²² When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Do you come in peace, Jehu?”

He answered, “What peace can there be as long as there is so much prostitution and sorcery from your mother Jezebel?” ^(A)

¹⁵ “‘But you trusted in your beauty and acted like a prostitute because of your fame.^(A) You lavished your sexual favors on everyone who passed by.^(B) Your beauty became his.^[a]

The Two Immoral Sisters

23 The word of the Lord came to me again: ² “Son of man, there were two women,^(A) daughters of the same mother, ³ who acted like prostitutes in Egypt,^(B) behaving promiscuously in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their virgin nipples caressed. ⁴ The older one was named Oholah,^[a] and her sister was Oholibah.^[b] They became mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah represents Samaria and Oholibah represents Jerusalem.

⁵ “Oholah acted like a prostitute even though she was mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians:^(C) warriors ⁶ dressed in blue, governors and prefects, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on steeds. ⁷ She offered her sexual favors to them; all of them were the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all those she lusted after and with all their idols. ⁸ She didn’t give up her promiscuity that began in Egypt,^(D) when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin nipples, and poured out their lust on her. ⁹ Therefore, I handed her over to her lovers,^(E) the Assyrians she lusted for. ¹⁰ They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. Since they executed judgment against her, she became notorious among women.

¹¹ “Now her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was even more depraved in her lust than Oholah, and made her promiscuous acts worse than those of her sister.^{(F) 12} She lusted after the Assyrians:^(G) governors and prefects, warriors splendidly dressed, horsemen riding on steeds, all of them desirable young men. ¹³ And I saw that she had defiled herself; both of them had taken the same path. ¹⁴ But she increased her promiscuity when she saw male figures carved on the wall,^(H) images of the Chaldeans, engraved in bright red,^{(I) 15} wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers, a depiction of the Babylonians in Chaldea, their native land. ¹⁶ At the sight of them^[c] she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.^{(J) 17} Then the Babylonians came to her,^(K) to the bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. But after she was defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust. ¹⁸ When she flaunted her promiscuity and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust just as I turned away from her sister.^{(L) 19} Yet she multiplied her acts of promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth when she acted like a prostitute in the land of Egypt ²⁰ and lusted after their lovers, whose sexual members^[d] were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. ²¹ So you revisited the depravity of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your nipples to enjoy your youthful breasts.^(M)

³ Then he carried me away in the Spirit^[a](A) to a wilderness.

I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered^[b] with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.^{(B) 4} The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls.^(C) She had a golden cup in her hand filled with everything detestable^(D) and with the impurities of her^[c] prostitution. ⁵ On her forehead was written a name, a mystery:^(E) Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Detestable Things of the Earth. ⁶ Then I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses to Jesus.^(F) When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.