1 Kings 14:22-23

14:22 Judah did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord. They made him more jealous by their sins than their ancestors had done. ²  14:23 They even built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

1 Kings 14:2

14:2 Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise ³  yourself so that people cannot recognize you are Jeroboam’s wife. Then go to Shiloh; Ahijah the prophet, who told me I would rule over this nation, lives there. ⁴ 

1 Kings 21:11

21:11 The men of the ⁵  city, the leaders ⁶  and the nobles who lived there, ⁷  followed the written orders Jezebel had sent them. ⁸ 

1 Kings 21:13

21:13 The two villains arrived and sat opposite him. Then the villains testified against Naboth right before the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they dragged him ⁹  outside the city and stoned him to death. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 2:28

2:28 But where are the gods you made for yourselves?

Let them save you when you are in trouble.

The sad fact is that ¹¹  you have as many gods

as you have towns, Judah.

Jeremiah 3:8-11

3:8 She also saw ¹²  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. ¹³  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, ¹⁴  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. ¹⁵  3:9 Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ¹⁶  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ¹⁷  3:10 In spite of all this, ¹⁸  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ¹⁹  says the Lord. 3:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 16:51-52

16:51 Samaria has not committed half the sins you have; you have done more abominable deeds than they did. ²¹  You have made your sisters appear righteous with all the abominable things you have done. 16:52 So now, bear your disgrace, because you have given your sisters reason to justify their behavior. ²²  Because the sins you have committed were more abominable than those of your sisters; they have become more righteous than you. So now, be ashamed and bear the disgrace of making your sisters appear righteous.

Ezekiel 22:2-16

22:2 “As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, ²³  are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? ²⁴  Then confront her with all her abominable deeds! 22:3 Then say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: O city, who spills blood within herself (which brings on her doom), ²⁵  and who makes herself idols (which results in impurity), 22:4 you are guilty because of the blood you shed and defiled by the idols you made. You have hastened the day of your doom; ²⁶  the end of your years has come. ²⁷  Therefore I will make ²⁸  you an object of scorn to the nations, an object to be mocked by all lands. 22:5 Those both near and far from you will mock you, you with your bad reputation, ²⁹  full of turmoil.

22:6 “‘See how each of the princes of Israel living within you has used his authority to shed blood. ³⁰  22:7 They have treated father and mother with contempt ³¹  within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow ³²  within you. 22:8 You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths! 22:9 Slanderous men shed blood within you. ³³  Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains; ³⁴  they commit obscene acts among you. ³⁵  22:10 They have sex with their father’s wife within you; ³⁶  they violate women during their menstrual period within you. ³⁷  22:11 One ³⁸  commits an abominable act with his neighbor’s wife; another obscenely defiles his daughter-in-law; another violates ³⁹  his sister – his father’s daughter ⁴⁰  – within you. 22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ⁴¹  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ⁴²  declares the sovereign Lord. ⁴³ 

22:13 “‘See, I strike my hands together ⁴⁴  at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed ⁴⁵  they have done among you. 22:14 Can your heart endure, ⁴⁶  or can your hands be strong when I deal with you? ⁴⁷  I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it! 22:15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among various countries; I will remove your impurity from you. ⁴⁸  22:16 You will be profaned within yourself ⁴⁹  in the sight of the nations; then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Ezekiel 23:4-13

23:4 Oholah was the name of the older and Oholibah ⁵⁰  the name of her younger sister. They became mine, and gave birth to sons and daughters. ⁵¹  Oholah is Samaria and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

23:5 “Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was mine. ⁵²  She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians ⁵³  – warriors ⁵⁴  23:6 clothed in blue, governors and officials, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. 23:7 She bestowed her sexual favors on them; all of them were the choicest young men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all whom she desired ⁵⁵  – with all their idols. 23:8 She did not abandon the prostitution she had practiced in Egypt; for in her youth men had sex with her, fondled her virgin breasts, and ravished her. ⁵⁶  23:9 Therefore I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians ⁵⁷  for whom she lusted. 23:10 They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. She became notorious ⁵⁸  among women, and they executed judgments against her.

23:11 “Her sister Oholibah watched this, ⁵⁹  but she became more corrupt in her lust than her sister had been, and her acts of prostitution were more numerous than those of her sister. 23:12 She lusted after the Assyrians – governors and officials, warriors in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. 23:13 I saw that she was defiled; both of them followed the same path.

[14:22]  ¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[14:22]  ² tn Heb “and they made him jealous more than all which their fathers had done by their sins which they sinned.”

[14:2]  ³ tn Heb “Get up, change yourself.”

[14:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “look, Ahijah the prophet is there, he told me [I would be] king over this nation.”

[21:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “his.”

[21:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “elders.”

[21:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the nobles who were living in his city.”

[21:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “did as Jezebel sent to them, just as was written in the scrolls which she sent to them.”

[21:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “led him.”

[21:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and they stoned him with stones and he died.”

[2:28]  ¹¹ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki, “for, indeed”) contextually.

[3:8]  ¹² tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads “I saw” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.

[3:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.

[3:8]  ¹⁴ tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.

[3:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

[3:9]  ¹⁶ tc The translation reads the form as a causative (Hiphil, תַּהֲנֵף, tahanef) with some of the versions in place of the simple stative (Qal, תֶּחֱנַף, tekhenaf) in the MT.

[3:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “because of the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.”

[3:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And even in all this.”

[3:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”

[3:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”

[16:51]  ²¹ tn Or “you have multiplied your abominable deeds beyond them.”

[16:52]  ²² tn Heb “because you have interceded for your sisters with your sins.”

[22:2]  ²³ tn Heb “will you judge.” Here the imperfect form of the verb is probably used with a desiderative nuance. Addressed to the prophet, “judge” means to warn of or pronounce God’s impending judgment upon the city. See 20:4.

[22:2]  ²⁴ tn The phrase “bloody city” is used of Nineveh in Nah 3:1.

[22:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “her time”; this refers to the time of impending judgment (see the note on “doom” in v. 4).

[22:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “you have brought near your days.” The expression “bring near your days” appears to be an adaptation of the idiom “days draw near,” which is used to indicate that an event, such as death, is imminent (see Gen 27:41; 47:29; Deut 31:14; 1 Kgs 2:1; Ezek 12:23). Here “your days” probably refers to the days of the personified city’s life, which was about to come to an end through God’s judgment.

[22:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and you have come to your years.” This appears to mean that she has arrived at the time when her years (i.e., life) would end, though it may mean that her years of punishment will begin. Because “day” and “time” are so closely associated in the immediate context (see 21:25, 29) some prefer to emend the text and read “you have brought near your time.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:31, as well as the translator’s note on verse 3.

[22:4]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew verb is a prophetic perfect, emphasizing that the action is as good as done from the speaker’s perspective.

[22:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “unclean of name.”

[22:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Look! The princes of Israel, each according to his arm, were in you in order to shed blood.”

[22:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”

[22:7]  ³² tn Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT (Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13; Jer 7:6; 22:3). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.

[22:9]  ³³ tn Heb “men of slander are in you in order to shed blood.”

[22:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and on the mountains they eat within you.” The mountains mentioned here were the site of pagan sacrifices. See 18:6.

[22:9]  ³⁵ sn This statement introduces vv. 10-11 and refers in general terms to the sexual sins described there. For the legal background of vv. 10-11, see Lev 18:7-20; 20:10-21; Deut 22:22-23, 30; 27:22.

[22:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the nakedness of a father one uncovers within you.” The ancient versions read the verb as plural (“they uncover”). If the singular is retained, it must be taken as indefinite and representative of the entire group. The idiomatic expression “uncover the nakedness” refers here to sexual intercourse (cf. Lev 18:6). To uncover a father’s nakedness could include sexual relations with one’s own mother (Lev 18:7), but more likely it refers to having intercourse with another wife of one’s father, such as a stepmother (Lev 18:8; cf. Gen 35:22; 49:4).

[22:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “(one who is) unclean due to the impurity they humble within you.” The use of the verb “to humble” suggests that these men forced themselves upon women during menstruation. Having sexual relations with a woman during her period was forbidden by the Law (Lev 18:19; 20:18).

[22:11]  ³⁸ tn Heb “a man.”

[22:11]  ³⁹ tn The verb is the same one used in verse 10b and suggests forcible sexual violation of the woman.

[22:11]  ⁴⁰ sn Sexual relations with one’s half-sister may be primarily in view here. See Lev 18:9; 20:17.

[22:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.

[22:12]  ⁴² sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.

[22:12]  ⁴³ tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.

[22:13]  ⁴⁴ sn This gesture apparently expresses mourning and/or anger (see 6:11; 21:14, 17).

[22:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “the blood which was in you.”

[22:14]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “stand.” The heart here stands for the emotions; Jerusalem would panic in the face of God’s judgment.

[22:14]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “in the days when I act against you.”

[22:15]  ⁴⁸ sn The ultimate purpose of divine judgment is to purify the covenant community of its sins.

[22:16]  ⁴⁹ tc Several ancient versions read the verb as first person, in which case the Lord refers to how his people’s sin brings disgrace upon him. For a defense of the Hebrew text, see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:712, n. 68, and M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:457-58.

[23:4]  ⁵⁰ tn The names Oholah and Oholibah are both derived from the word meaning “tent.” The meaning of Oholah is “her tent,” while Oholibah means “my tent is in her.”

[23:4]  ⁵¹ sn In this allegory the Lord is depicted as being the husband of two wives. The OT law prohibited a man from marrying sisters (Lev 18:18), but the practice is attested in the OT (cf. Jacob). The metaphor is utilized here for illustrative purposes and does not mean that the Lord condoned such a practice or bigamy in general.

[23:5]  ⁵² tn Heb “while she was under me.” The expression indicates that Oholah is viewed as the Lord’s wife. See Num 5:19-20, 29.

[23:5]  ⁵³ tn Heb “Assyria.”

[23:5]  ⁵⁴ tn The term apparently refers to Assyrian military officers; it is better construed with the description that follows. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:738.

[23:7]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “lusted after.”

[23:8]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “and poured out their harlotry on her.”

[23:9]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the sons of Assyria.”

[23:10]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “name.”

[23:11]  ⁵⁹ tn The word “this” is not in the original text.