Ezequiel 23

¹ The word of LORD came again to me, saying,

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

³ And they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth. There their breasts were pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.

⁴ And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. And they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

⁵ And Oholah played the harlot when she was mine, and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians [her] neighbors,

⁶ who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

⁷ And she bestowed her whoredoms upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them. And on whomever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.

⁸ Neither has she left her whoredoms since Egypt. For in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity, and they poured out their whoredom upon her.

⁹ Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

¹⁰ These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. And she became a byword among women, for they executed judgments upon her.

¹¹ And her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her whoredoms which were more than the whoredoms of her sister.

¹² She doted upon the Assyrians, governors and rulers, [her] neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.

¹³ And I saw that she was defiled. They both took one way.

¹⁴ And she increased her whoredoms, for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

¹⁵ girded with belts upon their loins, with flowing turbans upon their heads, all of them rulers to look upon, according to the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their nativity.

¹⁶ And as soon as she saw them she doted upon them, and sent messengers to 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 soul was alienated from them.

¹⁸ So she uncovered her whoredoms, and uncovered her nakedness. Then my soul was alienated from her, just as my soul was alienated from her sister.

¹⁹ Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, remembering the days of her youth in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

²⁰ And she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

²¹ Thus thou called to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in the handling of thy bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of thy youth.

²² Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says lord LORD: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul 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, desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, rulers and men of renown, all of them riding upon horses.

²⁴ And they shall come against thee with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples. They shall set themselves against thee with buckler and shield and helmet round about. And I will commit the judgment to them, and

²⁵ And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal with thee in fury. They shall take away thy nose and thine ears, and thy residue shall fall by the sword. They shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy residue shal

²⁶ They shall also strip thee of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.

²⁷ Thus I will make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom from the land of Egypt, so that thou shall not lift up thine eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.

²⁸ For thus says lord LORD: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of those whom thou hate, into the hand of those from whom thy soul is alienated.

²⁹ And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare. And the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

³⁰ These things shall be done to thee, because thou have played the harlot after the nations, and because thou are polluted with their idols.

³¹ Thou have walked in the way of thy sister, therefore I will give her cup into thy hand.

³² Thus says lord LORD: Thou shall drink of thy sister's cup, which is deep and large. Thou shall be laughed to scorn and had in derision. It contains much.

³³ Thou shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

³⁴ Thou shall even drink it and drain it out. And thou shall gnaw the shards of it, and shall tear thy breasts, for I have spoken it, says lord LORD.

³⁵ Therefore thus says lord LORD: Because thou have forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore thou also bear thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

³⁶ LORD said moreover to me, Son of man, will thou judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.

³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. And with their idols they have committed adultery. And they have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through [the fire] for them to be devoured.

³⁸ Moreover they have done this to me: They have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.

³⁹ For when they had slain their sons to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it, and, lo, thus they have done in the midst of my house.

⁴⁰ And furthermore ye have sent for men who come from far, to whom a messenger was sent. And, lo, they came, for whom thou washed thyself, painted thine eyes, and decked thyself with ornaments,

⁴¹ and sat upon a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon thou did set my incense and my oil.

⁴² And the voice of a multitude being at ease was with her. And with men of the common sort, were brought drunkards from the wilderness, and they put bracelets upon the hands of those [two women], and beautiful crowns upon their heads

⁴³ Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, Now they will play the harlot with her, and she [with them].

⁴⁴ And they went in to her, as they go in to a harlot. So they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.

⁴⁵ And righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.

⁴⁶ For thus says lord LORD: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed to and fro and robbed.

⁴⁷ And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords. They shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

⁴⁸ Thus I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do according to 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 lord LORD.