יחזקאל טז

The word of GOD came to me:

O mortal, proclaim Jerusalem’s abominations to her,

and say: Thus said the Sovereign GOD to Jerusalem: By origin and birth you are from the land of the Canaanites—your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

As for your birth, when you were born your navel cord was not cut, and you were not bathed in water to smooth you; you were not rubbed with salt, nor were you swaddled.

No one pitied you enough to do any one of these things for you out of compassion for you; on the day you were born, you were left lying, rejected, in the open field.

When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you: “Live despite your blood.” Yea, I said to you: “Live despite your blood.”

I let you grow like the plants of the field; and you continued to grow up until you attained to womanhood, until your breasts became firm and your hair sprouted.
You were still naked and bare

when I passed by you [again] and saw that your time for love had arrived. So I spread My robe over you and covered your nakedness, and I entered into a covenant with you by oath—declares the Sovereign GOD; thus you became Mine.

I bathed you in water, and washed the blood off you, and anointed you with oil.

I clothed you with embroidered garments, and gave you sandals of dolphin leather to wear, and wound fine linen about your head, and dressed you in silks.

I decked you out in finery and put bracelets on your arms and a chain around your neck.

I put a ring in your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a splendid crown on your head.

You adorned yourself with gold and silver, and your apparel was of fine linen, silk, and embroidery. Your food was choice flour, honey, and oil. You grew more and more beautiful, and became fit for royalty.

Your beauty won you fame among the nations, for it was perfected through the splendor that I set upon you—declares the Sovereign GOD.

But confident in your beauty and fame, you played the whore: you lavished your favors on every passerby; they were his.

You even took some of your cloths and made yourself tapestried platforms and fornicated on them—not in the future; not in time to come.

You took your beautiful things, made of the gold and silver that I had given you, and you made yourself phallic images and fornicated with them.

You took your embroidered cloths to cover them; and you set My oil and My incense before them.

The food that I had given you—the choice flour, the oil, and the honey that I had provided for you to eat—you set it before them for a pleasing odor. And so it went—declares the Sovereign GOD.

You even took the sons and daughters that you bore to Me and sacrificed them to those [images] as food—as if your whorings were not enough,

you slaughtered My children and presented them as offerings to them!

In all your abominations and whorings, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and lay wallowing in your blood.

After all your wickedness (woe, woe to you!)—declares the Sovereign GOD—

you built yourself an eminence and made yourself a mound in every square.

You built your mound at every crossroad; and you sullied your beauty and spread your legs to every passerby, and you multiplied your whoredoms.

You played the whore with your neighbors, the lustful Egyptians—you multiplied your whoredoms to anger Me.

Now, I will stretch out My arm against you and withhold your maintenance; and I will surrender you to the will of your enemies, the Philistine women, who are shocked by your lewd behavior.

In your insatiable lust you also played the whore with the Assyrians; you played the whore with them, but were still unsated.

You multiplied your whoredoms with Chaldea, that land of traders; yet even with this you were not satisfied.

How sick was your heart, as in Akkadian and Old Aramaic).—declares the Sovereign GOD—when you did all those things, the acts of a self-willed whore,

building your eminence at every crossroad and setting your mound in every square! Yet you were not like a prostitute, for you spurned fees;

[you were like] the adulterous wife who welcomes strangers instead of her husband.

Gifts are made to all prostitutes, but you made gifts to all your lovers, and bribed them to come to you from every quarter for your whoring.

You were the opposite of other women: you solicited instead of being solicited; you paid fees instead of being paid fees. Thus you were just the opposite!

Now, O whore, hear the word of GOD.

Thus said the Sovereign GOD: Because of your brazen effrontery, offering your nakedness to your lovers for whoring—just like the blood of your children, which you gave to all your abominable fetishes:—

I will assuredly assemble all the lovers to whom you gave your favors, along with everybody you accepted and everybody you rejected. I will assemble them against you from every quarter, and I will expose your nakedness to them, and they shall see all your nakedness.

I will inflict upon you the punishment of women who commit adultery and murder, and I will direct bloody and impassioned fury against you.

I will deliver you into their hands, and they shall tear down your eminence and level your mounds; and they shall strip you of your clothing and take away your dazzling jewels, leaving you naked and bare.

Then they shall assemble a mob against you to pelt you with stones and pierce you with their swords.

They shall put your houses to the flames and execute punishment upon you in the sight of many women; thus I will put a stop to your whoring, and you shall pay no more fees.

When I have satisfied My fury upon you and My rage has departed from you, then I will be tranquil; I will be angry no more.

Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but infuriated Me with all those things, I will pay you back for your conduct—declares the Sovereign GOD.
Have you not committed depravity on top of all your other abominations?

Why, everyone who uses proverbs applies to you the proverb “Like mother, like daughter.”

You are the daughter of your mother, who rejected her husband and children. And you are the sister of your sisters, who rejected their husbands and children; for you are daughters of a Hittite mother and an Amorite father.

Your elder sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to the south of you.

Did you not walk in their ways and practice their abominations? Why, you were almost more corrupt than they in all your ways.

As I live—declares the Sovereign GOD—your sister Sodom and her daughters did not do what you and your daughters did.

Only this was the sin of your sister Sodom: arrogance! She and her daughters had plenty of bread and untroubled tranquility; yet she did not support the poor and the needy.

In their haughtiness, they committed abomination before Me; and so I removed them, as you saw., vv. 47 and 51; and see above vv. 13, 18, 22, 31, 43.

Nor did Samaria commit even half your sins. You committed more abominations than they, and by all the abominations that you committed you made your sisters look righteous.

Truly, you must bear the disgrace of serving as your sisters’ advocate: Since you have sinned more abominably than they, they appear righteous in comparison. So be ashamed and bear your disgrace, because you have made your sisters look righteous.

I will restore their fortunes—the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters—and your fortunes along with theirs.

Thus you shall bear your disgrace and feel your disgrace for behaving in such a way that they could take comfort.

Then your sister Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state.

Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the days of your pride,

before your own wickedness was exposed? So must you now bear the mockery of the daughters of Aram and all her neighbors, the daughters of Philistia who jeer at you on every side.

You yourself must bear your depravity and your abominations—declares GOD.

Truly, thus said the Sovereign GOD: I will deal with you as you have dealt, for you have spurned the pact and violated the covenant.

Nevertheless, I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish it with you as an everlasting covenant.

You shall remember your ways and feel ashamed, when you receive your older sisters and your younger sisters, and I give them to you as daughters, though they are not of your covenant.

I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am GOD.

Thus you shall remember and feel shame, and you shall be too abashed to open your mouth again, when I have forgiven you for all that you did—declares the Sovereign GOD.