Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 23

Verse 2

23:2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one {a} mother:

(a) Meaning, Israel and Judah who both came out of one family.

Verse 3

23:3 And they committed harlotries in {b} Egypt; they committed harlotries in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.

(b) They became idolaters after the manner of the Egyptians.

Verse 4

23:4 And the names of {c} them [were] Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus [were] their names; Samaria [is] Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

(c) Aholah signifies a mansion or dwelling in herself, meaning Samaria, which was the royal city of Israel and Aholibah signifies my mansion in her, by which is meant Jerusalem, where God’s temple was.

Verse 5

23:5 And Aholah played the harlot when {d} she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians [her] neighbours,

(d) When the Israelites were named the people of God, they became idolaters and forsook God, and put their trust in the Assyrians.

Verse 8

23:8 Neither left she her harlotries [brought] from Egypt: for in her youth they {e} lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their immorality upon her.

(e) The Holy Spirit uses these terms which seem strange to chaste ears, to cause this wicked vice of idolatry to be so abhorred that no one could stand to hear the name of it.

Verse 10

23:10 These uncovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for {f} they had executed judgment upon her.

(f) Meaning the Assyrians.

Verse 14

23:14 And [that] she increased her harlotries: for when she saw men {g} portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

(g) This declares that no words are able to sufficiently express the rage of idolaters and therefore the Holy Spirit here compares them to those who in their raging love and filthy lusts dote on the images and paintings of them after whom they lust.

Verse 23

23:23 The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, {h} Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, [and] all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.

(h) These were the names of certain princes and captains under Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 25

23:25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy {i} nose and thy ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy remnant shall be devoured by the fire.

(i) They will destroy your princes and priests with the rest of your people.

Verse 29

23:29 And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy {k} labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy harlotries {l} shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy harlotries.

(k) All your treasures and riches which you have gotten by labour.

(l) All the world will see your shameful forsaking of God to serve idols.

Verse 31

23:31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her {m} cup into thy hand.

(m) I will execute the same judgments and vengeance against you and that with greater severity.

Verse 33

23:33 Thou shalt be filled with {n} drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of horror and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

(n) Meaning that it’s afflictions would be so great that they would cause them to lose their senses and reason.

Verse 37

23:37 That they have committed adultery, and blood [is] in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass for them through [the fire], to {o} devour [them].

(o) That is, to be sacrifices to their idols, read Ezekiel 16:20 .

Verse 40

23:40 And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from {p} far, to whom a messenger [was] sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, didst paint thy eyes, and didst deck thyself with ornaments,

(p) They sent into other countries to have such as would teach the service of their idols.

Verse 41

23:41 And satest {q} upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, upon which thou hast set my incense and my oil.

(q) He means the altar that was prepared for the idols.

Verse 42

23:42 And a voice of a multitude being at ease [was] with her: and with the men of the common sort [were] brought {r} Sabeans from the wilderness, who put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.

(r) Who would teach the manner of worshipping their gods.

Verse 45

23:45 And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of {s} adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they [are] adulteresses, and blood [is] in their hands.

(s) That is worthy of death, Ezekiel 16:38 .

Verse 48

23:48 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all {t} women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

(t) Meaning, all other cities and countries.