Ezekiel 23:1-21

content/bible_journal/ezekiel_23:1-21.md

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+title = "Ezekiel 23:1–21"
+date = "2023-04-30"
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+
+### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Ezekiel23.1-21)
+
+I have heard that in Rabbinical traditions, students of the Torah were not
+allowed to study Ezekiel until they were eighteen years old, or possibly even
+thirty. It would not surprise me if this chapter is part of the reason. There
+is even more sexual imagery than we have yet seen in this book, and it is meant
+to evoke disgust and horror.
+
+The allegory describing Israel as an unfaithful woman chapter 16 is expanded to
+call Samaria and Jerusalem two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah. Each city was the
+capital of its kingdom and thus stands in for its nation as a whole. The
+infidelity, immorality, and prostitution of these two sisters should be
+understood as idolatry and trusting in the security of foreign alliances
+instead of trusting in the provision and protection of the Lord their God. But
+also literal prostitution as well, on an individual level. Cult prostitution,
+or religious sexual ceremonies, were also prevalent throughout the ancient
+world. One could then call this whole chapter a double _entendre_, though it's
+the sexual meaning that is obvious here and the political one that is "hidden".
+
+Oholah and Oholibah learned their immoral ways in Egypt, where the Israelites
+certainly participated in the religious rites of the land they lived in, before
+the Lord brought them out. Oholah did not give up these ways when she split
+from her sister, and gave herself to the Assyrians, a powerful, attractive
+neighbor. She thought her attentions and her bed would garner respect and
+protection, but the opposite occurred. The Lord stirred up the Assyrians and
+they captured her children and killed her. Thus the northern kingdom of Israel
+fell and was no more.
+
+Oholibah saw all this happen, and knew the reaons for it, and leaned in harder
+anyway. She lusted after the Assyrians too, and also the Babylonians, and when
+she grew tired of them, turned her attention back to the Egyptians she had once
+been enslaved to. Everything Oholah had done, Oholibah did worse. The Lord
+turned away in disgust, and still the spiral downward in depravity continued.
+
+* * *
+
+Forgive us our unfaithfulness, when we seek our own pleasure over and against
+Your commands, the commands that bring us life and happiness.