Ezekiel 23:17-27

17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom and she was polluted with them, and her soul was disjointed from them.

18 So she uncovered her whoredoms, and uncovered her nakedness; then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.

19 Yet she multiplied her whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

20 For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

21 Thus thou didst call to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the breasts of thy youth.

22 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus hath the Lord GOD said: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy desire is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side:

23 the Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, rulers, and princes, and captains, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men; all of them captains and rulers, great lords and renowned; all of them riding upon horses.

24 And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with a multitude of peoples, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about, and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their laws.

25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal with thee in furor; they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and what is left shall fall by the sword; they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy remnant shall be devoured by the fire.

26 They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes and take away the vessels of thy glory.

27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee and thy whoredom of the land of Egypt, so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

Ezekiel 23:17-27 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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