EZEKIEL 23:20 - flow like the flow of stallions

 

Ah, the Book of Ezekiel. The biblical prophet best known nowadays for having seen flying heavenly wheels in the sky that may or may not have been UFOs. (Et oui, I subscribe to the UFO hypothesis.)

But what if I told you that Ezekiel had seen even weirder things than wheels in the sky? And what has the horse in the picture above got to do with it? Consider that Anglophone nursery rhyme that is so insufficient for teaching the skeletal system to six-year-olds:

The toe bone's connected to the foot bone,

the foot bone's connected to the ankle bone,

And so forth. As if we only had ONE bone on each toe, ONE bone on each foot, ONE bone on each ankle, and the list goes on!!! See WHY this song is insufficient for teaching the skeletal system?

That came also from a vision of Ezekiel's. He found himself in a dry valley full of human bones and all of a sudden the bones gradually connected at their joints, like puzzle pieces falling into place, until standing before Ezekiel there was a large army of human skeletons. Then things got even scarier as the skeletons were gradually covered in organs, muscle, skin, hair, and clothing, and a full horde of zombies began to march across the Holy Land.

All right, that was one creepy vision, but where does the horse fit in?

In Chapter 23, which is (along with the Song of Songs) one of the finest pieces of Biblical erotica. There is lusting after military officers in brightly-coloured uniform (fetishism: check), bosoms fondled and nipples squeezed till they're bruised blue, a whore has her tits, ears, and nose cut off as punishment (or maybe to keep an STD from spreading?), but if you want Chapter and Verse for the most lurid detail, Ezekiel 23:20 has you covered!

Ezekiel 23:20 Which reads: "There (in Egypt) she (Judah) lusted after her lovers (in Hebrew pilagesh פִּֽלַגְשֵׁיהֶ֑ם, can be used of either male or female lovers, translated "paramours" in the King James Version), whose genitals (besar or basar בְּשַׂר־, literally flesh or physical body, translated "flesh" in the KJV) were like those of donkeys and whose emission (zirmat וְזִרְמַ֥ת, literally flow of liquid or downpour, translated "issue" in the KJV) was like that of horses." This passage gets amused reactions from non-religious readers for how easily it's taken it out-of-context.

23:20

NASB, NKJV,
NRSV"paramours"
TEV"oversexed men"
NJB"big-membered"
NIV Interlinear"genitals"
Peshitta"male organs"
REB"members"

Though it is crude to modern standards Ezekiel is suggesting

1. large penis

2. strong ejaculation

The NIV translation captures the sense well! These sexual metaphors are meant to shock and nauseate the Chosen People about their idolatry (i.e., foreign alliances). Here Ezekiel is referring, on one hand, both to political alliances between Pharaonic Egypt and the Southern Kingdom of Judah; on the other, to worship of Egyptian gods in the Southern Kingdom. Using zoophilia as a metaphor for added shock value... Often the sexual metaphors are also literal because the fertility gods of the Ancient Near East are the national gods.

Wycliffe "as the membris of horsis ben the membris of hem."

NASB, NKJV"issue of horses"

NRSV"emission of stallions"

NJB"ejaculating as violently as stallions"

CJB "who ejaculate like stallions"

LXX"members of horses"

Peshitta"whose privates are like those of horses"

JPSOA"whose organs were like those of stallions"

USCCB "whose thrusts are like those of stallions"

LSV "And the emission of horses—their emission."

MSG: "more virile, vulgar, and violent lovers - stallions obsessive in their lust."

She remembered her lover with the penis like a donkey and a flood of semen like a horse. 

This term (BDB 281, zirmat וְזִרְמַ֥ת in Hebrew) refers either to a sexually ready male organ or a powerful ejaculation. It occurs only here in the Bible. It is a hapax legomenon.

In ancient cultures, male donkeys and horses were renowned for their sexual drive in heat. As a result, they became a metaphor in that time and culture for hyperactive sexual lust. Ezekiel, or Yahweh, is using that same association, that was common in that culture, to condemn Judah's out-of-control appetite (for idolatry, for power). So he says Judah pursued Egypt's gods and/or alliances with Egypt with as much zeal as a male donkey or stallion would pursue a mate. And they lusted after Egypt's gods and/or alliances with Egypt like following a horse's issue (of semen, winkwink!). Now, that may sound worse than it is to some, because the Hebrew word for "issue" here is a feminine word for "issue" (zirmat) which refers to (this critic, Stephen Armstrong, interprets it as) the female's bodily fluid, not the male's; the mare's, the female horse's discharge of bodily fluid while in heat. And why is he referring to that? Because that is what attracts the male (the pheromones), the stallion, the male horse. This discharge that tells a male that the female of the species is in heat and ready to mate! Okay? So what the LORD is describing in Judah's case here is saying that Judah was calling as if it were to the Egyptian gods, to come her way, to come mate with her as it were, as if she were a mare in heat trying to attract a stud horse.

And in that culture they understood a stud horse to have the strongest sexual desire they'd ever seen; they'd go crazy trying to mate.

The LORD is mocking Judah, obviously, making them appear as debased as they truly were by using graphic sexual language, which has a potent impact on the listener. It's shocking. It's provocative.

"... lusted after her paramours there (in Egypt), whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose emission was like that of stallions." (Ezekiel 23:20).

“Members,” as used above, are a euphemism for penises. Concerning the seminal emission or ejaculating imagery, it is noteworthy to mention that the horse was the hieroglyph that Egyptians used for a lustful person. Verse 23:20, in the Complete Jewish Bible, states, “Yes, she lusted after their male prostitutes, whose members [genitals] are like those of donkeys and who ejaculate like stallions,” (Ezekiel 23:20, CJB).

20 She ·wanted men [lusted after lovers] ·who behaved like animals in their sexual desire [or whose genitals/L flesh were the size/L flesh of donkeys and seminal emission like that of horses]

She remembered her lover with the penis like a donkey and a flood of semen like a horse. 

Vulgate by Saint Jerome: Et insanivit libidine super concubitum eorum, quorum carnes sunt ut carnes asinorum, et sicut fluxus equorum fluxus eorum.

Hesekiel 23:20, Bibel 2000

20

och hon upptändes av begär efter vällustingarna där med kön som åsnor och säd som hingstar.

Liten förklaring: "vällustingar": älskare / "där": i Egypten / "kön": storlek på penis / "säd": mängd utlösning: en hingst har upp till 300 milliliter, tillräckligt för att fylla en genomsnittlig ölburk

Shmoop

Oholibah continues to step up her "whorings," remembering (and hold on, because this gets way gross and way disturbing) how her lovers in Egypt had penises like donkeys and ejaculations like horses.

Donkey penises??

Anyway, back to our story…

Janis Nelson

... and lusted after her paramours there (in Egypt) ("paramours" are lovers, especially the illicit partner of a married person), whose members were like those of donkeys (you're talking about a penis 14 to 18 inches in length and 5 to 10 inches in diameter; that's large!), and whose emission was like that of stallions (that is a normal ejaculation volume of 25 to 100 milliliters, but may be as great as 300 ml. Convert milliliters to ounces and that would be more than 12 oz. of semen. My goodness!). Remember In Ezekiel Chapter 16 Verse 26 Judah loved the Egyptians, her former slaveholders, who were known for their physical endowment, meaning their large penises. In Chapter 23 Ezekiel's language is coarse, but the coarse language is used to shock and to reflect Yahweh's own disgust with sin.

Now this quote by Janis Nelson about Ezekiel 16:26 in comparison actually sent me down a rabbit hole to look that passage up. There are more spots where Ezekiel 23 echoes Ezekiel 16, not only in exaggerating the penis size of Egyptians for shock value, and he even uses the same word! 

The expression used in Ezekiel 16:26 of the Egyptians is usually translated "great of flesh", including in the KJV. More modern versions have "with the great sexual organs" or "with the great genitals," "big-membered" or "well-endowed" or more freely "lustful" or "very fleshly." In the original Hebrew it is "gidley-basar" גִּדְלֵ֣י יבְּשַׂר the latter part of the term being the same euphemism we have met before for the penis in our discussions of Ezekiel 23:20, besar or basar בְּשַׂר־, literally flesh or physical body, literally translated "flesh" like in the other passage in the KJV, but with the same sense of "penis." Apparently Ezekiel used "basar"/"besar" בְּשַׂר־, as a recurring word for "penis" and the King James translators always translated this literally as "flesh".

Bibel 2000 Hesekiel 16:26

egypterna (sic), ... med stor lem, 

Biblias castellanas Ezequiel 16:26

Oso y Reina-Valera 

"los egipcios ... de cuerpos robustos" (eufemismo)

Biblias castellanas Ezequiel 23:20

Oso y Reina-Valera 

Y enamoróse de sus rufianes (los de Egipto), cuya carne es como carne de asnos; y cuyo fluxo, como fluxo de cauallos.

(La palabra aquí traducida "carne" es la que se tradujo "cuerpo" en el pasaje anterior para referirse literalmente al pene en el texto origen en ambos casos).

12 ounces/300 milliliters is enough to fill your standard aluminium can! Imagine a can like that filled with you-know-what, from a horse or human I don't care!

This passage also conjures up imagery of the "lovers" or "paramours" in question as powerful centaurs, humanoid from the waist upwards and equine from the waist downwards. Sure enough, lots of warrior centaurs appear in this period in both Mesopotamian boundary stones, steles that marked the limits of provinces, and Greek mythology, where the average male centaur is, with a few exceptions (I am looking at you, Chiron), a potent creature driven by basic instincts like an intense thirst for strong drink and an intense sexual drive for human maidens, barely able to control these instinctive impulses (which led to, for instance, the infamous Centauromachy). Riding in and of itself is an act not bereft of sexual innuendo either ("monter" in French, "montar" or "cabalgar" in Spanish, "at ride" in Danish... can mean either to ride or to have sexual intercourse). 

Also, the horses or jackasses are referred to as the powerful forces as well as the military of the kingdoms of Egypt and Assyria.

The reader understands that Yahweh hated the weakness of the Israelites so much that He chose to use gross imagery along with a metaphorical description to highlight their disgrace and their idol worship.

Ezekiel Chapter 23 is not commonly used in churches. Hence remains unknown to most Christians. A few literary devices used in Ezekiel 23:20 are given below.

Imagery – The verse uses extensive and lewd imagery to describe a woman doing an illicit act with a male whose body parts are compared to a donkey and a horse.

Metaphor – The verse is also a good example of metaphor as the prophet Ezekiel compares male intimate body parts with a donkey’s "flesh." (winkwink)

Daniel Block: The strength of Yahweh’s passion over Oholibah’s conduct is reflected in the shocking portrayal of the third phase of her whoredoms. Now she has come full circle. As she recalls her youth in Egypt, the mature woman’s addiction takes her back to where it all began, only with intensified energy. The obscenity of the description accords with the unrestrained prurience of Oholibah’s actions.

Constable: She lusted after the Egyptians that pursued her like donkeys and horses in heat (cf. Jer. 2:24; 5:8; 13:27). Donkeys and horses were proverbial for their strong sexual drive (cf. Jer. 2:24; 5:8; 13:27), and the Lord used these animals as a figure for the Egyptians’ potency that attracted the Israelites.1 Judah returned to her old lover, namely, Egypt.

Lamar Cooper: Judah’s political prostitution was presented in explicit sexual terminology. This idolatry produced the same revulsion by the Judaeo-Christian God that prompted him to annihilate their forefathers in the wilderness (Sinai Desert) for the worship of the gods of Egypt (v. 21; Exod 32:11–18). Judah lusted for her lovers whose “genitals were like those of donkeys, and whose emission was like that of horses” (v. 20). These proverbial phrases were intended to show divine contempt for those attracted by the military power portrayed by reference to sexual potency.

Leslie Allen: vv. 19-21 —The coarseness of the description in v 20 leaves no doubt that for Ezekiel and his God the political alliance stank.

The trope is exemplified in the TV Tropes page of Ezekiel as an example of Bigger is Better in Bed. As it contrasts foreign, darker, Othered pagan goyim's/nations' Egyptian gods' "flesh/member like that of donkeys and flow like that of horses" with Yahweh's smaller male member, it won't be hard to disagree that this is also an explicit example of Black is Bigger in Bed (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackIsBiggerInBed), similar to Iago's portrayal's of Othello as a beastly "stud muffin" aggressively riding or tupping the pristine human Desdemona (Othello as "black ram" and "black Barbary horse"). Done right, portrayals of interracial relationships can be wonderful, like in the case of Othello and Desdemona (it is, after all, the villain Iago and his henchman Roderigo in whose mouths we can find all the racist ranting), but you have to tread a fine line in this balancing act. Or you might screw up like the creators of this Vogue cover, where a howling NBA superstar LeBron James, the first black man ever to grace the cover of Vogue, cradles blonde German Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen in a way so reminiscent of King Kong with Fay Wray that the magazine went viral. There you have the blonde bombshell held aloft by the brutish "ape," and even though Gisele is portrayed as having fun instead of terrified, the iconography of Hollywood about both the "stud muffin" stereotype and King Kong sends a crystal clear subject matter:

Should have been called APE ISSUE?

Or maybe... Read below! RAPE ISSUE?

Eighteenth-century Westerners believed that large male apes, whether orangutans on Borneo or gorillas in Sub-Saharan Africa, carried off native human maidens from their villages into the jungles and raped them, reproducing and giving rise to the next generation of apes; these apes, for generations, had human blood in their veins, in other words. This was long before Darwin, and people like Thomas Jefferson, infamous for having affairs and illegitimate half-blood children with female slaves of African descent that he owned, subscribed to this notorious ape-rape theory.

In the twentieth century, post-Darwin, we had chimp testicle implants into impotent human males' scrota (there were also goat testicle implants, that became a boom or bubble in the US), and even the theoretical possibility (still held by some) of the humanzee, a human-chimp hybrid.

Still today, this mag cover is a hot potato. Hope we have learned our lesson and shy away from such iconography in mass media nowadays and in the future.

PS. A Black is Bigger in Bed joke from the animated series Family Guy: On the right we see the white marble Washington Monument, famous real-life obelisk in Washington DC. On the left we see a fictional, non-existant but larger obelisk, the so-called Obama Monument, the same shape but way larger in size and made of black marble. The phallic innuendo is obvious.