Ezekiel 23

¹The word of Jehovah came to me again, saying:

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

³and they committed fornication in Egypt; in their youth they committed fornication. There they allowed their breasts to be pressed, and their virgin teats to be handled.

⁴Their names were Aholah, the elder, and Aholibah, her sister; and they became mine, and bore sons and daughters; as to their names, moreover, Aholah is Samaria, and Aholibah, Jerusalem.

⁵And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians, her neighbors

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

⁷Thus she committed fornication with them, with all the choice young men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted; with all their idols she defiled herself.

⁸Neither forsook she her whoredoms brought from Egypt; for they lay with her in her youth, and handled the breasts of her virginity, and poured their fornication upon her.

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

¹⁰These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword; and she became famous among women, when they had executed judgment upon her.

¹¹And her sister, Aholibah, saw this, but she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.

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

¹³Then I saw that she was defiled; that they both took one way.

¹⁴But she added to her whoredoms; for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, images of Chaldaeans portrayed with vermilion,

¹⁵girded with girdles upon their loins, and having long mitres hanging down from their heads, in their appearance all of them princes, after the manner of the sons of Babylon, of Chaldaea, the land of their nativity;

¹⁶and as soon as she cast her eyes upon them, she doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldaea.

¹⁷And the sons of Babylon came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredoms, and she was polluted with them. She then became alienated from them.

¹⁸So she discovered her fornications, and discovered her nakedness. Then my mind was alienated from her, as it had been alienated from her sister.

¹⁹For she multiplied her whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she played the harlot in the land of Egypt;

²⁰for she doted on their paramours, whose members were as the members of asses, and whose issue was as the issue of horses.

²¹Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, when thy teats were handled by the Egyptians, on account of the paps of thy youth.

²²Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up against thee thy lovers, from whom thou art alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side,

²³the Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans, prefects, rich men, and nobles, and all the Assyrians with them, all of them desirable young men, prefects and rulers, captains and men of renown, all of them riding upon horses.

²⁴And they shall come against thee with arms, chariots and wheels, and with hosts of people; with buckler and shield and helmet shall they set themselves against thee on every side. And I will commit to them judgment, and they shall punish thee according to their punishments.

²⁵And 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 posterity shall fall by the sword. They shall take away thy sons and thy daughters, and thy posterity shall be consumed with fire.

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

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

²⁸For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thou art alienated.

²⁹And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and take away all the fruits of thy labor from thee, and shall leave thee naked and bare; and thy nakedness shall be uncovered, with which thou hast committed lewdness and fornication and foul whoredom.

³⁰These things will I do to thee, because thou hast committed whoredom with the nations, and hast been polluted with their idols.

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

³²Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup, which is deep and large; it shall make thee a laughing-stock and a derision, for it containeth much.

³³Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. A cup of astonishment and amazement is the cup of thy sister Samaria.

³⁴Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and lick the sherds, and thou shalt tear thy breasts. For I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah.

³⁵Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

³⁶Moreover, Jehovah said to me, Son of man, punish Aholah and Aholibah; yea, declare to them their abominations;

³⁷that they have committed adultery, and blood is upon their hands, and that with their idols they have committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them for food.

³⁸This also have they done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

³⁹For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came into my sanctuary the same day to profane it; behold, thus have they done in my house.

⁴⁰Yea, ye sent for men to come from afar; messengers were sent to them, and behold, they came; for them didst thou wash thyself, and paint thine eyes, and deck thyself with ornaments.

⁴¹And thou didst seat thyself upon a stately bed before which a table was prepared, and thereon didst thou set my incense and my oil.

⁴²Also the voice of a multitude at ease was with her; and together with men from the common multitude were brought deep-drinkers from the desert, who put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.

⁴³Then said I concerning her that was worn out with adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, even with her?

⁴⁴They went in to her, as men go to a harlot; so went they in to Aholah and to Aholibah, the lewd women.

⁴⁵But righteous men shall judge them, as adulteresses are judged, and as women that shed blood are judged; for they are adulteresses, and blood is upon their hands.

⁴⁶For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will bring a great company against them, and will give them up to be harassed and spoiled,

⁴⁷and the company shall stone them with stones, and cut them in pieces with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire.

⁴⁸Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may take warning, and not follow them in their lewdness.

⁴⁹And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols; that ye may know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

Ezekiel 23

¹The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,

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

³And 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.

⁴And 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.

⁵And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,

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

⁷Thus 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.

⁸Neither 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.

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

¹⁰These 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.

¹¹And 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.

¹²She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.

¹³Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,

¹⁴And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,

¹⁵Girded 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:

¹⁶And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

¹⁷And 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.

¹⁸So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.

¹⁹Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

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

²¹Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

²²Therefore, 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;

²³The 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.

²⁴And 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.

²⁵And 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.

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

²⁷Thus 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.

²⁸For 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:

²⁹And 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.

³⁰I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.

³¹Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.

³²Thus 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.

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

³⁴Thou 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.

³⁵Therefore 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.

³⁶The Lord said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations;

³⁷That 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.

³⁸Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

³⁹For 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.

⁴⁰And 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,

⁴¹And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.

⁴²And 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.

⁴³Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?

⁴⁴Yet 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.

⁴⁵And 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.

⁴⁶For thus saith the Lord God; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.

⁴⁷And 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.

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

⁴⁹And 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.