Ezekiel 23:1-49
23 And Jehovah’s word came to me
2 “Man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother,
3 and they prostituted themselves in Egypt, did it in their girlhood; there their breasts were squeezed, and there people handled their maiden nipples;
4 and their names were, the elder Oholah and her sister Oholibah. And they became mine and had sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
5 “And Oholah prostituted herself while she belonged to me, and doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians,
6 * courtiers dressed in violet, governors and viceroys, desirable young men all of them, horsemen, pony-riders,
7 and spent her prostitution on them, all of them the choicest of the sons of Assyria; and whomever she doted on, with all their fetishes she defiled herself.
8 And her prostitution toward Egypt she did not quit, because they had lain with her in her girlhood and it had been they that handled her maiden nipples and poured out their debauchery on her.
9 So I gave her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of Assyria on whom she had doted;
10 they bared her nudity, took her sons and daughters, and her they killed with the sword; and she became notorious among women, and they did justice on her.
11 “And her sister Oholibah saw it, and doted more depravedly than she, and prostituted herself more depravedly than her sister.
12 ** She doted on the sons of Assyria, governors and viceroys, courtiers dressed in robes of figured cloth, horsemen, pony-riders, desirable young men all of them.
13 And I saw that she behaved uncleanly; they both used the same road.
14 And she added to her prostitution, and saw men drawn on the wall, pictures of Chaldeans drawn in vermilion,
15 belted with loincloths round their waists, bonneted with turbans over their heads, all of them knights in aspect, the likeness of the sons of Babylon, Chaldea their native country,
16 and she doted on them at sight and sent messengers to Chaldea to them;
17 and the sons of Babylon came in to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their debaucheries, and she was unclean by them and was disgusted with them;
18 and her debaucheries were exposed and her nudity bared, and I was disgusted with her as I had been with her sister.
19 And she increased her prostitution, remembering her girlhood days, how she had prostituted herself in Egypt;
20 and she doted on their paramours, whose organs are donkeys’ organs and their secretion ponies’ secretion.
21 And you turned your mind to your girlhood lewdness, when Egypt handled your nipples, squeezing your breasts.
22 “So, Oholibah, the Lord Jehovah says, Here I am stirring up your lovers against you, those with whom you are disgusted, and bringing them against you on all sides:
23 * the sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoaʽ and Koaʽ, all the sons of Assyria with them, desirable young men, governors and viceroys all of them, knights and courtiers, pony-riders all of them;
24 * and against you will come steed, chariot, and wheel, and in an assemblage of peoples they will set shield and buckler and helmet against you on all sides; and I will empower them to judge, and they will judge you on their own principles.
25 And I will bring my jealousy down on you, and they shall deal irefully with you: your nose and ears they shall take off, and the last of you shall fall by the sword; they shall take your sons and daughters, and the last of you shall be consumed by fire;
26 and they shall strip you of your garments and take your regalia.
27 * And I will stop you from your lewdness, and your prostitution out of Egypt, and you shall not raise your eyes to them nor remember Egypt again.
28 “For the Lord Jehovah says, Here I am giving you into the hands of those you hate and of those with whom you are disgusted,
29 * and they shall deal with you in hatred and take all your acquisitions and leave you naked and bare, and your nudity of debauchery and lewdness and prostitution shall be exposed.
30 * The doing of these things to you is for your prostituting yourself to follow heathen nations, inasmuch as you were defiled with their fetishes.
31 You went your sister’s way and I will put her cup in your hand.
32 “Says the Lord Jehovah, Your sister’s deep cup and broad you shall drink; it will be for laughter and jeers, holding much.
33 You shall be filled with drunkenness and grief, a cup of horror and stupefaction, your sister’s cup;
34 and you shall drink it dry and finish off the heel-taps of it, and tear your breasts, because I have spoken, quoth the Lord Jehovah.
35 “So the Lord Jehovah says, Since you have forgotten me and thrown me behind your back, carry your lewdness and prostitution, you too!”
36 * And Jehovah said to me “Man, go into court with Oholah and Oholibah and state to them all their abominations:
37 that they have committed adultery, and they have blood on their hands; and with their fetishes they have committed adultery, and their children that they had borne to me they have sent over for food for them.
38 This in addition they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary and profaned my sabbaths,
39 and at their slaughtering their children for their fetishes they came into my sanctuary that day, profaning it; here they have done such things right in my house.
40 And also that they send to men coming from a distance, such as come the moment a messenger is sent to them, for whom you, madam, bathe and put antimony round your eyes and bejewel yourself
41 ** and sit on a nicely spread bed with a fully set table before it on which you have placed my incense and oil
42 ** and which has about it the uproar of a crowd enjoying itself in comfort; and to men from nearby, Edom, roisterers brought in from a wilderness, and they have put bracelets on the women’s hands and magnificent coronets on their heads.
43 * And I said ‘They have exhausted the possibilities of adultery; they practiced prostitution like professionals,
44 and men went in to them as one does to any prostitute, went in in the same way to Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women.
45 And they are fair dealers, they will execute on them the sentence due to women who commit adultery and shed blood, because adulteresses they are and they have blood on their hands.’”
46 * For the Lord Jehovah says, It is a case for raising an assembly against them and giving them up to victimization and plunder;
47 and they will unite to stone them and will cut them up with their swords, will kill their children and burn down their houses,
48 * and I will put a stop to lewdness in the country, and all women will take a lesson and not commit the like of their lewdness.
49 And I will bring your lewdness down on you, and you shall bear the sins of your fetishes and know that I am Jehovah.
Footnotes
^ 23:6 (courtiers) Unc.
^ 23:12 (courtiers) Unc.
^ 23:12 Conj. dressed in violet
^ 23:23 (courtiers) Unc.
^ 23:24 Lit. I will put judgment before them
^ 23:27 Lit. will stop your lewdness from you
^ 23:29-30 Var. your nudity of debauchery shall be exposed. Your lewdness and prostitution have done these things to you, in that you prostituted yourself to
^ 23:30 Var. nations and being defiled (or nations and were defiled)
^ 23:36 Codd. Man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? then state
^ 23:41 Var. a gorgeous bed
^ 23:41 Codd. and with my incense and oil laid on it (lit. and my incense and oil you have placed on it, the word it referring to the bed, not the table)
^ 23:42 Susp.
^ 23:42 Codd. to men brought out of great numbers of humankind, roisterers
^ 23:43 (exhausted the possibilities of) Unc.; susp.
^ 23:46 Lit. says, Raising
^ 23:48 Or in the earth
