“Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, remembering the days of her youth in which she had played the harlot in Egypt, and she doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.”
Through all the centuries Israel had not changed. She behaved now as she had in Egypt before God had delivered her. Israel's heart had never really become free from idolatry, and the licentiousness and evil behaviour that went with it. She delighted in all that was offered to her by these sophisticated and depraved nations and took it to her heart, filled with admiration at what they could offer, and not recognising how it degraded her. Asses and horses were highly prized, and were proverbial for their strong sexual drive (compare Jeremiah 2:24; Jeremiah 5:8; Jeremiah 13:27), and the picture is one of admiration and appreciation.
The reference to Egypt may have had in mind the current attempts at alliance (Jeremiah 37:5), but is mainly to emphasise that Israel's behaviour had an essential part of her from the beginning. The concentration, however, is on Babylon (Ezekiel 23:23). Babylon, and all the evil and worldliness that it represented, was in her heart.
It was a Babylonish garment which was one of the prized possessions that tempted Achan to sin (Joshua 7:21), and it was Babylon that was ‘the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride' (Isaiah 13:19). It was Babel where man's arrogance was displayed (Genesis 11:1-9). ‘Babylon the Great' was the symbol of all that stood against God (Daniel 4:30; Revelation 17:5).