CHAPTER 23
1 And the word of the Lord was made to me, and he said,
2 Thou, son of man, two women were the daughters of one mother,
3 and did fornication in Egypt; in their young waxing age they did fornication; there the breasts of them were made low, and the teats of the time of marriage of them were broken.
4 Forsooth the names of them be, Oholah, the more sister, and Oholibah, the less sister of her. And I had them, and they childed sons and daughters; certainly the names of them be Samaria Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.
5 Therefore Oholah did fornication on me, and was wild on her lovers, on Assyrians nighing,
6 clothed with jacinth, princes, and magistrates, young men of covetous-ness, all knights, riders of horses.
7 And she gave her fornications on them, on all the chosen sons of Assyrians; and in all on which she was wild, she was defouled in the uncleanness of them.
8 Furthermore and she left not her fornications, which she had in Egypt; for why and they slept with her in the youth of her, and they brake the teats of the time of marriage of her, and they shed out their fornication [up] on her.
9 Therefore I gave her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of Assur, on whose lechery she was wild.
10 They discovered the shame of her; they took away the sons and the daughters of her, and killed her with sword; and the women were made infamous, that is, made a scandal, and they did dooms in her.
11 And when her sister Oholibah had seen this, she was wild in lechery more than that sister, and gave unshamefastly her fornication, on the fornication of her sister,
12 to the sons of Assyrians, to dukes and magistrates coming to her, that were clothed with diverse clothes, to knights that were borne on horses, and to young men with noble shape, to all men.
13 And I saw that one way of both sisters was defouled,
14 and she increased her fornications. And when she had seen men painted in the wall, the images of Chaldees expressed with colours,
15 and girded on the reins with knights’ girdles, and caps painted on the heads of them, the forms of all dukes, the likeness of the sons of Babylon, and of the land of Chaldees, in which they were born;
16 she was wild on them by covet-ousness of her eyes, and she sent messengers to them into Chaldea.
17 And when the sons of Babylon were come to her, to the bed of teats, they defouled her in their lecheries of virgins; and she was defouled of them, and the soul of her was filled with revulsion of them.
18 Also she made naked her forni-cations, and discovered her shame; and my soul went away from her, as my soul had gone away from her sister.
19 For she multiplied her fornications, and had mind on the days of her youth, in which she did fornication in the land of Egypt.
20 And she was wild in lechery on the lying-by of them, whose fleshes be as the fleshes of asses, and as the members of horses be the members of them.
21 And thou revisitedest the great trespass of thy youth, when thy breasts were made low in Egypt, and the teats of the time of thy marriage were broken.
22 Therefore, thou Oholibah, the Lord God saith these things, Lo! I shall raise all thy lovers against thee, of which thy soul was filled with revulsion, and I shall gather them against thee in compass;
23 the sons of Babylon, and all Chaldees, noble and mighty men and princes, [and] all the sons of Assyrians, and young men of noble form, dukes, and magistrates, all princes of princes, and [the] named riders of horses.
24 And they arrayed with chariot and wheel shall come on thee, the multitude of peoples shall be armed with habergeon, and shield, and basinet, against thee on each side; and I shall give doom before them, and they shall deem thee by their dooms.
25 And I shall set my fervour in thee, which they shall use with thee in strong vengeance; they shall cut away thy nose and thine ears, and they shall slay with sword those things that were left; they shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy last thing shall be devoured by fire.
26 And they shall make thee naked of thy clothes, and they shall take away the vessels of thy glory.
27 And I shall make thy great trespass to rest from thee, and thy fornication from the land of Egypt; and thou shalt not raise thine eyes to them, and thou shalt no more have mind on Egypt.
28 For the Lord God saith these things, Lo! I shall give thee into the hands of them which thou hatest, into the hands of them of which thy soul was filled with revulsion,
29 and they shall do with thee in hatred. And they shall take away all thy travails, and they shall leave thee naked, and full of shame; and the shame of thy fornications shall be showed.
30 Thy great trespass and thy fornications have done these things to thee; for thou didest fornication after heathen men, among which thou were defouled in the idols of them.
31 Thou wentest in the way of thy sister, and I shall give the cup of her in thine hand.
32 The Lord God saith these things, Thou shalt drink the cup of thy sister, the depth, and the broadness; thou that art most able to take, shalt be into scorning, and into mocking.
33 Thou shalt be filled with drunken-ness and sorrow, with the cup of mourning and of heaviness, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.
34 And thou shalt drink it, and thou shalt drink of till to the dregs, or unto the lees, and thou shalt devour the remnants thereof, and thou shalt rend thy breasts, for I the Lord spake, saith the Lord God.
35 Therefore the Lord God saith these things, For thou hast forgotten me, and hast cast forth me behind thy body, bear thou also thy great trespass and thy fornications.
36 And the Lord God said to me, and spake, Son of man, whether thou deemest Oholibah and Oholah, and tellest to them the great trespasses of them?
37 For they did adultery, and blood was in the hands of them, and they did fornication with their idols; furthermore and they offered to those idols the sons which they engendered to me, for to be devoured.
38 But also they did this to me, they defouled my saintuary in that day, and made unholy my sabbaths.
39 And when they sacrificed their sons to their idols, and entered into my saintuary in that day, that they should defoul it, they did also these things in the midst of mine house.
40 They sent to men coming from far, to which they had sent messengers. Therefore lo! they came, to which thou washedest thee, and anointedest thine eyes with ointment of women, and thou were adorned with women’s attire.
41 Thou satest in a full fair bed, and a board was adorned before thee; thou settedest mine incense and mine ointment on it.
42 And a voice of multitude making full out joy was therein; and in men that were brought of the multitude of men, and came from desert, they setted [or puttedest] bands in the hands of them, and fair crowns on the heads of them.
43 And I said to her, that was defouled in adulteries, Now also this shall do fornication in her fornication.
44 And they entered to her; as to a woman, an whore, so they entered to Oholah and to Oholibah, cursed women.
45 Therefore these men be just, these shall deem those women by the doom of adulteresses, and by the doom of them that shed out blood; for they be adulteresses, and blood is in the hands of them, and they did fornication with their idols.
46 For the Lord God saith these things, Bring thou multitudes to them, and give thou them into noise, and into raven;
47 and be they stoned with the stones of peoples, and be they sticked together with the swords of them. They shall slay the sons and the daughters of them, and they shall burn with fire the houses of them.
48 And I shall do away great trespass from the land; and all women shall learn, that they do not after the great trespass of them.
49 And they shall give your great trespass on you; and ye shall bear the sins of your idols, and ye shall know, that I am the Lord God.