Ezekiel 23:22

"Therefore, O Oholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side. The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; and they shall set themselves against thee with buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will commit the judgment unto them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments. And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal with thee in fury; and they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. They shall also strip thee of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredoms brought from the land fo Egypt; so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more."

Thompson noted, "This section (Ezekiel 23:23-35) consists of four oracles, each of them beginning with the formula, `Thus saith the Lord.' (Ezekiel 23:22,28,32, and 35). The first, second, and last of these have a certain amount of language in common; but the third is in a class by itself and consists of a poem about the cup of judgment."[19]

"Pekod, Shoa, and Koa ..." (Ezekiel 23:23). "These were part of the Babylonian homeland."[20] The particular area where these peoples lived is supposed to have been east of the Tigris river.

"They shall take away thy nose and thine ears ..." (Ezekiel 23:25). This is an explanation of what had just been said, namely, that God would commit the judgment of Judah to her enemies, allowing them to judge Judah by their laws, not the laws of God. "This horrible punishment was not allowed under God's law, but in Mesopotamia it was the frequent punishment of unfaithful wives."[21]

The rest of the horrible Oriental law was that the children of those thus humiliated were sold as slaves; all their property was burnt, and their clothes and their jewels became the perquisites of the executioners. The mutilated woman was left to lie naked, for anyone who wished to satisfy his lust upon her. And an Egyptian law prescribed precisely this punishment for an adulteress.