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Ezekiel 16

16 Yahweh gave me another message. He said, 2 “Mortal human, inform the citizens of Jerusalem of the disgusting and illicit things that they have done. 3 Tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Yahweh has to say to you citizens of Jerusalem: Imagine that this city and those who live in it were a woman. Her ancestry was Canaanite, from the regions where the Canaanites lived. Your father was ethnically Amorite, and your mother was ethnically Hittite. 4 Imagine your birth story: On the day your mother gave birth to you, no one cut your umbilical cord; no one bathed you to ritually cleanse you, and no one rubbed you with salt or swaddled you in cloths. 5 No one who saw you felt enough empathy for you to do any of those things for you or to spare you from your condition. Instead, on the day she gave birth to you, your mother despised you so much that she threw you out into an open field.

6 Then I came across you and witnessed you floundering in your own spilt blood. As you lay there, helpless in your blood, I said to you, ‘Live! Yes, live!’ 7 I caused you to flourish like a sprouting plant growing in a field. You grew tall and came to a marriageable age, wearing the finest jewelry. Your body matured, and your hair grew long. However, you were still completely naked.

8 Later, when I came across you, I looked at you again. I noticed that you were now old enough to marry. So I covered your naked body with the edge of my clothing to demonstrate that I would marry you and protect you. I made a solemn promise to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, and you became my wife. That is what I, the Sovereign Yahweh, declare.

9 Then I bathed you, washed the blood off you, and rubbed olive oil onto your skin. 10 Then I dressed you in colorful embroidered clothing and strapped leather sandals to your feet. I outfitted you in fine linen and clad you in silken cloth. 11 I adorned you with fine jewelry: I fastened bracelets on your wrists and a chain necklace around your neck. 12 I gave you a nose ring and earrings and placed a beautiful crown on your head. 13 So you wore gold and silver jewelry, and you dressed in the finest linen clothing, silken cloth, and colorful embroidery. Your food comprised the finest flour, honey, and olive oil. So, you became exceedingly beautiful, and you became a queen. 14 You gained a reputation for being so exceedingly beautiful that people in other nations heard about you. After all, the magnificent radiance that I, your husband, had given you made you perfectly beautiful. That is what I, the Sovereign Yahweh, declare.

15 Yet, your beauty made you self-assured. You used your international renown to act like a prostitute. You freely offered illicit sexual favors to every man you came across, and they enjoyed your beautiful body. 16 You used some of your beautiful clothing to make yourself gaudy, decorated shrines. On them, you behaved like a prostitute. Yes, you had illicit sex with men, and they enjoyed your beautiful body. 17 You also used the beautiful gold and silver jewelry that I had given you to fashion ritual statues with male anatomy, and you had illicit sexual relations with them. 18 You took your embroidered clothes and clothed your ritual statues with them, and you placed my oil and my incense as votive offerings in their presence. 19 You also took the food that I gave you— the fine flour, olive oil, and honey that I fed you—and you presented it in the presence of those ritual statues as pleasingly aromatic votive offerings. That is exactly what happened. That is what I, the Sovereign Yahweh, declare.

20 You even took your sons and your daughters, the children that you had borne to me, and you sacrificed them as food to those idols. Was your prostitution such a small matter to you, 21 that you also butchered my children and burned them alive as offerings to those ritual statues? 22 All the while, when you were committing these disgusting, heinous actions and prostituting yourself, you never once remembered your birth story, when you were completely naked, floundering in your own blood!

23 How terrible it will be for you! That is what I, the Sovereign Yahweh, declare! So, after you did all those heinous acts, 24 you constructed a domed building for yourself and erected lofty shrines in every public square. 25 At every street intersection, you constructed your lofty shrine. So you made your once-beautiful body abominable, offering yourself to every man you came across. So, more and more, you behaved like a prostitute. 26 Then you even had illicit sex with the Egyptians, your well-endowed neighbors, and so you acted more and more like a prostitute, never ceasing to anger and grieve me. 27 So I acted powerfully against you and reduced your apportioned rations. So I let the Philistine people do what they wanted with you. They despised you, and yet your obscene behavior embarrassed them! 28 You also had illicit sexual relations with the Assyrian people because you were insatiable. You behaved like a prostitute with them, and yet even then you could not satisfy your desires! 29 So, you behaved more and more like a prostitute, reaching all the way to the territories of the Babylonian Empire! Yet even that did not satisfy your desires!

30 How weak-willed you are! You love the wrong things! That is what I, the Sovereign Yahweh, declare. You did all these things, acting like an impudent prostitute who does whatever she wants. 31 When you constructed your domed brothel at every street intersection and erected your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like an ordinary prostitute, because you refused to accept payment.

32 You are an unfaithful wife, who prefers strangers to her own husband! 33 Prostitutes usually receive gifts from men, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers; you bribed them to come to you from all around to have illicit sexual relations with you! 34 So as you behaved like a prostitute, you were the opposite of other women. No man solicited you; instead, you paid them, and they did not pay you. In this way, you were the exact opposite of a normal prostitute!

35 So then, you prostitute, heed Yahweh’s message! 36 This is what the Sovereign Yahweh says: You lustfully offered yourself and exposed your naked body in your illicit sexual relations with your lovers. Furthermore, you crafted your disgusting and indecent ritual statues, and you offered those idols the blood of your own children! 37 Because of this, I am summoning all your lovers, the ones you found so attractive—everyone you loved, along with everyone you hated. I will assemble them against you from all around, and I will strip you naked in front of them so that they will see you completely naked. 38 I will execute against you the legal sentence reserved for women who commit adultery and women who murder. I will sentence you to an angry and impassioned, bloody death. 39 I will let your enemies dominate you: They will demolish your brothels and smash your lofty places. They will strip off your clothes and take your beautiful jewelry, and they will leave you completely naked. 40 They will bring a mob against you. Then, they will stone you to death and cut your body into pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down your houses and execute their judgments against you while many women watch. I will put an end to your prostituting behavior, and you will no longer pay your lovers. 42 Then I will vent my fury against you, and my jealous passion will leave you alone. I will calm myself down and cease being angry.

43 Because you did not remember your birth story, but instead you infuriated me with all these deeds, I hereby declare that I will hold you accountable for your behavior. That is what I, the Sovereign Yahweh, declare! You have added this obscene behavior to all your other disgusting and indecent practices!

44 Now, pay attention! Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘The daughter is just like her mother.’ 45 You are truly your mother’s daughter. She abhorred her husband and her children. You are also just like your sisters. They abhorred their husbands and their children. After all, your mother was ethnically Hittite, and your father was ethnically Amorite! 46 Now, your older sister is named Samaria. She resides with her daughters to the north of you, citizens of Jerusalem. Your younger sister is named Sodom. She resides with her daughters to the south of you. 47 You did not merely practice their lifestyles or do the disgusting things they did. Instead, in a surprisingly short while, in all your habits and practices, you became even more corrupt than they ever were! 48 I swear by myself that is what I, the Sovereign Yahweh, declare: Your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you, Jerusalem, and your daughters have done.

49 Take note! This is how corrupt your sister Sodom was: She and her daughters were arrogant; they had plenty of food and lived comfortably at ease, but they never helped those who were poor or needy. 50 They were arrogant and did disgusting and illicit things in my presence. So, when I saw what they were doing, I forcibly removed them from my presence. 51 As for Samaria, she did not commit even half the sins that you committed. You have done so many more disgusting and illicit things than either Samaria or Sodom did, so that your abominable acts have made your sisters appear righteous! 52 So now you must feel the emotional disgrace of having interceded for your sisters. Your sins, which were far more disgusting and illicit than theirs, have made your sisters appear more righteous than you! So you also must be ashamed and feel the disgrace of having made your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, appear righteous.

53 Nevertheless, I will restore the well-being of your sisters—that of Sodom and her daughters, and of Samaria and her daughters—and I will restore your well-bring along with theirs, 54 so that you will feel humiliated and ashamed of all that you did when your disgusting behavior consoled your sisters. 55 I will restore all of you—your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, Samaria and her daughters, and you and your daughters as well—to the kind of life you enjoyed before you suffered my punishments. 56 When you were arrogant, you would not even mention your sister Sodom. 57 But that was before I exposed your own corrupt and depraved behavior. Now, you are just like your sister Sodom! The people of Aram and all her neighbors, and the Philistines all around you, mock you and despise you! 58 You yourself have suffered the consequences of your obscene behavior and your disgusting, illicit practices. That is what I, Yahweh, declare.

59 So, this is what the Sovereign Yahweh says: When you abrogated the covenant you made with me, you showed no respect for your solemn promises. I will deal with you as these actions deserve. 60 Yet I myself will uphold and fulfill the solemn promise that I made with you when you were young. Yes, I will make a promise with you that will never end. 61 Then you will recall what you once did and feel humiliating shame when you reconcile with your sisters, both those older than you and those younger than you. I will present them to you as your daughters, but not because of my covenant with you. 62 So I myself will make my solemn promise with you. When this happens, you will finally understand exactly who I am and what I am like—I am Yahweh! 63 I will do this so that you will recognize all that you have done and feel ashamed. When I forgive you for all that you have done and restore our relationship, your disgrace will cause you to never again open your mouth to speak. This is what I, the Sovereign Yahweh, declare.’ ”

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