Ezekiel 16

Jerusalem’s beginnings

1The word of the LORD came to me: 2“Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominations. 3Say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origins and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4On the day you were born, your cord was not cut. You were not washed with water to clean you, rubbed with salt, or wrapped in cloths. 5No eye pitied you enough to do even one of these things for you. Instead, you were thrown into the open field because your life was despised on the day you were born. 6“‘I passed by and saw you kicking in your blood. I said to you in your blood, “Live!” I said to you in your blood, “Live!” 7I made you flourish like the growth of the field. You grew and became tall and reached full womanhood. Your breasts developed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. 8I passed by and saw that your time had come, the time for love. I spread the edge of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. 9I washed you with water, rinsed your blood from you, and anointed you with oil. 10I clothed you in embroidered fabric and put sandals of fine leather on your feet. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you in costly cloth. 11I adorned you with ornaments, putting bracelets on your wrists and a necklace around your neck. 12I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a splendid crown on your head. 13You were adorned with gold and silver; your clothing was fine linen, costly cloth, and embroidery. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became exceedingly beautiful and rose to royalty. 14Your beauty made your name known among the nations. It was perfect because of the splendor I had placed upon you, declares the Lord GOD.

The gifts turned away

15“‘But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to prostitute yourself. You poured out your prostitution on every passerby; your beauty was his. 16You took some of your clothes and made colorful high places for yourself, and there you prostituted yourself. Such things should never happen, never be! 17You took your splendid ornaments, made from my gold and my silver that I had given you, and made male images for yourself. You prostituted yourself with them. 18You took your embroidered clothes and covered them, and set my oil and my incense before them. 19The food I had given you—the fine flour, oil, and honey I fed you—you set before them as a pleasing aroma. That is what happened, declares the Lord GOD. 20You took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to me and sacrificed them to the idols as food. Was your prostitution not enough? 21You slaughtered my children and gave them over to the idols, making them pass through the fire. 22Through all your abominations and prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking in your blood. 23“‘After all your wickedness—woe, woe to you! declares the Lord GOD— 24you built yourself a mound and made a raised platform in every square. 25At every street corner you built your raised platform. You made your beauty detestable, spread your legs for every passerby, and multiplied your acts of prostitution. 26You prostituted yourself with your Egyptian neighbors, men with large sexual organs, multiplying your prostitution to provoke me. 27So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your allotted provision. I handed you over to the will of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct. 28You prostituted yourself with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied. Even after prostituting yourself with them, you were still not satisfied. 29You multiplied your prostitution in the land of merchants, Chaldea, and even then you were not satisfied. 30How feverish your heart is, declares the Lord GOD, to do all these things, the actions of a brazen prostitute! 31You built your mound at every street corner and made your raised platform in every square. Yet you were unlike a prostitute: you scorned payment. 32An adulterous wife, taking strangers instead of her husband! 33People give gifts to prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from all around for your prostitution. 34Your prostitution was the opposite of other women’s. No one sought you out as a prostitute. You paid a fee, and no fee was paid to you. You were the opposite!

The exposed city

35“‘Therefore, prostitute, hear the word of the LORD. 36This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your nakedness in prostitution with your lovers and all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children whom you gave to them, 37I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, everyone you loved and everyone you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose your nakedness to them. They will see all your nakedness. 38I will judge you as adulterous women and women who shed blood are judged. I will bring upon you the bloodshed of fury and jealousy. 39I will hand you over to them. They will demolish your mound, tear down your raised platforms, strip off your clothes, take your splendid ornaments, and leave you naked and bare. 40They will bring a mob against you, stone you, and cut you to pieces with their swords. 41They will burn your houses and carry out judgments against you before many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay fees. 42Then I will let my fury rest upon you, and my jealousy will leave you. I will be quiet and no longer angry. 43Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I in turn will bring your ways down on your head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not added lewdness to all your abominations?

Mother and sisters

44“‘Everyone who uses proverbs will use this one about you: “Like mother, like daughter.” 45You are your mother’s daughter: she loathed her husband and children. You are your sisters’ sister: they loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46Your older sister is Samaria, who lives to your left with her daughters. Your younger sister, who lives to your right, is Sodom with her daughters. 47You did not merely follow their ways or practice their abominations. As though that were too little, you became more corrupt than they were in all your ways. 48As I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done. 49This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, plenty of food, and untroubled ease, but they did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50They grew haughty and committed an abomination before me, so I removed them when I saw it. 51Samaria did not commit half your sins. You multiplied your abominations beyond theirs and made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations you committed. 52Bear your disgrace, you who have passed judgment on your sisters. Your sins are more abominable than theirs, so they appear more righteous than you. Be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous. 53“‘I will restore their fortunes—the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters—and restore your fortunes among them, 54so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done, bringing them consolation. 55Your 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 yours. 56You would not even mention your sister Sodom in the days of your pride, 57before your own wickedness was exposed. Now you are scorned by the daughters of Aram and all her neighbors, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you on every side. 58You must bear your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD.

The remembered covenant

59“‘For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will deal with you as you have dealt, you who despised the oath by breaking the covenant. 60Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth and establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both older and younger. I will give them to you as daughters, though not on the basis of your covenant. 62I myself will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD, 63so that you may remember and be ashamed, unable to open your mouth again because of your disgrace, when I make atonement for you for everything you have done, declares the Lord GOD.’”