Ezekiel 23:1-13 ▼

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

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

3 And they committed whoredom in Egypt in their youth; there were their breasts fondled, there was their virginity broken.

4 And the name of the elder was Ahlah, and the name of the younger was Ahlibah; and they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus were their names: Samaria is Ahlah and Jerusalem is Ahlibah.

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

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

7 Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all the chosen men of Assyria and with all on whom she doted; with all their idols she defiled herself.

8 Neither did she leave the whoredoms which she had committed in Egypt; for in her youth they defiled her and they broke her virginity and poured out their whoredom upon her.

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

10 These uncovered her nakedness; they carried away her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword; and she became a byword among women; for her paramours had executed judgment upon her.

11 And when her sister Ahlibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her excessive lust than she, and her whoredoms were more than the whoredoms of her sister.

12 She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbors, lords and captains clothed with blue, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

13 Then I saw that the ways of both of them were defiled.