Again the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, make known to
Jerusalem her abominations, 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 Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
And as for your birth, 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. No eye pitied you, to do any
of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast
out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you
were born.
“And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I
said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood,
‘Live!’ I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew
up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were
formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.
“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the
age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and
covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a
covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. Then
I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and
anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth
and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and
covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put
bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring
on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on
your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your
clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate
fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and
advanced to royalty. And 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.
“But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of
your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty
became his. 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. You also took your beautiful jewels of my
gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself
images of men, and with them played the whore. And you took your
embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense
before them. Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with fine
flour and oil and honey—you set before them for a pleasing aroma;
and so it was, declares the Lord GOD. And you took your sons and
your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed
to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that
you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by
fire to them? And in all your abominations and your whorings you
did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and
bare, wallowing in your blood.
“And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the
Lord GOD), you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a
lofty place in every square. At the head of every street you built
your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering
yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. You also
played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors,
multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger. Behold,
therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your
allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies,
the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd
behavior. You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you
were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still
you were not satisfied. You multiplied your whoring also with the
trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.
“How sick is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, because you did
all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, 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, because
you scorned payment. Adulterous wife, who receives strangers
instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you
gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you
from every side with your whorings. So you were different from
other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the
whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you;
therefore you were different.
“Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD: 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, and because of the blood of your children that
you gave to them, therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers
with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you
hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will
uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your
nakedness. And I will judge you as women who commit adultery and
shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and
jealousy. And I will give you into their hands, and they shall
throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places.
They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels
and leave you naked and bare. They shall bring up a crowd against
you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their
swords. And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon
you in the sight of many women. I will make you stop playing the
whore, and you shall also give payment no more. 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. Because you have not remembered the
days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things,
therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head,
declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed lewdness in addition
to all your abominations?
“Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about
you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ You are the daughter of your
mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the
sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their
children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. And
your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the
north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of
you, is Sodom with her daughters. Not only did you walk in their
ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little
time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live,
declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not
done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the
guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess
of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed
them, when I saw it. Samaria has not committed half your sins. You
have committed more abominations than they, and have made your
sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have
committed. 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.
“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, that you may bear
your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a
consolation to them. As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters
shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters
shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters
shall return to your former state. Was not your sister Sodom a
byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, before your
wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become an object of reproach
for the daughters of Syria and all those around her, and for the
daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you. You
bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares
the LORD.
“For thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have
done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, yet
I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and
I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. Then you will
remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both
your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters,
but not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my
covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, that you
may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again
because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have
done, declares the Lord GOD.”
