Oholah and Oholibah
Overview
- Testament: Old
- Book: Ezekiel
- Chapters: Ezekiel 23
- Summary: Ezekiel’s allegory of two sisters — Oholah (Samaria) and Oholibah (Jerusalem) — who prostituted themselves to foreign empires from their youth in Egypt.
Details
Ezekiel 23 presents a paired allegory building on the unfaithful wife imagery of Ezekiel 16. Two sisters, Oholah (“her tent”) and Oholibah (“my tent is in her”), represent the northern and southern kingdoms. The “tent” names likely allude to the Tabernacle and the royal sanctuary — the sisters are defined by the worship that should have defined their identity.
Both sisters committed their unfaithfulness from Egypt, lusting after the military power of the Egyptians and their “flesh like the flesh of asses.” Oholah (Samaria) was first: she gave herself to Assyria and was eventually handed over to her lover — who stripped her, took her children, and killed her. This is the fall of the northern kingdom.
Oholibah (Jerusalem) saw her sister’s fate and did worse. She turned to Assyria, then to Babylon, and now desired Babylon’s siege warriors even after Babylon had humiliated her. God announces he will bring her Babylonian lovers against her to devastate her as they had her sister. The text ends with a call for a congregation to stone and slash both sisters, and the stark declaration that Jerusalem will bear the consequences of her lewdness and idolatry.
Key People Involved
- Ezekiel — Delivers the allegory
Important Verses
“Thou hast gone the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.” — Ezekiel 23:31
Cross-References
- The Unfaithful Wife — The parallel allegory in Ezekiel 16
- Related books: Ezekiel, Jeremiah 3, 2 Kings 17 (fall of Samaria)
Notes
- The two-sister structure allows Ezekiel to use the northern kingdom’s already-completed judgment as an object lesson for the south.
- Oholibah’s fault is not ignorance but willful repetition of known patterns — seeing the warning and choosing the sin anyway.