and drain it, and you shall gnaw its sherds, and you shall tear your breasts, for I have spoken (oracle of the Lord GOD). (35) Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten Me, and cast Me behind your back; therefore, bear also your lewdness and your harlotries.

[359] The word is of uncertain meaning.

COMMENTS

Gross infidelity must be punished. As time went on, Judah became alienated from her lovers and wished to be free of all foreign entanglements. But morally and spiritually the damage already had been done. Ironically, God would use Judah's lovers as the instrument by which to punish His people (Ezekiel 23:22). The various racial and linguistic groups which made up the empire of Nebuchadnezzar[360] are named in Ezekiel 23:23. What a handsome sight that would be when those troops from far-off Mesopotamia armed to the teeth with the finest military equipment came against Jerusalem! God had commissioned those troops to execute His judgment upon Jerusalem, and they would fulfill that commission according to their judgment, i.e., in their own ruthless fashion (Ezekiel 23:24).

[360] Pekod, Shea, and Koa are now known to be races inhabiting the land east of the Tigris and bordering on Elam or Persia. See Fisch, SBB, p. 154.

Yahweh is a jealous God. He would not tolerate His people engaging in flirtations with other gods. God would set His jealousy against Judah, i.e., He would bring divine retribution upon them. The attacking forces would deal ruthlessly with Jerusalem. The nose and ears of the adulterous Oholibah would be removed. The reference is probably to be taken figuratively of the execution or deportation of the leading citizens of the nation.[361] Other citizens would fall by the sword or be taken as slaves. The houses and property of the city would be put to the torch (Ezekiel 23:25) after being plundered (Ezekiel 23:26). The fall of that nation and subsequent exile would cure the Jews of their lewdness, i.e., lust for idolatry. Pagan practices learned in Egypt would be abandoned and forgotten (Ezekiel 23:27). History records that God's judgment of Jerusalem did have this purging and purifying effect.

[361] In ancient times disfigurement was inflicted on women caught in adultery.

The prophet further describes Jerusalem's attackers and their destructive works in Ezekiel 23:28-30. The Jews would be delivered into the hand of their hated enemy, the Babylonians (Ezekiel 23:28). They would deal with the Jews in hatred. They would take away all the labor, i.e., fruit of the labors, of the Jerusalemites. The land would be stripped of all its wealth and left naked and bare. By the drastic extremes of the punishment the magnitude of the harlotries of Jerusalem, i.e., idolatrous sins, would be revealed (Ezekiel 23:29). Again the prophet pounds home his point that the judgment would fall upon Jerusalem because they had entered into alliances with foreign nations instead of trusting in the Lord; and they consequently had been corrupted by the practices of these nations (Ezekiel 23:30).

Oholibah (Jerusalem) had followed the example of her sister Oholah (Samaria). The bitter cup of divine judgment had been drunk by the Northern Kingdom in the days of the great Assyrian kings. Now that cup would pass into the hands of Judah (Ezekiel 23:31). That cup of judgment was deep and large and full to the brim with bitter brew. That cup would bring scorn and derision to Judah (Ezekiel 23:32) because the nation would manifest the characteristics of a drunken man (Ezekiel 23:33). The cup would be drained to the last drop, and the vessel itself chewed up so that the beverage which had soaked into the pottery could be consumed. In drunken madness the inebriated Oholibah would tear at her breasts in anguish. This figure conveys the thought that the complete measure of divine judgment must be endured. God had decreed the judgment (Ezekiel 23:34), because they had forgotten Him and cast Him behind their backs as they would a worthless object. They must suffer the consequences of their spiritual indiscretion (Ezekiel 23:35).