Canaan, thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite." Thus personifying the house of Israel as a woman, the Lord proceeds to show (verses 4-8) how in her youth he rescued her from the bondage and idolatry of Egypt, entered into a covenant with her, and espoused her to him as a wife, and rendered her beautiful and prosperous with manifold blessings. He continues, saying (verses 8-14), "Yea, I sware unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water, yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk, I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work, thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil, And thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God."

After all this that the Lord did to Jerusalem and his people by such lovingkindness, until she was exceeding beautiful and lovely, and did prosper into a kingdom, how did she requite the Lord, who became to her as a husband, and she to him as a wife? The Lord states the case as follows (verse 15), "But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown." That is, instead of worshipping the Lord with whom she had entered into covenant, and to whom she became as a wife, she was faithless and sought to other gods, and worshipped them, even defiling the service of the law, and causing her children to pass through the fire, abominations which are forcibly described in verses 15 to 26.

Now inasmuch as she had defiled herself with the Egyptians also, worshipping their gods and going to them for aid, and had not called to mind the days of her youth and all the kindnesses which the Lord had shown toward her, the Lord continues saying (verses 27-30)," Behold, therefore, I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable, yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied. Thou hast, moreover, multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea, and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith. How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God. seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman." Therefore because the house of Israel has been exceedingly insatiate in uniting herself of her own accord with the surrounding nations in their idolatrous worship, the Lord, speaking of these nations as Israel's lovers, shows what punishment will be visited upon her (verses 35-41).

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Wherefore, O Harlot, Hear the Word of the Lord”

Now here follow the words of God that are referred to in the seventeenth chapter of the Revelation where it is said, "For God hath put it in their hearts

to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God (by the hand of Ezekiel, and others) shall be fulfilled." And here we would advise all persons who have vainly supposed that the great harlot of the Revelation is an Italian character, to carefully consider these words of the Lord which are yet to be fulfilled in a future age, and which are as follows: "Behold therefore I will gather all thy lovers (as they are enumerated by David in the eighty-third Psalm), with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated, I will even gather them round about against thee. And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock, and shed blood, are judged, and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places, they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare. They shall also bring up a company against thee; and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords. And they shall burn thine houses with fire; and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women (many nations), and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more."

These are the words of the Lord concerning Jerusalem the harlot, and the judgment decreed to be executed upon her by the ten horns of the beast who are appointed of God to hate the whore; to make her desolate and naked, to eat her flesh, and burn her with fire; for God will put it in their hearts to fulfil his will and do all these things.

The prophet Hosea also confirms the words of Ezekiel and John for the Lord said to Hosea (2:1), "Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi (that is my people'), and to your sisters, Ruhamah (that is, 'having obtained mercy'), plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband, Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts, lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. And I will not have mercy upon her children, for they be children of whoredoms, for their mother hath played the harlot, she that conceived them hath done shamefully, for she said, I will go after my lovers, that gave me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

"Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them, then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now. For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath

said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me, and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the Lord" (Hos. 2: 1-13).

1

AHOLAH AND AHOLIBAH

We have already proved that the house of Israel is again to be divided into two nations: the house of Israel consists of the ten tribes, for the name of Israel was inherited by the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, as Jacob said, "Let my name be named upon them." Therefore in the divided state, the name Israel is called upon the ten tribes, and the two are known as the house of Judah, Samaria being the capital and representative of the ten tribes, and Jerusalem, the capital and representative of the two tribes. Now as both these houses will do again in the latter days after their former manners, in their former days, the Lord by the hand of Ezekiel in the twentythird chapter of his prophecies has plainly described their idolatry and their depending on other nations for help instead of on the God of Israel and the evils that he will bring upon them by the hand of these nations whom he calls their lovers, as follows: "The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother, and they committed whoredoms in their youth, they committed whoredoms in Egypt (verse 4). 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 is Aholibah, And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. Thus she committed whoredoms with them, that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself. Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt. Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness, they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword, and she became famous among women, for they had executed judgment upon her!

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AHOLIBAH

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. She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they both took one way." The Lord then describes in the same language how she sought aid yet further from the Chaldeans and Babylonians until his mind was alienated from her as it was from her sister. (Verse 22), "Therefore, O Aholibah, thust

saith the Lord thy God, Behold I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on

1 See pages 458-462.

every side; The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield, and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments." That is, God will put it into the hearts of these great lords and renowned, to execute upon this harlot his righteous judgments that he has proclaimed against her, in fact the very judgments that are here recorded, and which are strictly in accordance with what Moses says in the law.

And the things which are further spoken of here, from verse 25 and onward are the very words of God referred to in the Revelation, which are to be fulfilled, namely, "And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee, they shall take away thy nose and thine ears, and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. They shall also strip thee out

of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them nor remember Egypt any

more.

"For thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated, and they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. Thus saith the Lord God, Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it, and suck it out, and thou shalt break the shreds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God, . . . because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms."

THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE REVELATIONS

The great importance of these marvelous revelations to us, lies in the fact that they are prophecies concerning events which are yet to arise in the future; and are to be manifested in the earth in the days to come. This we will prove conclusively before we close our interpretation of prophecy.

The foregoing words of this prophecy set forth that the Lord will first chastise Aholah to a certain extent for her idolatry and for defiling herself with the Assyrians and their idols. And though Aholibah sees what has been done to her sister Aholah, yet she afterwards becomes more corrupt in her

inordinate love than her sister, therefore she is made to drink of her sister's cup of sorrow deep and large. And finally as these punishments have produced no repentance and no reformation, the two houses of Israel, or the two lewd women, join their fortunes together in the crowning acts of their wickedness, when their cup will be full, and the clusters of the vine of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah will be ready to be gathered and cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. The spectacle that is next presented by the prophet, from verse 36 to the end of the chapter, is that of a coalition and concert of action between these two peoples, known in this prophecy as Aholah and Aholibah, and a correct understanding of what is here said will aid greatly in comprehending and interpreting John's vision of the beast that rises up out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb, which makes an image to the beast.

THE UNION OF AHOLAH AND AHOLIBAH

The Lord said moreover unto me, Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? Yea, declare unto them their abominations, that they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery (that is, in worshipping idols they have broken their covenant with God and have become unfaithful to him) and have also caused their sons whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them. Moreover, this have they done unto me; they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it, and lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house. And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from afar, unto whom a messenger was sent, and, lo, they came, for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thine eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, and satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil. And a voice of a multitude (666 in number) being at ease was with her, and with the men of the common sort (Gentiles uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh) were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads. Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredom with her, and she with them?"

Now this last crowning act of idolatry which these lewd women commit, and which is in a religious sense and is in connection with the idolatrous priests of the nations, is manifested in the temple where she that is old in iniquities spreads a table before this multitude, or number, and upon which she places the Lord's incense and oil, and where she sits upon a stately bed, and where she is said (spiritually) to commit adultery with them, by affiliating with, and recognizing their friendly coöperation in the temple service, and by eating with them of the offerings, and by drinking with them the wine of the drink offerings of God's holy house.

By comparison of the Scripture the truth is brought out. The prophet Isaiah speaks of this same thing in the following language, saying (65: 11-12), But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that