Ezekiel 22:13-24:27

English Standard Version

¹³ “Behold, ^(A)I strike my hand at ^(B)the dishonest gain that you have made, and at ^(C)the blood that has been in your midst. ^14 (D)Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? ^(E)I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. ^15 (F)I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and ^(G)I will consume your uncleanness out of you. ¹⁶ And ^(H)you shall be profaned by your own doing ^(I)in the sight of the nations, ^(J)and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

¹⁷ And the word of the Lord came to me: ^18 (K)“Son of man, the house of Israel has become ^(L)dross to me; all of them are ^(M)bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are ^(N)dross of silver. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. ²⁰ As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, ^(O)to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you ^(P)in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. ²¹ I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. ²² As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord; ^(Q)I have poured out my wrath upon you.”

²³ And the word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is ^(R)not cleansed ^(S)or rained upon in the day of indignation. ^25 (T)The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is ^(U)like a roaring lion ^(V)tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. ^26 (W)Her priests ^(X)have done violence to my law and ^(Y)have profaned my holy things. ^(Z)They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and ^(AA)they have disregarded my Sabbaths, ^(AB)so that I am profaned among them. ^27 (AC)Her princes in her midst are like wolves ^(AD)tearing the prey, ^(AE)shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. ²⁸ And ^(AF)her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, ^(AG)seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land ^(AH)have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and ^(AI)have extorted from the sojourner without justice. ^30 (AJ)And I sought for a man among them ^(AK)who should build up the wall ^(AL)and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. ³¹ Therefore ^(AM)I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned ^(AN)their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God.”

Oholah and Oholibah

23 The word of the Lord came to me: ^2 (AO)“Son of man, there were ^(AP)two women, the daughters of one mother. ^3 (AQ)They played the whore in Egypt; ^(AR)they played the whore ^(AS)in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms^[a] handled. ⁴ Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. ^(AT)They became mine, and they ^(AU)bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is ^(AV)Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁵ “Oholah played the whore ^(AW)while she was mine, and ^(AX)she lusted after her lovers ^(AY)the Assyrians, warriors ⁶ clothed in purple, ^(AZ)governors and commanders, ^(BA)all of them desirable young men, ^(BB)horsemen riding on horses. ⁷ She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted. ⁸ She did not give up her whoring ^(BC)that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her. ⁹ Therefore ^(BD)I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. ^10 (BE)These uncovered her nakedness; ^(BF)they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became ^(BG)a byword among women, ^(BH)when judgment had been executed on her.

^11 (BI)“Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became ^(BJ)more corrupt than her sister^[b] in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. ¹² She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, ^(BK)all of them desirable young men. ¹³ And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. ¹⁴ But she carried her whoring further. She saw men ^(BL)portrayed on the wall, the ^(BM)images of ^(BN)the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, ¹⁵ wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. ¹⁶ When she saw them, she lusted after them and ^(BO)sent messengers to them ^(BP)in Chaldea. ¹⁷ And the Babylonians came to her ^(BQ)into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, ^(BR)she turned from them in disgust. ¹⁸ When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she increased her whoring, ^(BS)remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt ²⁰ and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. ²¹ Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed^[c] your young breasts.”

²² Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers ^(BT)from whom you turned in disgust, ^(BU)and I will bring them against you from every side: ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, ^(BV)Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, ^(BW)desirable young men, ^(BX)governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. ²⁴ And they shall come against you from the north^[d] with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. ^(BY)They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and ^(BZ)I will commit the judgment to them, and ^(CA)they shall judge you according to their judgments. ²⁵ And I will direct my jealousy against you, ^(CB)that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. ^(CC)They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire. ^26 (CD)They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels. ^27 (CE)Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and ^(CF)your whoring begun in the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.

²⁸ “For thus says the Lord God: ^(CG)Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, ^(CH)into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust, ²⁹ and ^(CI)they shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor ^(CJ)and leave you naked and bare, and ^(CK)the nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your whoring ³⁰ have brought this upon you, because ^(CL)you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. ³¹ You have gone the way of your sister; ^(CM)therefore I will give ^(CN)her cup into your hand. ³² Thus says the Lord God:

for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. ³⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because ^(CS)you have forgotten me and ^(CT)cast me behind your back, you yourself ^(CU)must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring.”

³⁶ The Lord said to me: ^(CV)“Son of man, ^(CW)will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations. ³⁷ For ^(CX)they have committed adultery, ^(CY)and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even ^(CZ)offered up^[e] to them for food the children whom they had borne to me. ³⁸ Moreover, this they have done to me: ^(DA)they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and ^(DB)profaned my Sabbaths. ³⁹ For when ^(DC)they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day ^(DD)they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And behold, ^(DE)this is what they did in my house. ⁴⁰ They even sent for men to come from afar, ^(DF)to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came. For them you bathed yourself, ^(DG)painted your eyes, ^(DH)and adorned yourself with ornaments. ⁴¹ You sat on ^(DI)a stately couch, with a table spread before it ^(DJ)on which you had placed my incense and ^(DK)my oil. ⁴² The ^(DL)sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and with men of the common sort, drunkards^[f] were brought from the wilderness; and they put ^(DM)bracelets on the hands of the women, and ^(DN)beautiful crowns on their heads.

⁴³ “Then I said of her who was worn out by adultery, ‘Now they will continue to use her for a whore, even her!’^{[g] 44} For they have gone in to her, as men go in to a prostitute. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, lewd women! ⁴⁵ But righteous men ^(DO)shall pass judgment on them with the sentence of adulteresses, and with the sentence of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.”

⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord God: ^(DP)“Bring up a vast host against them, and make them ^(DQ)an object of terror and ^(DR)a plunder. ^47 (DS)And the host shall stone them and cut them down with their swords. ^(DT)They shall kill their sons and their daughters, and ^(DU)burn up their houses. ^48 (DV)Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done. ⁴⁹ And they shall return your lewdness upon you, and ^(DW)you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and ^(DX)you shall know that I am the Lord God.”

The Siege of Jerusalem

24 ^(DY)In the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ^2 (DZ)“Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day. ³ And ^(EA)utter a parable to ^(EB)the rebellious house and say to them, Thus says the Lord God:

⁶ “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ^(EE)Woe to the bloody city, to ^(EF)the pot whose corrosion is in it, and whose corrosion has not gone out of it! Take out of it piece after piece, without making any choice.^{[i] 7} For the blood she has shed is in her midst; she put it on ^(EG)the bare rock; ^(EH)she did not pour it out on the ground to cover it with dust. ⁸ To rouse my wrath, to take vengeance, I have set on the bare rock the blood she has shed, that it may not be covered. ⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city! ^(EI)I also will make the pile great. ¹⁰ Heap on the logs, kindle the fire, boil the meat well, mix in the spices,^[j] and let the bones be burned up. ¹¹ Then set it empty upon the coals, that it may become hot, and its copper may burn, ^(EJ)that its uncleanness may be melted in it, its corrosion consumed. ^12 (EK)She has wearied herself with toil;^[k] its abundant corrosion does not go out of it. Into the fire with its corrosion! ¹³ On account of your unclean lewdness, because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your uncleanness, ^(EL)you shall not be cleansed anymore till ^(EM)I have satisfied my fury upon you. ^14 (EN)I am the Lord. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; ^(EO)I will not spare; ^(EP)I will not relent; ^(EQ)according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord God.”

Ezekiel's Wife Dies

¹⁵ The word of the Lord came to me: ^16 (ER)“Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. ¹⁷ Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. ^(ES)Bind on your turban, and ^(ET)put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, ^(EU)nor eat the bread of men.” ¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning, and ^(EV)at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did ^(EW)as I was commanded.

¹⁹ And ^(EX)the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting thus?” ²⁰ Then I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: ²¹ ‘Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: ^(EY)Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul, and ^(EZ)your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. ²² And ^(FA)you shall do as I have done; ^(FB)you shall not cover your lips, ^(FC)nor eat the bread of men. ^23 (FD)Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but ^(FE)you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to one another. ²⁴ Thus shall Ezekiel be to you ^(FF)a sign; ^(FG)according to all that he has done you shall do. When this comes, then ^(FH)you will know that I am the Lord God.’

²⁵ “As for you, ^(FI)son of man, surely on the day when I take from them ^(FJ)their stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes and their soul's desire, and also their sons and daughters, ^26 (FK)on that day a fugitive will come to you to report to you the news. ²⁷ On that day your mouth ^(FL)will be opened to the fugitive, and you shall speak and be no longer mute. ^(FM)So you will be a sign to them, and ^(FN)they will know that I am the Lord.”