Ezekiel 16:13-36

English Standard Version

¹³ Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. ^(A)You ate fine flour and honey and oil. ^(B)You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. ¹⁴ And ^(C)your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.

^15 (D)“But you trusted in your beauty ^(E)and played the whore^[a] because of your renown ^(F)and lavished your whorings^[b] on any passerby; your beauty^[c] became his. ¹⁶ You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be.^{[d] 17} You also took ^(G)your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and ^(H)made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. ¹⁸ And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, ^(I)and set my oil and my incense before them. ^19 (J)Also my bread that I gave you—^(K)I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for ^(L)a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God. ^20 (M)And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and ^(N)these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter ²¹ that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? ²² And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember ^(O)the days of your youth, ^(P)when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.

²³ “And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord God), ²⁴ you built yourself ^(Q)a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. ²⁵ At the head of every street ^(R)you built your lofty place and made ^(S)your beauty an abomination, ^(T)offering yourself^[e] to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. ^26 (U)You also played the whore ^(V)with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, ^(W)multiplying your whoring, ^(X)to provoke me to anger. ²⁷ Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you ^(Y)and diminished your allotted portion ^(Z)and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, ^(AA)the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. ^28 (AB)You played the whore also ^(AC)with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. ²⁹ You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land ^(AD)of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

³⁰ “How sick is your heart,^[f] declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, ³¹ building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, ^(AE)because you scorned payment. ³² Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! ³³ Men give gifts to all prostitutes, ^(AF)but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. ³⁴ So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and ^(AG)you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

³⁵ “Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord: ³⁶ Thus says the Lord God, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, ^(AH)and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them,