¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, ^(A)you are about to ^[a]lie down with your fathers; and ^(B)this people will arise and play the prostitute with the foreign gods of the land into the midst of which they are going, and ^(C)they will abandon Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.

The Defiled Land

³ and they prostituted themselves in Egypt. They ^(A)prostituted themselves in their youth; there their breasts were squeezed and there their virgin breasts were handled. ⁴ Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine, and they gave birth to sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

⁵ “Oholah prostituted herself ^[a]while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the ^(B)Assyrians, her neighbors, ⁶ who were clothed in purple, ^(C)governors and officials, all of them handsome young men, horsemen riding on horses. ⁷ She bestowed her ^[b]obscene practices on them, all of whom were the choicest ^[c]men of Assyria; and with all whom she lusted after, with all their idols she ^(D)defiled herself. ⁸ She did not abandon her obscene practices ^(E)from the time in Egypt; for in her youth ^[d]men had slept with her, and they handled her virgin breasts and poured out their obscene practice on her. ⁹ Therefore, I handed her over to her ^(F)lovers, to the ^[e]Assyrians, after whom she lusted. ¹⁰ They ^(G)uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, but they killed her with the sword. So she became a ^[f]subject of gossip among women, and they executed judgments on her.

¹¹ “Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was ^(H)more corrupt in her lust than she, and her obscene practices were ^[g]more than the prostitution of her sister. ¹² She lusted after the ^[h](I)Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, opulently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them handsome young men. ¹³ And I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took ^[i]the same way. ¹⁴ So she increased her obscene practices. And she saw men ^(J)carved on the wall, images of the ^(K)Chaldeans drawn in bright red, ¹⁵ wearing belts around their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, ^[j]like the ^[k]Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. ¹⁶ And ^[l]when she saw them she ^(L)lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ And the ^[m](M)Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their obscene practice. And when she had been defiled by them, ^[n]she turned away from them in disgust. ¹⁸ She ^(N)exposed her obscene practices and exposed her nakedness; then ^[o]I turned away from her in ^(O)disgust, just as ^[p]I had turned away from her ^(P)sister in disgust. ¹⁹ Yet she multiplied her obscene practices, remembering the days of her youth, when she prostituted herself in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ She ^(Q)lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose discharge is like the discharge of horses. ²¹ So you longed for the ^(R)outrageous sin of your youth, when ^[q]the Egyptians handled your breasts because of the breasts of your youth.