Ezekiel's Two Adulterous Sisters

[JohnClay]

Bible Gateway passage: Ezekiel 23 - New International Version

I was wondering what Christians think of Ezekiel 23... did the Bible go overboard?
e.g.
"....There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission [maybe I shouldn't clarify this] was like that of horses....."

The prophecy(?) seems to involve a pretty good knowledge of sexuality.

 

[devin553344]

Well it's a parable so I think it's allowed, but I think it is supposed to make you feel disgusted with the two daughters, the two cities.

 

[nonaeroterraqueous]

I found it shocking when I first read it. I think if I tried to talk like that on these forums I'd probably be censored for my un-Christian talk. However, I suspect that it was intended to be shocking.

There's a principle in the production of television shows that if you want the audience to be mildly stimulated, then you have to be downright apoplectic in front of the camera. Prophets in the Old Testament were not all that different in their need to attract attention first to convey their message. From Isaiah walking naked through the streets, to Ezekiel lying on his side for days on end, talking to two mud cakes, there was often that extreme element in the presentation. Getting up on a soap box and making detailed insulting references to very personal things has this effect. It gathers a crowd. It enables the prophet to get his point across, because people are listening.

It also effectively conveys a shocking message to people about their own behavior, of which they are no longer shocked, because they've become accustomed to it.

 

[Sanoy]

As shocking as it is it is a true mirror to what Israel had become. And as stark as it is, it was still not enough to grieve it's audience into repentance.

 

[ajcarey]

Consider too that Jeremiah spoke around the same time of the same people: "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord." (Jeremiah 6:15)

Was this a last resort by the Lord to make this wicked people blush by speaking of their sin as He did in Ezekiel 23? I'd guess so. And if a people is so deep into sin and accustomed to speaking of sexuality freely that such language doesn't make them blush for their sins which are fitting to be shamefully spoken of by the use of such language, that is a shockingly wicked, corrupted people indeed.

Preachers who use such language frequently as a norm would be shameful themselves and just promoting lasciviousness by their speech, as purveyors of lasciviousness whose mouths are compatible with such language. A godly man would blush to use such language himself; and it would be a shocking thing to anyone who knew him, including himself, for him to speak this way. It would not be commonplace for him nor something he'd enjoy nor something that was said because he lost control of himself nor because he sought attention nor done for any other carnal reason.

 

[Sketcher]

Bible Gateway passage: Ezekiel 23 - New International Version

I was wondering what Christians think of Ezekiel 23... did the Bible go overboard?
e.g.
"....There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission [maybe I shouldn't clarify this] was like that of horses....."

The prophecy(?) seems to involve a pretty good knowledge of sexuality.

God chose to reveal that the way he chose to reveal that. Granted, it was for an adult audience.

 

[JohnClay]

I did a search for Bread & Life in the Bible and came across this:

Proverbs 6:26
"For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man’s wife preys on your very life."

It seems to say that prostitution is different from adultery involving your neighbour's wife.

Also in Joshua 2, there is a prostitute called Rahab who married Salmon from the tribe of Judah.

 

[Sketcher]

I did a search for Bread & Life in the Bible and came across this:

Proverbs 6:26
"For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man’s wife preys on your very life."

It seems to say that prostitution is different from adultery involving your neighbour's wife.

Well, it is. The prostitute generally won't have a jealous husband to come after you. Doesn't make it right.

Also in Joshua 2, there is a prostitute called Rahab who married Salmon from the tribe of Judah.

Yes, she was spared because she protected the spies.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Bible Gateway passage: Ezekiel 23 - New International Version

I was wondering what Christians think of Ezekiel 23... did the Bible go overboard?
e.g.
"....There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission [maybe I shouldn't clarify this] was like that of horses....."

The prophecy(?) seems to involve a pretty good knowledge of sexuality.

There's a strange notion some have that the Bible is supposed to be squeaky clean and puritanical. It's not.

-CryptoLutheran