Ezekiel 23:40
And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments,
Ezekiel 23:40 belongs to a strong parable in a chapter that exposes and rebukes the fearful sins and apostasy of Judah and Israel. It was part of Ezekiel's warning given before Jerusalem's destruction, given in 593 B.C., and is connected with the scattering that began with the Babylonian conquest. The chapter foretells the king of Babylon coming against Jerusalem and the removal of the diadem from Israel's profane, wicked prince, with the kingdom overturned until the rightful ruler comes.
The corrupt, adulterous women in the portrayal are Samaria and Jerusalem, and a corrupt woman is a symbol of a corrupt church. Sending for men to come from far, for whom she washed herself, painted her eyes, and decked herself with ornaments, depicts the people's unfaithfulness through the image of a woman preparing herself for illicit lovers who had been summoned from afar. The painting of the eyes describes the nation's irregularities under the figure of a debauched woman; the paint was a dark powder, called cohol in Chaldee and stibium in the Septuagint, applied to the eyelids to make the eyes look larger and brighter.
Sending for men from far means forsaking God and seeking help in Egypt, which was rebellion against Him. It means turning from God to foreign powers, especially the Assyrians and Babylonians, with Jerusalem pictured as attracted to the Babylonians in sexual unfaithfulness; in this Judah resembled the heathen, showing that God's people commit spiritual adultery when they abandon God's covenant and follow the world. It means apostate religious communities seek alliances with idolatrous or false religious groups and adorn themselves for them; this fornication is departure from God's law and testimony and worship, not the use of civil laws to manage temporal affairs. The same guilt belongs to professed Christian churches today that seek union with the civil power instead of trusting God; God has furnished fullness of blessing in Jesus Christ and demands all from His church, and He will not divide His glory with another.