Greener Grasses

1. Yahweh’s word came again to me, saying, 2. “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. 3. They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there. 4. Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah. 5. “Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine. She doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, 6. who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. 7. She gave herself as a prostitute to them, all of them the choicest men of Assyria. She defiled herself with the idols of whoever she lusted after. 8. She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her. They caressed her youthful nipples; and they poured out their prostitution on her. 9. “Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted. 10. These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters; and they killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her. 11. “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lusting than she, and in her prostitution which was more depraved than the prostitution of her sister. 12. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. 13. I saw that she was defiled. They both went the same way. 14. “She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with red, 15. dressed with belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. 16. As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them into Chaldea. 17. The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. She was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them. 18. So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my soul was alienated from her, just like my soul was alienated from her sister. 19. Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt. 20. She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 21. Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the caressing of your nipples by the Egyptians because of your youthful breasts. 22. “Therefore, Oholibah, the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side: 23. the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; all of them desirable young men, governors and rulers, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. 24. They will come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples. They will set themselves against you with buckler, shield, and helmet all around. I will commit the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments. 25. I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will take away your nose and your ears. Your remnant will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and the rest of you will be devoured by the fire. 26. They will also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels. 27. Thus I will make your lewdness to cease from you, and remove your prostitution from the land of Egypt; so that you will not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.’ 28. “For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated. 29. They will deal with you in hatred, and will take away all your labor, and will leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution. 30. These things will be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols. 31. You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.’ 32. “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large. You will be ridiculed and held in derision. It contains much. 33. You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria. 34. You will even drink it and drain it out. You will gnaw the broken pieces of it, and will tear your breasts; for I have spoken it,’ says the Lord Yahweh. 35. “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.’ ” 36. Yahweh said moreover to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. 37. For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured. 38. Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. 39. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, they have done this in the middle of my house. 40. “Furthermore you sisters have sent for men who come from far away, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you washed yourself, painted your eyes, decorated yourself with ornaments, 41. and sat on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you set my incense and my oil. 42. “The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her. With men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43. Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, ‘Now they will play the prostitute with her, and she with them.’ 44. They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute. So they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. 45. 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 in their hands. 46. “For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘I will bring up a mob against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed. 47. The company will stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. 48. “ ‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to be lewd like you. 49. They will recompense your lewdness on you, and you will bear the sins of your idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.’ ”

1. A reed like a rod was given to me. Someone said, “Rise, and measure God’s temple, and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2. Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months. 3. I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4. These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands, standing before the Lord of the earth. 5. If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. If anyone desires to harm them, he must be killed in this way. 6. These have the power to shut up the sky, that it may not rain during the days of their prophecy. They have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. 7. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. 8. Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9. From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations, people will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. 10. Those who dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and they will be glad. They will give gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. 11. After the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them. 12. I heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” They went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies saw them. 13. In that day there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified, and gave glory to the God of heaven. 14. The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe comes quickly.

9. “By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty. 10. But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, 11. who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’ 12. There they cry, but no one answers, because of the pride of evil men. 13. Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it. 14. How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him! 15. But now, because he has not visited in his anger, neither does he greatly regard arrogance. 16. Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”