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The Degenerate City

21 How the faithful city
    has become a prostitute!
    She that was full of justice,
righteousness lodged in her—
    but now murderers!(A)

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and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is prophetically[a] called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 11.8 Or allegorically; Gk spiritually

but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months.(A)

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22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,(A)

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52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.(A)

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34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!(A)

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Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts shall be called the holy mountain.(A)

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The Wickedness of Jerusalem

Woe, soiled, defiled,
    oppressing city!(A)
It has listened to no voice;
    it has accepted no correction.
It has not trusted in the Lord;
    it has not drawn near to its God.(B)

The officials within it
    are roaring lions;
its judges are evening wolves
    that leave nothing until the morning.(C)

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    you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people[a]
    and the flesh off their bones,(A)
who eat the flesh of my people,
    flay their skin off them,
break their bones in pieces,
    and chop them up like meat[b] in a kettle,
    like flesh in a caldron.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 3.2 Heb from them
  2. 3.3 Gk: Heb as

12 [a]Ephraim has surrounded me with lies
    and the house of Israel with deceit,
but Judah still walks[b] with God
    and is faithful to the Holy One.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 11.12 12.1 in Heb
  2. 11.12 Heb roams or rules

The Bloody City

22 The word of the Lord came to me: You, mortal, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to it all its abominable deeds.(A) You shall say: Thus says the Lord God: A city! Shedding blood within itself; its time has come; making its idols, defiling itself. You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed and defiled by the idols that you have made; you have brought your days near; the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a disgrace before the nations and a mockery to all the countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

The princes of Israel in you, everyone according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood.(B) Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you.(C) You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.(D) In you are those who slander to shed blood, those in you who eat upon the mountains, who commit lewdness in your midst.(E) 10 In you they uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women during their menstrual periods.(F) 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you defiles his sister, his father’s daughter.(G) 12 In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest and make gain of your neighbors by extortion, and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God.(H)

13 See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made and at the blood that has been shed within you. 14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands remain strong in the days when I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.(I) 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your filthiness out of you.(J) 16 And you shall be profaned within yourself in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

17 The word of the Lord came to me: 18 Mortal, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them, silver,[a] bronze, tin, iron, and lead. In the smelter they have become dross.(K) 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As one gathers silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into a smelter, to blow the fire upon them in order to melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. 21 I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted within it. 22 As silver is melted in a smelter, so you shall be melted in it, and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath upon you.(L)

23 The word of the Lord came to me:

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Footnotes

  1. 22.18 Transposed from the end of the verse

God’s Faithless Bride

16 The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, make known to Jerusalem her abominations(A) and say: Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.(B) 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, nor wrapped in cloths.(C) No eye pitied you to do any of these things for you out of compassion for you, but you were thrown out in the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.(D)

I passed by you and saw you flailing about in your blood. As you lay in your blood, I said to you, “Live!(E) and grow up[a] like a plant of the field.” You grew up and became tall and arrived at full womanhood;[b] your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.(F)

I passed by you again and looked on you; you were at the age for love. I spread the edge of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness: I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine.(G) Then I bathed you with water and washed off the blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you with embroidered cloth and with sandals of fine leather; I bound you in fine linen and covered you with rich fabric.[c] 11 I adorned you with ornaments: I put bracelets on your arms, a chain on your neck,(H) 12 a ring on your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. 13 You were adorned with gold and silver, while your clothing was of fine linen, rich fabric,[d] and embroidered cloth. You had choice flour and honey and oil for food. You grew exceedingly beautiful, fit to be a queen.(I) 14 Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of my splendor that I had bestowed on you, says the Lord God.

15 But you trusted in your beauty and prostituted yourself because of your fame and lavished your prostitutions on any passer-by.[e](J) 16 You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful high places and on them prostituted yourself; nothing like this has ever been or ever shall be.[f](K) 17 You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and my silver that I had given you and made for yourself male images and with them prostituted yourself,(L) 18 and you took your embroidered garments to cover them and set my oil and my incense before them. 19 Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with choice flour and oil and honey—you set it before them as a pleasing odor, and so it was, says the Lord God. 20 You took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. As if your prostitutions were not enough!(M) 21 You slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering to them.(N) 22 And in all your abominations and your prostitutions you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, flailing about in your blood.(O)

23 After all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! says the Lord God), 24 you built yourself a platform and made yourself a lofty place in every square;(P) 25 at the head of every street you built your lofty place and prostituted your beauty, offering yourself[g] to every passer-by and multiplying your prostitution.(Q) 26 You prostituted yourself with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors,[h] multiplying your prostitution, to provoke me to anger.(R) 27 Therefore I stretched out my hand against you, reduced your rations, and gave you up to the will of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior.(S) 28 You prostituted yourself with the Assyrians because you were insatiable; you prostituted yourself with them, and still you were not satisfied.(T) 29 You multiplied your prostitution with Chaldea, the land of merchants, and even with this you were not satisfied.(U)

30 How sick is your heart,[i] says the Lord God, that you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, 31 building your platform at the head of every street and making your lofty place in every square! Yet you were not like a prostitute because you scorned payment. 32 Adulterous wife who receives strangers instead of her husband! 33 Gifts are given to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from all around for your prostitutions.(V) 34 So you were different from other women in your prostitutions: no one solicited you to prostitute yourself, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; 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 prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them,(W) 37 therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated; I will gather them against you from all around and will uncover your nakedness to them so that they may see all your nakedness.(X) 38 I will judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged and bring blood upon you in wrath and jealousy.(Y) 39 I will deliver you into their hands, and they shall throw down your platform and break down your lofty places; they shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful objects and leave you naked and bare.(Z) 40 They shall bring up a mob against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.(AA) 41 They shall burn your houses and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; I will stop you from prostituting yourself, and you shall also make no more payments.(AB) 42 So I will satisfy my fury on you, and my jealousy shall turn away from you; I will be calm and will be angry no longer. 43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged me with all these things, therefore I have returned your deeds upon your head, says the Lord God.

Have you not committed lewdness beyond all your abominations?(AC) 44 See, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you, “Like mother, like daughter.”(AD) 45 You are the daughter of your mother, 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 Your big sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; your little sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters.(AE) 47 You not only followed their ways and acted according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.(AF) 48 As I live, says the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.(AG) 49 This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy.(AH) 50 They were haughty and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.(AI) 51 Samaria has not committed half your sins; you have committed more abominations than they and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed.(AJ) 52 Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have brought about for your sisters a more favorable judgment; 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 I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes along with theirs,(AK) 54 in order that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them.(AL) 55 As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state; Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, and you and your daughters shall return to your former state. 56 Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you are a mockery to the daughters of Edom[j] and all her neighbors and to the daughters of the Philistines, those all around who despise you.(AM) 58 You must bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, says the Lord.(AN)

An Everlasting Covenant

59 Yes, thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath, breaking the covenant,(AO) 60 yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant.(AP) 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of my[k] covenant with you.(AQ) 62 I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord,(AR) 63 in order that you may remember and be confounded and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I forgive you all that you have done, says the Lord God.(AS)

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Footnotes

  1. 16.7 Gk Syr: Heb Live! I made you a myriad
  2. 16.7 Cn: Heb ornament of ornaments
  3. 16.10 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  4. 16.13 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  5. 16.15 Heb adds Let it be his
  6. 16.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  7. 16.25 Heb spreading your legs
  8. 16.26 Heb large-membered neighbors
  9. 16.30 Or How furious I am with you
  10. 16.57 Heb mss Syr: MT Aram
  11. 16.61 Heb lacks my

Jerusalem sinned grievously,
    so she has become a filthy thing;
all who honored her despise her,
    for they have seen her nakedness;
she herself groans
    and turns her face away.(A)

Her uncleanness was in her skirts;
    she took no thought of her future;
her downfall was appalling,
    with none to comfort her.
Look, O Lord, at my affliction,
    for the enemy has triumphed!(B)

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Unfaithful Israel

If[a] a man divorces his wife
    and she goes from him
and becomes another man’s wife,
    will he return to her?
Would not such a land be greatly polluted?
You have prostituted yourself with many lovers,
    and would you return to me?
            says the Lord.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 3.1 Gk Syr: Heb Saying, If

20 For long ago you broke your yoke
    and burst your bonds,
    and you said, “I will not serve!”
On every high hill
    and under every green tree
    you sprawled and prostituted yourself.(A)
21 Yet I planted you as a choice vine
    from the purest stock.
How then did you turn degenerate
    and become a wild vine?(B)

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But as for you, come here,
    you children of a sorceress,
    you offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute.[a](A)
Whom are you mocking?
    Against whom do you open your mouth wide
    and stick out your tongue?
Are you not children of transgression,
    the offspring of deceit—(B)
you who burn with lust among the oaks,
    under every green tree;
you who slaughter your children in the valleys,
    under the clefts of the rocks?(C)
Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion;
    it is they who are your lot;
to them you have poured out a drink offering;
    you have brought a grain offering.
    Should these acts cause me to relent?(D)
Upon a high and lofty mountain
    you have set your bed,
    and there you went up to offer sacrifice.(E)
Behind the door and the doorpost
    you have set up your symbol,
for in deserting me[b] you have uncovered your bed;
    you have gone up to it;
    you have made it wide;
and you have made a bargain for yourself with them;
    you have loved their bed;
    you have gazed on their nakedness.[c](F)
You journeyed to Molech[d] with oil
    and multiplied your perfumes;
you sent your envoys far away
    and sent them down to Sheol.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 57.3 Heb an adulterer and she prostitutes herself
  2. 57.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  3. 57.8 Or phallus; Heb hand
  4. 57.9 Or the king

For they call themselves after the holy city
    and lean on the God of Israel;
    the Lord of hosts is his name.(A)

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For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
    are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
    but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
    but heard a cry!(A)

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As we have heard, so have we seen
    in the city of the Lord of hosts,
in the city of our God,
    which God establishes forever. Selah

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Psalm 48

The Glory and Strength of Zion

A Song. A Psalm of the Korahites.

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
    in the city of our God.
His holy mountain,(A)

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There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.(A)

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Population of the City Increased

11 Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in the holy city Jerusalem, while nine-tenths remained in the other towns.(A)

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He charged them, “This is how you shall act: in the fear of the Lord, in faithfulness, and with your whole heart;(A)

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David’s Officers

15 So David reigned over all Israel, and David administered justice and equity to all his people.

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