Ezekiel 16

The Lord’s Faithless Bride

16Again the word of the Lord came to me: ^2b“Son of man, ^cmake 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 ^dAmorite and your mother a ^eHittite. ⁴And as for your birth, ^fon 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, ^gbut you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, ^fon the day that you were born.

⁶“And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing ^hin your blood, I said to you ^hin your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you ^hin your blood, ‘Live!’ ⁷ⁱI made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall ^jand arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet ^kyou were naked and bare.

⁸“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and ^lI spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you ^mand entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, ⁿand you became mine. ⁹Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and ^oanointed you with oil. ^10pI clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.^{1 11q}And I adorned you with ornaments and ^rput 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. ^sYou ate fine flour and honey and oil. ^tYou grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. ¹⁴And ^uyour 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.

^15v“But you trusted in your beauty ^wand played the whore² because of your renown ^xand lavished your whorings³ on any passerby; your beauty⁴ 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.^{5 17}You also took ^yyour beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and ^zmade for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. ¹⁸And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, ^aand set my oil and my incense before them. ^19bAlso my bread that I gave you—^sI fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for ^ca pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God. ^20dAnd you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and ^ethese 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 ^fthe days of your youth, ^gwhen you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.

²³“And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord God), ²⁴you built yourself ^ha vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. ²⁵At the head of every street ⁱyou built your lofty place and made ^jyour beauty an abomination, ^koffering yourself⁶ to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. ^26wYou also played the whore ^lwith the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, ^mmultiplying your whoring, ⁿto provoke me to anger. ²⁷Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you ^oand diminished your allotted portion ^pand delivered you to the greed of your enemies, ^qthe daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. ^28wYou played the whore also ^rwith 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 ^tof Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

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, ^ubecause you scorned payment. ³²Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! ³³Men give gifts to all prostitutes, ^vbut 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 ^vyou gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

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, ^wand because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, ³⁷therefore, behold, ^xI will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and ^yall those you hated. ^zI will gather them against you from every side ^aand will uncover your nakedness to them, that ^bthey may see all your nakedness. ^38cAnd I will judge you ^das women who commit adultery and ^eshed 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 ^fvaulted chamber and break down ^gyour lofty places. ^hThey shall strip you of your clothes and take ⁱyour beautiful jewels and leave you ^jnaked and bare. ^40kThey shall bring up a crowd against you, ^land they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. ^41lAnd they shall ^mburn your houses and ⁿexecute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. ^oI will make you stop playing the whore, and ^pyou shall also give payment no more. ^42qSo 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 ^rthe days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold, ^sI have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord God. Have you not ^tcommitted lewdness in addition to all your abominations?

⁴⁴“Behold, everyone ^uwho 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 ^vyour sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. ^wYour mother was a Hittite and ^wyour father an Amorite. ⁴⁶And ^xyour elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and ^yyour younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. ^47zNot only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time ^ayou were more corrupt than they in all your ways. ^48bAs I live, declares the Lord God, your sister ^cSodom 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, ^dexcess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. ⁵⁰They were haughty and ^edid an abomination before me. So ^fI removed them, when I saw it. ^51gSamaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and ^hhave made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed. ⁵²ⁱBear 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.

^53j“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, ⁵⁴that you may bear your disgrace ^kand be ashamed of all that you have done, ^lbecoming a consolation to them. ⁵⁵As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, ^jand Samaria and her daughters shall return ^mto their former state, ^jand you and your daughters shall return ^mto your former state. ⁵⁶Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth ⁿin the day of your pride, ⁵⁷before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become ^oan object of reproach for the daughters of Syria⁸ and all those around her, and for ^pthe daughters of the Philistines, ^qthose all around who despise you. ^58rYou bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the Lord.

The Lord’s Everlasting Covenant

⁵⁹“For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you ^swho have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, ⁶⁰yet ^tI will remember my covenant with you ^uin the days of your youth, ^vand I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. ^61wThen you will remember your ways ^xand be ashamed when you take ^yyour sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you ^zas daughters, but not on account of⁹ the covenant with you. ⁶²I will establish my covenant with you, ^aand you shall know that I am the Lord, ⁶³that you may remember and be confounded, and ^bnever open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.”