Ezekiel 23:36–49

God’s Judgement on Both Sisters

³⁶The Lord said to me, “Mortal man, are you ready to judge Oholah and Oholibah? Accuse them of the disgusting things they have done. ³⁷They have committed adultery and murder—adultery with idols and murder of the sons they bore me. They sacrificed my sons to their idols. ³⁸And that is not all they did. They profaned my Temple and broke the Sabbath, which I had established. ³⁹The very day that they killed my children as sacrifices to idols, they came to my Temple and profaned it!

⁴⁰“Again and again they sent messengers to invite men to come from a great distance, and the men came. The two sisters would bathe and put on eye shadow and jewellery. ⁴¹They would sit on a beautiful couch, and in front of them they would have a table covered with good things, including the incense and the olive oil that I had given them. ⁴²The sound of a carefree crowd could be heard, a group of men brought in from the desert. They put bracelets on the women’s arms and beautiful crowns on their heads. ⁴³And I said to myself that they were using as a prostitute a woman worn out by adultery.^{a 44}They went back to these prostitutes again and again. They went back to Oholah and Oholibah, those immoral women. ⁴⁵Righteous men will condemn them on the charge of adultery and murder, because they practice adultery and their hands are stained with blood.”

⁴⁶This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Bring a mob to terrorize them and rob them. ⁴⁷Let the mob stone them and attack them with swords, kill their children, and burn down their houses. ⁴⁸Throughout the land I will put a stop to immorality, as a warning to every woman not to commit adultery as they did. ⁴⁹And you two sisters—I will punish you for your immorality and your sin of worshipping idols. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”