Ezekiel 16

Jerusalem—an Unfaithful Wife

16Then another message came to me from the Lord:H1697H3068H5592“Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable sins.H1121H120H3389H3045H84413Give her this message from the Sovereign Lord: You are nothing but a Canaanite! Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.H559H559H136H3069H3389H4351H4138H776H3669H1H567H517H28504On 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.H4138H3117H3205H8270H3772H7364H4325H4935H4414H4414H2853H28535No 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.H5869H2347H6213H259H2550H7993H6440H7704H1604H5315H3117H32056“But I came by and saw you there, helplessly kicking about in your own blood. As you lay there, I said, ‘Live!’H5674H7200H947H1818H559H1818H2421H559H1818H24217And 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.H5414H7233H6780H7704H7235H1431H935H5716H5716H7699H3559H8181H6779H5903H61818And 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.H5674H7200H6256H6256H1730H6566H3671H3680H6172H7650H935H1285H5002H136H30699“Then I bathed you and washed off your blood, and I rubbed fragrant oils into your skin.H7364H4325H7857H1818H5480H808110I gave you expensive clothing of fine linen and silk, beautifully embroidered, and sandals made of fine goatskin leather.H3847H7553H5274H8476H2280H8336H3680H489711I gave you lovely jewelry, bracelets, beautiful necklaces,H5710H5716H5414H6781H3027H7242H162712a ring for your nose, earrings for your ears, and a lovely crown for your head.H5414H5141H639H5694H241H8597H5850H721813And so you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothes were made of fine linen 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!H5710H2091H3701H4403H8336H8336H4897H7553H398H5560H1706H8081H3966H3302H6743H441014Your fame soon spread throughout the world because of your beauty. I dressed you in my splendor and perfected your beauty, says the Sovereign Lord.H8034H3318H1471H3308H3632H1926H7760H5002H136H306915“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.H982H3308H2181H8034H8210H8457H567416You 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?H899H3947H6213H1116H2921H2181H93517You 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!H3947H8597H3627H2091H3701H5414H6213H6754H2145H218118You used the beautifully embroidered clothes I gave you to dress your idols. Then you used my special oil and my incense to worship them.H3947H7553H899H3680H5414H8081H7004H644019Imagine it! You set before them as a sacrifice the choice flour, olive oil, and honey I had given you, says the Sovereign Lord.H3899H5414H5560H8081H1706H398H5414H6440H5207H7381H5002H136H306920“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?H3947H1121H1323H3205H2076H398H8457H459221Must you also slaughter my children by sacrificing them to idols?H7819H1121H5414H567422In 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.H8441H8457H2142H3117H5271H5903H6181H947H181823“What sorrow awaits you, says the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness,H310H7451H188H188H5002H136H306924you built a pagan shrine and put altars to idols in every town square.H1129H1354H6213H7413H733925On every street corner you defiled your beauty, offering your body to every passerby in an endless stream of prostitution.H1129H7413H7218H1870H3308H8581H6589H7272H5674H7235H845726Then you added lustful Egypt to your lovers, provoking my anger with your increasing promiscuity.H2181H1121H4714H7934H1432H1320H7235H8457H370727That 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.H5186H3027H1639H2706H5414H5315H8130H1323H6430H3637H2154H187028You 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.H2181H1121H804H1115H7646H2181H765429You added to your lovers by embracing Babylonia

, the land of merchants, but you still weren’t satisfied.H7235H8457H776H3667H3778H7646H206330“What a sick heart you have, says the Sovereign Lord, to do such things as these, acting like a shameless prostitute.H535H3826H5002H136H3069H6213H4639H7986H2181H80231You 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.H1129H1354H7218H1870H6213H7413H7339H2181H7046H86832Yes, you are an adulterous wife who takes in strangers instead of her own husband.H802H5003H3947H2114H37633Prostitutes charge for their services—but not you! You give gifts to your lovers, bribing them to come and have sex with you.H5414H5078H2181H5414H5083H157H7809H935H5439H845734So you are the opposite of other prostitutes. You pay your lovers instead of their paying you!H2016H802H8457H310H2181H5414H868H868H5414H1961H2016

Judgment on Jerusalem’s Prostitution

35“Therefore, you prostitute, listen to this message from the Lord!H2181H8085H1697H306836This 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

, and because you have slaughtered your children as sacrifices to your gods,H559H136H3069H5178H8210H6172H1540H8457H157H1544H8441H1818H1121H541437this 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.H6908H157H6149H157H8130H6908H5439H1540H6172H7200H617238I will punish you for your murder and adultery. I will cover you with blood in my jealous fury.H8199H5003H8210H1818H4941H5414H1818H2534H706839Then 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.H5414H3027H2040H1354H5422H7413H6584H899H3947H8597H3627H3240H5903H618140They will band together in a mob to stone you and cut you up with swords.H5927H6951H7275H68H1333H271941They 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.H8313H1004H784H6213H8201H5869H7227H802H7673H2181H5414H86842“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.H2534H5117H7068H5493H8252H370743But 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.H2142H3117H5271H7264H1887H5414H1870H7218H5002H136H3069H6213H2154H844144Everyone who makes up proverbs will say of you, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’H4911H4911H559H517H132345For 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.H517H1323H1602H376H1121H269H269H1602H582H1121H517H2850H1H56746“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.H1419H269H8111H1323H3427H8040H6996H269H3427H3225H5467H132347But you have not merely sinned as they did. You quickly surpassed them in corruption.H1980H1870H6213H8441H6985H4592H6962H7843H2004H187048As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters.H2416H5002H136H3069H5467H269H6213H1323H6213H132349Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door.H5771H269H5467H1347H7653H3899H7962H8252H1323H2388H3027H6041H3450She was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out, as you have seen

.H1361H6213H8441H6440H5493H720051“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.H8111H2398H2677H2403H7235H8441H2007H6663H269H8441H621352Shame on you! Your sins are so terrible that you make your sisters seem righteous, even virtuous.H6419H269H5375H3639H2403H8581H2004H6663H954H5375H3639H6663H26953“But someday I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria, and I will restore you, too.H7725H7622H7622H7622H7622H5467H1323H7622H7622H8111H1323H7622H7622H7622H843254Then you will be truly ashamed of everything you have done, for your sins make them feel good in comparison.H5375H3639H3637H6213H516255Yes, your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, and all their people will be restored, and at that time you also will be restored.H269H5467H1323H7725H6927H8111H1323H7725H6927H1323H7725H692756In your proud days you held Sodom in contempt.H269H5467H8052H6310H3117H134757But now your greater wickedness has been exposed to all the world, and you are the one who is scorned—by Edom

and all her neighbors and by Philistia.H7451H1540H6256H2781H1323H758H5439H1323H6430H7590H543958This is your punishment for all your lewdness and detestable sins, says the Lord.H5375H2154H8441H5002H306859“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.H559H136H3069H6213H6213H959H423H6565H128560Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.H2142H1285H3117H5271H6965H5769H128561Then 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.H2142H1870H3637H3947H269H1419H6996H5414H1323H128562And I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord.H6965H1285H3045H306863You 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!”H2142H954H6610H6310H6440H3639H3722H6213H5002H136H3069