Chronological

Chapter 22

The Sins of Jerusalem. ¹ This word of the Lord came to me: ² Son of man, are you ready to judge? Will you judge this city renowned for its bloodshed and confront her with all of her abominable deeds?

³ Say to her: Thus says the Lord: Woe to the city that sheds blood within itself. You thus hasten your doom, having made idols and thereby defiling yourself. ⁴ You have incurred guilt by the blood that you have shed, and you have become defiled by the gods that you have fashioned. Thus, you have shortened your lifespan; the end of your years are at hand. This is why you are now regarded by the nations as a disgrace. You have become a laughingstock to all foreign lands. ⁵ Those who are near you and those who are far off shall mock you because you have become infamous for your great perversity.

⁶ The princes of Israel who dwell in your land are there only for the purpose of shedding blood. ⁷ The fathers and the mothers within your borders are treated with contempt. The resident aliens are forced to endure extortion. Orphans and widows are oppressed. ⁸ You have spurned what is holy to me, and you have profaned my Sabbaths.

⁹ In you are those whose slander incites to bloodshed; in you are those who eat^[a] on the mountains and revel in their lewdness. ¹⁰ In you are men who have exposed the nakedness of their fathers and who violate women during their menstrual periods. ¹¹ In you are men who engage in abominable practices with their neighbors’ wives and lewdly defile their daughters-in-law. Still others among you ravish their sisters, the daughters of their fathers. ¹² In you are those who take bribes to shed blood. Others lend for profit and charge interest. Still others profit from extortion against their neighbors. You have forgotten about me, says the Lord God.

¹³ I will strike my hands together because of the unjust profits you have made and the unending bloodshed in your midst. ¹⁴ Will your courage endure and your hands remain strong in the days when I will deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I intend to act. ¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you throughout foreign countries, and I will thereby purge you of your filthiness. ¹⁶ When I shall be profaned through you in the sight of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁷ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸ Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross in my eyes; all of them are nothing more than copper and tin, iron and lead, that have become dross in the midst of a furnace.

¹⁹ Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because all of you have become dross, I will gather you together inside Jerusalem. ²⁰ As one gathers silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin and smelts it in a blazing furnace, so I will gather you in my furious wrath and cause you to be melted down. ²¹ When I have assembled you, I will blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted down within the city. ²² As silver is smelted in a furnace, so shall you be melted down within the city, and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured forth my wrath upon you.

²³ This word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ Son of man, say to the land: You are a land that has not been cleansed or rained upon in the day of my anger. ²⁵ Your princes have been like a roaring lion tearing apart its prey. They have devoured people, absconded with their wealth and precious treasures, and caused many women within it to become widows.

²⁶ Your priests have violated my law and made profane my holy things. They have failed to make any distinction between the sacred and the profane, nor have they taught the difference between the clean and the unclean. They have completely ignored my Sabbaths, and I have been profaned in their midst. ²⁷ Your priests are like wolves tearing apart their prey, shedding blood, and killing people in the pursuit of dishonest gain. ²⁸ Your prophets whitewash their deeds by revealing false visions and offering lying prophecies asserting that the Lord God has spoken when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ Meanwhile the people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and forced resident aliens to submit to injustice.

³⁰ I searched among my people for someone who could build a barricade and stand before me in the breach to keep me from destroying the land, but I found no one. ³¹ Therefore, I poured forth my fury upon them and consumed them with my fiery wrath. I have brought down their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord God.

Chapter 23^[b]

The Sins of Two Sisters. ¹ This word of the Lord came to me: ² Son of man, there once were two women, the daughters of the same mother. ³ Even as young girls they became prostitutes in Egypt. There the Egyptians caressed their bosoms and fondled their virginal breasts. ⁴ The older was named Oholah,^[c] and her sister was Oholibah. They were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁵ Oholah became a whore even though she belonged to me. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians— ⁶ warriors dressed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men and skilled horsemen. ⁷ She offered herself as a prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians, and she defiled herself with the idols of all those for whom she lusted. ⁸ Nor did she discontinue the harlotry she had begun in Egypt, where men had slept with her as a young girl, fondling her virginal breasts and pouring out their lust upon her.

⁹ Therefore, I abandoned her to her lovers, the Assyrians, for whom she had lusted. ¹⁰ They stripped her naked, and after they took away her sons and her daughters, they slew her with the sword. She became a byword among women for the justice that was inflicted upon her.

¹¹ Her sister Oholibah saw all this, but she was even more depraved in her lust than her sister, and she surpassed her in harlotry. ¹² She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors arrayed in full armor, skilled horsemen, all of them handsome young men. ¹³ Then I realized that she, too, had been defiled. Both she and her sister had traveled the same path.

¹⁴ However, this younger sister went even further in her harlotry. When she saw male figures carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, ¹⁵ with belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like Babylonian officers, natives of Chaldea; ¹⁶ as soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers^[d] to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ Then the Babylonians came to her, shared her bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. And after she had defiled herself with them, she turned away from them in disgust.

¹⁸ After she had flaunted her harlotry so openly and her nakedness was revealed, I turned from her in disgust as I had withdrawn from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she became even more promiscuous, remembering the days of her youth when she had played the whore in Egypt ²⁰ and lusted for her lecherous paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys and whose ejaculations were like those of stallions.

²¹ You longed for the lewdness of your youth when the Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your breasts. ²² Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: I will now stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned away in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side: ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, all of them governors and commanders, officers and warriors, and all of them mounted on horses. ²⁴ They shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of people, and they will position themselves against you on every side with bucklers, shields, and helmets. I shall authorize them to pass judgment upon you, and they will judge you according to their own ordinances.

²⁵ I will direct my jealous wrath against you so that they will vent their fury against you. They will cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors will perish by the sword. They will seize your sons and your daughters, and what remains of your family will be consumed by fire.^{[e] 26} They shall also strip off your clothes and rob you of your jewels. ²⁷ Thus, I will put an end to the debauchery and lewdness you instituted in Egypt. You will not look back in fond remembrance on the wicked acts you committed or think of Egypt ever again.

²⁸ For thus says the Lord God: I intend to hand you over to those whom you hate, to those whom you regard with disgust. ²⁹ They shall treat you with hatred and seize all the fruit of your labors and leave you stark naked. Your lewdness and your promiscuity ³⁰ have brought this upon you because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.

³¹ Because you have followed in the path of your sister, I will place her cup into your hand. ³² Thus says the Lord God:

Thus 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, you must bear the consequences of your lewdness and your harlotry.

³⁶ Then the Lord said to me: Son of man, are you willing to pass judgment on Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their abominable deeds. ³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and their hands are stained with blood. They have committed adultery with their idols and offered to them as food the children whom they bore to me.

³⁸ Furthermore, they have also done this to me: At that same time, they defiled my sanctuary and profaned my Sabbaths. ³⁹ For when they had slaughtered my children for their idols, they entered my sanctuary on the same day to desecrate it. That is what they did in my house.

⁴⁰ They even sent messengers to invite men to come from distant lands. And when they arrived, you bathed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with jewels. ⁴¹ Then you reclined on an elegant couch, with a table spread before it upon which you had placed my incense and my oil. ⁴² Meanwhile, the shouts of a raucous mob were heard in the city, and they were brought in together with many of the rabble who had arrived from the wilderness in a drunken stupor. They put bracelets on the arms of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.

⁴³ Then I thought: This woman is worn out with endless acts of adultery, but nevertheless they carry on relentlessly their sexual acts with her. ⁴⁴ For they came to her as men come to a prostitute. Thus, they came to Oholah and Oholibah, those wanton women. ⁴⁵ However, righteous judges will declare them guilty of adultery and of bloodshed, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.

⁴⁶ Thus says the Lord God: Convoke an assembly against them and deliver them over to terror and plunder. ⁴⁷ The assembly shall stone them and slay them with their swords. They shall kill their sons and daughters and set their houses afire. ⁴⁸ Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, so that all women will be solemnly warned not to commit any lewd acts as you have done. ⁴⁹ They will inflict upon you the penalty for your lewdness, and you will suffer the consequences for your sins of idolatry. Thus, you will know that I am the Lord God.