The parable of the unfaithful sisters
23
The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 23:1 This whole chapter is about the unfaithfulness of the two divisions of the people of Israel. It may be compared with chapter 16 and Jeremiah chapter 3.⚜
2 📚“Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother, 3 📚and they committed acts of prostitution in Egypt. They committed acts of prostitution in their youth. There their breasts were pressed, and there their virgin bosoms were embraced.
23:2-3 Even before the people of Israel left Egypt for Canaan they became “prostitutes” – that is, they became unfaithful to God, and set their love on the things of Egypt (Ezek 20:7-8; Num 11:5; 14:2-4; 16:13; 21:5). In the Bible spiritual unfaithfulness is frequently compared to adultery and prostitution (Ezek 16:15; Ex 34:15; Lev 17:7; Deut 31:16; Jud 2:17; Jer 2:20; 3:6, 9). In this chapter the emphasis is on unfaithfulness to God in the matter of seeking allies, but idolatry is also in view (vs 7,30,37,49). Both kingdoms in Israel all too often sought help, not from God, but from powerful and ungodly nations. They admired their strength and wanted to follow their ways. And they were prone to adopt the gods and idols of the nations they pursued.⚜
23:4 Aholah means “her own tent”; Aholibah means “my tent is in her”. The northern kingdom with its capital in Samaria forsook God’s dwelling place in Jerusalem and made her own places of worship (1 Kings 12:16-33). This is probably what is signified by the name Aholah. God’s dwelling place remained in the southern kingdom, in Jerusalem, until the time of Ezekiel chapter 10. This is probably what is signified by the name Aholibah.⚜
5 📚“And Aholah acted like a prostitute when she was mine; and she lusted after her lovers, her neighbours the Assyrians 📖, 6 📚who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. 7 📚So she committed her acts of prostitution with them, with all those who were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all whom she lusted after; she defiled herself with all their idols. 8 📚And she did not abandon her prostitution carried on from Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they embraced her virgin bosom, and poured their immorality on her.
23:8 In some hundreds of years there was no real change in the people.⚜
9 📚“Therefore I have delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, whom she lusted after. 10 📚These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters, and killed her with the sword. And she became notorious among women, for they had executed judgment on her.
23:9-10 The Assyrians conquered Israel and took the people into captivity in 721 BC (2 Kings 17:1-18).⚜
11 📚“And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her prostitution worse than her sister in her prostitution.
23:11 Though the southern kingdom of Judah knew all that had happened to Samaria she did not change her ways. Indeed she became worse than the northern kingdom (Ezek 16:51; Jer 3:7-11).⚜
12 📚She lusted after her neighbors the Assyrians, captains and rulers dressed very splendidly, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. 13 📚Then I saw that she was defiled, that both of them had taken the same way, 14 📚and that she increased her acts of prostitution. For she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in red, 15 📚with sashes tied around their waists, and flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, in the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their birth.
16 📚“And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she lusted after them, and sent messengers to Chaldea to them.
17 📚And the Babylonians came to her in the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. And she was defiled by them, and her mind was alienated from them.
23:17 Love of the world and friendship with ungodly people will defile God’s people. So we have the New Testament admonitions of 2 Cor 6:14-18 and 1 John 2:15-16.⚜
18 📚So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my mind was alienated from her, just as my mind was alienated from her sister. 19 📚Yet she multiplied her acts of prostitution, calling to remembrance the days of her youth, where she had acted like a prostitute in the land of Egypt. 20 📚For she lusted after her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 21 Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians embraced your bosom because of your youthful breasts.
23:19-21 Instead of turning back to God for help from enemies Judah turned to any country that seemed to offer assistance. Compare Jer 27:3. And she longed for the time when she was controlled by Egypt and God had not yet brought her out of bondage.⚜
22 📚“Therefore, O Aholibah, thus says the Lord God: See, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your mind is alienated, and I will bring them against you 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 on horses. 24 📚And they will come against you with weapons 📖, chariots and wagons, and with a horde of people, who will set large shields and small shields and helmets against you all around. And I will delegate judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments. 25 📚And I will set my jealousy 📖 against you, and they will deal furiously with you. They will remove your nose and your ears, and the rest of you will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and your daughters, and the remainder of you will be devoured by fire. 26 📚They will also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels. 27 📚Thus I will put a stop to your lewdness, and your prostitution carried on from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them, or remember Egypt any more.
23:27 Here is God’s good purpose in all this. He was determined to break them loose from their idols, and from their love of the ways of ungodly nations. See also Ezek 16:41-42.⚜
28 📚“For thus says the Lord God: See, I will deliver you into the hands of those you hate, into the hands of those from whom your mind is alienated. 29 📚And they will deal with you hatefully, and take away all that your labour produced, and will leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your acts of prostitution. 30 📚I will do these things to you, because you have gone like a prostitute after the nations, and because you are defiled with their idols.
23:30 The reasons for their destruction are clearly set before them.⚜
31 📚You have walked in the way of your sister, therefore I will give her cup 📖 into your hand.
32 📚“Thus says the Lord God:
You will drink from the deep
and large cup of your sister.
You will be laughed to scorn
and derided. It contains much.
33 📚You will be filled with drunkenness
and sorrow, with the cup of
astonishment and desolation,
with the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 📚You will drink it and drain it,
and you will break it to shards,
and tear your own breasts;
for I have spoken it,
says the Lord God.
35 📚“Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten 📖 me, and thrust me behind your back, therefore you will also bear 📖 your lewdness and your prostitution”.
23:22-35 Sin will always have its consequences. In this case those nations Judah considered allies would become her enemies and destroy her. Behind the marching of their armies God stood directing them and punishing His people (vs 22,24,25).⚜
36 📚The LORD also said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Aholah and Aholibah? Yes, declare to them their abominations.
23:36 God wants those who are suffering His punishment to understand exactly why.⚜
37 📚Tell them that they have committed adultery, and that blood 📖 is in their hands, and that they have committed adultery with their idols, and have also caused their sons 📖, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire, for them to devour. 38 📚Moreover they have done this to me: on the same day they have defiled my sanctuary and profaned my Sabbaths. 39 📚For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, they then came the same day into my sanctuary to defile it; and, see, this they have done inside my house.
23:38-39 Ezek 8:1-18; 22:8. How more plainly could they have shown their contempt for God, His temple, and His laws?⚜
40 📚“And furthermore, you sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and, see, they came. You washed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments, 41 📚and sat on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, on which you placed my incense and my oil.
42 📚“And a sound of a carefree crowd was with her; and Sabeans were brought from the wilderness, with men of the common sort, who put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 📚Then I said about this one grown old in adulteries, ‘Will they now commit acts of prostitution with her, and she with them?’ 44 📚And they went in to her, as they go in to a woman who acts like a prostitute; so they went in to Aholah and to Aholibah, the lewd women.
23:40-44 God now speaks to both the southern and northern kingdoms in Israel and describes their behavior. “Sabeans” (v 42) – or “drunkards”.⚜
45 📚And the righteous men will judge them as adulteresses, and as women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
46 📚“For thus says the Lord God: I will bring a crowd against them, and will hand them over to be terrorized and plundered. 47 📚And the crowd will stone them with stones, and execute them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire.
23:45-47 The penalty for adultery and murder under the law was death (Ex 21:12-14; Lev 20:10). Righteous people will see that what happened to Samaria and Jerusalem was a perfectly just punishment.⚜
48 📚“Thus I will put a stop to lewdness in the land, so that all women may be taught not to act according to your lewdness.
23:48 Verse 27.⚜
49 📚And they will repay your lewdness on you, and you will bear the sins of your idolatry; and you will know that I am the Lord God”.
23:49 The penalty for idolatry was also death (Ex 22:20).⚜