Ezekiel 23:17

17 "The ¹Babylonians * came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. And when she had been defiled by them, she became disgusted with them.

Ezekiel 23:17 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 23:17

And the Babylonians came to her in the bed of love
Entered into alliance with the Jews, and worshipped together in the same idols' temple. Jarchi thinks this refers to the messengers of the king of Babylon to Hezekiah; who were gladly received by him, and to whom he showed all the treasures of his house: and they defiled her with their whoredom;
or with their idols, as the Targum; they drew them into their idolatrous practices; which were defiling them, and by which they were corrupted from the simplicity of the true worship of God: and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them:
or "plucked", or "disjoined from them" ^F25; the Chaldeans, broke league and covenant with them, hating them as much as before they doted upon them; this was done in the times of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, who rebelled against the king of Babylon, ( 2 Kings 24:1 2 Kings 24:20 ) as it often is the case with lewd women, when they have satisfied their lust with their gallants, loath and despise them, and cast them off.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 (Mhm hvpn eqtw) "avulsa est", Munster; "et luxata est anima ipsius ab eis", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus.

Ezekiel 23:17 In-Context

15 girded with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, like the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.

16 "When she saw them she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

17 "The Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. And when she had been defiled by them, she became disgusted with them.

18 "She uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness; then I became disgusted with her, as I had become disgusted with her sister.

19 "Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt

Cross References

• 1. 2 Kings 24:17

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "sons of Babel"
• [b]. Lit "her soul"