EXEGETICAL NOTES.—The spiritual adultery of Judah with Assyria, in which she surpasses Samaria in her iniquity.
Ezekiel 23:11. “She was more corrupt in her inordinate love.” “Judah went much further than Samaria. It not only indulged in sinful intercourse with Assyria, which led on to idolatry as the latter had done, but it also allowed itself to be led astray by the splendour of Chaldea to form alliances with that imperial power, and to defile itself with her idolatry. And when it became tired of the Chaldeans it formed impure connections with the Egyptians as it had done once before during its sojourn in Egypt” (Keil).
Ezekiel 23:12. “Doted upon the Assyrians, her neighbours.” “The reference here is to the application made by Ahaz to Tiglath-pileser for his assistance against the Syrians and Israelites (recorded 2 Kings 16:7-9), which led to the idolatrous transaction at Damascus, and the introduction of the Syrian idolatry into Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 28:16)” (Henderson). “Clothed most gorgeously.” The word means perfection, and the thought intended is, perfect beauty of clothing. “The costume of the Assyrian cavalry may be seen in the sculptures brought by Layard from Nineveh, which display all the magnificence of Oriental finery” (Henderson).
Ezekiel 23:14. “She saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion.” “In regard to the Chaldeans, the relation to them was brought about by means of likenesses, which Judah saw. The word means, something engraven or sketched, painted. These were, probably, coloured bas-reliefs, in vermilion, which would be all the more appropriate for warriors. The representation here may probably be the mere drapery of the thought, that the bare report of the military prowess of the Chaldeans had inflamed the imagination and the senses of Judah. Owing to the undeniable intercourse between nations in the Old World, which certainly obtained between Palestine and Babylon, it is not in itself unimaginable that such wall-pictures of representatives of foreign nations may have existed in the royal palaces of Judah.”—(Lange).
Ezekiel 23:15. “Exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads.” The reference is to the lofty turbans, such as may be seen on the monuments of ancient Nineveh.
Ezekiel 23:18. “My mind was alienated from her.” “The thought in these verses (Ezekiel 23:16-18) is the following:—the acquaintance made by Israel (Judah) with the imperial splendour of the Chaldeans, as exhibited in the sculptures of their palaces, incited Judah to cultivate political and mercantile intercourse with this imperial power, which led to its becoming entangled in the heathen ways and idolatry of the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans themselves came and laid the foundation for an intercourse which led to the pollution of Judah with heathenism, and afterwards filled it with disgust, because it was brought thereby into dependence upon the Chaldeans. The consequence of all this was, that the Lord became tired of Judah. For instead of returning to the Lord, Judah turned to the other power of the world, namely, to Egypt; and in the time of Zedekiah renewed its ancient coquetry with that nation.” (Keil).
Ezekiel 23:19. “In calling to remembrance the days of her youth.” She had grown disgusted with Babylon; yet she repented not, but turned back again to the old ways which she had learned in Egypt (2 Kings 23:29-35).
Ezekiel 23:20.“Whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.” “This representation is sufficiently explained by the particularly lecherous character of the animals mentioned, and describes the obscene character of the Egyptians (Ezekiel 16:26).”—(Lange.)
Ezekiel 23:21. “Calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth” (Heb.). “And thou didst visit the lewdness of thy youth.” “The falling back into the old sin is, as it were, a visit which is paid to that which ought to be hated and avoided. The words, ‘When a man of Egypt handled,’ etc., refer to the attempt of the Egyptians to draw the people in their first beginnings into the Egyptian unity, and so to nationalize them—an attempt to which the youth of the people furnished the occasion.”—(Hengstenberg.)
HOMILETICS
THE SIN OF JUDAH
The sin of Judah was one of special aggravation. Her sin surpassed that of Samaria. “She was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.”
1. She had greater privileges. A purer knowledge of the true way of worship. Greater grace to resist temptation, and to keep in the right way.
2. She had the warning example of Samaria’s punishment. She saw how God punished them by the very instruments of their inordinate love, and yet took not warning. “They both took one way,” not reflecting that they who take the same way also reach the same end.
3. She used special devices to increase her sinful desires. “She increased her whoredoms.” She stimulated her lustful imagination by pictures and representations of forbidden objects. The sight of these would set her longing after the seductive idolatry of the nations, and draw her away from her lawful love and home. The lust of the eye is one of the great dangers of the world. She also suffered herself to be ensnared by the memory of her old sins (Ezekiel 23:19; Ezekiel 23:21). It is sad when nations and individuals go back again to the sins of their early life.
4. She brought sad judgment upon herself, yet repented not. When she had obtained her desire and embraced the idolatry of Babylon, she was still unsatisfied and even learned to loathe that which she once so eagerly sought. “Her mind was alienated from them.” Israel could not find rest in the idolatry of the nations, for she still retained some memory of better things. The people could not become as the heathen in all respects, for their glorious past was still a fact and could not be separated from their history. The idolatry of Babylon could not satisfy the sinful longings of the chosen people. All impure lust, when it has spent its passion, becomes hatred. For all such lust is selfish and will turn, at length, into aversion to its object. Fellowship with sin must only be of short duration. There is no true binding principle in it. But it was the shame and misery of Israel that the judgments of God, and her disgust of Babylon, failed to bring her to repentance.
1. When God executes severe judgments upon cities He looks that others should take warning thereby. God destroyed Samaria for her idolatry and confederating with heathenish nations. When Jerusalem saw this she reformed not, but was more corrupt. God expected that Jerusalem should hereupon have purged out all idolatry, and cleaved wholly to Him, so that she might have been spared, but she made no good use of His dealings with Samaria.
2. Progress in the same sins, after judgments executed upon others is a fearful aggravation of sin. “When she saw this she was more corrupt.” When God’s hand is lifted, judgment executed, men should fear and learn righteousness; but to go on in wickedness is a horrible slighting, yea, despising of God and His judgments.
3. Sinful cities usually grow worse whatever judgments they see executed upon others. Jerusalem was more corrupt than Samaria. So corrupt is the nature of man that it is not only worse after mercies but even after judgments.
4. The eyes are instruments and occasions of great evil. When she saw the images of the Chaldeans in their dresses, with their belts and aspects, she was taken with them. The images affected her eyes, and they conveyed corruption to her heart, or that which stirred the corruption pre-existent in her heart. Adultery and idolatry have their chief entrance by the eye, and many other sins likewise. What a sad thing was it, that Jerusalem’s eyes should be taken with the painted images of Babylonians! Some confess there is danger by gazing upon living objects, the beauties of men and women, but they fear none from dead objects; but Achan saw a wedge of gold and a Babylonish garment, and they snared him; Aholibah here saw Babylonish pictures, and they ensnared him.
5. For God’s people to admit any part of Babylonish worship is to defile the bed of love. God is a jealous God, His worship must be pure, and the heart must be pure. If the worship be mixed, or heart lean upon an arm of flesh, the bed of love is defiled. In His worship and ordinances God lets out His love to the soul. When they are pure, by the heart being pure and confiding in God, He lets out Himself and His love. Let us look to our hearts, that they may be disengaged from all creature confidences, and to our worship that it be according to God, and then we shall have communion with and comfort from our Beloved.
6. Wickedness is inconstant. “Her mind was alienated from them.” She was taken with the very images of the Babylonians; now she cares not for the men themselves, her soul is disjointed from them; but it was to fall in with some others, and they were the Egyptians (Ezekiel 23:19). But she held not there long; which made the Lord to say, “Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wert ashamed of Assyria” (Jeremiah 2:36).
7. Impudence and open sinning cause God to disown and renounce them that do so. Aholibah discovered her whoredoms and nakedness; she talked openly what she had done with the Babylonians, she set up altars and idols in every street, was openly and impudently wicked, prostituting herself to all in the streets. Now it being so, saith the Lord, “then my mind was alienated from her,” seeing she is become so audaciously wicked, I can affect her no longer. Jerusalem’s wickedness alienated God’s heart from her, made Him renounce her for a harlot. It is sad when God renounces (Hosea 1:9). If we would not have God’s heart alienated from us, and so be disowned, renounced by Him, let us take heed of all sins, especially of impudency in any sin.
8. Fresh sins bring to mind former old sins. Aholibah’s latter trucking with the Egyptians minded God of her primitive whoredoms and abominations, when she lived in Egypt, which was one thousand years before: there she had her lovers; there she defiled herself “with the idols of Egypt” (Exek. Ezekiel 20:7); and her affection now to Egypt, and Egypt’s paramours, caused God to mind those sins of her youth. He had no pleasure in doing so, but Aholibah called them to remembrance, by acting the same or the like things again, she called them out of darkness, and presented them to the view of God. (Greenhill).