Jezekiel 16
1 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 Son of man, testify to Jerusalem [of] her iniquities;
“Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominations
3 and thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord to Jerusalem; Thy root and thy birth are of the land of Chanaan: thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Chettite.
and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
4 And [as for] thy birth in the day wherein thou wast born, thou didst not bind thy breasts, and thou wast not washed in water, neither wast thou salted with salt, neither wast thou swathed in swaddling-bands.
On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.
5 Nor did mine eye pity thee, to do for thee one of all these things, to feel at all for thee; but thou wast cast out on the face of the field, because of the deformity of thy person, in the day wherein thou wast born.
No one cared enough for you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, because you were despised on the day of your birth.
6 And I passed by to thee, and saw thee polluted in thy blood; and I said to thee, [Let there be] life out of thy blood:
Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’
7 increase; I have made thee as the springing grass of the field. So thou didst increase and grow, and didst enter into great cities: thy breasts were set, and thy hair grew, whereas thou wast naked and bare.
I made you thrive like a plant of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.
8 And I passed by thee and saw thee, and, behold, [it was] thy time and a time of resting; and I spread my wings over thee, and covered thy shame, and swear to thee: and I entered into covenant with thee, saith the Lord, and thou becamest mine.
Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord GOD.
9 And I washed thee in water, and washed thy blood from thee, and anointed thee with oil.
Then I bathed you with water, rinsed off your blood, and anointed you with oil.
10 And I clothed thee with embroidered [garments], and clothed thee beneath with purple, and girded thee with fine linen, and clothed thee with silk,
I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.
11 and decked thee also with ornaments, and put bracelets on thine hands, and a necklace on thy neck.
I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.
12 And I put a pendant on thy nostril, and rings in thine ears, and a crown of glory on thine head.
I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.
13 So thou wast adorned with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and variegated work: thou didst eat fine flour, and oil, and honey, and didst become extremely beautiful.
So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be queen.
14 And thy name went forth among the nations for thy beauty: because it was perfected with elegance, [and] in the comeliness which I put upon thee, saith the Lord.
Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in the splendor I bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.
15 Thou didst trust in thy beauty, and didst go a-whoring because of thy renown, and didst pour out thy fornication on every passer by.
But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking.
16 And thou didst take of thy garments, and madest to thyself idols of needlework, and didst go a-whoring after them; therefore thou shalt never come in, nor shall [the like] take place.
You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred!
17 And thou tookest thy fair ornaments of my gold and of my silver, of what I gave thee, and thou madest to thyself male images, and thou didst commit whoredom with them.
You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself.
18 And thou didst take thy variegated apparel and didst clothe them, and thou didst set before them mine oil and mine incense.
You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you set My oil and incense before them.
19 And [thou tookest] my bread which I gave thee, ([yea] I fed thee with fine flour and oil and honey) and didst set them before them for a sweet-smelling savour: yea, it was so, saith the Lord.
And you set before them as a pleasing aroma the food I had given you—the fine flour, oil, and honey that I had fed you. That is what happened, declares the Lord GOD.
20 And thou tookest thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou borest, and didst sacrifice [these] to them to be destroyed. Thou didst go a-whoring as [if that were] little,
You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough?
21 and didst slay thy children, and gavest them up in offering them to them for an expiation.
You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols.
22 This is beyond all thy fornication, and thou didst not remember thine infancy, when thou wast naked and bare, [and] didst live [though] defiled in thy blood.
And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.
23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, saith the Lord,
Woe! Woe to you, declares the Lord GOD. And in addition to all your other wickedness,
24 that thou didst build thyself a house of fornication, and didst make thyself a public place in every street;
you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square.
25 and on the head of every way thou didst set up thy fornications, and didst defile thy beauty, and didst open thy feet to every passer by, and didst multiply thy fornication.
At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.
26 And thou didst go a-whoring after the children of Egypt thy neighbors, great of flesh; and didst go a-whoring, often to provoke me to anger.
You prostituted yourself with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians, and increased your promiscuity to provoke Me to anger.
27 And if I stretch out my hand against thee, then will I abolish thy statutes, and deliver [thee] up to the wills of them that hate thee, [even to] the daughters of the Philistines that turned thee aside from the way wherein thou sinned.
Therefore I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct.
28 And thou didst go a-whoring to the daughters of Assur, and not even thus wast thou satisfied; yea, thou didst go a-whoring, and wast not satisfied.
Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied.
29 And thou didst multiply thy covenants with the land of the Chaldeans; and not even with these wast thou satisfied.
So you extended your promiscuity to Chaldea, the land of merchants—but even with this you were not satisfied!
30 Why should I make a covenant with thy daughter, saith the Lord, while thou doest all these things, the works of a harlot? and thou hast gone a-whoring in a threefold degree with thy daughters.
How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute!
31 Thou hast built a house of harlotry in every top of a way, and hast set up thine high place in every street; and thou didst become as a harlot gathering hires.
But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.
32 An adulteress resembles thee, taking rewards of her husband.
You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband!
33 She has even given rewards to all that went a-whoring after her, and thou hast given rewards to all thy lovers, yea, thou didst load them with rewards, that they should come to thee from every side for thy fornication.
Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.
34 And there has happened in thee perverseness in thy fornication beyond [other] women, and they have committed fornication with thee, in that thou givest hires over and above, and hires were not given to thee; and [thus] perverseness happened in thee.
So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite!
35 Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the Lord:
Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD!
36 Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast poured forth thy money, therefore thy shame shall be discovered in thy harlotry with thy lovers, and [with] regard to all the imaginations of thine iniquities, and for the blood of thy children which thou hast given to them.
This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them,
37 Therefore, behold, I [will] gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast consorted, and all whom thou hast loved, with all whom thou didst hate; and I will gather them against thee round about, and will expose thy wickedness to them, and they shall see all thy shame.
therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.
38 And I will be avenged on thee with the vengeance of an adulteress, and I will bring upon thee blood of fury and jealousy.
And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.
39 And I will deliver thee into their hands, and they shall break down thy house of harlotry, and destroy thine high place; and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take thy proud ornaments, and leave thee naked and bare.
Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will level your mounds and tear down your lofty shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.
40 And they shall bring multitudes upon thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and pierce thee with their swords.
They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.
41 And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and shall execute vengeance on thee in the sight of many women: and I will turn thee back from harlotry, and I will no more give [thee] rewards.
Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgment against you in the sight of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will never again pay your lovers.
42 So will I slacken my fury against thee, and my jealousy shall be removed from thee, and I will rest, and be no more careful [for thee].
So I will lay to rest My wrath against you, and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be calm and no longer angry.
43 Because thou didst not remember thine infancy, and thou didst grieve me in all these things; therefore, behold, I have recompensed thy ways upon thine head, saith the Lord: for thus hast thou wrought ungodliness above all thine [other] iniquities.
Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will surely bring your deeds down upon your own head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed this lewdness on top of all your other abominations?
44 These are all the things they have spoken against thee in a proverb, saying,
Behold, all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
45 As is the mother, so is thy mother's daughter: thou art she that has rejected her husband and her children; and the sisters of thy sisters have rejected their husbands and their children: your mother was a Chettite, and [your] father an Amorite.
You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46 Your elder sister who dwells on thy left hand is Samaria, she and her daughters: and thy younger sister, that dwells on the right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to your north; and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to your south.
47 Yet notwithstanding thou hast not walked in their ways, neither hast thou done according to their iniquities within a little, but thou hast exceeded them in all thy ways.
And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were.
48 [As] I live, saith the Lord, this Sodom and her daughters have not done as thou and thy daughters have done.
As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.
49 Moreover this was the sin of thy sister Sodom, pride: she and her daughters lived in pleasure, in fullness of bread [and] in abundance: this belonged to her and her daughters, and they helped not the hand of the poor and needy.
Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.
50 And they boasted, and wrought iniquities before me: so I cut them off as I saw [fit].
Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.
51 Also Samaria has not sinned according to half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine iniquities beyond them, and thou hast justified thy sisters in all thine iniquities which thou hast committed.
Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have multiplied your abominations beyond theirs, and all the abominations you have committed have made your sisters appear righteous.
52 Thou therefore bear thy punishment, for that thou hast corrupted thy sisters by thy sins which thou hast committed beyond them; and thou hast made them [appear] more righteous than thyself: thou therefore be ashamed, and bear thy dishonour, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.
So now you must bear your disgrace, since you have brought justification for your sisters. For they appear more righteous than you, because your sins were more vile than theirs. So you too must bear your shame and disgrace, since you have made your sisters appear righteous.
53 And I will turn their captivity, [even] the captivity of Sodom and her daughters; and I will turn the captivity of Samaria and her daughters; and I will turn thy captivity in the midst of them:
But I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity, as well as Samaria and her daughters. And I will restore you along with them.
54 that thou mayest bear thy punishment, and be dishonoured for all that thou hast done in provoking me to anger.
So you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did to comfort them.
55 And thy sister Sodom and her daughters shall be restored as they were at the beginning, and thou and thy daughters shall be restored as ye were at the beginning.
And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state.
56 And surely thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the days of thy pride:
Did you not treat your sister Sodom as an object of scorn in the day of your pride,
57 before thy wickedness was discovered, even now thou art the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all that are round about her, [even] of the daughters of the Philistines that compass thee round about.
before your wickedness was uncovered? Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you.
58 [As for] thine ungodliness and thine iniquities, thou hast borne them, saith the Lord.
You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD.
59 Thus saith the Lord; I will even do to thee as thou hast done, as thou hast dealt shamefully in these things to transgress my covenant.
For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will deal with you according to your deeds, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.
60 And I will remember my covenant [made] with thee in the days of thine infancy, and I will establish to thee an everlasting covenant.
But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.
61 Then thou shalt remember thy way, and shalt be utterly dishonoured when thou receivest thine elder sisters with thy younger ones: and I will give them to thee for building up, but not by thy covenant.
Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.
62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord:
So I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD,
63 that thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and mayest no more be able to open thy mouth for thy shame, when I am reconciled to thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord.
so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, declares the Lord GOD.”
