What is the context?
The Lord tells a story about two sisters, then identifies them: Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. The cities stand for the two kingdoms. Their shared beginnings in Egypt lead into a picture of unfaithfulness to the God to whom they belong.
Oholah is drawn to Assyria’s impressive soldiers and rulers. Verse 7 explains what the sexual picture means: she defiles herself with their idols. The attraction to foreign power carries a betrayal of the Lord.
The power she desired becomes the power that destroys her. The Lord delivers her to the Assyrians, who take her children and put her to the sword. The reversal prepares the warning to Jerusalem: Samaria’s fate is something her sister has already seen.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry and Wesley read the sisters as the northern and southern kingdoms, and the unfaithfulness as idolatry expressed through their dealings with other nations. The USCCB notes likewise identify the cities and their worship. The story concerns these communities’ relationship with God.
Henry and Wesley also connect the sisters’ names with their sanctuaries: Samaria’s own place of worship and the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. Cambridge is less certain that the names establish that contrast. The identities supplied in verse 4 are clear even where the full significance of the names is debated.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.