Observation
Setting. Like chapter 22, this message has no date of its own; it closes the series that began “in the seventh year” (20:1), about 591 B.C., while Zedekiah ruled in Jerusalem. Ezekiel tells an allegory of two sisters — Samaria (the northern kingdom, already destroyed by Assyria in 722 B.C.) and Jerusalem (Judah, still standing). The language is blunt and sexual on purpose. God uses the shame of adultery to show how He feels about His people chasing other gods and other powers.
Structure:
- vv1–4 — two sisters: “there were two women, the daughters of one mother” (v2). “They played the harlot in their youth” in Egypt (v3). “Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine” (v4). “Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah” (v4).
- vv5–10 — Oholah and Assyria: “Oholah played the harlot while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians” (v5) — “all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses” (v6). She defiled herself with their idols (v7) and never left the ways of Egypt (v8). So “I gave her into the hand of her lovers” (v9), and they killed her (v10).
- vv11–21 — Oholibah does worse: her sister saw it all, “yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she” (v11). First Assyria (v12); then “she saw men portrayed on the wall,” images of the Chaldeans (v14), and “When she saw them she lusted after them” and sent messengers to Babylon (v16). Defiled, she turned from them (v17), “then I became disgusted with her, as I had become disgusted with her sister” (v18). “Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth” in Egypt (vv19–21).
- vv22–35 — the lovers turned enemies: “I will arouse your lovers against you” (v22) — Babylon and her allies from every side (vv23–24). “I will set My jealousy against you” (v25). They will strip her (vv26, 29), and God will end “your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt” (v27). “You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand” (v31) — the cup of horror and desolation, “the cup of your sister Samaria” (v33). The root: “Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back” (v35).
- vv36–49 — the verdict in plain words: “Will you judge Oholah and Oholibah?” (v36). “They have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands” — idols and child sacrifice (v37). “They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My sabbaths” (v38); after killing their children for idols, “they entered My sanctuary on the same day to profane it” (v39). They dressed up for their lovers and set God’s own incense and oil on the table (vv40–44). Righteous men will judge them as adulteresses (v45); stoning, sword and fire follow (vv46–47). “Thus I will make lewdness cease from the land” (v48), and “you will know that I am the Lord GOD” (v49).
Repeated words: harlot / harlotry / harlotries (vv3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 14, 17, 18, 19, 27, 29, 30, 35, 44); lusted (vv5, 7, 9, 12, 16, 20); lovers (vv5, 9, 22); Egypt / Egyptians (vv3, 8, 19, 21, 27); youth (vv3, 8, 19, 21); disgusted / alienated (vv17, 18, 22, 28); lewdness / lewd (vv21, 27, 29, 35, 44, 48, 49); cup (vv31, 32, 33).
Contrasts: “they became Mine” (v4) ⟷ “she lusted after her lovers” (v5). Lovers ⟷ the same men as attackers (vv9, 22). Oholibah saw her sister’s ruin (v11) ⟷ she did worse anyway. Dressed up and painted for lovers (v40) ⟷ stripped and left naked (vv26, 29). Children killed for idols ⟷ the same day in God’s sanctuary (v39). Desire through the eyes (vv14, 16) ⟷ disgust afterward (v17).
Chapter theme (my words): God took Israel as His own, and she went looking for other lovers — first Egypt, then Assyria, then Babylon — trusting armies and idols instead of Him. Jerusalem watched her sister destroyed for it and did worse. The lovers she chased became the men who stripped her. Sin always promises a lover and ends as a tyrant, and the root of it all is forgetting God and throwing Him behind our back.
Interpretation
Why this language? (vv1–4). This is one of the most graphic chapters in the Bible, and it is meant to be. Guzik calls the language “admittedly coarse” — meant to shock and to show God’s disgust, never for entertainment. He warns that its rare use here “should never be used to justify any kind of regular use in the pulpit or even everyday conversation.” Like chapter 16, it pictures the covenant as a marriage and idolatry as adultery (Jer 3:6–11; Hos 1–3). Guzik admits it “is not a perfect illustration,” since God did not have two wives; the point is two halves of one people, both unfaithful. The names come from ʾohel, “tent”: Block, in Guzik, gives “Oholah suggesting 'her own tent,' and Oholibah 'my tent in her.'” Samaria set up her own shrines (1 Kgs 12:28–33); Jerusalem had God’s own temple in her midst — and was still unfaithful. Their unfaithfulness reached back to Egypt (20:7–8; Josh 24:14).
Oholah and Assyria (vv5–10). The “lovers” are foreign powers and their gods. Israel’s kings paid Assyria for protection — Jehu to Shalmaneser III, Menahem and Hoshea later (2 Kgs 15:19–20; 17:3–4). Wiersbe, in Guzik: “Samaria had no true faith in the living God, so she looked to the Assyrians to help her.” Taylor, in Guzik, notes the pull of “the dashing gallants of the Assyrian cavalry regiments.” Guzik says there was nothing spiritual in the attraction — it was “purely on a fleshly, materialistic basis.” Then God handed her over to her lovers (v9). Guzik, following Feinberg: “the source of sinful pleasure becomes the source of punishment.” Assyria destroyed Samaria in 722 B.C. (2 Kgs 17:5–18).
Oholibah does worse (vv11–21). Judah had a front-row seat to Samaria’s fall and copied it. Ahaz bought Assyria’s help and even copied an altar from Damascus (2 Kgs 16:7–16), against Isaiah’s warning (Isa 7). Then came Babylon: Hezekiah showed his treasures to Babylonian envoys (2 Kgs 20:12–19), and Judah’s later kings bounced between Babylon and Egypt (2 Kgs 24:1, 20; Jer 37:5–7; Ezek 17:15). Trapp, in Guzik, on the men portrayed on the wall: “Here began the mischief” — it started with the eyes. Guzik notes the sexual images are “accurate as a spiritual illustration” and may also reflect actual sexual rites in Babylonian worship. Feinberg, in Guzik, explains the crude picture in v20: “In Egyptian hieroglyphics the horse represents a lustful person” — it stands for Egypt’s military power.
The lovers become the enemy (vv22–35). Block, in Guzik: “Those who had previously come to her to make love, now come from all sides to make war.” Pekod, Shoa and Koa were peoples from the east within Babylon’s empire. Cutting off nose and ears (v25) was a known punishment among ancient armies. Guzik’s point is that these nations never loved Judah; they wanted what they could take. Wright, in Guzik: “Sex without love only too often ends in frustration and hatred.” The “cup” is God’s wrath (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15–17) — Judah would drink the same cup as Samaria. And v35 names the root: they forgot God and threw Him behind their back (compare 1 Kgs 14:9).
The verdict in plain words (vv36–49). Now God drops the picture and names the real sins: idolatry, bloodshed, and children “passed through the fire” to Molech (2 Kgs 21:6; Jer 7:31) — and then, the same day, worship at the temple. Feinberg, in Guzik, stresses the audacity of it. They set God’s own incense and oil before their idols (v41). Poole, in Guzik: “Like a decayed harlot, madest up thy defects with paint.” The sentence for adultery and murder under the Law — stoning and fire — will fall through Babylon’s siege (Lev 20:10; Deut 22:22). The goal is that lewdness will cease and they will “know that I am the Lord GOD” (v49).
Spiritual adultery today. The New Testament keeps the picture: friendship with the world is adultery against God (Jas 4:4), and the church is a bride being kept pure for Christ (2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:25–27). Most read this chapter first as history — Israel and Judah’s alliances and idols — and then as a warning to every believer whose heart wanders.
Word study (Hebrew):
- Oholah — ʾOholah (H170): “her tent” — Samaria.
- Oholibah — ʾOholibah (H172): “my tent is in her” — Jerusalem.
- tent — ʾohel (H168): a tent, dwelling; used of the tabernacle.
- played the harlot — zanah (H2181): to commit fornication; to be unfaithful to God.
- harlotries — taznuth (H8457): acts of prostitution, unfaithfulness.
- lusted — ʿagab (H5689): to have inordinate desire, to dote on.
- lovers — ʾahab (H157): to love; as a participle, lovers.
- disgusted / alienated — yaqaʿ (H3363): to be torn away, wrenched apart.
- lewdness — zimmah (H2154): a wicked plan, shameful conduct.
- jealousy — qinʾah (H7068): zeal, jealousy — God’s burning claim on what is His.
- cup — kos (H3563): a cup; often the cup of judgment.
- forgotten — shakach (H7911): to forget, ignore.
- sanctuary — miqdash (H4720): the holy place, God’s temple.
- defiled — tameʾ (H2930): to be or make unclean.
Cross-references: Exod 20:3–5; Exod 34:14–16; Lev 20:10; Josh 24:14; 1 Kgs 12:28–33; 2 Kgs 16:7–16; 2 Kgs 17:5–18; 2 Kgs 20:12–19; 2 Kgs 21:6; Ps 75:8; Isa 7:1–9; Isa 30:1–3; Isa 51:17; Jer 3:6–11; Jer 25:15–17; Ezek 16:1–63; Hos 2:5–7; Matt 5:28; 2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:25–27; Jas 4:4; 1 John 2:15–17.
Application
Command to obey — “you will know that I am the Lord GOD.” The whole chapter aims at one thing: that God’s people would know Him as their only Lord (v49). I’m called to be faithful to Him alone — no other lovers, no other savior. For me that means one heart, one Master, and a daily turning back to Him before anything else gets my trust.
Sin to confess — forgetting God and throwing Him behind my back. Verse 35 is the root of everything in this chapter. I confess the times I’ve trusted money, people, my own plans or my own strength instead of the Lord — and the times I’ve treated Him as something to put behind me while I did what I wanted.
Warning to heed — it starts with the eyes. “When she saw them she lusted after them” (v16). Trapp was right: “Here began the mischief.” The men I disciple know this battle — pornography, the old crowd, the bottle on the shelf. What we look at, we start to want, and what we want, we send messengers to. Matt 5:28 is not overkill; it is mercy. The lovers we chase will turn on us (v22). Addiction always promises love and ends as a master.
Promise to trust — God’s jealousy is for me. “I will set My jealousy against you” (v25) sounds only like a threat, but God’s jealousy means He will not share me with anything that is destroying me. He is a jealous God because He is a faithful Husband (Exod 34:14). For the man who has wandered far, that same jealous love is what brings him home — Christ is keeping a bride, not discarding one (Eph 5:25–27).
Example to follow — learn from your sister. Oholibah watched her sister fall and did worse (v11). I’ve watched men fall — friends, leaders, men in the program. God means their ruin as a warning (1 Cor 10:11–12). I want to learn from another man’s cup without having to drink it myself.
Worship. The Lord GOD is holy and jealous for His people. He sees what we do in the dark and what we bring into His house in the daylight. He is faithful when we are faithless, and His goal even in judgment is that we would know Him.
Prayer. Lord GOD, forgive me for forgetting You and putting You behind my back. Guard my eyes and my heart from other lovers. Break the pull of the things that promise love and end in chains — for me and for the men I walk with. Keep me faithful to You alone, and make me a man who knows that You are the Lord. Amen.