Ezekiel 23:11 kjv
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.
Ezekiel 23:11 nkjv
"Now although her sister Oholibah saw this, she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotry more corrupt than her sister's harlotry.
Ezekiel 23:11 niv
"Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister.
Ezekiel 23:11 esv
"Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister.
Ezekiel 23:11 nlt
"Yet even though Oholibah saw what had happened to Oholah, her sister, she followed right in her footsteps. And she was even more depraved, abandoning herself to her lust and prostitution.
Ezekiel 23 11 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Ezekiel 23:11 | "Samaria did not bear the guilt of her sister, but rather she committed more abominations than all that were in the land of Israel before her..." | Hosea 4:15 (Contrast with Israel's limited blame) |
| Ezekiel 23:4 | "...these were her names, Oholah the elder and Oholibah the younger; they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names: Samaria was Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah." | Jer 3:7 (Judah more faithless than sister Israel) |
| Jer 2:10-11 | "...Pass over to the coasts of Kittim and look, and send to Ked far inland and see if there has been anything like this. No nation has ever changed its gods, though they are no gods! But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols." | Isaiah 44:16-20 (Idolatry of nations vs. Israel's defection) |
| Hosea 1:2 | "...Go, take for yourself an adulterous wife and children of adultery, for this land commits great adultery, turning away from the LORD." | Ezekiel 16:15-16 (God's view of unfaithfulness) |
| Ezekiel 16:46-47 | "Your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to your north; and your younger sister, who lived to your south, is Sodom with her daughters. Yet you have not only imitated them and committed their abominations, but even worse." | Romans 1:21-23 (Spiritual prostitution leading to further decay) |
| 1 Cor 10:20 | "No, I contend that whatever pagans sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be partners with demons." | Deuteronomy 32:17 (Sacrifices to demons) |
| Rev 17:5 | "And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." | Nahum 3:4 (Nineveh as a harlot city) |
| Ezek 16:47-48 | "Your elder sister was Samaria, with her daughters living to your north, and your younger sister was Sodom, living to your south. Even so, you have acted more wickedly than all the rest of them." | Isaiah 3:9 (Jerusalem's sin is blatant) |
| Micah 1:5 | "All this is for the rebellion of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. And what is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is in the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?" | Jeremiah 23:11 (Prophets bearing false witness) |
| Deuteronomy 18:10 | "There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer..." | 2 Kings 17:17 (Children sacrificed to idols) |
| Jeremiah 7:31 | "And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I did not command, nor did it come into my mind." | Psalm 106:37 (Offering children to demons) |
| Judges 2:11-13 | "Then the people of Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gash." | Isaiah 65:11 (Worshipping fortune-tellers) |
| 2 Kings 21:10-15 | "And the LORD spoke through his servant the prophets, saying, 'Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations, and has done things more wicked than all the abominations of the Amorites who were before him, and has made Judah to sin also with his idols...'" | 2 Kings 23:4-7 (Manasseh's wickedness exceeding others) |
| Proverbs 14:34 | "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." | Jeremiah 4:22 (Wisdom absent due to sin) |
| Revelation 2:14 | "But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat food sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality." | Jude 1:11 (Following Cain, Balaam, Korah) |
| Isaiah 47:8-10 | "Therefore hear now this, you delicate woman, who dwells carelessly, who says in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children’; but these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the abundance of your sorceries and the great power of your enchantments." | Jeremiah 50:29 (Babylon's downfall) |
| Galatians 5:19-21 | "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." | Ezekiel 22:3-14 (Lamentation over Jerusalem's corruption) |
| 2 Chronicles 33:1-13 | "Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel." | Jeremiah 32:34-35 (Jerusalem's sin deeply rooted) |
| 1 Samuel 15:23 | "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king." | Hosea 5:11 (Following Manasseh's counsel) |
| Nahum 3:1-5 | "Woe to the bloody city! She is altogether deceitful, full of plunder; her prey never departs. The crack of the whip and the rumble of the wheels, the galloping horses, the jolting chariots! The cavalry charge, the flashing swords, the glinting spears, the multitude of slain, the heaps of corpses, the dead bodies without end—they stumble over them..." | Psalm 75:8 (Judgment drink from God) |
| Lamentations 1:18 | "The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against his commandment; hear, I pray you, all peoples, and see my pain; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity." | Ezekiel 33:24 (The fallen city boasting) |
Ezekiel 23 verses
Ezekiel 23 11 Meaning
This verse describes the extreme extent of Judah's spiritual harlotry, equating it to that of Samaria (Israel) in its idolatry and impurity. Both sisters are depicted as having acted shamelessly and pursued foreign gods and illicit relationships with powerful nations. The verse emphasizes the inherited sin and the shared fate of spiritual and national destruction that awaited them.
Ezekiel 23 11 Context
This verse is part of Ezekiel chapter 23, which uses the allegory of two sisters, Oholah (Samaria, representing the northern kingdom of Israel) and Oholibah (Jerusalem, representing the southern kingdom of Judah), to illustrate their spiritual adultery and idolatry. Chapter 23 details the history of their unfaithfulness to God, their pursuit of foreign alliances and idolatrous practices, and the resulting judgment. This specific verse compares Judah's (Oholibah) sins to Samaria's (Oholah), stating that Judah surpassed Samaria in her transgressions. This historical context places the verse within the prophetic ministry to the exiled Judeans in Babylon, emphasizing the reasons for Jerusalem's impending destruction.
Ezekiel 23 11 Word Analysis
- Samaria (Shomeron): This refers to the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel.
- Significance: It represents the northern kingdom itself and its history of idolatry and apostasy, which predated and influenced Judah's later failings.
- did not bear the guilt of her sister:
- bear (nasha): To carry a burden, to incur guilt, to be held responsible.
- guilt (asham): Responsibility for wrongdoing, culpability.
- Significance: Samaria did not cause Judah's sinfulness; Judah freely chose to emulate and even exceed Samaria's wickedness. It implies that each bore responsibility for its own actions.
- but rather (ki im): An emphatic connector, meaning "but rather," "indeed," or "on the contrary."
- Significance: This phrase highlights the surprising and more egregious nature of Judah's sin.
- she committed more abominations than all that were in the land of Israel before her:
- she committed (na'asah): Literally, "she did."
- more abominations (mashqi'oth yakiroth): "More abominations" or "more impurities." The root 'shq' can relate to making drunk or intoxicating, suggesting a seductive, ensnaring nature of sin. The word "abominations" (shiqqutz) strongly refers to detestable idols and idolatrous practices.
- than all (mikol): "From all," indicating quantity and surpassing others.
- that were in the land of Israel (ha'ir b'eretz Yisrael): Referring to the accumulated sins of the northern kingdom.
- before her (lifneya): In time, or geographically preceding her. Here, it emphasizes that Judah's sins outdid even those of the earlier kingdom.
- Significance: This powerfully underscores Judah's depth of corruption, showing that their apostasy was not merely a following of Samaria but a greater imitation and escalation of sin.
Ezekiel 23 11 Bonus Section
The imagery of spiritual adultery and harlotry in Ezekiel is highly potent, drawing from the ancient Near Eastern understanding of fertility cults and their association with prostitution, both literal and symbolic. The "abominations" include not only overt idolatry but also political entanglements and reliance on foreign powers (Egypt and Assyria/Babylon) instead of God, all portrayed as a breach of the covenant relationship between God and His people. The progression from "Samaria did not bear the guilt of her sister" suggests that Judah had ample warning from the destruction of the northern kingdom but chose to repeat and magnify its errors. This illustrates a principle that prolonged exposure to divine judgment or example without repentance can lead to hardening of heart and greater sin. The intensity of the language emphasizes the severity of Judah's apostasy, foreshadowing the coming Babylonian exile as a consequence of this unfaithfulness.
Ezekiel 23 11 Commentary
Ezekiel 23:11 serves as a stark indictment of Judah's spiritual infidelity. By stating that Samaria did not cause Judah's sin, the prophet emphasizes Judah's own culpability and severe depravity. Judah, symbolized by Oholibah (Jerusalem), not only followed the path of her sister Samaria (Oholah), but far surpassed her in the number and severity of her abominations. This includes the egregious practice of child sacrifice and the embrace of foreign deities and illicit political alliances, seen as akin to sexual immorality. The verse implies that Judah's sin was deeper-seated and more pervasive, leading to a more devastating divine judgment. It highlights a recurring theme in the Old Testament: the people of God actively choosing sin over faithfulness, and exceeding the sins of even those nations known for their wickedness. This verse serves as a foundational text for understanding the intensity of God's judgment against Judah.