Ezekiel 16

The  Lord’s Faithless Bride

1 Again the word of the  Lord came to me: 2  a “Son of man b make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3 and say, Thus says the Lord  God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an c Amorite and your mother a d Hittite. 4 And as for your birth, e 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. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, f but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred g on the day that you were born.

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

8 “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and n I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you o and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord  God p and you became mine. 9 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and q anointed you with oil. 10  r I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. ▼
▼ Or with rich fabric
 11  t And I adorned you with ornaments and u put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. 12 And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. v You ate fine flour and honey and oil. w You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. 14 And x 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.

15  y “But you trusted in your beauty z and played the whore ▼
▼ Or were unfaithful; also verses 16, 17, 26, 28
 because of your renown ab and lavished your whorings ▼
▼ Or unfaithfulness; also verses 20, 22, 25, 26, 29, 33, 34, 36
 on any passerby; your beauty ▼
▼ Hebrew it
 became his. 16 You 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. ▼
▼ The meaning of this Hebrew sentence is uncertain
 17 You also took af your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and ag made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. 18 And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, ah and set my oil and my incense before them. 19  ai Also my bread that I gave you— aj I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for ak a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord  God. 20  al And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and am these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter 21 that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? 22 And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember an the days of your youth, ao when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.

23 “And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord  God), 24 you built yourself ap a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. 25 At the head of every street aq you built your lofty place and made ar your beauty an abomination, as offering yourself ▼
▼ Hebrew spreading your legs
 to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. 26  au You also played the whore av with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors aw multiplying your whoring ax to provoke me to anger. 27 Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you ay and diminished your allotted portion az and delivered you to the greed of your enemies ba the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. 28  bb You played the whore also bc with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. 29 You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land bd of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

30 “How sick is your heart ▼
▼ Revocalization yields  How I am filled with anger against you
 declares the Lord  God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, 31 building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute bf because you scorned payment. 32 Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! 33 Men give gifts to all prostitutes, bg but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. 34 So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and bh you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

35 “Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the  Lord: 36 Thus 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 bi and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, 37 therefore, behold bj I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and bk all those you hated. bl I will gather them against you from every side bm and will uncover your nakedness to them, that bn they may see all your nakedness. 38  bo And I will judge you bp as women who commit adultery and bq shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. 39 And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your br vaulted chamber and break down bs your lofty places. bt They shall strip you of your clothes and take bu your beautiful jewels and leave you bv naked and bare. 40  bw They shall bring up a crowd against you, bx and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. 41  by And they shall bz burn your houses and ca execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. cb I will make you stop playing the whore, and cc you shall also give payment no more. 42  cd So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry. 43 Because you have not remembered ce the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold cf I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord  God. Have you not cg committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations?

44 “Behold, everyone ch who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of ci your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. cj Your mother was a Hittite and ck your father an Amorite. 46 And cl your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and cm your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. 47  cn Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time co you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. 48  cp As I live, declares the Lord  God, your sister cq Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride cr excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and cs did an abomination before me. So ct I removed them, when I saw it. 51  cu Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and cv have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed. 52  cw Bear 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.

53  cx “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, 54 that you may bear your disgrace cy and be ashamed of all that you have done cz becoming a consolation to them. 55 As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, da and Samaria and her daughters shall return db to their former state, dc and you and your daughters shall return dd to your former state. 56 Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth de in the day of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become df an object of reproach for the daughters of Syria ▼
▼ Some manuscripts (compare Syriac)  of Edom
 and all those around her, and for dh the daughters of the Philistines di those all around who despise you. 58  dj You 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 dk who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, 60 yet dl I will remember my covenant with you dm in the days of your youth, dn and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. 61  do Then you will remember your ways dp and be ashamed when you take dq your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you dr as daughters, but not on account of ▼
▼ Or  not apart from
 the covenant with you. 62 I will establish my covenant with you, dt and you shall know that I am the  Lord, 63 that you may remember and be confounded, and du never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord  God.”

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