Ezekiel 16:44–52

Like Mother, Like Daughter

⁴⁴The Lord said, “People will use this proverb about you, Jerusalem: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ ⁴⁵You really are your mother’s daughter. She detested her husband and her children. You are like your sisters, who hated their husbands and their children. You and your sister cities had a Hittite mother and an Amorite^f father.

⁴⁶“Your elder sister is Samaria, in the north, with her villages. Your younger sister, with her villages, is Sodom, in the south. ⁴⁷Were you content to follow in their footsteps and copy their disgusting actions? No, in only a little while you were behaving worse than they were in everything you did.

⁴⁸“As surely as I am the living God,” the Sovereign Lord says, “your sister Sodom and her villages never did the evil that you and your villages have done. ⁴⁹She and her daughters were proud because they had plenty to eat and lived in peace and quiet, but they did not take care of the poor and the underprivileged. ⁵⁰They were proud and stubborn and did the things that I hate, so I destroyed them, as you well know.

⁵¹“Samaria did not sin half as much as you have. You have acted more disgustingly than she ever did. Your corruption makes your sisters look innocent by comparison. ⁵²And now you will have to endure your disgrace. Your sins are so much worse than those of your sisters that they look innocent beside you. Now blush and bear your shame, because you make your sisters look pure.”