The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 God's Message came to me:
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The word of the LORD came to me:
2 "Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother.
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"Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother.
3 They became whores in Egypt, whores from a young age. Their breasts were fondled, their young bosoms caressed.
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They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled.
4 The older sister was named Oholah, the younger was Oholibah. They were my daughters, and they gave birth to sons and daughters. "Oholah is Samaria and Oholibah is Jerusalem
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Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem
5 "Oholah started whoring while she was still mine. She lusted after Assyrians as lovers: military men
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"Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors
6 smartly uniformed in blue, ambassadors and governors, good-looking young men mounted on fine horses.
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clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.
7 Her lust was unrestrained. She was a whore to the Assyrian elite. She compounded her filth with the idols of those to whom she gave herself in lust.
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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 never slowed down. The whoring she began while young in Egypt she continued, sleeping with men who played with her breasts and spent their lust on her.
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She did not give up her whoring 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 "So I left her to her Assyrian lovers, for whom she was so obsessed with lust.
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Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted.
10 They ripped off her clothes, took away her children, and then, the final indignity, killed her. Among women her name became Shame - history's judgment on her.
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These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her.
11 "Her sister Oholibah saw all this, but she became even worse than her sister in lust and whoring, if you can believe it.
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"Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister.
12 She also went crazy with lust for Assyrians: ambassadors and governors, military men smartly dressed and mounted on fine horses - the Assyrian elite.
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She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.
13 And I saw that she also had become incredibly filthy. Both women followed the same path.
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And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way.
14 But Oholibah surpassed her sister. When she saw figures of Babylonians carved in relief on the walls and painted red
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But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion
15 fancy belts around their waists, elaborate turbans on their heads, all of them looking important - famous Babylonians! -
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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 she went wild with lust and sent invitations to them in Babylon.
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When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.
17 The Babylonians came on the run, fornicated with her, made her dirty inside and out. When they had thoroughly debased her, she lost interest in them.
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And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust.
18 Then she went public with her fornication. She exhibited her sex to the world.
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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 But that didn't slow her down. She went at her whoring harder than ever. She remembered when she was young, just starting out as a whore in Egypt
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Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egyp
20 That whetted her appetite for more virile, vulgar, and violent lovers - stallions obsessive in their lust.
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and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses.
21 She longed for the sexual prowess of her youth back in Egypt, where her firm young breasts were caressed and fondled
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Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.
22 "'Therefore, Oholibah, this is the Message from God, the Master: I will incite your old lovers against you, lovers you got tired of and left in disgust. I'll bring them against you from every direction,
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Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side:
23 Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all Assyrians - good-looking young men, ambassadors and governors, elite officers and celebrities - all of them mounted on fine, spirited horses.
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the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.
24 They'll come down on you out of the north, armed to the teeth, bringing chariots and troops from all sides. I'll turn over the task of judgment to them. They'll punish you according to their rules.
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And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.
25 I'll stand totally and relentlessly against you as they rip into you furiously. They'll mutilate you, cutting off your ears and nose, killing at random. They'll enslave your children - and anybody left over will be burned.
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And I will direct my jealousy against you, 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. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire.
26 They'll rip off your clothes and steal your jewelry.
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They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels.
27 I'll put a stop to your sluttish sex, the whoring life you began in Egypt. You won't look on whoring with fondness anymore. You won't think back on Egypt with stars in your eyes.
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Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring begun in the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.
28 "'A Message from God, the Master: I'm at the point of abandoning you to those you hate, to those by whom you're repulsed.
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"For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust,
29 They'll treat you hatefully, leave you publicly naked, your whore's body exposed in the cruel glare of the sun. Your sluttish lust
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and they shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your whoring
30 will be exposed. Your lust has brought you to this condition because you whored with pagan nations and made yourself filthy with their no-god idols.
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have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.
31 "'You copied the life of your sister. Now I'll let you drink the cup she drank.
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You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.
32 "'This is the Message of God, the Master: "'You'll drink your sister's cup, a cup canyon-deep and ocean-wide. You'll be shunned and taunted as you drink from that cup, full to the brim.
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Thus says the Lord GOD: "You shall drink your sister's cup that is deep and large; you shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much;
33 You'll be falling-down-drunk and the tears will flow as you drink from that cup titanic with terror: It's the cup of your sister Samaria.
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you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. A cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria;
34 You'll drink it dry, then smash it to bits and eat the pieces, and end up tearing at your breasts. I've given the word - Decree of God, the Master.
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you shall drink it and drain it out, and gnaw its shards, and tear your breasts;for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.
35 "'Therefore God, the Master, says, Because you've forgotten all about me, pushing me into the background, you now must pay for what you've done - pay for your sluttish sex and whoring life.'"
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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring."
36 Then God said to me, "Son of man, will you confront Oholah and Oholibah with what they've done? Make them face their outrageous obscenities
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The LORD said to me: "Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations
37 obscenities ranging from adultery to murder. They committed adultery with their no-god idols, sacrificed the children they bore me in order to feed their idols!
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For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me.
38 And there is also this: They've defiled my holy Sanctuary and desecrated my holy Sabbaths
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Moreover, this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my Sabbaths
39 The same day that they sacrificed their children to their idols, they walked into my Sanctuary and defiled it. That's what they did - in my house!
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For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And behold, this is what they did in my house.
40 "Furthermore, they even sent out invitations by special messenger to men far away - and, sure enough, they came. They bathed themselves, put on makeup and provocative lingerie.
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They even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments.
41 They reclined on a sumptuous bed, aromatic with incense and oils - my incense and oils!
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You sat on a stately couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil.
42 The crowd gathered, jostling and pushing, a drunken rabble. They adorned the sisters with bracelets on their arms and tiaras on their heads.
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The sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and with men of the common sort, drunkards were brought from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of the women, and beautiful crowns on their heads.
43 "I said, 'She's burned out on sex!' but that didn't stop them. They kept banging on her doors night and day
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"Then I said of her who was worn out by adultery, Now they will continue to use her for a whore, even her!
44 as men do when they're after a whore. That's how they used Oholah and Oholibah, the worn-out whores.
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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 "Righteous men will pronounce judgment on them, giving out sentences for adultery and murder. That was their lifework: adultery and murder."
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But righteous men 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 "God says, 'Let a mob loose on them: Terror! Plunder!
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For thus says the Lord GOD: "Bring up a vast host against them, and make them an object of terror and a plunder.
47 Let the mob stone them and hack them to pieces - kill all their children, burn down their houses!
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And the host shall stone them and cut them down with their swords. They shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses.
48 "'I'll put an end to sluttish sex in this country so that all women will be well warned and not copy you.
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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 You'll pay the price for all your obsessive sex. You'll pay in full for your promiscuous affairs with idols. And you'll realize that I am God, the Master.'"
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And they shall return your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD."
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.