Ezechiele 23:25 Commento

This long chapter (as before ch. 16 and 20) is a history of the apostasies of God's people from him and the aggravations of those apostasies under the similitude of corporal whoredom and adultery. Here the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the ten tribes and the two, with their capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem, are considered distinctly. Here is, I. The apostasy of Israel and Samaria from God (Eze 23:1-8) and their ruin for it (Eze 23:9, Eze 23:10). II. The apostasy of Judah and Jerusalem from God (Eze 23:11-21) and sentence passed upon them, that they shall in like manner be destroyed for it (Eze 23:22-35). III. The joint wickedness of them both together (Eze 23:36-44) and the joint ruin of them both (Eze 23:45-49). And all that is written for warning against the sins of idolatry, and confidence in an arm of flesh, and sinful leagues and confederacies with wicked people (which are the sins here meant by committing whoredom), is that others may hear and fear, and not sin after the similitude of the transgressions of Israel and Judah.

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 23 In this chapter the idolatries of Israel and Judah are represented under the metaphor of two harlots, and their lewdness. These harlots are described by their descent; by the place and time in which they committed their whoredoms; by their names, and which are explained, Eze 23:1, the idolatries of Israel, or the ten tribes, under the name of Aholah, which they committed with the Assyrians, and which they continued from the Egyptians, of whom they had learned them, are exposed, Eze 23:5, and their punishment for them is declared, Eze 23:9 then the idolatries of Judah, or the two tribes, under the name of Aholibah, are represented as greater than those of the ten tribes, Eze 23:11, which they committed with the Assyrians, Eze 23:12, with the Chaldeans and Babylonians, Eze 23:13 in imitation of the Egyptians, reviving former idolatries learnt of them, Eze 23:19, wherefore they are threatened, that the Chaldeans, Babylonians, and Assyrians, should come against them, and spoil them, and carry them captive, Eze 23:22, and the prophet is bid to declare the abominable sin of them both, Eze 23:36, and to signify that they should be judged after the manner of adulteresses, should be stoned, and dispatched with swords, their sons and their daughters, and their houses burnt with fire; by which means their adulteries or idolatries should be made to cease, Eze 23:45

And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee,.... As a jealous husband, enraged against his adulterous wife, falls upon her in his fury, and uses her with great severity; so the Jews having committed spiritual fornication, that is, idolatry, and departed from the Lord, he threatens to stir up the fury of his jealousy, and punish them severely by the Chaldeans, as follows: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears, and thy remnant shall fall by the sword; as gallants use their harlots when they leave them, or jealous husbands their adulterous wives, disfiguring them, that they may be marked and known what they are, and be despised by others; and as has been the custom in some countries, particularly with the Egyptians, to cut off the noses of adulterous persons; here it is to be understood figuratively: by the "nose", according to Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, is meant the king, who is higher than his people, as the nose is the highest part in a man's face; and by the "ears" the priest, who caused a noise to be heard when he entered into the temple with his bells; or rather because it was the priest's office to attend to the word of God, and teach it the people; in general, these denote everything that was excellent among the Jews, their city, temple, king, kingdom, princes, priests, and prophets, which should be demolished and removed; and by the remnant is meant the common people, that should come into the hands of the Chaldeans, and fall by their sword. So the Targum paraphrases it, "thy princes and thy nobles shall go into captivity, and thy people shall be killed with the sword:'' they shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire; take and carry their sons and daughters captive, and burn with fire the city left by them. Thus the Targum, "they shall carry thy sons and daughters captive, and the beauty of thy land shall be burnt with fire;'' that is, the city of Jerusalem, the temple, the king's palaces, the houses of the great men, and others in it, which were all burnt with fire when taken by the Chaldeans, Jer 52:13.

(v. 22ff.) Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side: the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and with a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments. And I will give them judgment, and they shall judge you with their judgments, and I will put my zeal in you, which they shall exercise against you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and what remains, they shall cut off with the sword. They shall take your sons and your daughters, and your last will be devoured by fire, and they shall strip you of your garments, and they shall take away the vessels of your glory. And they shall make your wickedness cease from you, and your prostitution from the land of Egypt. You shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor shall you remember Egypt anymore. LXX: Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will stir up your lovers against you, from whom your soul has turned away, and I will bring them against you from every side, the sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, mounted on horses. And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgement to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgements. And I will execute judgment in fury and anger upon them; then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I lay My vengeance upon them. Because you remembered the flesh of the Egyptians and imitated the filthiness of the unclean nation, which venerates the images of all beasts, therefore I will bring against you your lovers, with whom you were satisfied, and you departed from their covenant, so that as great as your love once was, you will be turned into such hatred. Sons, I say, of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, nobles, tyrants, and princes; for whom in Hebrew it is written, Phacud () and Sue () and Cue (), which the diverse Orientals understand, since we do not find such names either in the Book of Kings, or in the Chronicles, nor indeed in Jeremiah, who describes the captivity of Jerusalem, or in any place of the Holy Scripture. It is not surprising that the Septuagint itself used Hebrew names, since Symmachus and Theodotion also agree on the same words. They all say that the Assyrians, the horsemen, and the young men, in their distinguished form, are the leaders and magistrates, or the tristates, whom we have interpreted as the princes of princes. We read about them also in Exodus (Exod. XV, 4). The chosen ones are translated as ascensores tristatas (τριστάτας), for which Latin simplicity translates as ternos statores. But the name is sad among the Greeks, the second rank after royal dignity. About whom it is written: However, it did not reach the first three, who were the leaders of the cavalry and infantry and the tribunes ((or tributes)) (I Chronicles XII, II Kings XXIII): whom we call the magistrates of both military forces, and the prefects of the title of the annual tax. They all, he says, armed with breastplates, helmets, and shields, besieged you all around in their chariots and on their horses, and I will give them judgment, so that you will be judged by those whom you have left behind, and whose covenant you have made void: and they will judge you with their judgments as an adulteress. And I will set my zeal against you, which they will exercise with you in fury. For my zeal is among the enemies, even faith not being preserved. 'I will cut off your nose and your ears,' he says, 'like an adulteress caught in adultery, so that you may cease to please when disfigured. For just as all the beauty of the face consists in the beauty of the nose, and in the ears, from which depend the unions and the pearls in women, so the dignity of the king and the judges, which is marked in the mouth and the ears, will be cut off by their sword.' They will take your sons and daughters. 'Your sons,' he says, 'and your daughters, not mine, because they were conceived in adultery, and they will devour the rest with fire. And they will strip you of the garments with which I adorned you, and the vessels of your glory, which I granted to you, gold and silver, for use in the ceremonies of the temple, of which it is written: 'I gave them gold and silver, and they made them into Baal' (Hosea II, 8). But I will do all these things, so that your lost beauty and bewitched face may finally be at peace, and your wickedness and fornication, which you learned and practiced in Egypt, may cease. After you have lost your nose and ears, you will no longer dare to raise your eyes to the Chaldeans, nor show your ugliness to your former lovers. And you will no longer remember the lust of the Egyptians, whose indulgence in flesh you delighted in. All the things that are said about the punishment of the adulteress, and how she is disgraced because of adultery: so that she may no longer boast in her beauty, but be ashamed in her disgrace, which she has earned through the greatness of her pleasures. Whatever is said metaphorically about Jerusalem, and can be understood in reference to the soul, which, having been joined to the virtues and united to God, later adulterated them with vices and turned away from Him, and with all her crimes exposed, was uncovered, dishonored, and shown to all, so that she may desist from her wickedness to some extent: let her not boast in the dignity of her name, but rather be afraid because of her guilty conscience and remember Egypt, and dare not lift her eyes to heaven. And so his nose is cut off, and his ears are amputated, because he had turned the fragrance of good odor into a foul smell, and he had heard the judgment of blood, which we understand not only from smell and hearing, but also from sight, whereby, because they had made evil use of it, Samson and Zedekiah are deprived. Moreover, God made them deaf and dumb (Exod. IV, 11): lest their speech spread throughout the land, and every touch will be taken away from those who have completely lost their life. And let these things be done, so that everything may be purged by fire, and let the fornication of Egypt perish: nor can it any longer raise its eyes to evil.

The idolatries of Samaria and Jerusalem are represented in this chapter by the bad practices of two common harlots, for which God denounces severe judgments against them, vv. 1-49. See the sixteenth chapter, where the same metaphor is enlarged upon as here, it being the prophets view to exude the utmost detestation of the crime against which he inveighs.

Shall take away thy nose - A punishment frequent among the Persians and Chaldeans, as ancient authors tell. Adulteries were punished in this way; and to this Martial refers: - Quis tibi persuasit nares abscindere moecho? "Who has counselled thee to cut off the adulterer's nose?" Women were thus treated in Egypt. See Calmet.

ISRAEL'S AND JUDAH'S SIN AND PUNISHMENT ARE PARABOLICALLY PORTRAYED UNDER THE NAMES AHOLAH AND AHOLIBAH. (Eze. 23:1-49) two . . . of one mother--Israel and Judah, one nation by birth from the same ancestress, Sarah.

take away thy nose . . . ears--Adulteresses were punished so among the Egyptians and Chaldeans. Oriental beauties wore ornaments in the ear and nose. How just the retribution, that the features most bejewelled should be mutilated! So, allegorically as to Judah, the spiritual adulteress.