Ezekiel 23 - New Catholic Bible (NCB)

Chapter 23^[a]

The Sins of Two Sisters. ¹ This word of the Lord came to me: ² Son of man, there once were two women, the daughters of the same mother. ³ Even as young girls they became prostitutes in Egypt. There the Egyptians caressed their bosoms and fondled their virginal breasts. ⁴ The older was named Oholah,^[b] and her sister was Oholibah. They were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁵ Oholah became a whore even though she belonged to me. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians— ⁶ warriors dressed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men and skilled horsemen. ⁷ She offered herself as a prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians, and she defiled herself with the idols of all those for whom she lusted. ⁸ Nor did she discontinue the harlotry she had begun in Egypt, where men had slept with her as a young girl, fondling her virginal breasts and pouring out their lust upon her.

⁹ Therefore, I abandoned her to her lovers, the Assyrians, for whom she had lusted. ¹⁰ They stripped her naked, and after they took away her sons and her daughters, they slew her with the sword. She became a byword among women for the justice that was inflicted upon her.

¹¹ Her sister Oholibah saw all this, but she was even more depraved in her lust than her sister, and she surpassed her in harlotry. ¹² She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors arrayed in full armor, skilled horsemen, all of them handsome young men. ¹³ Then I realized that she, too, had been defiled. Both she and her sister had traveled the same path.

¹⁴ However, this younger sister went even further in her harlotry. When she saw male figures carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, ¹⁵ with belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like Babylonian officers, natives of Chaldea; ¹⁶ as soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers^[c] to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ Then the Babylonians came to her, shared her bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. And after she had defiled herself with them, she turned away from them in disgust.

¹⁸ After she had flaunted her harlotry so openly and her nakedness was revealed, I turned from her in disgust as I had withdrawn from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she became even more promiscuous, remembering the days of her youth when she had played the whore in Egypt ²⁰ and lusted for her lecherous paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys and whose ejaculations were like those of stallions.

²¹ You longed for the lewdness of your youth when the Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your breasts. ²² Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: I will now stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned away in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side: ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, all of them governors and commanders, officers and warriors, and all of them mounted on horses. ²⁴ They shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of people, and they will position themselves against you on every side with bucklers, shields, and helmets. I shall authorize them to pass judgment upon you, and they will judge you according to their own ordinances.

²⁵ I will direct my jealous wrath against you so that they will vent their fury against you. They will cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors will perish by the sword. They will seize your sons and your daughters, and what remains of your family will be consumed by fire.^{[d] 26} They shall also strip off your clothes and rob you of your jewels. ²⁷ Thus, I will put an end to the debauchery and lewdness you instituted in Egypt. You will not look back in fond remembrance on the wicked acts you committed or think of Egypt ever again.

²⁸ For thus says the Lord God: I intend to hand you over to those whom you hate, to those whom you regard with disgust. ²⁹ They shall treat you with hatred and seize all the fruit of your labors and leave you stark naked. Your lewdness and your promiscuity ³⁰ have brought this upon you because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.

³¹ Because you have followed in the path of your sister, I will place her cup into your hand. ³² Thus says the Lord God:

You shall drink your sister’s cup,
a cup both wide and deep.
You shall be scorned and mocked
since it holds so much.
³³ You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow
from this cup of ruin and devastation,
the cup of your sister Samaria.
³⁴ You shall drink from it and completely drain it;
then you shall dash it to pieces
and tear out your breasts.

Thus I have spoken, says the Lord God.

³⁵ Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your lewdness and your harlotry.

³⁶ Then the Lord said to me: Son of man, are you willing to pass judgment on Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their abominable deeds. ³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and their hands are stained with blood. They have committed adultery with their idols and offered to them as food the children whom they bore to me.

³⁸ Furthermore, they have also done this to me: At that same time, they defiled my sanctuary and profaned my Sabbaths. ³⁹ For when they had slaughtered my children for their idols, they entered my sanctuary on the same day to desecrate it. That is what they did in my house.

⁴⁰ They even sent messengers to invite men to come from distant lands. And when they arrived, you bathed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with jewels. ⁴¹ Then you reclined on an elegant couch, with a table spread before it upon which you had placed my incense and my oil. ⁴² Meanwhile, the shouts of a raucous mob were heard in the city, and they were brought in together with many of the rabble who had arrived from the wilderness in a drunken stupor. They put bracelets on the arms of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.

⁴³ Then I thought: This woman is worn out with endless acts of adultery, but nevertheless they carry on relentlessly their sexual acts with her. ⁴⁴ For they came to her as men come to a prostitute. Thus, they came to Oholah and Oholibah, those wanton women. ⁴⁵ However, righteous judges will declare them guilty of adultery and of bloodshed, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.

⁴⁶ Thus says the Lord God: Convoke an assembly against them and deliver them over to terror and plunder. ⁴⁷ The assembly shall stone them and slay them with their swords. They shall kill their sons and daughters and set their houses afire. ⁴⁸ Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, so that all women will be solemnly warned not to commit any lewd acts as you have done. ⁴⁹ They will inflict upon you the penalty for your lewdness, and you will suffer the consequences for your sins of idolatry. Thus, you will know that I am the Lord God.

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 23:1 Ezekiel more than once speaks of the terrible weight of sin on the history of Israel (Ezek 16; 20; 22). He has already made use of the allegory of marriage in speaking of this history. Calling here again on the idea of marriage, the prophet tells the story of two cities, Samaria and Jerusalem, that is, of the two parts into which the Hebrew nation broke after the death of Solomon: the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. The course taken by the two cities is once more illustrated by the history of the faithless wife.
2. Ezekiel 23:4 Oholah: “his tent,” a reference to the two illegitimate sanctuaries established by Jeroboam, as opposed to Oholibah, “My tent [is] in her,” i.e., the true temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.
3. Ezekiel 23:16 Sent messengers: the mission was perhaps sent in the time of Hezekiah, when the Assyrian threat was imminent.
4. Ezekiel 23:25 Adulteresses had their noses cut off.