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Home > Bible > Ezekiel > Chapter 23
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Ezekiel Chapter 23

Under the names of the two harlots, Oolla and Ooliba, are described the manifold disloyalties of Samaria and Jerusalem, with the punishment of them both.

English (Douay-Rheims)

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2 Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother.
3 And they committed fornication in Egypt, in their youth they committed fornication: there were their breasts pressed down, and the teats of their virginity were bruised. Committed fornication... That is, idolatry.
4 And their names were Oolla the elder, and Ooliba her younger sister: and I took them, and they bore sons and daughters. Now for their names, Samaria is Oolla, and Jerusalem is Ooliba. Oolla and Ooliba... God calls the kingdom of Israel Oolla, which signifies their own habitation, because they separated themselves from his temple: and the kingdom of Juda, Ooliba, which signifies his habitation in her, because of his temple among them in Jerusalem.
5 And Oolla committed fornication against me, and doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians that came to her, On the Assyrians, etc... That is, the idols of the Assyrians: for all that is said in this chapter of the fornications of Israel and Juda, is to be understood in a spiritual sense, of their disloyalty to the Lord, by worshipping strange gods.
6 Who were clothed with blue, princes, and rulers, beautiful youths, all horsemen, mounted upon horses.
7 And she committed her fornications with those chosen men, all sons of the Assyrians: and she defiled herself with the uncleanness of all them on whom she doted.
8 Moreover also she did not forsake her fornications which she had committed in Egypt: for they also lay with her in her youth, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured out their fornication upon her.
9 Therefore have I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of the Assyrians, upon whose lust she doted.
10 They discovered her disgrace, took away her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword: and they became infamous women, and they executed judgments in her.
11 And when her sister Ooliba saw this, she was mad with lust more than she: and she carried her fornication beyond the fornication of her sister.
12 Impudently prostituting herself to the children of the Assyrians, the princes, and rulers that came to her, clothed with divers colours, to the horsemen that rode upon horses, and to young men all of great beauty.
13 And I saw that she was defiled, and that they both took one way.
14 And she increased her fornications: and when she had seen men painted on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans set forth in colours,
15 And girded with girdles about their reins, and with dyed turbans on their heads, the resemblance of all the captains, the likeness of the sons of Babylon, and of the land of the Chaldeans wherein they were born,
16 She doted upon them with the lust of her eyes, and she sent messengers to them into Chaldea.
17 And when the sons of Babylon were come to her to the bed of love, they defiled her with their fornications, and she was polluted by them, and her soul was glutted with them.
18 And she discovered her fornications, and discovered her disgrace: and my soul was alienated from her, as my soul was alienated from her sister.
19 For she multiplied her fornications, remembering the days of her youth, in which she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
20 And she was mad with lust after lying with them whose flesh is as the flesh of asses: and whose issue as the issue of horses.
21 And thou hast renewed the wickedness of thy youth, when thy breasts were pressed in Egypt, and the paps of thy virginity broken.
22 Therefore, Ooliba, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will raise up against thee all thy lovers with whom thy soul hath been glutted: and I will gather them together against thee round about.
23 The children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, the nobles, and the kings, and princes, all the sons of the Assyrians, beautiful young men, all the captains, and rulers, the princes of princes, and the renowned horsemen.
24 And they shall come upon thee well appointed with chariot and wheel, a multitude of people: they shall be armed against thee on every side with breastplate, and buckler, and helmet: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee by their judgments.
25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, which they shall execute upon thee with fury: they shall cut off thy nose and thy ears: and what remains shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons, and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by fire.
26 And they shall strip thee of thy garments, and take away the instruments of thy glory.
27 And I will put an end to thy wickedness in thee, and thy fornication brought out of the land of Egypt: neither shalt thou lift up thy eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.
28 For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hands of them whom thou hatest, into their hands with whom thy soul hath been glutted.
29 And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and they shall take away all thy labours, and shall let thee go naked, and full of disgrace, and the disgrace of thy fornication shall be discovered, thy wickedness, and thy fornications.
30 They have done these things to thee, because thou hast played the harlot with the nations among which thou wast defiled with their idols.
31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister and I will give her cup into thy hand.
32 Thus saith the Lord God: Thou shalt drink thy sister's cup, deep and wide: thou shalt be had in derision and scorn, which containeth very much.
33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness, and sorrow: with the cup of grief and sadness, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.
34 And thou shalt drink it, and shalt drink it up even to the dregs, and thou shalt devour the fragments thereof, thou shalt rend thy breasts: because I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.
35 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast forgotten me, and hast cast me off behind thy back, bear thou also thy wickedness, and thy fornications.

36 And the Lord spoke to me, saying:

Son of man, dost thou judge Oolla, and Ooliba, and dost thou declare to them their wicked deeds?
37 Because they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and they have committed fornication with their idols: moreover also their children, whom they bore to me, they have offered to them to be devoured.
38 Yea, and they have done this to me. They polluted my sanctuary on the same day, and profaned my sabbaths.
39 And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, and went into my sanctuary the same day to profane it: they did these things even in the midst of my house.
40 They sent for men coming from afar, to whom they had sent a messenger: and behold they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, and didst paint thy eyes, and wast adorned with women's ornaments.
41 Thou sattest on a very fine bed, and a table was decked before thee: whereupon thou didst set my incense, and my ointment.
42 And there was in her the voice of a multitude rejoicing: and to some that were brought of the multitude of men, and that came from the desert, they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads.
43 And I said to her that was worn out in her adulteries: Now will this woman still continue in her fornication.
44 And they went in to her, as to a harlot: so went they in unto Oolla, and Ooliba, wicked women.
45 They therefore are just men: these shall judge them as adulteresses are judged, and as shedders of blood are judged: because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
46 For thus saith the Lord God: Bring a multitude upon them, and deliver them over to tumult and rapine:
47 And let the people stone them with stones, and let them be stabbed with their swords: they shall kill their sons and daughters, and their houses they shall burn with fire.
48 And I will take away wickedness out of the land: and all women shall learn, not to do according to the wickedness of them.
49 And they shall render your wickedness upon you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols: and you shall know that I am the Lord God.

Latin (Clementine Vulgate)

1 Et factus est sermo Domini ad me, dicens:

2 Fili hominis, duæ mulieres filiæ matris unius fuerunt:
3 et fornicatæ sunt in Ægypto,
in adolescentia sua fornicatæ sunt:
ibi subacta sunt ubera earum,
et fractæ sunt mammæ pubertatis earum.
4 Nomina autem earum,
Oolla major, et Ooliba soror ejus minor:
et habui eas, et pepererunt filios et filias.
Porro earum nomina,
Samaria Oolla, et Jerusalem Ooliba.
5 Fornicata est igitur super me Oolla,
et insanivit in amatores suos,
in Assyrios propinquantes,
6 vestitos hyacintho,
principes et magistratus,
juvenes cupidinis,
universos equites, ascensores equorum.
7 Et dedit fornicationes suas super eos electos,
filios Assyriorum universos:
et in omnibus in quos insanivit,
in immunditiis eorum polluta est.
8 Insuper et fornicationes suas, quas habuerat in Ægypto, non reliquit:
nam et illi dormierunt cum ea in adolescentia ejus,
et illi confregerunt ubera pubertatis ejus,
et effuderunt fornicationem suam super eam.
9 Propterea tradidi eam in manus amatorum suorum,
in manus filiorum Assur,
super quorum insanivit libidine.
10 Ipsi discooperuerunt ignominiam ejus,
filios et filias ejus tulerunt,
et ipsam occiderunt gladio:
et factæ sunt famosæ mulieres,
et judicia perpetraverunt in ea.
11 Quod cum vidisset soror ejus Ooliba,
plus quam illa insanivit libidine,
et fornicationem suam super fornicationem sororis suæ:
12 ad filios Assyriorum præbuit impudenter,
ducibus et magistratibus ad se venientibus,
indutis veste varia,
equitibus qui vectabantur equis,
et adolescentibus forma cunctis egregia.
13 Et vidi quod polluta esset via una ambarum.
14 Et auxit fornicationes suas:
cumque vidisset viros depictos in pariete,
imagines Chaldæorum expressas coloribus,
15 et accinctos balteis renes,
et tiaras tinctas in capitibus eorum,
formam ducum omnium,
similitudinem filiorum Babylonis,
terræque Chaldæorum, in qua orti sunt,
16 insanivit super eos concupiscentia oculorum suorum,
et misit nuntios ad eos in Chaldæam.
17 Cumque venissent ad eam filii Babylonis ad cubile mammarum,
polluerunt eam stupris suis:
et polluta est ab eis,
et saturata est anima ejus ab illis.
18 Denudavit quoque fornicationes suas,
et discooperuit ignominiam suam:
et recessit anima mea ab ea,
sicut recesserat anima mea a sorore ejus:
19 multiplicavit enim fornicationes suas,
recordans dies adolescentiæ suæ,
quibus fornicata est in terra Ægypti.
20 Et insanivit libidine super concubitum eorum,
quorum carnes sunt ut carnes asinorum,
et sicut fluxus equorum fluxus eorum.
21 Et visitasti scelus adolescentiæ tuæ,
quando subacta sunt in Ægypto ubera tua,
et confractæ sunt mammæ pubertatis tuæ.
22 Propterea, Ooliba, hæc dicit Dominus Deus:
Ecce ego suscitabo omnes amatores tuos contra te,
de quibus satiata est anima tua,
et congregabo eos adversum te in circuitu:
23 filios Babylonis, et universos Chaldæos,
nobiles, tyrannosque, et principes,
omnes filios Assyriorum,
juvenes forma egregia,
duces et magistratus universos,
principes principum, et nominatos ascensores equorum:
24 et venient super te instructi curru et rota,
multitudo populorum:
lorica, et clypeo, et galea armabuntur contra te undique:
et dabo coram eis judicium,
et judicabunt te judiciis suis.
25 Et ponam zelum meum in te,
quem exercent tecum in furore:
nasum tuum et aures tuas præcident,
et quæ remanserint, gladio concident.
Ipsi filios tuos et filias tuas capient,
et novissimum tuum devorabitur igni:
26 et denudabunt te vestimentis tuis,
et tollent vasa gloriæ tuæ.
27 Et requiescere faciam scelus tuum de te,
et fornicationem tuam de terra Ægypti:
nec levabis oculos tuos ad eos,
et Ægypti non recordaberis amplius.
28 Quia hæc dicit Dominus Deus:
Ecce ego tradam te in manus eorum quos odisti,
in manus de quibus satiata est anima tua.
29 Et agent tecum in odio,
et tollent omnes labores tuos,
et dimittent te nudam et ignominia plenam:
et revelabitur ignominia fornicationum tuarum,
scelus tuum, et fornicationes tuæ.
30 Fecerunt hæc tibi,
quia fornicata es post gentes
inter quas polluta es in idolis earum.
31 In via sororis tuæ ambulasti,
et dabo calicem ejus in manu tua.
32 Hæc dicit Dominus Deus:
Calicem sororis tuæ bibes profundum et latum:
eris in derisum et in subsannationem quæ est capacissima.
33 Ebrietate et dolore repleberis:
calice mœroris et tristitiæ,
calice sororis tuæ Samariæ.
34 Et bibes illum, et epotabis usque ad fæces:
et fragmenta ejus devorabis,
et ubera tua lacerabis,
quia ego locutus sum, ait Dominus Deus.
35 Propterea hæc dicit Dominus Deus:
Quia oblita es mei,
et projecisti me post corpus tuum,
tu quoque porta scelus tuum et fornicationes tuas.

36 Et ait Dominus ad me, dicens:

Fili hominis, numquid judicas Oollam et Oolibam,
et annuntias eis scelera earum?
37 Quia adulteratæ sunt, et sanguis in manibus earum,
et cum idolis suis fornicatæ sunt:
insuper et filios suos quos genuerunt mihi,
obtulerunt eis ad devorandum.
38 Sed et hoc fecerunt mihi:
polluerunt sanctuarium meum in die illa,
et sabbata mea profanaverunt.
39 Cumque immolarent filios suos idolis suis,
et ingrederentur sanctuarium meum in die illa ut polluerent illud,
etiam hæc fecerunt in medio domus meæ.
40 Miserunt ad viros venientes de longe,
ad quos nuntium miserant:
itaque ecce venerunt quibus te lavisti,
et circumlinisti stibio oculos tuos,
et ornata es mundo muliebri.
41 Sedisti in lecto pulcherrimo,
et mensa ornata est ante te:
thymiama meum et unguentum meum posuisti super eam.
42 Et vox multitudinis exsultantis erat in ea:
et in viris, qui de multitudine hominum adducebantur,
et veniebant de deserto,
posuerunt armillas in manibus eorum,
et coronas speciosas in capitibus eorum.
43 Et dixi ei, quæ attrita est in adulteriis:
Nunc fornicabitur in fornicatione sua etiam hæc.
44 Et ingressi sunt ad eam quasi ad mulierem meretricem:
sic ingrediebantur ad Oollam et Oolibam, mulieres nefarias.
45 Viri ergo justi sunt:
hi judicabunt eas judicio adulterarum,
et judicio effundentium sanguinem:
quia adulteræ sunt,
et sanguis in manibus earum.
46 Hæc enim dicit Dominus Deus:
Adduc ad eas multitudinem,
et trade eas in tumultum et in rapinam.
47 Et lapidentur lapidibus populorum,
et confodiantur gladiis eorum:
filios et filias earum interficient,
et domos earum igne succendent.
48 Et auferam scelus de terra,
et discent omnes mulieres ne faciant secundum scelus earum.
49 Et dabunt scelus vestrum super vos,
et peccata idolorum vestrorum portabitis:
et scietis quia ego Dominus Deus.
Copyright © 2008 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

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