CHAPTER 23
1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2“Two women were there,
daughters of one mother.
3And they played the whore in Egypt, in their youth,
they played the whore there.
and there were their virgin teats fondled.
4And their names were Oholah, the elder, and Oholibah, her sister. And they became Mine and bore sons and daughters, and their names were Samaria, Oholah, and Jerusalem, Oholibah. 5And Oholah played the whore while she was Mine, and she was hot for her lovers, the warriors of Assyria, 6clothed in indigo, satraps and governors, all of them lovely young men, horsemen riding steeds. 7And she gave her whoring to them, the pick of Assyria all of them, and in everything she was hot for, in all their foul things, she was defiled. 8And her whoring from Egypt she did not abandon, for they had lain with her in her youth, and they fondled her virgin teats and spilled their whoring upon her. 9Therefore did I give her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians for whom she was hot. 10They laid bare her nakedness. Her sons and her daughters they took, and her they slew with the sword. And she became a byword for women, and they exacted punishment upon her. 11And her sister Oholibah saw, and she made her hot lust more ruinous than hers and her whoring more than her sister’s whoring. 12For the Assyrians she was hot, satraps and governors, warriors clothed to perfection, horsemen riding steeds, lovely young men all of them. 13And I saw that she was defiled—a single way for the two of them. 14And she went further with her whoring, and she saw men etched on the wall, images of Chaldeans etched with vermillion, 15girded with belts around their waists, wrapped turbans on their heads, the look of captains all of them had, the image of the sons of Babylonia, Chaldeans, the land of their birth. 16And she was hot for them, for what her eyes saw, and she sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17And the sons of Babylonia came to her for lovemaking and defiled her with their whoring. And she was defiled by them and disgusted by them. 18And she laid bare her whoring and laid bare her nakedness, and I was disgusted by her as I was disgusted by her sister. 19And she played the whore still more to recall the days of her youth when she played the whore in the land of Egypt. 20And she was hot for their consorts, whose flesh was the flesh of donkeys and whose members were like the members of stallions. 21And you went back to the lewdness of your youth when your teats were fondled by the Egyptians, your youthful breasts squeezed. 22Therefore, Oholibah, thus said the Master, the LORD: I am about to rouse your lovers against you, by whom you were disgusted, and I will bring them against you all around. 23The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the Assyrians, those lovely young men, satraps and governors all of them, captains and marshaled fighters, riders of horses all of them. 24And they shall come against you, charger and chariot and wheel in an assembly of troops, buckler and shield and helmet. They shall set about against you all around, and I will set judgment before them, and they shall punish you with their judgments. 25And I will set My jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in wrath. Your nose and your ears they shall lop off, and those left after you shall fall by the sword. They shall take your sons and your daughters, and those left after you shall be consumed by fire. 26And I will strip off your garments, and they shall take your splendid apparel. 27And I will end your lewdness and your whoring from the land of Egypt, and you shall not lift up your eyes to them, and Egypt shall you no more recall. 28For thus said the Master, the LORD, I am about to give you into the hand of those you hate, into the hand of those by whom you were disgusted. 29And they shall deal with you in hatred and take all your gain and abandon you stark naked, and your whoring nakedness and your lewdness and your whoring shall be laid bare—30the doing of these to you in your whoring after the nations, for your being defiled by their foul things. 31In the way of your sister you went, and I have given her cup in your hand.”
32Thus said the Master, the LORD:
Your sister’s cup you shall drink,
deep and wide.
It shall be a laughingstock and scorn.
Much does it hold.
33With drunkenness and sorrow you are filled,
the cup of devastation and desolation,
your sister’s cup, Samaria.
34And you shall drink it to the dregs,
and its shards you shall grind,
and your breasts you shall cut off.
For I have spoken, said the Master, the LORD.
35Therefore, thus said the Master, the LORD: “Inasmuch as you forgot Me and flung Me behind your back, even you shall bear your lewdness and your whoring.” 36And the LORD said to me, “Man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah and tell them their abominations? 37For they committed adultery and there is blood on their hands, and they committed adultery with their foul things, and also their sons whom they bore for Me they gave over to be consumed. 38This besides they did to Me: they defiled My sanctuary on that day and My sabbaths they profaned. 39And they slaughtered their children to their foul things and came into My sanctuary on that day to profane it and, look, so did they do within My house. 40And even more, they sent for men coming from afar, to whom a messenger was sent, and, look, they came to you who bathed, put kohl around your eyes, and decked your self with jewels. 41And you sat on a sumptuous bed with a table set before it, and you put My incense and My oil on it. 42And the sound of a singing throng was in it, and to many men [you sent]. Drink was brought from the desert, and they put bracelets on their arms and splendid diadems on their heads. 43And I said to her worn out from adultery: now let them whore in her whoring. And she—. 44And they came to bed with her as one comes to bed with a whore-woman, so did they come to bed with Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women. 45And righteous men, they shall judge them by the law of adulteresses and by the law of those who shed blood, for they are adulterers and there is blood on their hands. 46For thus said the Master, the LORD: Bring up against them a crowd and make them a horror and an object of scorn. 47And let the crowd stone them and cut them apart with their swords. Their sons and their daughters let them slay, and let them burn their houses in fire. 48And I will put an end to lewdness in the land, and all the women shall learn a lesson and not do like your lewdness. 49And they shall put your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the offenses of your foul things. And you shall know that I am the Master, the LORD.”