Ezekiel 23:12
She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
The verse portrays Israel's infatuation with her Assyrian neighbours, their captains and rulers in gorgeous clothing and horsemen riding on horses, all desirable young men, a picture graphically illustrated by ancient Assyrian palace reliefs and inscriptions depicting such captains and horsemen. The lewd and corrupt woman of the chapter is a symbol of a corrupt church, with sexual immorality used as a figure for religious apostasy. The chapter sets forth the awful sins of backsliding Israel and Judah, as Samaria and Jerusalem, under the figure of two adulterous harlot women who ensnare souls and corrupt the nations of the earth.
Doting on the Assyrians means departing from God to love and follow the world and Babylon, portraying spiritual unfaithfulness as seeking help and alliances from foreign powers instead of relying on God. It is spiritual fornication because believers are married to Christ by covenant sealed by His blood and solemn vow, so that becoming a friend and follower of the world is a wife departing from her husband to become the bride of Babylon. The doting is listening to the siren voice of Babylon and Satan, casting off God and His precepts so that the lives of Israel and Babylon become one, producing Babylon's wine of drunken, lascivious life and statutes that are not good.
The chapter prophesies, in the setting of the scattering that began with Babylonian conquest, that the king of Babylon would come against Jerusalem, and it also speaks of the removal of the crown from Israel's wicked prince and the overturning of the kingdom until the rightful ruler comes. The verse gives searching moral instruction and belongs to predictions of the last days. The same lesson applies to churches seeking union with civil power, yet the verse does not refer to a church's use of civil laws to manage its temporal affairs. The verse is best read in private, although some passages around it are properly read anywhere.