Shared Word Translation
Ezekiel 16
The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
“Human one, make Jerusalem know her abominations.
Say, ‘This is what the LORD GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were from the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite. As for your birth: on the day you were born, your navel cord was not cut; you were not washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in cloths. No eye pitied you enough to do even one of these things for you, to have compassion on you. You were thrown out into the open field, in disgust at your life, on the day you were born.
I passed by you and saw you kicking about in your blood. I said to you, “Live in your blood!” I said to you, “Live in your blood!” I made you flourish like a plant of the field. You grew, became great, and came to full womanhood. Your breasts formed and your hair grew, yet you were naked and bare.
I passed by you and saw you, and look, your time was a time for love. I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness. I swore an oath to you and entered into covenant with you, declares the LORD GOD, and you became mine.
Then I washed you with water, rinsed your blood from you, and anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth, shod you with fine leather, wrapped you in fine linen, and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments: I put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothing was fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered into royalty. Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through my splendor that I had placed on you, declares the LORD GOD.
But you trusted in your beauty and prostituted yourself because of your fame. You poured out your prostitutions on every passerby; you belonged to them. You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful high places, and you prostituted yourself on them—something that had never happened and never should be. You took your beautiful objects of my gold and my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images; then you prostituted yourself with them. You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and set my oil and my incense before them. My food that I gave you—fine flour, oil, and honey that I fed you—you set before them as a pleasing fragrance. That is what happened, declares the LORD GOD.
You took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and sacrificed them to those images for food. Was your prostitution not enough, that you slaughtered my children and gave them up, making them pass through the fire for them? In all your abominations and prostitutions, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.
After all your wickedness—woe, woe to you! declares the LORD GOD— you built for yourself a mound and made yourself a high place in every public square. At every street corner you built your high place. You made your beauty detestable; you spread your legs to every passerby and multiplied your prostitutions.
You prostituted yourself with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh, and multiplied your prostitutions to provoke me to anger. Look, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd way. You prostituted yourself with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied. You prostituted yourself with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your prostitution toward the land of Canaan, toward Chaldea; even with this you were not satisfied.
How weak is your heart, declares the LORD GOD, when you do all these things—the deeds of a brazen prostitute— building your mound at every street corner and making your high place in every public square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you despised payment. The adulterous wife takes strangers instead of her husband! People give gifts to every prostitute, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from every side for your prostitutions. You were the opposite of other women in your prostitutions: no one pursued you. You gave payment, but no payment was given to you. You became the opposite.
Therefore, prostitute, hear the word of the LORD.
This is what the LORD GOD says: Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness exposed through your prostitutions with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, therefore, I will gather all your lovers, those with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side, expose your nakedness to them, and they will see all your nakedness. I will judge you with the judgments given to adulteresses and those who shed blood. I will make you blood in wrath and jealousy. I will give you into their hand. They will tear down your mound and demolish your high places. They will strip you of your garments, take your beautiful ornaments, and leave you naked and bare. They will bring up an assembly against you, stone you with stones, and cut you to pieces with their swords. They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments against you before the eyes of many women. I will stop you from being a prostitute, and you will give payment no more. Then I will let my wrath rest on you, and my jealousy will turn away from you. I will be quiet and no longer be angry.
Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, therefore I too will bring your way down upon your head, declares the LORD GOD. Have you not added lewdness to all your abominations?
Look, everyone who uses proverbs about you will use this proverb: “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.
Your older sister is Samaria, who lives to your north with her daughters; and your younger sister is Sodom, who lives to your south with her daughters. Yet you did not merely walk in their ways and do their abominations. In a very little while, you became 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.
Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, abundance of food, and careless ease belonged to her and her daughters; yet she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They became haughty and committed abomination before me. So I removed them when I saw it.
Samaria did not sin half as much as you. You multiplied your abominations beyond theirs and made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations you committed. You also, bear your disgrace—you who argued for your sisters. Because of your sins, in which you acted more abominably than they, they appear more righteous than you. Be ashamed, then, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.
I will restore their fortunes: the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes with theirs, so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, when you become a comfort to them. Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former state; Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state; and you and your daughters will 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 are scorned by the daughters of Aram and all around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines, those who despise you on every side. You yourself bear your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD.
For this is what the LORD GOD says: I will deal with you as you have done, you who 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 receive your sisters, both those older than you and those younger than you. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. I myself will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD, so that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I make atonement for you for all that you have done, declares the LORD GOD.’”