Ezekiel 23:37-47

37 obscenities ranging from adultery to murder. They committed adultery with their no-god idols, sacrificed the children they bore me in order to feed their idols!

38 And there is also this: They've defiled my holy Sanctuary and desecrated my holy Sabbaths

39 The same day that they sacrificed their children to their idols, they walked into my Sanctuary and defiled it. That's what they did - in my house!

40 "Furthermore, they even sent out invitations by special messenger to men far away - and, sure enough, they came. They bathed themselves, put on makeup and provocative lingerie.

41 They reclined on a sumptuous bed, aromatic with incense and oils - my incense and oils!

42 The crowd gathered, jostling and pushing, a drunken rabble. They adorned the sisters with bracelets on their arms and tiaras on their heads.

43 "I said, 'She's burned out on sex!' but that didn't stop them. They kept banging on her doors night and day

44 as men do when they're after a whore. That's how they used Oholah and Oholibah, the worn-out whores.

45 "Righteous men will pronounce judgment on them, giving out sentences for adultery and murder. That was their lifework: adultery and murder."

46 "God says, 'Let a mob loose on them: Terror! Plunder!

47 Let the mob stone them and hack them to pieces - kill all their children, burn down their houses!

Ezekiel 23:37-47 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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