Verse 27. -
Thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt;
i.e. the last political alliance between Judah and Egypt. This, together with the Egyptian cultus that accompanied it, should be made to cease. That would no longer be in the thoughts of the exiles; their hopes from that quarter were extinguished forever.
23:1-49 A history of the apostacy of God's people from him, and the aggravation thereof. - In this parable, Samaria and Israel bear the name Aholah, her own tabernacle; because the places of worship those kingdoms had, were of their own devising. Jerusalem and Judah bear the name of Aholibah, my tabernacle is in her, because their temple was the place which God himself had chosen, to put his name there. The language and figures are according to those times. Will not such humbling representations of nature keep open perpetual repentance and sorrow in the soul, hiding pride from our eyes, and taking us from self-righteousness? Will it not also prompt the soul to look to God continually for grace, that by his Holy Spirit we may mortify the deeds of the body, and live in holy conversation and godliness?
Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee,.... That is, their idolatry; for, after this captivity, the Jews never were guilty of idolatry any more:
and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt; the idolatry which they learned there, and brought from thence; so the Targum,
"the worship of thine idols, which was with thee when thou wast in the land of Egypt:''
so that thou shall not lift up thine eyes unto them; to the idols of Egypt, to pray unto them, and worship them:
nor remember Egypt any more; with any delight and pleasure, and so as to desire an alliance with them, and help from them, or to join with them in their idolatries: so the Targum,
"and the idols of the Egyptians thou shalt remember no more.''