CHAPTER 23 A PARABLE CONCERNING ISRAEL AND JUDAH. The final judgment of Jerusalem was fast approaching, and in this parable is provided the justification for it. It depicts in its intensity the depths to which God's people had fallen and shows why they had to be judged. Yet it does not hide from th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TWO DAUGHTERS. “The word of Yahweh came again to me saying, Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. And they committed whoredoms in Egypt. They committed whoredoms in their youth. There were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. And t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FALL OF OHOLAH (OF SAMARIA). “And Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine.” Here was the first downfall after the restoration. Oholah had proved false. She had been Yahweh's own, but she had turned from the pure worship of Yahweh to other lovers, and her behaviour had followed suit.... [ Continue Reading ]
“And she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. And she bestowed her whoredoms on them, the choicest men of Assyria, all of them. And on whoever she doted, she defiled herself... [ Continue Reading ]
“Neither has she left her whoredoms since the days of Egypt, for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the teats of her virginity, and they poured out their whoredoms on her. This is why I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians on whom she doted. These d... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FALL OF OHOLIBAH, OF JERUSALEM. “And her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her whoredoms which were more than the whoredoms of her sister.” Jerusalem-Judah was even worse than her sister, for she sought not only to Assyria but to Babylon, and she... [ Continue Reading ]
“She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbours, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. And I saw that she was defiled. They both took one way.” Her first ‘affair' was with the Assyrians. This probably has in mind the approach of Ahaz... [ Continue Reading ]
“And she increased her whoredoms, for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, belted with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them officers to look on, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their b... [ Continue Reading ]
“And as soon as she saw them she doted on them, and sent messages to them to Chaldea.” This possibly has in mind the action of Hezekiah (Isaiah 39:1; 2 Kings 20:12), depicted in terms of a lovesick girl writing to someone whose photograph (depicted likeness) she has seen. But the idea is also more... [ Continue Reading ]
“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 alienated from them.” The relationship had developed into an adulterous one. Jerusalem became wrapped up in Babylonian culture and religion and was thus... [ Continue Reading ]
“So she openly carried on her whoredoms and flaunted her nakedness. Then my soul was alienated from her in the same way as my soul was alienated from her sister.” God was so disgusted at her behaviour that He turned from her like a disgusted husband, as He had previously done from Samaria. He had p... [ Continue Reading ]
“Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, remembering the days of her youth in which she had played the harlot in Egypt, and she doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.” Through all the centuries Israel had not changed. She behaved now as... [ Continue Reading ]
“Thus you called to mind the lewdness of your youth, in the bruising of your teats by the Egyptians because of your youthful breasts.” They are pictured as looking back with longing to when their breasts were admired and were heavily fondled. They want this to happen again. Their concentration is o... [ Continue Reading ]
THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD ON OHOLIBAH (JERUSALEM) THROUGH HER LOVERS BECAUSE OF HER EVIL WAYS IN ORDER TO PURIFY HER. ‘Therefore, Oh Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh, “I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side, the Babyl... [ Continue Reading ]
“And they will come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons and a gathering of peoples. They will set themselves against you with buckler and shield and helmet on every side (‘round about'), and I will commit the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments.” The mea... [ Continue Reading ]
“And I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will take away your nose and your ears, and your residue will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and your daughters and your residue will be devoured by the fire. They will also strip you of your clothes... [ Continue Reading ]
“Her nobles in her midst are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and to destroy people, that they may get dishonest gain.” This confirms that the royal princes were in mind in 25, for they were like lions whereas the nobles here are like wolves. But they too are just as rapacious and treat... [ Continue Reading ]
“And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies to them, saying ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh' when Yahweh has not spoken.” As with the royal masters, so with the aristocrats, the prophets had become their tools. They had ‘covered them with whitewash' to... [ Continue Reading ]
OHOLIBAH (JERUSALEM) WILL DRINK OF THE CUP OF SUFFERING AND DESOLATION. ‘For thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom your soul is alienated. And they will deal with you in hatred, and will take away all your labou... [ Continue Reading ]
“The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery, yes they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.” The ‘worthy citizens' of the land had been no better. In their turn they had oppressed and swindled those beneath them. The people of the land wer... [ Continue Reading ]
“And I sought for a man among them who would make up the fence and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, and I found none.” This was the final dreadful fact that when God sought for one man from all these described who could stand up and plead for the land with God,... [ Continue Reading ]
“You have walked in the way of your sister, therefore I will give her cup into your hand.” All could remember the stories of that terrible day when Samaria had been ravaged and her people taken away by the Assyrians into captivity. It was a lesson deeply imprinted on their minds. But it was an unle... [ Continue Reading ]
“Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Your sister's cup you will drink, Deep and large, You will be laughed at and derided, It contains much. Drunkenness and sorrow you will be filled with, A cup of waste and desolation, The cup of your sister Samaria, You will drink and drain it, You will gnaw at it... [ Continue Reading ]
A FINAL VERDICT. “Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh. Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution.” Here is God's final verdict. Jerusalem has turned its back on God in order to enjoy illicit pleasure with others. I... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHARGES EZEKIEL IS TO BRING AGAINST SAMARIA AND JERUSALEM. ‘Moreover Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations, for they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and they have committed adultery with their idols. And... [ Continue Reading ]
“Moreover they have done this to me. They have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, they then came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it. And lo, thus have they done in the midst of my house.” Guilt piled... [ Continue Reading ]
IN HIS ANGER GOD THEN SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO SAMARIA AND JERUSALEM. “And furthermore you sent for men who came from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and lo, they came. For whom you washed yourself, and painted your eyes, and decked yourselves with ornaments, and sat on a stately bed with a table prep... [ Continue Reading ]
“And the voice of a partying crowd (a multitude being at ease) was with her, and with men of a common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness. And they put bracelets on their hands and beautiful crown on their heads.” Treaties were not only made with the larger nations. Necessity produced st... [ Continue Reading ]
“Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, ‘Now will they commit whoredoms with her, and she with them'. And they went in to her as they go into a prostitute, so they went in to Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women. The sad picture of an aged prostitute depicts the depths to which Samaria and Je... [ Continue Reading ]
“And righteous men, they will 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.” God now appeals to all who are righteous to pass judgment on them. All who think truly will join with Him in condemni... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR FINAL FATE IS SEALED. ‘For thus says the Lord Yahweh, “I will bring up a gathering (of men) against them and give them to be tossed to and fro and spoiled.” Men can be very unpleasant when they get together in drunken mood and egg each other on, and the picture here is of the fallen women be... [ Continue Reading ]
“And the gathering (of men) will stone them with stones, and despatch them with swords. They will slay their sons and their daughters and burn their houses with fire.” The gathering of men turn out to be the approaching enemy. Their end is near. There is a multiple implication here. Stoning with sto... [ Continue Reading ]
“Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.” This destruction will be a lesson to all women not to indulge in immoral practises. It will also rid the land of such behaviour once and for all. As the next verse demonstrates this su... [ Continue Reading ]
“And they will recompense your lewdness on you, and you will bear the sins of your idols. And you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.” The enemy will carry out God's judgment. They will punish Jerusalem and Samaria for their behaviour. And God's erstwhile people will receive the punishment that th... [ Continue Reading ]