Ezekiel 23:1–21

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.”