The parable of the unfaithful sisters
23
✭The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 2 📚✭“Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother, 3 📚and they committed acts of prostitution in Egypt. They committed acts of prostitution in their youth. There their breasts were pressed, and there their virgin bosoms were embraced. 4 📚✭And their names were Aholah, the older one, and Aholibah, her sister. And they were mine and bore sons and daughters. And their names: Aholah is Samaria, and Aholibah is Jerusalem. 5 📚“And Aholah acted like a prostitute when she was mine; and she lusted after her lovers, her neighbours the Assyrians✭, 6 📚who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. 7 📚So she committed her acts of prostitution with them, with all those who were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all whom she lusted after; she defiled herself with all their idols. 8 📚✭And she did not abandon her prostitution carried on from Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they embraced her virgin bosom, and poured their immorality on her.
9 📚✭“Therefore I have delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, whom she lusted after. 10 📚These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters, and killed her with the sword. And she became notorious among women, for they had executed judgment on her.
11 📚✭“And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her prostitution worse than her sister in her prostitution. 12 📚She lusted after her neighbors the Assyrians, captains and rulers dressed very splendidly, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. 13 📚Then I saw that she was defiled, that both of them had taken the same way, 14 📚✭and that she increased her acts of prostitution. For she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in red, 15 📚with sashes tied around their waists, and flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, in the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their birth.
16 📚“And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she lusted after them, and sent messengers to Chaldea to them. 17 📚✭And the Babylonians came to her in the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. And she was defiled by them, and her mind was alienated from them. 18 📚So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my mind was alienated from her, just as my mind was alienated from her sister. 19 📚✭Yet she multiplied her acts of prostitution, calling to remembrance the days of her youth, where she had acted like a prostitute in the land of Egypt. 20 📚For she lusted after her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 21 Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians embraced your bosom because of your youthful breasts.
22 📚✭“Therefore, O Aholibah, thus says the Lord God: See, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your mind is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side, 23 📚The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding on horses. 24 📚And they will come against you with weapons✭, chariots and wagons, and with a horde of people, who will set large shields and small shields and helmets against you all around. And I will delegate judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments. 25 📚And I will set my jealousy✭ against you, and they will deal furiously with you. They will remove your nose and your ears, and the rest of you will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and your daughters, and the remainder of you will be devoured by fire. 26 📚They will also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels. 27 📚✭Thus I will put a stop to your lewdness, and your prostitution carried on from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them, or remember Egypt any more.
28 📚“For thus says the Lord God: See, I will deliver you into the hands of those you hate, into the hands of those from whom your mind is alienated. 29 📚And they will deal with you hatefully, and take away all that your labour produced, and will leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your acts of prostitution. 30 📚✭I will do these things to you, because you have gone like a prostitute after the nations, and because you are defiled with their idols. 31 📚You have walked in the way of your sister, therefore I will give her cup✭ into your hand.
32 📚“Thus says the Lord God:
You will drink from the deep
and large cup of your sister.
You will be laughed to scorn
and derided. It contains much.
33 📚You will be filled with drunkenness
and sorrow, with the cup of
astonishment and desolation,
with the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 📚You will drink it and drain it,
and you will break it to shards,
and tear your own breasts;
for I have spoken it,
says the Lord God.
35 📚“Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten✭ me, and thrust me behind your back, therefore you will also bear✭ your lewdness and your prostitution”.
36 📚✭The LORD also said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Aholah and Aholibah? Yes, declare to them their abominations. 37 📚Tell them that they have committed adultery, and that blood✭ is in their hands, and that they have committed adultery with their idols, and have also caused their sons✭, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire, for them to devour. 38 📚✭Moreover they have done this to me: on the same day they have defiled my sanctuary and profaned my Sabbaths. 39 📚For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, they then came the same day into my sanctuary to defile it; and, see, this they have done inside my house.
40 📚✭“And furthermore, you sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and, see, they came. You washed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments, 41 📚and sat on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, on which you placed my incense and my oil.
42 📚“And a sound of a carefree crowd was with her; and Sabeans were brought from the wilderness, with men of the common sort, who put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 📚Then I said about this one grown old in adulteries, ‘Will they now commit acts of prostitution with her, and she with them?’ 44 📚And they went in to her, as they go in to a woman who acts like a prostitute; so they went in to Aholah and to Aholibah, the lewd women. 45 📚✭And the righteous men will judge them as adulteresses, and as women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
46 📚“For thus says the Lord God: I will bring a crowd against them, and will hand them over to be terrorized and plundered. 47 📚And the crowd will stone them with stones, and execute them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire.