Ezekiel 23

₁The Lord talked to me and He said: ₂‘Son of man, there were 2 women who were daughters of the same mother. ₃When they were young in Egypt, they started to have sex with men. They let men feel their breasts while they were young girls. ₄The name of the oldest daughter was Oholah and her sister was Oholibah. They became my wives and we had sons and daughters. Oholah is a name for the city of Samaria and Oholibah is a name for Jerusalem.’

₅‘But Oholah was unfaithful to Me. She started to sleep with the Assyrian soldiers. ₆They had beautiful clothes like kings. They were governors and chiefs, beautiful young men who rode on horses. ₇Oholah had sex with all the best Assyrians. She loved them a lot and she made herself impure with all their idols. ₈She started to have sex with men in Egypt and she has not stopped doing it. She was young when she started to sleep with them and they felt her breasts while she was a young girl. They did with her what they wanted to do.

₉She was in love with the Assyrians, so I gave her to them. ₁₀They took off all her clothes and left her naked. They took her sons and her daughters and then they killed her. They punished her so badly that other women feared when they heard her name.’

₁₁‘Her sister, Oholibah, saw what happened to her, but Oholibah loved to sleep with men and she became even more unfaithful than her sister. ₁₂She was in love with the Assyrians. They were governors and chiefs, soldiers who had beautiful clothes and who rode on horses. They were good-looking young men, and all the girls fell in love with them. ₁₃I saw that Oholibah made herself impure. She did the same things that her sister had done.

₁₄Oholibah became more unfaithful. She saw pictures of men against a wall, paintings of Babylonian men that someone had drawn with red paint. ₁₅Every man had a belt around his hips and a long turban on his head. It seemed as if the men were officers. They looked like Babylonians who came from the land where they were born. ₁₆When Oholibah saw the pictures, she immediately fell in love with the Babylonians. She sent messengers to them in the land of Babylon. ₁₇They came to her and they had sex with her and made her impure. But after she had made herself impure with them, she stopped loving them and started to hate them.

₁₈She did not stop being unfaithful. She took off all her clothes for everyone. Then I stopped loving her as I had also stopped loving her sister. ₁₉She remembered how unfaithful she had been in Egypt when she was young and she became even more unfaithful. ₂₀She wanted to have sex with men who had genitals as big as donkey stallions and horse stallions. ₂₁Yes, Oholibah, you longed for the bad things that you had done in Egypt when you were young and let the men feel your breasts.’

₂₂The Lord God says: ‘Oholibah, because you did that, I will bring people to attack you. You loved those people, but you don't love them anymore. I will bring them from all sides to fight against you. ₂₃The men who will come to attack you are Babylonians, the men from Pekod, Shoa, Koa and all the Assyrians. They are young and strong men, and all the girls fall in love with them. They are all governors, chiefs, officers and important men, and they all ride on horses. ₂₄They will come from the north with war-chariots and a lot of soldiers with shields and helmets. They will attack you from all sides. I will bring them to punish you and they will do it as they want to. ₂₅I am angry with you and I will stay angry. They are also angry with you and they will do to you what they want to do. They will cut off your nose and your ears and they will take away your sons and daughters. The people who are still_alive after that will die in war and the enemies will burn down everything that is left over in the city. ₂₆They will take off all your clothes and take your jewellery for themselves. ₂₇This is how I will stop you from doing things that are bad. You will stop being unfaithful as you were in Egypt. You will never remember that time again.’

₂₈The Lord God says: ‘Yes, I will now give you to the people that you hate, the people that you don't love anymore. _29-30They will also hate you and they will take everything you have. Then they will leave you. You will be naked, without any clothes. They will show everyone how unfaithful you were and what bad things you did. This will happen to you because you were unfaithful to Me. You did what the other nations did and you made yourself impure when you worshipped_their_idols. ₃₁You have lived like your sister did, and that is why I give you the cup_of_suffering that your sister had to drink.’

₃₂The Lord God says: ‘You will drink the cup that your sister had to drink. It is a big cup. The other nations will laugh at you and they will mock you because the cup is full, and you will have to drink a lot. ₃₃You will get drunk and you will suffer a lot. You will become afraid and you will be completely alone when you drink the cup that your sister, Samaria, had to drink. ₃₄You will drink everything that is in the cup. You will empty it and then you will bite the cup and chew all the pieces. You will tear off your breasts, because I have spoken.’ This is what the Lord God said.

₃₅The Lord God says: ‘You have forgotten Me and you have turned your back on Me. That is why I will punish you for the bad things that you did when you were unfaithful.’

₃₆The Lord said to me: ‘Son of man, you must judge Oholah and Oholibah. You must tell them they have done things that I hate, ₃₇because they have committed_adultery and they have killed people. They were unfaithful, and they served_idols. They had children. They were my children, but they burnt my children too so that the idols could have food. ₃₈And they also made my temple and my Sabbath day impure in one day. ₃₉They killed their children and gave them to their idols as offerings and they came and made my temple impure on the same day. Yes, that is what they did in my house.

₄₀They also sent messengers to invite a lot of men to come to them from far away. When the messengers asked the men to come, they came immediately. Oholah and Oholibah, you bathed yourselves for them, you painted your eyes and you put on all your jewellery. ₄₁You sat on a beautiful bed and you put a table in front of the bed. On the table you put my incense and my olive oil. ₄₂There were a lot of people in the city and they did not worry about anything. But there were also men who came from the desert. They were drunk and they put bracelets on the 2 sisters' arms and beautiful crowns on their heads. ₄₃I thought the 2 of you would become tired of adultery and would not keep on being unfaithful. ₄₄But the men came to you like men going to a prostitute. This is how they came to Oholah and Oholibah, the bad women. ₄₅Good and righteous men will judge these women. They will judge them like people judge women who have committed_adultery and people who have murdered someone, because these 2 women have committed_adultery and they have killed people.’

₄₆Yes, the Lord God says: ‘You must call the congregation to come together and to judge these 2 women. Everyone must become afraid when they see what happens to the women. Everyone must see that there is nothing left of them. ₄₇The congregation must kill the 2 women with stones and cut them into pieces with axes. They must also kill the children of the 2 women and burn their houses. ₄₈This is how I want to stop the sinful things in the land. All the women must be afraid and they must not do the same bad things. ₄₉This is how I will punish you for the bad things that you did when you served_idols. You will know that I am the Lord God.’