Ezekiel 16
16
Jerusalem—an Unfaithful Wife
1Then another message came to me from the Lord: 2“Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable sins. 3Give her this message from the Sovereign Lord: You are nothing but a Canaanite! Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth. 5No one had the slightest interest in you; no one pitied you or cared for you. On the day you were born, you were unwanted, dumped in a field and left to die.
6“But I came by and saw you there, helplessly kicking about in your own blood. As you lay there, I said, ‘Live!’ 7And I helped you to thrive like a plant in the field. You grew up and became a beautiful jewel. Your breasts became full, and your body hair grew, but you were still naked. 8And when I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love. So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows. I made a covenant with you, says the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.
9“Then I bathed you and washed off your blood, and I rubbed fragrant oils into your skin. 10I gave you expensive clothing of fine linen and silk, beautifully embroidered, and sandals made of fine goatskin leather. 11I gave you lovely jewelry, bracelets, beautiful necklaces, 12a ring for your nose, earrings for your ears, and a lovely crown for your head. 13And so you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothes were made of fine linen and costly fabric and were beautifully embroidered. You ate the finest foods—choice flour, honey, and olive oil—and became more beautiful than ever. You looked like a queen, and so you were! 14Your fame soon spread throughout the world because of your beauty. I dressed you in my splendor and perfected your beauty, says the Sovereign Lord.
15“But you thought your fame and beauty were your own. So you gave yourself as a prostitute to every man who came along. Your beauty was theirs for the asking. 16You used the lovely things I gave you to make shrines for idols, where you played the prostitute. Unbelievable! How could such a thing ever happen? 17You took the very jewels and gold and silver ornaments I had given you and made statues of men and worshiped them. This is adultery against me! 18You used the beautifully embroidered clothes I gave you to dress your idols. Then you used my special oil and my incense to worship them. 19Imagine it! You set before them as a sacrifice the choice flour, olive oil, and honey I had given you, says the Sovereign Lord.
20“Then you took your sons and daughters—the children you had borne to me—and sacrificed them to your gods. Was your prostitution not enough? 21Must you also slaughter my children by sacrificing them to idols? 22In all your years of adultery and detestable sin, you have not once remembered the days long ago when you lay naked in a field, kicking about in your own blood.
23“What sorrow awaits you, says the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness, 24you built a pagan shrine and put altars to idols in every town square. 25On every street corner you defiled your beauty, offering your body to every passerby in an endless stream of prostitution. 26Then you added lustful Egypt to your lovers, provoking my anger with your increasing promiscuity. 27That is why I struck you with my fist and reduced your boundaries. I handed you over to your enemies, the Philistines, and even they were shocked by your lewd conduct. 28You have prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, too. It seems you can never find enough new lovers! And after your prostitution there, you still were not satisfied. 29You added to your lovers by embracing Babylonia,#16:29 Or Chaldea. the land of merchants, but you still weren’t satisfied.
30“What a sick heart you have, says the Sovereign Lord, to do such things as these, acting like a shameless prostitute. 31You build your pagan shrines on every street corner and your altars to idols in every square. In fact, you have been worse than a prostitute, so eager for sin that you have not even demanded payment. 32Yes, you are an adulterous wife who takes in strangers instead of her own husband. 33Prostitutes charge for their services—but not you! You give gifts to your lovers, bribing them to come and have sex with you. 34So you are the opposite of other prostitutes. You pay your lovers instead of their paying you!
Judgment on Jerusalem’s Prostitution
35“Therefore, you prostitute, listen to this message from the Lord! 36This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you have poured out your lust and exposed yourself in prostitution to all your lovers, and because you have worshiped detestable idols,#16:36 The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung. and because you have slaughtered your children as sacrifices to your gods, 37this is what I am going to do. I will gather together all your allies—the lovers with whom you have sinned, both those you loved and those you hated—and I will strip you naked in front of them so they can stare at you. 38I will punish you for your murder and adultery. I will cover you with blood in my jealous fury. 39Then I will give you to these many nations who are your lovers, and they will destroy you. They will knock down your pagan shrines and the altars to your idols. They will strip you and take your beautiful jewels, leaving you stark naked. 40They will band together in a mob to stone you and cut you up with swords. 41They will burn your homes and punish you in front of many women. I will stop your prostitution and end your payments to your many lovers.
42“Then at last my fury against you will be spent, and my jealous anger will subside. I will be calm and will not be angry with you anymore. 43But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all of your sins, says the Sovereign Lord. For you have added lewd acts to all your detestable sins. 44Everyone who makes up proverbs will say of you, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45For your mother loathed her husband and her children, and so do you. And you are exactly like your sisters, for they despised their husbands and their children. Truly your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46“Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters in the north. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters in the south. 47But you have not merely sinned as they did. You quickly surpassed them in corruption. 48As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters. 49Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. 50She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen.#16:50 As in a few Hebrew manuscripts and Greek version; Masoretic Text reads as I have seen.
51“Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more detestable things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you. 52Shame on you! Your sins are so terrible that you make your sisters seem righteous, even virtuous.
53“But someday I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria, and I will restore you, too. 54Then you will be truly ashamed of everything you have done, for your sins make them feel good in comparison. 55Yes, your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, and all their people will be restored, and at that time you also will be restored. 56In your proud days you held Sodom in contempt. 57But now your greater wickedness has been exposed to all the world, and you are the one who is scorned—by Edom#16:57 As in many Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac version; Masoretic Text reads Aram. and all her neighbors and by Philistia. 58This is your punishment for all your lewdness and detestable sins, says the Lord.
59“Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will give you what you deserve, for you have taken your solemn vows lightly by breaking your covenant. 60Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61Then you will remember with shame all the evil you have done. I will make your sisters, Samaria and Sodom, to be your daughters, even though they are not part of our covenant. 62And I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. 63You will remember your sins and cover your mouth in silent shame when I forgive you of all that you have done. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”
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Ezekiel 16: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Ezekiel 16
16
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 "Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.
3 And you shall say: Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your root and your lineage is from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Cethite.
4 And when you were born, on the day of your nativity, your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were not washed with water for health, nor salted with salt, nor wrapped with cloths.
5 No eye took pity on you, so as to do even one of these things to you, out of compassion for you. Instead, you were cast upon the face of the earth, in the abjection of your soul, on the day when you were born.
6 But, passing by you, I saw that you were wallowing in your own blood. And I said to you, when you were in your blood: 'Live.' I tell you that I said to you, in your blood: 'Live.'
7 I multiplied you like the seedling of the field. And you were multiplied and became great, and you advanced and arrived at the ornament of a woman. Your breasts rose up, and your hair grew. And you were naked and full of shame.
8 And I passed by you and saw you. And behold, your time was the time of lovers. And I spread my garment over you, and I covered your disgrace. And I swore to you, and I entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine.
9 And I washed you with water, and I cleansed you of your blood. And I anointed you with oil.
10 And I covered you with embroidery, and I put violet shoes upon you, and I wrapped you in fine linen, and I clothed you with delicate garments.
11 I adorned you with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon your hands and a necklace around your neck.
12 And I put gold upon your face, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.
13 And you were adorned with gold and silver, and you were clothed in fine linen, woven with many colors. You ate fine flour, and honey, and oil. And you became very beautiful. And you advanced to royal power.
14 And your renown went forth among the Gentiles, because of your beauty. For you were perfected by my beauty, which I had placed upon you, says the Lord God.
15 But, having confidence in your own beauty, you fornicated in your fame. And you presented your fornication to every passer-by, so as to become his.
16 And taking from your garments, you made for yourself exalted things, having sewed together disparate pieces. And you fornicated upon them, in a way that has not been done before, nor will be in the future.
17 And you took your beautiful items, made of my gold and my silver, which I gave to you, and you made for yourself images of men, and you fornicated with them.
18 And you used your multicolored vestments to cover these things. And you placed my oil and my incense before them.
19 And my bread, which I gave to you, the fine flour, and the oil, and the honey, by which I nourished you, you placed in their sight as a sweet fragrance. And so it was done, says the Lord God.
20 And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore for me, and you immolated them to be devoured. Is your fornication a small matter?
21 You have immolated my sons, and you have consecrated and delivered my sons to them.
22 And after all your abominations and fornications, you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and full of shame, wallowing in your own blood.
23 And it happened that, after all your wickedness, (woe, woe to you, says the Lord God)
24 you built for yourself a brothel, and you made for yourself a place of prostitution in every street.
25 At the head of every way, you set up a banner of your prostitution. And you caused your beauty to become abominable. And you distributed your feet to every passer-by. And you multiplied your fornications.
26 And you fornicated with the sons of Egypt, your neighbors, who have large bodies. And you multiplied your fornications, so as to provoke me.
27 Behold, I will extend my hand over you, and I will take away your justification. And I will give you to the souls of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your wicked way.
28 You also fornicated with the sons of the Assyrians, for you were not yet done. And after you fornicated, even then, you were not satisfied.
29 And you multiplied your fornications in the land of Canaan with the Chaldeans. And even then, you were not satisfied.
30 With what can I cleanse your heart, says the Lord God, since you do all these things, the works of a woman who is a shameless prostitute?
31 For you have built your brothel at the head of every way, and you have made your exalted place on every street. And you have not even been like a choosy prostitute, increasing her price,
32 but instead like a woman who is an adulteress, who prefers strangers to her own husband.
33 Wages are given to all prostitutes. But you have given wages to all your lovers, and you have given gifts to them, so that they would enter to you from every side, in order to fornicate with you.
34 And it is done with you, in your fornications, contrary to the custom of women, and even after you, there will be no such fornication. For in as much as you have given payment, and not taken payment, what has been done in you is the contrary."
35 Because of this, O harlot, listen to the word of the Lord.
36 Thus says the Lord God: "Because your money has been poured out, and your disgrace has been uncovered, in your fornications with your lovers and with the idols of your abominations, in the blood of your sons, whom you gave to them:
37 Behold, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have united, and all those whom you have loved, together with all those whom you have hated. And I will gather them together against you on every side. And I will uncover your disgrace before them, and they will see all your indecency.
38 And I will judge you with the judgment of adulteresses and of those who shed blood. And I will give you over to blood, in fury and in zeal.
39 And I will deliver you into their hands. And they will destroy your brothel and demolish your place of prostitution. And they will strip you of your vestments. And they will take away the ornaments of your beauty. And they will leave you behind, naked and full of disgrace.
40 And they will lead over you a multitude. And they will stone you with stones, and massacre you with their swords.
41 And they will burn up your houses with fire, and they will carry out judgments against you in the sight of many women. And you will cease from fornication, and no longer give payment.
42 And my indignation will be quieted in you. And my zeal will be taken from you. And I will rest, and no longer be angry.
43 For you have not remembered the days of your youth, and you have provoked me in all these things. Because of this, I also have delivered all your ways upon your head, says the Lord God, but I have not acted in accord with your wickedness in all your abominations.
44 Behold, all who speak a common proverb will take this up against you, saying: 'Like the mother, so also is her daughter.'
45 You are your mother's daughter, for she cast away her husband and her children. And you are the sister of your sisters, for they cast away their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Cethite, and your father was an Amorite.
46 And your older sister is Samaria, she and her daughters are those who live to your left. But your younger sister, who lives to your right, is Sodom and her daughters.
47 But neither have you walked in their ways. For you have done only a little less compared to their wickedness. You have acted almost more wickedly, in all your ways, than they have acted.
48 As I live, says the Lord God, your sister Sodom herself, and her daughters, have not done as you and your daughters have done.
49 Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom, your sister: arrogance, indulgence in bread and abundance, and the idleness of her and her daughters; and they did not reach out their hand to the needy and the poor.
50 And they were exalted, and they committed abominations before me. And so I took them away, just as you have seen.
51 But Samaria has not committed even half of your sins. For you have exceeded them in your wickedness, and you have justified your sisters by all your abominations, which you have wrought.
52 Therefore, you also bear your shame, for you have exceeded your sisters with your sins, acting more wickedly than they did. So they have been justified above you. By this also, you are confounded, and you bear your disgrace, for you have justified your sisters.
53 But I will convert and restore them, by converting Sodom with her daughters, and by converting Samaria and her daughters. And I will convert your return in their midst.
54 So may you bear your disgrace and be confounded over all that you have done, consoling them.
55 And your sister Sodom and her daughters will return to their ancient state. And Samaria and her daughters will return to their ancient state. And you and your daughters will be returned to your ancient state.
56 Your sister Sodom was not heard from your mouth, then, in the day of your pride,
57 before your malice was revealed, as it is at this time, with the reproach of the daughters of Syria and of all the daughters of Palestine, who surround you, who encircle you on every side.
58 You have borne your wickedness and your disgrace, says the Lord God."
59 For thus says the Lord God: "I will act toward you, just as you have despised the oath, so that you would make void the covenant.
60 And I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth. And I will raise up for you an everlasting covenant.
61 And you shall remember your ways and be confounded, when you will have received your sisters, your elder with your younger. And I will give them to you as daughters, but not by your covenant.
62 And I will raise up my covenant with you. And you shall know that I am the Lord.
63 So may you remember and be confounded. And it will no longer be for you to open your mouth, because of your shame, when I will have been pacified toward you over all that you have done, says the Lord God."
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