Oholah is an allegorical figure in the book of Ezekiel representing Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom (Israel). She is portrayed as an unfaithful woman who committed spiritual adultery by seeking alliances with Assyria and Egypt instead of trusting in God. Through this metaphor, the prophet Ezekiel condemns the idolatry and political infidelity of the Northern Kingdom.
Ezekiel presents two sisters, Oholah (Samaria) and Oholibah (Jerusalem), both of whom engaged in prostitution in Egypt during their youth. They represent the two kingdoms of Israel.
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.
Oholah (Samaria) was unfaithful to the Lord by seeking political and religious alliances with Assyria. She lusted after Assyrian warriors and officers and adopted their idolatry.
7She gave herself as a whore to them, the choicest men of Assyria, every one of them; and with all whom she lusted after she defiled herself with their idols.
8Nor did she give up the whoring she began in Egypt, for in her youth men had slept with her, had handled her young breasts and poured out their lust on her.
Oholah never abandoned her promiscuity from Egypt, which she had practiced in her youth. She continued to turn to pagan nations for support instead of turning to God.
8Nor did she give up the whoring she began in Egypt, for in her youth men had slept with her, had handled her young breasts and poured out their lust on her.
God handed Oholah over into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians, whom she had desired. They exposed her, took her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword—a prophetic description of Samaria's fall in 722 BC.
10They stripped her naked, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women, and judgment was carried out on her.
Despite the fact that Oholibah (Jerusalem) saw her sister Oholah's fate, she did not learn from it but became even more corrupt in her unfaithfulness. Oholah's downfall served as a warning which Jerusalem ignored.
12She lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, her neighbors, splendidly dressed, cavalrymen mounted on horses, all of them handsome young men.
God declares that both sisters will be judged for their sins. Righteous men shall judge them according to the law for adultery and bloodshed, as a warning against idolatry and unfaithfulness to the Lord.
37For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols, and they even offered up the children they had borne to me as food for them.
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.