Ezekiel 23
- The word of the LORD came again unto me,
saying,
- Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
- And they committed whoredoms in
Egypt; they committed whoredoms in
their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats
of their virginity.
- And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister:
and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names;
Samaria is Aholah, and
Jerusalem Aholibah.
- And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her
lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
- Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them
desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
- Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were
the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on
whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
- Neither left she her whoredoms brought from
Egypt: for in
her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and
poured their whoredom upon her.
- Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the
hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
- These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her
daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for
they had executed judgment upon her.
- And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her
inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her
whoredoms.
- She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers
clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable
young men.
- Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,
- And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men
pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with
vermilion,
- Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon
their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the
Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:
- And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and
sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
- And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they
defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind
was alienated from them.
- So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then
my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.
- Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days
of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
- For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of
asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
- Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in
bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.
- There, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up
thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them
against thee on every side;
- The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa,
and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and
rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.
- And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels,
and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield
and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall
judge thee according to their judgments.
- And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal
furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy
remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters;
and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.
- They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy
fair jewels.
- Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom
brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto
them, nor remember Egypt
any more.
- For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the
hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is
alienated:
- And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy
labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms
shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.
- I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring
after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.
- Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her
cup into thine hand.
- Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep
and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth
much.
- Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of
astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister
Samaria.
- Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the
sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith
the Lord GOD.
- Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me,
and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy
whoredoms.
- The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah
and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations;
- That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and
with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons,
whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.
- Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary
in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.
- For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they
came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done
in the midst of mine house.
- And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto
whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash
thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments,
- And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon
thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.
- And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the
men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put
bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.
- Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now
commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?
- Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth
the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.
- And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of
adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are
adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
- For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon them,
and will give them to be removed and spoiled.
- And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with
their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their
houses with fire.
- Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women
may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
- And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear
the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.