Under the names of the two harlots, Oolla and Ooliba, are described the manifold disloyalties of Samaria and Jerusalem, with the punishment of them both.

¹ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

² “Son of man, two women were daughters of one mother,

³ and they fornicated in Egypt; they committed fornication in their youth. In that place, their breasts were conquered; the breasts of their adolescence were subdued.¹²

1. 23:3This verse is about cities and nations and peoples, using a figure of two women who committed fornication; therefore, the translation uses conquered and subdued, putting the meaning of the verse above its figure. Notice that the verb in the Latin is in the passive tense; this speaks to the difference between men and women in sexuality.(Conte)
2. 23:3Committed fornication: That is, idolatry.(Challoner)

⁴ Now their names were Oholah, the elder, and Oholibah, her younger sister. And I held them, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names: Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.¹

1. 23:4Oolla and Ooliba: God calls the kingdom of Israel Oolla, which signifies their own habitation, because they separated themselves from his temple: and the kingdom of Juda, Ooliba, which signifies his habitation in her, because of his temple among them in Jerusalem.(Challoner)

⁵ And then, Oholah committed fornication against me, and she acted madly with her lovers, with the Assyrians who approached her,¹

1. 23:5On the Assyraians, etc: That is, the idols of the Assyrians: for all that is said in this chapter of the fornications of Israel and Juda, is to be understood in a spiritual sense, of their disloyalty to the Lord, by worshipping strange gods.(Challoner)

⁶ who were clothed with hyacinth: rulers and magistrates, passionate youths and all of the horsemen, mounted on horses.

⁷ And she distributed her fornications to those chosen men, all of them sons of the Assyrians. And she defiled herself with the uncleanness of all those whom she madly desired.

⁸ Moreover, she also did not abandon her fornications, which she had done in Egypt. For they also slept with her in her youth, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication upon her.

⁹ Because of this, I have delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of the Assur, whom she has lustfully desired.¹

1. 23:9Assur was a false god of the Assyrians, and is also a figure of the Antichrist, a false god from the region of Assyria.(Conte)

¹⁰ They uncovered her shame; they took away her sons and daughters; and they slew her with the sword. And they became infamous women. And they carried out judgments in her.

¹¹ And when her sister, Oholibah, had seen this, she was even more mad with lust than the other. And her fornication was beyond the fornication of her sister.

¹² She shamelessly offered herself to the sons of the Assyrians, to the rulers and magistrates who brought themselves to her clothed with colorful garments, to the horsemen who were carried by horses, and to the youths, all of them exceptional in appearance.

¹³ And I saw that she had been defiled, and that they both took the same path.

¹⁴ And she increased her fornications. And when she had seen men depicted on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans, expressed in colors,

¹⁵ with belts wrapped around the waist, and with dyed headdresses on their heads, having seen the appearance of all the rulers, the likenesses of the sons of Babylon and of the land of the Chaldeans in which they were born,

¹⁶ she became mad for them with the desire of her eyes, and she sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

¹⁷ And when the sons of Babylon had gone to her, to the bed of breasts, they defiled her with their fornications, and she was polluted by them, and her soul was gorged by them.

¹⁸ Also, her fornications were uncovered, and her shame was revealed. And my soul withdrew from her, as my soul had withdrawn from her sister.

¹⁹ For she multiplied her fornications, remembering the days of her youth, in which she fornicated in the land of Egypt.

²⁰ And she was mad with lust after lying with them, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose flow is like the flow of horses.¹

1. 23:20Notice the poetic elements in the Latin phrasing: ‘quorum carnes’ versus ‘carnes asinorum’ and also ‘fluxus equorum’ versus ‘fluxus eorum.’(Conte)

²¹ And you have revisited the crimes of your youth, when your breasts were conquered in Egypt, and the breasts of your adolescence were subdued.

²² Because of this, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will raise up against you all of your lovers, with whom your soul has been gorged. And I will gather them together against you all around:

²³ the sons of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, the nobles, the sovereigns and princes, all the sons of the Assyrians, youths of exceptional form, all the rulers and magistrates, the leaders among leaders, and the renowned riders of horses.

²⁴ And they will overwhelm you, well-equipped with chariot and wheel, a multitude of peoples. They will be armed against you on every side with armor and shield and helmet. And I will give judgment to their eyes, and they will judge you with their judgments.

²⁵ And against you, I will set my zeal, which they will execute upon you with fury. They will cut off your nose and your ears. And what remains will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and your daughters, and your youngest will be devoured by fire.

²⁶ And they will strip you of your vestments, and take away the articles of your glory.

²⁷ And I will cause your wickedness to cease from you, and your fornication to cease from the land of Egypt. Neither shall you lift up your eyes toward them, and you shall no longer remember Egypt.

²⁸ For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you have hated, into the hands by which your soul has been gorged.

²⁹ And they will act toward you with hatred, and they will take away all your labors, and they will send you away naked and filled with disgrace. And the shame of your fornication will be revealed: your crimes and your fornications.

³⁰ They have done these things to you, because you have fornicated after the Gentiles, among whom you were defiled by their idols.

³¹ You have walked in the way of your sister, and so I will give her chalice into your hand.

³² Thus says the Lord God: You will drink the chalice of your sister, deep and wide. You will be held in derision and in ridicule, to a very great extent.

³³ You will be filled with inebriation and sorrow, by the chalice of grief and sadness, by the chalice of your sister Samaria.

³⁴ And you will drink it, and you will empty it, even to the dregs. And you will consume even its particles. And you will wound your own breasts. For I have spoken, says the Lord God.

³⁵ Because of this, thus says the Lord God: Since you have forgotten me, and you have cast me behind your body, so also will you bear your wickedness and your fornications.”

³⁶ And the Lord spoke to me, saying: “Son of man, should you not judge Oholah and Oholibah, and announce to them their crimes?

³⁷ For they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands, and they have fornicated with their idols. Moreover, they have offered even their children, whom they bore for me, to them to be devoured.

³⁸ But they have done even this to me: They have defiled my sanctuary on the same day, and they have profaned my Sabbaths.

³⁹ And when they immolated their children to their idols, they also entered my sanctuary on the same day, so that they defiled it. They have done these things, even in the midst of my house.

⁴⁰ They sent for men who were coming from far away, to whom they had sent a messenger. And so, behold, they arrived, those for whom you washed yourself, and smeared cosmetics around your eyes, and were adorned with feminine ornaments.

⁴¹ You sat upon a very beautiful bed, and a table was adorned before you, on which you placed my incense and my ointment.

⁴² And the voice of a multitude was exulting within her. And concerning certain men, who were being led out of a multitude of persons, and who were arriving from the desert, they placed bracelets on their hands and beautiful crowns on their heads.

⁴³ And I said about her, as she was being worn away by her adulteries, ‘Even now, she continues in her fornication!’

⁴⁴ And they entered to her, as if to a kept woman. So did they enter to Oholah and Oholibah, nefarious women.

⁴⁵ But there are just men; these shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of those who shed blood. For they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.

⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord God: Lead upon them a multitude, and hand them over to tumult and to pillaging.

⁴⁷ And may they be stoned with the stones of the peoples, and may they be pierced with their own swords. They will put to death their sons and daughters, and they will burn their houses with fire.