Ezekiel 16

Jerusalem, the abandoned child and the unfaithful wife

¹The word of the LORD came to me: ²Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices, ³and say, The Lord GOD says this to Jerusalem: You came from the land of the Canaanites; that is where you were born. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.^{a 4}On the day you were born, no one cut your umbilical cord or washed you with water to clean you. No one rubbed you with salt or wrapped you in cloths. ⁵No one looked on you with pity or cared enough to do any of these things for you. Instead, you were thrown out on the open ground, because your life was despised on the day you were born. ⁶Then I passed by you and saw you thrashing about in your blood. There in your blood I said to you, “Live!” There in your blood I said to you, “Live!”^{b 7}I made you flourish like a plant in the field. You grew up, became tall and reached the age of full beauty. Your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, but you were still naked and bare.^{c 8}Then I passed by you again and saw you, and you were old enough for love. So I spread the corner of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. ⁹Then I bathed you with water, washed the blood off you and anointed you with oil.^{d 10}I dressed you in embroidered clothing and put sandals of fine leather on your feet. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with costly fabric.^{e 11}I adorned you with jewelry. I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck. ¹²I put a ring in your nose, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothes were of fine linen, costly fabric and embroidered cloth. You ate the finest flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful indeed, and you rose to be a queen. ¹⁴Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty. It was perfect because of my splendor that I had put on you, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁵But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to prostitute yourself. You poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by, and anyone could have you.^{f 16}You took some of your clothes and made colorful shrines for yourself on the high places, and there you prostituted yourself. Nothing like this has ever happened, and it never should.^{g 17}You took your fine jewelry, made of my gold and silver that I had given you, and made yourself male images, and you prostituted yourself with them.^{h 18}You took your embroidered clothes and dressed them, and you set my oil and my incense before them. ¹⁹The food I gave you, the fine flour, oil and honey I fed you with, you set before them as an offering with 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, ²¹that you slaughtered my children and gave them up to the idols, making them pass through the fire? ²²In all your detestable practices and your prostitution, you never once remembered your early days, when you were naked and bare, thrashing about in your blood. ²³After all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord GOD), ²⁴you built yourself a platform and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square.^{i 25}At the head of every street you built your lofty shrine and made your beauty something detestable. You spread your legs for everyone who passed by and multiplied your prostitution. ²⁶You prostituted yourself with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and you multiplied your prostitution to provoke me to anger. ²⁷So I stretched out my hand against you and cut down your allotted portion. I handed you over to the will of those who hate you, the Philistine cities, who were shocked by your lewd behavior. ²⁸You prostituted yourself with the Assyrians too, because you could not be satisfied. You prostituted yourself with them, and even then you were not satisfied. ²⁹You multiplied your prostitution with Chaldea, the land of traders, and even this did not satisfy you.^{j 30}How sick your heart is, declares the Lord GOD, that you do all these things, the deeds of a shameless prostitute,^{k 31}building your platform at the head of every street and making your lofty shrine in every public square! Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. ³²You adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! ³³All prostitutes are given gifts, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers. You paid them bribes so that they would come from every side for your prostitution. ³⁴So in your prostitution you were the opposite of other women. No one came after you to hire you; you paid, and no one paid you. You were the opposite. ³⁵Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the LORD.

The sentence on the unfaithful wife

³⁶The Lord GOD says this: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your nakedness as you prostituted yourself with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because you gave them the blood of your children,^{l 37}therefore I am about to gather all your lovers whom you pleased, everyone you loved and everyone you hated. I will bring them against you from all around and strip you naked in front of them, and they will see all your nakedness.^{m 38}I will sentence you as women who commit adultery and murder are sentenced, and I will bring on you the bloodshed of my wrath and jealousy. ³⁹I will hand you over to them, and they will tear down your platform and demolish your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take away your fine jewelry, leaving you naked and bare. ⁴⁰They will bring up a mob against you, and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹They will burn down your houses and carry out judgments on you while many women look on. I will stop your prostitution, and you will never again pay your lovers. ⁴²Then I will satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy will turn away from you. I will be calm and no longer angry. ⁴³Since you forgot the days of your youth and provoked me with all these things, I in turn will bring your deeds down on your own head, declares the Lord GOD. Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?^{n 44}Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this one about you: “Like mother, like daughter.” ⁴⁵You are truly your mother’s daughter, who despised her husband and her children. And you are truly the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. The mother of you all was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶Your older sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you, and your younger sister, who lived with her daughters to the south of you, is Sodom.^{o 47}You did not just walk in their ways and copy their detestable practices. As if that were not enough, you became more corrupt than they were in all your ways. ⁴⁸As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, not even your sister Sodom and her daughters did what you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, more food than they needed and careless ease, but they did not help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰They were haughty and did detestable things before me, so I removed them when I saw it.^pq

More guilty than her sisters

⁵¹Samaria did not commit even half the sins you have. You have done far more detestable things than they did, and by all the detestable things you have done you have made your sisters look righteous. ⁵²So you too must bear your disgrace, for you have argued the case for your sisters. Because your sins were more detestable than theirs, they are more righteous than you. So be ashamed, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters look righteous. ⁵³But I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your fortunes along with theirs,^{r 54}so that you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done, and so become a comfort to them. ⁵⁵As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters will go back to what they were before, and you and your daughters will also go back to what you were before. ⁵⁶Was not your sister Sodom a byword on your lips in the days of your pride, ⁵⁷before your own wickedness was exposed? Now you are the object of scorn for the daughters of Aram and all her neighbors, and for the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you on every side.^{s 58}You must bear the penalty of your lewdness and your detestable practices, declares the LORD.

An everlasting covenant

⁵⁹For the Lord GOD says this: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you despised the oath and broke the covenant. ⁶⁰Yet I myself will remember the covenant I made with you in your youth, and I will establish with you a covenant that is everlasting.^{t 61}Then you will remember your ways and feel ashamed as you welcome your sisters, both older and younger. I will give them to you as daughters, though not on the basis of your covenant.^{u 62}I will establish my own covenant with you. Then you will know that I am the LORD, ⁶³so that you will remember and feel ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, declares the Lord GOD.