The Sins of Oholah and Oholibah

23 The word of the Lord came again to me, saying: ² Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. ³ And they committed harlotries in Egypt. They committed harlotries 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 were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

Samaria

⁵ Oholah played the harlot when she was Mine. And she lusted after her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, ⁶ who were clothed in purple, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. ⁷ Thus she committed her harlotries with them, with all those who were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself. ⁸ She did not forsake her harlotries from the time in Egypt. For in her youth they lay with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured their harlotry upon her.

⁹ Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians after whom she doted. ¹⁰ They uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters and killed her with the sword. And she became a byword among women, for they had executed judgments on her.

Jerusalem

¹¹ Now her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her harlotries more than her sister in her harlotries. ¹² She lusted after the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. ¹³ Then I saw that she was defiled, that they both took the same way.

¹⁴ So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, ¹⁵ girded with belts on their loins, exceeding in dyed attire on their heads, all of them looking like officials, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity. ¹⁶ And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them into Chaldea. ¹⁷ The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their harlotry, and she was polluted with them, and her soul became disgusted with them. ¹⁸ So she uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness. Then My soul became disgusted with her, as My soul became disgusted with her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she multiplied her harlotries while remembering the days of her youth in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ For she lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses. ²¹ Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.

Judgment on Jerusalem

²² Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom you were alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side: ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them. All of them are desirable young men, captains and rulers, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. ²⁴ They shall come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons, and with an assembly of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler and shield and helmet. And I will set the judgment before them, and they shall judge you according to their customs. ²⁵ I will set My jealousy against you, so that they deal furiously with you. They shall take away your nose and your ears. And your remnant shall fall by the sword. They shall take your sons and your daughters. And your remnant shall be devoured by the fire. ²⁶ They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your fair jewels. ²⁷ Thus I will make your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt to cease from you so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.

²⁸ For thus says the Lord God: I will deliver you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom you were alienated. ²⁹ And they shall deal with you hatefully, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare. And the nakedness of your harlotries shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotries. ³⁰ I will do these things to you because you have gone whoring after the nations, because you have polluted yourself with their idols. ³¹ You have walked in the way of your sister. Therefore I will give her cup into your hand.

³² Thus says the Lord God:

for I have spoken, says the Lord God.

³⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, now bear the punishment of your lewdness and your harlotries.

Judgment on the Sisters

³⁶ The Lord moreover said to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. ³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. Thus with their idols they have committed adultery and have also caused their sons whom they bore to Me to pass through the fire for them as food. ³⁸ Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary in the same day and have profaned My Sabbaths. ³⁹ For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into My sanctuary to profane it. And thus they have done in the midst of My house.

⁴⁰ Furthermore, they have even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and they came. For them you washed yourself, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments. ⁴¹ And you sat on a stately couch with a table prepared before it on which you had set My incense and My oil.

⁴² A sound of a multitude at ease was with her, and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort. And they put bracelets on the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads. ⁴³ Then I said to her who was worn out by adulteries, “Will they now commit harlotries with her when she is so?” ⁴⁴ Yet they went in to her as they go in to a woman who plays the harlot. So they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. ⁴⁵ But righteous men shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.

⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord God: Bring up a company against them and give them over to terror and devastation. ⁴⁷ The company shall stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords. They shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

⁴⁸ Thus I will cause lewdness to cease from the land, that all women may be warned and not commit lewdness as you have done. ⁴⁹ Your lewdness shall be recompensed upon you, and you shall bear the punishment of worshipping your idols. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God.