Nov 22nd

“Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother;

and they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed, and there their virgin bosom was handled.

Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

“Oholah played the harlot while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians, her neighbors,

who were clothed in purple, governors and officials, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.

She gave her harlotries to them, all of them the choicest men of Assyria; and with all whom she lusted after, with all their idols she defiled herself.

She did not forsake her harlotries from the time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their harlotry on her.

Therefore, I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted.

They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, but they killed her with the sword. Thus she became a despised name among women, and they executed judgments on her.

“Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister.

She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable choice men.

And I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way.

So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

girded with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, in the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.

And she saw them and lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

So the Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. Then she became defiled by them, and her soul became disgusted with them.

And she uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness; then My soul became disgusted with her, as My soul had become disgusted with her sister.

Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.

“Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I will arouse your lovers against you, those with whom your soul was disgusted, and I will bring them against you from every side:

the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable choice men, governors and officials, all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.

They will come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons, and with an assembly of peoples. They will set themselves against you on every side with large shield and shield and helmet; and I will give the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments.

And I will set My jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in wrath. They will remove your nose and your ears; and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and your survivors will be consumed by the fire.

They will also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewelry.

Thus I will make your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt to cease from you, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’

For thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Behold, I will give you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those with whom your soul was disgusted.

They will deal with you in hatred, take all the fruit of your labor, and leave you naked and bare. And the nakedness of your harlotries will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotries.

These things will be done to you because you have played the harlot with the nations, because you have defiled yourself with their idols.

You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.’

Thus says Lord Yahweh,

for I have spoken,’ declares Lord Yahweh.

Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, bear now the punishment of your lewdness and your harlotries.’ ”

Moreover, Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.

For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. Thus they have committed adultery with their idols and even caused their sons, whom they bore to Me, to pass through the fire to them as food.

Again, they have done this to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My sabbaths.

For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and behold, thus they did within My house.

“Furthermore, they have even sent for men who come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came—for whom you bathed, painted your eyes, and decorated yourselves with ornaments;

and you sat on a splendid couch with a table arranged before it on which you had set My incense and My oil.

The sound of a multitude at ease was with her; and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort. And they put bracelets on the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.

“Then I said concerning her who was worn out by adulteries, ‘Will they now commit harlotry with her when she is thus?’

But they went in to her as they would go in to a harlot. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.

But they, righteous men, will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.

“For thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Bring up an assembly against them and give them over to terror and plunder.

The assembly will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords; they will kill their sons and their daughters and burn their houses with fire.

Thus I will make lewdness cease from the land, that all women may be chastised and not commit lewdness as you have done.

Your lewdness will be requited upon you, and you will bear the sin of worshiping your idols; thus you will know that I am Lord Yahweh.’ ”

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary, fainting in heart.

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share His holiness.

And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,

and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord,

seeing to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;

that also there be no sexually immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,

and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.

For they could not bear what was being commanded, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.”

And so terrible was what appeared, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,

to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.