As we follow Ezekiel’s description, we learn that Israel played the harlot with all of her lovers that passed by, which is a reference to the idolatrous practices of foreign gods and other abominations like sacrificing her children to those gods ( Ezek. 16:15-43; Lev. 18:21; 20:1-5; 1 Kings 11:7, 2 Kings 23:10). Jehovah explains to her that he will gather all of her lovers against her to uncover her nakedness and suffer the public shame for breaking wedlock. She is also described as one that shed blood (Ezek. 16:43), especially, the blood of saints and prophets (Luke 13:34; Rev. 16:4-6; 18:24). Matthew 23:29-36 reads,
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
This same prediction that Ezekiel gives of her lovers gathered against her is being fulfilled in Revelation 17:16-17, where it reads,
“…the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose ….” This is a common practice of Jehovah, who carries out his purpose of judgment through nations of power. Here, she arrogantly claims she is still a queen and is no widow. Still, she will experience death, mourning, and famine and be utterly burned with fire (Revelation 18: 4-10). The kings of the earth will stand looking at the destruction of the city at a distance and cry, “Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour is thy judgment come.” We are sure of this city’s identification. John’s prediction of a coming event was the fall of that “great city” where our Lord was crucified (Rev. 11:8, 13). The city was a type of Sodom; in fact, it was worse than Sodom. Continuing Ezekiel’s text, we learn that she was more corrupt than her older sister Samaria and youngest sister, Sodom (v. 47).
Verse 51-52 reads, “Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed… Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous” (NIV).
Several references to Sodom is given in the New Testament as an example of wickedness that led to their destruction (2 Peter 2:6-10, Jude 7, Luke 17:28-32). In Luke 17, it is used as an example of the “day when the Son of Man is revealed.” Similarly, Revelation 17 predicts the judgment of the great Harlot with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication (verse 2). She is full of abominations and on her forehead a name is written,
“BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE EARTH’S ABOMINATIONS. And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev. 17:5-6, NIV).
This “mother of harlots” is the city of the Great King, Jehovah of Hosts. For this reason, Jerusalem exceeded Babylon, or Rome in as much as Jehovah is greater than Nebuchadnezzar or Vespasian. As Ezekiel sees it, Jerusalem is robed in God’s majesty, sitting as a Queen. For this reason, this great city reigns over the kings of the earth (Rev. 18:7). Nebuchadnezzar lost his kingdom for a period of time because of his own boastful claim to greatness. When he returned from his humiliation as an animal in the fields, he acknowledged the absolute dominion of Jehovah and acknowledges that all the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing when compared to Him (Daniel 4:34-35). Yet, God’s own wife failed to appreciate Him in this way and demonstrated their utter disregard to place Him above all others.