What is the meaning of Ezekiel 23:32? This is what the Lord GOD says • The opening proclamation grounds the message in the absolute authority of the Sovereign LORD; what follows is not a mere prediction but a settled decree (Isaiah 46:10). • Because the Lord Himself speaks, the judgment is certain and righteous, echoing earlier prophetic pronouncements that “the word of the LORD stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). You will drink your sister’s cup • “Sister” points back to Samaria (Oholah), already judged for her idolatry (Ezekiel 23:4, 31). Judah (Oholibah) has repeated the same sins and will therefore share the same fate. • The image of drinking a cup is a well-established picture of receiving God’s wrath (Psalm 75:8; Jeremiah 25:15-17). • In practical terms, Judah will endure the same exile, loss, and devastation that befell the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 17:6). A cup deep and wide • Depth and width stress the magnitude of punishment. This is no sip but a draught that cannot be avoided or quickly finished. • The language parallels prophecies that speak of an overflowing or overwhelming judgment (Isaiah 28:17; Lamentations 4:6). • The size of the cup signals that Judah’s accumulated sins have reached a tipping point; God’s patience has limits (Genesis 15:16). It will bring scorn and derision • Exile would expose Judah to public humiliation; enemy nations would mock her downfall (Lamentations 2:15-16; Psalm 79:4). • Scorn and derision fulfill covenant warnings that persistent rebellion would result in reproach among the nations (Deuteronomy 28:37). • The disgrace is moral as well as political: the people who bore God’s name are ridiculed because they dishonored that name (Ezekiel 36:20-21). For it holds so much • The overflowing cup underscores that Judah’s punishment matches the full measure of her guilt (Luke 11:50-51 uses similar language about “the blood of all the prophets”). • “So much” reminds us that sin always pays wages in proportion to its offense against a holy God (Romans 6:23). • The abundant contents guarantee the experience of judgment will be prolonged and inescapable, just as Jerusalem’s siege and subsequent captivity proved to be (2 Kings 25:1-21). summary Ezekiel 23:32 conveys God’s certain and deserved judgment on Judah. Because she copied her sister Samaria’s idolatry, she must drink the same cup of divine wrath—a cup vast in measure, filled to the brim, bringing inevitable shame before the watching world. The verse assures us that the LORD’s justice is exact, comprehensive, and ultimately unavoidable for any people who persist in rebellion. |
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