HesekielKapitel 16

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The word of the LORD came to me:
Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominations,
and say: 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.
As for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, you were not washed clean with water, not rubbed with salt, not wrapped in cloths.
No eye pitied you enough to do even one of these things for you out of compassion. You were thrown out into the open field, for you were despised on the day you were born.
Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and I said to you as you lay in your blood, "Live!" Yes, I said to you as you lay in your blood, "Live!"
I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and matured and came to full beauty. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.
Then I passed by you and looked at you, and saw that you had reached the age for love. So I spread my cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.
Then I bathed you with water, washed the blood from you, and anointed you with oil.
I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather; I wound fine linen around your head and covered you with silk.
I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your wrists and a necklace around your neck,
a ring in your nose, rings in your ears, and a crown of splendor on your head.
So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate the finest flour, honey, and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and rose to royalty.
Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.
But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to play the whore. You lavished your favors on every passerby, and your beauty became his.
You took some of your garments and made for yourself gaudy shrines, and on them you played the whore—things that had never been and never will be again.
You took the fine jewelry I gave you, made of my gold and my silver, and you made for yourself male images and played the whore with them.
You took your embroidered garments to clothe them, and you set my oil and my incense before them.
And the food I gave you—the finest flour, oil, and honey with which I fed you—you set before them as a pleasing aroma. So it was, declares the Lord GOD.
You even took your sons and daughters, whom you bore to me, and sacrificed them to those images as food. Were your whorings not enough?
You slaughtered my children and handed them over, making them pass through the fire to those idols.
And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.
And after all your wickedness—woe, woe to you! declares the Lord GOD—
you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square.
At the head of every street you built your shrine and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs for every passerby, multiplying your whorings.
You played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and multiplied your whorings to provoke me to anger.
So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory. I handed you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were appalled at your lewd conduct.
You played the whore with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; you whored with them and still were not satisfied.
You multiplied your whoring with Chaldea, the land of merchants, and even with this you were not satisfied.
How weak your heart was, declares the Lord GOD, when you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute!
When you built your mound at the head of every street and made your lofty shrine in every square, you were not even like a prostitute, for you scorned payment.
You adulterous wife, who takes strangers in place of her own husband!
Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side for your whorings.
So in your whoring you were the opposite of other women: no one solicited you; you paid the fee, and no fee was paid to you. You were the opposite.
Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the LORD!
This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your nakedness in your whorings with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols and the blood of your children whom you gave to them—
therefore I am going to gather all your lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and strip you naked before them, and they will see all your nakedness.
I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy.
I will hand you over to them, and they will tear down your mound and demolish your lofty shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.
They will bring a mob against you, and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.
They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgment on you before the eyes of many women. So I will put an end to your whoring, and you will no longer pay your lovers.
Then I will spend my wrath on you, and my jealousy will depart from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.
Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not added lewdness to all your other abominations?
Look, everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb about you: "Like mother, like daughter."
You 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. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom.
You not only walked in their ways and copied their abominations, but as if that were too small a thing, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.
As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.
This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent in their ease, and they did not help the poor and needy.
They grew haughty and committed abominations before me; so I swept them away when I saw it.
Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You multiplied your abominations beyond theirs and made your sisters look righteous by all the abominations you committed.
So bear your own disgrace, for you have provided an excuse for your sister. Because your sins were more abominable than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters look righteous.
Yet I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your fortunes along with theirs,
so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of everything you have done, becoming a consolation to them.
Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state, and you and your daughters will return to your former state.
Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride,
before your own wickedness was exposed? Now it is as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Aram and all her neighbors, and of the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you.
You must bear the consequences of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD.
For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will deal with you as you have done, you who despised the oath by breaking the covenant.
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.
Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those older and those younger than you. I will give them to you as daughters, though not by my covenant with you.
So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD—
that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I make atonement for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord GOD.