A parable about Jerusalem and Samaria

23 Yahweh said to me, 2 “You human, listen to this parable about Jerusalem and Samaria. Once there were two women, daughters of the same mother. 3 They lived in Egypt. And from the time that they were young women, they became prostitutes. In that land, men fondled their breasts and caressed their bosoms [DOU]. 4 The older sister was Oholah, and her younger sister was Oholibah. It was as though they became my wives. Later they gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah represents Samaria, and Oholibah represents Jerusalem.

5 Oholah acted like a prostitute while she was still my wife. She desired to have sex with those she loved—soldiers from Assyria. 6 Some of them were army officers and commanders. They wore beautiful blue uniforms. They were all handsome young men. Some of them rode horses. 7 She acted like a prostitute toward all the important Assyrian officials, and became unacceptable to me by worshiping all the idols of the men she wanted to have sex with. 8 When she was a young woman in Egypt, she started being a prostitute, and young men caressed her breasts and had sex with her; and when she became older, she did not quit acting like a prostitute.

9 So I allowed the Assyrian soldiers, whom she wanted to have sex with, to capture her. 10 They stripped all her clothes off her. They took away her sons and daughters. And then they killed her with a sword. Other women started talking about what had happened to her, about how she had been punished.

11 Heryounger sister Oholibah saw those thingsthat happened to Oholah, but she was a prostitute, and she desired to have sex with men more than herolder sister had desired. 12 Oholibah also wanted to have sex with the Assyrian soldiers. Some of them were army officers and commanders. They all wore beautiful blue uniforms. They were all handsome young men. Some of them rode horses. 13 I saw what she did that caused her to became unacceptable to me, just like herolder sister.

14 But she did even worse things. She saw drawings of men from Babylonia on the walls, painted in red. 15 The menin the drawings had belts around their waists and long turbans on their heads. They all resembled officers from Babylonia [DOU] who rode in chariots. 16 As soon as she saw those drawings, she wanted to have sex with those men, and she sent messages to them in Babylonia. 17 Then the soldiers from Babylonia came to her, they lay in bed with her, and they had sex with her. Then she became disgusted with them and turned away from them. 18 But when she continued to openly/boldly act like a prostitute [DOU], I became disgusted with her, and I rejected her like I had rejected herolder sister. 19 But she became even more immoral, as she remembered when she was a young woman who was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she wanted to have sex with those who loved her, whose genitals were very long, like [SIM] those of donkeys, and whose sexual emissions were huge, like those of horses. 21 So she desired to be immoral like she was when she was young, when men in Egypt caressed her bosom and fondled her breasts.”