>There are MANY other uses of this kind of language in the bible,
>Thrasher, as I'm sure you are aware.
TILL Perhaps the most obscene passage in the Bible is in Ezekiel's allegory of the two lascivious sisters Oholah and Oholibah (Ezekiel 23). The sexual imagery is concealed by archaic translations retained in some versions, but the REB and NIV make it rather explicit, especially verses 19- 20, "Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute [whore, REB] in Egypt. There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses" (NIV). I have read commentaries on this passage by scholars who claim that the word "genitals" was from a Hebrew word that was equivalent to some of the vulgar terms used in English for "penis" and the word translated "emission" would also require a common English word like "come" to correctly render it. Out of deference to those on the list who have delicate sensitivities, I won't quote a translation of this passage that I once read in an article written by a former Hebrew professor.