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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:
You shall drink of your sister’s cup,
which is deep and wide;
you shall be laughed to scorn and held in derision;
it contains much.
33 You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,
the cup of horror and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 You shall drink it and drain it,
then you shall gnaw at its fragments
and tear off your own breasts;
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.
18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Exhortation and Warning
19 Therefore, brothers, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way that He has opened for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, 21 and since we have a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse them from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us firmly hold the profession of our faith without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to spur one another to love and to good works. 25 Let us not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but let us exhort one another, especially as you see the Day approaching.
26 For if we willfully continue to sin after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries. 28 Anyone who despised Moses’ law died without mercy in the presence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severe a punishment do you suppose he deserves, who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded the blood of the covenant that sanctified him to be a common thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine,” says the Lord, “I will repay.”[a] And again He says, “The Lord will judge His people.”[b] 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Remember the former days, after you were enlightened, in which you endured a great struggle of afflictions. 33 In part you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and afflictions. And in part you became companions of those who were so abused. 34 For you had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully endured the confiscation of your property, knowing that you have in heaven a better and an enduring possession for yourselves. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which will be greatly rewarded.
36 For you need patience, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive the promise. 37 For,
“In yet a little while,
He who is to come will come, and will not wait.
38 Now the just shall live by faith;
but if anyone draws back,
My soul shall have no pleasure in him.”[c]
39 But we are not of those who draw back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.
Psalm 109
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 Do not remain silent,
O God of my praise!
2 For the mouth of the wicked and deceitful
are opened against me;
they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
3 They encircled me with words of hatred
and fought against me without cause.
4 In return for my love they are my adversaries,
but I give myself to prayer.
5 They have rewarded me evil for good
and hatred for my love.
6 Set a wicked man against him,
and let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned,
and let his prayer be reckoned as sin.
8 Let his days be few,
and let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be wandering beggars;
let them seek their bread far from their desolate places.
11 Let the creditor seize all that he has;
let the strangers plunder the fruit of his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him,
neither let there be any to pity his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off,
and in the generation following let his name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually,
that the Lord may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness,
but pursued the poor and needy and broken-hearted
to their death.
17 As he loved cursing,
so let it come over him;
as he did not delight in blessing,
so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with cursing like a garment,
so let it soak into him like water,
and like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be unto him as the garment that covers him,
and a belt that he continually wears.
20 Let this be the reward of my adversaries from the Lord,
and of those who speak evil against my soul.
21 But You, O God my Lord,
work on my behalf for your name’s sake;
because your mercy is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow in the evening;
I am tossed as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting,
and my body is thin with no fat.
25 I am a reproach to my accusers;
when they look upon me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me according to Your mercy,
27 that they may know that this is by Your hand,
that You, O Lord, have done it.
28 Let them curse, but You will bless;
when they arise, let them be ashamed,
but let Your servant rejoice.
29 Let my adversaries be clothed with shame,
and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace like a cloak.
30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;
indeed, I will praise Him among the multitude.
31 For He stands at the right hand of the poor,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.
13 Take his garment that is security for a stranger,
and take a pledge of him for an adulterous woman.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.