Yehezkiel 16:15
Konteks16:15 “‘But you trusted in your beauty and capitalized on your fame by becoming a prostitute. You offered your sexual favors to every man who passed by so that your beauty 1 became his.
Yehezkiel 16:25-36
Konteks16:25 At the head of every street you erected your pavilion and you disgraced 2 your beauty when you spread 3 your legs to every passerby and multiplied your promiscuity. 16:26 You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your sexually aroused neighbors, 4 multiplying your promiscuity and provoking me to anger. 16:27 So see here, I have stretched out my hand against you and cut off your rations. I have delivered you into the power of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed by your obscene conduct. 16:28 You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians because your sexual desires were insatiable; you prostituted yourself with them and yet you were still not satisfied. 16:29 Then you multiplied your promiscuity to the land of merchants, Babylonia, 5 but you were not satisfied there either.
16:30 “‘How sick is your heart, declares the sovereign Lord, when you perform all of these acts, the deeds of a bold prostitute. 16:31 When you built your chamber at the head of every street and put up your pavilion in every public square, you were not like a prostitute, because you scoffed at payment. 6
16:32 “‘Adulterous wife, who prefers strangers instead of her own husband! 16:33 All prostitutes receive payment, 7 but instead you give gifts to every one of your lovers. You bribe them to come to you from all around for your sexual favors! 16:34 You were different from other prostitutes 8 because no one solicited you. When you gave payment and no payment was given to you, you became the opposite!
16:35 “‘Therefore O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord: 16:36 This is what the sovereign Lord says: Because your lust 9 was poured out and your nakedness was uncovered in your prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children you have given to them,
Yehezkiel 23:5-21
Konteks23:5 “Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was mine. 10 She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians 11 – warriors 12 23:6 clothed in blue, governors and officials, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. 23:7 She bestowed her sexual favors on them; all of them were the choicest young men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all whom she desired 13 – with all their idols. 23:8 She did not abandon the prostitution she had practiced in Egypt; for in her youth men had sex with her, fondled her virgin breasts, and ravished her. 14 23:9 Therefore I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians 15 for whom she lusted. 23:10 They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. She became notorious 16 among women, and they executed judgments against her.
23:11 “Her sister Oholibah watched this, 17 but she became more corrupt in her lust than her sister had been, and her acts of prostitution were more numerous than those of her sister. 23:12 She lusted after the Assyrians – governors and officials, warriors in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. 23:13 I saw that she was defiled; both of them followed the same path. 23:14 But she increased her prostitution. She saw men carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans carved in bright red, 18 23:15 wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, the image of Babylonians 19 whose native land is Chaldea. 23:16 When she saw them, 20 she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 21 23:17 The Babylonians crawled into bed with her. 22 They defiled her with their lust; after she was defiled by them, she 23 became disgusted with them. 23:18 When she lustfully exposed her nakedness, 24 I 25 was disgusted with her, just as I 26 had been disgusted with her sister. 23:19 Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt. 23:20 She lusted after their genitals – as large as those of donkeys, 27 and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions. 23:21 This is how you assessed 28 the obscene conduct of your youth, when the Egyptians fondled 29 your nipples and squeezed 30 your young breasts.
[16:15] 1 tn Heb “it” (so KJV, ASV); the referent (the beauty in which the prostitute trusted, see the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[16:25] 2 tn Heb “treated as if abominable,” i.e., repudiated.
[16:25] 3 tn The only other occurrence of the Hebrew root is found in Prov 13:3 in reference to the talkative person who habitually “opens wide” his lips.
[16:26] 4 tn Heb “your neighbors, large of flesh.” The word “flesh” is used here of the genitals. It may simply refer to the size of their genitals in general, or, as the translation suggests, depicts them as sexually aroused.
[16:29] 5 tn Heb “Chaldea.” The name of the tribal group ruling Babylon (“Chaldeans”) and the territory from which they originated (“Chaldea”) is used as metonymy for the whole empire of Babylon.
[16:31] 6 tn The Hebrew term, which also occurs in vv. 34 and 41 of this chapter, always refers to the payment of a prostitute (Deut 23:19; Isa 23:17; Hos 9:1; Mic 1:7).
[16:33] 7 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
[16:34] 8 tn Heb “With you it was opposite of women in your prostitution.”
[16:36] 9 tn The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT.
[23:5] 10 tn Heb “while she was under me.” The expression indicates that Oholah is viewed as the Lord’s wife. See Num 5:19-20, 29.
[23:5] sn Played the harlot refers to alliances with pagan nations in this context. In Ezek 16 harlotry described the sin of idolatry.
[23:5] 12 tn The term apparently refers to Assyrian military officers; it is better construed with the description that follows. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:738.
[23:7] 13 tn Heb “lusted after.”
[23:8] 14 tn Heb “and poured out their harlotry on her.”
[23:9] 15 tn Heb “I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the sons of Assyria.”
[23:11] 17 tn The word “this” is not in the original text.
[23:14] 18 tn The only other occurrence of the Hebrew term is in Jer 22:14.
[23:15] 19 tn Heb “the sons of Babel.”
[23:16] 20 tn Heb “at the appearance of her eyes.”
[23:16] 21 sn The Chaldeans were prominent tribal groups of Babylonia. The imagery is reminiscent of events in the reigns of Hezekiah (2 Kgs 20:12-15) and Jehoiakim (2 Kgs 23:34-24:1).
[23:17] 22 tn Heb “The sons of Babel came to her on a bed of love.”
[23:18] 24 tn Heb “She exposed her harlotry and she exposed her nakedness.”
[23:20] 27 tn Heb “She lusted after their concubines (?) whose flesh was the flesh of donkeys.” The phrase “their concubines” is extremely problematic here. The pronoun is masculine plural, suggesting that the Egyptian men are in view, but how concubines would fit into the picture envisioned here is not clear. Some suggest that Ezekiel uses the term in an idiomatic sense of “paramour,” but this still fails to explain how the pronoun relates to the noun. It is more likely that the term refers here to the Egyptians’ genitals. The relative pronoun that follows introduces a more specific description of their genitals.
[23:21] 28 tn Or “you took note of.” The Hebrew verb פָּקַד (paqad) in the Qal implies evaluating something and then acting in light of that judgment; here the prophet depicts Judah as approving of her youthful unfaithfulness and then magnifying it at the present time. Some translations assume the verb should be repointed as a Niphal, rendering “you missed” or by extension “you longed for,” but such an extension of the Niphal “to be missing” is otherwise unattested.
[23:21] 29 tn Heb “when (they) did,” but the verb makes no sense here and is better emended to “when (they) fondled,” a verb used in vv. 3 and 8. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:43.
[23:21] 30 tn Heb “for the sake of,” but the expression is awkward and is better emended to read “to squeeze.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:43.
