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Ezekiel 23

ENGWEBEnglish49 verses

1Yahweh’s word came again to me, saying,

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

3and they played the prostitute in Egypt; they played the prostitute in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.

4Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

5Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,

6who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.

7She gave herself as a prostitute to them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.

8Neither has she left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on her.

9Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.

10These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.

11Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which were more than the prostitution of her sister.

12She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

13I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.

14She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

15dressed with girdles on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them princes to look on, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.

16As soon as she saw them she doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.

17The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.

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

19Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.

20She doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

21Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth.

22Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side:

23the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.

24They shall come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against you with buckler and shield and helmet all around; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.

25I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in fury; they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take your sons and your daughters; and your residue shall be devoured by the fire.

26They shall also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels.

27Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from you, and your prostitution from the land of Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.

28For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated;

29and they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare; and the nakedness of your prostitution shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution.

30These things shall be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols.

31You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give her cup into your hand.

32Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large; you will be ridiculed and held in derision; it contains much.

33You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.

34You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw the broken pieces of it, and shall tear your breasts; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.

35Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.

36Yahweh said moreover to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? then declare to them their abominations.

37For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured.

38Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.

39For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, thus have they done in the middle of my house.

40Furthermore you have sent for men who come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you did wash yourself, paint your eyes, and decorate yourself with ornaments,

41and sit on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you set my incense and my oil.

42The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads.

43Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, Now they will play the prostitute with her, and she with them.

44They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute: so went they in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.

45Righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

46For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed.

47The company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

48Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

49They shall recompense your lewdness on you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols; and you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.

Commentary

"\nThe word of the Lord came unto me,.... The word of prophecy, as the Targum; another prophecy, one upon the same subject, as in\n Eze 16:1,\n\nsaying; as follows:\n\n\n\n "

CHAPTER 23Eze 23:1-49. Israel's and Judah's Sin and Punishment Are Parabolically Portrayed under the Names Aholah and Aholibah.The imagery is similar to that in the sixteenth chapter; but here the reference is not as there so much to the breach of the spiritual marriage covenant with God by the people's idolatries, as by their worldly spirit, and their trusting to alliances with the heathen for safety, rather than to God.

23:1-49 A history of the apostacy of God's people from him, and the aggravation thereof. - In this parable, Samaria and Israel bear the name Aholah, her own tabernacle; because the places of worship those kingdoms had, were of their own devising. Jerusalem and Judah bear the name of Aholibah, my tabernacle is in her, because their temple was the place which God himself had chosen, to put his name there. The language and figures are according to those times. Will not such humbling representations of nature keep open perpetual repentance and sorrow in the soul, hiding pride from our eyes, and taking us from self-righteousness? Will it not also prompt the soul to look to God continually for grace, that by his Holy Spirit we may mortify the deeds of the body, and live in holy conversation and godliness?

"\nSon of man, there were two women,.... Or two nations and kingdoms, the kingdom of Israel or the ten tribes, and the kingdom of Judah or the two tribes. So the Targum,\n\n"son of man, prophesy concerning two provinces, which are as two women:''\n\nthe daughters of one mother; either Sarah the wife of Abraham, from whom they sprung; or because they were originally one kingdom and nation; so they were when they came out of Egypt, and during the times of the judges, and in the reigns of David and Solomon; but became two in the days of Rehoboam the son of Solomon, from whom ten tribes revolted, and set up a separate kingdom, with Jeroboam at the head of it.\n\n\n "

"\nAnd they committed whoredoms in Egypt,.... When they were but one body, one nation; and while they sojourned as strangers in that land they learned and practised the idolatries of it, Jos 24:14, and so the Targum,\n\n"and they erred in Egypt, after the worship of their idols they erred, and there they corrupted their works:''\n\nthey committed whoredoms in their youth; as soon as they were come out of Egypt, and were formed into a political and ecclesiastical state, had the law of God given them, and promised obedience to him, and were espoused by him, which times are called the days of their youth and espousal, Jer 2:2, and then were they guilty of whoredom, or spiritual adultery, which idolatry, in making and worshipping the golden calf, after the manner of Egypt; and in joining themselves to Baalpeor, the god of the Moabites, Ex 32:1;\n\nthere were their breasts pressed, there they bruised the teats of their virginity; that is, the Egyptians, who drew them into idolatry, and with whom they committed it; which is expressed by the actions of adulterous persons, suggesting that, before this, they were as chaste and pure virgins to God, adhered to his worship, and served him only, and were not defiled with the superstition and idolatry of the Heathens: or, "they made {l} the teats or paps of their virginity"; that is, made them swell and increase, being impregnated by them, and their idolatry completed; or to move and heave being pressed.\n\n{l} \u05e2\u05e9\u05d5 \u05d3\u05d3\u05d9 "fecerant mammas", Starckius; "fecerent ut earam mammae agrerent", Gussetius; "sese commovendo scilicet, in contentione libidinis aestuantes, et pectoris anheli reciprocationem sequentes", ib. p. 652. "ibi subagitarunt ubera virginum", Coeccius.\n\n\n\n "

23:4 Aholah - That is, his own tabernacle; for Israel falling off from the house of David, fell off from the tabernacle, or temple of God; so that all the temple they had was of their own making. The elder - Greater for number of tribes, and for power, wealth, and for multitudes of people. Aholibah - That is, my tabernacle in her: the two tribes had the temple of God with them. Mine - By solemn marriage - covenant. Bare sons - Were fruitful and brought forth children to me; they increased in numbers of people; and among these, some there were that were children of God by faith, love, and obedience.

"\nAnd the names of them were Aholah the elder,.... Or, "the greater" {m} meaning the ten tribes of Israel, which were more in number than Judah, and greater in power and riches; their name, Aholah, signifies "her tent or tabernacle", which was entirely their own, and not the Lord's: their worship, and places of worship, were of their own appointing, namely, their calves at Dan and Bethel; God had nothing to do with them, there he did not dwell; his tabernacle was not there, that was at Salem, Ps 76:1:\n\nand Aholibah her sister; which name signifies "my tent or tabernacle is in her": this is the name of Judah or the two tribes, in which stood the temple of the Lord, where he was worshipped, and where he dwelt: some think these were proper names of two Egyptian harlots; others think there is allusion to the wife of Esau, Ge 36:2:\n\nand they were mine; or, "I had them {n}"; when they were together; they were originally espoused unto him; he avouched them to be his people, and they avouched him to be their God; he chose them for himself above all other people, and they professed themselves to be his, and promised to serve and worship him; and for a while did continue in his service and worship: and they bare sons and daughters; to the Lord, whom they brought up in the fear of God, and taught them to serve him: the phrase is expressive of their increase, and of their happiness and prosper…

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Translations8 · 5

AMHEVG የእግዚአብሔር ቃል ወደ እኔ እንዲህ ሲል መጣ፦ አማርኛ ENGNIV The word of the Lord came to me: English BCV ከምዙይ ዝብል ቃል እግዚኣብሄር ከዓ ናባይ መፀ፦ ትግርኛ GAZBIB Ammas dubbiin Waaqayyoo gara koo dhufee, Afaan Oromoo BCV GIZ ወነበበኒ አግዚአብሔር ወይቤለኒ፦ giz GAZGAZ Ammas dubbiin Waaqayyoo gara koo dhufee, Afaan Oromoo BCV aksum ከምዙይ ዝብል ቃል እግዚኣብሄር ከዓ ናባይ መፀ፦ ትግርኛ AMHNIV የእግዚአብሔር ቃል እንዲህ ሲል ወደ እኔ መጣ፤ አማርኛ