Jerusalem's Infidelity: Shame, Judgment, and Vindication
16
Chapter 16
1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying.2Son of Adam, make known to Jerusalem its abominations.3And say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were from the land of the Canaanite; your father the Amorite and your mother a Hittite.4And your birth pangs on the day you were born—your navel cord was not cut, and you were not washed in water to rub, and you were not salted with salt, and you were not swaddled in swaddling cloths.5No eye had pity on you to do for you one of these things with compassion on you, and you were thrown toward the face of the field in the loathing of your life force on the day of your being born.6And I passed by you and saw you trampled in your blood, and I said to you, "In your blood, live," and I said to you, "In your blood, live."7I have made you a myriad like the branch of the field, and you multiplied and grew great and came to have breasts; your breasts were established and your hair sprouted, and you were naked and bare.8And I passed by you and saw you. Behold, it was your time, the time of breasts. And I spread my wings over you and covered your nudity/shame. And I swore to you and entered into covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.9And I bathed you in water and I rinsed your blood off you and I anointed you with oil.10And I clothed you with embroidery and shod you with tachash. And I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.11And I adorned you with adornments, and I put bracelets on your hands and a necklace on your throat.12And I will give a nose ring on your nose and earrings on your ears and a crown of beauty on your head.13And you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was fine twisted linen and silk and embroidery. You ate fine flour and honey and oil, and you became very, very beautiful, and you prospered to kingship.14And your name went out among the nations in your beauty, for it was perfect in my majesty which I had put upon you, declares the Lord GOD.15But you trusted in your beauty and you prostituted yourself on your name and you poured out your prostitutions on every passerby—to him it shall be.16And you took some of your garments and made for yourself high places of patches, and you prostituted on them; they did not come, nor was it.17And you took the vessels of your glory and beauty—the gold and the silver that I gave you—and made for yourself male images, and you prostituted yourself with them.18And you took my embroidered garments and covered them with them, and you put my oil and my incense before them.19And my bread which I gave you—fine flour and oil and honey which I fed you—you gave it before them as a pleasing aroma, and it was, declares the Lord GOD.20And you took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me, and you sacrificed them to them to eat—a little from your prostitutions.21And you slaughtered your sons and you gave them by passing them to them.22And you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and were trampling in your blood, all your abominations and your prostitutions.23And it came after all your evil—alas, alas for you! declares the Lord GOD.24And you built for yourself a high place, and you made for yourself a height in every street.25At every head of every way you built your high place, and with your beauty you prostituted yourself, and you spread your legs for every passerby, and you multiplied your prostitutions.26And you prostituted yourself to the sons of Egypt, your neighbors great of flesh, and you multiplied your prostitution to anger me.27And behold, I stretched out my hand against you, and I diminished your portion, and I gave you into the hand of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way.28And you prostituted yourself to the sons of Assyria because you were not sated by them, and you prostituted yourself and even then you were not sated.29And you increased your whoredoms to the land of Canaan, to the Chaldeans, and even in this you were not satisfied.30How I am filled with your daughter! says the Lord the LORD. In your doing all these things, the deed of a woman, a prostitute ruling.31In the backs of your daughters at the head of every street, and you made your exaltation in every street, and you were not like a prostitute who scorns a hire.32The adulteress woman takes strangers instead of her man.33To every prostitute they give a ritual impurity from menstruation, but you—you gave your ritual impurities from menstruation to all your lovers, and you enticed them to come to you from all around in your spiritual unfaithfulnesses.34And it was a reversal for you from the women in your prostitutions, and after you no prostitute, and in your giving a gift and a gift not given to you, and you were a reversal.35Therefore, prostitute, hear the word of the LORD.36This is what the Lord GOD says: Because of your pouring out your bronze and your revealing your nakedness in your prostitutions upon your lovers and upon all the idols of your abominations, and the blood of your sons which you gave to them.37Therefore, behold, I am gathering all your lovers whom you were sweet on over them and all whom you loved over all whom you hated, and I will gather them against you all around, and I will uncover your nakedness to them, and they will see all your nakedness.38And I will judge you with the judgments of adulteresses, and I will pour out blood on you, and I will give you blood in my wrath and jealousy.39And I will give you into their hand, and they will demolish your back, and they will tear down your high places, and they will strip you of your garments, and they will take the vessels of your splendor, and they will leave you as a naked city.40And they will raise an assembly against you, and they will stone you with stones, and they will pierce you with their swords.41And they will burn your houses with fire, and they will make judgments in you before the eyes of many women, and they will return you from prostitution, and you will not give payments anymore.42And I will set my wrath at rest against you, and my jealousy will turn away from you, and I will be quiet, and I will not be angry anymore.43Because you did not remember the days of your youth and you enraged me with all these things, and I—behold, I put your ways on your head, says the Lord GOD—and you did not do the outrage on all your abominations.44Behold, every proverb about you will be used, saying, "Like mother, like daughter."45You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her sons, and the sister of your sister, who despised her men and their sons; your mother was a Hittite and your father was an Amorite.46Your older sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, who sit on your left; and your younger sister, who sits on your right, is Sodom and her daughters.47And you did not walk in their ways, and you did their abominations only a little, and you prostituted yourself more than they did in all your ways.48"As I live, declares the Lord GOD, if Sodom your sister, she and her daughters, has done as you and your daughters have done."49Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom your sister: arrogance, satiety of bread, and security of quiet. It was to her and her daughters, and the hand of the poor and needy she did not strengthen.50And they were haughty and they did abomination before me, and I removed her just as I saw.51And Samaria did not sin as half of your sins, and you multiplied your abominations from her, and you justified your sisters by all your abominations that you did.52Also you have borne your reproach which you hurled at your sister in your sin offerings which you have detested more than they—they will be righteous from you. And also you bear shame and bear your reproach in your righteousness, your sisters.53And I will restore their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captivity in their midst.54In order that you bear your entire disgrace and be disgraced from all that you did, in your comforting I will give.55And your sisters Sodom and her daughters will dwell in their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters will dwell in their former estate, and you and your daughters will dwell in your former estate.56And Sodom your sister was not a rumor in your mouth in the day of your pride.57Before your moral evil was revealed—not like the time of reproach of the daughters of Aram and all her surrounding areas, the daughters of the Philistines, the ones despising you all around.58Your lewdness and your abominations—you have borne them, declares the LORD.59For thus says the Lord GOD: I will do to you just as you did, you who despised God to break the covenant.60And I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an eternal covenant.61And you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both greater than you and smaller than you, and I will give them to you for daughters, not from your covenant.62And I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD.63so that you remember and are ashamed, and you have no more opening of mouth because of your disgrace, when I atone for you for all that you did, declares the Lord GOD.