² “Son of man, ^(A)cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, ³ and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: “Your ^[a]birth ^(B)and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; ^(C)your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴ As for your nativity, ^(D)on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. ⁵ No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were ^[b]loathed on the day you were born.

⁶ “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ ^7 (E)I made you ^[c]thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

⁸ “When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; ^(F)so I spread ^[d]My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I ^(G)swore an oath to you and entered into a ^(H)covenant with you, and ^(I)you became Mine,” says the Lord God.

⁹ “Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of ^[e]badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I adorned you with ornaments, ^(J)put bracelets on your wrists, ^(K)and a chain on your neck. ¹² And I put a ^[f]jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. ^(L)You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly ^(M)beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. ^14 (N)Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.

Jerusalem’s Harlotry

^15 (O)“But you trusted in your own beauty, ^(P)played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. ^16 (Q)You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored ^[g]high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be. ¹⁷ You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them. ¹⁸ You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them. ¹⁹ Also ^(R)My food which I gave you—the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you—you set it before them as ^[h]sweet incense; and so it was,” says the Lord God.

^20 (S)“Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, ²¹ that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the ^(T)fire? ²² And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your ^(U)youth, ^(V)when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.

²³ “Then it was so, after all your wickedness—‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord God— ²⁴ that ^(W)you also built for yourself a shrine, and ^(X)made a ^[i]high place for yourself in every street. ²⁵ You built your high places ^(Y)at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry. ²⁶ You also committed harlotry with ^(Z)the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to ^(AA)provoke Me to anger.

²⁷ “Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your ^[j]allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, ^(AB)the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. ²⁸ You also played the harlot with the ^(AC)Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. ²⁹ Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, ^(AD)Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.

³⁰ “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord God, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

Jerusalem’s Adultery

^31 (AE)“You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your ^[k]high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned ^(AF)payment. ³² You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. ³³ Men make payment to all harlots, but ^(AG)you made your payments to all your lovers, and ^[l]hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. ³⁴ You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”

Jerusalem’s Lovers Will Abuse Her

³⁵ ‘Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord! ³⁶ Thus says the Lord God: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of ^(AH)the blood of your children which you gave to them, ³⁷ surely, therefore, ^(AI)I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. ³⁸ And I will judge you as ^(AJ)women who break wedlock or ^(AK)shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy. ³⁹ I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down ^(AL)your ^[m]high places. ^(AM)They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

^40 (AN)“They shall also bring up an assembly against you, ^(AO)and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. ⁴¹ They shall ^(AP)burn your houses with fire, and ^(AQ)execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you ^(AR)cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers. ⁴² So ^(AS)I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more. ⁴³ Because ^(AT)you did not remember the days of your youth, but ^[n]agitated Me with all these things, surely ^(AU)I will also recompense your ^[o]deeds on your own head,” says the Lord God. “And you shall not commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations.

More Wicked than Samaria and Sodom

⁴⁴ “Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter!’ ⁴⁵ You are your mother’s daughter, ^[p]loathing husband and children; and you are the ^(AV)sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children; ^(AW)your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

⁴⁶ “Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and ^(AX)your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is Sodom and her daughters. ⁴⁷ You did not walk in their ways nor act according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, ^(AY)you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.

⁴⁸ “As I live,” says the Lord God, “neither ^(AZ)your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹ Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, ^(BA)fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ And they were haughty and ^(BB)committed abomination before Me; therefore ^(BC)I took them away as ^[q]I saw fit.

The Older Sister, Samaria

The Younger Sister, Jerusalem

¹¹ “Now ^(I)although her sister Oholibah saw this, ^(J)she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotry more corrupt than her sister’s harlotry.

Judgment on Jerusalem

²² “Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: