Jerusalem sees Samaria’s ruin and follows the same road. Ezekiel 23 makes that refusal to learn visible through the disturbing allegory of two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah. Their fascination with imperial splendor becomes divided worship, and the powers they desire return as besieging armies. The graphic language concerns the covenant cities named in verse 4; it gives no human being permission to threaten, degrade, or abuse a woman.
Historical and Scriptural Context
Chapter 22 has named public corruption; chapter 23 retells Samaria and Jerusalem’s divided allegiance through family imagery before chapter 24 announces the siege. It remains a separate study because its sexualized and violent language requires careful attention. Brenton spells the sisters’ names Oola and Ooliba. Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon belong to the cities’ imperial history, not a hierarchy of modern peoples’ worth.
Oholah and the Assyrian fantasy (Ezekiel 23:1-10)
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother: 3 and they went a-whoring in Egypt in their youth: there their breasts fell, there they lost their virginity. 4 And their names were Oola the elder, and Ooliba her sister: and they were mine, and bore sons and daughters: and as for their names, Samaria was Oola, and Jerusalem was Ooliba. 5 And Oola went a-whoring from me, and doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians that were her neighbours, 6 clothed with purple, princes and captains; they were young men and choice, all horsemen riding on horses. 7 And she bestowed her fornication upon them; all were choice sons of the Assyrians: and on whomsoever she doted herself, with them she defiled herself in all their devices. 8 And she forsook not her fornication with the Egyptians: for in her youth they committed fornication with her, and they deflowered her, and poured out their fornication upon her. 9 Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the children of the Assyrians, on whom she doted. 10 They uncovered her shame: they took her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became a byword among women; and they wrought vengeance in her for the sake of the daughters.
The passage begins by identifying the sisters before interpreting them. Samaria is Oholah, Jerusalem is Oholibah. Both are mine
, the Lord says. This matters. The accusation is not against strangers who never knew God. It is against a covenant people who belonged to Him and bore sons and daughters under His name.
Egypt is remembered as the beginning of bondage and corruption. Assyria becomes Oholah’s chosen fascination. The Assyrians are described as clothed, mounted, impressive, and desirable. Ezekiel’s language shows the imagination at work. Empire does not first appear as a threat. It appears as beauty, rank, cavalry, color, and status. The same power that dazzles Samaria will strip her.
The judgment fits the sin with terrifying irony. Oholah is delivered into the hands of the lovers she desired. The empire she admired becomes the empire that exposes, takes, and kills. This is not a divine endorsement of humiliation by human enemies. It is prophetic unveiling: when God’s people turn violent powers into saviors, those powers eventually behave according to their own nature.
A pastoral reading must be careful. The language of exposure and shame describes covenant judgment on Samaria as a political and religious body. It must not be turned into a classroom appetite for shame. No servant should teach this as if God delights in the degradation of a woman. The Lord is showing His people what idolatrous alliance really does: it promises protection, then consumes sons and daughters.
Oholibah sees and repeats (Ezekiel 23:11-21)
11 And her sister Ooliba saw it, and she indulged in her fondness more corruptly than she, and in her fornication more than the fornication of her sister. 12 She doted upon the sons of the Assyrians, princes and captains, her neighbours, clothed with fine linen, horsemen riding on horses; they were all choice young men. 13 And I saw that they were defiled, that the two had one way. 14 And she increased her fornication, and she saw men painted on the wall, likenesses of the Chaldeans painted with a pencil, 15 having variegated girdles on their loins, having also richly dyed attire upon their heads; all had a princely appearance, the likeness of the children of the Chaldeans, of their native land. 16 And she doted upon them as soon as she saw them, and sent forth messengers to them into the land of the Chaldeans. 17 And the sons of Babylon came to her, into the bed of rest, and they defiled her in her fornication, and she was defiled by them, and her soul was alienated from them. 18 And she exposed her fornication, and exposed her shame: and my soul was alienated from her, even as my soul was alienated from her sister. 19 And thou didst multiply thy fornication, so as to call to remembrance the days of thy youth, wherein thou didst commit whoredom in Egypt, 20 and thou didst dote upon the Chaldeans, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and their members as the members of horses. 21 And thou didst look upon the iniquity of thy youth, the things which thou wroughtest in Egypt in thy lodging, where were the breasts of thy youth.
Oholibah’s guilt is intensified by sight. She saw what happened to Samaria. She had the testimony of history in front of her. Yet she did not learn repentance from another’s fall. She learned comparison, imitation, and escalation. Ezekiel says the two sisters had one way.
This is one of the chapter’s most searching lines. Sin can have many costumes while keeping one road.
Jerusalem first desired Assyria, then increased her infidelity toward Babylon. The painted Chaldeans on the wall are important. Jerusalem falls in love with an image before she is invaded by an army. Desire is trained by what it contemplates. The wall painting becomes a school of the heart. What the eyes admire, the soul may begin to pursue.
The chapter is painfully frank about disgust after desire. Oholibah’s soul becomes alienated from the Babylonians after she has pursued them. This is a sober spiritual pattern. Sin promises intimacy and produces estrangement. False gods first flatter the passions, then leave the soul ashamed, tired, and divided. Political idolatry works the same way. The power that seemed noble at a distance becomes intolerable when it enters the house.
St Paul later speaks of the Church as a bride to be presented to Christ in purity, and warns that the mind can be corrupted from simplicity toward Christ. That is a restrained but fitting canonical echo of Ezekiel’s warning. The issue is not bodily virginity as a social status. It is the single-hearted fidelity of God’s people.
Gems from the Fathers 💎
St. John Chrysostom applies Paul’s bridal language to the whole Church when preaching on Hebrews. The purity he praises is fidelity of soul, not a judgment that married people or victims of sexual violence are less worthy before Christ. He concludes his image of lamps ready for the Bridegroom with a concrete act of mercy: “And this oil is lovingkindness.”1 His thematic witness directs the reader away from fascination with shame toward a faithful life that gives to others. Ezekiel’s painted images train acquisitive desire; Christian watchfulness must train generous love.
The lovers become judges (Ezekiel 23:22-35)
22 Therefore, Ooliba, thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will stir up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul is alienated, and I will bring them upon thee round about, 23 the children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, Phacuc, and Sue, and Hychue, and all the sons of the Assyrians with them; choice young men, governors and captains, all princes and renowned, riding on horses. 24 And they all shall come upon thee from the north, chariots and wheels, with a multitude of nations, shields and targets; and the enemy shall set a watch against thee round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall take vengeance on thee with their judgments. 25 And I will bring upon thee my jealousy, and they shall deal with thee in great wrath: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and shall cast down thy remnant with the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy remnant fire shall devour. 26 And they shall strip thee of thy raiment, and take away thine ornaments. 27 So I will turn back thine ungodliness from thee, and thy fornication from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt not lift up thine eyes upon them, and shalt no more remember Egypt. 28 Wherefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hands of those whom thou hatest, from whom thy soul is alienated. 29 And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take all the fruits of thy labours and thy toils, and thou shalt be naked and bare: and the shame of thy fornication shall be exposed: and thy ungodliness and thy fornication 30 brought this upon thee, in that thou wentest a-whoring after the nations, and didst defile thyself with their devices. 31 Thou didst walk in the way of thy sister; and I will put her cup into thine hands. 32 Thus saith the Lord; Drink thy sister’s cup, deep and large, and full, to cause complete drunkenness. 33 And thou shalt be thoroughly weakened; and the cup of destruction, the cup of thy sister Samaria, 34 drink thou it, and I will take away her feasts and her new moons: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord. 35 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore receive thou the reward of thine ungodliness and thy fornication.
The third section turns desire into siege. Babylon, Chaldea, and Assyria gather around Jerusalem with chariots, wheels, shields, and a multitude of nations. What began as admiration of horsemen becomes encirclement by armies. The false lovers become instruments of judgment.
Verse 35 names the root: Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back.
Forgetfulness is not mere mental weakness. It is a covenant act. Jerusalem has placed the Lord behind her while keeping the images of empire before her eyes. In chapter 16, forgetting infancy led to the misuse of gifts. In chapter 23, forgetting God leads to the return of Egypt in the heart, even while Jerusalem lives in a different age.
The violent language in this section must be handled with fear of God. Scripture exposes the public ruin of a covenant city and the cruelty of empires. It does not give permission for people to shame bodies, threaten women, or use divine language to justify abuse. The passage says that sin’s own chosen powers become the powers that strip and destroy. It does not make human degradation holy.
Christological reading must be restrained. We do not turn every wound in this passage into a direct type of Christ. Yet Christians cannot miss the contrast. Jerusalem is stripped by the powers she desired. Christ, the faithful Bridegroom, willingly bears shame on the Cross to free His people from the powers they served. Ephesians 5 speaks of Christ loving the Church and giving Himself for her, cleansing and presenting her holy. The Bridegroom does not purify by exploiting shame. He purifies by self-giving love, washing, truth, and mercy.
This is why the Church reads such texts with repentance rather than superiority. The world still offers painted Chaldeans: security without holiness, beauty without obedience, success without truth, belonging without fidelity. The disciple asks, What have I put before my eyes? What have I placed behind my back? What power do I secretly believe can save me more practically than God?
Blood, sanctuary, Sabbath, and the end of ungodliness (Ezekiel 23:36-49)
36 And the Lord said to me; Son of man, wilt thou not judge Oola and Ooliba? and declare to them their iniquities? 37 For they have committed adultery, and blood was in their hands, they committed adultery with their devices, and they passed through the fire to them their children which they bore to me. 38 So long too as they did these things to me, they defiled my sanctuary, and profaned my sabbaths. 39 And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, they also went into my sanctuary to profane it: and whereas they did thus in the midst of my house; 40 and whereas they did thus to the men that came from afar, to whom they sent messengers, and as soon as they came, immediately thou didst wash thyself, and didst paint thine eyes and adorn thyself with ornaments, 41 and satest on a prepared bed, and before it there was a table set out, and as for mine incense and mine oil, they rejoiced in them, 42 and they raised a sound of music, and that with men coming from the wilderness out of a multitude of men, and they put bracelets on their hands, and a crown of glory on their heads; 43 Therefore I said, Do they not commit adultery with these? and has she also gone a-whoring after the manner of a harlot? 44 And they went in to her, as men go in to a harlot; so they went in to Oola and to Ooliba to work iniquity. 45 And they are just men, and shall take vengeance on them with the judgment of an adulteress and the judgment of blood: for they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. 46 Thus saith the Lord God, Bring up a multitude upon them, and send trouble and plunder into the midst of them. 47 And stone them with the stones of a multitude, and pierce them with their swords: they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and shall burn up their houses. 48 And I will remove ungodliness out of the land, and all the women shall be instructed, and shall not do according to their ungodliness. 49 And your ungodliness shall be recompensed upon you, and ye shall bear the guilt of your devices: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
The final indictment clarifies that the allegory is not only about sexuality or diplomacy. It is about adultery with idols, blood in the hands, children sacrificed, sanctuary defiled, and Sabbaths profaned. The same people who passed children through fire entered the Lord’s house. They tried to keep religious access without repentance.
This is the most frightening part of the chapter for the Church. Sin is not only outside worship. It can learn to walk into the sanctuary. The incense and oil that belonged to the Lord are placed in the scene of betrayal. Holy things are not magical protections when the heart is divided. The temple can be profaned by worshipers who use God while loving what destroys life.
The children in verses 37 and 39 must not be softened away. Idolatry consumes the vulnerable. In ancient Judah this included horrific rites connected with child sacrifice. In every age, false worship still asks the young, the poor, the weak, and the inconvenient to pay the cost of adult desires. The passage teaches servants to ask not only, What do we believe?
but also, Who is being harmed by what we love?
James 4:4 gives a brief New Testament moral echo when it calls friendship with the world adultery against God. That verse is not a license for contempt toward creation or hatred of outsiders. It names divided allegiance. Likewise, Paul fears that the minds of Christians may be corrupted from simplicity toward Christ. The Church is called to one Bridegroom, not to a rotating court of useful powers.
Verses 45–49 place killing, stoning, and burning inside the oracle of judgment. The passage does not describe only impersonal consequences: the Lord announces and orders the judgment. That severity must remain visible, but it is not delegated to a spouse, a crowd, or a parish. No accusation of infidelity authorizes a Christian to inflict the punishments pictured here. The children’s deaths intensify the horror; they do not establish the children’s personal guilt.
The chapter ends with recognition: ye shall know that I am the Lord.
In Ezekiel, this knowledge can come through restoration, but here it comes through the collapse of ungodliness. Even judgment aims at truth. God will not let His people live forever inside the lie that idols are harmless, alliances are ultimate, and sanctuary worship can coexist with bloodshed.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
First, examine fascination before it becomes bondage. Oholibah saw painted Chaldeans before she sent messengers. A Christian should ask what images, ambitions, personalities, politics, luxuries, or fears are training the heart. Repentance may begin by changing what we repeatedly place before our eyes.
Second, learn from another’s fall without becoming proud. Jerusalem saw Samaria’s ruin and still repeated her way. When another person or community falls, the safe response is not superiority. It is trembling, prayer, and honest self-examination. Lord, show me where the same road begins in me.
Third, refuse security that requires divided worship. Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon promised practical help, but they demanded the soul. Modern versions may look like career advancement without integrity, belonging without truth, comfort without prayer, or political identity stronger than baptism. The question is simple: what am I afraid to lose more than communion with God?
Fourth, protect the vulnerable from the cost of idols. Ezekiel 23 says blood was in their hands and children were passed through fire. False loves always send someone else the bill. In family, parish, work, and public life, repentance asks who is paying for our convenience, anger, prestige, or silence.
Fifth, return to the faithful Bridegroom. Christ does not heal divided love by crushing the wounded. He exposes sin truthfully and bears shame mercifully. Bring the divided heart to confession, the distracted eyes to prayer, the compromised life to repentance, and the polluted worship to the cleansing mercy of God.
The painted soldiers cannot remain a distant curiosity when our own eyes seek a savior in power. Turn toward Christ, whose love gives rather than takes. Ask Him to free one defended allegiance and make room for an act of mercy. Lord, keep our gaze truthful and our love undivided.
Teaching Notes
Ezekiel 23:1-10 - Oholah and the Assyrian fantasy
- Ask: Why does the Lord use such shocking sexual imagery for the history of Samaria?
- Emphasize: The imagery exposes spiritual adultery as betrayal of the covenant love that belongs to the Lord alone. It is not about individual women but the corporate unfaithfulness of the northern kingdom.
- Watch for: Reading this as license for misogyny or shaming; the text is about the people’s heart toward God.
- Connect: The Lord is jealous for His people; Christ the faithful Bridegroom purifies His bride.
Ezekiel 23:11-21 - Oholibah sees and repeats
- Ask: How does Oholibah (Jerusalem) see her sister’s fate and still repeat the sin?
- Emphasize: Seeing judgment does not automatically produce repentance when the desire for the nations remains. The lust is more powerful than the warning.
- Watch for: Assuming that knowledge of consequences will change the heart without grace.
- Connect: The pattern of seeing and repeating is the tragedy of the human heart apart from the Spirit.
Ezekiel 23:22-35 - The lovers become judges
- Ask: Why do the former lovers become the instruments of judgment?
- Emphasize: The nations that were objects of unfaithfulness are now used to expose and punish it. The very alliances sought become the rod.
- Watch for: Trusting in political or cultural alliances instead of the Lord.
- Connect: The Lord turns the instruments of sin into instruments of exposure.
Ezekiel 23:36-49 - Blood, sanctuary, Sabbath, and the end of ungodliness
Ask: What is the final charge and the final end?
Emphasize: They have defiled the sanctuary, profaned the Sabbaths, and shed blood. The Lord will make their lewdness cease. Yet even here the call is to remember and turn.
Watch for: Treating the end as total destruction without the possibility of remnant or return.
Connect: The Lord judges to purify; in Christ the sanctuary is restored and the bride is made holy.
Sources
Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX).
Ezekiel 23; compare Ezekiel 16 and 22; Ephesians 5:25–27; 2 Corinthians 11:2–3; James 4:4. 🔗
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews, Homily 28, section 16, using 2 Corinthians 11:2 and the lamps of the bridal chamber to speak of fidelity and mercy throughout the Church. This is a thematic witness, not direct Ezekiel commentary. 🔗
No appointed reading of Ezekiel 23 was identified in the Coptic service sources consulted. Bridegroom imagery here is a theological connection, not a claimed lectionary placement. Graphic illustration is unnecessary; a sober regional map suffices for the political setting.