Bible Strands
Ezekiel 23:4
The older was named Oholah, and her sister was named Oholibah. They became Mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their identities, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Ezekiel to the exiled community, revealing the identities of two allegorical sisters at the moment of prophetic judgment against Israel and Judah.
The words — אָהֳלָ֤ה (‘o.ho.Lah) = “Oholah” and אָהֳלִיבָ֣ה (‘o.ho.li.Vah) = “Oholibah” function as the designated names for the two sisters, explicitly identified in the text as Samaria and Jerusalem.
The thread — The text’s identification of these cities as God’s own and their subsequent covenant violation runs parallel to Ezekiel 16:8, where God spreads His cloak over the nation, and reflects the covenant condition in Exodus 19:5 regarding Israel as a treasured possession.
Why it lands — The passage demands that readers acknowledge political and religious alliances as direct breaches of divine covenant, requiring a clear-eyed assessment of how claimed relationship with God is nullified by idolatrous pursuit.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 16:8 Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord GOD.
- Exodus 19:5 Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
- 1 Kings 8:29 May Your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place.
- 1 Kings 12:20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.
- 1 Kings 12:26 Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom might revert to the house of David.
- Psalms 45:11 and the king will desire your beauty; bow to him, for he is your lord.
- Psalms 76:2 His tent is in Salem, His dwelling place in Zion.
- Psalms 132:13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His home:
- Jeremiah 2:2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
- Ezekiel 16:20 You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough?