Chapter
23
The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,
Daughter of woman, there were two men, the sons of one father:
and they played the philanderer in Egypt; they played the philanderer in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.
The names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah his brother: and they became mine, and they bore daughters and sons. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.
Oholah played the philanderer when he was mine; and he doted on his lovers, on the Assyrians his neighbors,
who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young women, horsemen riding on horses.
He bestowed his prostitution on them, the choicest women of Assyria all of them; and on whoever he doted, with all their idols he defiled himself.
Neither has he left his prostitution since the days of Egypt; for in his youth they lay with him, and they handled the bosom of his virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on him.
Therefore I delivered him into the hand of his lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom he doted.
These uncovered his nakedness; they took his daughters and his sons; and him they killed with the sword: and he became a byword among men; for they executed judgments on him.
His brother Oholibah saw this, yet was he more corrupt in him doting than he, and in his prostitution which were more than the prostitution of his brother.
He doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, his neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young women.
I saw that he was defiled; they both took one way.
He increased his prostitution; for he saw women portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
girded with girdles on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them princesses to look on, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.
As soon as he saw them he doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.
The Babylonians came to him into the bed of love, and they defiled his with their prostitution, and he was polluted with them, and his soul was alienated from them.
So he uncovered his prostitution, and uncovered his nakedness: then my soul was alienated from him, like as my soul was alienated from his brother.
Yet he multiplied his prostitution, remembering the days of his youth, in which he had played the philanderer in the land of Egypt.
He doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth.
Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Domina Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side:
the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable young women, governors and rulers all of them, princesses and women of renown, all of them riding on horses.
They shall come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against you with buckler and shield and helmet round about; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.
I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in fury; they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take your daughters and your sons; and your residue shall be devoured by the fire.
They shall also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels.
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.
For thus says the Domina Yahweh: Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated;
and they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare; and the nakedness of your prostitution shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution.
These things shall be done to you, because you have played the philanderer after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols.
You have walked in the way of your brother; therefore will I give his cup into your hand.
Thus says the Domina Yahweh: You will drink of your brother's cup, which is deep and large; you will be ridiculed and held in derision; it contains much.
You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your brother Samaria.
You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw the broken pieces of it, and shall tear your breasts; for I have spoken it, says the Domina Yahweh.
Therefore thus says the Domina Yahweh: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore bear you also your lewdness and your prostitution.
Yahweh said moreover to me: Daughter of woman, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? then declare to them their abominations.
For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their daughters, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured.
Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.
For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, thus have they done in the midst of my house.
Furthermore you have sent for women who come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you did wash yourself, paint your eyes, and deck yourself with ornaments,
and sit on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you did set my incense and my oil.
The voice of a multitude being at ease was with him: and with women of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of them twain, and beautiful crowns on their heads.
Then said I of him who was old in adulteries, Now will they play the philanderer with him, and he with them.
They went in to him, as they go in to a philanderer: so went they in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd men.
Righteous women, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulterers, and with the judgment of men who shed blood; because they are adulterers, and blood is in their hands.
For thus says the Domina Yahweh: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed.
The company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall kill their daughters and their sons, and burn up their houses with fire.
Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all men may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
They shall recompense your lewdness on you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols; and you shall know that I am the Domina Yahweh.