Ezekiel 23

If you refer to the suggested outline of the book of Ezekiel, you will see that these three chapters complete the second section of the book “The Fall of Jerusalem.” Ezekiel focuses on four final events: the end of the city (chap. 22), the end of the kingdom (chap. 23), the end of a delusion (24:1–14), and the end of a marriage (vv. 15–27). Chapter 24 records two heart-rending announcements from the Lord: the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem (vv. 1–2) and the death of the prophet’s wife (vv. 15–17). What a sobering way to climax Ezekiel’s many messages to the spiritually blind Jewish exiles in Babylon!

This chapter is a good deal like chapter 16 in that it depicts the history of the nation of Israel and its apostasy from the Lord. In both chapters, the image is that of prostitution, the nation breaking her “marriage vows” and like a harlot, turning to others for help. However, in chapter 16, the sin is idolatry, trusting the false gods of the pagans, while in chapter 23, the sin is trusting other nations to protect her. In this chapter you will find both Israel (the northern kingdom) and Judah (the southern kingdom) playing the harlot and looking for help from Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt, instead of trusting Jehovah God to guide them and rescue them.

During the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam, the Jewish nation divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria) almost immediately abandoned the true faith, started to worship idols, and eventually set up their own temple and priesthood; while the southern kingdom of Judah tried to remain true to the law of Moses. Things got so bad in Samaria that in 722 BC. God brought the Assyrians to conquer them and put an end to the nation. Judah had a few godly kings who sought to please the Lord, but the nation gradually disintegrated and was taken by the Babylonians (606–586 BC).

Oholah represents Israel, whose capital was Samaria, while her sister Oholibah represents Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem. Oholah means “her tent” while Oholibah means “my tent is in her.” When hearing the word tent, most Jews would immediately think of the tabernacle where God dwelt with His people. The northern kingdom of Israel had its own sanctuary and priesthood in Samaria, as well as idols and shrines throughout the land, but that was “her tent” and not “the Lord’s tent.” However, the Mosaic law was still held in Judah, even though not always obeyed, and the Levitical priests still served at the temple that Solomon built by God’s direction and authority. Looking at Jerusalem, even with all of her sins, the Lord could still say, “My tent is in her.” The glory had departed from the temple (9:3; 11:22–23), but the temple was still known as God’s dwelling place.

With that background, we can now examine this parable and see how it applied to the Jews in Ezekiel’s day as well as to God’s people in our own day. The main message the Lord wanted Ezekiel to get across to the Jewish people was that He was perfectly just in punishing the kingdom of Judah because of the way they had behaved toward Him. The Lord made three declarations: Judah arrogantly ignored God’s warning when He judged Samaria (23:5–13); Judah then went beyond the sins the Samaritans committed (vv. 14–21); therefore, the Lord had every right to judge Judah (vv. 22–35).

The people of Judah ignored God’s warning (vv. 5–13). Both Israel and Judah were positioned in such a way geographically that the political tensions among the larger nations and empires (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon) affected them drastically. Israel and Judah were often the “bridges” over which these nations marched their armies, and it was impossible for the Jews not to take sides. In the days when the nation was united, King David trusted the Lord to help him defend and deliver his people, but King Solomon’s policy was to make political treaties to guarantee peace. This is why he married numerous heathen princesses so that their fathers wouldn’t attack the Jewish nation.

Samaria had no true faith in the living God, so she looked to the Assyrians to help her. The picture here is that of a prostitute seeking a lover to care for her, and the language is quite graphic. Samaria not only welcomed Assyria’s soldiers but also Assyria’s idols, and the religion of the northern kingdom became a strange mixture of Mosaic law and Assyrian idolatry (2 Kings 17:6–15). So, to punish her, the Lord used the Assyrians—her “lovers”—to conquer her and put an end to the northern kingdom. The ten tribes that comprised the northern kingdom were mixed with other conquered nations, and the land became part of the Assyrian Empire.

The leaders of Judah knew what had happened to their sister kingdom and why it happened, but they didn’t take the lesson to heart. Judah also made alliances with Assyria and “fell in love” with the handsome soldiers in their beautiful uniforms (Ezek. 23:11–13). Instead of looking to the Lord to protect them, the people of Judah looked to their powerful neighbors for help, but they proved to be broken reeds. Assyria invaded Judah during the days of King Hezekiah, ravaged the land, and were stopped in their tracks at Jerusalem and slain by God’s angel (Isa. 36— 37; 2 Kings 18—19). This was God’s warning to Hezekiah not to let the people follow the sinful example of Samaria.

The people of Judah sinned even more than Samaria did (vv. 14–21). God’s punishment of Samaria and His miraculous deliverance of Judah should have brought the people of Judah to their knees in gratitude and dedication, but it didn’t happen that way. Hezekiah began to fraternize with the Babylonians (Isa. 39), a nation that was growing in power. As they had admired the Assyrian armies (2 Kings 16:1–9), so the rulers of Judah began to admire the power of Babylon. King Jehoiakim asked Babylon to help him break the power of Egypt (Ezek. 23:35—24:7), and this only made Judah a vassal state of Babylon. The kingdom of Judah became more and more idolatrous as one weak king after another took the throne, some of them for only three months. Judah was actually more corrupt than her sister Samaria (23:11)!

The people of Judah will suffer the wrath of God (vv. 22–35). The logic is obvious: if God punished Samaria for her sins, and if Judah sinned worse than Samaria, then Judah must be punished also. In this section of his message, Ezekiel delivered four oracles from the Lord. First, God would bring the Babylonians to punish Judah just as He brought the Assyrians to punish Samaria (vv. 22–27). Ezekiel described in detail the officers in the army and the equipment they would carry. Using the image of punishing a prostitute, he described how the invaders would strip the nation, expose her lewdness, and mutilate her body. It isn’t a very beautiful picture.

The second oracle (vv. 28–31) repeats some of the facts in the first one and reminded the people that this judgment was perfectly just. At one time, Judah courted the friendship of Babylon, but now they hated the Babylonians; yet God would allow the people they hated to ravage their land and destroy Jerusalem and the temple. The third oracle (vv. 32–34) uses the image of the cup, a familiar image in Scripture for experiencing suffering (Isa. 51:17, 22; Jer. 25:15–29; 49:12; Lam. 4:21; Hab. 2:16; John 18:11; Rev. 14:10). The cup He hands them will be large and deep and filled with the wrath of the Lord, and they will have to drink it.

The final oracle (Ezek. 23:35) explained why God judged His people: they had forgotten Him (22:12) and had cast Him behind their backs—that is, rejected Him and left Him out of their thinking and living. “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18). God’s “wife” had become a harlot and abandoned her Husband. Jeremiah used a similar image (Jer. 2:1–8) and was astonished that a nation should change its gods (vv. 9–11). He said that Judah had rejected the fountain of living water and turned to broken cisterns that could hold no water (v. 13).

The two accused sisters have been presented to the court and their crimes have been explained. All that remains is for the judge to sum up the case and describe the sentence, which Ezekiel does in 23:36–49. Neither Samaria nor Judah has any defense, and they can’t take their case to a higher court. God’s verdict is true and final. Ezekiel includes Samaria in this summation so that Judah can’t say that God’s judgment of the northern kingdom was unjust. All the evidence was presented and there could be but one decision: guilty as charged.

What were their sins? Idolatry, injustice, unbelief (depending on the heathen nations for help), followed by blatant hypocrisy. They worshipped idols and killed innocent people, and then marched piously into the temple to worship Jehovah! They prostituted themselves to heathen nations when, if they had trusted the Lord, He would have taken care of them and delivered them. In their idolatry, they even sacrificed their own children, sons and daughters who really belonged to God (“whom they bore to me”).

When Judah should have remained a separated people, declaring their faith in Jehovah, their leaders participated in an international conference against Babylon and allied themselves with the enemies of the Lord (v. 40; Jer. 27). The prophet described how the Jewish leaders at the meeting behaved like harlots preparing to serve a customer, but he compared the meeting to a drunken brawl, a “carefree crowd” that didn’t want to face the fact that Babylon was going to win.

From God’s point of view, Judah was nothing but a worn-out adulteress soliciting “lovers,” and their sin was something His heart couldn’t accept. As Samaria had sinned by patronizing Assyria, so Judah was playing the harlot by seeking the help of pagan nations instead of trusting the Lord. That being the case, Judah would be treated like an adulteress and even worse. The law of Moses called for the adulteress to be stoned (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 20:20), prostitutes to be burned (Gen. 38:24; Lev. 21:9), and murderers to be put to death, probably by stoning (Ex. 21:12–14; Lev. 24:17). Judah would be punished for adultery, prostitution, and shedding innocent blood (Ezek. 23:47). Her sins would find her out.