Ezekiel 16

1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, ^acause Jerusalem to know¹ her ^babominations,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem, ^cThy birth² and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

4 And^d as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee:³ thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.⁴

5 None^e eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

6 ¶ And when I passed by thee, and ^gsaw thee polluted⁵ in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, ^hLive; yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

7 I have ⁶caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments:⁷ thyⁱ breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

8 Now^j when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was ^kthe time of love; and I ^lspread my skirt⁸ over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, ⁿI sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou ^obecamest mine.

9 Then ^pwashed I thee with water: yea, I throughly washed away thy blood⁹ from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

10 I^q clothed thee also with broidered 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,¹ and ear-rings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.

13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy ^rraiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work: ^sthou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper ^tinto a kingdom.

14 And^u thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was ^vperfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

15 ¶ But^x thou didst trust in thine own beauty, ^yand playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.²

16 And^z of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.³

17 Thou hast also taken ^athy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images⁴ of ⁵men, and didst ^bcommit whoredom with them;

18 And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set ^cmine oil and mine incense before them.

19 My^d meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour:⁶ and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.

20 Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, ^ewhom thou hast born unto me, and ^gthese hast thou sacrificed⁷ unto them to ⁸be devoured.⁹ Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,

21 That thou hast slain ^hmy children, and delivered them to cause them ⁱto pass through the fire for them?

22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered ^jthe days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.

23 And it came to pass, ^kafter all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD,)

24 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent¹ place,² and hast made thee an high place in every street.

25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head^l of the way, and hast made thy beauty³ to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.

26 Thouⁿ hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh;⁴ and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

27 Behold, therefore, ^oI have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished ^pthine ordinary food,⁵ and delivered thee unto the will of them ^qthat hate thee, the daughters⁶ of the Philistines,^r which are ^sashamed of thy lewd way.

28 Thou hast played the whore also ^twith the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.

29 Thou^u hast, moreover, multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea, and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.

30 How^v weak is thine heart,⁷ saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of ^xan imperious whorish woman;

31 In that thou ^ybuildest thine⁸ eminent place⁹ in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;

32 But as ^za wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!

33 They give gifts to all whores; but ^athou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest¹ 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 followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee; therefore thou art contrary.

35 ¶ Wherefore, O ^bharlot, ^chear the word of the LORD:

36 Thus saith the Lord GOD, ^dBecause thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered^e through thy whoredoms with thy lovers,² and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

37 Behold, therefore, ^gI will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will ^hdiscover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

38 And I will judge thee, as³ women that break wedlock,⁴ and ⁱshed blood, are judged: and ^jI will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and ^kthey shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall ^lstrip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels,⁵ and leave thee naked and bare.

40 Theyⁿ shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and ^othrust thee through with their swords.

41 And they shall ^pburn thine houses with fire, and ^rexecute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: ^sand I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.

42 So^t 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 hast ^unot remembered the days of thy youth, but hast ^vfretted⁶ me in all these things; behold, therefore, ^xI also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD; and thou shalt not commit ^ythis lewdness above all thine abominations.

44 ¶ Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, ^zAs is the mother,⁷ so is her daughter.

45 Thou art thy mother's daughter, that ^aloatheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which loathed their husbands and their children: ^byour mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

46 And^c thine elder sister⁸ is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister,⁹ that dwelleth at thy right hand,¹ is ^dSodom and her ^edaughters.

47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as if that were a very little thing,² thou^g wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.

48 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister ^hhath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom,³ Pride,ⁱ fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, was in her and in her daughters, neither^j did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50 And they were ^khaughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore ^lI took them away as I saw good.

51 Neitherⁿ hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters⁴ in all thine abominations which thou hast done.

52 Thou^o also, which hast judged⁵ thy sisters, bear^p thine own shame, for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou; yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast 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, then⁶ will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:

54 That^q thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.

55 When^r 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 ⁷not ^smentioned⁸ by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,⁹

57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at^t the time of thy reproach of the daughters of ¹Syria,² and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which ^udespise³ thee round about.

58 Thou^v hast borne⁴ thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the LORD.

59 For thus saith the Lord GOD, ^xI will even deal with thee as ^ythou hast done, which hast despised^z the oath in breaking the ^acovenant.⁵

60 ¶ Nevertheless, I will ^bremember ^cmy covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and ^dI will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.⁶

61 Then^e thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when ^gthou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, ^hbut not by thy ⁱcovenant.⁷

62 And^j I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:

63 That^k thou mayest 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 hast done, saith the Lord GOD.