Ezekiel 23:31

Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. THEREFORE WILL I GIVE HER CUP INTO THINE HAND - "her cup" of punishment. (; ; , etc.) Thy guilt and that of Israel being alike, your punishment shall be alike....

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;...

THOU HAST WALKED IN THE WAY OF THY SISTER,.... Samaria, or the ten tribes of Israel; followed them in their idolatrous practices, were guilty of the same: THEREFORE WILL I GIVE HER CUP INTO THINE HAND; the cup of her vengeance, as the Targum; inflict the same punishment on the two tribes as on the ten, and suffer them to be carried captive as they had been....

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

CUP. Compare Isaiah 51:17; Revelation 14:9; Revelation 14:10....

_her cup_ That which she drank, Isaiah 51:22-23; Jeremiah 25:15-16....

THEREFORE WILL I GIVE HER CUP, &C.— "Thou shalt suffer the same punishment as Samaria." See Ezekiel 23:33. The _cup_ is often used as a metaphor to express chastisement. Comp. Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:23....

D. The Punishment of Jerusalem 23:22-35 TRANSLATION (22) Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold I am about to stir up your lovers against you, those from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you round about; (23) the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shea and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, governors and rulers all of them, captains and counselors, all of them riding upon horses. (24) And they shall come against you with hosts,[359] chariots, wheels, and with an assembly of peoples; with shield, buckler, and helmet they shall set themselves against you round about; and I will commit judgment to them, and they will judge you with their judgments. (25) And I will set My jealousy against You, and they shall deal with you in wrath; they shall remove your nose and your ears, and the rest of you shall fall with the swor...

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 ...