Ezekiel 23

1 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,

2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:

3 And they committed harlotries in Egypt; they committed harlotries in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.

4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,

6 Who were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

7 Thus she committed her harlotries with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.

8 Neither left she her harlotries brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their lust upon her.

9 Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

10 These uncovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her harlotries more than her sister in her harlotries.

12 She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.

13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,

14 And that she increased her harlotries: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

15 Girded with belts upon their loins, flowing turbans upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:

16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.

17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their immorality, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.

18 So she revealed her harlotries, and uncovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, as my mind was alienated from her sister.

19 Yet she multiplied her harlotries, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, when she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

20 For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

21 Thus thou didst call to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the breasts of thy youth.

22 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side;

23 The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.

24 And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall commit against thee buckler and shield and helmet on every side: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.

25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thy ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy remnant shall be devoured by the fire.

26 They shall also strip thee of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.

27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy harlotry brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thy eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.

28 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated:

29 And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy harlotries shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy harlotries.

30 I will do these things to thee, because thou hast played the harlot with the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.

31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thy hand.

32 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed at and had in derision; it containeth much.

33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of horror and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

34 Thou shalt even drink it and drain it, and thou shalt break its pieces, and pluck off thy own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

35 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy harlotries.

36 The LORD said moreover to me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare to them their abominations;

37 That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.

38 Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

39 For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of my house.

40 And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, to whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, didst paint thy eyes, and didst deck thyself with ornaments,

41 And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, upon which thou hast set my incense and my oil.

42 And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, who put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.

43 Then said I to her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit harlotries with her, and she with them?

44 Yet they went in to her, as they go in to a woman that playeth the harlot: so they went in to Aholah and to Aholibah, the lewd women.

45 And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

46 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and plundered.

47 And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire.

48 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

49 And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.