Ezekiel Chapter 23

1 The Word of the Lord came to me again.
2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother.
3 They became prostitutes+ in Egypt from their youth, allowing their breasts to be fondled+ and their virginity taken.
4 Their names were Oholah, the oldest, and Oholibah, her sister. They were mine and they bore sons and daughters. Their names: Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
5 Oholah was a prostitute+ when she was mine, and she lusted+ after her lovers among her Assyrian neighbors,
6 clothed with purple, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding horses.
7 So she bestowed her harlotries on them, the choice men of Assyria, with all of them and with all whom she lusted after. She defiled herself with all their idols.
8 Nor did she leave her fornications from Egypt. For in her youth they lay with her, and they worked her virgin nipples, and poured their fornications on her.
9 Therefore I have given her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians on whom she lusted.
10 They uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters and killed her with the sword. She became notorious among women and they executed judgment on her.
11 Her sister Oholibah saw she was more corrupt in her lustfullness than she and her fornications were greater than her sister's infidelity+.
12 She lusted+ upon her neighbors the Assyrians, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding horses, all of them desirable young men.
13 I saw that she was defiled. One way was to both of them.
14 She added to her fornications and she saw men carved on the wall. Images of the Chaldeans engraved with vermilion.
15 They were dressed+ with belts+ on their waist+ and with dyed attire upon their heads. All of them looked like rulers, like the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth+.
16 She lusted after them, to the look of her eyes, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.
17 The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with fornications. She was defiled with them and her mind was alienated from them.
18 So she uncovered her fornications and uncovered her nakedness. My soul was alienated from her, just as my soul was alienated from her sister.
19 Yet she multiplied her fornications to recall the days of her youth in which she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
20 She lusted after her lovers whose stones are like the stones of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
21 So you longed for the wickedness of your youth, when the Egyptians worked your nipples, for the sake of the breasts of your youth.
22 So, Oholibah, the Lord God says this: Behold, I will raise your lovers up against you, from whom your soul is alienated. I will bring them against you from all around.
23 The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them. All of them desirable young men, governors and rulers. All of them third heads and called ones. All of them riding on horses.
24 They will come against you with weapons, chariots, wheels, and with an assembly of people. Buckler and shield and helmet will set against you all around. I will set judgment before them and they will judge you by their judgments.
25 I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in fury. They shall take away your nose and your ears, and the rest of you shall fall by the sword. They shall take away your sons and your daughters, and the rest of you shall be devoured by the fire.
26 They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels.
27 So I will make your wickedness to cease from you, and your fornication from the land of Egypt. And you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor shall you remember Egypt any more.
28 For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of whom your soul was alienated, from them.
29 They will deal with you in hatred and will take away all your labor and leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your fornications will be uncovered, both your wickedness and your fornications.
30 I will do these things to you because you have lusted+ after the heathen and you are polluted by their idols.
31 You have walked in the way of your sister. Therefore I will give her cup to you.
32 Thus says the Lord God: You shall drink of your sister's cup deep and large. You shall be laughed to scorn and mocked. For it holds much.
33 In drunkenness and sorrow you are filled, the cup of horror and ruin, the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 You shall even drink it and empty it. And you shall break its pieces, and tear off your own breasts. For I have spoken, says the Lord God.
35 So the Lord God says this: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore bear also your wickedness and your adulteries.
36 The Lord said to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah and declare to them their abominations?
37 They have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols and have also caused their sons whom they bore to me to pass through the fire to devour them.
38 Yet they have done this to me: They have defiled my sanctuary in that day and have profaned my Sabbaths.
39 When they had killed their children to their idols, then they came into my sanctuary in that day to profane it. They have done this in the middle of my house.
40 They have even sent for men to come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and they came. You washed yourself for them. Painted your eyes and adorned yourself with ornaments.
41 You sat on a stately bed with a table prepared before it on which you set my incense and my oil.
42 The sound of a crowd was at ease with her. Drunkards from the wilderness were brought with the men of the host of mankind. They put bracelets on their hands and crowns of beauty on their heads.
43 Then I said to the one old in adulteries, Will they now commit adultery with her and she with them?
44 They went in to her, as they go in to a woman of harlotry. They went in to Oholah and to Oholibah the wicked women.
45 As righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and the judgment of women who shed blood. Because they are adulteresses and blood is in their hands.
46 For thus says the Lord God: I will bring up a company on them and will give them to be removed and stripped.
47 The company will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters and burn up their houses with fire.
48 So I will cause wickedness to cease out of the land so that all women may be taught not to go after your wickedness.
49 They will put your wickedness on you and you will bear the sins of your idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.