Ezekiel 23:1-49

The Unchaste Sisters, Oholah and Oholibah

The idolatries and foreign alliances of Jerusalem and Samaria are here described under the same strong figure which is used in Ezekiel 16. Oholah (Samaria) and Oholibah (Jerusalem) were two sisters, both seduced in Egypt in their youth (Ezekiel 23:3), both espoused by God (Ezekiel 23:4), and both unfaithful to Him. Samaria took as her lovers first the Assyrians (Ezekiel 23:5), and then the Egyptians (Ezekiel 23:8), and was at length slain by the former (Ezekiel 23:9). Jerusalem, not warned by her sister's fate, made first the Assyrians and then the Babylonians her paramours (Ezekiel 23:11). Being alienated from the latter she has turned to her early lovers of Egypt (Ezekiel 23:17), but she will be destroyed, like her sister, by the lovers whom she has just forsaken (Ezekiel 23:22). The sin and judgment of the two sisters are described afresh (Ezekiel 23:36).