22And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,^a ²“And you, son of man,^b will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city?^c Then you must make known to her all of her detestable things! ³And you must say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “A city pouring out blood in the midst of her; its time has come,^d and it made idols for itself, becoming unclean. ⁴By your blood that you poured out you have become guilty, and by your idols that you made you have become unclean, and you have brought your days near, and your appointed years have come.^e Therefore I have made you a disgrace for the nations and a laughingstock to all of the countries. ⁵The people near and the people far from you will make fun of you, the unclean and the terrified.^f ⁶Look! The princes of Israel, each one according to his strength,^g they are in you for the shedding of blood.^h ⁷They have treated father and mother with contempt in you; they violatedⁱ the alien with^j extortion; in the midst of you they mistreated the orphan and widow. ⁸You despised my holy objects; my Sabbaths you profaned. ⁹Slanderous men are among you^k to shed blood, and they, among you,^l eat upon the mountains; they do wickedness in the midst of you. ¹⁰They uncover the nakedness of a father among^m you; they violate a woman unclean of menstruation amongⁿ you. ¹¹And a man does a detestable thing with the wife of his neighbor, and a man defiles his daughter-in-law in wickedness, and a man sexually violates among^o you his sister, the daughter of his father. ¹²They take a bribe among^p you in order to shed blood; and you take usury, and you make gain from your neighbors by extortion, and so you have forgotten me, declares^q the Lord Yahweh. ¹³And look! I strike my hand for your ill-gotten gain that you have made and at your blood that was in the midst of you. ¹⁴Can your heart endure,^r or can your hands be strong at the days in which I am dealing with you? I, Yahweh, I have spoken, and I will act! ¹⁵I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your uncleanness from you. ¹⁶And I will be profaned by you before the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am Yahweh.” ’ ”

¹⁷And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,^s ¹⁸“Son of man,^t the house of Israel has become as silver dross to me; all of them are as bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace, even as silver dross, silver dross they became! ¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Because all of you have become as silver dross, therefore look! I am gathering you to the midst of Jerusalem, ²⁰like the gathering of silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin to the middle of a furnace to blow fire on it for melting. Thus I will gather in my anger and in my rage, and I will deposit^u you, and I will melt you. ²¹And I will gather you, and I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and so I will melt you in the midst of her. ²²Thus you will be melted like the melting of silver in the midst of a furnace, and you will know that I, Yahweh, I have poured out my rage on you.’ ” ²³And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,^v ²⁴“Son of man,^w say to her, ‘You are a land not cleansed; it is not rained upon in the day of indignation.’ ²⁵The conspiracy of its prophets in the midst of her is like a roaring lion that is tearing prey. They devour people, and they take wealth and treasure; they make its widows numerous in the midst of her. ²⁶Its priests treat my law violently, and they profane my holy objects; they do not distinguish between a holy object and what is unholy, or between the clean and the unclean. They do not teach the difference, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and so I am profaned in the midst of them. ²⁷Its officials are like wolves tearing prey in its midst, to pour out blood, to destroy people, to make dishonest gain. ²⁸And for them its prophets plaster whitewash; they are seeing falseness and are practicing divination for them by lying, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh,’ and Yahweh has not spoken. ²⁹They severely oppress the people of the land, and they committed robbery,^x and they mistreated the needy and the poor, and they oppressed the alien without^y justice. ³⁰And so I sought for them somebody, one repairing the wall and standing in the breach before me^z on behalf of the land not to destroy it, but I did not find anyone, ³¹and so I poured out my indignation on them. With the fire of my wrath I destroyed them; I returned their way upon their head,” declares^a the Lord Yahweh.

Oholah and Oholibah as Symbols of God’s Corrupt People

23And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,^a ²“Son of man,^b there were two women, the daughters of one mother, ³and they prostituted themselves in Egypt in their childhood; they were prostituting themselves there, and their breasts were fondled, and there they caressed the bosoms of their virginity. ⁴Now as for their names, the older was Oholah, and Oholibah was her sister. And they became mine,^c and they bore sons and daughters, and their names^d are Samaria for Oholah, and Jerusalem for Oholibah. ⁵And Oholah prostituted herself while she was still mine,^e and she lusted for her lovers, for Assyria who was nearby, ⁶clothed in blue cloth, governors and prefects, handsome young men^f and all of them horsemen, experts on horseback.^g ⁷And she bestowed her fornication on them, on the choice ones of the Assyrians,^h all of them, and with every one after which she lusted; with all of their idols she defiled herself. ⁸And her whorings from the time of Egypt she did not abandon, for they slept with her in her childhood, and they caressed the bosoms of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication on her. ⁹Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyriansⁱ after whom she lusted.^j ¹⁰They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. And she became a name for the women, and they executed judgments against her.

¹¹“And though Oholibah her sister saw, yet in her lust she behaved more corruptly than her,^k and her whoring was more than the prostitution of her sister. ¹²She lusted after the Assyrians,^l governors and prefects, warriors^m clothed inⁿ perfection,^o expert horsemen,^p all of them handsome young men.^q ¹³And I saw that she was defiled; they had both taken the same path!^r ¹⁴And she increased her whorings, and she saw men carved^s on the wall, images of Chaldeans^t carved in red, ¹⁵belted with a belt at^u their waist with turbans on their heads, all of them giving the appearance of adjutants,^v the image^w of the Babylonians;^x Chaldea was the land of their birth. ¹⁶And she lusted for them when her eyes saw them,^y and she sent messengers to them at Chaldea. ¹⁷And so the Babylonians^z came to her for the bed of lovemaking; and they defiled her with their fornication, and she was defiled by them, and she turned from them. ¹⁸And she revealed her whorings, and she revealed her nakedness, and so I turned from her just as^a I turned from her sister. ¹⁹Yet^b she increased her whorings, recalling^c the days of her childhood when she was prostituted^d in the land of Egypt. ²⁰And she lusted after her male lovers whose genitalia were the genitalia of male donkeys and their seminal emission was the seminal emission of horses. ²¹And you longed after the obscene conduct of your youth when your bosom was caressed by Egypt, fondling your young breasts.

²²“Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Look! I am stirring up your lovers against you concerning whom you turned away, and I will bring them against you from all around: ²³the Babylonians^e and all of the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all of the Assyrians^f along with them, handsome young men,^g governors and prefects, all of them adjutants^h and excellent horsemen.ⁱ ²⁴And they will come against you with an army chariot and wagon and with a crowd^j of peoples; they will set themselves against you from all around with large shield and small shield and helmet. And I will give before them^k judgment, and they will judge you with their judgments. ²⁵And I will direct my zeal against you, and they will deal with you in anger; your nose and your ears they will remove, and those who are left,^l they will fall by the sword, and they will take your sons and your daughters, and your remnant^m will be consumed by fire. ²⁶And they will strip you of your clothes, and they will take your splendid jewelry.ⁿ ²⁷And I will put an end to your obscene conduct coming from you and your fornication from the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them; and you will not remember Egypt again.’ ²⁸For thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Look! I am giving you into the hand of those you hated, into the hand of those from whom^o you turned away. ²⁹And they will deal with you in hatred, and they will take all of your acquisitions, and they will leave you naked and in bareness; and the nakedness of your fornication and your obscene conduct and your whorings will be exposed. ³⁰These things are accomplished^p against^q you since you prostituted yourself after the nations, and on account of that, you defiled yourself by their idols. ³¹You went in the same way of your sister, and I will give her cup into your hand.” ’

³²Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “You will drink the deep and wide^r cup of your sister; you will be as laughter and as scorn; the cup holds so much!^s ³³You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, for a cup of horror and desolation is the cup of your sister, Samaria. ³⁴And you will drink it, and you will drain it, and its potsherds you will gnaw, and you will tear out your breasts, for I myself^t spoke,” declares^u the Lord Yahweh. ³⁵Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Because you have forgotten me, and you threw me behind your back, now in turn^v you bear your obscene conduct and your whorings.”

³⁶And Yahweh said to me, “Son of man,^w…

Read in Logos

This passage has been shortened. Keep reading Ezekiel 22–23 in Logos

Footnotes

aLiterally “to say”
bOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
cLiterally “city of blood”
dLiterally “to come time her its”
eLiterally “and it came to years your”
fLiterally “the unclean of the name the great of the panic”
gOr “influence”
hLiterally “to shedding of blood”
iLiterally “they did with extortion”
jOr “by”
kLiterally “in you”
lLiterally “in you”
mHebrew “in”
nHebrew “in”
oHebrew “in”
pHebrew “in”
qLiterally “declaration of”
rOr “hold up”
sLiterally “to say”
tOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
uLiterally “I will put/place”
vLiterally “to say”
wOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
xLiterally “and they seized a robbed things”
yLiterally “with not”
zLiterally “to the face of me”
aLiterally “declaration of”
aLiterally “to say”
bOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
cLiterally “they were for me”
dHebrew “name”
eLiterally “under me”
fLiterally “young men of handsomeness/beauty”
gLiterally “riders of horsemen”
hLiterally “sons of Assyria”
iLiterally “sons of Assyria”
jLiterally “which she lusted for them”
kLiterally “she behaved corruptly in lust from her”
lLiterally “sons of Assyria”
mHebrew uncertain
nOr “to”
oOr “in full armor” or “wonderfully dressed”
pLiterally “horsemen, riders of horses”
qLiterally “young men of handsomeness”
rLiterally “way one was for the two of them”
sOr “portrayed”
tAccording to the reading tradition (Qere)
uOr “around”
vOr “officers”
wOr “likeness”
xLiterally “sons of Babylon”
yLiterally “at the sight of her eyes”
zLiterally “sons of Babylon”
aLiterally “as that”
bOr “And”
cOr “remembering”
dOr “prostituted herself”
eLiterally “sons of Babylon”
fLiterally “sons of Assyria”
gLiterally “young men of beauty/handsomeness”
hOr “officers”
iLiterally “ones called riders of horses”
jOr “horde” or “host of”
kLiterally “to the face of them”
lLiterally “and remainder your”
mLiterally “and remainder your”
nLiterally “the jewelry of splendor your”; or “your beautiful jewelry”
oLiterally “them”
pOr “done”
qHebrew “in”
rOr place “drink deep and wide the cup”
sLiterally “a large among to hold”
tLiterally “I, I”
uLiterally “declaration of”
vOr “also”
wOr “mortal,” or “son of humankind”