Ezekiel 23

1 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2 “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother,

3 and they played in Egypt, prostituting themselves from their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their virgin bosoms caressed.

4 The older was named Oholah, and her sister was named Oholibah. They became Mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their identities, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

5 Oholah prostituted herself while she was still Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors

6 clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all desirable young men, horsemen mounted on steeds.

7 She offered sexual favors to all the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of those for whom she lusted.

8 She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her.

9 Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted.

10 They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and put her to the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgment against her.

11 Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister.

12 She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors dressed in splendor, horsemen riding on steeds, all desirable young men.

13 And I saw that she too had defiled herself; both of them had taken the same path.

14 But Oholibah carried her prostitution even further. She saw the men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, engraved in vermilion,

15 wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.

16 At the sight of them, she lusted for them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

17 Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. But after she had been defiled by them, she turned away in disgust.

18 When Oholibah openly prostituted herself and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister.

19 Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt

20 and lusted after their lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions.

21 So you revisited the indecency of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your bosom and pressed your young breasts.

22 Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will incite your lovers against you, those from whom you turned away in disgust. And I will bring them against you from every side—

23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them—all desirable young men, governors and commanders, officers and men of renown, mounted on horses.

24 They will come against you with a host of peoples, with weapons, chariots, and wagons. They will array themselves against you on every side with buckler and shield and helmet. I will delegate judgment to them, and they will punish you according to their own standards.

25 And I will set My jealous rage against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and ears, and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and daughters, and your remnant will be consumed by fire.

26 They will strip off your clothes and take your fine jewelry.

27 So I will put an end to your indecency and prostitution, which began in the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’

28 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Surely I will deliver you into the hands of those you hate, from whom you turned away in disgust.

29 They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity

30 have brought these things upon you, because you have prostituted yourself with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.

31 Because you have followed the path of your sister, I will put her cup into your hand.’

32 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, a cup deep and wide. It will bring scorn and derision, for it holds so much.

33 You will be filled with drunkenness and grief, with a cup of devastation and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria.

34 You will drink it and drain it; you will dash it to pieces, and tear your breasts. For I have spoken,’ declares the Lord GOD.

35 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your indecency and prostitution.’”

36 Then the LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you pass judgment against Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.

37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols.

38 They have also done this to Me: On that very same day, they defiled My sanctuary and profaned My Sabbaths.

39 On the very day they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary to profane it. Yes, they did this inside My house.

40 Furthermore, you sisters sent messengers for men who came from afar; and behold, when they arrived, you bathed for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with jewelry.

41 You sat on a couch of luxury with a table spread before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil,

42 accompanied by the sound of a carefree crowd. Drunkards were brought in from the desert along with men from the rabble, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your head.

43 Then I said of her who had grown old in adulteries: ‘Now let them use her as a prostitute, for that is all she is!’

44 And they slept with her as with a prostitute; they slept with Oholah and Oholibah, those lewd women.

45 But righteous men will sentence them to the punishment of those who commit adultery and bloodshed, because they are adulteresses with blood on their hands.

46 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Bring a mob against them and consign them to terror and plunder.

47 The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.

48 So I will put an end to indecency in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your behavior.

49 They will repay you for your indecency, and you will bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.’”

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 ¶ Therefore, 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.

1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying:

2 Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother.

3 They committed fornication in Egypt in their youth: there they made their breasts to be grasped, and the teats of their virginity to be felt.

4 The name of the great one is Ahalah, and her sister's name is Ahalibah. And I took them in marriage, and they begat me sons and daughters. And Ahalah's name is Samaria, and Ahalibah's name is Jerusalem.

5 And Ahalah committed fornication when I had taken her, and burned against her lovers, even against the Assyrians that came unto her,

6 Against the princes, and against the lords clothed in silk, and against all the young lovelies, even against the horsemen and chariots.

7 And booed with all the fair fellows of Assyria, and defiled herself with all their idols, where she burned upon one.

8 Neither forsook she her fornication with Egypt, which had lain with her from her youth, and had touched the breasts of her virginity, and had committed great fornication with her.

9 And I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, the children of Assyria, against whom she burned with lust.

10 And they uncovered their shame, and took away their sons and their daughters, and slew them with the sword. And it came to pass, that these women were punished.

11 And when Ahalibah her sister saw it, she was more enraged than she, and did more fornication than her sister.

12 And she burned against the children of Assyria, namely, the princes and the lords that came unto her well clothed, horsemen and chariots, and all the young men that were lovely.

13 And I saw that they were both defiled alike.

14 But this woman did more fornication. For there she saw painted men on the wall in red paint, the images of the Chaldeans,

15 Girded about their loins, and coloured tapers upon their heads, and all like unto mighty men to look upon, as the children of Babylon and the Chaldeans bear in their fatherland,

16 And she was aroused against them as soon as she knew them, and sent tidings unto them into Chaldea.

17 And when the children of Babylon came unto her to lie with her after love, they defiled her with their fornication, and she defiled herself with them, that she was weary of them.

18 And when both their fornication and their shame were so manifest, I was weary of them also, as I had been weary of their sister.

19 And she committed her whoredom more and more, and remembered the days of her youth, when she committed whoredom in the land of Egypt,

20 And they burned against their lovers, whose heat was as the heat of the ass, and as the heat of the stallions.

21 And thou hast appointed thy fornication as in thy youth, when they that were in Egypt took hold of thy breasts, and touched thy teats.

22 Therefore, O Ahalibah, thus saith the LORD GOD; Behold, I will raise up against thee thine enemies, of whom thou art weary, and will bring them against thee round about,

23 Namely, the children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans with captains, and princes, and lords, and all the Assyrians with them, and the fair young men, and all the princes, and lords, and knights, and nobles, and all manner of horsemen.

24 And they shall come upon thee armed with chariots, and with wheels, and with a great multitude of people, and shall besiege thee with shields, and with bucklers, and with helmets round about. And I will give them judgment, and they shall judge thee according to their judgment.

25 I will bring my zeal upon thee, and they shall deal unmercifully with thee. They shall cut off thy noses and ears; and that which remaineth shall fall by the sword. They shall take away thy sons and thy daughters, and burn the remnant with fire.

26 And they shall strip thee of thy garments, and take away thy jewels.

27 So will I make an end of thy fornication and thy whoredom with the land of Egypt, and thou shalt lift up thine eyes unto them no more, neither shalt thou remember Egypt any more.

28 For thus saith the LORD GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee up to them of whom thou art an enemy, and of whom thou art weary.

29 They shall deal with thee as enemies, and take away all that thou hast gotten, and leave thee naked and bare, that thy shame may be exposed, with thy fornication and thy whoredom.

30 This shall be done unto thee for thy whoredom, which thou hast committed with the heathen, in whose idols thou hast defiled thyself.

31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister: therefore I also give thee the same cup in thine hand.

32 Thus saith the LORD GOD; Thou shalt drink thy sister's cup, deep and wide; thou shalt become such a mockery and a scorn, that it shall be unbearable.

33 Thou must drink thyself full of strong drink and mourning: for the cup of thy sister Samaria is a cup of mourning and grief.

34 Thou shalt drink the same clean, and afterward shalt cast the fragments thereof, and rend thy breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the LORD GOD.

35 Therefore thus saith the LORD GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me, and hast cast me behind thy back, bear now thy fornication and thy whoredom.

36 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, if thou wilt punish Ahalah and Ahalibah, shew them their abominations,

37 How they have committed adultery, and shed blood, and committed adultery with idols, and burned their children, which they begat of me, for a sacrifice unto them.

38 For these things have they done unto me: they have polluted my sanctuaries at that time, and have profaned my sabbaths.

39 For when they had slain their children to idols, they entered into my sanctuary the same day to profane it. Behold, they have done this in my house.

40 They also sent messengers for men that should come from far countries: and, behold, when they were come, thou wast bathed, and made up, and adornedst thyself with jewels, in honour of them,

41 And thou satest upon a glorious bed, before which was a table prepared: thereon thou didst burn incense, and didst offer my oil thereon.

42 And there was a great shout of joy: and they gave to the people that were come from every part of the great people, and from the wilderness, jewels for their arms, and beautiful crowns for their heads.

43 And I said, She is accustomed to adultery of old, she cannot leave off her fornication.

44 For one goeth in unto her, as one goeth in unto a harlot: so goeth one in unto Ahalah and Ahalibah, the lewd women.

45 Therefore they shall punish the men that execute judgment, as adulteresses and bloodshedters shall be punished: for they are adulteresses, and their hands are full of blood.

46 Thus saith the LORD GOD; Bring up a great multitude upon them, and give them into rapine and robbery,

47 Who stone them, and stab them with their swords, and slay their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire.

48 So will I make an end of fornication in the land, and all the women shall be offended at it, and shall not do after such fornication.

49 And they shall lay your fornication upon you, and ye shall bear the sin of your idols, that ye may know that I am the LORD GOD.