Ezekiel 16

Revised Geneva Translation

16 Again, the Word of the LORD came to me, saying:

² “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

³ “and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your relatives are from the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.

⁴ “And at your nativity, when you were born, your navel was not cut. You were not washed in water, to soften yourself. You were neither salted with salt nor swaddled in cloths.

⁵ “No eye pitied you, to do any of these for you, to have compassion upon you. But you were cast out in the open field, for you were loathed on the day that you were born.

⁶ “And when I passed by you, I saw you trampled, in your own blood. And I said to you when you were in your blood, ‘You shall live.’ Even when you were in your blood, I said to you, ‘You shall live.’

⁷ “I have caused you to multiply, as the bud of the field, and you have increased and grown greatly. You have entered with excellent ornamentation, your breasts fashioned, and your hair grown. Whereas, before you were naked and bare.

⁸ “Now when I passed by you and looked upon you, behold, your time was as the time of love. And I spread My Wings over you and covered your filthiness. Yea, I swore to you, and entered into a Covenant with you,” says the Lord GOD, “and you became Mine.

⁹ “Then I washed you with water. Yea, I washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.

¹⁰ “I clothed you also with embroidered work and shod you with badgers’ skin. And I wrapped you with fine linen, and I covered you with silk.

¹¹ “I also decorated you with ornaments. And I put bracelets upon your hands, and a chain on your neck.

¹² “And I put a frontlet upon your face, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.

¹³ “Thus were you adorned with gold and silver. And your clothing was of fine linen and silk, and embroidered work. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. And you were very beautiful. And you grew up into a kingdom.

¹⁴ “And your name was spread among the heathen because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My beauty which I had set upon you,” says the Lord GOD.

¹⁵ “But you trusted in your own beauty, and played the harlot because of your fame, and have poured out your fornications on everyone who passed by and was willing.

¹⁶ “And you took your garments and decorated your high places with diverse colors and played the harlot upon them. Such things should not come about or be done.

¹⁷ “You have also taken your fair jewels from My gold and from My silver which I had given you, and made images of men for yourself, and committed whoredom with them,

¹⁸ “and taken your embroidered garments and covered them. And you have set My oil and My perfume before them.

¹⁹ “Also, My food that I gave you (fine flour, oil and honey, with which I fed you), it so happens that you have also set it before them for a sweet savor,” says the Lord GOD.

²⁰ “Moreover, you have taken your sons and your daughters whom you have borne to Me, and you have sacrificed these to them, to be devoured. Is your whoredom such a small matter

²¹ “that you have killed My children, and delivered them up to them by causing them to pass through fire?

²² “And in all your abominations and whoredoms, you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and trampled in your blood.

²³ “And after all your wickedness (‘Woe! Woe to you!’ says the Lord GOD)

²⁴ “You have also built for yourself a high place and have made yourself a high place in every street.

²⁵ “You have built your high place at every corner of the way and have made your beauty abhorrent. You have opened your feet to everyone who passed by and multiplied your whoredom.

²⁶ “You have also committed fornication with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and have increased your whoredom, to provoke Me.

²⁷ “Therefore, behold, I have stretched out My Hand over you and diminished your portion, and delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your wicked ways.

²⁸ “You have also played the whore with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable. Yea, you have played the harlot with them and still could not be satisfied.

²⁹ “Moreover, you have multiplied your fornication, from the land of Canaan to Chaldea, and still you were not satisfied with that.

³⁰ “How weak your heart is,” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things—the work of a presumptuous, whorish woman—

³¹ “in that you build your high place on the corner of every road, and make your high place on every street, and have not been as a harlot who scorns wages,

³² “but as a wife who plays the harlot, taking others for her husband.

³³ “They give gifts to all whores, but you give gifts to all your lovers and bribe them to come to you from every direction for your fornication.

³⁴ “And you are the opposite of other women in your fornications, in that no one follows after your sort of harlotry. For you give a wage, and no wage is given to you. Therefore, you are the opposite.”

³⁵ ‘Therefore, O harlot, hear the Word of the LORD.

³⁶ ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because your shame was poured out and your filthiness discovered through your fornications with your lovers, and with all the idols of your abominations, by the blood of your children which you offered to them,

³⁷ “behold, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those whom you have loved together with all those whom you have hated. I will gather them against you, all around you, and will uncover your filthiness to them, so that they may see all your filthiness.

³⁸ “And I will judge you in the same way as those who are harlots, and of those who shed blood. And I will give you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

³⁹ “I will also give you into their hands. And they shall destroy your high place and shall break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes and shall take your fair jewels and leave you naked and bare.

⁴⁰ “They shall also bring up an assembly against you. And they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords.

⁴¹ “And they shall burn up your houses with fire and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. And I will cause you to cease playing the harlot. And you shall make no more payments.

⁴² “So will I make My wrath rest toward you. And My jealousy shall depart from you. And I will cease, and no longer be angry.

⁴³ “Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have provoked Me with all these things, therefore, behold, I have also brought your way upon your head,” says the Lord GOD, “And you shall not commit this lewdness in addition to all your other abominations.

⁴⁴ “Behold, all who use proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’

⁴⁵ “You are your mother’s daughter, who has cast off her husband and her children. And you are the sister of your sisters who forsook their husbands and their children. Your mother is a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

⁴⁶ “And your elder sister is Samaria, and her daughters who dwell on your left. And your younger sister who dwells on your right is Sodom and her daughters.

⁴⁷ “Yet, you have not merely walked in their ways or followed after their abominations; but as if that were too little, you have been corrupted more than they in all your ways.

⁴⁸ “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “Sodom, your sister, has not done (she or her daughters) as you and your daughters have done.

⁴⁹ “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister, Sodom: pride. Fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her, and in her daughters. Nor did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

⁵⁰ “But they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore, I took them away as it pleased Me.

⁵¹ “Nor has Samaria committed half of your sins. But you have exceeded them in your abominations and have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you have done.

⁵² “Therefore, you, who have judged your sisters, bear shame for your own sins, in that you have committed more abominable ones than they (who are more righteous than you are). Therefore, you also should be disgraced, and bear your shame, seeing that you have judged your sisters.

⁵³ “Therefore I will bring back their captives, with the captives of Sodom and her daughters, and with the captives of Samaria and her daughters, the captives of your captives, in the midst of them,

⁵⁴ “so that you may bear your own shame and may be disgraced by all that you did when you comforted them.

⁵⁵ “And your sister, Sodom, and her daughters, shall return to their former state. Samaria, also, and her daughters, shall return to their former state, when you and your daughters shall return to your former state.

⁵⁶ “For your sister, Sodom, was not mentioned by you in the days of your pride,

⁵⁷ “before your wickedness was uncovered. It was like the time of the reproach of the daughters of Aram, and of all the daughters of the Philistines all around her, who despise you in all directions.

⁵⁸ “You have borne your wickedness and your abomination,” says the LORD.

⁵⁹ ‘For thus says the Lord GOD: “I might even deal with you as you have done when you despised the oath in breaking the Covenant.

⁶⁰ “Nevertheless, I will remember My Covenant with you in the days of your youth. And I will confirm an everlasting Covenant with you.

⁶¹ “Then you shall remember your ways and be ashamed, when you shall receive your sisters, both elder and younger. And I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant.

⁶² “And I will establish My Covenant with you. And you shall know that I am the LORD,

⁶³ “so that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your shame, when I am pacified toward you for all that you have done,” says the Lord GOD.’”