and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry(A) and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father(B) was an Amorite(C) and your mother a Hittite.(D) On the day you were born(E) your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

“‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”[a](F) I made you grow(G) like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.(H)

“‘Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment(I) over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant(J) with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.(K)

“‘I bathed you with water and washed(L) the blood from you and put ointments on you. 10 I clothed you with an embroidered(M) dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen(N) and covered you with costly garments.(O) 11 I adorned you with jewelry:(P) I put bracelets(Q) on your arms and a necklace(R) around your neck, 12 and I put a ring on your nose,(S) earrings(T) on your ears and a beautiful crown(U) on your head.(V) 13 So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes(W) were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil(X) and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.(Y) 14 And your fame(Z) spread among the nations on account of your beauty,(AA) because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.(AB)

15 “‘But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by(AC) and your beauty became his.(AD) 16 You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places,(AE) where you carried on your prostitution.(AF) You went to him, and he possessed your beauty.[b] 17 You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.(AG) 18 And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense(AH) before them. 19 Also the food I provided for you—the flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord.(AI)

20 “‘And you took your sons and daughters(AJ) whom you bore to me(AK) and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough?(AL) 21 You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.(AM) 22 In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth,(AN) when you were naked and bare,(AO) kicking about in your blood.(AP)

23 “‘Woe!(AQ) Woe to you, declares the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness, 24 you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine(AR) in every public square.(AS) 25 At every street corner(AT) you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by.(AU) 26 You engaged in prostitution(AV) with the Egyptians,(AW) your neighbors with large genitals, and aroused my anger(AX) with your increasing promiscuity.(AY) 27 So I stretched out my hand(AZ) against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over(BA) to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines,(BB) who were shocked by your lewd conduct. 28 You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians(BC) too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied.(BD) 29 Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia,[c](BE) a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.(BF)

30 “‘I am filled with fury against you,[d] declares the Sovereign Lord, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute!(BG) 31 When you built your mounds at every street corner and made your lofty shrines(BH) in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

32 “‘You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! 33 All prostitutes receive gifts,(BI) but you give gifts(BJ) to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.(BK) 34 So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.

35 “‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! 36 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood,(BL) 37 therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip(BM) you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked.(BN) 38 I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood;(BO) I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger.(BP) 39 Then I will deliver you into the hands(BQ) of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked.(BR) 40 They will bring a mob against you, who will stone(BS) you and hack you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down(BT) your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women.(BU) I will put a stop(BV) to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. 42 Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.(BW)

43 “‘Because you did not remember(BX) the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will surely bring down(BY) on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord. Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?(BZ)

44 “‘Everyone who quotes proverbs(CA) will quote this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.” 45 You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised(CB) her husband(CC) and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.(CD)

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 16:6 A few Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts repeat and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”
  2. Ezekiel 16:16 The meaning of the Hebrew for this sentence is uncertain.
  3. Ezekiel 16:29 Or Chaldea
  4. Ezekiel 16:30 Or How feverish is your heart,

And say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.

Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.

11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.

12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.

13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.

15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

18 And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.

19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord God.

20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,

21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.

23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord God;)

24 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.

25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.

26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.

28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.

29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied therewith.

30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;

31 In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;

32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!

33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.

34 And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.

35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord:

36 Thus saith the Lord God; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

38 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

40 They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.

41 And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.

42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord God: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.

44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.

45 Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

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