Ezekiel 23:1-11

1 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,

2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:

3 And they committed lewd deeds in Egypt; they committed lewd deeds in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they were first corrupted.

4 And the names of them [were] Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bore 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] neighbors.

6 [Who were] clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

7 Thus she committed her lewd deeds 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 lewd deeds [brought] from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they first corrupted her, and poured their impurities 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 uncovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous 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 prostitutions more than her sister in [her] prostitutions.

Ezekiel 23:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 23

In this chapter the idolatries of Israel and Judah are represented under the metaphor of two harlots, and their lewdness. These harlots are described by their descent; by the place and time in which they committed their whoredoms; by their names, and which are explained, Eze 23:1-4, the idolatries of Israel, or the ten tribes, under the name of Aholah, which they committed with the Assyrians, and which they continued from the Egyptians, of whom they had learned them, are exposed, Eze 23:5-8, and their punishment for them is declared, Eze 23:9,10 then the idolatries of Judah, or the two tribes, under the name of Aholibah, are represented as greater than those of the ten tribes, Eze 23:11, which they committed with the Assyrians, Eze 23:12, with the Chaldeans and Babylonians, Eze 23:13-18 in imitation of the Egyptians, reviving former idolatries learnt of them, Eze 23:19-21, wherefore they are threatened, that the Chaldeans, Babylonians, and Assyrians, should come against them, and spoil them, and carry them captive, Eze 23:22-35, and the prophet is bid to declare the abominable sin of them both, Eze 23:36-44, and to signify that they should be judged after the manner of adulteresses, should be stoned, and dispatched with swords, their sons and their daughters, and their houses burnt with fire; by which means their adulteries or idolatries should be made to cease, Eze 23:45-49.

as the Targum; another prophecy, one upon the same subject, as in Eze 16:1,

\\saying\\; as follows:

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