16 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

² Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know, understand, and realize her [idolatrous] abominations [that they] are disgusting, detestable, and shamefully vile.

³ And say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem [representing Israel]: Your [spiritual] origin and your birth are thoroughly Canaanitish; your [spiritual] father was an Amorite and your [spiritual] mother a Hittite.^(A)

⁴ And as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt or swaddled with bands at all.

⁵ No eye pitied you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, for your person was abhorrent and loathsome on the day that you were born.

⁶ And when I passed by you and saw you rolling about in your blood, I said to you in your blood, Live! Yes, I said to you still in your natal blood, Live!

⁷ I caused you [Israel] to multiply as the bud which grows in the field, and you increased and became tall and you came to full maidenhood and beauty; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.

⁸ Now I passed by you again and looked upon you; behold, you were maturing and at the time for love, and I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I plighted My troth to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord, and you became Mine.

⁹ Then I washed you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your [clinging] blood from you and I anointed you with oil.

¹⁰ I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with [fine seal] leather; and I girded you about with fine linen and covered you with silk.

¹¹ I decked you also with ornaments and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck.

¹² And I put a ring on your nostril and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown upon your head!

¹³ Thus you were decked with gold and silver, and your raiment was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth; you ate fine flour and honey and oil. And you were exceedingly beautiful and you prospered into royal estate.

¹⁴ And your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty, for it was perfect through My majesty and splendor which I had put upon you, says the Lord God.

¹⁵ But you trusted in and relied on your own beauty and were unfaithful to God and played the harlot [in idolatry] because of your renown, and you poured out your fornications upon anyone who passed by [as you worshiped the idols of every nation which prevailed over you] and your beauty was his.

¹⁶ And you took some of your garments and made for yourself gaily decorated high places or shrines and played the harlot on them—things which should not come and that which should not take place.

¹⁷ You did also take your fair jewels and beautiful vessels of My gold and My silver which I had given you and made for yourself images of men, and you played the harlot with them;

¹⁸ And you took your embroidered garments and covered them and set My oil and My incense before them.

¹⁹ My bread also which I gave you—fine flour and oil and honey with which I fed you—you have even set it before the idols for a sweet odor. Thus it was, says the Lord God.

²⁰ Moreover, you have taken your sons and your daughters whom you have borne to Me, and you have sacrificed them [to your idols] to be destroyed. Were your harlotries too little,

²¹ That you have slain My children and delivered them up, in setting them apart and causing them to pass through the fire for [your idols]?

²² And in all your abominations and idolatrous whoredoms you have not [earnestly] remembered the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, rolling about in your natal blood.

²³ And after all your wickedness—Woe, woe to you! says the Lord God—

²⁴ You have built also for yourself a vaulted chamber (brothel) and have made a high place [of idol worship] in every street.

²⁵ At every crossway you built your high place [for idol worship] and have made your beauty an abomination [abhorrent, loathsome, extremely disgusting, and detestable]; and you have made your body available to every passerby and multiplied your [idolatry and spiritual] harlotry.

²⁶ You have also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your neighbors, [by adopting their idolatries] whose worship is thoroughly sensuous, and you have multiplied your harlotry to provoke Me to anger.

²⁷ Behold therefore, I have stretched out My hand against you, diminished your ordinary allowance of food, and delivered you over to the will of those who hate and despise you, the daughters of the Philistines, who turned away in shame from your despicable policy and lewd behavior [for they are faithful to their gods]!

²⁸ You played the harlot also with the Assyrians because you were unsatiable; yes, you played the harlot with them, and yet you were not satisfied.

²⁹ Moreover, you multiplied your harlotry with the land of trade, with Chaldea, and yet even with this you were not satisfied.

³⁰ How weak and spent with longing and lust is your heart and mind, says the Lord God, seeing you do all these things, the work of a bold, domineering harlot,

³¹ In that you build your vaulted place (brothel) at the head of every street and make your high place at every crossing. But you were not like a harlot because you scorned pay.

³² Rather, you were as an adulterous wife who receives strangers instead of her husband!

³³ Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers and hire them, bribing [the nations to ally themselves with you], that they may come to you on every side for your harlotries (your idolatrous unfaithfulnesses to God).

³⁴ And you are different [the reverse] from other women in your harlotries, in that nobody follows you to lure you into harlotry and in that you give hire when no hire is given you; and so you are different.

³⁵ Therefore, O harlot [Israel], hear the word of the Lord!

³⁶ Thus says the Lord God: Because your brass [coins and gifts] and your filthiness were emptied out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers, and because of all the [filthy] idols of your abominations, and the blood of your children that you gave to them,

³⁷ Therefore behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those whom you have loved with all those whom you have hated; I will even gather them [the allies you have courted] against you on every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness [making you, Israel, an object of loathing and of mockery, a spectacle among the nations].

³⁸ And I the Lord will judge you as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged, and I will bring upon you the blood of [your divine Husband’s] wrath and jealousy.^(B)

³⁹ And I will also give you into the hand of those [your enemies], and they shall throw down your vaulted place (brothel) and shall demolish your high places [of idolatry]; they shall strip you of your clothes and shall take your splendid jewels and leave you naked and bare.

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

⁴¹ And they shall burn your houses with fire and execute judgments upon you before the eyes of many women spectators [the nations]. And I will cause you to cease playing the harlot, and you also shall give hire no more.

⁴² So will I make My wrath toward you to rest and My jealousy shall depart from you [My adulterous wife], and I will be quiet and will be no more angry.

⁴³ Because you have not [earnestly] remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me with all these things, therefore behold, I also will bring your deeds down on your own head, says the Lord God. Did you not commit this lewdness above and in addition to all your other abominations?

⁴⁴ Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you: As is the mother, so is her daughter.

⁴⁵ You are your [spiritual] mother’s daughter who loathed her husband and her children, and you are the sister of your sisters who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

⁴⁶ And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters who dwelt in the north and at your left hand; and your younger sister who dwelt in the south and at your right hand is Sodom and her daughters.

⁴⁷ Yet you were not satisfied to walk after their ways or to do after their abominations, but very soon you were more corrupt in all your ways than they were [for your sin, as those taught of God, is far blacker than theirs].^(C)

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

⁴⁹ Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, overabundance of food, prosperous ease, and idleness were hers and her daughters’; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

⁵⁰ And they were haughty and committed abominable offenses before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it and I saw fit.^(D)

⁵¹ Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins, but you have multiplied your [idolatrous] abominations more than they and have seemed to justify your sisters [Samaria and Sodom] in all their wickedness by all the abominable things which you have done—you even make them appear righteous in comparison with you.

⁵² Take upon you and bear your own shame and disgrace [in your punishment], you also who called in question and judged your sisters, for you have virtually absolved them by your sins in which you behaved more abominably than they; they are more right than you. Yes, be ashamed and confounded and bear your shame and disgrace, you also, for you have seemed to justify your sisters and make them appear righteous.

⁵³ I will restore them again from their captivity, restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in the midst of them [in the day of the Lord],^(E)

⁵⁴ That you [Judah], amid your shame and disgrace, may be compelled to recognize your wickedness and be thoroughly ashamed and confounded at all you have done, becoming [converted and bringing] consolation and comfort to [your sisters.]

⁵⁵ And your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; then you and your daughters shall return to your former estate.

⁵⁶ For was your sister Sodom not mentioned by you [except] as a byword in the day of your pride,

⁵⁷ Before your own wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become like her, an object of reproach and a byword for the daughters of Syria and of Edom and for all who are round about them and for the daughters of the Philistines—those round about who despise you.

⁵⁸ You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your [idolatrous] abominations, says the Lord.

⁵⁹ Yes, thus says the Lord God: I will even deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant;

⁶⁰ Nevertheless, I will [earnestly] remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant.^(F)

⁶¹ Then you will [earnestly] remember your ways and be ashamed and confounded when you shall receive your sisters, both your elder and your younger; I will give them to you as daughters, but not on account of your covenant [with Me].^(G)

⁶² And I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord,^(H)

⁶³ That you may [earnestly] remember and be ashamed and confounded and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done, says the Lord God.