Dual Panel1This word of the LORD came to me:
2“O man, make Jerusalem see her abominable conduct.
3Tell her that these are the words of the Lord GOD to her: Canaan is the land of your ancestry and your birthplace; your father was an Amorite, your mother a Hittite.
4This is how you were treated when you were born: at birth your navel-string was not tied, you were not bathed in water and rubbed with oil; no salt was put on you, nor were you wrapped in swaddling clothes.
5No one cared enough for you to do any of these things, or felt enough compassion; you were thrown out on the bare ground in your own filth on the day you were born.
6I came by and saw you kicking helplessly as you lay in your blood; I decreed that you should continue to live in your blood.
7I tended you like an evergreen plant growing in the fields; you throve and grew. You came to full womanhood; your breasts became firm and your hair grew, but you were still quite naked and exposed.
8“I came by again and saw that you were ripe for love. I spread the skirt of my robe over you and covered your naked body. I plighted my troth and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord GOD, and you became mine.
9Then I bathed you with water to wash off the blood; I anointed you with oil.
10I gave you robes of brocade and sandals of dugong-hide; I fastened a linen girdle round you and dressed you in fine linen.
11I adorned you with jewellery: bracelets on your wrists, a chain round your neck,
12a ring in your nose, pendants in your ears, and a splendid crown on your head.
13You were adorned with gold and silver, and clothed with linen, fine linen and brocade. Fine flour and honey and olive oil were your food; you became a great beauty and rose to be a queen.
14Your beauty was famed throughout the world; it was perfect because of the splendour I bestowed on you. This is the word of the Lord GOD.
15“Relying on your beauty and exploiting your fame, you played the harlot and offered yourself freely to every passer-by.
16You used some of your clothes to deck shrines in gay colours and there you committed fornication.
17You took the splendid gold and silver jewellery that I had given you, and made for yourself male images with which you committed fornication.
18You covered them with your robes of brocade, and you offered up my oil and my incense to them.
19The food I had provided for you, the fine flour, the oil, and the honey, you set before them as an offering of soothing odour. This is the word of the Lord GOD.
20“The sons and daughters whom you had borne to me you took and sacrificed to these images as their food. Was this slaughtering of my children, this handing them over and surrendering them to your images, any less a sin than your fornication?
21(16:20)
22With all your abominable fornication you never recalled those early days when you lay quite naked, kicking helplessly in your blood.
23“Woe betide you! says the Lord GOD. After all the evil you had done
24you set up a couch for yourself and erected a shrine in every open place.
25You built your shrines at the top of every street and debased your beauty, offering your body to every passer-by in countless acts of harlotry.
26You committed fornication with your lustful neighbours, the Egyptians, and provoked me to anger by your repeated harlotry.
27“I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory. I gave you up to the will of your enemies, the Philistine women, who were disgusted by your lewd conduct.
28Still unsatisfied, you committed fornication with the Assyrians, and still were not satisfied.
29You committed many acts of fornication in Chaldaea, a land of traders, and even with this you were not satisfied.
30“How you anger me! says the Lord GOD. You have done all this like the headstrong harlot you are.
31You have set up your couches at the top of every street and erected your shrines in every open place, but, unlike the common prostitute, you have scorned a fee.
32You adulterous wife who receives strangers rather than her husband!
33All prostitutes receive presents; but you give presents to all your lovers, bribing them to come from far and wide to commit fornication with you.
34When you are so engaged you are the very opposite of those other women: no one runs after you, and you do not receive a fee; you give one!
35“Listen, you harlot, to the word of the LORD.
36The Lord GOD says: Because of your brazen excesses, exposing your naked body in fornication with your lovers, because of your abominable idols and the slaughter of the children you have offered to them,
37I shall assemble all those lovers whom you charmed, all whom you loved and all whom you turned against. I shall gather them in from all around against you; I shall strip you before them, and they will see you altogether naked.
38I shall bring you to trial for adultery and murder, and I shall give you over to blood spilt in fury and jealousy.
39When I hand you over to them, they will demolish your couch and pull down your shrine; they will strip off your clothes, take away your splendid jewellery, and leave you stark naked.
40They will bring up a mob to punish you; they will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords.
41They will burn down your houses and execute judgement on you in the sight of many women. I shall put a stop to your harlotry, and never again will you pay a fee to your lovers.
42Then I shall abate my fury, and my jealousy will turn away from you. I shall be calm and no longer be provoked to anger.
43You never called to mind the days of your youth, but enraged me with all your doings; I in turn brought retribution on you for your conduct. This is the word of the Lord GOD. “Did you not commit these obscenities, as well as all your other abominations?
44Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this one about you, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
45You are a true daughter of a mother who rejected her husband and children. You are a true sister of your sisters who rejected their husbands and children. You are daughters of a Hittite mother and an Amorite father.
46Your elder sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to the south.
47Did you not behave as they did and commit the same abominations? Indeed you surpassed them in depraved conduct.
48As I live, says the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never behaved as you and your daughters have done!
49This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had the pride that goes with food in plenty, comfort, and ease, yet she never helped the poor in their need.
50They grew haughty and committed what was abominable in my sight, and I swept them away, as you are aware.
51Nor did Samaria commit half the sins of which you have been guilty; you have committed more abominations than she. All the abominations you have committed have made your sister look innocent.
52It is you that must bear the humiliation, for your sins have pleaded your sisters” cause; your conduct is so much more abominable than theirs that they appear innocent in comparison. Now you must bear your shame and humiliation and make your sisters look innocent.
53“I shall restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters (and I shall restore yours at the same time).
54When you bring them comfort, you will bear your shame and be disgraced for all you have done.
55After your sister Sodom and her daughters become what they were of old, and when your sister Samaria and her daughters become what they were of old, then you and your daughters will be restored likewise.
56Did you not speak contemptuously of your sister Sodom in the days of your pride,
57before your wickedness was exposed? Even so now you are despised by the daughters of Aram and all those nations around them, and the daughters of Philistia round about who also despise you.
58You must bear the consequences of your lewd and abominable conduct. This is the word of the LORD.
59“The Lord GOD says: I shall treat you as you have deserved, because you violated an oath and made light of a covenant.
60But I shall call to mind the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I shall establish with you a covenant which will last for ever.
61You will remember your past conduct and feel ashamed when you receive your sisters, the elder and the younger. I shall give them to you as daughters, though they are not included in my covenant with you.
62Thus I shall establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
63You will remember, and will be so ashamed and humiliated that you will never open your mouth again, once I have pardoned you for all you have done. This is the word of the Lord GOD.”