Old/New Testament
Chapter 16[a]
The Unfaithful Wife. 1 This word of the Lord was addressed to me: 2 Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominable practices. 3 Say to her: Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: By origin and birth, you belong to Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite.
4 As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut. You were neither bathed in water, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. 5 No one took pity on you or did any of these deeds out of compassion for you. Rather, you were thrown out into an open field, for you were regarded as something loathsome on the day you were born.
6 Then I passed by and saw you kicking helplessly in your blood. I said to you as you lay there in your blood, “Live, 7 and grow like a plant of the field.” You grew up and developed and reached the stage of full womanhood. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, but you were still naked and exposed.
8 I passed by you again and saw that you were old enough for love. I spread the edge of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I swore an oath to you and made a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine. 9 Then I bathed you in water, washed away the blood from your body, and anointed you with oil.
10 After this, I clothed you with embroidered gowns and sandals of fine leather, as well as with a linen headband and a silk cloak. 11 I adorned you with jewels: bracelets for your arms, a chain around your neck, 12 a ring in your nose, pendants for your ears, and a beautiful crown for your head.
13 Thus, you were adorned with gold and silver, and your garments were of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. Fine flour, honey, and oil were your food. You grew exceedingly beautiful, fit to be a queen. 14 You were renowned among the nations because of your beauty, since it was perfect because of the splendor I had bestowed upon you, says the Lord God.
15 But you became infatuated with your own beauty, and you exploited your renown as you freely offered to play the harlot to every passerby. 16 You used some of your garments to decorate colorful shrines for yourself where you played the harlot. 17 You also took the beautiful gold and silver jewelry that I had given you and made for yourself male images, with which you committed fornication.
18 Furthermore, you took your embroidered clothes to cover these images and set my oil and my incense before them. 19 You also took the food that I had given you—the fine flour, the oil, and the honey with which I fed you—and set it before them as a pleasant odor, says the Lord God.
20 You took the sons and daughters you had borne to me and offered them as sacrifices. Was it not enough that you had become a harlot? 21 You slaughtered my children and immolated them as an offering to your idols. 22 And throughout all your abominations and your harlotries you never gave a thought to your youth when you were naked and bare and kicking helplessly in your own blood.
23 Then, after all your wicked deeds—woe, woe to you! says the Lord God— 24 you built for yourself a platform and erected for yourself a lofty place in every square. 25 At the head of every street, you built your dais and degraded your beauty, offering your body to every passerby in countless acts of harlotry. 26 You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and provoked me to anger with your repeated acts of fornication.
27 Therefore, I stretched out my hand against you, reduced your supply of food, and delivered you into the hands of your enemies, the Philistine women, who were horrified by your lewd behavior. 28 You also played the whore with the Assyrians in your insatiable lust, and even then you were not satisfied. 29 Again and again you continued to play the harlot in Chaldea, the land of merchants, and still you remained unsatisfied.
30 How truly sick you are, says the Lord God, for engaging in the deeds of a brazen prostitute, 31 building your platform at every street corner and erecting your lofty dais in every square. Yet you do not truly fulfill the role of a prostitute because you scorn any payment.
32 An adulterous wife welcomes strangers instead of her husband. 33 All prostitutes receive gifts, but you gave gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come from everywhere to receive your favors. 34 Thus in your harlotry, you were different from other such women. No one sought you out for prostitution, and you gave payment instead of receiving it. You are the complete opposite of all other whores.
35 Therefore, you harlot, listen to the word of the Lord. 36 Thus says the Lord God: Because you poured forth your lust and revealed your nakedness in your promiscuous dealings with your lovers, and because you surrendered to them the blood of your children, 37 therefore, I will gather together all your lovers in whom you took pleasure, all those whom you loved and all those whom you disliked. I will gather them from all sides and expose you naked for them to see.
38 I will inflict on you the sentence that is imposed on adulteresses and murderesses and bring down upon you the bloody vengeance of my wrath and jealousy. 39 I will deliver you into their hands, and they will destroy your platforms and tear down your lofty places. They will strip off your clothes, take away your jewels, and leave you stark naked. 40 They will assemble a mob to punish you, stoning you and cutting you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down your houses and execute judgments against you while many women look on. Thus, I shall put an end to your harlotry, and never again will you make payments to your lovers.
42 Once my fury against you has been exhausted, then my jealousy will turn away from you. I will be calm and will no longer be provoked to anger. 43 Because you have never called to mind the days of your youth but enraged me with all of your wicked deeds, I have brought your conduct down upon your head, says the Lord God. For did you not add lewd behavior to all of your other abominable deeds?
44 Everyone who quotes proverbs will use this one in regard to you: “Like mother, like daughter.” 45 You are a true daughter of your mother who loathed her husband and her children, and you are a true sister of your sisters who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father was an Amorite. 46 Your elder sister is Samaria, who lives to the north of you with her daughters, and your younger sister is Sodom, who lives to the south of you with her daughters. 47 You not only followed their ways and imitated their loathsome practices, but within a brief period of time you were more corrupt than they in all of your ways.
48 As I live, says the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49 The crimes of your sister Sodom were pride, gluttony, and lack of concern for the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and committed abominable deeds in my presence. Therefore, I swept them from my sight, as you have seen.
51 Samaria did not commit half of the sins of which you have been guilty. You have done far more abominable crimes than they did, and you have made your sisters appear to be innocent because of all the abominations that you have committed. 52 Bear the shame of your disgrace, as a result of which you have made possible a more favorable judgment for your sisters. Because your conduct was far more abominable than theirs, they appear to be more upright in comparison with you. Therefore, blush for shame, and bear the disgrace of having made your sisters appear to be righteous.
53 I intend to restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and your own fortunes along with theirs, 54 so that you may bear your own disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done as you offer consolation to them.
55 As for your sisters, when Sodom and her daughters will be restored to their former state and Samaria and her daughters will be restored to their former state, then you and your daughters will return to your former state. 56 Did you not regard with contempt your sister Sodom in the days of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was revealed? Now you are regarded with contempt by the daughters of Edom and all her neighbors and by the daughters of the Philistines—all these people despise you. 58 You must suffer the consequences of your lewdness and your loathsome abominations, says the Lord.
59 For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have deserved, you who despised your oath and broke the covenant. 60 However, I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I shall establish with you an everlasting covenant. 61 Then you will recall your former conduct and be ashamed when I take your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger, and give them to you as daughters, even though I am not bound to do so by my covenant with you.
62 Thus I will reestablish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord, 63 and thus remember and be ashamed and be reduced to silence when I forgive you for everything that you have done, says the Lord God.
Chapter 17[b]
Allegory of the Eagles and Vine. 1 This word of the Lord was addressed to me: 2 Son of man, propose a riddle and expound this parable to the house of Israel. 3 Say: Thus says the Lord God:
A great eagle with large wings and long pinions,
rich with multi-colored plumage,
came to Lebanon.
He took the top of the cedar tree,
4 and plucked off its topmost shoot.
He carried it off to a land of tradesmen
and planted it in a city filled with merchants.
5 Then he took some of the seed of the land
and placed it in fertile soil.
Close to a source of abundant water
he set it like a willow tree.
6 It sprouted and became a vine,
low-lying and spreading forth.
Its branches turned toward him,
but its roots remained firmly in place.
Thus it became a vine, produced branches,
and put forth lofty shoots.
7 But there was another great eagle
with large wings and thick plumage.
From the plot where it had been planted
this vine stretched forth its roots toward him
so that he might water it.
It turned away from the bed where it was planted.
8 In a fertile field by abundant waters,
it was planted so that it might branch forth,
bear fruit, and become a noble vine.
9 Therefore, thus says the Lord God:
Will such a vine flourish?
Will it not be uprooted
with its fruit stripped off
and its freshly sprouted leaves becoming withered?
No great strength or a mighty army is needed
to pull it up by its roots.
10 If it is transplanted, will it flourish?
Will it not totally shrivel up
as though destroyed by the east wind
on the bed where it was growing?
11 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 12 Say now to this rebellious people: Do you not understand what all this means? Say to them: The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took its king and its princes, and brought them back to Babylon with him. 13 Then he selected a prince of the royal family and made a covenant with him, binding him under oath, and he deported the leading men of the land 14 so that the kingdom would be humble and submissive and be able to survive only by keeping his covenant and obeying him.
15 However, the prince rebelled against him and sent envoys to Egypt with a request for horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Can one escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and remain unscathed?
16 As I live, says the Lord God, I swear that that man will die in Babylon, in the country of the king who appointed him to rule, whose oath he forsook and whose covenant he broke. 17 Despite Pharaoh’s mighty army and hordes of troops, he will not be able to save him in war, no matter how many ramps are raised up and siege-towers are built to destroy many lives. 18 He has violated the treaty and disregarded the oath by breaking the treaty he had pledged to observe. Since he has done all this, he will not go unpunished.
19 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: As I live, I will bring down upon his head my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke. 20 I will spread my net over him, and he will be trapped in my snare. I will take him to Babylon and bring him to judgment there for the treasonous acts he has committed against me. 21 All of his most valiant troops will fall by the sword, and those who survive will be scattered to the winds. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.
22 Thus says the Lord:
I myself will break off a tender shoot
from the highest branch of a tall cedar
and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
23 On the highest mountain in Israel I will plant it
so that it may put forth branches and bear fruit
and become a majestic cedar.
Birds of every kind will live beneath it;
in the shelter of its branches
winged creatures of every kind will dwell.
24 All the trees of the countryside will know
that I am the Lord.
I will bring low the tall tree
and raise high the lowly tree.
I cause the green tree to wither
and make the shriveled tree bear fruit.
I, the Lord, have spoken;
so will I do.
Exhortation To Practice Christian Living
Chapter 3
Avoid Faults of the Tongue.[a] 1 My brethren, not many of you should become teachers, for you know that we will face a more severe judgment. 2 For all of us fall short in many ways. Anyone who never makes a mistake in speech has reached perfection[b] and is able to control every part of his body.
3 When we put a bit into a horse’s mouth to make it obey us, we also guide its entire body. 4 Or think of ships. Even though they are large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder on whatever course the helmsman chooses. 5 In the same way, the tongue is a small member but its pretensions are great.
Consider how a small fire can set ablaze a great forest. 6 And the tongue is also a fire, a world of evil that infects the entire body. It sets afire the entire course of our existence and is itself set on fire by Gehenna.
7 For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by man, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.[c]
10 Out of the same mouth flow blessings and curses. This should not be so, my brethren. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives or can a grapevine produce figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh water.
13 True Wisdom and Its Opposite.[d] Who among you is wise and understanding? Prove by your good life that your works are done with the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if your hearts are filled with bitter envy and selfish ambition, do not be boastful in defiance of the truth.
15 Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. 16 For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disharmony and every type of wickedness.
17 However, the wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, and considerate, full of mercy and good fruits, without any trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who are peacemakers.
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