1The word of the Lord came to me:2‘Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices3and say, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.4On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.5No-one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.6‘ “Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’[1]7I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.8‘ “Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.9‘ “I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.10I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.11I adorned you with jewellery: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace round your neck,12and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.13So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.14And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendour I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.15‘ “But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favours on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.16You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. You went to him, and he possessed your beauty.[2]17You also took the fine jewellery I gave you, the jewellery made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.18And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them.19Also the food I provided for you – the flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat – you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord.20‘ “And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough?21You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.22In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.23‘ “Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness,24you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square.25At every street corner you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by.26You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your neighbours with large genitals, and aroused my anger with your increasing promiscuity.27So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct.28You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied.29Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia,[3] a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.30‘ “I am filled with fury against you,[4] declares the Sovereign Lord, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute!31When you built your mounds at every street corner and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment.32‘ “You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband!33All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favours.34So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no-one runs after you for your favours. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.35‘ “Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord!36This is what the Sovereign Lord says: because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood,37therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked.38I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger.39Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewellery and leave you stark naked.40They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords.41They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers.42Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.43‘ “Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord. Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?44‘ “Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’45You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.46Your elder sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom.47You not only followed their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they.48As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.49‘ “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.50They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.51Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have done more detestable things than they, and have made your sisters seem righteous by all these things you have done.52Bear your disgrace, for you have furnished some justification for your sisters. Because your sins were more vile than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So then, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.53‘ “However, I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes along with them,54so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done in giving them comfort.55And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to what they were before; and you and your daughters will return to what you were before.56You would not even mention your sister Sodom in the day of your pride,57before your wickedness was uncovered. Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom[5] and all her neighbours and the daughters of the Philistines – all those around you who despise you.58You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your detestable practices, declares the Lord.59‘ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant.60Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.61Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you.62So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord.63Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign Lord.” ’
Ezekiel 16
English Standard Version
The Lord’s Faithless Bride
1Again the word of the Lord came to me:2“Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, (Eze 2:1; Eze 22:2)3and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. (Ge 15:16; De 7:1; Jud 1:26; Eze 16:45)4And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. (Ho 2:3)5No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. (De 32:10; Eze 16:4)6“And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ (Eze 16:22)7I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare. (Ex 1:7; Eze 16:11; Eze 16:13; Eze 16:22; Eze 16:39; Eze 23:29)8“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. (Ex 19:5; Ex 24:7; Ru 3:9; Jer 2:2)9Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. (Ru 3:3; Ps 23:5)10I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.[1] (Ex 26:36; Eze 16:13; Eze 16:18; Eze 26:16; Eze 27:7; Eze 27:16)11And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. (Ge 24:22; Ge 24:30; Ge 24:47; Eze 23:40; Eze 23:42)12And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.13Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. (De 32:13; Ps 48:2; Eze 16:15; Eze 16:25)14And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God. (La 2:15; Eze 23:10)15“But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore[2] because of your renown and lavished your whorings[3] on any passerby; your beauty[4] became his. (Le 17:7; Isa 1:21; Isa 57:8; Jer 2:20; Jer 3:2; Jer 3:6; Jer 3:20; Eze 16:13; Eze 16:25; Eze 23:3; Eze 23:8; Eze 23:11; Ho 1:2)16You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be.[5]17You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. (Eze 7:20; Eze 16:11; Eze 23:14)18And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. (Eze 23:41)19Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God. (Eze 6:13; Eze 16:13; Ho 2:8)20And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter (Eze 16:21; Eze 16:36; Eze 20:26; Eze 20:31; Eze 23:37)21that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?22And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood. (Eze 16:6; Eze 16:43; Eze 16:60)23“And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord God),24you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. (Eze 16:39)25At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself[6] to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. (Isa 57:7; Jer 2:20; Jer 3:2; Eze 16:14; Eze 16:15; Eze 16:31)26You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger. (Jer 7:18; Eze 16:15; Eze 20:7; Eze 23:14; Eze 23:19)27Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. (2Sa 1:20; Eze 5:10; Eze 16:37; Eze 16:57)28You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. (2Ki 16:7; 2Ch 28:16; Jer 2:18; Jer 2:36; Eze 16:15; Eze 23:12)29You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied. (Eze 23:14)30“How sick is your heart,[7] declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute,31building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. (Eze 16:33)32Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!33Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. (Eze 16:41; Ho 8:9)34So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different. (Eze 16:33)35“Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord:36Thus says the Lord God, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, (Eze 16:20; Eze 16:38)37therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. (La 1:8; Eze 16:27; Eze 16:39; Eze 23:10; Eze 23:22; Eze 23:28; Eze 23:29; Ho 2:10; Ho 8:10; Re 17:16)38And I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. (Ge 9:6; Le 20:10; De 22:22; Eze 18:10; Eze 21:30; Eze 23:37; Eze 23:45)39And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places. They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare. (Eze 16:7; Eze 16:11; Eze 16:24; Eze 16:25; Eze 23:26; Ho 2:3)40They shall bring up a crowd against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. (Jos 7:24; Eze 23:46; Eze 23:47)41And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. I will make you stop playing the whore, and you shall also give payment no more. (2Ki 25:9; Jer 39:8; Jer 52:13; Eze 5:8; Eze 16:33; Eze 16:40; Eze 23:27; Eze 23:48)42So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry. (Eze 5:13)43Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord God. Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations? (Eze 7:4; Eze 16:22; Eze 16:60; Eze 22:9)44“Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ (Eze 12:22; Eze 18:2)45You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. (Eze 16:3; Eze 16:46)46And your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. (Isa 1:10; Eze 16:48; Eze 16:51; Eze 16:53; Eze 16:55; Eze 23:4; Eze 23:33)47Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. (2Ki 21:9; 2Ch 33:9; Jer 2:10; Eze 5:6; Eze 5:7; Eze 16:48; Eze 16:51)48As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. (Isa 49:18; Eze 5:11; Eze 14:16; Eze 14:18; Eze 14:20; Eze 16:47; Eze 17:16; Eze 17:19; Eze 18:3; Eze 20:3; Eze 20:33; Zep 2:9; Mt 10:15; Mt 11:24)49Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. (Ge 13:10)50They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. (Ge 13:13; Ge 19:24)51Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed. (Jer 3:11; Eze 16:46; Eze 16:52)52Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous. (Eze 32:24)53“I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst, (Eze 29:14; Eze 39:25; Zep 2:7; Zep 3:20)54that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them. (Eze 14:22; Eze 16:61)55As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state. (Eze 16:53; Eze 36:11)56Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, (Isa 2:6)57before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria[8] and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you. (2Ki 16:5; 2Ch 28:18; Isa 7:1; Eze 16:27; Eze 28:24; Eze 28:26)58You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the Lord. (Eze 14:10; Eze 23:35; Eze 23:49)
The Lord’s Everlasting Covenant
59“For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, (Eze 17:15; Eze 17:18)60yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. (Le 26:42; Jer 32:40; Jer 50:5; Eze 16:8; Eze 16:22; Eze 16:43)61Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of[9] the covenant with you. (Isa 54:1; Eze 6:9; Eze 16:45; Eze 16:54)62I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, (Eze 6:7)63that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.” (Ro 3:19)