A summary judgment for Israel’s unfaithfulness 23:36-49This final message brings Oholah and Oholibah back together and passes judgment on all Israel. It is a summary oracle for the section that indicts Israel’s leaders (chs. 20-23). read more
They also made the temple unclean (cf. Exodus 20:24-26) and treated the Sabbath as any other day of the week (cf. Exodus 20:8-11; Leviticus 19:3; Leviticus 19:30). On the same days that they practiced child sacrifice they entered the temple to worship Yahweh. This amounted to treating Molech and Yahweh as though they were equal. read more
The Unchaste Sisters, Oholah and OholibahThe 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 23:5-7), and then the Egyptians (Ezekiel 23:8), and was at length slain by the former... read more
(38) In the same day.—This is explained more fully in Ezekiel 23:39. Emphasis is laid upon the fact that they worshipped in the sanctuary of Jehovah in the same day that they offered their children to their idols, because the passing directly from the one to the other showed an utter disregard of the commands of the Lord, and an entire want of appreciation of His character and holiness. The figure in this and the following verses is partly dropped to bring out better the reality. read more
OHOLA AND OHOLIBAHEzekiel 23:1-49THE allegory of chapter 23 adds hardly any new thought to those which have already, been expounded in connection with chapter 16 and chapter 20. The ideas which enter into it are all such as we are now familiar with. They are: the idolatry of Israel, learned in Egypt and persisted in to the end of her history; her fondness for alliances with the great Oriental empires, which was the occasion of new developments of idolatry; the corruption of religion by the... read more
In Ezekiel 23:1-49 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. read more
CLOSE OF PART ONE Lack of space makes it necessary to crowd the remainder of Part 1 into a single lesson, but nothing vital to its general understanding will be lost, as the chapters are, to a certain extent, repetitions of the foregoing. LAMENTATIONS FOR THE PRINCES (Ezekiel 19:0 ) The theme of this chapter is found in the first and last verses. The “princes” are the kings of Judah Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, whose histories were made familiar in the closing chapters of 2 Kings ,... read more
We have here only a continuation of the same melancholy rehearsal of crimes, of one sister that had been charged also against the other. The subject is but one, though lengthened so many verses. I will not unnecessarily swell the pages, and therefore shall add no further comment. It will be a blessed sanctified subject, both to the Writer and Reader, if from the whole our minds are led to the conclusion of the Holy Ghost by the Apostle; God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have... read more
The Lord's Punishment upon the two Kingdoms v. 22. Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord God, the sovereign Ruler of the universe, Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, the very allies upon whose constancy Jerusalem thought she could depend, from whom thy mind is alienated, as she turned from Assyria to Egypt, and I will bring them against thee on every side, in manifest enmity, with a desire to wreak their vengeance upon the fickle wanton: v. 23. the Babylonians and all... read more
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Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Ezekiel 23:38
38. the same day—On the very day that they had burned their children to Molech in the valley of Gehenna, they shamelessly and hypocritically presented themselves as worshippers in Jehovah's temple (Jeremiah 7:9; Jeremiah 7:10). read more