Ezekiel 23:1-23 ▼

1 And the word came of YHWH to me, saying:

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

3 And they acted as prostitutes in Egypt; in their youth they were prostitutes; there were squeezed their breasts, and there were pressed the nipples of their virginity.

4 And their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. And they were unto Me, and they gave birth to sons and daughters. And their names—Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

5 And Oholah prostituted herself under Me, and she lusted over her lovers, toward Assyria, warriors

6 clothed in purple, governors and commanders, young men of desire all of them, horsemen riding on horses.

7 And she gave her prostitutions with them, choice men of Assyria, all of them; and with all for whom she lusted, with all their idols she defiled herself.

8 And her prostitutions from Egypt she has not left behind; for they had lain with her in her youth, and they pressed the nipples of her virginity, and poured out their lust upon her.

9 Therefore I have given her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the sons of Assyria, for whom she lusted.

10 They have uncovered her nakedness; her sons and daughters they took away, and with the sword they slew her. And she has become a byword among the women, and they executed when judgment against her.

11 And her sister Oholibah saw this, and in her lust she became corrupt above her, and her prostitutions were more than the prostitution of her sister.

12 She lusted after the sons of Assyria—governors and commanders, warriors clothed in perfection, horsemen riding on horses, young men of desire all of them.

13 And I saw that she was defiled; one way is unto the two of them,

14 and she had added to her prostitutions, and she looked at men portrayed on the wall, images of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,

15 girded with belts around their loins, turbans flowing on their heads, with the appearance of officers all of them, in the likeness of the sons of Babylon, Chaldea the land of their origin.

16 And she lusted for them at the seeing of her eyes, and she sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

17 And the sons of Babylon came to her, into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their lust; and she was defiled by them, and she dislocated her soul from them.

18 And she uncovered her prostitutions, and she uncovered her nakedness, and I dislocated My soul from her, as I had dislocated My soul from her sister.

19 And she multiplied her prostitutions, to remember the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt,

20 and lusted after their lovers, for whom the flesh of donkeys is the flesh, and the emission of stallions was their emission.

21 And you revisited the wickedness of your youth, in the pressing by the Egyptians of your nipples, on account of the breasts of your youth.

22 Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘Behold, I am stirring up your lovers against you, from whom you have dislocated your soul, and I will bring them against you from all around:

23 The sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, all the sons of Assyria with them—young men of desire, governors and commanders all of them, officers and renowned ones, all of them riding on horses.