Ezekiel 23

The Allegory of Two Sisters: Oholah and Oholibah's Unfaithfulness and Judgment

7 min read

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 prostitutions in Egypt; they committed prostitutions 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 neighbors,
6 Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.
7 Thus she committed her prostitutions 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 prostitutions brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their prostitution on her.
9 Why I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.
10 These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment on her.
11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her prostitutions more than her sister in her prostitutions.
12 She doted on the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on 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 prostitutions: for when she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
15 Girded with girdles on their loins, exceeding in dyed attire on 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 on 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 prostitution, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.
18 So she discovered her prostitutions, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.
19 Yet she multiplied her prostitutions, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
20 For she doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
21 Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth, in bruising your teats by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth. ¶
22 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your mind is alienated, and I will bring them against you 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 on horses.
24 And they shall come against you with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against you buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.
25 And I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal furiously with you: they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take your sons and your daughters; and your residue shall be devoured by the fire.
26 They shall also strip you out of your clothes, and take away your fair jewels.
27 Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from you, and your prostitution brought from the land of Egypt: so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.
28 For thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your mind is alienated:
29 And they shall deal with you hatefully, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bore: and the nakedness of your prostitutions shall be discovered, both your lewdness and your prostitutions.
30 I will do these things to you, because you have gone a whoring after the heathen, and because you are polluted with their idols.
31 You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give her cup into your hand.
32 Thus says the Lord GOD; You shall drink of your sister’s cup deep and large: you shall be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it contains much.
33 You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 You shall even drink it and suck it out, and you shall break the shards thereof, and pluck off your own breasts: for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD.
35 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore bear you also your lewdness and your prostitutions. ¶
36 The LORD said moreover to me; Son of man, will you judge Aholah and Aholibah? yes, 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, see, thus have they done in the middle of my house.
40 And furthermore, that you have sent for men to come from far, to whom a messenger was sent; and, see, they came: for whom you did wash yourself, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments,
41 And sat on a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon you have 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, which put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads.
43 Then said I to her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit prostitutions with her, and she with them?
44 Yet they went in to her, as they go in to a woman that plays the harlot: so went they 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 says the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company on them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.
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 up 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 on you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols: and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
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