Chapter 16
Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, 3 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 a Hittite. 4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou was born thy navel was not cut, neither was thou washed in water to supple thee; thou was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. 5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou was cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou was born.
6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou was in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou was in thy blood, Live. 7 I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou has increased and waxen great, and thou are come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou was naked and bare. 8 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 became Mine. 9 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 embroidered 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 was thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work; thou did eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou was exceeding beautiful, and thou did 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 did trust in thine own beauty, and played the harlot because of thy renown, and poured out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. 16 And of thy garments thou did take, and decked thy high places with divers colors, and played the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. 17 Thou has also taken thy fair jewels of My gold and of My silver, which I had given thee, and made to thyself images of men, and did commit whoredom with them, 18 And took thy embroidered garments, and covered them: and thou has 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 has even set it before them for a sweet savor: and thus it was, saith the Lord God.
20 Moreover thou has taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou has borne unto Me, and these has thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, 21 That thou has 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 has not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou was naked and bare, and was 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 has also built unto thee an eminent place, and has made thee a high place in every street. 25 Thou has built thy high place at every head of the way, and has made thy beauty to be abhorred, and has opened thy feet to everyone that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms. 26 Thou has also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbors, great of flesh; and has 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 has played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou was unsatiable; yea, thou has played the harlot with them, and yet could not be satisfied. 29 Thou has moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou was not satisfied herewith. 30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou do all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; 31 In that thou build thine eminent place in the head of every way, and make thine high place in every street; and has not been as a harlot, in that thou scorn hire; 32 But as a wife that commits adultery, which takes strangers instead of her husband! 33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou give thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hire 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 follows thee to commit whoredoms: and in that, thou give a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou are 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 did give unto them; 37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou has taken pleasure, and all them that thou has loved, with all them that thou has 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 shall 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 has not remembered the days of thy youth, but has fretted Me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord God: and thou shall not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.
44 Behold, everyone that uses proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter. 45 Thou are thy mother’s daughter, that loathes her husband and her children; and thou are the sister of thy sisters, which loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. 46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwells at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. 47 Yet has thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou was corrupted more than they in all thy ways. 48 As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as thou has done, thou and thy daughters. 49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. 51 Neither has Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou has multiplied thine abominations more than they, and has justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou has done. 52 Thou also, which has judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou has committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou has justified thy sisters.
53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them: 54 That thou may bear thine own shame, and may be confounded in all that thou has done, in that thou are a comfort unto them. 55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate. 56 For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride, 57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise thee round about. 58 Thou has borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the Lord. 59 For thus saith the Lord God; I will even deal with thee as thou has done, which has despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
60 Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. 61 Then thou shall remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shall receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant. 62 And I will establish My covenant with thee; and thou shall know that I am the Lord: 63 That thou may remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou has done, saith the Lord God.
