Ezekiel 16:24-53

English Standard Version

²⁴ you built yourself ^(A)a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. ²⁵ At the head of every street ^(B)you built your lofty place and made ^(C)your beauty an abomination, ^(D)offering yourself^[a] to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. ^26 (E)You also played the whore ^(F)with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, ^(G)multiplying your whoring, ^(H)to provoke me to anger. ²⁷ Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you ^(I)and diminished your allotted portion ^(J)and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, ^(K)the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. ^28 (L)You played the whore also ^(M)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 ^(N)of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

³⁰ “How sick is your heart,^[b] 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, ^(O)because you scorned payment. ³² Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! ³³ Men give gifts to all prostitutes, ^(P)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 ^(Q)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, ^(R)and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, ³⁷ therefore, behold, ^(S)I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and ^(T)all those you hated. ^(U)I will gather them against you from every side ^(V)and will uncover your nakedness to them, that ^(W)they may see all your nakedness. ^38 (X)And I will judge you ^(Y)as women who commit adultery and ^(Z)shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. ³⁹ And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your ^(AA)vaulted chamber and break down ^(AB)your lofty places. ^(AC)They shall strip you of your clothes and take ^(AD)your beautiful jewels and leave you ^(AE)naked and bare. ^40 (AF)They shall bring up a crowd against you, ^(AG)and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. ^41 (AH)And they shall ^(AI)burn your houses and ^(AJ)execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. ^(AK)I will make you stop playing the whore, and ^(AL)you shall also give payment no more. ^42 (AM)So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry. ⁴³ Because you have not remembered ^(AN)the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold, ^(AO)I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord God. Have you not ^(AP)committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations?

⁴⁴ “Behold, everyone ^(AQ)who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ ⁴⁵ You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of ^(AR)your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. ^(AS)Your mother was a Hittite and ^(AT)your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶ And ^(AU)your elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and ^(AV)your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. ^47 (AW)Not only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time ^(AX)you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. ^48 (AY)As I live, declares the Lord God, your sister ^(AZ)Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹ Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, ^(BA)excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ They were haughty and ^(BB)did an abomination before me. So ^(BC)I removed them, when I saw it. ^51 (BD)Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and ^(BE)have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed. ^52 (BF)Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

^53 (BG)“I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst,