Ezekiel 23:33, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 23 portrays Samaria and Jerusalem, Judah and Israel, as a lewd, adulterous, corrupt woman, the symbol of a corrupt church. The adultery and spiritual fornication signify apostasy in forsaking the covenant with God, departing from His law and testimony, turning from the worship of Jehovah to idolatrous or false religious groups, and pursuing foreign powers and ways. That unfaithfulness included Israel seeking help in Egypt, which was rebellion, and was exemplified by Jerusalem's alliance with Babylon. The cup of thy sister Samaria, with its drunkenness and sorrow, astonishment and desolation, represents the judgment that comes on such apostasy.

The surrounding passage belongs to the period before Christ, around 593 B.C., at the beginning of Israel's scattering, when the king of Babylon comes against Jerusalem and the crown is removed from Israel's wicked prince, with the kingdom to be overturned until the rightful ruler comes. The verse points to Samaria's downfall and desolation, once the proud capital of the Ten Tribes, a prophecy fulfilled and illustrated in the ruins of Samaria as a warning of judgment and desolation. The passage gives searching moral instruction on the awful sins of Judah and Israel, includes predictions of the last days, and is best read in private.

The same guilt of spiritual fornication and rebellion rests on professed Christian churches today that seek union with the civil power to seek help, for God has given fullness of blessing in Jesus Christ, demands all from His church, and will not divide His glory with another. The verse does not refer to the use of civil laws to manage a church's temporal affairs.