What Does Ezekiel 23:4 Mean?
And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah, her sister. And they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus were their names. Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
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
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 Aholibah.THE KEY
Aholah means “her tent,” while Aholibah means “my tent is in her”, so their names distinguish a tent claimed as hers from God’s tent within her.
THE MEANING
The verse names belonging and dwelling together: both sisters are God’s, and Aholibah’s name says, “my tent is in her.” Samaria and Jerusalem appear as kin whose lives extend into sons and daughters, while their names distinguish “her tent” from the tent that is God’s in her.
THE ROOT
אָהֳלָה
Oholah
GROWS FROM
אהל
ʾ-h-l
Tent; to pitch a tent or dwell in a tent.
“Oholah” in this verse is Oholah. Both names are built around אֹהֶל (ʾōhel, tent): Aholah means “her tent,” and Aholibah means “my tent is in her.” The names make identity a statement about dwelling, one locates the tent as hers, the other places God’s tent within her.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōhel: A tent or dwelling.
אֹהֶל
This is the shared word at the heart of both names, making dwelling part of how the sisters are identified.
ʾāhal: To pitch a tent or dwell in one.
אָהַל
The verbal branch makes the names carry an action of dwelling, not just the image of a structure.
THE PATTERN
God’s dwelling among a people is repeatedly named as a defining relation, not merely a place.
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.And I hear a great voice from the throne, saying, Look, the tent of God is with humankind, and he will pitch his tent among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.THE THREAD
For in the day of harm he stores me away in his booth; he hides me in the hiding place of his tent; he lifts me high upon a rock.“His tabernacle” translates the same Hebrew tent word carried in Aholah and Aholibah. Ezekiel’s names locate the tent in relation to the sisters; the psalm shows that tent as shelter.
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