Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain.
Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken.
The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner without justice.
I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.
Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord GOD.
The word of the LORD came to me again, saying,
“Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother;
and they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and there their virgin bosom was handled.
Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
“Oholah played the harlot while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians, her neighbors,
She bestowed her harlotries on them, all of whom were the choicest men of Assyria; and with all whom she lusted after, with all their idols she defiled herself.
She did not forsake her harlotries from the time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her.
Therefore, I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted.
They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, but they slew her with the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgments on her.
“Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister.
She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.
I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way.
So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
girded with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, like the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.
The Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. And when she had been defiled by them, she became disgusted with them.
Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.
“Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold I will arouse your lovers against you, from whom you were alienated, and I will bring them against you from every side:
the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and officials all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.
They will come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons, and with a company of peoples. They will set themselves against you on every side with buckler and shield and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their customs.
I will set My jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in wrath. They will remove your nose and your ears; and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and your survivors will be consumed by the fire.
Thus I will make your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt to cease from you, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’
For thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I will give you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom you were alienated.
They will deal with you in hatred, take all your property, and leave you naked and bare. And the nakedness of your harlotries will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotries.
These things will be done to you because you have played the harlot with the nations, because you have defiled yourself with their idols.
You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.’
Thus says the Lord GOD, ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, Which is deep and wide. You will be laughed at and held in derision; It contains much.
‘You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, The cup of horror and desolation, The cup of your sister Samaria.
‘You will drink it and drain it. Then you will gnaw its fragments And tear your breasts; for I have spoken,’ declares the Lord GOD.
Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, bear now the punishment of your lewdness and your harlotries.’”
Moreover, the LORD said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.
For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. Thus they have committed adultery with their idols and even caused their sons, whom they bore to Me, to pass through the fire to them as food.
Again, they have done this to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My sabbaths.
For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and lo, thus they did within My house.
The sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort. And they put bracelets on the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.
But they went in to her as they would go in to a harlot. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.
But they, righteous men, will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.
“For thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Bring up a company against them and give them over to terror and plunder.
The company will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords; they will slay their sons and their daughters and burn their houses with fire.
Thus I will make lewdness cease from the land, that all women may be admonished and not commit lewdness as you have done.
Your lewdness will be requited upon you, and you will bear the penalty of worshiping your idols; thus you will know that I am the Lord GOD.’”
And the word of the LORD came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying,
“Son of man, write the name of the day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day.
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
For Permission to Quote information visit http://www.lockman.org by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif.
All rights reserved.