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Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: Ezekiel 23

Chapter 23

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

two

16:44,46 Jeremiah 3:7-10

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.

in Egypt

20:8 Leviticus 17:7 Deuteronomy 29:16 Joshua 24:14

in their

8,19,21 16:22 Hosea 2:15

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.

the names

The kingdom of Israel, of which Samaria was the capital, containing ten tribes, and occupying a larger extent of country than that of Judah, is therefore called "her elder sister;" and Aholah, the name given to her, implies that the whole religious establishment in Israel was a human invention, a temple and service of their own, and not of God's appointment. Aholibah, the name given to Judah, implies that the worship established there was from God, and that His temple was truly at Jerusalem.

the elder

16:40 1 Kings 12:20

they were

16:8,20 Exodus 19:5,6 Psalms 45:11-16 Jeremiah 2:2,3 Romans 7:4

Aholah

that is, His tent, or tabernacle.

1 Kings 12:26-33 John 4:22

Aholibah

that is, My tabernacle in her.

1 Kings 8:29 Psalms 76:2 132:13,14

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

Aholah

The Israelites, in addition to their former gross idolatries, received the impure idolatrous worship of the Assyrians, who became their neighbours by the conquest of Syria.

1 Kings 14:9,16 15:26,30 16:31,32 21:26 2 Kings 17:7-18

doted

7,9,12,16,20 16:37 Jeremiah 50:38

on the

16:28 2 Kings 15:19 16:7 17:3 Hosea 5:13 8:9,10 10:6 12:1

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

all of

Verse 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.

committed her whoredoms with them

Heb. bestowed her whoredoms upon them.

16:15

the chosen men of Assyria

Heb. the choice of the children of Asshur.

Genesis 10:22

with all their

30 20:7 22:3,4 Psalms 106:39 Hosea 5:3 6:10

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.

whoredoms

3,19,21 Exodus 32:4 1 Kings 12:28 2 Kings 10:29 17:16

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

2 Kings 15:29 17:3-6,23 18:9-12 1 Chronicles 5:26 Hosea 11:5 Revelation 17:12,13,16

These 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.

discovered

29 16:37-41 Hosea 2:3,10

they took

famous

Heb. a name.

48 Jeremiah 22:8,9

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.

her sister

4 Jeremiah 3:8

was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she

Heb. she corrupted her inordinate love more than she. her sister in her whoredoms. Heb. the whoredoms of her sister.

16:47-51 Jeremiah 3:8-11

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

upon

5 16:28 2 Kings 16:7-15 2 Chronicles 28:16-23

captains

6,23

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

that they

31 2 Kings 17:18,19 Hosea 12:1,2

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

pourtrayed

8:10 Isaiah 46:1 Jeremiah 50:2

vermilion

Jeremiah 22:14

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:

with girdles

1 Samuel 18:4 Isaiah 22:21

all of

Judges 8:18 2 Samuel 14:25

look to

That is, "princes in appearance;" which seem to have been the deified men worshipped by the Chaldeans. The inhabitants of Judah, like the Israelites, connected themselves with the Assyrians, and were enamoured with their idols; and then with the Chaldeans, and followed their idols; still retaining their attachment to the Egyptians and their idolatrous rites.

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

as soon as she saw them with her eyes

Heb. at the sight of her eyes.

16:29 Genesis 3:6 6:2 39:7 2 Samuel 11:2 2 Kings 24:1 Job 31:1 Psalms 119:37 Proverbs 6:25 23:33 Matthew 5:28

and sent

40,41 16:17,29 2 Peter 2:14

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.

Babylonians

Heb. children of Babel.

Genesis 10:10 11:9

and her

22,28 16:37 2 Samuel 13:15

alienated

Heb. loosed, or disjointed.

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.

discovered

16:36 21:24 Isaiah 3:9 Jeremiah 8:12 Hosea 7:1

then

Deuteronomy 32:19 Psalms 78:59 106:40 Jeremiah 6:8 12:8 15:1 Lamentations 2:7 Hosea 2:2 Amos 6:8 Zechariah 11:8

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.

multiplied

14 16:25,29,51 Amos 4:4

in calling

3,8,21 16:22 20:7

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

16:20,26 17:15 Jeremiah 5:8

Therefore, 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;

I will raise

9,28 16:37 Isaiah 10:5,6 39:3,4 Habakkuk 1:6-10 Revelation 17:16

from

and I

Jeremiah 6:22,23 12:9-12

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.

Babylonians

21:19-27 2 Kings 20:14-17 25:1-3

the Chaldeans

2 Kings 24:2 Job 1:17 Isaiah 23:13 Acts 7:4

Pekod

Jeremiah 50:21

the Assyrians

Genesis 2:14 25:18 Ezra 6:22

desirable

6,12

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.

with chariots

26:10 Jeremiah 47:3 Nahum 2:3,4 3:2,3

I will set

45 16:38 21:23 2 Samuel 24:14 Jeremiah 39:5,6

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.

I will set

5:13 8:1-18 16:38-42 Exodus 34:14 Deuteronomy 29:20 32:21,22 Proverbs 6:34 Song of Solomon 8:6 Zephaniah 1:18

they shall take away

This refers to the severe vengeance which enraged husbands took on their faithless wives: and implies that God would employ the Chaldeans to destroy the princes and priests of Judah, for violating their covenants and treaties. Such punishments were anciently common; and such is the present practice in one of the South Sea Islands.

they shall take thy

47 Hosea 2:4,5

thy residue

15:6,7 20:47,48 22:18-22 Revelation 18:8

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

strip

29 16:16,37,39 Jeremiah 13:22 Hosea 2:3,9,10 Revelation 17:16 18:14-17

fair jewels

Heb. instruments of thy decking.

Isaiah 3:17-24 1 Peter 3:3,4

Thus 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.

will I

16:41 22:15 Isaiah 27:9 Micah 5:10-14 Zechariah 13:2

and thy

3,19

so that

These severe judgments shall effectually deter you from idolatry, and make you abhor the least approaches to it. This often repeated prediction has received a most wonderful accomplishment. For neither the authority, frowns, examples, or favour of their conquerors or powerful neighbours, nor their own fears, hopes, interests, or predilection for the sensual worship of idols, could prevail with them to run into gross idolatry, either during the captivity, or ever afterwards, to the present day, a period of 2,414 years.

For 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:

whom thou

17,22 16:37 Jeremiah 21:7-10 24:8 34:20

And 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.

deal

25,26,45-47 16:39 Deuteronomy 28:47-51 2 Samuel 13:15

the nakedness

18 16:36,37

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

thou hast

12-21 6:9 Psalms 106:35-38 Jeremiah 2:18-20 16:11,12 22:8,9

because thou art

7,17

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

walked

13 16:47-51 Jeremiah 3:8-11

her

2 Kings 21:13 Jeremiah 7:14,15 Daniel 9:12

Thus 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.

drink

Psalms 60:3 Isaiah 51:17 Jeremiah 25:15-28 48:26 Matthew 20:22,23 Revelation 16:19 Revelation 18:6

thou shalt be

22:4,5 25:6 26:2 35:15 36:3 Deuteronomy 28:37 1 Kings 9:7 Psalms 79:3 Jeremiah 25:9 Lamentations 2:15,16 Micah 7:8

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

filled

Jeremiah 25:27 Habakkuk 2:16

with the cup of astonishment

Isaiah 51:17,22

Thou 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.

drink

Psalms 75:8 Isaiah 51:17

and pluck

3,8 Revelation 18:7

Therefore 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.

Because

22:12 Isaiah 17:10 Jeremiah 2:32 3:21 13:25 23:27 32:33 Hosea 8:14 13:6 Romans 1:28

and cast

1 Kings 14:9 Nehemiah 9:26

therefore

45-49 7:4 44:10 Leviticus 24:15 Numbers 14:34 18:22

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

wilt

20:4 22:2 Jeremiah 1:10 1 Corinthians 6:2,3

judge

or, plead for.

Jeremiah 11:14 14:11

Aholah

declare

16:2 Isaiah 58:1 Hosea 2:2 Micah 3:8-11 Matthew 23:13-35 Luke 11:39-52 Acts 7:51-53

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.

they have

5 16:32 Hosea 1:2 3:1

and blood

39,45 16:36,38 22:2-4 24:6-9 2 Kings 24:4 Psalms 106:37,38 Isaiah 1:15 Jeremiah 7:6,9 Hosea 4:2 Micah 3:10 Luke 13:34

have also

4 16:20,21,36,45 20:26,31 Leviticus 18:21 20:2-5 Deuteronomy 12:31 2 Kings 17:17 21:6 Jeremiah 7:31 32:35

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

they have

7:20 8:5-16 2 Kings 21:4,7 23:11,12

and have

20:13,24 22:8 Nehemiah 13:17,18 Jeremiah 17:27

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.

they came

Isaiah 3:9 Jeremiah 7:8-11 11:15 Micah 3:11 John 18:28

thus

38 44:7 2 Kings 21:4 2 Chronicles 33:4-7 Jeremiah 23:11

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, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments,

ye have

13 Isaiah 57:9

to come

Heb. coming.

2 Kings 20:13-15

thou didst

Ruth 3:3 Esther 2:12

paintedst

Kachalt aineych, rendered by the LXX. [estibizou tous ophthalmous sou;] "thou didst paint thine eyes with stibium," and Vulgate circumlinisti stibio oculos tuos, "thou didst paint round thine eyes with stibium," or lead ore; whence it is called in Arabic kochl, and in Syriac kecholo, and koochlo.

2 Kings 9:30 Jeremiah 4:30

and deckedst

16:13-16 Proverbs 7:10 Isaiah 3:18-23

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

stately

Heb. honourable.

Esther 1:6 Proverbs 7:16,17 Isaiah 57:7 Amos 2:8 6:4

a table

44:16 Isaiah 65:11 Malachi 1:7

whereupon

16:18,19 Proverbs 7:17 Jeremiah 44:17 Hosea 2:8,9

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.

a voice

This seems to be an account of an idolatrous festival, perhaps that of Bacchus; in which a riotous and drunken multitude assembled, adorned with bracelets and chaplets, accompanied with music, songs, and dances.

Exodus 32:6,18,19 Hosea 13:6 Amos 6:1-6

common sort

Heb. multitude of men. were brought.

Job 1:15 Joel 3:8

Sabeans

or, drunkards. bracelets.

16:11,12 Revelation 12:3

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

old

Ezra 9:7 Psalms 106:6 Jeremiah 13:23 Daniel 9:16

whoredoms with her

Heb. her whoredoms.

Yet 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.

so went

3,9-13

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.

the righteous

The Chaldeans, so called, because appointed by God to execute his judgment on these criminals.

36 Jeremiah 5:14 Hosea 6:5 Zechariah 1:6 John 8:3-7

after the manner of adulteresses

37-39 16:38-43 Leviticus 20:10 21:9 Deuteronomy 22:21-24 John 8:7

because

Verse 46

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

I will

22-26 16:40 Jeremiah 25:9

to be removed and spoiled

Heb. for a removing and spoil.

Jeremiah 15:4 24:9 34:17

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.

the company

25,29 9:6 16:41 Jeremiah 33:4,5

dispatch them

or, single them out.

24:6

shall slay

24:21 2 Chronicles 36:17-19

and burn

Deuteronomy 13:16 Jeremiah 39:8 52:13

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

I cause

27 6:6 22:15 36:25 Micah 5:11-14 Zephaniah 1:3

that

5:15 16:41 Deuteronomy 13:11 Isaiah 26:9 1 Corinthians 10:6-11 2 Peter 2:6

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.

they shall

7:4,9 9:10 11:21 16:43 22:31 Isaiah 59:18

ye shall bear

and ye shall know

6:7 20:38,42,44 25:5 Psalms 9:16