Ezekiel

The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

1The LORD spoke to me again. He said:

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

2“Son of man, there were two women. They were daughters of the same mother.

Note“Son of man” is what God calls Ezekiel all through this book. It simply means “human being.”

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

3They sold their bodies in Egypt. They did this while they were still young. There men handled them and used them.

4And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

4The older one was named Aholah. Her sister was named Aholibah. They belonged to me, and they had sons and daughters. Aholah is Samaria, and Aholibah is Jerusalem.

NoteSamaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel. Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah. Each sister in this story stands for one of those cities and its people.

5And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,

5Aholah was unfaithful to me while she still belonged to me. She burned with desire for her lovers, the Assyrian soldiers who lived nearby.

6Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

6They wore blue. They were governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, riding on horses.

7Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.

7She gave herself to all the leading men of Assyria. She made herself filthy with the idols of every man she wanted.

8Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.

8She never gave up the life she had begun in Egypt. Men had slept with her when she was young and used her body.

9Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

9So I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians she had wanted so badly.

10These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

10They stripped her bare. They seized her sons and daughters and killed her with the sword. Women everywhere told her story, because she had been punished.

11And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.

11Her sister Aholibah saw all this. But she was even worse. Her desire and her unfaithfulness went further than her sister's.

12She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.

12She too burned for the Assyrians—governors and commanders, soldiers in splendid clothes, horsemen, all of them handsome young men.

13Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,

13I saw that she had made herself filthy as well. Both sisters had taken the same road.

14And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,

14She went further still. She saw men drawn on a wall, pictures of Chaldeans painted in bright red.

NoteVermilion is a bright red paint. “Chaldeans” is another name for the people of Babylon.

15Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:

15They wore belts around their waists and loose turbans on their heads. They all looked like Babylonian officers from Chaldea, the land where they were born.

16And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

16The moment she saw them, she wanted them. She sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

17And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.

17The Babylonians came to her bed and used her. They made her filthy. Then she turned away from them in disgust.

18So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.

18She was open about her unfaithful life and let herself be seen naked. So I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned from her sister.

19Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

19Even so, she went further. She kept remembering when she was young and sold herself in the land of Egypt.

20For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

20She burned for her lovers there, men whose bodies were like the bodies of donkeys and horses.

21Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

21So you went back to the shameful things you did when you were young, when the Egyptians handled you.

22Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side;

22So, Aholibah, the Lord GOD says this: I will stir up your lovers against you, the very ones you turned from in disgust. I will bring them at you from every side.

23The 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 upon horses.

23The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them. All are handsome young men, governors and commanders, officers and famous men, riding on horses.

24And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.

24They will come at you with weapons, chariots, wagons, and a huge crowd of people. They will surround you with small shields, large shields, and helmets. I will hand the judging over to them, and they will punish you by their own rules.

25And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.

25I will turn my burning anger against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your nose and your ears. Those who are left will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and daughters, and fire will destroy the rest.

26They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.

26They will strip the clothes off you and take away your fine jewelry.

27Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

27That will put an end to your shameful ways and the unfaithfulness you brought from Egypt. You will not look toward them or think about Egypt again.

28For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated:

28For the Lord GOD says this: I am handing you over to the people you hate, the ones you turned from in disgust.

29And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

29They will treat you with hate. They will take everything you worked for and leave you naked and bare. Everyone will see the shame of your unfaithful life.

30I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.

30All of this comes to you because you chased after other nations and made yourself filthy with their idols.

31Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.

31You walked the same road your sister walked. So I will put her cup into your hand.

32Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much.

32The Lord GOD says this: You will drink from your sister's cup. It is deep and wide. People will laugh at you and make fun of you, for the cup holds so much.

NoteA “cup” here means what a person is handed to go through. Drinking it means living through what is coming.

33Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

33It will fill you with drunkenness and grief. It is a cup of ruin and emptiness, the cup of your sister Samaria.

34Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

34You will drink it and drain it dry. Then you will smash it to pieces and tear at your own breasts. I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.

35Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

35So the Lord GOD says this: You forgot me and threw me behind your back. Now you must carry the weight of your shameful and unfaithful life.

36The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations;

36Then the LORD said to me: Son of man, will you judge Aholah and Aholibah? Then tell them the disgusting things they have done.

37That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.

37They have been unfaithful, and there is blood on their hands. They were unfaithful with their idols. They even burned the children they bore for me, as food for those idols.

38Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

38They also did this to me. On that very same day they made my holy house filthy and treated my Sabbath days as worthless.

39For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house.

39On the same day they killed their children for their idols, they walked into my holy house and spoiled it. That is what they did, right inside my house.

40And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments,

40You even sent for men from far away. A messenger went out to them, and they came. For them you washed yourself, painted your eyes, and put on jewelry.

41And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.

41You sat on a fine couch with a table spread in front of it. On that table you had set my incense and my oil.

42And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.

42Around her was the noise of a careless, easygoing crowd. Men were brought in from the desert along with the ordinary crowd. They put bracelets on the women's wrists and lovely crowns on their heads.

43Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?

43Then I said about the woman worn out by years of unfaithfulness, “Now let them use her like a prostitute, since that is all she is.”

44Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.

44And they went to her the way men go to a prostitute. That is how they went to Aholah and Aholibah, these shameless women.

45And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

45But fair-minded men will judge them the way women who break their marriage and shed blood are judged. They were unfaithful wives, and blood is on their hands.

46For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.

46For the Lord GOD says this: Bring a mob against them. Hand them over to terror and robbery.

47And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

47The mob will stone them and cut them down with swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn their houses to the ground.

48Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

48In this way I will put an end to shameful living in the land. All women will be warned not to copy what you did.

49And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

49You will be paid back for your shameful ways. You will carry the guilt of worshiping idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.”