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1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: 3 And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. 4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah. 5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, 6 Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. 7 Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself. 8 Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her. 9 Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. 10 These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her. 11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. 12 She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. 13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, 14 And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, 15 Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: 16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. 17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. 18 So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister. 19 Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. 20 For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 21 Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth. 22 There, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side; 23 The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses. 24 And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments. 25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. 26 They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. 27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. 28 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated: 29 And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. 30 I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols. 31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. 32 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. 33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. 34 Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. 35 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. 36 The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations; 37 That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them. 38 Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. 39 For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house. 40 And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, 41 And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil. 42 And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads. 43 Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? 44 Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women. 45 And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. 46 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled. 47 And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. 48 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. 49 And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
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[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 23:1-10
(Chapter 23, verses 1 onwards) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. And they played the harlot in Egypt, in their youth they played the harlot. There their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms were broken (or, as it is in the Septuagint, There their breasts fell and there they were deflowered). Their names were Oholah the elder (or, the elder sister), and Oholibah her sister. And I took them (whether they were given to me) and they bore sons and daughters. And their names were Samaria Oolla and Jerusalem Ooliba. Therefore, Oolla prostituted herself with me and she went mad (or went away) to her lovers in Assyria, who approached her, dressed in purple, rulers and officials, all young men, choice horsemen. And she gave her fornications over them, all the elect sons of Assyria, and in all on whom she had been mad upon with her uncleanness (or inventions), she was defiled. Moreover, she did not leave her fornications which she had in Egypt. For they also had slept with her in her youth, and they broke the breasts of her puberty (or they also deflowered her): and they poured their fornication over her. Therefore, I handed her over to the hands of her lovers, to the hands of the sons of Assyria, on whose lust she had gone mad. They uncovered her shame; they took away her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. And she became a byword among women; judgments were executed upon her. The Scripture testifies that the twelve tribes of Israel, which were united in Egypt, later divided into two and ten tribes, called Judah and Israel, as recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles. The tribe of Judah ruled from the line of David, with Rehoboam as the son of Solomon in Jerusalem, where there was a temple and priests, and a large part of the tribe of Levi. But in Samaria, Jeroboam the son of Nabat from the tribe of Ephraim and Joseph ruled over the ten tribes; of which Samaria is now called Oolla, which in our language means tabernacle: but Jerusalem is called Ooliba, which means my tabernacle in it. For indeed, even among the ten tribes, there was a tabernacle not of God, but of idols. For Jeroboam had set up golden calves in Dan and Bethel in order to turn the people away from the worship of God. Let us therefore speak about each. These two women, Samaria and Jerusalem, were daughters of the same mother from the lineage of Israel, and they committed adultery in Egypt during their youth. For they would not have received the Law when they were brought out of Egypt and gathered at Mount Sinai, which prohibited them from worshiping idols, unless they had worshiped Egyptian idols while in Egypt. However, the mother of both could be Chethaea, of whom we read above: Your father was Amorrhaeus, and your mother was Chethaea (Above, XVI, 3). But when it is said: Let each one remove the abominations of Egypt from his sight, it signifies that in Egypt the Israelites worshipped idols and fell there, whether their breasts of virginity were broken or not. And Samaria is said to be greater and older, either because of the multitude of the ten tribes, or because after the death of Moses from the tribe of Ephraim, Joshua the son of Nun led the people: hence we read that Jeroboam, who split them, was from the house of David (3 Kings, XII). And God had them, whether they were made by him, when they groaned from the works of Egypt, serving clay and brick. And afterwards they bore sons and daughters, either in the wilderness or in the promised land. And first Oolla, that is, Samaria, fornicated against God, when she went mad for the Assyrians, who were dressed in her hyacinth garments, not just any people, but leaders and magistrates, not those worn out by age, but all young men, chosen horsemen, from whom she followed idols and from whom she demanded help against the command of God. Those who came and defiled her, did not leave anything that she had done in her youth in Egypt. For even the Egyptians had sexual relations with her in her youth, of whom she worshiped their idols; and there, her virginity was taken and her breasts were broken. And there was such an abundance of fornication, that it is said that they did not fornicate with her, but rather poured out their own fornication upon her. Therefore, she was delivered to her lovers, Phul, Theglathphalassar, and Salmanasar, in whose lust she went mad, and they uncovered her shame, metaphorically, like that of a harlot woman (2 Kings 17 and 18, 1 Chronicles 5). However, the revelation of the city is that it is captured, and they took captive its sons and daughters, and they slaughtered it with the sword, so that it is butchered as an example for all women, and it is celebrated in a negative way by everyone's speech. Those who carried out judgments and vengeance in it, so that they left nothing of salvation in it; but to this day, ten tribes are held captive in the mountains and cities of the Medes, to which they were transferred. We have discussed more fully the allegorical meaning of Joseph, Ephraim, Samaria, Jezreel, and Israel, and how they are contrary to the house of David and Jerusalem, which signifies the Church. The psalm, which is the seventy-seventh, speaks of this: The sons of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle (Psalm 77:9). And again: He rejected the tabernacle of Joseph and chose the tribe of Judah (Ibid., 67). For God has chosen the house of confession, which is the Church, and rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, which signifies increase. They, neglecting the Law of God, added golden calves to their worship, and they are called Oolla, which means tabernacle, not of God, but of error and demons. And the elder and older sister, because of the multitude and captivity by the Assyrians, committed fornication against God, for she abandoned the truth of faith and went mad for the leaders of the heretics, who were clothed in hyacinth, promising her lofty and heavenly things; and the climbers, of whom it is said: These are in chariots, and on horses (Ps. XIX, 8), chosen sons of the Assyrians and leaders and magistrates, who promise themselves knowledge and eloquence. But he did this because he had the same fornications that he had in Egypt, that is, before he believed, and he still lived in the world, he also practiced them in heresy. And she was deflowered (or They were deflowered) by Assyrian men who persist in wickedness, whether as avengers. For our adversary, the devil himself, is an enemy and avenger (I Peter V). They shattered the breasts of Samaria; and they destroyed her virginity that she had in the Church. Therefore, they were delivered to their lovers, according to the Apostle who writes: I have delivered them to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme (I Tim. I, 20). And: I have delivered them to the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved (I Cor. V, 5). They uncovered the shame of miserable Samaria, and they displayed all its turpitude, leading captive the sons and daughters who were born to it, endowed with knowledge and deceived the simple and inexperienced, and killed it with a spiritual sword. They are celebrated in speech throughout the whole world in a negative light, and they become infamous among all the teachings of the world, so that the depravity of that woman may serve as an example for all.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel
[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 23:11-21
(Vers. 11 seqq.) When her sister Oholibah saw this, she became more wicked than her, and her desire for sexual immorality surpassed that of her sister. Shamelessly, she displayed her prostitution to the sons of Assyria, to their captains and leaders who came to her. She was dressed in various (or costly) garments, riding on horses with riders, all of them handsome young men. And I saw that both of them had defiled the same path, and they multiplied their sexual immorality. And when she saw the painted figures on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with colors, having their loins girded with belts, and their heads covered with painted turbans, in the likeness of the rulers (or of the most miserable) of the Babylonians and the land of the Chaldeans, where they were born, she was inflamed with lustful desire for them. And she sent messengers to them in Chaldea. And when the sons of Babylon came to her, to the bed of her prostitution, they defiled her with their harlotry, and she was defiled by them, and her soul turned away from them. And she uncovered her fornication and revealed her disgrace, and my soul withdrew from her as my soul withdrew from her sister. For she multiplied her fornication, remembering the days of her youth when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt. And she went crazy with desire for their lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose genitals are like the genitals of horses. And you visited the wickedness of your youth: when your breasts were conquered in Egypt, and the breasts of your puberty were broken. According to the letter, the interpretation is easy, that when Oholibah, that is, Jerusalem, in which was the tabernacle of God, saw the stripes of her sister, she was not warned by example to turn away her foot from error; but she increased her sister's prostitution. For she once made idols outside in Dan and Bethel: but she frequently worshiped the statue of Baal in the high places and in the temple of God, and fornicated with the Assyrians. But the idol of Baal, or Bel, and (to speak plainly) Belis, is the religion of the Assyrians, consecrated by Nino the son of Belis in honor of his father. And he shamelessly offered his prostitution to the Assyrians, to leaders and magistrates, who were clothed in various and multicolored garments, and to horsemen and young men who were distinguished in appearance by all. So that the prostitution of both sisters became one. And in this way Jerusalem increased its own prostitution, for seeing the images of the Chaldeans on the walls, she became crazed with desire and, deceived by their appearance and clothing, sent messengers to them, seeking help: who came and defiled her. And because pleasure is not perpetual, but quickly brings satiety: she, defiled and saturated with them, departed from their company. Therefore, even I, seeing her turpitudes and fornications made public to all, withdrew from her, so that I, who had surpassed the crimes of my sister, would also surpass her in the magnitude of punishments. Her audacity was of such great extent that she committed all the errors of her youth in a more serious age: and she indulged in Egyptian vices, even following the lusts of the Chaldeans. For he once went mad in the company of Egyptians, whose flesh resembles that of donkeys, and with such a copious flow of semen, and genitals so large, that they surpass even the deformity of horses. Nor did his wickedness cease in his youth: on the contrary, after she became mine, she returned to surpass her former lust in the desert and in the land of promise, where she was deflowered, and her breasts were broken, and all the adornment of her virginity was destroyed. Furthermore, according to tropology, it is difficult to understand how the Church conquers heretical desire unless perhaps we can say this: the servant who knows his master's will and does not do it will be beaten with many stripes (Luke 12:47); and that heretics commit unspeakable acts outside the ark, and perish in shipwreck: but those who follow true faith, if they imitate the vices of Assyria and Chaldea and follow the discolored images of sins, are worthy of greater torments. Shall we not send messengers to the Chaldeans, who interpret as if they were demons, when we open to them and offer them our breasts to be broken in the inner chamber of the mind, and having been satiated with pleasures, we pass from one to another; and not so much do we desire fornication as we desire the number of prostitutes, and we have come to such madness that after much time in the service of the Lord's day, we return to Egypt and do the things that we did in the world before we received the name of faith?

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel
[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 23:22-27
(v. 22ff.) Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side: the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and with a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments. And I will give them judgment, and they shall judge you with their judgments, and I will put my zeal in you, which they shall exercise against you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and what remains, they shall cut off with the sword. They shall take your sons and your daughters, and your last will be devoured by fire, and they shall strip you of your garments, and they shall take away the vessels of your glory. And they shall make your wickedness cease from you, and your prostitution from the land of Egypt. You shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor shall you remember Egypt anymore. LXX: Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will stir up your lovers against you, from whom your soul has turned away, and I will bring them against you from every side, the sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, mounted on horses. And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgement to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgements. And I will execute judgment in fury and anger upon them; then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I lay My vengeance upon them. Because you remembered the flesh of the Egyptians and imitated the filthiness of the unclean nation, which venerates the images of all beasts, therefore I will bring against you your lovers, with whom you were satisfied, and you departed from their covenant, so that as great as your love once was, you will be turned into such hatred. Sons, I say, of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, nobles, tyrants, and princes; for whom in Hebrew it is written, Phacud () and Sue () and Cue (), which the diverse Orientals understand, since we do not find such names either in the Book of Kings, or in the Chronicles, nor indeed in Jeremiah, who describes the captivity of Jerusalem, or in any place of the Holy Scripture. It is not surprising that the Septuagint itself used Hebrew names, since Symmachus and Theodotion also agree on the same words. They all say that the Assyrians, the horsemen, and the young men, in their distinguished form, are the leaders and magistrates, or the tristates, whom we have interpreted as the princes of princes. We read about them also in Exodus (Exod. XV, 4). The chosen ones are translated as ascensores tristatas (τριστάτας), for which Latin simplicity translates as ternos statores. But the name is sad among the Greeks, the second rank after royal dignity. About whom it is written: However, it did not reach the first three, who were the leaders of the cavalry and infantry and the tribunes ((or tributes)) (I Chronicles XII, II Kings XXIII): whom we call the magistrates of both military forces, and the prefects of the title of the annual tax. They all, he says, armed with breastplates, helmets, and shields, besieged you all around in their chariots and on their horses, and I will give them judgment, so that you will be judged by those whom you have left behind, and whose covenant you have made void: and they will judge you with their judgments as an adulteress. And I will set my zeal against you, which they will exercise with you in fury. For my zeal is among the enemies, even faith not being preserved. 'I will cut off your nose and your ears,' he says, 'like an adulteress caught in adultery, so that you may cease to please when disfigured. For just as all the beauty of the face consists in the beauty of the nose, and in the ears, from which depend the unions and the pearls in women, so the dignity of the king and the judges, which is marked in the mouth and the ears, will be cut off by their sword.' They will take your sons and daughters. 'Your sons,' he says, 'and your daughters, not mine, because they were conceived in adultery, and they will devour the rest with fire. And they will strip you of the garments with which I adorned you, and the vessels of your glory, which I granted to you, gold and silver, for use in the ceremonies of the temple, of which it is written: 'I gave them gold and silver, and they made them into Baal' (Hosea II, 8). But I will do all these things, so that your lost beauty and bewitched face may finally be at peace, and your wickedness and fornication, which you learned and practiced in Egypt, may cease. After you have lost your nose and ears, you will no longer dare to raise your eyes to the Chaldeans, nor show your ugliness to your former lovers. And you will no longer remember the lust of the Egyptians, whose indulgence in flesh you delighted in. All the things that are said about the punishment of the adulteress, and how she is disgraced because of adultery: so that she may no longer boast in her beauty, but be ashamed in her disgrace, which she has earned through the greatness of her pleasures. Whatever is said metaphorically about Jerusalem, and can be understood in reference to the soul, which, having been joined to the virtues and united to God, later adulterated them with vices and turned away from Him, and with all her crimes exposed, was uncovered, dishonored, and shown to all, so that she may desist from her wickedness to some extent: let her not boast in the dignity of her name, but rather be afraid because of her guilty conscience and remember Egypt, and dare not lift her eyes to heaven. And so his nose is cut off, and his ears are amputated, because he had turned the fragrance of good odor into a foul smell, and he had heard the judgment of blood, which we understand not only from smell and hearing, but also from sight, whereby, because they had made evil use of it, Samson and Zedekiah are deprived. Moreover, God made them deaf and dumb (Exod. IV, 11): lest their speech spread throughout the land, and every touch will be taken away from those who have completely lost their life. And let these things be done, so that everything may be purged by fire, and let the fornication of Egypt perish: nor can it any longer raise its eyes to evil.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel
[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 23:28-35
(Verse 28 and following) For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom your soul is sated. And they will deal with you in hatred, and they will take away all your labors, and they will leave you naked and full of shame, and the shame of your fornications will be revealed. Your wickedness and your fornications have done this to you, because you have prostituted yourself to the nations, among whom you have defiled yourself with their idols. You have walked in the way of your sister, and I will give her cup into your hand. Thus says the Lord God: You shall drink the deep and wide cup of your sister. You shall be a laughingstock and a mockery, a very large mock. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of mourning and sadness, the cup of your sister Samaria. And you will drink it and gulp it down to the dregs, and you will devour its fragments, and you will tear your breasts (or as the Septuagint translated: I will take away her feasts and new moons); for I have spoken, says the Lord God (Vulgate adds God). Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself also bear your wickedness and your adulteries. It is profitable for Jerusalem to have enmity against the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, and to not remember Egypt; but rather, to be delivered into their hands for punishment, those who hated her: to whom it is not given before, unless their souls are satisfied with them, so that after repenting of their old sins, then they may be cleansed with punishments, and may destroy all the works which she acquired by her harlotry: and may see her nakedness and shame; and may know that the Lord did not do all these things for her, but rather her adulteries, by which she committed adultery among the nations whom she enumerated above, so that she would worship their idols. In the streets, she says, you have walked with your sister Samaria: therefore you must drink the cup of her sins, which you have followed. However, there are many examples of the cup, which is often received for punishments and torments, among which is this: The cup in the hand of the Lord is full of mixed wine, and He poured from this into that: but its dregs were not emptied, all the sinners of the earth will drink from it (Psalm 75:8, 9). And in Isaiah it is called the cup of ruin and the goblet of fury (Isaiah 51:17). And God spoke to Jeremiah, saying: Take the cup of wine from my hand, and you shall drink to all the nations, to whom I will send you. And they shall drink, and vomit, and become mad (Jerem. XXV, 15). Just as certain purgatives are given, so that the harmful humor that is in the body may be expelled: so the Lord also gives the most bitter cup of torments, so that he may take away from sinners whatever is of gall and bitterness, and restore them to their former health. And the cup itself will be deep and wide. Deep, in the magnitude of punishment; wide, in the length of captivity. But when, he says, you have become drunk and been seized by pain, and you drink the cup even to the dregs, and you have drunk so much that you devour even the fragments of the cup itself: then you will be disgusted by your former fornication, and you will tear the breasts that were broken in Egypt, and those that were subdued and bruised by your lovers: whether I take away all your feasts and new moons, so that instead of celebration and joy, you will have eternal lamentation and sorrow. Since you have done these things, and have forgotten about me, and have cast me behind your body, or backwards, because of the sins of the body, or behind the genitals, which indicate the filthiness of shame: Therefore, you are the gate of your own wickedness and impiety, namely the punishments that you have deserved because of your impiety and wickedness. This can be understood significantly in regard to Jerusalem, which drinks the cup of her sister Samaria to the last drop, and has drunk the dregs of her torments to the very bottom.

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel
[AD 420] Jerome on Ezekiel 23:36-49
(Verse 36, 37 onwards) And the Lord said to me, saying: Son of man, do you judge Oholah and Oholibah and announce to them their crimes (or iniquities): for they are adulteresses (or have committed adultery), and there is blood on their hands, and they have committed adultery with their idols (or inventions): moreover, they have offered to devour (or have led) their sons whom they have borne to me through fire. But they have also done this to me, they have defiled my sanctuary on that day: and they have profaned my Sabbaths. And they sacrificed their sons to their idols, and entered my sanctuary on that day to defile it, and they did these things in the midst of my house. They sent messengers to men who were coming from afar, to whom they had sent a message. So behold, they have come, and you washed yourself (or, when they came, you immediately washed yourself): and you painted your eyes with antimony, and you adorned yourself with feminine beauty. You sat on a beautiful bed, and a table was set before you. You have placed my incense and my ointment upon her, and the voice of the multitude was rejoicing in her (or with a composed voice was she rejoicing); And indeed in her were brought together crowds of men, and they came from the wilderness (or drunk from the wilderness): they placed bracelets upon their hands, and most beautiful crowns upon their heads. And I said to her who was worn out with adultery: Now she will commit fornication in her own fornication even more. And they entered into it: as they would enter to a prostitute, so they entered to Oolla and Oolibah, wicked women (or to commit iniquity). Therefore, the righteous men (Vulgate inserts 'to them') shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of those who shed blood, for they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands. For thus says the Lord God: Bring upon them a multitude and deliver them to tumult and to plunder, and let them be stoned with the stones of the people, and let them be pierced with their swords; they shall kill their sons and daughters, and burn their houses with fire, and I will remove wickedness (or impiety) from the land, and all women shall learn not to commit according to their wickedness (or impiety). And they shall bring your wickedness (or impiety) upon you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols, and you shall know that I am the Lord God. As I have often mentioned, I have connected the small discrepancies in the Septuagint edition with the Hebrew text, avoiding annoyance to the reader. Therefore, it follows that one who separately described the adulteries of Samaria and Jerusalem should also announce their punishments. However, all things are said as if to adulteresses, and by way of recapitulation, their crimes are briefly presented so that the stoning of the people may justly follow according to the command of the Law towards adulteresses. (alternative reading: adulterers) Therefore, since they are adulterous, bring forth a just sentence. For they are committing adultery with idols, and there is blood on their hands, namely the blood of those they sacrificed to idols, so that they would consecrate the sons they had borne to me to demons. They did not do this outside or in the mountains and woods, as they often used to do; but in the end they defiled my temple, so that they would place a statue of Baal in it. And they profaned my Sabbaths, so that neither the place nor the time of worship would be observed among them. But they were not content with present adulteries alone, nor were they satisfied with sacrificing my sons to their idols or demons; but they also indulged in foreign pleasures, worshipping the images of the Assyrians and Chaldeans. And when they came, Oholibah, you filled the entire attire of an adulteress upon them, to wash your body, to line your eyes with antimony: to assume a feminine appearance, to sit on a bed prepared for lust, to set out feasts to restore the strength of your lovers broken by pleasure; my incense and the ointment which I had specially ordered to be made (Exodus 30), and to exterminate that soul from the people, which had wanted to do this for private use, you offered to idols; to gather a multitude of people, and to sing with every kind of music: so that you would please your lovers not only by sight, but also by hearing and smell, and all the senses, who came to you drunk: not having any urban elegance, but having the appearance of desert and solitude, resembling peasants and brigands. And you, wicked sisters, have fallen into such great madness of pleasures, that you would place your bracelets and necklaces on the hands and heads of your lovers, or even on yourselves, so that you may be defiled in full adornment. Therefore I say to you, either Jerusalem or Samaria, or both: You have burned your forehead, so that you may not be polluted in secret, and you avoid the gaze of your husbands or other men; but you are publicly prostituting yourselves like harlots, eagerly desiring to be polluted by those who enter to you like prostitutes. Therefore, I will deliver you to be punished by those to whom you have willingly submitted yourselves. For they are righteous men, who, at my command, torture adulterers and murderers. For thus says the Lord God: Gather, by the prompting of your voice, O prophet, a multitude of peoples against them, and first let all their possessions be plundered; then let them be stoned and pierced with swords, and let their sons and daughters be killed, and let their houses be burned. And all these things shall be done so that impiety may be eradicated from the earth, and all women and the entire province placed far away may learn to avoid similar punishments: so that after you have received what you deserve and have carried the crimes of your idols, then you may know that I am the Lord. However, all these things were said figuratively and under the guise of adulteresses against Samaria and Jerusalem, because they were handed over to the Assyrians and Chaldeans, led into captivity, and their cities were burned with fire: the people who worshipped the idols of demons instead of God were killed. These things can also be understood after the coming of Christ, because righteous men from the peoples of the nations themselves judge the Samaritans and the Jews by comparison with themselves, and hand them over to be devoured, to whom the Lord said (Matt. XXIII, 38): Your house shall be left to you desolate. And: When you see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, know that its desolation is near (Luke XXI, 22). For even until this day they are adulterated and are oppressed by stones from the whole world. Since they sent messengers to those who were far away, and could not say: I am a approaching God, and not a God from afar, says the Lord (Jeremiah XXIII, 23): and they prepared themselves for their beloved demons: and they turned all the worship and adornment which they had received from God as natural good, into the worship of demons, and they offered their works and adornment, which we understand as bracelets and a crown, to adulterous lovers, whose punishment is a source of fear for the nations, indeed for those among the nations who have believed, lest they suffer similar consequences if they do the same things that Samaria and Jerusalem did. Then, when they have received their crimes, the wickedness will be taken away from those by whom the veil that was placed before the face of Moses (Exod. XXXIV) has been taken away from their eyes, so that they may recognize that Jesus Christ Himself is the Lord, whom they denied to be the Son of God (II Cor. III).

Source: Commentary on Ezekiel