Oholibah is an allegorical name used by the prophet Ezekiel to represent Jerusalem (the kingdom of Judah). In Ezekiel chapter 23, she is portrayed as the sister of Oholah (Samaria), and both are depicted as unfaithful women symbolizing the spiritual adultery and idolatry of Israel and Judah. Oholibah is described as even worse than her sister in her faithlessness toward God.
Ezekiel introduces Oholah and Oholibah as two sisters, daughters of the same mother, representing Samaria and Jerusalem respectively. Both engaged in prostitution in Egypt during their youth.
4Their names were Oholah, the elder, and Oholibah, her sister. They became mine and bore sons and daughters. As for their names: Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
Despite having seen her sister Oholah's fate, Oholibah followed in her sin and sought after Assyrian lovers, symbolizing Judah's political and religious alliances with pagan nations.
12She lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, her neighbors, splendidly dressed, cavalrymen mounted on horses, all of them handsome young men.
Oholibah went even further than her sister, becoming infatuated with Babylonian images and sending messengers to Chaldea, symbolizing Judah's fascination with Babylonian culture and idolatry.
15belts around their waists, flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers—the very image of Babylonians, whose native land is Chaldea.
17So the Babylonians came to her, to her bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. And when she had been defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust.
God turned away from Oholibah just as He had turned away from Oholah. The Lord declares His judgment against her for her faithlessness and moral decay.
22Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Lord GOD says: I am about to rouse your lovers against you, the very ones you turned from in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side—
23the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, governors and commanders, officers and men of rank, all of them riding on horses.
24They will come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a horde of peoples. They will surround you with shield and buckler and helmet. I will hand the judgment over to them, and they will judge you by their own laws.
Oholiba shall drink the same cup as her sister Oholah drank—a cup filled with destruction, sorrow, and ruin, symbolizing Jerusalem's coming fall at Babylon's hand.
God declares final judgment over both sisters for their idolatry, bloodshed, and desecration of the sanctuary. They shall bear the punishment for their sins so that the people of Israel may know that the Lord is God.
45But righteous men will pass sentence on them—the sentence for adulteresses and for women who shed blood—because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.