Ezekiel 16

The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, make Jerusalem know her abominations. Say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were from the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite. As for your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut. You were not washed with water to cleanse you, rubbed with salt, or wrapped in cloths. No eye pitied you enough to do any of these things for you out of compassion. You were thrown into the open field because your life was despised on the day you were born. I passed by you and saw you struggling in your blood. I said to you in your blood, “Live!” I said to you in your blood, “Live!” I made you flourish like the plants of the field. You grew, developed, and reached full beauty. Your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, but you were naked and bare. I passed by you and saw that your time had come, the time for love. I spread the edge of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. I bathed you with water, washed your blood off you, and anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth, put sandals of fine leather on your feet, wrapped you in fine linen, and covered you with silk. I adorned you with jewelry, put bracelets on your wrists, and a necklace around your neck. I put a ring in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. You were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very, very beautiful and attained royalty. Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor I had put upon you, declares the Lord GOD. But you trusted in your beauty and prostituted yourself because of your fame. You poured out your acts of prostitution on everyone who passed by; you became his. You took some of your garments, made colorful high places for yourself, and prostituted yourself on them. Such things should not happen and must not be! You took your beautiful ornaments made from my gold and my silver, which I had given you, and made male images for yourself and prostituted yourself with them. You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set my oil and my incense before them. My bread that I had given you—the fine flour, oil, and honey with which I fed you—you set before them as a pleasing aroma. So it happened, declares the Lord GOD. You took your sons and daughters, whom you had borne to me, and sacrificed them to those idols to be devoured. Were your acts of prostitution too little, that you slaughtered my children and gave them over, making them pass over to those idols? In all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood. After all your wickedness—woe, woe to you, declares the Lord GOD— you built yourself a shrine and made a raised platform in every public square. At every crossroads you built your raised platform and made your beauty an abomination. You spread your legs for everyone who passed by and multiplied your acts of prostitution. You prostituted yourself with the Egyptians, your neighbors with large members, and multiplied your acts of prostitution to provoke me to anger. So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your allotted portion. I gave you over to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd ways. You prostituted yourself with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied. You prostituted yourself with them, but still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your prostitution in the land of Canaan, as far as Chaldea, but even with this you were not satisfied. How weak your heart is, declares the Lord GOD, when you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute! When you built your shrine at every crossroads and made your raised platform in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, for you scorned payment. You adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! Gifts are given to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers and bribed them to come to you from all around for your acts of prostitution. In your prostitution you were the opposite of other women. No one sought you out for prostitution. You gave payment, and no payment was given to you. You were the opposite! Therefore, prostitute, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says: Because your filth was poured out and your nakedness was exposed in your prostitution with your lovers and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children whom you gave to them, therefore I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all whom you loved, together with all whom you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose your nakedness to them, and they will see all your nakedness. I will judge you with the judgments of adulteresses and women who shed blood, and give you over to bloodshed in wrath and jealousy. I will give you into their hands. They will tear down your shrine, demolish your raised platforms, strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful ornaments, and leave you naked and bare. They will bring an assembly against you, stone you, and cut you to pieces with their swords. They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments against you in the sight of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will no longer give payment. I will bring my wrath to rest upon you, and my jealousy will depart from you. I will be quiet and no longer be angry. Because you did not remember the days of your youth but provoked me with all these things, I too will bring your ways upon your head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed lewdness on top of all your abominations? Everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.” You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. Your older sister is Samaria, who lives with her daughters on your left. Your younger sister, who lives on your right, is Sodom with her daughters. You did not merely follow their ways and commit their abominations. As though that were a very little thing, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done what you and your daughters have done. This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, abundant bread, and carefree ease, but she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They grew proud and committed an abomination before me, so I removed them when I saw it. Samaria has not committed half your sins. You multiplied your abominations beyond theirs, and by all the abominations you committed, you made your sisters appear righteous. You too must bear your disgrace, you who judged your sisters. Because your sins were more abominable than theirs, they are more righteous than you. You too must be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous. I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and your own fortunes among them, so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done, in being a comfort to them. Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former state. Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state. You did not mention your sister Sodom in the days of your pride, before your wickedness was exposed, as it was at the time of the reproach from the daughters of Aram and all her neighbors, the daughters of the Philistines who despise you all around. You must bear your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD. For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will deal with you as you have done, you who despised the oath by breaking the covenant. But I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. You will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, those older and those younger than you. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. I myself will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD, so that you may remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, declares the Lord GOD.’”

Rights and attribution