God’s Grace to Unfaithful Jerusalem

16 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, ^(A)make known to Jerusalem her abominations, ³ and say, ‘This is what the Lord ^[a]God says to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴ As for your birth, ^(B)on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. ⁵ No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the ^[b](C)open field, ^[c]for you were abhorred on the day you were born.

⁶ “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ ⁷ I ^(D)made you ^[d]very numerous, like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine jewelry; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare.

⁸ “Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, ^[e]you were at the time for love; so I ^(E)spread My ^[f]garment over you and covered your nakedness. I also ^(F)swore an oath to you and ^(G)entered into a covenant with you so that you ^(H)became Mine,” declares the Lord God. ⁹ “Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you, and ^(I)anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I also clothed you with ^(J)colorfully woven cloth and put sandals of ^[g]fine leather on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry, put ^(K)bracelets on your wrists, and a ^(L)necklace around your neck. ¹² I also put a ^(M)ring in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a ^(N)beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ So you were adorned with ^(O)gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk, and colorfully woven cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to ^(P)royalty. ¹⁴ Then your ^(Q)fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was ^(R)perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord God.

¹⁵ “But you ^(S)trusted in your beauty and ^(T)became unfaithful because of your fame, and you poured out your ^[h]obscene practices on every passer-by to whom it might be tempting. ¹⁶ You took some of your clothes, made for yourself ^[i]high places of various colors, and committed prostitution on them, which should not come about nor happen. ¹⁷ You also took your beautiful ^[j](U)jewels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images so that you might commit prostitution with them. ¹⁸ Then you took your colorfully woven cloth and covered them, and offered My oil and My incense before them. ¹⁹ Also ^(V)My bread which I gave you, fine flour, oil, and honey with which I fed you, ^[k]you would offer before them for a soothing aroma; so it happened,” declares the Lord God. ²⁰ “Furthermore, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to ^(W)Me and ^(X)sacrificed them to ^[l]idols to be devoured. Were your obscene practices a trivial matter? ²¹ You slaughtered ^(Y)My children and offered them to ^[m]idols by ^(Z)making them pass through the fire. ²² And besides all your abominations and obscene practices, you did not remember the days of ^(AA)your youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood.

²³ “Then it came about after all your wickedness (‘Woe, woe to you!’ declares the Lord God), ²⁴ that you built yourself a ^(AB)shrine and made yourself a ^(AC)high place in every public square. ²⁵ You built yourself a high place at the beginning of ^(AD)every street and made your beauty abominable, and you spread your legs to every passer-by and multiplied your obscene practice. ²⁶ You also committed prostitution with the Egyptians, your ^[n]lustful neighbors, and multiplied your obscene practice to ^(AE)provoke Me to anger. ²⁷ So behold, I have stretched out My hand against you and cut back your rations. And I turned you over to the desire of those who hate you, the ^(AF)daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your outrageous conduct. ²⁸ Moreover, you committed prostitution with the ^(AG)Assyrians because you were not satisfied; you committed prostitution with them and still were not satisfied. ²⁹ You also multiplied your obscene practice with the land of merchants, Chaldea; yet even with this you were not satisfied.”’”

³⁰ “How ^(AH)feverish is your heart,” declares the Lord God, “while you do all these things, the action of a ^[o](AI)bold prostitute! ³¹ When you built your shrine at the beginning of every street and made your high place in every public square, in ^(AJ)spurning a prostitute’s fee, you were not like a prostitute. ³² You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! ³³ Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you ^(AK)give your gifts to all your lovers and lavish favors on them so that they will come to you from every direction for your obscene practices. ³⁴ So it is the opposite for you from those women in your obscene practices, in that you are not approached for prostitution, and in the fact that you pay a prostitute’s fee, and no fee is paid to you; so you are the opposite.”