Ezekiel 23:14

And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, SHE SAW MEN POURTRAYED UPON THE WALL, THE IMAGES OF THE CHALDEANS POURTRAYED WITH VERMILION - the special colour of the Chaldeans, as purple was of the Assyrians. In striking agreement with this verse is the fact that the Assyrian sculptures lately discovered by Layard have painted and coloured bas-reliefs, red, blue, and black, on the walls of the palaces. The Jews (for instance Jehoiakim, , "I will build me a wide house ... painted with vermilion") copied these (cf. )....

Verse Ezekiel 23:14. _MEN POURTRAYED UPON THE WALL_] See on Ezekiel 8:10....

After Israel’s captivity Judah intrigued first with Assyria, then with Babylon, courting their monarchs, imitating their customs, and learning their idolatries. POURTRAYED UPON THE WALL - The monuments of Nineveh show how the walls of its palaces were adorned with figures precisely answering to this description. There is evidence that these sculptures were highly colored with vermilion, or rather, red ochre....

EXPOSITION After another pause, the prophet enters on another elaborate parallel, after the pattern of Ezekiel 16:1; but with a marked variation. There we have the history of one harlot, _s.c. _of Israel in its collective unity. There we have two sister harlots, the daughters of one mother, and they are Samaria and Jerusalem, as both belonging to Israel. For the purpose of the parable, they are represented as having had a separate existence, even during the period of the sojourn in Egypt. This was probably historically true, the line of cleavage caused by the claims of Ephraim to supremacy appearing again and again long before the revolt of the tea tribes under Jeroboam (Judges 8:1; Judges 12:1;...

AND THAT SHE INCREASED HER WHOREDOMS,.... Added to the number of her idols, increased her idols, and even was guilty of more than her sister: FOR WHEN SHE SAW MEN PORTRAYED ON THE WALL; of the temple, as idols were, Ezekiel 8:10 or upon the wall of a private house, where they were worshipped as household gods: THE IMAGES OF THE CHALDEANS PORTRAYED WITH VERMILION: the images of their heroes, who after death were deified; and these, being drawn upon the wall with vermilion, which, being mixed with ceruse, made a flesh colour, were worshipped; as Bel, Nebo, Merodach, which are names of their idols, Isaiah 46:1 or these were graven on the walls, or etched out upon them with minium or red lead; or rather were "painted" r, as some render the word, with minium, vermilion, or cin

In Ezekiel 23:1 Samaria and Jerusalem are called two sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, in their ungodly relation with Assyria and Chaldea. Aholah means “her tent.” Aholibah, “my tent is in her.” The latter denotes the fact that the true sanctuary was in Judah. The sins and vileness of both are portrayed throughout this long chapter, as well as the deserved punishment....

EZEKIEL 23. FATAL ALLIANCE WITH FOREIGNERS. This is the third and last of the three great indictments (Ezekiel 16, 20) which draw their material from the past rather than (as Ezekiel 22) from the present. Its underlying imagery is the same as that of ch. 16, but it differs from that chapter in dealing with the northern and southern kingdoms separately (_cf. Ezekiel 16:46_) and in emphasizing political rather than religious entanglements, though of course foreign alliances did as a matter of fact involve the recognition of foreign gods, i_.e._ idolatry (Ezekiel 22:7). Samaria and Jerusalem, the capitals of Israel and Judah respectively, are described as sisters married to Yahweh (_cf._ Jacob with his two sister wives). Their names, Oholah and Oholibah, are significantly connected with t

MEN. Hebrew, plural _'enosh_. App-14....

_and_that _she increased_ Rather: AND SHE ADDED TO HER WHOREDOMS, with full stop at Ezekiel 23:13. It was certainly the custom in Babylonia to draw figures of men and the like upon the walls; it is not probable, however, that such figures of Chaldean warriors had actually been seen in Jerusalem. The prophet combines the Babylonian custom with the reports of Chaldean military splendour current in Judah. Even when Babylon was still a vassal state of Assyria Hezekiah entered into intrigues with it, Isaiah 39. In later times it was the rivalry between Babylon and Egypt that drew Judah into the whirl of imperial politics, and left her from the time of the battle of Carchemish and the defeat of Egypt subject to Babylon (b.c. 604)....

SAW MEN POURTRAYED UPON THE WALL, &C.— "Before she had seen the Assyrians, upon the bare relation concerning them, or, upon the painting only which was made of them, her passion was inflamed towards them." Calmet. Some suppose that this may refer to the mystic cells, on the walls of which the images of their deities were pourtrayed. See on chap. Ezekiel 8:7, &c. Instead of, _Exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads,_ in the next verse, Houbigant reads, _Having their heads bound with a dyed tiara,_ or _turban._ Ovid, speaking of these tiaras, says, _Tempora purpureis tentat velare tiaris._ METAM. lib. 9:* * She tries to veil her temples with purple tiaras....