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.

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Footnotes

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”