Ezekiel 16:15-41

New King James Version

Jerusalem’s Harlotry

^15 (A)“But you trusted in your own beauty, ^(B)played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. ^16 (C)You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored ^[a]high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be. ¹⁷ You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them. ¹⁸ You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them. ¹⁹ Also ^(D)My food which I gave you—the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you—you set it before them as ^[b]sweet incense; and so it was,” says the Lord God.

^20 (E)“Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, ²¹ that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the ^(F)fire? ²² And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your ^(G)youth, ^(H)when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.

²³ “Then it was so, after all your wickedness—‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord God— ²⁴ that ^(I)you also built for yourself a shrine, and ^(J)made a ^[c]high place for yourself in every street. ²⁵ You built your high places ^(K)at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry. ²⁶ You also committed harlotry with ^(L)the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to ^(M)provoke Me to anger.

²⁷ “Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your ^[d]allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, ^(N)the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. ²⁸ You also played the harlot with the ^(O)Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. ²⁹ Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, ^(P)Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.

³⁰ “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord God, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

Jerusalem’s Adultery

^31 (Q)“You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your ^[e]high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned ^(R)payment. ³² You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. ³³ Men make payment to all harlots, but ^(S)you made your payments to all your lovers, and ^[f]hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. ³⁴ You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”

Jerusalem’s Lovers Will Abuse Her

³⁵ ‘Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord! ³⁶ Thus says the Lord God: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of ^(T)the blood of your children which you gave to them, ³⁷ surely, therefore, ^(U)I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. ³⁸ And I will judge you as ^(V)women who break wedlock or ^(W)shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy. ³⁹ I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down ^(X)your ^[g]high places. ^(Y)They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

^40 (Z)“They shall also bring up an assembly against you, ^(AA)and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. ⁴¹ They shall ^(AB)burn your houses with fire, and ^(AC)execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you ^(AD)cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers.