Ezekiel 23:34-44

34 You will drink it, you will drain it, and then you will gnaw it to shreds and tear out your own breasts! For I have spoken it' says Adonai ELOHIM.

35 "Therefore this is what Adonai ELOHIM says: 'Because you forgot me and flung me behind your back, you will bear the guilt of your lewdness and whoring.'"

36 Then ADONAI said to me, "Human being, are you ready to judge Oholah and Oholivah? Then confront them with their disgusting practices

37 For they committed adultery, and their hands are dripping with blood. They committed adultery with their idols; and they offered their sons, whom they bore to me, for these idols to eat.

38 Moreover, they have done this to me as well: they defiled my sanctuary on the same day, and they profaned my shabbats

39 For after killing their children for their idols, they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; this they did in my house.

40 "Worse still, you sent a messenger summoning men to come from a distance; and they came. For them you washed yourself, painted your eyes, decked yourself with your finery,

41 and sat on a sumptuous bed, with a table arranged before it, on which you put my incense and my olive oil.

42 The noise of a carefree crowd could be heard there; many of the men were brought in drunk from the desert. They put bracelets on their hands and magnificent crowns on their heads.

43 I thought, 'That woman! She's worn out from all her adulteries, but they still go to fornicate with her!'

44 For every one went in to her; just as men go in to a prostitute, so they went in to Oholah and Oholivah, those debauched 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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