Ezekiel 23
Complete Jewish Bible
23 The word of Adonai came to me: 2 “Human being! There were two women, daughters of the same mother, 3 who were whores in Egypt — even as young girls they were whores. There they let their breasts be caressed, and there their virgin nipples were fondled. 4 Their names were Oholah, the older one, and Oholivah, her sister. They belonged to me, and they gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Shomron is Oholah, and Yerushalayim is Oholivah.
5 “Even when she belonged to me, Oholah prostituted herself; she lusted after her lovers from Ashur — warriors 6 dressed in blue, governors, rulers, all of them good-looking young men riding on horseback. 7 She gave herself as a whore to them, all of them the elite of Ashur; and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after. 8 She did not give up the whoring she had begun in Egypt, where men had sex with her, fondled her virgin nipples and flooded her with their fornication.
9 “So I handed her over to her lovers, the men of Ashur she lusted after. 10 They exposed her private parts, took her sons and daughters, and put her to death with the sword; so that she became notorious among women for the judgments executed against her.
11 “Her sister Oholivah saw this; nevertheless she was worse than her sister in lusting and likewise in whoring. 12 She lusted after the men from Ashur, governors and rulers, warriors dressed to perfection, skilled horsemen, all of them good-looking young men. 13 I saw that she had defiled herself; both sisters had gone down the same path. 14 She prostituted herself more than ever; because she saw wall-carvings of men, depicting the Kasdim in vermilion, 15 with sashes wrapped around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like military men, the very image of men of Bavel born in the land of the Kasdim. 16 The moment she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in the land of the Kasdim; 17 and the men of Bavel climbed into her “love bed” and defiled her with their lust. She was defiled by them, and then filled with revulsion at them. 18 Thus did she reveal her fornication and expose her private parts. When this happened, I was filled with revulsion at her, just as I had been filled with revulsion at her sister. 19 Still she kept increasing her whoring, remembering the days when she was young, fornicating in the land of Egypt. 20 Yes, she lusted after their male prostitutes, whose members are like those of donkeys and who ejaculate like stallions. 21 You yearned for the lewdness of your girlhood, when the Egyptians used to fondle your nipples and caress your young breasts.
22 “Therefore, Oholivah, here is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘I will raise up your lovers against you, the ones who fill you with revulsion, and bring them against you from every side — 23 the men of Bavel and all the Kasdim, P’kod, Shoa and Koa, and with them all the men of Ashur, good-looking young men, all of them governors and rulers, commanders and officers, all on horseback. 24 They will advance on you armed with chariots, wagons and with an army drawn from many peoples; they will array themselves against you from every side with breastplates, shields and helmets. I will give them the authority to judge, and they will judge you as they see fit. 25 I will direct my jealousy against you, so that they will deal with you in fury — they will cut off your nose and ears, and what is left of you will die by the sword; they will seize your sons and daughters, and those who remain of you will be consumed by the fire. 26 They will strip you of your clothes and seize your fine jewels. 27 Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your fornication brought from the land of Egypt, so that you will no longer raise your eyes toward them or remember Egypt any more.’ 28 For this is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘I am about to hand you over to those you hate, to those who fill you with revulsion; 29 and they will deal with you in hatred, seize everything you have worked for, and leave you naked and exposed — the full shame of your whoring will be exposed, your lewdness and your fornicating. 30 These things will be done to you because you have gone fornicating with the Goyim, and because you are defiled with their idols. 31 You walked down your sister’s path, so I will put her cup in your hand.’ 32 Adonai Elohim says:
‘You will drink from your sister’s cup,
a cup both deep and wide,
full right up to the brim
with scorn and derision,
33 filling you with drunkenness and sorrow,
a cup of horror and devastation —
the cup of your sister Shomron.
34 You will drink it, you will drain it,
and then you will gnaw it to shreds
and tear out your own breasts!
For I have spoken it’
says Adonai Elohim.
35 “Therefore this is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘Because you forgot me and flung me behind your back, you will bear the guilt of your lewdness and whoring.’”
36 Then Adonai said to me, “Human being, are you ready to judge Oholah and Oholivah? Then confront them with their disgusting practices. 37 For they committed adultery, and their hands are dripping with blood. They committed adultery with their idols; and they offered their sons, whom they bore to me, for these idols to eat. 38 Moreover, they have done this to me as well: they defiled my sanctuary on the same day, and they profaned my shabbats. 39 For after killing their children for their idols, they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; this they did in my house.
40 “Worse still, you sent a messenger summoning men to come from a distance; and they came. For them you washed yourself, painted your eyes, decked yourself with your finery, 41 and sat on a sumptuous bed, with a table arranged before it, on which you put my incense and my olive oil. 42 The noise of a carefree crowd could be heard there; many of the men were brought in drunk from the desert. They put bracelets on their hands and magnificent crowns on their heads. 43 I thought, ‘That woman! She’s worn out from all her adulteries, but they still go to fornicate with her!’ 44 For every one went in to her; just as men go in to a prostitute, so they went in to Oholah and Oholivah, those debauched women. 45 Nevertheless, there are righteous men who will judge them as adulterers and murderers are supposed to be judged; because they are adulterers, and blood is dripping from their hands. 46 For here is what Adonai Elohim says:
‘Summon an assembly to punish them;
give them over to terror and plunder.
47 Let the assembly stone them to death,
dispatch them with their swords,
kill their sons and daughters
and burn their houses to the ground.
48 “‘Thus I will put an end to lewdness in the land, so that all women may be taught not to imitate your lewdness. 49 You will receive the punishment your lewdness deserves, and you will pay the penalty for your idolatries. Then you will know that I am Adonai Elohim.’”
Ezekiel 23
King James Version
23 The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
3 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.
4 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.
5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
6 Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
7 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.
8 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.
9 Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
10 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.
11 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.
12 She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,
14 And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,
15 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:
16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
17 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.
18 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.
19 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.
20 For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
21 Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.
22 Therefore, 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;
23 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.
24 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.
25 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.
26 They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.
27 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.
28 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:
29 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.
30 I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.
31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.
32 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.
33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.
34 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.
35 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.
36 The Lord said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations;
37 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.
38 Moreover this they have done unto 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, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house.
40 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,
41 And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.
42 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.
43 Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?
44 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.
45 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.
46 For thus saith the Lord God; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.
47 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.
48 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
49 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.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.