Ezekiel 22–23

Israel’s Shedding of Blood

22And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“And you, ^yson of man, ^zwill you judge, will you judge ^athe bloody city? ^bThen declare to her all her abominations. ³You shall say, Thus says the Lord God: A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that ^cher time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself! ⁴You have become guilty ^aby the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought ^cyour days near, the appointed time of¹ your years has come. ^dTherefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. ⁵Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; ^eyour name is defiled; ^fyou are full of tumult.

⁶“Behold, ^gthe princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. ⁷Father and mother ^hare treated with contempt in you; the sojourner ⁱsuffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow ⁱare wronged in you. ^8jYou have despised my holy things and ^kprofaned my Sabbaths. ^9lThere are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you ^mwho eat on the mountains; ⁿthey commit lewdness in your midst. ¹⁰In you ^omen uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. ^11pOne commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; ^qanother lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; ^ranother in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter. ¹²In you ^sthey take bribes to shed blood; ^tyou take interest and profit² and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but ^ume you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.

¹³“Behold, ^vI strike my hand at ^wthe dishonest gain that you have made, and at ^xthe blood that has been in your midst. ^14yCan your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? ^zI the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. ^15aI will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and ^bI will consume your uncleanness out of you. ¹⁶And ^cyou shall be profaned by your own doing ^din the sight of the nations, ^eand you shall know that I am the Lord.”

¹⁷And the word of the Lord came to me: ^18f“Son of man, the house of Israel has become ^gdross to me; all of them are ^hbronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are ⁱdross of silver. ¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. ²⁰As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, ^jto blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you ^kin my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. ²¹I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. ²²As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord; ^lI have poured out my wrath upon you.”

²³And the word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴“Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is ^mnot cleansed ⁿor rained upon in the day of indignation. ^25oThe conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is ^plike a roaring lion ^qtearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. ^26rHer priests ^shave done violence to my law and ^thave profaned my holy things. ^uThey have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and ^vthey have disregarded my Sabbaths, ^wso that I am profaned among them. ^27xHer princes in her midst are like wolves ^ytearing the prey, ^zshedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. ²⁸And ^aher prophets have smeared whitewash for them, ^bseeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹The people of the land ^chave practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and ^chave extorted from the sojourner without justice. ^30dAnd I sought for a man among them ^ewho should build up the wall ^eand stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. ³¹Therefore ^fI have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned ^gtheir way upon their heads, declares the Lord God.”

Oholah and Oholibah

23The word of the Lord came to me: ^2h“Son of man, there were ⁱtwo women, the daughters of one mother. ^3jThey played the whore in Egypt; ^jthey played the whore ^kin their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms¹ handled. ⁴Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. ^lThey became mine, and they ^mbore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is ⁿSamaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁵“Oholah played the whore ^owhile she was mine, and ^pshe lusted after her lovers ^qthe Assyrians, warriors ⁶clothed in purple, ^rgovernors and commanders, ^sall of them desirable young men, ^thorsemen riding on horses. ⁷She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted. ⁸She did not give up her whoring ^uthat she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her. ⁹Therefore ^vI delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. ^10wThese uncovered her nakedness; ^xthey seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became ^ya byword among women, ^zwhen judgment had been executed on her.

^11a“Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became ^bmore corrupt than her sister² in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. ¹²She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, ^sall of them desirable young men. ¹³And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. ¹⁴But she carried her whoring further. She saw men ^cportrayed on the wall, the ^dimages of ^ethe Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, ¹⁵wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. ¹⁶When she saw them, she lusted after them and ^fsent messengers to them ^ein Chaldea. ¹⁷And the Babylonians came to her ^ginto the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, ^hshe turned from them in disgust. ¹⁸When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. ¹⁹Yet she increased her whoring, ⁱremembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt ²⁰and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. ²¹Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed³ your young breasts.”

²²Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers ^hfrom whom you turned in disgust, ^jand I will bring them against you from every side: ²³the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, ^kPekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, ^ldesirable young men, ^lgovernors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. ²⁴And they shall come against you from the north⁴ with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. ^mThey shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and ⁿI will commit the judgment to them, and ^othey shall judge you according to their judgments. ²⁵And I will direct my jealousy against you, ^pthat they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. ^qThey shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire. ^26rThey shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels. ^27sThus I will put an end to your lewdness and ^tyour whoring begun in the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.

²⁸“For thus says the Lord God: ^uBehold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, ^vinto the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust, ²⁹and ^wthey shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor ^xand leave you naked and bare, and ^ythe nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your whoring ³⁰have brought this upon you, because ^zyou played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. ³¹You have gone the way of your sister; ^atherefore I will give ^bher cup into your hand. ³²Thus says the Lord God:

“You shall drink your sister’s cup

that is deep and large;

you shall be laughed at and held in derision,

for it contains much;

³³you will be filled with ^cdrunkenness and sorrow.

^cA cup of horror and desolation,

the cup of ^dyour sister Samaria;

^34eyou shall drink it and drain it out,

and gnaw its shards,

and tear your breasts;

for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. ³⁵Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because ^fyou have forgotten me and ^gcast me behind your back, you yourself ^hmust bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring.”

³⁶The Lord said to me: ⁱ“Son of man, ^jwill you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations. ³⁷For ^kthey have committed adultery, ^land blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even ^moffered up⁵ to them for food the children whom they had borne to me. ³⁸Moreover, this they have done to me: ⁿthey have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and ^oprofaned my Sabbaths. ³⁹For when ^pthey had slaughtered their children in…