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The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.
And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.
Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,
And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:
And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
And the Babylonians ° came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.
So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.
Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

23:2 two women. This phrase introduces a remarkable allegory, treating the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, respectively, as two sisters who became two harlots. Although there is no connection, there is one other allegory in Scripture, involving two real women, Sarah and Hagar, who were used by the Apostle Paul to represent the conflict between grace and law, or between the Spirit and the flesh.


23:4 Aholibah. This long chapter is a graphic account of the spiritual harlotry of Israel and Judah and their respective capitals, Samaria and Jerusalem, under the figure of two wanton sisters, Aholah (“her tent”) and Aholibah (“my tent is in her”). The extended and lurid account of their whoredoms evidently has the dual purpose of condemning Israel’s blatant spiritual prostitution and also of reaffirming God’s hatred of actual sexual activity—especially promiscuity—outside the marriage relation. Both warnings seem urgent today as well.


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