[23:1] The Lord spoke to me.
[23:2] “Mortal man,” he said, “there were once two sisters.
[23:3] When they were young, living in Egypt, they lost their virginity and became prostitutes.
[23:4] The older one was named Oholah (she represents Samaria), and the younger one was named Oholibah (she represents Jerusalem). I married both of them, and they bore me children.
[23:5] Although she was mine, Oholah continued to be a prostitute and was full of lust for her lovers from Assyria.
[23:6] They were soldiers in uniforms of purple, noblemen and high-ranking officers; all of them were handsome young cavalry officers.
[23:7] She was the whore for all the Assyrian officers, and her lust led her to defile herself by worshiping Assyrian idols.
[23:8] She continued what she had begun as a prostitute in Egypt, where she lost her virginity. From the time she was a young woman, men slept with her and treated her like a prostitute.
[23:9] So I handed her over to her Assyrian lovers whom she wanted so much.
[23:10] They stripped her naked, seized her sons and daughters, and then killed her with a sword. Women everywhere gossiped about her fate.
[23:11] “Even though her sister Oholibah saw this, she was wilder and more of a prostitute than Oholah had ever been.
[23:12] She too was full of lust for the Assyrian noblemen and officers—soldiers in bright uniforms—and for the cavalry officers, all of those handsome young men.
[23:13] I saw that she was completely immoral, that the second sister was as bad as the first.
[23:16] As soon as she saw them, she was filled with lust and sent messengers to them in Babylonia.
[23:17] The Babylonians came to have sex with her. They used her and defiled her so much that finally she became disgusted with them.
[23:18] She exposed herself publicly and let everyone know she was a whore. I was as disgusted with her as I had been with her sister.
[23:19] She became more of a prostitute than ever, acting the way she did as a young woman, when she was a prostitute in Egypt.
[23:20] She was filled with lust for oversexed men who had all the lustfulness of donkeys or stallions.” (
[23:21] Oholibah, you wanted to repeat the immorality you were guilty of as a young woman in Egypt, where men played with your breasts and you lost your virginity.)