Ezekiel23chapter 23

Ezekiel 23:11

“And when her sister Aholibah saw this,.... The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, when, they saw the idolatries the ten tribes fell into, and the destruction which came upon them for the same; instead of receiving instruction, and taking caution by all this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she; in courting the friendship, alliance, and help of their Heathen neighbours: and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms; guilty of more idolatries than the ten tribes, as in the times of Manasseh; see Jer 2:28.”

Ezekiel 23:11

“The idolatries of Manasseh’s reign exceeded all that had gone before either in Israel or in Judah 2 Kings 21:1-16; 2Ch 33:1-10.”

Ezekiel 23:12

“Thus she increased her whoredoms; she fell in love, fell in league, with the Chaldeans. Hezekiah himself was faulty this way when he was proud of the court which the king of Babylon made to him and complimented his ambassadors with the sight of all his treasures, Isa. xxxix.”

Ezekiel 23:14

“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.”

Ezekiel 23:17

“After Josiah’s death and the usurpation of dominion by the Egyptians, the Babylonians were no doubt welcomed as friends 2Ki 24:1. But the Jews were soon tired of their alliance and disgusted with their friends, and this led to the rebellion of Jehoiakim and the first captivity.”

Ezekiel 23:18

“How could the pure and holy God any longer take delight in such a lewd generation? Note, Sin alienates God's mind from the sinner, and justly, for it is the alienation of the sinner's mind from God; but woe, and a thousand woes, to those from whom God's mind is alienated; for whom he turns from he will turn against.”

Ezekiel 23:19

“Egypt - The kings of Judah played alternately Egypt against Babylon, and Babylon against Egypt. Jehoahaz was displaced by Necho for Jehoiakim, who then turned to the Chaldaeans, and afterward rebelling sought aid from Egypt. So Zedekiah was continually meditating help from Egypt, against which Jeremiah and Ezekiel were continually protesting.”

Ezekiel 23:20

“She doted upon their paramours - פלגשיהם pillagsheyhem, their harlots or concubines. Anciently harlot meant in our language either the male or female prostitute. Whose flesh is as the flesh of asses - See on Eze 16:25 (note).”

Ezekiel 23:21

“When they began to set their affections upon Egypt, they encouraged themselves to put a confidence in that kingdom, because of the old acquaintance they had with it, as if they still retained the gust and relish of the leeks and onions they ate there, or rather of the idolatrous worship they learned there, and brought up with them thence.”

Ezekiel 23:22

“Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord God,.... Or, ye two tribes of Benjamin and Judah, hear what the Lord says unto you: behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee; the Chaldeans, whom they had formerly loved, and in whose alliance they were, and whose idols they worshipped: from whom thy mind is alienated; having broke covenant with them, and cast off their yoke, and rebelled against them: and I will bring them against thee on every side; to besiege and encompass Jerusalem on every side with their army, as they did, so that there was no escaping.”

Ezekiel 23:23

“The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans,.... Both the inhabitants of the city of Babylon, called in the Hebrew text the children of Babylon, and all the inhabitants of the several parts of the country of Chaldean, of which Babylon was the metropolis: Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa; the Vulgate Latin version, and so Jerom, take these words to be appellatives, and render them noblemen, tyrants, and princes; as some mentioned by Jarchi do, governors, princes, and rulers; and Kimchi (b) thinks they are the titles of the Babylonian princes spoken of in Jeremiah, as Nebuzaradan. Nebushasban, Rabsaris, Rabmag, &c.”

Ezekiel 23:23

“Pekod, &c.-- (Jer 50:21). Not a geographical name, but descriptive of Babylon. "Visitation," peculiarly the land of "judgment"; in a double sense: actively, the inflicter of judgment on Judah; passively, as about to be afterwards herself the object of judgment.”

Ezekiel 23:23

“Pekod - Pekod is the province between Tigris, and Lycus; in this was old Nineveh. Shoa - Either Sia in Armenia, or the Sohia, among which were the Adiabeni, and this contained the middle part of the kingdom of Babylon.”

Ezekiel 23:24

“I will set - Give them a power in right of conquest over their rebels, as well as mine, and I will give them a spirit of judgment to discern the greatness of this people's sins. Judge - Condemn, and execute sentence upon thee. According - To their will, power, wrath, and custom, against rebels; for these are their rules of judgment.”

Ezekiel 23:25

“Take away thy nose and thine ears - Alluding to the barbarous custom of mutilating prisoners in the east Dan 2:5. An Egyptian law prescribed this punishment for an adulteress. Fire - A mode of capital punishment Jer 29:22; Dan. 3.”

Ezekiel 23:25

“If men deal ever so hatefully, ever so furiously, with us, yet, if we have God on our side, we need not fear them; they can do us no real hurt. But if men deal furiously with us, and God set his jealousy against us too, what will become of us? The particulars of the sentence here passed upon this notorious adulteress are, (1.) That all she has shall be seized on.”

Ezekiel 23:26

“They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes,.... As such who are taken captives are usually served: and take away, thy fair jewels; their ornaments of every kind: or "the vessels of thy glory" (c); Kimchi observes this may be meant either of the garments of the priests, and the vessels of the sanctuary; or of whole spoil of the city in general, whether in the temple, or in other houses. (c) כלי תפארתך "vasa gloria tuae", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "instrumenta ornatus tui", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus, Piscator; "vasa ornatus tui", Starckius.”

Ezekiel 23:27

“Thus . . . make . . . lewdness to cease--The captivity has made the Jews ever since abhor idolatry, not only on their return from Babylon, but for the last eighteen centuries of their dispersion, as foretold (Ho 3:4).”

Ezekiel 23:30

“And I will do these things unto thee,.... What the Chaldeans did God is said to do, because he suffered them to do these things, as a punishment for their sins; yea, it was according to his will, and by his orders. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it, "they have done these things unto thee"; that is, the Chaldeans. The Targum is, "thy sins are the cause of these things unto thee;'' that is, their idolatry and other iniquities.”

Ezekiel 23:31

“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.”

Ezekiel 23:32

“Thus saith the Lord God, thou shall drink of thy sister's cup deep and large,.... That is, partake of the same punishment, which was very great, signified by a deep and large cup, which holds much: thou shall be laughed to scorn, and had in derision; by the nations round about, who, instead of pitying them under their troubles, will rejoice at them; just as drunken men are laughed at, when intoxicated and reeling about: it containeth much; the cup of wrath and vengeance; as much as will last severity years drinking.”

Ezekiel 23:34

“Thou shalt - pluck off thine own breasts - Thou shalt tear them; a frequent action in extreme sorrow and desolation. Weeping, tearing the bosom, and beating the breasts. Tunc vero rupique sinus, et pectora planxi. Ovid’s Ep. 5.”

Ezekiel 23:35

“Therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms; that is, thou shalt suffer the punishment of them, and thou alone must bear the blame. Men need no more to sink them than the weight of their own sins; and those who will not part with their lewdness and their whoredoms must bear them.”

Ezekiel 23:38

“Every contempt put upon that which is holy reflects upon him who is the fountain of holiness, and from a relation to whom whatever is called holy has its denomination.”

Ezekiel 23:39

“Yahweh was placed as it were in the list of deities, not acknowledged as the One God. Idols and idol-temples were erected close to the House of God, and yet the temple-service went on Jer 32:34.”

Ezekiel 23:39

“Friend, how camest thou in hither? They have courted foreign alliances, been proud of them, and reposed a confidence in them. This also is represented by the sin of adultery, for it was a departure from God, not only to whom alone they ought to pay their homage and not to idols, but in whom alone they ought to put their trust, and not in creatures.”

Ezekiel 23:40

“Thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments - This is exactly the way in which a loose female in Bengal adorns herself to receive guests. She first bathes, then rubs black paint around her eyes, and then covers her body with ornaments. - Ward’s Customs.”

Ezekiel 23:41

“And satest upon a stately bed,.... Or honourable (g), a bed of state: either a throne, a royal seat under a canopy, on which the king of Judah sat to receive foreign ambassadors; or a stately bed at a feast, made for the entertainment of them; it being usual in the eastern nations to sit on beds at eating, to which the next clause agrees.”

Ezekiel 23:41

“And satest upon a stately bed - Hast raised a stately altar to thy idols; probably alluding to that which Ahaz ordered to be made, after the similitude of that which he saw at Damascus. The bed here is in allusion to the sofas on which the ancients were accustomed to recline at their meals; or to the couches on which they place Asiatic brides, with incense pots and sweetmeats on a table before them.”

Ezekiel 23:42

“Sabeans--Not content with the princely, handsome Assyrians, the sisters brought to themselves the rude robber hordes of Sabeans (Job 1:15). The Keri, or Margin, reads "drunkards." upon their hands--upon the hands of the sisters, that is, they allured Samaria and Judah to worship their gods.”

Ezekiel 23:43

“Will they now commit ... - Rather, Now shall there be committed her whoredom, even this; i. e., when Israel and Judah had courted these alliances God said in wrath, “This sin too shall be committed, and so (not “yet) they went in;” the alliances were made according to their desires, and then followed the consequent punishment.”

Ezekiel 23:45

“The judgment to be executed by the hands of their allies. Eze 23:45 The righteous men - Or, righteous men. The allies are so called as the instruments of God’s righteous judgments. Eze 23:48 To cease - Because they are stricken and consumed. Compare marginal reference. All women - i. e., all countries.”

Ezekiel 23:45

“And all that is written for warning against the sins of idolatry, and confidence in an arm of flesh, and sinful leagues and confederacies with wicked people (which are the sins here meant by committing whoredom), is that others may hear and fear, and not sin after the similitude of the transgressions of Israel and Judah.”

Ezekiel 23:45

“The Assyrians that destroyed Samaria, the Chaldeans that destroyed Jerusalem, those were comparatively righteous, had a sense of justice between man and man and justly resented the treachery of the Jewish nation; however, they executed God's judgments, which, we are sure, are all righteous.”

Ezekiel 23:46

“For thus saith the Lord God, I will bring up a company upon them,.... Or, "do thou bring up a company upon them" (m), or "against them". The Targum represents it as spoken to the prophet, thus, "prophesy that armies shall come up against them.'' Kimchi interprets it as we do, "I will bring up", &c. and so others (n).”

Ezekiel 23:47

“And the company shall stone them with stones,.... Which was the punishment of adulterers and idolaters, Deu 13:10, this seems to refer to the Chaldean army casting out stones from their slings and engines into the city of Jerusalem, when they besieged it, by which they killed some, and beat down the houses, which fell upon others, and destroyed them.”

Ezekiel 23:48

“Thus will I cause lewdness to cease - Idolatry; and from that time to the present day the Jews never relapsed into idolatry.”