1 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,
2 "Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:"
Though God often uses the names Israel and Judah interchangeably to mean “descendants of Jacob,” He also often refers to them as two separate peoples. Here the two women are Israel and Judah.
3 "And 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."
God equates idolatry with adultery. He "married" the descendants of Jacob to Himself. They took a vow to not worship any other god. They broke that vow by worshiping the gods of Egypt.
4 "And 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."
Aholah means her tent. Aholibah means my tent is in her. Judah followed Israel into idolatry, though they were both "married" to God.
Samaria was the capital of Israel and Jerusalem was the capital of Judah.
5 "And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,
6 "Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses."
Israel went after the pretty gods of the Assyrians.
7 "Thus 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.
8 "Neither 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.
9 "Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted."
God used the very country Israel most longed to be like to destroy her (a good 100 years before Ezekiel wrote this.)
10 "These discovered (displayed) 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.
11 "And 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."
Even though Judah saw what had happened to Israel due to her unfaithfulness to God, she decided to sin even more.
12 "She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
13 "Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,
14 "And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,"
Babylon was the capital city of Chaldea.
Judah saw the beautiful gods of Babylon and wanted them.
15 "Girded 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:
16 "And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea."
Chaldea destroyed Assyria. Her army became bigger and so a political alliance, aided by worshiping the same gods, was to be desired.
17 "And 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."
Judah adopted the Babylonian gods in hopes of being protected.
18 "So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then My mind was alienated from her, like as My mind was alienated from her sister.
19 "Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
20 "For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses."
Very graphic depiction of Judah’s lust for other nation’s gods.
Imagine being a man whose wife acted like this. How humiliating and infuriating! That is how God felt towards Judah.
21 "Thus thou called to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps (breasts) of thy youth.
22 "Therefore, O Aholibah, thus says 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;"
“So you’ve chosen Babylon over Me? OK, you get them.”
23 "The 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."
We think Pekod, Shoa and Koa were provinces of Babylon or neighboring countries. We really don’t know for sure.
This speaks as is if Chaldea and Babylon were separate countries, but best we can tell from archeology Babylon was the capital city of Chaldea. They were the same people. So either God is using artistic phrasing here (maybe it rhymes better in Hebrew to repeat it this way?) or we are missing something in archeology.
24 "And 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.
25 "And 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."
The Chaldean army will destroy them, abuse them, carry away their children into slavery.
26 "They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels."
They will impoverish Judah.
27 "Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shall not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more."
God will teach them to be faithful.
28 "For thus says the Lord God; 'Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hated, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated:'"
Though Judah had adopted the gods of Babylon, they really thought themselves superior to them. They took their gods in order to buy protection, but now they will become their slaves.
29 "'And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered (displayed), both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.'"
They became slaves.
30 "'I will do these things unto thee, because thou have gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.'"
God is making it clear why this was going to happen.
31 "'Thou have walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.'"
“Israel was destroyed for her sin. You have acted just like her. You will also be destroyed.”
32 "Thus says the Lord God; 'Thou shall drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shall be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it contains much.
33 "'Thou shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.
34 Thou shall even drink it and suck it out, and thou shall break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it,' says the Lord God.
35 "Therefore thus says the Lord God; 'Because thou have forgotten Me, and cast Me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms."
36 The Lord said moreover unto me; "Son of man, will thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations;
“Ezekiel, you tell them why they are fixing to be destroyed.”
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 bare unto Me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them."
God again names their sins; adultery, murder, idolatry, murder of their babies.
38 "Moreover this they have done unto Me: they have defiled My sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned My Sabbaths."
Plus treating the Temple disrespectfully and working on the Sabbath.
39 "For 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."
Those in Judah offered their babies as sacrifices to false idols and then turned around and tried to bring sacrifices to God at the Temple in Jerusalem the same day. God doesn’t accept the sacrifices of a sinful heart.
40 "And 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, painted thy eyes, and decked thyself with ornaments,"
They sent for ambassadors from Babylon and prettied up the city for them, but not for God.
41 "And sat upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou have set Mine incense and Mine oil."
They even used the very things they were supposed to use in worship of God to worship their false idols.
42 "And 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."
“From your room came the sound of many men carousing. They were lustful men and drunkards from the wilderness, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your heads.” New Living Translation.
43 "Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, 'Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?'"
44 "Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that plays the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.'"
Both Israel and Judah offered to worship whatever false gods offered them the greatest protection. Their worship was for hire, just like a prostitute.
45 "'And 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.'"
Godly people will not be confused. They would call out Judah for her sins just as they had done to Israel.
46 "For thus says the Lord God; 'I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.'"
When God has decided to do a thing, He repeats Himself- frequently.
47 "'And 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.'"
Judah WILL be destroyed. No hope of escape.
48 "'Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.'"
“All women” are the neighboring countries. It was God’s intention all along that Israel/Judah lead their neighbors to Him. They hadn’t done it by evangelism, so now they will do it by the example of what happens to a people who won’t worship Him.
49 "'And 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.'"