Ezekiel 16

¹Again the word of the Lord came to me:

²Son of man , make known to Jerusalem her abominations ,

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 .

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 .

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 .

⁶And 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 !

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 .

⁸When 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.

⁹Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil .

¹⁰I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather . I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk .

¹¹And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck .

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 .

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.

¹⁵But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby ; your beauty became his.

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.

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 .

¹⁸And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them.

¹⁹Also my bread that I gave 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.

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

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 .

²³And 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 .

²⁵At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination , offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring .

²⁶You also played the whore with the Egyptians , your lustful neighbors , multiplying your whoring , to provoke me to anger .

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 .

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 .

²⁹You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea , and even with this you were not satisfied .

³⁰How sick is your heart , 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 .

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 .

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 .

³⁵Therefore , 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,

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 .

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 .

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 .

⁴⁰They shall bring up a crowd against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords .

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 .

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 .

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 ?

⁴⁴Behold , everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: Like mother , like daughter .

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 .

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 .

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 .

⁴⁸As I live , declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done .

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 .

⁵⁰They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.

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 .

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 .

⁵³I 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 ,

⁵⁴that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done , becoming a consolation to them.

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 .

⁵⁶Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride ,

⁵⁷before your wickedness was uncovered ? Now you have become an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines , those all around who despise you.

⁵⁸You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations , declares the Lord.

⁵⁹For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done , you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant ,

⁶⁰yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth , and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant .

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 the covenant with you.

⁶²I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord,

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.