Ezekiel 23:34-44

34 You shall drink and drain it, You shall break its shards, And tear at your own breasts; For I have spoken,' Says the Lord God.

35 "Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, Therefore you shall bear the penalty Of your lewdness and your harlotry.' "

36 The Lord also said to me: "Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations

37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them.

38 Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Sabbaths

39 For after they had slain their children for their idols, on the same day they came into My sanctuary to profane it; and indeed thus they have done in the midst of My house.

40 Furthermore you sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and there they came. And you washed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments.

41 You sat on a stately couch, with a table prepared before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil.

42 The sound of a carefree multitude was with her, and Sabeans were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort, who put bracelets on their wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads.

43 Then I said concerning her who had grown old in adulteries, 'Will they commit harlotry with her now, and she with them?'

44 Yet they went in to her, as men go in to a woman who plays the harlot; thus they went in to Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women.

Ezekiel 23:34-44 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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