What Does Ezekiel 23:36 Mean?
And the LORD said to me, Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their sickening things.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations;THE KEY
Here judgment becomes an act of exposure: the verdict brings what is detestable into speech.
THE MEANING
The verse joins judging to declaring: the charge is made explicit, not left as a private impression. The sisters’ names also carry meaning, Aholah, “her tent,” and Aholibah, “my tent is in her”, so dwelling is already present in the words used to address them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a private verdict is enough to expose what is wrong; here, judgment includes naming the charge.
THE ROOT
וְהַגֵּד
wehaggēd
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
To make known, announce, or bring into view.
“declare” in this verse is wehaggēd. The command carries the sense of making something conspicuous, bringing it to the front where it can be seen and heard. Judgment in this verse is joined to that disclosure: the charge is spoken plainly.
ALSO GROWS
higgîd: Told, declared, made known
הִגִּיד
This related verb shows the root’s work of turning what is known into something openly stated.
nāgîd: Leader, prince
נָגִיד
This related noun can describe one who stands out or is placed in front, echoing the root’s sense of prominence.
תּוֹעֲבֹתֵיהֶן
toʿavoteihen
GROWS FROM
תעב
t-ʿ-b
To abhor or detest; a detestable thing.
“sickening things” in this verse is toʿavoteihen. The word names the sisters’ acts as things regarded with abhorrence, rather than leaving the charge as an indistinct wrong. The root holds together the act of detesting and the thing called detestable.
ALSO GROWS
tāʿav: To abhor, detest
תָּעַב
The verb gives the root’s force as an act of revulsion.
tōʿēvāh: An abomination, a detestable thing
תּוֹעֵבָה
This singular form shows the kind of thing named by the plural in the verse.
אָהֳלָה
ʾOholāh
GROWS FROM
אהל
ʾ-h-l
Tent, dwelling, or tabernacle; in these names, “her tent” and “my tent is in her.”
“Aholah and Aholibah” in this verse is ʾOholāh. The names are not empty labels: both carry the image of a tent or dwelling, but with different claims of belonging. That image is already present when the verse calls these two figures to account.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōhel: Tent, dwelling
אֹהֶל
This is the base word carried in both names.
ʾoholî: My tent
אָהֳלִי
This form supplies the “my tent” element in Aholibah’s name.
THE PATTERN
Judgment brings what is concealed or corrupt into the open by naming it plainly.
And now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the city of blood? Indeed, show her all her loathsome things.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.But all things being exposed are made visible by the light, for whatever is made visible is light.THE THREAD
And now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the city of blood? Indeed, show her all her loathsome things.This verse repeats the Hebrew roots שפט (shaphat, judge) and תועבה (toʿēvāh, detestable thing), and again joins judgment to showing all the abominations. The repeated wording makes the link clear: the charge is brought into view as part of the judgment.
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