11-21 – AHOLIBAH (JERUSALEM) JUDAH
(11) Verse 10 ends with Aholah (Israel) having suffered punishment for her infidelities and having become a byword among other women (‘the nations’). This section (vv.11-21) makes the point (11, 14, 19) that Aholibah (Jerusalem) saw her sister Aholah’s fate but did not learn from it. Judah did not heed the warning from the past.
(12-13) Just as her sister had done (vv.5-6) Aholibah ‘lusted after’ (doted upon) the impeccably dressed young Assyrian cavaliers. She became more corrupt in her lust than her sister; her pattern of behaviour escalating as time progressed.
This may include a historical reference to Judah under Ahaz (735-715 BCE), a king who submitted to Assyrian rule – see 2 Kgs 16 and Isa 7.
Notice that in the oracle there are three objects of Aholibah’s admiration – the Assyrians v.12, the Chaldeans v.16 and Egypt’s concubines v.20.
(14-21) Judah’s fascination with the Chaldeans (Babylonians) is depicted as lust for ‘men portrayed upon the wall’ (probably a reference to Babylonian wall reliefs). Aholibah was attracted by these brightly coloured engraved images (possibly using ochre) of soldiers wearing red uniforms as well as broad waistbands and flowing turbans. This was the typical dress of high-ranking Babylonian military officers.
Having only heard reports of Babylonian might Judah sent ambassadors to seek an alliance. It is possible, but not certain, that Hezekiah first contacted the Babylonian king Merodach-Baladan who then sent an embassy to Jerusalem (2 Kgs 20:12-21; Isa 39:1-8). The point in these verses is not so much idolatry as unnecessary and ill-advised political alliances.
(17-18) The Babylonians came to Judah in bed and made her unclean but afterwards her soul abhorred them. The expression (mind is alienated KJV) occurs in Ezek 23 :17, 18, 28 and Jer 6:8. The verb yāqa‘ means to turn away or alienate and in a different context is used for the dislocation of Jacob’s hip in Gen 32:25.
Ezekiel is reminding his audience that after a time relations with the Babylonians soured. For example: Jehoiakim revolted against Babylonia c. 598 BCE. Jehoiakim died during the revolt and his eighteen year old son Jehoiachin (also known as Jeconiah or Coniah) succeeded to the throne of Judah but surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar after three months. Jehoiachin, along many leading Judahites, was then deported to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar installed Zedekiah as a puppet king but nine years later he too rebelled against Babylonian rule (See 2 Kings 24).
Thus Aholibah (Jerusalem) revealed her nakedness and her harlotries with the result that YHWH turned away from her in disgust just as he had with her sister Aholah (Israel).
(19-21) Having been unfaithful to YHWH with powerful men like Assyria and Chaldea Aholibah did not return to the Lord but instead ‘called to remembrance’ the early days in Egypt. The verb means ‘to search for.’ The idea is that she reverted to an earlier pattern of behaviour; in this case the idolatry of her youth in Egypt.
She therefore sought a relationship with Egypt; longing to be one of Egypt’s concubines. Egypt, a world power at the time, is metaphorically described in graphic, animalistic terms as being sexually potent. Ezekiel employs coarse language in order to emphasise Aholibah’s excessive, unrestrained lust for foreign powers and also to evoke a feeling of revulsion in his audience.
The prophets of YHWH disapproved of Judah’s political flirtations with Egypt. Like Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah viewed Egypt as an unreliable ally (Isa 30:1-7; 31:1-3; Jer 2:18; 37:5-10).
Notice that until v.21 the verbs are in the third person (‘she’) but now change to the second person (‘you’). This anticipates YHWH directly addressing Aholibah in vv. 22-35 when announcing her punishment.
22-35 – AHOLIBAH’S PUNISHMENT
(22) ‘Therefore’ (i.e. because of her infidelities), followed by the prophetic messenger formula (‘thus saith the Lord God’), is followed by a direct message from YHWH to Aholibah (Jerusalem) stating his intention to punish her. He will accomplish this by bringing her former ‘lovers’ (the nations that she once courted) against her to attack her. Those with whom she was once allied but from whom she has turned in disgust (‘mind is alienated’ see on v.17 above) will become her deadly enemies.
(23-24) They include the Babylonians and various other groups, described as ‘desirable young men,’ ‘governors and officials,’ ‘cavalry officers and men of renown’ (lit. persons summoned to a meeting, Num 1:16; 16:2), who will come against her with military might. The list specifies:
– the Babylonians (sons of Babel) – the Neo-Babylonian empire under Nebuchadnezzar II, the superpower at that time
– the Chaldeans – a people group in the south of Babylonia – dominant in the Neo-Babylonian empire
– Pekod – possibly an Aramean tribe – from Syria
– Shoa – unknown
– Koa – unknown
– all the Assyrians (sons of Asshur) – possibly defeated Assyrian army units that had been pressed into military service by the Babylonians.
This confederation of Babylonian allies and vassals will attack Judah with an impressive array of the latest military equipment – weapons, chariots, wagons, large and small shields and helmets. YHWH will punish Judah by allowing these forces to judge her by their own inhumane laws rather than by biblical laws.
(25-27) Aholibah (Jerusalem) will therefore suffer the atrocities of ancient warfare. This will include brutal mutilations such as rhinotomy (nose-cutting) and ear cropping. In those ancient honour-shame cultures mutilations had to do with shame. They asserted the domination of the aggressor and indicated a change in the victim’s status. For biblical examples of wartime mutilations see Judg 1:6-7; 1 Sam 11:2; 31:9-10; 2 Sam 4:7,12; 2 Kgs 25:7; Jer 39:6-7.
Many who survive mutilation will be killed and others taken into captivity. Jerusalem will be stripped and plundered and the properties left empty (‘thy residue’) by those slain or deported will be consumed by fire. These agonies will be deliberately instigated by YHWH; in them Aholibah will experience his jealousy (intense fervour). The judgement will be so severe that her lewdness and the harlotries learned in Egypt will cease. She will no longer look amorously at Egypt, i.e. seek a political alliance or military help. ‘Look amorously’ is conveyed by the expression ‘lift up thine eyes unto’ – this is how Potiphar’s wife looked at Joseph in Gen 39:7.
(28-32) Beginning with ‘For,’ followed by the prophetic messenger formula ‘thus saith the Lord God’ (as v.22), Aholibah’s punishment is further described using the indecent image of YHWH handing her over to her former lovers, whom she has come to abhor, to be made a public spectacle. They will strip her stark naked, expose and violate her. This imagery of being left exposed symbolises not only physical vulnerability but also spiritual disgrace. This is due to her unfaithfulness to YHWH in the form of idolatry and alliances with ungodly nations (v.30).
It is ironic that the very nations with which Jerusalem sought an alliance for protection will become her oppressors. The language of v.29 emphasises the depth of betrayal and the resulting shame: they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare. ‘Take away all thy labour’ reflects one of the curses promised for covenant unfaithfulness in Deut 28:33: The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always.
Verse 28 echoes vv.17, 22 and 16:37. Verse 29 echoes v.26 and 16:39. Verse 31, looking back to v.13, states that Jerusalem has walked in the way of her sister, Aholah (Israel), and thus will drink from the same cup of judgement.
(32-35) Verses 32-34 develop the thought of drinking from the same cup as her sister Samaria had drunk from (in 722 BCE, see 2 Kgs 17:6). This takes the form of a poem:
This is what the Lord GOD says:
“You will drink your sister’s cup,
which is deep and wide.
You will be an object of ridicule and scorn,
for it holds so much.
You will be filled with drunkenness and grief,
with a cup of devastation and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria.
You will drink it and drain it;
then you will gnaw its broken pieces,
and tear your breasts.
For I have spoken.”
This is the declaration of the Lord GOD. (Ezek 23:32-34 CSB)
The cup is large (deep and wide) and people will laugh at the fact that it is so great and has to be drained completely. Aholibah will be the object of derision and scorn because when she drinks the toxic contents she will stagger about, as if drunk, stunned by the severity of the judgement. The cup will be one of intoxication and grief, of ruin and desolation. The contents of the cup will drive Aholibah mad. Overcome by self-loathing, she will break it in pieces and self-harm with the fragments of pottery. Ortland Jnr (2016, p.129, footnote 82) explains:
The image is that of a cup filled to the brim with a powerful potion, to make the one who drinks it reel with an exaggerated drunkenness. Yahweh holds this cup in his hand and forces it to the lips of the nation to be judged. It represents, in real terms, the breakdown of order, the loss of control and good judgment, the panic and disarray, as a nation staggers like a drunk toward divinely ordained destruction. Cf. Ps. 75:9 [EVV 8]; Is. 51:17; Je. 25:15-16, 28; 51:7; La. 4:21; Hab. 2:16. The figure makes vividly clear to the Judahites ‘the compulsion there is to accept destiny, the impossibility of rejecting it, the trepidation at its death-dealing effects, the bitterness of the suffering it involves, and how it has to be tasted to the full’, to quote Eichrodt (1970: 331).
In v.35 YHWH emphasises that Aholibah (Jerusalem) will bear the consequences of her lewdness and whoredoms because she has forgotten him and cast him aside (‘KJV ‘behind thy back’ cf.1 Kgs 14:9; Neh 9:26).
36-45 – INDICTMENT OF AHOLAH AND AHOLIBAH
YHWH instructs Ezekiel to judge both Aholah (Samaria) and Aholibah (Jerusalem). He is to ‘declare’ (explain, make plain) to them their abominations (detestable acts) of idolatry and bloodshed. They have been spiritually unfaithful to YHWH by worshipping other deities. ‘Blood is in their hands’ refers to child sacrifice. They have offered their own children to pagan gods like Molech, burning them as sacrifices. To add insult to injury they would worship Molech and then, on the same day, go to the Temple to worship YHWH; thus placing Molech on a par with YHWH (cf. 2 Kgs 21:4-7). Their presence at the Temple profaned the sanctuary.
Verses 40-44 resume the adultery metaphor and describe the activities of the two harlots with the image in vv.40-42a of one woman (notice the singulars- ‘ye,’ ‘thou,’ ‘thy,’ ‘thyself,’ her’), probably Aholibah (Jerusalem), preparing herself for adulterous liaisons with foreign lovers. These liaisons represent political alliances with pagan powers like Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia. The washing, painting the eyes, decking with jewellery, sitting on an opulent divan in front of which is a table spread with lovely food and on which is set oil and spices to perfume the bed all symbolise seduction. These actions represent international diplomacy.
Many men came to carouse with her/them – in 42b the plural (‘their’) is resumed – these are described as ‘men of the common sort’ and ‘drunkards from the desert;’ probably a reference to the Assyrians and the Chaldeans. The latter were not desert-dwellers but came ‘from the desert’ in the sense that their route from Babylon to Judah would have involved skirting the top of the Arabian peninsula and travelling through Syria. These lovers put bracelets upon Aholah and Aholibah’s arms and beautiful crowns on their heads, i.e. alliances with foreign nations brought great wealth to both Israel and Judah.
In v.43 YHWH (or is it Ezekiel?) asks himself if these men will still engage with Aholah and Aholibah, two women who are ‘old (worn out, used up – used of the Gibeonites’ clothes in Josh 9:4-5) in adulteries.’ Sure enough, as Samaria and Jerusalem willingly play the harlot – i.e. are accessible to anyone, – the foreigners do ally with them.
Verse 45 is difficult in that it appears that YHWH describes the Assyrians and Babylonians as ‘righteous men’ who will judge and punish the women as adulteresses and murderers. The likely idea is that these conquerors are viewed as the instruments of YHWH and he will use them to enforce his justice and divine retribution. The standard penalty of the Law for adultery (Lev 20:10) and murder (Exod 21:12; Lev 24:17; Num 35:31) was death. This imagery suggests that the capital punishment of Samaria and Judah will be lawful and deserved.
46-49 – SENTENCING OF AHOLAH AND AHOLIBAH
This section concludes the allegory of Aholah (ISamaria) and Aholibah (Jerusalem) and describes their judgement for adultery (idolatry) and political alliances with pagan nations.
Staying with the metaphor of judgement for adultery the Lord YHWH states that he will summon a crowd (i.e. armies, see vv. 23-24) to come up against ‘them’ (Israel and Judah) to which he will hand them over to suffer the atrocities and violence of war and to be plundered. These armies will pelt them with stones, cleave them with swords, kill their offspring and burn down their properties.
At v.44 there is a change from ‘them’ to ‘your.’ YHWH directly informs Israel and Judah that their fate will serve as a warning to ‘all women’ (i.e. the surrounding nations) not to ‘do after your lewdness’ i.e. behave like the metaphorical Aholah and Aholibah. He announces that they will bear the punishment of their evil-doing and idolatry and, because of this discipline, will recognise that he is the Lord YHWH. Notice that in this allegory delivered by Ezekiel the punishment of Samaria (Israel) and Jerusalem (Judah) is viewed as simultaneous whereas in real life Israel’s had already taken place c. 722 BCE and Judah’s was yet to come – a few years later – in 586 BCE.
This oracle shows us the importance of remaining faithful to God and of placing our confidence in him for daily guidance and protection rather than trusting in human power and politics which can easily turn against us. God views persistent sin as a personal betrayal and it therefore has inevitable and severe consequences.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Eichrodt, W. (1970). Ezekiel; a Commentary. Philadelphia, Westminster Press.
Ortlund Jnr, R.C. (2016). God’s Unfaithful Wife. InterVarsity Press.
Written Exposition 