Ezekiel chapter 23
Ezekiel shares a parable of two adulterous sisters. They represent Judah and Israel and their illicit foreign alliances and idolatry. UPDATED.
THE PARABLE OF TWO ADULTEROUS SISTERS
VERSE 1. The LORD’s word came again to me, saying,
VERSE 2. “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother.
VERSE 3. They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there.
VERSE 4. Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.
Oholah. This name means “her tent.” She stands for Samaria, the capital city of the kingdom of Israel.
Oholibah. This name means “my tent is in her.” She stands for Jerusalem, the capital city of the kingdom of Judah. She too lusted after the Assyrians.
VERSE 5. “Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine. She doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,
doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians. Oholah’s sin was her association with the Assyrians. That ultimately led to her doom.
VERSE 6. who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.
VERSE 7. She gave herself as a prostitute to them, all of them the choicest men of Assyria. She defiled herself with the idols of whoever she lusted after.
VERSE 8. She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her. They caressed her youthful nipples; and they poured out their prostitution on her.
VERSE 9. “Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.
VERSE 10. These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters; and they killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.
VERSE 11. “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lusting than she, and in her prostitution which was more depraved than the prostitution of her sister.
VERSE 12. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.
She lusted after the Assyrians. Like her sister, Oholibah also lusted after the Assyrians.
VERSE 13. I saw that she was defiled. They both went the same way.
VERSE 14. “She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Kasdim portrayed with red,
VERSE 15. dressed with belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Kasdim, the land of their birth.
VERSE 16. As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them into Kasdimah.
she lusted after them. After appealing to Assyria, Jerusalem turned to Babylon.
VERSE 17. The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. She was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.
VERSE 18. So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my soul was alienated from her, just like my soul was alienated from her sister.
VERSE 19. Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.
VERSE 20. She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
NLT translation. She lusted after lovers with genitals as large as a donkey’s and emissions like those of a horse.
genitals as large as a donkey’s. The author seem to think the size of a man’s genitals is relevant to a woman’s sexual fulfillment.
VERSE 21. Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the caressing of your nipples by the Egyptians because of your youthful breasts.
VERSE 22. “Therefore, Oholibah, the Lord GOD says: ‘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:
VERSE 23. the Babylonians and all the Kasdim, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; all of them desirable young men, governors and rulers, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.
Pekod, Shoa, Koa. These were three Aramean tribes who lived near the mouth of the Tigris River.
VERSE 24. They will come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples. They will set themselves against you with buckler, shield, and helmet all around. I will commit the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments.
VERSE 25. I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will take away your nose and your ears. Your remnant will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and the rest of you will be devoured by the fire.
VERSE 26. They will also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels.
VERSE 27. Thus I will make your lewdness to cease from you, and remove your prostitution from the land of Egypt; so that you will not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.’
VERSE 28. “For the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated.
VERSE 29. They will deal with you in hatred, and will take away all your labor, and will leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution.
VERSE 30. These things will be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols.
VERSE 31. You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.’
VERSE 32. “The Lord GOD says: ‘You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large. You will be ridiculed and held in derision. It contains much.
VERSE 33. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.
VERSE 34. You will even drink it and drain it out. You will gnaw the broken pieces of it, and will tear your breasts; for I have spoken it,’ says the Lord GOD.
VERSE 35. “Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.’ ”
VERSE 36. The LORD said moreover to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.
VERSE 37. For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured.
GOD’S Word Translation. They have committed adultery. Their hands are covered with blood. They commit adultery with their idols. They have sacrificed the children they gave birth to for me as burnt offerings to idols.
sacrificed the children … as burnt offerings to idols. This was their ultimate sin.
VERSE 38. Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.
VERSE 39. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, they have done this in the middle of my house.
VERSE 40. “Furthermore you sisters have sent for men who come from far away, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you washed yourself, painted your eyes, decorated yourself with ornaments,
men who come from far away. These were ambassadors from Assyria and Babylon.
VERSE 41. and sat on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you set my incense and my oil.
VERSE 42. “The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her. With men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads.
VERSE 43. Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, ‘Now they will play the prostitute with her, and she with them.’
VERSE 44. They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute. So they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.
VERSE 45. 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 in their hands.
VERSE 46. “For the Lord GOD says: ‘I will bring up a mob against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed.
VERSE 47. The company will stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.
VERSE 48. “ ‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to be lewd like you.
VERSE 49. They will recompense your lewdness on you, and you will bear the sins of your idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.’ ”
EZEKIEL
CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48
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