Ezekiel 16
1 Another message from the Lord came to me, saying,
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 “Son of man, challenge Jerusalem over her disgusting practices.
Son of man, make known unto Jerusalem her abominations,
3 Tell Jerusalem that this is what the Lord God says to her: You really are a Canaanite, both by your birth and parentage. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite.
And thou shalt say, Thus hath said the Lord Eternal unto Jerusalem, Thy origin and thy birth are out of the land of Canaan: thy father was an Emorite, and thy mother a Hittite.
4 On the day you were born your cord was not cut, and you weren't washed to clean you up, you weren't rubbed with salt, and you weren't wrapped in cloths.
And as for thy birth, on the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, nor wast thou washed in water to he cleansed; and thou wast not rubbed with salt, nor wrapt in swaddling clothes.
5 No one looked on you with love to do anything like this for you; no one showed any kind of care for you. No, you were thrown away in a field, abandoned and despised from the day you were born.
No eye looked with pity on thee, to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out on the open field, with a loathing of thy body, on the day that thou wast born.
6 But I passed by and saw you kicking, covered in your own blood. As you were lying there in your blood I told you, ‘I want you to live!’ I said to you right there, ‘I want you to live!’
But I passed then by thee, and I saw thee stained with thy own blood, and I said unto thee, In thy blood, live; yea, I said unto thee, In thy blood, live.
7 I help you to grow like a plant in the field. You grew up into a beautiful young woman. Your breasts developed and your body hair grew, and you were completely naked.
Myriads, like the vegetation of the field, did I make of thee, and thou didst increase and become great, and thou attainedst the highest attractions: with thy breasts developed, and thy hair full grown; but thou wast still naked and bare.
8 When I passed by again, I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for lovemaking. So I spread my robe over you and covered up your naked body. I committed myself to you and made a solemn agreement with you, and made you mine, declares the Lord God.
But I passed then by thee, and saw thee, and, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread the skirt of my garment over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I swore unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord Eternal, and thou becamest mine.
9 Then I washed you with water, cleaned off your blood, and anointed you with oil.
Then did I bathe thee with water, yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee; and I anointed thee with oil.
10 I put a beautifully embroidered dress on you and gave you fine leather sandals. I clothed you in fine linen and covered you with silk.
I clothed thee also with broidered work, and made thee shoes of badger's skin, and I placed on thy head a turban of fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
11 I gave you jewelry—I put bracelets on your wrists and a necklace around your neck.
And I decked thee with ornaments, and I placed bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain around thy neck.
12 I put a ring in your nose and earrings on your ears, and placed a beautiful crown on your head.
And I placed a ring on thy nose, and earrings in thy ears, and a crown of splendor on thy head.
13 You wore gold and silver jewelry, and your clothes were made of the finest linen, expensive fabric, and embroidered cloth. You ate bread made with the best flour, and honey and olive oil. You grew even more beautiful and became a queen.
Thus wast thou ornamented with gold and silver; and thy garments were of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; fine flour, and honey, and oil didst thou eat: and thou wast exceedingly beautiful, and thou didst succeed to acquire dominion.
14 You were famous around the world because of your beauty, for I used my majestic power to make you so wonderful, declares the Lord God.
And thy fame went forth among the nations because of thy beauty; for it was perfect through my glorious ornament, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord Eternal.
15 You were so proud of your beauty that you were unfaithful to me. You thought that because you were so famous you could prostitute yourself and sleep with anyone who passed by. They took your beautiful body for themselves.
But thou didst trust in thy beauty, and play the harlot because of thy fame, and lavish thy lewd caresses on every one that passed by—on him they were bestowed.
16 You made yourself colorful pagan shrines out of the clothes I'd given you, and there you acted as a prostitute. Things like this have never happened before, and they should never happen in the future!
And thou didst take from thy garments, and deck thee high-places with divers colors, and play the harlot thereupon: never should the like come to pass, and never should it be so.
17 You also used the beautiful gold and silver jewelry I gave you to make male idols and you prostituted yourself with them.
And thou didst take thy elegant ornaments of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and make for thyself male images, and play the harlot with them;
18 You used your embroidered clothes to dress them, and you placed before them my olive oil and incense.
And thou didst take thy broidered garments, and cover them: and my oil and my incense didst thou place before them.
19 You presented the food I had given you as an offering for them to accept —bread made from the best flour, olive oil, and honey that I had provided for you to eat. That's exactly what you did, declares the Lord God.
And my bread which I had given thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, which I had let thee eat, even this didst thou set before them for a sweet savour: yes, so was it, saith the Lord Eternal.
20 You sacrificed your sons and daughters—the children you had for me—offering them as food for idols to eat. Wasn't your prostitution evil enough?
And thou didst take thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hadst born unto me, and didst slaughter these unto them to be devoured; [but] were thy acts of lewdness not yet enough?
21 You slaughtered my children, sacrificing them to idols.
That thou didst slay my children, and give them up to cause them to pass through the fire for them?
22 While you were busy with all your disgusting practices and your prostitution, you forgot about the time when you were young, completely naked and lying there kicking in your own blood.
And in all thy abominations and thy acts of lewdness thou didst not remember the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, when thou wast stained with thy blood.
23 Disaster is coming! Disaster is coming on you, declares the Lord God. As well as all the other evil things you did,
And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, —[woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord Eternal; ]—
24 you built yourself a pagan shrine, a high place of idol worship on every public square in the city.
That thou didst build unto thyself eminences, and make thyself elevations in every street.
25 You made yourselves high places of idol worship at the top of every street; you degraded yourself, offering your beautiful body to anyone who passed by, opening your legs for them, becoming more and more promiscuous.
On the corner of every road didst thou build thy elevations, and make thy beauty abominable, and spread out thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiply thy acts of lewdness.
26 You gave yourself as a prostitute to your Egyptian neighbors with their large sexual organs, making me angry as you became even more promiscuous.
And thou didst play the harlot with the Egyptians, thy neighbors, with large limbs, and multiply thy acts of lewdness, to provoke me to anger.
27 So I acted to reduce my blessings to you. I let your enemies the Philistines do what they wanted to you. Even they were embarrassed at your immorality.
And, behold, I stretched out my hand over thee, and diminished thy stated portion; and I gave thee up unto the will of those that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, who were made to blush for thy incestuous course.
28 Because you weren't satisfied you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians. But even then you weren't satisfied.
Then didst thou play the harlot with the sons of Asshur, because thou wast unsatiable: yea, thou didst play the harlot with them, and wast even then not satisfied.
29 So you took your promiscuous behavior to Babylonia, the country of merchants, but even then you weren't satisfied!
And thou didst multiply thy lewdness with the traders' land as far as Chaldea; and even with this wast thou not satisfied.
30 You're really sick-minded to do all this, acting like a prostitute with no shame, declares the Lord God.
How very corrupt is thy heart, saith the Lord Eternal, seeing thou didst all these things, deeds of an abandoned lewd woman;
31 Actually you weren't even a normal prostitute when you built yourselves pagan shrines at the top of every street and high places of idol worship on every public square—because you refused to be paid for your services!
Seeing that thou didst build thy eminences at the corner of every road, and make thy elevations in every street; and wast not like a harlot, as thou scornedst the wages.
32 You're a wife that loves adultery! You sleep with strangers instead of your husband!
O thou adulterous wife! who, while bound to her husband, receiveth strangers!
33 Normally all prostitutes are paid, but you were the one giving gifts to all your lovers. You even bribed them to come from all around and have sex with you.
Unto all harlots they give presents; but thou hast given thy presents to all thy lovers, and hast bribed them, that they might come unto thee from every side in thy acts of lewdness.
34 So you're the opposite of other prostitutes. No one comes to you asking for sex, and you pay the prostitute's fee instead of receiving it. You're the exact opposite!
And the reverse was the case with thee from [other] women in thy acts of lewdness, that men did not follow thee to seek thy lewd caresses; and because thou gavest the wages, and no wages were given thee: so was it the reverse with thee.
35 So, you prostitute, listen to the message from the Lord!
Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord!
36 This is what the Lord God says: Because you were so crazy with desire you stripped yourself naked and committed adultery with your lovers and with all your disgusting idols, and because you killed your children as sacrifices to those idols,
Thus hath said the Lord Eternal, Whereas thy wealth was squandered, and thy nakedness was uncovered through thy lewd acts with thy lovers, and with all thy abominable idols, and for the blood of thy children, whom thou didst give unto them:
37 I'm going to bring together all the lovers you went to bed with, whether you loved them or hated them, and I will have them gather from everywhere around and I will strip you as they watch so they will see you totally naked.
Therefore, behold, I will gather all thy lovers, whom thou hast given pleasure, and all whom thou hast loved, together with all whom thou hast hated, —yea, I will gather them all round about thee, and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.
38 I will impose on you the punishment for women who commit adultery and those who murder; you will be punished in passionate anger.
And I will judge thee, as adulteresses and women that shed blood are judged; and I will bring upon thee the blood of fury and jealousy.
39 Then I will hand you over to your lovers, and they will demolish your pagan shrines and destroy your high places of idol worship. They will strip you of your clothes, remove your beautiful jewelry, and leave you stark naked.
And I will also give thee up into their hand, and they shall pull down thy eminences, and shall break down thy elevations; and they shall strip thee of thy clothes, and they shall take thy elegant ornaments, and leave thee naked and bare.
40 They will come with a mob to attack you. They will stone you and chop you into pieces with their swords.
And they shall bring up against thee an assembly, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords;
41 They will burn down your houses and punish you while many women watch. I will stop your prostitution, and you won't ever pay your lovers again.
And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and execute punishments on thee before the eyes of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from being a harlot, and also the wages [of sin] shalt thou not give any more.
42 Then I will finish being jealous and furious with you. I will calm down and won't be angry any more.
And then will I assuage my fury on thee, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.
43 Since you didn't remember how I looked after you when you were young, but made me angry with all the things that you did, I will make sure you experience the results of what you've done, declares the Lord God. For this immorality was in addition to all the other disgusting things you did, wasn't it?
Because that thou didst not remember the days of thy youth, but didst irritate me with all these things: behold, therefore I also will bring thy course upon thy head, saith the Lord Eternal, and thou shalt no more commit incest with all thy [other] abominations.
44 Everyone who likes to use proverbs will quote this one about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
Behold, every one that speaketh in proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As the mother is, so is her daughter.
45 You are the daughter of your mother who detested her husband and children. You are just like her! You are the sister of your sisters, just like them who detested their husbands and children. In fact your mother was a Hittite and your father was an Amorite.
Thou art thy mother's daughter, loathing her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, who have loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Emorite.
46 Your older sister was Samaria, who lived north of you with her daughters. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived south of you with her daughters.
And thy elder sister is Samaria, she with her daughters, that dwelleth at thy left hand, and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom with her daughters.
47 You didn't just follow their ways and do the same disgusting things they did, you very quickly became even worse than them.
Yet not even in their ways didst thou walk, nor act according to their abominations: as though this were quite too little, and thou wast more corrupt than they in all thy ways.
48 As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters didn't ever do what you and your daughters have done.
As I live, saith the Lord Eternal, Sodom thy sister, she with her daughters, hath not done as thou hast done, thou with thy daughters.
49 The sins of your sister Sodom were these: She and her daughters were proud, greedy, and lazy. They didn't help the poor and those in need.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: Pride, abundance of food, and prosperous security were hers and her daughters'; but the hand of the poor and needy did she not strengthen.
50 They became arrogant and did disgusting things in my presence. So I got rid of them when I saw this.
And they became haughty, and committed abominations before me: therefore did I remove them when I saw their course.
51 Samaria didn't sin half as badly as you did. You have done far more disgusting things than they did. In fact, all the revolting things you've done make your sisters look good!
And Samaria hath not committed even the half of thy sins; but thou didst multiply thy abominations more than they; and thou hast justified thy sisters through all thy abominations which thou hast done.
52 Now you're going to have to put up with your shame, since by your disgraceful sins you made them seem far better. Compared to you they look good! Now you too have to put up with your shame and disgrace because you've made your sisters look as if they were good.
Bear then thou also thy own confusion, which thou didst adjudge unto each of thy sisters; through thy sins, which thou hast committed more abominably than they, are they made more righteous than thou: therefore thou also—be ashamed, and bear thy confusion, since thou hast justified thy sisters.
53 Even so I'm going to bring Sodom and her daughters back from exile, and Samaria and her daughters too. I will bring you back together with them.
And I will bring back again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of the captives in the midst of them:
54 In this way you will have to put up with your disgrace and be ashamed of all the bad things you did that made them feel better about themselves.
In order that thou mayest bear thy confusion, and mayest be confounded because of all that thou hast done, when thou art a comfort unto them.
55 Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will be restored to what they were before. You and your daughters will also be restored to what you were before.
And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and thou and thy daughters shall return to your former state.
56 Didn't you mock your sister Sodom when you were feeling proud,
And was not thy sister Sodom a report in thy mouth in the days of thy pride,
57 before you were shown to be so wicked yourselves? Of course now you are mocked by the Edomites and the surrounding nations, as well as by the Philistines. Everyone around you looks down on you.
Before yet thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all those round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, who taunted thee on all sides?
58 You will have to experience the consequences of your immorality and your disgusting practices, declares the Lord.
Thy incest and thy abominations, —thou thyself hadst to bear them, saith the Lord.
59 This is what the Lord God says: I'm going to punish you according to your sins, because you treated the promise you made with contempt by breaking the agreement.
For thus hath said the Lord Eternal, I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, thou who hast despised the oath by breaking the covenant.
60 But I won't forget the agreement I made with you when you were young, and I will make an everlasting agreement with you.
Nevertheless will I indeed remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
61 Then you will remember the way you are meant to live and be ashamed when you meet your older and younger sisters when they return to you. I will give them to you as daughters, even though this was not part of our original agreement.
And thou shalt then remember thy ways, and be confounded, when thou receivest thy sisters, both those that are older than thou and younger than thou: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, though not because thou wast faithful to the covenant.
62 This is how I will endorse my agreement with you, and you will know that I am the Lord,
And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord:
63 so that you will remember and be ashamed, and won't ever defend your disgraceful behavior when I forgive you for everything you've done, declares the Lord God.”
In order that thou mayest remember, and feel ashamed, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy confusion, when I forgive thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Eternal.
