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Ezekiel 23
Tree of Life Version
Ezekiel 23
Tree of Life Version
Jerusalem and Samaria take Lovers
23 The word of Adonai came to me saying: 2 “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. 3 They were harlots in Egypt; they were harlots in their youth; their bosoms were caressed there and their virgin breasts were fondled. 4 Their names were Oholah, the older one, and Oholibah,[a] her sister. They became Mine, and they gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.
5 “Oholah prostituted herself, though she was Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians, warriors, 6 dressed in blue, governors and rulers, all of them handsome young men, horsemen riding on horses. 7 She prostituted herself with them, all of the choice men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after. 8 She did not give up her harlotry in Egypt; for in her youth they had lain with her. They fondled her virgin breasts and poured out their lust on her. 9 Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, whom she lusted after. 10 They stripped her naked, they took her sons and her daughters and slaughtered her with the sword. She became notorious among women. Judgments were executed upon her.
11 “Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more depraved in her lust than her sister and her promiscuous acts worse. 12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and rulers, warriors splendidly clad, horsemen riding on horses, all of them handsome young men. 13 I saw that she defiled herself; they both went the same way. 14 But she kept increasing her harlotry. She saw men carved on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans carved in red, 15 girded with sashes on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them had the appearance of officers, the likeness of Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their birth. 16 As soon as she saw them she lusted after them. She sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17 The Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. Yet when she was defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust. 18 When she exposed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness, My soul was disgusted by her, just as My soul was disgusted by her sister. 19 Yet she multiplied her harlotry—remembering the days of her youth, when she was a harlot in the land of Egypt. 20 She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like that of horses. 21 So you revisited the promiscuity of your youth, when the Egyptians used to fondle your bosom and youthful breasts.
22 “Therefore Oholibah, thus says Adonai Elohim, behold, I will stir up your lovers against you, from whom you turned in disgust. I will bring them against you on every side: 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa and Koa and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, governors and rulers all of them, commanders and officers, all of them riding on horses. 24 They will come against you with armed chariots, whirling wheels and an assembly of people. They will set themselves against you on every side with armor, shield and helmet. I will delegate judgment to them, so they will judge you according to their standards of justice. 25 I will vent My jealousy against you, letting them deal with you in fury. They will cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters, and your survivors will be devoured by fire. 26 They will strip your clothes and take your beautiful jewelry. 27 I will put an end to you and your immorality brought from the land of Egypt. You will no longer lift your eyes toward them or remember Egypt anymore.”
28 For thus says Adonai Elohim: “Behold, I will give you into the hand of those you hate, into the hand of those you turned away from in disgust. 29 They will treat you with hatred, take all your property and leave you naked and exposed. The vulgarity of your prostitutions will be uncovered—your debauchery and your promiscuity. 30 These things will be done to you, for you have gone as a harlot after the nations, so you are defiled with their idols. 31 You have walked in the way of your sister, so I will give her cup into your hand.”
32 Thus says Adonai Elohim:
“You will drink of your sister’s cup,
which is deep and wide.
You will be for laughter and ridicule.
It holds so much!
33 You will be filled with drunkenness and agony,
a cup of horror and desolation—
the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 You will drink it and drain it,
gnaw its shards and tear your breasts.
For I have spoken.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
35 Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because you have forgotten Me and thrust Me behind your back, you will also bear your obscenity and your harlotry.”
36 Then Adonai said to me, “Son of man, will you pass judgment on Oholah and Oholibah? Confront them with their disgusting practices. 37 For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols and even offered their children, whom they bore for Me, to be devoured. 38 Again, this they have done to Me—they defiled My Sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Shabbatot. 39 On the same day that they slaughtered their children to their idols, they came into My Sanctuary to profane it. See, that is what they have done within My House!
40 “Furthermore, they sent for men who come from far away. A messenger was sent to them, and look, they came! For them you bathed, painted your eyes and decked yourself with jewelry. 41 You sat on a glorious bed, with a table arranged before it, on which you set out My incense and My oil. 42 The sound of a carefree crowd was with her. Many of the men who came from the desert were drunkards. They put bracelets on their hands and beautiful crowns on their heads.”
43 Then I said about her, worn out from harlotry: “Still they commit immorality with her—even her? 44 They keep going to her, as they go to a prostitute. So they went to Oholah and to Oholibah—the obscene women. 45 Righteous men would judge them as adulteresses are judged and as those who shed blood are judged. For they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.”
46 For thus says Adonai Elohim: “Bring up an assembly against them. Give them over to terror and plunder. 47 The assembly will stone them to death and dispatch them with their swords. They will slaughter their sons and daughters. They will burn down their houses. 48 So I will make obscenity cease from the land, that all women may be taught not to imitate your obscenity. 49 They will repay you both for wickedness and you will bear the sins of your idols. So you will know that I am Adonai.”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 23:4 Meaning, Her Tent and My Tent is in Her.
Ezekiel 23
New International Version
Ezekiel 23
New International Version
Two Adulterous Sisters
23 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother.(A) 3 They became prostitutes in Egypt,(B) engaging in prostitution(C) from their youth.(D) In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed.(E) 4 The older was named Oholah, and her sister was Oholibah. They were mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.(F)
5 “Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was still mine; and she lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians(G)—warriors(H) 6 clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, and mounted horsemen. 7 She gave herself as a prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians and defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after.(I) 8 She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt,(J) when during her youth men slept with her, caressed her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her.(K)
9 “Therefore I delivered her into the hands(L) of her lovers,(M) the Assyrians, for whom she lusted.(N) 10 They stripped(O) her naked, took away her sons and daughters and killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women,(P) and punishment was inflicted(Q) on her.(R)
11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this,(S) yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister.(T) 12 She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors in full dress, mounted horsemen, all handsome young men.(U) 13 I saw that she too defiled herself; both of them went the same way.(V)
14 “But she carried her prostitution still further. She saw men portrayed on a wall,(W) figures of Chaldeans[a] portrayed in red,(X) 15 with belts(Y) around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like Babylonian chariot officers, natives of Chaldea.[b] 16 As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers(Z) to them in Chaldea.(AA) 17 Then the Babylonians(AB) came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. After she had been defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust.(AC) 18 When she carried on her prostitution openly and exposed her naked body,(AD) I turned away(AE) from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister.(AF) 19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. 21 So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.[c](AG)
22 “Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will stir up your lovers(AH) against you, those you turned away from in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side(AI)— 23 the Babylonians(AJ) and all the Chaldeans,(AK) the men of Pekod(AL) and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, all of them governors and commanders, chariot officers and men of high rank, all mounted on horses.(AM) 24 They will come against you with weapons,[d] chariots and wagons(AN) and with a throng of people; they will take up positions against you on every side with large and small shields and with helmets. I will turn you over to them for punishment,(AO) and they will punish you according to their standards. 25 I will direct my jealous anger(AP) against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and your ears, and those of you who are left will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and daughters,(AQ) and those of you who are left will be consumed by fire.(AR) 26 They will also strip(AS) you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry.(AT) 27 So I will put a stop(AU) to the lewdness and prostitution you began in Egypt. You will not look on these things with longing or remember Egypt anymore.
28 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to deliver you into the hands(AV) of those you hate, to those you turned away from in disgust. 29 They will deal with you in hatred and take away everything you have worked for. They will leave you stark naked,(AW) and the shame of your prostitution will be exposed.(AX) Your lewdness(AY) and promiscuity(AZ) 30 have brought this on you, because you lusted after the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.(BA) 31 You have gone the way of your sister; so I will put her cup(BB) into your hand.(BC)
32 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“You will drink your sister’s cup,
a cup large and deep;
it will bring scorn and derision,(BD)
for it holds so much.(BE)
33 You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,
the cup of ruin and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria.(BF)
34 You will drink it(BG) and drain it dry
and chew on its pieces—
and you will tear your breasts.
I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.(BH)
35 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you have forgotten(BI) me and turned your back on me,(BJ) you must bear(BK) the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution.”
36 The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront(BL) them with their detestable practices,(BM) 37 for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them.(BN) 38 They have also done this to me: At that same time they defiled my sanctuary(BO) and desecrated my Sabbaths.(BP) 39 On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated(BQ) it. That is what they did in my house.(BR)
40 “They even sent messengers for men who came from far away,(BS) and when they arrived you bathed yourself for them, applied eye makeup(BT) and put on your jewelry.(BU) 41 You sat on an elegant couch,(BV) with a table(BW) spread before it on which you had placed the incense(BX) and olive oil that belonged to me.(BY)
42 “The noise of a carefree(BZ) crowd was around her; drunkards(CA) were brought from the desert along with men from the rabble, and they put bracelets(CB) on the wrists of the woman and her sister and beautiful crowns on their heads.(CC) 43 Then I said about the one worn out by adultery, ‘Now let them use her as a prostitute,(CD) for that is all she is.’ 44 And they slept with her. As men sleep with a prostitute, so they slept with those lewd women, Oholah and Oholibah. 45 But righteous judges will sentence them to the punishment of women who commit adultery and shed blood,(CE) because they are adulterous and blood is on their hands.(CF)
46 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Bring a mob(CG) against them and give them over to terror and plunder.(CH) 47 The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters(CI) and burn(CJ) down their houses.(CK)
48 “So I will put an end(CL) to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not imitate you.(CM) 49 You will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry.(CN) Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.(CO)”
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 23:14 Or Babylonians
- Ezekiel 23:15 Or Babylonia; also in verse 16
- Ezekiel 23:21 Syriac (see also verse 3); Hebrew caressed because of your young breasts
- Ezekiel 23:24 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
Ezekiel 23
King James Version
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.
Tree of Life Version (TLV)
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.