Ezekiel 23:1-21

English Standard Version

Oholah and Oholibah

23 The word of the Lord came to me: ^2 (A)“Son of man, there were ^(B)two women, the daughters of one mother. ^3 (C)They played the whore in Egypt; ^(D)they played the whore ^(E)in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms^[a] handled. ⁴ Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. ^(F)They became mine, and they ^(G)bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is ^(H)Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁵ “Oholah played the whore ^(I)while she was mine, and ^(J)she lusted after her lovers ^(K)the Assyrians, warriors ⁶ clothed in purple, ^(L)governors and commanders, ^(M)all of them desirable young men, ^(N)horsemen riding on horses. ⁷ She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted. ⁸ She did not give up her whoring ^(O)that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her. ⁹ Therefore ^(P)I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. ^10 (Q)These uncovered her nakedness; ^(R)they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became ^(S)a byword among women, ^(T)when judgment had been executed on her.

^11 (U)“Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became ^(V)more corrupt than her sister^[b] in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. ¹² She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, ^(W)all of them desirable young men. ¹³ And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. ¹⁴ But she carried her whoring further. She saw men ^(X)portrayed on the wall, the ^(Y)images of ^(Z)the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, ¹⁵ wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. ¹⁶ When she saw them, she lusted after them and ^(AA)sent messengers to them ^(AB)in Chaldea. ¹⁷ And the Babylonians came to her ^(AC)into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, ^(AD)she turned from them in disgust. ¹⁸ When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she increased her whoring, ^(AE)remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt ²⁰ and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. ²¹ Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed^[c] your young breasts.”