Ezekiel 23

1And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother.

3And they committed fornication in Egypt, in their youth they committed fornication: there were their breasts pressed down, and the teats of their virginity were bruised.

4And their names were Oolla the elder, and Ooliba her younger sister: and I took them, and they bore sons and daughters. Now for their names, Samaria is Oolla, and Jerusalem is Ooliba.

5And Oolla committed fornication against me, and doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians that came to her,

6Who were clothed with blue, princes, and rulers, beautiful youths, all horsemen, mounted upon horses.

7And she committed her fornications with those chosen men, all sons of the Assyrians: and she defiled herself with the uncleanness of all them on whom she doted.

8Moreover also she did not forsake her fornications which she had committed in Egypt: for they also lay with her in her youth, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured out their fornication upon her.

9Therefore have I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of the Assyrians, upon whose lust she doted.

10They discovered her disgrace, took away her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword: and they became infamous women, and they executed judgments in her.

11And when her sister Ooliba saw this, she was mad with lust more than she: and she carried her fornication beyond the fornication of her sister.

12Impudently prostituting herself to the children of the Assyrians, the princes, and rulers that came to her, clothed with divers colours, to the horsemen that rode upon horses, and to young men all of great beauty.

13And I saw that she was defiled, and that they both took one way.

14And she increased her fornications: and when she had seen men painted on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans set forth in colours,

15And girded with girdles about their reins, and with dyed turbans on their heads, the resemblance of all the captains, the likeness of the sons of Babylon, and of the land of the Chaldeans wherein they were born,

16She doted upon them with the lust of her eyes, and she sent messengers to them into Chaldea.

17And when the sons of Babylon were come to her to the bed of love, they defiled her with their fornications, and she was polluted by them, and her soul was glutted with them.

18And she discovered her fornications, and discovered her disgrace: and my soul was alienated from her, as my soul was alienated from her sister.

19For she multiplied her fornications, remembering the days of her youth, in which she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

20And she was mad with lust after lying with them whose flesh is as the flesh of asses: and whose issue as the issue of horses.

21And thou hast renewed the wickedness of thy youth, when thy breasts were pressed in Egypt, and the papa of thy virginity broken.

22Therefore, Ooliba, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will raise up against thee all thy lovers with whom thy soul hath been glutted: and I will gather them together against thee round about.

23The children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, the nobles, and the kings, and princes, all the sons of the Assyrians, beautiful young men, all the captains, and rulers, the princes of princes, and the renowned horsemen.

24And they shall come upon thee well appointed with chariot and wheel, a multitude of people: they shall be armed against thee on every side with breastplate, and buckler, and helmet: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee by their judgments.

25And I will set my jealousy against thee, which they shall execute upon thee with fury: they shall cut off thy nose and thy ears: and what remains shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons, and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by fire.

26And they shall strip thee of thy garments, and take away the instruments of thy glory.

27And I will put an end to thy wickedness in thee, and thy fornication brought out of the land of Egypt: neither shalt thou lift up thy eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.

28For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hands of them whom thou hatest, into their hands with whom thy soul hath been glutted.

29And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and they shall take away all thy labours, and shall let thee go naked, and full of disgrace, and the disgrace of thy fornication shall be discovered, thy wickedness, and thy fornications.

30They have done these things to thee, because thou hast played the harlot with the nations among which thou wast defiled with their idols.

31Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister, and I will give her cup into thy hand.

32Thus saith the Lord God: Thou shalt drink thy sister’s cup, deep, and wide: thou shalt be had in derision and scorn, which containeth very much.

33Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness, and sorrow: with the cup of grief, and sadness, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

34And thou shalt drink it, and shalt drink it up even to the dregs, and thou shalt devour the fragments thereof, thou shalt rend thy breasts: because I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

35Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast forgotten me, and hast cast me off behind thy back, bear thou also thy wickedness, and thy fornications.

36And the Lord spoke to me, saying: Son of man, dost thou judge Oolla, and Ooliba, and dost thou declare to them their wicked deeds?

37Because they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and they have committed fornication with their idols: moreover also their children, whom they bore to me, they have offered to them to be devoured.

38Yea, and they have done this to me. They polluted my sanctuary on the same day, and profaned my sabbaths.

39And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, and went into my sanctuary the same day to profane it: they did these things even in the midst of my house.

40They sent for men coming from afar, to whom they had sent a messenger: and behold they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, and didst paint thy eyes, and wast adorned with women’s ornaments.

41Thou sattest on a very fine bed, and a table was decked before thee: whereupon thou didst set my incense, and my ointment.

42And there was in her the voice of a multitude rejoicing: and to some that were brought of the multitude of men, and that came from the desert, they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads.

43And I said to her that was worn out in her adulteries: Now will this woman still continue in her fornication.

44And they went in to her, as to a harlot: so went they in unto Oolla, and Ooliba, wicked women.

45They therefore are just men: these shall judge them as adulteresses are judged, and as shedders of blood are judged: because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

46For thus saith the Lord God: Bring a multitude upon them, and deliver them over to tumult and rapine:

47And lee the people stone them with stones, and let them be stabbed with their swords: they shall kill their sons and daughters, and their houses they shall burn with fire.

48And I will take away wickedness out of the land: and all women shall learn, not to do according to the wickedness of them.

49And they shall render your wickedness upon you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols: and you shall know that I am the Lord God.

1Et factus est sermo Domini ad me, dicens:

2[Fili hominis, duæ mulieres filiæ matris unius fuerunt:

3et fornicatæ sunt in Ægypto, in adolescentia sua fornicatæ sunt: ibi subacta sunt ubera earum, et fractæ sunt mammæ pubertatis earum.

4Nomina autem earum, Oolla major, et Ooliba soror ejus minor: et habui eas, et pepererunt filios et filias. Porro earum nomina, Samaria Oolla, et Jerusalem Ooliba.

5Fornicata est igitur super me Oolla, et insanivit in amatores suos, in Assyrios propinquantes,

6vestitos hyacintho, principes et magistratus, juvenes cupidinis, universos equites, ascensores equorum.

7Et dedit fornicationes suas super eos electos, filios Assyriorum universos: et in omnibus in quos insanivit, in immunditiis eorum polluta est.

8Insuper et fornicationes suas, quas habuerat in Ægypto, non reliquit: nam et illi dormierunt cum ea in adolescentia ejus, et illi confregerunt ubera pubertatis ejus, et effuderunt fornicationem suam super eam.

9Propterea tradidi eam in manus amatorum suorum, in manus filiorum Assur, super quorum insanivit libidine.

10Ipsi discooperuerunt ignominiam ejus, filios et filias ejus tulerunt, et ipsam occiderunt gladio: et factæ sunt famosæ mulieres, et judicia perpetraverunt in ea.

11Quod cum vidisset soror ejus Ooliba, plus quam illa insanivit libidine, et fornicationem suam super fornicationem sororis suæ:

12ad filios Assyriorum præbuit impudenter, ducibus et magistratibus ad se venientibus, indutis veste varia, equitibus qui vectabantur equis, et adolescentibus forma cunctis egregia.

13Et vidi quod polluta esset via una ambarum.

14Et auxit fornicationes suas: cumque vidisset viros depictos in pariete, imagines Chaldæorum expressas coloribus,

15et accinctos balteis renes, et tiaras tinctas in capitibus eorum, formam ducum omnium, similitudinem filiorum Babylonis, terræque Chaldæorum, in qua orti sunt,

16insanivit super eos concupiscentia oculorum suorum, et misit nuntios ad eos in Chaldæam.

17Cumque venissent ad eam filii Babylonis ad cubile mammarum, polluerunt eam stupris suis: et polluta est ab eis, et saturata est anima ejus ab illis.

18Denudavit quoque fornicationes suas, et discooperuit ignominiam suam: et recessit anima mea ab ea, sicut recesserat anima mea a sorore ejus:

19multiplicavit enim fornicationes suas, recordans dies adolescentiæ suæ, quibus fornicata est in terra Ægypti.

20Et insanivit libidine super concubitum eorum, quorum carnes sunt ut carnes asinorum, et sicut fluxus equorum fluxus eorum.

21Et visitasti scelus adolescentiæ tuæ, quando subacta sunt in Ægypto ubera tua, et confractæ sunt mammæ pubertatis tuæ.]

22[Propterea, Ooliba, hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Ecce ego suscitabo omnes amatores tuos contra te, de quibus satiata est anima tua, et congregabo eos adversum te in circuitu:

23filios Babylonis, et universos Chaldæos, nobiles, tyrannosque, et principes, omnes filios Assyriorum, juvenes forma egregia, duces et magistratus universos, principes principum, et nominatos ascensores equorum:

24et venient super te instructi curru et rota, multitudo populorum: lorica, et clypeo, et galea armabuntur contra te undique: et dabo coram eis judicium, et judicabunt te judiciis suis.

25Et ponam zelum meum in te, quem exercent tecum in furore: nasum tuum et aures tuas præcident, et quæ remanserint, gladio concident. Ipsi filios tuos et filias tuas capient, et novissimum tuum devorabitur igni:

26et denudabunt te vestimentis tuis, et tollent vasa gloriæ tuæ.

27Et requiescere faciam scelus tuum de te, et fornicationem tuam de terra Ægypti: nec levabis oculos tuos ad eos, et Ægypti non recordaberis amplius.]

28[Quia hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Ecce ego tradam te in manus eorum quos odisti, in manus de quibus satiata est anima tua.

29Et agent tecum in odio, et tollent omnes labores tuos, et dimittent te nudam et ignominia plenam: et revelabitur ignominia fornicationum tuarum, scelus tuum, et fornicationes tuæ.

30Fecerunt hæc tibi, quia fornicata es post gentes inter quas polluta es in idolis earum.

31In via sororis tuæ ambulasti, et dabo calicem ejus in manu tua.

32Hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Calicem sororis tuæ bibes profundum et latum: eris in derisum et in subsannationem quæ est capacissima.

33Ebrietate et dolore repleberis: calice mœroris et tristitiæ, calice sororis tuæ Samariæ.

34Et bibes illum, et epotabis usque ad fæces: et fragmenta ejus devorabis, et ubera tua lacerabis, quia ego locutus sum, ait Dominus Deus.

35Propterea hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Quia oblita es mei, et projecisti me post corpus tuum, tu quoque porta scelus tuum et fornicationes tuas.]

36Et ait Dominus ad me, dicens: [Fili hominis, numquid judicas Oollam et Oolibam, et annuntias eis scelera earum?

37Quia adulteratæ sunt, et sanguis in manibus earum, et cum idolis suis fornicatæ sunt: insuper et filios suos quos genuerunt mihi, obtulerunt eis ad devorandum.

38Sed et hoc fecerunt mihi: polluerunt sanctuarium meum in die illa, et sabbata mea profanaverunt.

39Cumque immolarent filios suos idolis suis, et ingrederentur sanctuarium meum in die illa ut polluerent illud, etiam hæc fecerunt in medio domus meæ.

40Miserunt ad viros venientes de longe, ad quos nuntium miserant: itaque ecce venerunt quibus te lavisti, et circumlinisti stibio oculos tuos, et ornata es mundo muliebri.

41Sedisti in lecto pulcherrimo, et mensa ornata est ante te: thymiama meum et unguentum meum posuisti super eam.

42Et vox multitudinis exsultantis erat in ea: et in viris, qui de multitudine hominum adducebantur, et veniebant de deserto, posuerunt armillas in manibus eorum, et coronas speciosas in capitibus eorum.

43Et dixi ei, quæ attrita est in adulteriis: Nunc fornicabitur in fornicatione sua etiam hæc.

44Et ingressi sunt ad eam quasi ad mulierem meretricem: sic ingrediebantur ad Oollam et Oolibam, mulieres nefarias.

45Viri ergo justi sunt: hi judicabunt eas judicio adulterarum, et judicio effundentium sanguinem: quia adulteræ sunt, et sanguis in manibus earum.

46Hæc enim dicit Dominus Deus: Adduc ad eas multitudinem, et trade eas in tumultum et in rapinam.

47Et lapidentur lapidibus populorum, et confodiantur gladiis eorum: filios et filias earum interficient, et domos earum igne succendent.

48Et auferam scelus de terra, et discent omnes mulieres ne faciant secundum scelus earum.

49Et dabunt scelus vestrum super vos, et peccata idolorum vestrorum portabitis: et scietis quia ego Dominus Deus.]

1And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2“Son of man, two women were daughters of one mother,

3and they fornicated in Egypt; they committed fornication in their youth. In that place, their breasts were conquered; the breasts of their adolescence were subdued.

4Now their names were Oholah, the elder, and Oholibah, her younger sister. And I held them, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names: Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

5And then, Oholah committed fornication against me, and she acted madly with her lovers, with the Assyrians who approached her,

6who were clothed with hyacinth: rulers and magistrates, passionate youths and all of the horsemen, mounted on horses.

7And she distributed her fornications to those chosen men, all of them sons of the Assyrians. And she defiled herself with the uncleanness of all those whom she madly desired.

8Moreover, she also did not abandon her fornications, which she had done in Egypt. For they also slept with her in her youth, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication upon her.

9Because of this, I have delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of the Assur, whom she has lustfully desired.

10They uncovered her shame; they took away her sons and daughters; and they slew her with the sword. And they became infamous women. And they carried out judgments in her.

11And when her sister, Oholibah, had seen this, she was even more mad with lust than the other. And her fornication was beyond the fornication of her sister.

12She shamelessly offered herself to the sons of the Assyrians, to the rulers and magistrates who brought themselves to her clothed with colorful garments, to the horsemen who were carried by horses, and to the youths, all of them exceptional in appearance.

13And I saw that she had been defiled, and that they both took the same path.

14And she increased her fornications. And when she had seen men depicted on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans, expressed in colors,

15with belts wrapped around the waist, and with dyed headdresses on their heads, having seen the appearance of all the rulers, the likenesses of the sons of Babylon and of the land of the Chaldeans in which they were born,

16she became mad for them with the desire of her eyes, and she sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

17And when the sons of Babylon had gone to her, to the bed of breasts, they defiled her with their fornications, and she was polluted by them, and her soul was gorged by them.

18Also, her fornications were uncovered, and her shame was revealed. And my soul withdrew from her, as my soul had withdrawn from her sister.

19For she multiplied her fornications, remembering the days of her youth, in which she fornicated in the land of Egypt.

20And she was mad with lust after lying with them, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose flow is like the flow of horses.

21And you have revisited the crimes of your youth, when your breasts were conquered in Egypt, and the breasts of your adolescence were subdued.

22Because of this, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will raise up against you all of your lovers, with whom your soul has been gorged. And I will gather them together against you all around:

23the sons of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, the nobles, the sovereigns and princes, all the sons of the Assyrians, youths of exceptional form, all the rulers and magistrates, the leaders among leaders, and the renowned riders of horses.

24And they will overwhelm you, well-equipped with chariot and wheel, a multitude of peoples. They will be armed against you on every side with armor and shield and helmet. And I will give judgment to their eyes, and they will judge you with their judgments.

25And against you, I will set my zeal, which they will execute upon you with fury. They will cut off your nose and your ears. And what remains will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and your daughters, and your youngest will be devoured by fire.

26And they will strip you of your vestments, and take away the articles of your glory.

27And I will cause your wickedness to cease from you, and your fornication to cease from the land of Egypt. Neither shall you lift up your eyes toward them, and you shall no longer remember Egypt.

28For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you have hated, into the hands by which your soul has been gorged.

29And they will act toward you with hatred, and they will take away all your labors, and they will send you away naked and filled with disgrace. And the shame of your fornication will be revealed: your crimes and your fornications.

30They have done these things to you, because you have fornicated after the Gentiles, among whom you were defiled by their idols.

31You have walked in the way of your sister, and so I will give her chalice into your hand.

32Thus says the Lord God: You will drink the chalice of your sister, deep and wide. You will be held in derision and in ridicule, to a very great extent.

33You will be filled with inebriation and sorrow, by the chalice of grief and sadness, by the chalice of your sister Samaria.

34And you will drink it, and you will empty it, even to the dregs. And you will consume even its particles. And you will wound your own breasts. For I have spoken, says the Lord God.

35Because of this, thus says the Lord God: Since you have forgotten me, and you have cast me behind your body, so also will you bear your wickedness and your fornications.”

36And the Lord spoke to me, saying: “Son of man, should you not judge Oholah and Oholibah, and announce to them their crimes?

37For they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands, and they have fornicated with their idols. Moreover, they have offered even their children, whom they bore for me, to them to be devoured.

38But they have done even this to me: They have defiled my sanctuary on the same day, and they have profaned my Sabbaths.

39And when they immolated their children to their idols, they also entered my sanctuary on the same day, so that they defiled it. They have done these things, even in the midst of my house.

40They sent for men who were coming from far away, to whom they had sent a messenger. And so, behold, they arrived, those for whom you washed yourself, and smeared cosmetics around your eyes, and were adorned with feminine ornaments.

41You sat upon a very beautiful bed, and a table was adorned before you, on which you placed my incense and my ointment.

42And the voice of a multitude was exulting within her. And concerning certain men, who were being led out of a multitude of persons, and who were arriving from the desert, they placed bracelets on their hands and beautiful crowns on their heads.

43And I said about her, as she was being worn away by her adulteries, ‘Even now, she continues in her fornication!’

44And they entered to her, as if to a kept woman. So did they enter to Oholah and Oholibah, nefarious women.

45But there are just men; these shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of those who shed blood. For they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.

46For thus says the Lord God: Lead upon them a multitude, and hand them over to tumult and to pillaging.

47And may they be stoned with the stones of the peoples, and may they be pierced with their own swords. They will put to death their sons and daughters, and they will burn their houses with fire.

48And I will take away wickedness from the land. And all women shall learn not to act according to their wickedness.

49And they will set your own crimes upon you, and you will bear the sins of your idols. And you shall know that I am the Lord God.”