Study Desk

Her priests have violated my law and have profaned my holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and the profane, neither have they distinguished between the unclean and the clean, and have refused to keep my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

They have oppressed the people of the land and humiliated them; and have extorted from the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed wrongfully the proselyte.

And they committed whoredom in Egypt in their youth; there were their breasts fondled, there was their virginity broken.

And the name of the elder was Ahlah, and the name of the younger was Ahlibah; and they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus were their names: Samaria is Ahlah and Jerusalem is Ahlibah.

Neither did she leave the whoredoms which she had committed in Egypt; for in her youth they defiled her and they broke her virginity and poured out their whoredom upon her.

These uncovered her nakedness; they carried away her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword; and she became a byword among women; for her paramours had executed judgment upon her.

And they added to their whoredoms; for when they saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,

And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted by them; then her soul abhorred them.

And they shall come against you well armed with chariots, wagons, and with a host of people, who shall set against you with spears, bucklers, shields, and helmets round about; and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.

And I will set my indignation against you, and they shall crush your nose with fury and shall pluck out your ears; and your remnant shall fall by the sword; they shall carry away your sons and your daughters; and your residue shall be devoured by fire,

They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your costly jewels.

And they shall deal with you with hate, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whoredoms and your iniquities shall be uncovered.

For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands, and with their idols they have committed adultery and have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to be consumed in the fire.

Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day and have profaned my sabbaths;

For when they had slain their children to their idols, they came the same day into my sanctuary and profaned it; and, 1o, thus have they done in the midst of my house.

Also they sent for men who came from afar, to whom they had sent messengers; and, 1o, as soon as they arrived, they bathed and painted their eyes, and adorned themselves with ornaments.

Then they sat on stately beds, and tables were prepared before them, and my oil and my incense were wasted on them.

Then I said. With these men have they played the harlot and committed the acts of harlots.

And they went in to them as to a woman who plays the harlot; so went they in to Ahlah and to Ahlibah, the harlots.

And the righteous men shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and the judgment of those who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.