A Story of Jerusalem's Sinfulness

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

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

3And say, Thus says the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.

4And as for your nativity, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt at all, nor swaddled at all.

5No eye pitied you, to do any of these unto you, to have compassion upon you; but you were cast out in the open field, and you were loathed, in the day that you were born.

6And when I passed by you, and saw you polluted in your own blood, I said unto you when you were in your blood, Live; yea, I said unto you when you were in your blood, Live.

7I have caused you to multiply as the bud of the field, and you have increased and become great, and you are come to excellent beauty: your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.

8Now when I passed by you, and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yea, I swore unto you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord GOD, and you became mine.

9Then I washed you with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.

10I clothed you also with embroidered work, and gave you sandals of badgers' skin, and I clothed you with fine linen, and I covered you with silk.

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

12And I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.

13Thus were you adorned with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work; you did eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and you were exceedingly beautiful, and you did prosper into a kingdom.

14And your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty: for it was perfect through my splendor, which I had put upon you, says the Lord GOD.

15But you did trust in your own beauty, and played the harlot because of your renown, and poured out your harlotry on every one that passed by; his it was.

16And of your garments you did take, and adorned your high places with various colors, and played the harlot on them: the like things have never been, neither shall be.

17You have also taken your fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made to yourself images of men, and did commit harlotry with them,

18And took your embroidered garments, and covered them: and you have set my oil and my incense before them.

19My food also which I gave you, fine flour, and oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you have even set it before them for a sweet aroma: and thus it was, says the Lord GOD.

20Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne unto me, and these have you sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this act of your harlotries a small matter,

21That you have slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

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

23And it came to pass after all your wickedness, (woe, woe unto you! says the Lord GOD;)

24That you have also built unto you an eminent place, and have made yourself a high place in every street.

25You have built your high place at the head of every street, and have made your beauty to be abhorred, and have offered yourself to everyone that passed by, and multiplied your harlotries.

26You have also played the harlot with the Egyptians your neighbors, strong in lust; and have increased your harlotries, to provoke me to anger.

27Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your allowance of food, and delivered you unto the will of them that hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way.

28You have played the harlot also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yea, you have played the harlot with them, and yet could not be satisfied.

29You have moreover multiplied your harlotry with trading in the land of Chaldea; and yet you were not satisfied with this.

30How weak is your heart, says the Lord GOD, seeing you do all these things, the work of a brazen harlot;

31In that you build your shrine at the head of every street, and make your high place in every street; and have not been as a harlot, in that you scorned payment;

32But as a wife that commits adultery, who takes strangers instead of her husband!

33They give gifts to all harlots: but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and hire them, that they may come unto you on every side for your harlotry.

34And you are different from other women in your harlotries, therefore none follows you to commit harlotries: and in that you give a reward, and no reward is given unto you, therefore you are different.

35Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:

36Thus says the Lord GOD; Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers, and with all the idols of your abominations, and by the blood of your children, which you did give unto them;

37Behold, therefore I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all them that you have loved, with all them that you have hated; I will even gather them round about against you, and will uncover your nakedness unto them, that they may see all your nakedness.

38And I will judge you, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy.

39And I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrine, and shall break down your high places: they shall strip you also of your clothes, and shall take your beautiful jewels, and leave you naked and bare.

40They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords.

41And they shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women: and I will cause you to cease from playing the harlot, and you also shall give no hire any more.

42So will I make my fury toward you to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

43Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense your way upon your head, says the Lord GOD: and you shall not commit this lewdness in addition to all your abominations.

44Behold, every one that uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.

45You are your mother's daughter, that loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

46And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at your left hand: and your younger sister, that dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

47Yet have you not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, you were corrupted more than they in all your ways.

48As I live, says the Lord GOD, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.

49Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom, pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw fit.

51Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you have done.

52You also, who have judged your sisters, bear your own shame for your sins that you have committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than you: yea, be disgraced also, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters.

53When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of your captives in the midst of them:

54That you may bear your own shame, and may be disgraced in all that you have done, in that you are a comfort unto them.

55When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, then you and your daughters shall return to your former state.

56For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,

57Before your wickedness was discovered, as at the time of your reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise you round about.

58You have borne your lewdness and your abominations, says the LORD.

59For thus says the Lord GOD; I will even deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

60Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish unto you an everlasting covenant.

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

62And I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall know that I am the LORD:

63That you may remember, and be ashamed, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I provide toward you an atonement for all that you have done, says the Lord GOD.