Ezekiel 22–23

¹And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, ²‘And thou, son of man, dost thou judge? dost thou judge the city of blood? then thou hast caused it to know all its abominations, ³and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: The city is shedding blood in its midst, For the coming in of its time, And it hath made idols on it for defilement. ⁴By thy blood that thou hast shed thou hast been guilty, And by thine idols that thou hast made thou hast been defiled, And thou causest thy days to draw near, And art come in unto thine years, Therefore I have given thee a reproach to nations, And a derision to all the lands. ⁵The near and the far-off from thee scoff at thee, O defiled of name—abounding in trouble. ⁶Lo, princes of Israel—each according to his arm Have been in thee to shed blood. ⁷Father and mother made light of in thee, To a sojourner they dealt oppressively in thy midst, Fatherless and widow they oppressed in thee. ⁸My holy things thou hast despised, And My sabbaths thou hast polluted. ⁹Men of slander have been in thee to shed blood, And on the mountains they have eaten in thee, Wickedness they have done in thy midst. ¹⁰The nakedness of a father hath one uncovered in thee, The defiled of impurity they humbled in thee. ¹¹And each with the wife of his neighbour hath done abomination, And each his daughter-in-law hath defiled through wickedness, And each his sister, his father’s daughter, hath humbled in thee. ¹²A bribe they have taken in thee to shed blood, Usury and increase thou hast taken, And cuttest off thy neighbour by oppression, And Me thou hast forgotten, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah! ¹³And lo, I have smitten My hand, Because of thy dishonest gain that thou hast gained, And for thy blood that hath been in thy midst. ¹⁴Doth thy heart stand—are thy hands strong, For the days that I am dealing with thee? I, Jehovah, have spoken and have done it. ¹⁵And I have scattered thee among nations, And have spread thee out among lands, And consumed thy uncleanness out of thee. ¹⁶And thou hast been polluted in thyself Before the eyes of nations, And thou hast known that I am Jehovah.’

¹⁷And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, ‘Son of man, ¹⁸The house of Israel hath been to Me for dross, All of them are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, In the midst of a furnace—dross hath silver been, ¹⁹Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your all becoming dross, Therefore, lo, I am gathering you unto the midst of Jerusalem, ²⁰A gathering of silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, Unto the midst of a furnace—to blow on it fire, to melt it, So do I gather in Mine anger and in My fury, And I have let rest, and have melted you. ²¹And I have heaped you up, And blown on you in the fire of My wrath, And ye have been melted in its midst. ²²As the melting of silver in the midst of a furnace, So are ye melted in its midst, And ye have known that I, Jehovah, I have poured out My fury upon you.’

²³And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying: ²⁴‘Son of man, say to it, Thou art a land, It is not cleansed nor rained on in a day of indignation. ²⁵A conspiracy of its prophets is in its midst, as a roaring lion tearing prey; The soul they have devoured, Wealth and glory they have taken, Its widows have multiplied in its midst. ²⁶Its priests have wronged My law, And they pollute My holy things, Between holy and common they have not made separation, And between the unclean and the clean they have not made known, And from my sabbaths they have hidden their eyes, And I am pierced in their midst. ²⁷Its princes in its midst are as wolves, Tearing prey, to shed blood, to destroy souls, For the sake of gaining dishonest gain. ²⁸And its prophets have daubed for them with chalk, Seeing a vain thing, and divining for them a lie, Saying, ‘Thus said the Lord Jehovah:’ And Jehovah hath not spoken. ²⁹The people of the land have used oppression, And have taken plunder violently away, And humble and needy have oppressed, And the sojourner oppressed—without judgment. ³⁰And I seek of them a man making a fence, And standing in the breach before Me, In behalf of the land—not to destroy it, And I have not found. ³¹And I pour out on them mine indignation, By fire of My wrath I have consumed them, Their way on their own head I have put, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah!’

Chapter 23

¹And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, ‘Son of man, ²Two women were daughters of one mother, ³And they go a-whoring in Egypt, In their youth they have gone a-whoring, There they have bruised their breasts, And there they have dealt with the loves of their virginity. ⁴And their names are Aholah the elder, And Aholibah her sister, And they are Mine, and bear sons and daughters. As to their names—Samaria is Aholah, And Jerusalem is Aholibah. ⁵And go a-whoring doth Aholah under Me, And she doteth on her lovers, On the neighbouring Assyrians, ⁶Clothed with blue—governors and prefects, Desirable young men all of them, Horsemen, riding on horses, ⁷And she giveth her whoredoms on them, The choice of the sons of Asshur, All of them—even all on whom she doted, By all their idols she hath been defiled. ⁸And her whoredoms out of Egypt she hath not forsaken, For with her they lay in her youth, And they dealt with the loves of her virginity, And they pour out their whoredoms on her. ⁹Therefore I have given her into the hand of her lovers, Into the hand of sons of Asshur on whom she doted. ¹⁰They have uncovered her nakedness, Her sons and her daughters they have taken, And her by sword they have slain, And she is a name for women, And judgments they have done with her.

¹¹And see doth her sister Aholibah, And she maketh her doting love more corrupt than she, And her whoredoms than the whoredoms of her sister. ¹²On sons of Asshur she hath doted, Governors and prefects, Neighbouring ones—clothed in perfection, Horsemen, riding on horses, Desirable young men all of them. ¹³And I see that she hath been defiled, One way is to them both. ¹⁴And she doth add unto her whoredoms, And she seeth graved men on the wall, Pictures of Chaldeans, graved with red lead, ¹⁵Girded with a girdle on their loins, Dyed attire spread out on their heads, The appearance of rulers—all of them, The likeness of sons of Babylon, Chaldea is the land of their birth. ¹⁶And she doteth on them at the sight of her eyes, And sendeth messengers to them, to Chaldea. ¹⁷And come in unto her do sons of Babylon, To the bed of loves, And they defile her with their whoredoms, And she is defiled with them, And her soul is alienated from them. ¹⁸And she revealeth her whoredoms, And she revealeth her nakedness, And alienated is My soul from off her, As alienated was My soul from off her sister. ¹⁹And she multiplieth her whoredoms, To remember the days of her youth, When she went a-whoring in the land of Egypt. ²⁰And she doteth on their paramours, Whose flesh is the flesh of asses, And the issue of horses—their issue. ²¹Thou lookest after the wickedness of thy youth, In dealing out of Egypt thy loves, For the sake of the breasts of thy youth.

²²Therefore, O Aholibah, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am stirring up thy lovers against thee, From whom thy soul hath been alienated, And have brought them in against thee from round about. ²³Sons of Babylon, and of all Chaldea, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, All the sons of Asshur with them, Desirable young men, governors and prefects, All of them—rulers and proclaimed ones, Riding on horses, all of them. ²⁴And they have come in against thee, With arms, rider, and wheel, And with an assembly of peoples; Target, and shield, and helmet, They do set against thee round about, And I have set before them judgment, They have judged thee in their Judgments. ²⁵And I have set My jealousy against thee, And they have dealt with thee in fury, Thy nose and thine ears they turn aside, And thy posterity by sword falleth, They, thy sons and thy daughters do take away, And thy posterity is devoured by fire. ²⁶And they have stripped thee of thy garments, And have taken thy beauteous jewels. ²⁷And I have caused thy wickedness to cease from thee, And thy whoredoms out of the land of Egypt, And thou liftest not up thine eyes unto them, And Egypt thou dost not remember again. ²⁸For thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am giving thee into a hand that thou hast hated, Into a hand from which thou wast alienated. ²⁹And they have dealt with thee in hatred, And they have taken all thy labour, And they have left thee naked and bare, And revealed hath been the nakedness of thy whoredoms, And the wickedness of thy whoredoms. ³⁰To do these things to thee, In thy going a-whoring after nations, Because thou hast been defiled with their idols, ³¹In the way of thy sister thou hast walked, And I have given her cup into thy hand. ³²Thus said the Lord Jehovah: The cup of thy sister thou dost drink, The deep and the wide one, (Thou art for laughter and for scorn,) Abundant to contain. ³³With drunkenness and sorrow thou art filled, A cup of astonishment and desolation, The cup of thy sister Samaria. ³⁴And thou hast drunk it, and hast drained it, And its earthen ware thou dost gnaw, And thine own breasts thou pluckest off, For I have spoken, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, ³⁵Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast forgotten Me, And thou dost cast Me behind thy back, Even thou also bear thy wickedness and thy whoredoms.’

³⁶And Jehovah saith unto me, ‘Son of man, Dost thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? Declare then to them their abominations. ³⁷For they have committed adultery, And blood is in their hands, With their idols they committed adultery, And also their sons whom they bore to Me, They caused to pass over to them for food. ³⁸Again, this they have done to Me, They defiled My sanctuary in that day, And My sabbaths they have polluted. ³⁹And in their slaughtering their sons to their idols They also come in unto My sanctuary in that day to pollute it, And lo, thus they have done in the midst of…