Ezekiel 23

The word of the LORD came to me again. He said:

1The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

2"Son of man, there were two women. They were daughters of the same mother.

2Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:

Note"Son of man" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning simply "human being" or "mortal." It is the way God addresses Ezekiel throughout the book, over ninety times, and it marks the prophet as an ordinary man being spoken to by God. The two women are explained in verse 4: they stand for two capital cities, and through them two kingdoms. After the death of Solomon the single kingdom of Israel split in two, which is why the prophet calls them sisters born of one mother.

3They sold themselves for sex in Egypt. They did it while they were still young. There men handled their breasts and touched their young, virgin bodies.

3And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.

NoteIsrael's prophets regularly spoke of the bond between God and the nation as a marriage, so that worship of other gods, and treaties with foreign powers that came with obligations to their gods, could be described as adultery or prostitution. Ezekiel pushes this stock image much further than any other prophet; the Hebrew of this chapter is deliberately coarse and was meant to shock its hearers. "Egypt" and "their youth" refer to the period when the Israelites lived in Egypt before the exodus, treated here as the nation's childhood.

4The older one was named Aholah, and her sister was named Aholibah. They became mine, and they gave birth to sons and daughters. Here is who they are: Aholah is Samaria, and Aholibah is Jerusalem.

4And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

NoteThe two names are made from the Hebrew word for "tent," which can mean a tent-shrine or place of worship. Aholah means roughly "her own tent" and Aholibah "my tent is in her", a contrast that fits Jerusalem, where the temple stood, against Samaria's rival sanctuaries. The two names also simply sound alike, as sisters' names might. Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom, Israel; Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom, Judah.

5But Aholah sold herself for sex while she still belonged to me. She burned with desire for her lovers, the Assyrians who lived nearby, fighting men

5And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,

NoteAssyria was the empire based in northern Mesopotamia (modern northern Iraq) that dominated the region from roughly the ninth to the late seventh century BC. The northern kingdom paid it tribute and courted its favor before Assyria finally destroyed Samaria. "Lovers" throughout this chapter means foreign powers sought as allies or overlords, together with their gods and religious practices.

6dressed in blue: governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, riders on horses.

6Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

NoteBlue and purple cloth was dyed with a costly extract from a Mediterranean sea snail and was worn by officials and the wealthy. The color itself signaled rank.

7So she gave herself to them, to all the top men of Assyria, to every man she wanted. She made herself filthy with all their idols.

7Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.

8She never gave up the prostitution she had started in Egypt. There men had slept with her when she was young, handled her virgin breasts, and poured out their lust on her.

8Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.

9So I handed her over to her lovers, to the Assyrians she had wanted so badly.

9Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

10They stripped her naked, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. Her name became a byword among women, because judgment had been carried out on her.

10These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

NoteStripping a convicted adulteress naked in public was a recognized legal humiliation in the ancient Near East, which is why the image recurs through this chapter. The event behind the verse is the Assyrian capture of Samaria in 722 BC, after which the population was deported and the northern kingdom ceased to exist. "A byword" means a name people used as a warning or an insult.

11Her sister Aholibah saw all this. Yet her own lust and her own prostitution were even worse than her sister's.

11And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.

12She too burned with desire for the Assyrians who lived nearby: governors and commanders, fighting men in splendid uniforms, riders on horses, all of them handsome young men.

12She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.

13Then I saw that she had made herself filthy too. Both sisters had gone the same way.

13Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,

14But she took her prostitution even further. She saw men drawn on a wall, pictures of Chaldean men painted in bright red,

14And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,

NoteThe Chaldeans were a people of southern Babylonia; from 626 BC a Chaldean dynasty ruled the Babylonian Empire, so "Chaldean" and "Babylonian" are used here as interchangeable terms. Vermilion is a bright red pigment. Assyrian and Babylonian palaces were decorated with painted and glazed wall reliefs showing rows of soldiers and officials, often picked out in red, pictures Judeans could have seen on embassies or on imported goods.

15with belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads. Every one of them looked like an officer, in the style of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land where they were born.

15Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:

NoteThe sash and the wound cloth headdress were marks of rank in Babylonian dress, the equivalent of a uniform and insignia.

16The moment she saw them, she wanted them, and she sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

16And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

NoteSending messengers means sending a diplomatic embassy to ask for alliance or to offer submission. Judah's kings did this repeatedly in Ezekiel's lifetime, playing Babylon and Egypt against each other.

17So the Babylonians came to her, into her bed, and their lust left her filthy. After they had defiled her, she turned away from them in disgust.

17And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.

NoteBehind the image is the political history: Judah became a vassal of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar in 605-597 BC, then turned against its overlord and rebelled.

18She flaunted her prostitution and let herself be seen naked. So I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister.

18So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.

19Even so, she kept adding to her prostitution. She remembered the days of her youth, when she had sold herself in the land of Egypt.

19Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

NoteJudah's later kings sought Egyptian military help against Babylon; the appeal to Egypt is the "return to youth" the passage keeps describing.

20She burned with desire for the men there, whose sex organs were like a donkey's and whose flow of semen was like a horse's.

20For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Note"Flesh" and "issue" are euphemisms in the Hebrew for the genitals and for semen. The comparison to donkeys and stallions is a crude way of speaking of the Egyptians' size and potency, and stands for the military power Judah hoped to gain from them.

21So you went back to the shameful ways of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your body and squeezed your young breasts.

21Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

22So, Aholibah, this is what the Lord GOD says: I am going to stir up your lovers against you, the very ones you turned away from in disgust. I will bring them against you from every side.

22Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side;

23They are the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them. They are handsome young men, governors and commanders, high officers and famous men, all of them riding horses.

23The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, 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.

NotePekod, Shoa and Koa are peoples living east of the Tigris who were subject to Babylon; they appear in Assyrian and Babylonian records as the Puqudu, Sutu and Qutu. "Pekod" also sounds like the Hebrew verb meaning "to punish," a pun the hearers would have caught.

24They will come against you with chariots, wagons, and weapons, and with a great crowd of people. They will surround you with small shields, large shields, and helmets. I will hand the judging over to them, and they will judge you by their own rules.

24And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered here as "weapons" (KJV: "wheels") is uncertain; it may name a kind of vehicle or a siege engine. The two shields are different pieces of equipment: a small round buckler carried on the arm, and a large shield that covered the whole body.

25I will turn my jealous anger against you, and they will treat you with rage. They will cut off your nose and your ears, and those of you left will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and daughters, and the rest of you will be burned up in fire.

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

NoteCutting off the nose and ears was a real punishment for adultery in Egyptian and Mesopotamian law, and Assyrian and Babylonian armies inflicted it on prisoners. The threat is legal as well as military: the sentence fits the crime the chapter has been describing.

26They will also strip off your clothes and take away your fine jewelry.

26They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.

27In this way I will put a stop to your shameful ways and to the prostitution you brought from the land of Egypt. You will not look longingly at those people again, and you will not think about Egypt anymore.

27Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

28For this is what the Lord GOD says: I am going to hand you over to the people you hate, the ones you turned away from in disgust.

28For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated:

29They will treat you with hate. They will take everything you worked for and leave you naked and bare. The shame of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your unfaithfulness.

29And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

30These things will happen to you because you ran after other nations like a prostitute, and because you made yourself filthy with their idols.

30I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.

31You walked the same road your sister walked. So I will put her cup into your hand.

31Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.

NoteThe cup is a standard prophetic image: a drink handed to someone that they must swallow whole, meaning the fate assigned to them. A nation staggering under disaster is pictured as a person reeling drunk. "Her cup" is the fate that already fell on Samaria in 722 BC.

32This is what the Lord GOD says: You will drink from your sister's cup, a cup deep and wide. People will laugh at you and mock you, for the cup holds a great deal.

32Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much.

33It will fill you with drunkenness and grief. It is the cup of horror and ruin, the cup of your sister Samaria.

33Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

34You will drink it and drain it dry. Then you will smash it to pieces and tear at your own breasts. I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.

34Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

NoteGashing or beating the breast was a recognized gesture of violent grief and mourning. The Hebrew of this line is difficult and has been read in several ways; the sense of self-inflicted injury in despair is clear even where the wording is not.

35So this is what the Lord GOD says: You forgot me and threw me behind your back. Now you must carry the weight of your lewdness and your prostitution.

35Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

36The LORD said to me further: Son of man, will you pass judgment on Aholah and Aholibah? Then tell them plainly about the disgusting things they have done.

36The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations;

NoteThe prophet is being told to act as a prosecutor, reading out the charges. "Abominations" translates a Hebrew word for practices regarded as detestable and unfit to come near God, most often used of idol worship.

37They have committed adultery, and there is blood on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols, and they even took the sons they bore for me and passed them through the fire as food for those idols.

37That 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 bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.

Note"Passing through the fire" is the standard biblical phrase for child sacrifice, carried out in the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem and associated with the god Molech. Israel's law forbade it, and the books of Kings record two of Judah's own kings, Ahaz and Manasseh, doing it.

38They did this to me as well: on that same day they made my holy place filthy and treated my Sabbath days as worthless.

38Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

Note"My holy place" and "my house" mean the temple in Jerusalem. The offense is partly one of ritual purity: contact with a corpse made a person unclean and barred from the temple for days, so going in on the same day as a killing was a double violation. The Sabbath was the seventh day, set apart from all work and treated as a public sign of belonging to God.

39On the very day they killed their children for their idols, they came into my holy place to make it filthy. That is what they did, right inside my house.

39For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house.

40You also sent for men who came from far away. A messenger was sent to them, and they came. For them you washed yourself, painted your eyes, and put on your jewelry.

40And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments,

NoteEyes were painted with kohl, a black powder applied around the lids, ordinary cosmetics, listed here as part of a woman preparing for a lover. The washing, painting and jewelry are the standard sequence.

41You sat on a fine couch with a table spread out in front of it, and on that table you had set my incense and my oil.

41And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.

NoteA dining couch, on which guests reclined to eat. The incense and oil are called God's because they were the materials prescribed for temple worship; the picture is of consecrated goods laid out on a banquet table for foreign guests instead.

42Around her was the sound of a carefree crowd. Along with men from the common crowd, Sabeans were brought in from the desert. They put bracelets on the women's wrists and lovely crowns on their heads.

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

NoteThe KJV reads the Hebrew word as "Sabeans," people from Sheba in Arabia; the same consonants can be read as "drunkards," which is how most modern translations take it. The text is genuinely ambiguous. The crowns are the garlands or headbands worn by guests at a feast.

43Then I said about the woman worn out by her adulteries: Are they going to keep sleeping with her now, and she with them?

43Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?

44And they did go in to her, the way men go in to a prostitute. That is how they went in to Aholah and Aholibah, those shameless women.

44Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.

45But righteous men will judge them with the sentence given to women who commit adultery and to women who shed blood. For they are adulteresses, and there is blood on their hands.

45And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

Note"Righteous men" here means lawful judges acting properly. Under Israel's law the penalty for both adultery and murder was death, and stoning by the assembled community was the usual method, which is what verse 47 describes. The invading army is being cast as the court's executioner.

46For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will bring a mob against them, and I will hand them over to terror and to plunder.

46For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.

NoteThe Hebrew word covers both a lawfully assembled community carrying out a sentence and a mob; the double sense is deliberate, since the executioners here are a foreign army.

47The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters and burn their houses down.

47And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

48In this way I will put an end to shameful behavior in the land, so that all women will be warned not to copy what you did.

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

49They will pay you back for your lewdness, and you will carry the guilt of your idol worship. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD."

49And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Note"To bear" or "carry" sin is a legal idiom meaning to take on the liability for it and suffer the penalty, not merely to feel guilty.