increase, and thou hast greedily gained from thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.
13 Behold, therefore I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.
14 Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it .
15 And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.
16 And thou shalt take thy inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. [1]
17 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. [2]
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
20 As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it ; so will I gather you in my anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. [3]
21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst of it.
22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst of it; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.
23 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
24 Son of man, say to her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.
25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst of her.
26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shown difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. [4]
27 Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.
29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have oppressed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. [5] [6]
30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
31 Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.
CHAP. 23.
The word of the LORD came again to me, saying,
2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
3 And they committed harlotries in Egypt; they committed harlotries in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah. [7] [8]
5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
6 Who were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
7 Thus she committed her harlotries 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. [9] [10]
8 Neither left she her harlotries brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their lust upon her.
9 Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
10 These uncovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they had executed judgment upon her. [11]
11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her harlotries more than her sister in her harlotries. [12] [13]
12 She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,
14 And that she increased her harlotries: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
- ↑ shalt take...: or, shalt be profaned
- ↑ dross of silver: Heb. drosses, etc
- ↑ As...: Heb. According to the gathering
- ↑ violated: Heb. offered violence to
- ↑ oppression: or, deceit
- ↑ wrongfully: Heb. without right
- ↑ Aholah: that is, His tent, or, tabernacle
- ↑ Aholibah: that is, My tabernacle in her
- ↑ committed...: Heb. bestowed her whoredoms upon them
- ↑ the chosen...: Heb. the choice of the children of Asshur
- ↑ famous: Heb. a name
- ↑ she was...: Heb. she corrupted her inordinate love more than, etc
- ↑ more than...: Heb. more than the whoredoms of her sister
