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word of the Lord came to me again: 2 “Son of man, proclaim Jerusalem’s abominations to her. 3 Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No one looked on you with pity or had enough compassion to do any of these things for you. But you were thrown out into the open field, for you were despised on the day you were born.
6 “When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, as you laid there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you as you laid there in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I made you to thrive like a plant in the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were still naked and bare.
8 “Later I passed by you, and when I looked at you, I saw that you were at the age for love. So I spread the edge of My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you and entered into a covenant with you”, says the Lord God, “and you became Mine.
9 “I bathed you with water, and washed the blood off you, and I anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you in embroidered cloth and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 I adorned you with jewellery, putting bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck. 12 I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. 14 Your beauty won you fame among the nations, for it was made perfect through My splendour which I had set upon you”, says the Lord God.
15 “But you trusted in your own beauty, and acted like a prostitute because of your fame. You lavished your favours on any one passing by, and your beauty became his. 16 You took some of your garments and made colourful high places for yourself, where you carried on with your prostitution. Such things should have never taken place, nor should they ever be. 17 You also took your beautiful jewellery made of My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and you made male idols for yourself and engaged in prostitution with them. 18 Then you took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them. 19 You also set before them the food I had provided for you to eat—the fine flour, oil, and honey, and you set it before them as sweet incense for a pleasing aroma. This is what happened”, says the Lord God.
20 “You even took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and sacrificed them to these idols as food. Wasn’t your prostitution already enough? 21 You slaughtered My children and burnt them before your idols. 22 In all your abominations and acts of prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and lay wallowing about in your blood.
23 “Then after all your wickedness—woe, woe to you!”, says the Lord God— 24 “you built yourself a mound and made a high place for yourself in every public square. 25 At the head of every street you build your elevated shrines and made your beauty abhorrent. You opened your legs to anyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of prostitution. 26 You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your well-endowed lustful neighbours, and increased your acts of prostitution to provoke Me to anger.
27 “So I have stretched out My hand against you and reduced your rations. I delivered you over to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked at your lewd behaviour. 28 You also engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable. Even though you engaged in prostitution with them, yet you were still not satisfied. 29 Then you extended your prostitution to include Chaldea, the land of merchants, but even then you were not satisfied.
30 “How sick your heart is!” says the Lord God, “that you would do all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute. 31 When you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your elevated shrines in every public square, you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.
32 “You are an adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her own husband! 33 All prostitutes demand payment, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers. You hired them to come to you from all around for your fornication. 34 So you were the opposite of other women in your prostitution, for no one solicited you for your sexual favours. You were the opposite, for you gave payment, when no payment was given you.”
35 ‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! 36 This is what the Lord God says: “Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your promiscuous acts with your lovers, and because of all the your detestable idols, and because you gave them the blood of your children, 37 therefore I am going to gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around, and strip you bare before them, and they will all see your nakedness. 38 I will inflict upon you the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring blood vengeance against you in wrath and jealousy. 39 I will deliver you over into their hands, and they will tear down your mounds and break down your elevated shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your beautiful jewellery, and leave you naked and bare. 40 They will bring a mob against you, who will pelt you with stones and hack you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment against you in the sight of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will no longer hire your lovers. 42 So I will satisfy My wrath against you, and My jealous anger will turn away from you. Then I will be silent and no longer angry.
43 “Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will also return your deeds on your own head,” says the Lord God. “Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your other abominations?
44 “Behold, everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb against you:
‘Like mother, like daughter’!
45 You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46 Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you, and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to the south of you. 47 You not only walked in their ways and imitated their abominations, but within a short time you became even more depraved than they.
48 “As I live”, says the Lord God, “your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have. 49 Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and idle; yet they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and committed abominable deeds before Me, so I removed them when I saw this. 51 Yet Samaria did not commit half the sins you have. You have multiplied your abominations beyond theirs, and have even made your sisters seem righteous by all the abominations you have committed. 52 Bear your own disgrace, for you have become an advocate for your sisters. Since the sins you committed were more abominable than theirs, they are made to appear more righteous than you. So be ashamed and bear your own disgrace, since you have made your sisters appear righteous.
53 “I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of the Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters. I will also restore your own fortunes along with them, 54 so that you will bear your own disgrace and be ashamed of all you did when you comforted them. 55 As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters will return to what they were before, and Samaria and her daughters will return to what they were before. Then you and your daughters will return to what you were before. 56 For your sister Sodom was not even a byword in your mouth in the days of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was exposed. Now you have become an object of scorn for the daughters of Edom and all her neighbours, and for the daughters of the Philistines—those who despise you from every side. 58 You yourself must bear the consequences for your lewdness and your abominations”, declares the Lord.
59 ‘For this is what the Lord God says: “I will deal with you according to what you have done, because you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant. 60 Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. For I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you. 62 I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. 63 When I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace”, says the Lord God’.”