Ezekiel 23:2

Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: THERE WERE TWO WOMEN, THE DAUGHTERS OF ONE MOTHER - Israel and Judah, one nation by birth from the same ancestress, Sarah....

Verse Ezekiel 23:2. _SON OF MAN, THERE WERE TWO WOMEN_] All the Hebrews were derived from _one source_, Abraham and Sarah; and, till the schism under Rehoboam, formed but one people: but as these ten tribes and a half separated from Judah and Benjamin, they became two distinct people under different kings; called the kingdom of Judah, and the kingdom of Israel. They are called here, because of their consanguinity, _two sisters_. The elder, Samaria, (for there was the _seat of government_ for the kingdom of Israel,) was called אהלה _aholah_, "a tent." The younger, Judah, was called אהליבה _aholibah_, "my tent is in her," because the temple of God was in Jerusalem, the seat of the government of the kingdom of Judah....

OF ONE MOTHER - Israel and Judah were branches of the same stock....

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;...

SON 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, "son of man, prophesy concerning two provinces, which are as two women:'' THE 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....

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

SON OF MAN. See note on Ezekiel 2:1. TWO WOMEN. Two sisters, representing respectively Samaria and Jerusalem....

The two kingdoms are already called sisters, Jeremiah 3:7. Cf. Ezekiel 16:46....

THERE WERE TWO WOMEN, &C.— The Hebrews, derived from one source, born of Abraham and Sarah, made but one people, and continued united till the separation under Jeroboam. Then the ten tribes being separated from Judah and Benjamin, they formed as it were two people, governed by different kings. _Aholah,_ the eldest of the two sisters, denotes the kingdom of Samaria, or the ten tribes; the word אהלה _ahalah,_ signifies _her tent_ or _tabernacle:_ she is styled the elder, either on account of the greater number of tribes whereof this kingdom was composed, or because she was the first who forsook the Lord, and gave herself up to idolatry. אהליבה _Aholibah,_ signifies _my tent is in her;_ because of the Lord's temple in Jerusalem. This chapter is of the same design with the xvith, and should be compared with it. If a modern reader shall call the terms in it too coarse and indelicate, we can o...