Ezekiel 22-23

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Bloody City

22 The word of the Lord came to me: ² You, mortal, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to it all its abominable deeds.^{(A) 3} You shall say: Thus says the Lord God: A city! Shedding blood within itself; its time has come; making its idols, defiling itself. ⁴ You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed and defiled by the idols that you have made; you have brought your days near; the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a disgrace before the nations and a mockery to all the countries. ⁵ Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

⁶ The princes of Israel in you, everyone according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood.^{(B) 7} Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you.^{(C) 8} You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.^{(D) 9} In you are those who slander to shed blood, those in you who eat upon the mountains, who commit lewdness in your midst.^{(E) 10} In you they uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women during their menstrual periods.^{(F) 11} One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you defiles his sister, his father’s daughter.^{(G) 12} In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest and make gain of your neighbors by extortion, and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God.^(H)

¹³ See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made and at the blood that has been shed within you. ¹⁴ Can your courage endure, or can your hands remain strong in the days when I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.^{(I) 15} I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your filthiness out of you.^{(J) 16} And you shall be profaned within yourself in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

¹⁷ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸ Mortal, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them, silver,^[a] bronze, tin, iron, and lead. In the smelter they have become dross.^{(K) 19} Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. ²⁰ As one gathers silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into a smelter, to blow the fire upon them in order to melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. ²¹ I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted within it. ²² As silver is melted in a smelter, so you shall be melted in it, and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath upon you.^(L)

²³ The word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ Mortal, say to it: You are a land that is not cleansed, not rained upon in the day of indignation. ²⁵ Its princes^[b] within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it.^{(M) 26} Its priests have done violence to my teaching and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.^{(N) 27} Its officials within it are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.^{(O) 28} Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord has not spoken.^{(P) 29} The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy and have extorted from the alien without justice.^{(Q) 30} And I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.^{(R) 31} Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; I have returned their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord God.^(S)

Oholah and Oholibah

23 The word of the Lord came to me: ² Mortal, there were two women, the daughters of one mother; ³ they prostituted themselves in Egypt; they prostituted themselves in their youth; their breasts were caressed there, and their virgin bosoms were fondled.^{(T) 4} Oholah was the name of the older and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.^(U)

⁵ Oholah prostituted herself while she was mine; she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors^{[c](V) 6} clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, mounted horsemen. ⁷ She bestowed her sexual favors upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone for whom she lusted.^{(W) 8} She did not give up her prostitutions that she had practiced since Egypt, for in her youth men had lain with her and fondled her virgin bosom and poured out their lust upon her.^{(X) 9} Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, for whom she lusted.^{(Y) 10} These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. Judgment was executed upon her, and she became a byword among women.^(Z)

¹¹ Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt than she in her lusting and in her prostitutions, which were worse than those of her sister.^{(AA) 12} She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors^[d] clothed in full armor, mounted horsemen, all of them handsome young men.^{(AB) 13} And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. ¹⁴ But she carried her prostitutions further; she saw male figures carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,^{(AC) 15} with belts around their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers—a picture of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. ¹⁶ When she saw them she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their lust, and after she defiled herself with them, she turned from them in disgust. ¹⁸ When she carried on her prostitutions so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned from her sister.^{(AD) 19} Yet she increased her prostitutions, remembering the days of her youth, when she prostituted herself in the land of Egypt ²⁰ and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions.^{(AE) 21} Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians^[e] fondled your bosom and caressed^[f] your young breasts.^(AF)

²² Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: I will rouse against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side:^{(AG) 23} the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and select leaders, all of them riding on horses.^{(AH) 24} They shall come against you from the north^[g] with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples; they shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet, and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their ordinances.^{(AI) 25} I will direct my indignation against you, in order that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire. ²⁶ They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your fine jewels.^{(AJ) 27} So I will put an end to your lewdness and your prostitution brought from the land of Egypt; you shall not long for them or remember Egypt any more.^{(AK) 28} For thus says the Lord God: I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust, ²⁹ and they shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your prostitutions shall be exposed. Your lewdness and your prostitutions^{(AL) 30} have brought this upon you, because you prostituted yourself with the nations and polluted yourself with their idols. ³¹ You have gone 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.^{(AN) 35} Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitutions.^(AO)

³⁶ The Lord said to me: Mortal, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominable deeds.^{(AP) 37} For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; with their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me.^{(AQ) 38} Moreover, this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my Sabbaths. ³⁹ For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. This is what they did in my house.^(AR)

⁴⁰ They even sent for men to come from far away, to whom a messenger was sent, and they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments;^{(AS) 41} you sat on a stately couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil.^{(AT) 42} The sound of a raucous multitude was around her, with many of the rabble brought in drunken from the wilderness, and they put bracelets on the arms of the women and beautiful crowns upon their heads.^(AU)

⁴³ Then I said, “Ah, she is worn out with adulteries, but they carry on their sexual acts with her.” ⁴⁴ They have^[h] gone in to her as one goes in to a prostitute. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, wanton women. ⁴⁵ But righteous judges shall declare them guilty of adultery and of bloodshed, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.^(AV)

⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord God: Bring up an assembly against them, and make them an object of terror and of plunder. ⁴⁷ The assembly shall stone them, and with their swords they shall cut them down; they shall kill their sons and their daughters and burn up their houses.^{(AW) 48} Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, so that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done.^{(AX) 49} They shall repay you for your lewdness, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and you shall know that I am the Lord God.