Aholibah

Aholibah — spelled Oholibah in the UPDV — is a symbolic figure in Ezekiel 23, a personification of Jerusalem cast as the younger of two sisters. Her elder sister Oholah stands for Samaria. Within this chapter, Yahweh uses the pair to indict the covenant unfaithfulness of the two kingdoms, treating Oholibah as the typological character through whom Jerusalem's idolatry is named and judged.

The Two Sisters Named

Ezekiel's vision opens by naming the sisters and assigning each one to a city. Oholibah is identified directly with Jerusalem, while Oholah is identified with Samaria: "And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah" (Eze 23:4). Across this passage, Oholibah functions as a poetic stand-in rather than a literal woman; she is the figure through whom Jerusalem's history is dramatized.

The Elder Sister's Pattern

The narrative sets up Oholibah by first describing the elder sister. Oholah's conduct is reported as the precedent that Oholibah will mirror and exceed: "And Oholah whored when she was mine; and she lusted after her lovers, on the nearby Assyrians" (Eze 23:5). Within the surveyed witness of this chapter, the elder sister's turn toward foreign powers prefigures the same movement attributed to the younger.

Yahweh's Indictment

Partway through the oracle, the prophet receives a direct commission to confront both sisters together. Yahweh frames the task as a judicial declaration: "Yahweh said moreover to me: Son of Man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their disgusting behaviors" (Eze 23:36). Oholibah is summoned to account alongside her sister; the indictment is paired, not isolated.

Shared Judgment

The chapter's closing movement keeps the sisters together as the object of a single verdict. Their fate is narrated jointly: "And they entered her, as they enter a whore: so they entered Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women" (Eze 23:44). Across these passages, Oholibah is consistently presented as a symbolic counterpart to Oholah — Jerusalem named beside Samaria — so that the judgment falling on the elder sister falls on the younger by the same measure.