Commentary - Ezekiel 23:1-4

Bird's-eye view

In this graphic and unsettling chapter, the prophet Ezekiel is tasked by God to lay out a detailed allegory of covenant infidelity. Using the metaphor of two adulterous sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, God brings a legal case against the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel, represented by their capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem. This is not simply a story of idolatry; it is a story of high treason, of spiritual harlotry committed by a bride against her husband. The passage is intentionally shocking, employing raw and visceral language to strip away any pretense of piety from the people. God wants them to see their political alliances and pagan worship not as savvy statecraft or cultural sophistication, but as the cheap, degrading, and treacherous acts of a prostitute. The foundation of their sin is traced back to their "youth" in Egypt, establishing that this is not a recent stumble but a deep-seated, generational pattern of rebellion. The Lord reminds them that this unfaithfulness is all the more heinous because they "became Mine," entering into a sacred covenant marriage with the God of the universe.

This section (vv. 1-4) sets the stage for the detailed indictments that follow. It establishes the characters, their relationship to one another and to God, and the historical root of their sin. God is the wronged husband, Israel and Judah are the promiscuous wives, and their story is a sordid tale of breaking the most sacred of vows. The purpose of such language is to provoke revulsion and shame in the hearers, forcing them to confront the true nature of their sin before the face of a holy God.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

Ezekiel 23 is a parallel and expansion of the allegory found in Ezekiel 16, where Jerusalem was depicted as an abandoned infant whom God rescued, raised, and married, only to have her become a notorious prostitute. Chapter 23 sharpens the focus by introducing the sister, Samaria, allowing God to detail the sins of both kingdoms and to emphasize Judah's greater guilt. Judah (Oholibah) saw the idolatry of her sister Israel (Oholah) and the devastating judgment that followed when the Assyrians destroyed Samaria. Yet, instead of learning from this, Judah plunged into even greater depths of depravity. This chapter is part of a larger section of Ezekiel (chapters 4-24) that pronounces judgment on Judah and Jerusalem before the city's final fall to Babylon in 586 B.C. The raw and explicit nature of the prophecy is designed to break through the people's calloused indifference and show them exactly why the covenant curses they are experiencing are not only just, but necessary.

Key Issues

The Covenant as Marriage

To understand a passage like Ezekiel 23, we must first grasp one of the central metaphors of the entire Bible: the covenant between God and His people is a marriage. This is not sentimental poetry; it is hard-as-nails covenant theology. A marriage is established by vows, by promises, by a sworn oath. It creates a new entity, a one-flesh union with binding obligations of fidelity and faithfulness. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He brought them to Sinai and there, He proposed. The law was the marriage contract, and the people said, "I do" (Ex. 24:7). From that moment on, Yahweh was their husband, and they were His bride.

This is why the Bible speaks of idolatry in such startlingly sexual terms. To worship another god is not merely to have a faulty opinion about metaphysics. It is to commit adultery. It is to cheat on your husband. To make a political and military alliance with a pagan nation, trusting in their horses and chariots instead of in God, is to run into the arms of another lover. It is a betrayal of the deepest kind. The language of harlotry and prostitution is therefore not hyperbole; it is the most precise and accurate legal language available to describe the nature of Israel's sin. They had forgotten the covenant of their God (Prov. 2:17), and God, the wronged husband, is now bringing the case before the court.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,

The chapter begins with the standard prophetic formula, reminding us of the source of this message. These are not Ezekiel's words. He is not an angry moralist with a flair for the dramatic. He is a messenger under divine authority. The word of Yahweh came to him. This is a direct, unmediated revelation from the sovereign God. The indictment that follows, with all its shocking imagery, carries the full weight of the throne of heaven. Ezekiel is the court clerk, reading the charges that have been prepared by the divine prosecutor and judge.

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

God addresses Ezekiel by his regular title, "Son of man," which emphasizes his humanity in contrast to the divine word he is delivering. He is then instructed to tell a story, a parable. The central characters are introduced: two women, sisters, from the same mother. This immediately establishes their shared origin and nature. The "one mother" is the original, unified nation of Israel that came out of Egypt. From this one people, two kingdoms would eventually emerge after the death of Solomon. They had a common ancestry, a common history, and a common calling.

3 and they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed, and there their virgin bosom was handled.

Before the story can even get started, the central charge is leveled, and its historical roots are exposed. Their sin is harlotry, and it began in their "youth," while they were still in Egypt. This is a crucial point. Their tendency toward idolatry and spiritual promiscuity was not something they picked up later in Canaan. It was a pre-existing condition. Even before the covenant marriage at Sinai was formalized, while God was preparing to redeem them, their hearts were already going astray after the gods of Egypt (cf. Joshua 24:14). The language is graphic and physical for a reason. God wants to convey the sense of a stolen and squandered purity. The affection and devotion that should have been reserved for their future husband was instead given away cheaply to pagan idols. This was not an innocent flirtation; it was a defiling act that set a pattern for their entire history.

4 Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

Now the characters are named and identified. Oholah, meaning "Her Own Tent," represents Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. This name is a jab at the schismatic and man-made religion they established. They rejected the true tent, the tabernacle of God in Jerusalem, and set up their own rival places of worship at Dan and Bethel. Oholibah, meaning "My Tent is in Her," represents Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah. Her name highlights her great privilege. She was the city where God chose to place His name and His dwelling, the Temple. This makes her subsequent sin all the more treacherous. Despite their early dalliances, God says, "they became Mine." This refers to the covenant at Sinai. God graciously took them as His own bride, entering into a formal marriage relationship. The "sons and daughters" they bore are the subsequent generations of Israelites, born into this covenant relationship. The allegory is now set. The identities are clear, the charge has been made, and the stage is prepared for the detailed account of their centuries-long affair with the world.

Application

It is tempting for us, as New Covenant believers, to read a passage like this and thank God that we are not like those wicked sisters. But that would be to miss the point entirely. The church is the bride of Christ, and this passage serves as a terrifying and necessary warning against spiritual adultery for us as well. How do we play the harlot today? We do it whenever we trust in the world's power, wealth, or wisdom instead of in our Husband, the Lord Jesus. When we shape our worship to be more appealing to the unbelieving world than to be faithful to the Word of God, we are Oholah, setting up our own tent.

When we boast in our theological heritage, our beautiful buildings, or our place in "the true church," all while our hearts are full of greed, lust, and bitterness, we are Oholibah, glorying that the Lord's tent is in us while defiling that very tent with our sin. Spiritual adultery is seeking our ultimate security, identity, or satisfaction in anything other than Jesus Christ. It is giving the affection and allegiance that belongs to Him alone to some cheap lover, whether that lover is a political ideology, a career, a lust, or a religious tradition.

The language here is meant to shock us out of our complacency. We must see our "little" compromises with the world for what they are: a grievous betrayal of the One who bought us with His own blood. He is a jealous husband, and He will not tolerate rivals. The good news is that for all the harlotry of the bride, the Husband remains faithful. Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Eph. 5:25-27). Our only hope is to confess our adulterous hearts and cling to the faithfulness of our true Husband.