4. The parable of the two sisters ch. 23

This chapter is the final climactic one in Ezekiel's collection of messages that condemn Israel's defective leadership (chs. 20-23).

Both chapters 16 and 23 describe Israel as a prostitute, but there are significant differences in these chapters. In chapter 16 Canaanis the mother of Israel who corrupted her daughter by teaching her spiritualadultery, namely, idolatry or trust in other gods. In chapter 23 Israelherself is responsible for pursuing mainly politicaladultery, trust in other nations, through alliances with foreign powers. In chapter 16 the beginningsof Israel's unfaithful career receive most attention whereas in chapter 23 the wholeof Israel's unfaithful career is in view. Chapter 16 deals with Judahalone, but chapter 23 focuses on both Israel and Judahwith emphasis on Judah.

"There the emphasis was on idolatries as breaking the marriage relation and the sacred covenant with God, here it is on the nation's worldly spirit and worldly alliances for safety and national security."³¹⁵

"Despite the distasteful theme and the indelicate language, the reader of these verses must appreciate that this is the language of unspeakable disgust and must try to recognize Ezekiel's passion for God's honour and his fury at the adulterous conduct of His covenant people. The feeling of nausea which a chapter like this arouses must be blamed not on the writer of the chapter nor even on its contents, but on the conduct which had to be described in such revolting terms."³¹⁶

"This chapter contains the most graphic language in the Bible in reference to sexual imagery. For that reason it requires extreme care in teaching and preaching."³¹⁷

 Israel's lustful youth 23:1-4

23:1-3 The Lord gave Ezekiel a story about two sisters who had one mother (cf. Jer. 3:7). These young girls became prostitutes in Egypt and allowed men to fondle their breasts. That is, they allowed the Egyptians to become intimate with them even though they were to be faithful to the Lord alone (cf. 16:26; 20:7-8; Num. 25:3-9; Josh. 24:14; 2 Kings 21:15; Hos. 1:2). One evidence of the idolatry that the Israelites had adopted from the Egyptians came to the surface in the Golden Calf incident in the wilderness (Exod. 32). Joshua later warned the Israelites about the dangers of idolatry, which had persisted since they had departed from Egypt (Josh. 24:14).

Israel and Judah became separate entities after the division of the kingdom following Solomon's reign, though relations between the northern and southern tribes had become increasingly unfriendly long before that (cf. Judg. 8:1; 12:1; 2 Sam. 19:43). However, God projected their identities back to the time when they were still within their mother, ancient Israel, in Egypt. The common origin of these sisters accounts in part for their similar behavior. Their father, unstated, was Yahweh.

23:4 Oholah was the name of the older sister (lit. "her tent,"probably a reference to her pagan tent shrines), and she represents Samaria, the capital of the kingdom of Israel. Oholibah was the younger sister (lit. "my tent is in her,"probably a reference to the temple), and she represents Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of Judah.³¹⁸They became the wife of the Lord and bore Him sons and daughters (i.e., inhabitants and surrounding villages). Evidently the Lord regarded Samaria as the older sister because the Northern Kingdom was the first to apostatize and to establish political alliances with foreign nations, particularly the Assyrians (Hos. 8:9).

While this allegory suggests that Yahweh committed bigamy and incest, He obviously did nothing in relation to Israel that was in any way improper. This is an excellent example of why we should not apply what the parable excludes; there is no reference to the sisters' father in the parable. The story makes certain comparisons, but if we try to apply all the implications of the story we end up with some incongruities.

 Samaria's prostitution 23:5-10

23:5-8 Oholah proved unfaithful to the Lord by lusting after her attractive neighbors, the Assyrians.

"The appeal, then as now, was to youth, strength, position, wealth and self-gratification; that is, the world in all its dazzle and attractiveness."³¹⁹

Oholah committed political adultery by making alliances with the Assyrians, which involved worshipping their idols (cf. 2 Kings 15:19-20; 17:3-4; Hos. 5:13; 7:11; 8:9; 12:1-2; Amos 5:26).³²⁰This was a continuation of her behavior from her youth in Egypt where she had done the same things.

23:9-10 The Lord had turned her over to the Assyrians whom she had proved unfaithful with in 722 B.C. They abused her and even murdered her so that she had become infamous for her sins (cf. Prov. 1:31; Rom. 1:24-32). The name "Jezebel"evokes similar disgust even today.

"Infidelity in marriage was taken very seriously in ancient Israel. Adultery and prostitution were both odious to God and punishable by death, as several passages in Leviticus (19:29; 20:10; 21:9) and Deuteronomy (22:21-22; 23:17) indicate."³²¹

 Jerusalem's prostitution 23:11-21

23:11-13 Oholibah observed her sister's behavior and fate, but she did not learn from them. As many historians have observed, the one thing we learn from history is that most people do not learn from history. Oholibah became even more unfaithful than her sister. She too lusted after the Assyrians whom she viewed as attractive political allies (2 Kings 16:8; cf. Isa. 7:7-9). Both sisters followed the same pattern of behavior.

23:14-16 Oholibah saw pictures of the Babylonians that aroused her desire for alliance, and she lusted after them and wrote to them (2 Kings 23:32, 37; cf. Jer. 22:21). Much visual art in biblical times was painted and or carved on walls. The splendor that was Babylon deeply impressed the Israelites.

23:17-21 The Babylonians responded to her invitations and came to Judea where they polluted her by entering into treaties with her. After she became a vassal of Babylon, she became disgusted with the Babylonians and turned away to seek help from Egypt (cf. Jer. 2:18; 6:8; 37:5-7; Lam. 4:17). The Lord also became disgusted with her, as He had with her sister. Nevertheless she persisted in her immoral conduct that she had learned in Egypt. She lusted after the Egyptians that pursued her like donkeys and horses in heat (cf. Jer. 2:24; 5:8; 13:27). Donkeys and horses were proverbial for their strong sexual drive (cf. Jer. 2:24; 5:8; 13:27), and the Lord used these animals as a figure for the Egyptians' potency that attracted the Israelites.³²²Jerusalem returned to her old lover, namely, Egypt.

 Jerusalem's judgment for prostitution 23:22-35

Four messages announce God's judgment on Jerusalem for her unfaithfulness (vv. 22-27, 28-31, 32-34, 35).

23:22-24 Because of her behavior the Lord promised to turn Oholibah's soldier-lovers against her, even the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and the tribal groups of the empire.³²³Pekod, Shoa, and Koa were tribes that lived in eastern Babylonia and that were part of the empire (cf. Isa. 22:5; Jer. 50:21). They would all come against her from every direction, attack her from all sides, and try to destroy her using their own customary methods. Ezekiel painted a picture of the whole world coming against Israel. The Lord would allow this to happen to her.

23:25-27 The Lord would express His jealousy over her and deal with her in His wrath. Her enemies would cut off her nose and her ears. This was an ancient Near Eastern punishment for adulteresses, which was understandable since these women typically adorned themselves with nose and ear rings.³²⁴This punishment would make them grotesque and unappealing to anyone else. Thus God would make Jerusalem unappealing to other nations.

These enemies would also kill many Israelites, deport others (2 Kings 24:10-16; 25:11; Dan. 1:1), and burn still others (2 Kings 25:18-21). They would strip the nation of her clothes and jewelry, perhaps a reference to her wealth, possessions, and temple treasures (cf. 2 Kings 25:13-17; 2 Chron. 36:18). The Lord would allow this to teach Oholibah to abhor the Egyptians as political partners.

23:28-29 The Lord also announced that He would turn Jerusalem over to those whom she had come to hate, namely, the Babylonians. They would hate her, rob her of her property, and leave her naked and ashamed (in 586 B.C.).

23:30-31 This punishment would come on her because she committed political adultery with the nations and had defiled herself with their idolatry (cf. Exod. 20:1-7; Deut. 17:14-20). She had behaved as her older sister, so the Lord would give the cup of His wrath to her to drink (cf. Isa. 51:7, 22; Jer. 25:15-17, 28; Hab. 2:16; Zech. 12:2; Matt. 20:22; 26:39; Rev. 14:10), the same cup Oholah had to drink.

"In using this imagery Ezekiel belongs to a long prophetic chain that was to culminate in Jesus, who absorbed in his own person the horror of God's judgment, accepting it from his hand not without a shudder (Mark 14:36)."³²⁵

23:32-34 The Lord also promised that Oholibah would indeed drink from the large cup of God's judgment from which Oholah had drunk.³²⁶Drinking it would make her an object of scorn as well as drunk and sad. The cup would contain punishment in the form of horror and desolation, just like Samaria had experienced. Oholibah would drain the cup; she would endure all the punishment God had for her. She would even madly gnaw the fragments of the earthenware cup or shatter it to pieces. The same Hebrew verb means "to gnaw"(NASB, NRSV) and "to break"(AV, NIV, NKJV). She would also tear at her breasts probably in remorse over how she had used them to seduce her lovers. In other words, she would despise herself for her former behavior.³²⁷

23:35 Jerusalem would bear the Lord's punishment for her lewd and immoral behavior because she had abandoned Him. This short message identifies the root problem in Israel's apostasy: she had forsaken Yahweh.

"When a nation (or an individual) discards God, there is no other road to follow but that which leads to perversion and utter degradation."³²⁸

 A summary judgment for Israel's unfaithfulness 23:36-49

This 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).

23:36-37 The Lord called Ezekiel to pass judgment on Oholah and Oholibah (cf. 20:4; 22:2). He should then announce their fate because they had committed adultery (cf. Exod. 22:20; 23:13; Deut. 4:15-24; 12:24-32) and had shed innocent blood in their unfaithfulness (cf. Exod. 20:13; Lev. 18:21; 20:1-5). Their spiritual adultery consisted of idolatry, and their bloodshed was the practice of child sacrifice in connection with idolatry. They had killed the Lord's own children.

23:38-39 They also made the temple unclean (cf. Exod. 20:24-26) and treated the Sabbath as any other day of the week (cf. Exod. 20:8-11; Lev. 19:3, 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.

23:40-42 These daughters had sent to other nations and invited ambassadors to come to them to make treaties (cf. Deut. 17:14-20). They had made themselves as attractive as possible, like a prostitute does for her lover. They even used the things that they should have used only for the worship of Yahweh to entice desert lovers (e.g. the Arabians, Moabites, and Edomites). The whole atmosphere of the reception was like that of a drunken orgy. The same Hebrew word, saba'im, can mean "Sabeans"and "drunkards"(v. 42), and both meanings could have been intended. These foreign lovers gave the Israelites the wages of a prostitute including bracelets and crowns.

23:43-45 The Lord marveled that the nations would find Samaria and Jerusalem attractive partners since they had proved to be such unsatisfying lovers for so long. Yet they did. There is hardly anyone more pathetic and disgusting than an old whore. However, righteous people would pass judgment on the sisters as adulteresses who had blood on their hands. The enemies of Israel were righteous in judging her, not that they were right with God spiritually. They may have even been more righteous in their conduct than the Israelites.³²⁹

23:46-49 The Lord commanded a group of soldiers to attack these cities and to terrorize and plunder them. These invaders would stone the guilty (the punishment for adulterers and murderers in the Mosaic Law), slay them and their children with their swords, and burn their houses. Thus the Lord would cause such shameful unfaithfulness to cease from His land (cf. 22:15), and He would teach other nations not to do as these two "women"had done. Samaria and Jerusalem would bear their punishment for practicing idolatry, and they would learn that Yahweh is God.

"While most parables and messages concerning sin in the Old Testament seek to produce repentance, that is not so here. The message closed with a note of finality."³³⁰