Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
The verse pictures the officers of a foreign nation as desirable young men, captains and rulers clothed with blue and horsemen riding upon horses, whose rank and dress and horsemanship give them worldly appeal that drew Israel into unfaithfulness. Those desiring them are Samaria and Jerusalem, portrayed as two adulterous women doting on the Assyrians and Babylonians, with the Babylonians coming to her into the bed of love. The chapter belongs to the time of the Babylonian assault on Jerusalem and the judgment that removed the wicked ruler of the kingdom of Israel, which was overturned until the rightful ruler should come.
The chapter presents the awful sins of Israel and Judah, also called backsliding Israel and Judah, under the figures of lewd women and harlots who ensnared souls and corrupted the nations of the earth. In this symbolism a corrupt woman is a symbol of a corrupt church, proving that in symbolic prophecy a woman represents a church, an assembly of people called out and united for a spiritual purpose, whether good or evil. Its fornication means spiritual unfaithfulness and apostasy: those bound by covenant departing from God's law and testimony and worship, casting off the precepts of God which is casting off God, and joining idolatrous or false religious groups.
That unfaithfulness is described as those married by covenant, married to Christ by covenant sealed by His blood, becoming friends and followers of the world, taking strangers instead of their husband as a wife committing adultery, listening to the siren of Babylon and following Satan to become his bride with sister Babylon, so that the lives of Israel and Babylon become one and the house of Judah becomes like all the heathen. One form of that unfaithfulness is seeking help from Egypt, and the lesson applies to churches seeking union with civil power. Such fornication does not mean forming a lawful civil organization for temporal affairs. Because of its portrayal of sin under such figures, the verse is best read in private, although some passages in its chapter are properly read anywhere.
The verse pictures the officers of a foreign nation as desirable young men, captains and rulers clothed with blue and horsemen riding upon horses, whose rank and dress and horsemanship give them worldly appeal that drew Israel into unfaithfulness. Those desiring them are Samaria and Jerusalem, portrayed as two adulterous women doting on the Assyrians and Babylonians, with the Babylonians coming to her into the bed of love. The chapter belongs to the time of the Babylonian assault on Jerusalem and the judgment that removed the wicked ruler of the kingdom of Israel, which was overturned until the rightful ruler should come.
The chapter presents the awful sins of Israel and Judah, also called backsliding Israel and Judah, under the figures of lewd women and harlots who ensnared souls and corrupted the nations of the earth. In this symbolism a corrupt woman is a symbol of a corrupt church, proving that in symbolic prophecy a woman represents a church, an assembly of people called out and united for a spiritual purpose, whether good or evil. Its fornication means spiritual unfaithfulness and apostasy: those bound by covenant departing from God's law and testimony and worship, casting off the precepts of God which is casting off God, and joining idolatrous or false religious groups.
That unfaithfulness is described as those married by covenant, married to Christ by covenant sealed by His blood, becoming friends and followers of the world, taking strangers instead of their husband as a wife committing adultery, listening to the siren of Babylon and following Satan to become his bride with sister Babylon, so that the lives of Israel and Babylon become one and the house of Judah becomes like all the heathen. One form of that unfaithfulness is seeking help from Egypt, and the lesson applies to churches seeking union with civil power. Such fornication does not mean forming a lawful civil organization for temporal affairs. Because of its portrayal of sin under such figures, the verse is best read in private, although some passages in its chapter are properly read anywhere.