¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, ^(A)you are about to lie down with your fathers; and ^(B)this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and ^(C)will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.

The Polluted Land

³ and they played the harlot in Egypt. They ^(A)played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and there their virgin bosom was handled. ⁴ Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

⁵ “Oholah played the harlot ^[a]while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the ^(B)Assyrians, her neighbors, ⁶ who were clothed in purple, ^(C)governors and officials, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. ⁷ She bestowed her harlotries on them, all of whom were the choicest ^[b]men of Assyria; and with all whom she lusted after, with all their idols she ^(D)defiled herself. ⁸ She did not forsake her harlotries ^(E)from the time in Egypt; for in her youth ^[c]men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their ^[d]lust on her. ⁹ Therefore, I gave her into the hand of her ^(F)lovers, into the hand of the ^[e]Assyrians, after whom she lusted. ¹⁰ They ^(G)uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, but they slew her with the sword. Thus she became a ^[f]byword among women, and they executed judgments on her.

¹¹ “Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was ^(H)more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister. ¹² She lusted after the ^[g](I)Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. ¹³ I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took ^[h]the same way. ¹⁴ So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men ^(J)portrayed on the wall, images of the ^(K)Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, ¹⁵ girded with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, ^[i]like the ^[j]Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. ^16 [k]When she saw them she ^(L)lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ The ^[l](M)Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. And when she had been defiled by them, ^[m]she became disgusted with them. ¹⁸ She ^(N)uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness; then ^[n]I became ^(O)disgusted with her, as ^[o]I had become disgusted with her ^(P)sister. ¹⁹ Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ She ^(Q)lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses. ²¹ Thus you longed for the ^(R)lewdness of your youth, when ^[p]the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.