Ezekiel 16
An Abandoned Child Washed, Clothed, and Married
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Jerusalem’s Root and Birth
16:1The Lord’s word came to me, saying,
16:2“Son of man, solemnly testify to Jerusalem about her lawlessness,
16:3and say, ‘Thus says the Lord to Jerusalem: Your root and your birth are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
16:4As for your birth, on the day you were born they did not bind your breasts; you were not washed with water, not salted with salt, and not wrapped in swaddling cloths.
16:5Nor did My eye spare you to do any of all these things for you, to feel anything for you. You were cast upon the face of the plain because of your life’s crookedness, on the day you were born.
16:6I passed by you and saw you befouled in your blood, and said to you, ‘From your blood, life!
16:7Multiply!’ I have made you like the growth of the field. You multiplied, grew great and entered cities of cities. Your breasts stood firm and your hair grew, but you were naked and exposed.
I Passed Through You and Covered You
16:8I passed through you and saw you; behold, your season was the season of those lodging. I spread My wings over you and covered your exposure. I swore to you and entered a covenant with you, says the Lord, and you became Mine.
16:9I washed you with water, washed your blood off you, and anointed you with oil,
16:10and clothed you in patterned garments, shod you in blue-purple, girded you with fine linen, and wrapped you in hair-woven cloth,
16:11and adorned you with ornaments, placed bracelets around your hands and a necklace around your neck,
16:12and put a ring around your nostril, little hoops upon your ears and a crown of boasting upon your head.
16:13You were adorned with gold and silver; your coverings were fine linen, hair-woven and patterned. You ate fine flour, oil and honey, and became very beautiful.
16:14Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was made complete in comeliness, in the loveliness I placed upon you, says the Lord.
Jerusalem’s Prostitution with the Lord’s Gifts
16:15You trusted in your beauty and prostituted yourself because of your fame. You poured out your prostitution upon every passerby—which shall not be.
16:16You took some of your garments, made sewn idols for yourself and prostituted yourself upon them. You certainly shall not enter, nor shall it come to be.
16:17You took your vessels of boasting from My gold and My silver, from what I had given you, made male images for yourself and prostituted yourself among them.
16:18You took your patterned clothing and clothed them; you set My oil and My incense before them.
16:19My breads that I gave you—fine flour, oil and honey with which I fed you—you set before them as a fragrant aroma. So it happened, says the Lord.
You Gave Your Children Over
16:20You took your sons and daughters whom you had borne and sacrificed them to them for consumption, as though you had prostituted yourself only a little,
16:21and slaughtered your children and gave them over as you used them for averting rites.
16:22This was in addition to all your prostitution, and you did not remember the days of your infancy, when you were naked and exposed and lived befouled in your blood.
The Brothels at Every Road
16:23After all your evils, says the Lord,
16:24you built yourself a prostitution chamber and made yourself a display place in every broad street,
16:25and at the head of every road you built your brothels, ruined your beauty, spread your legs to every passerby, and multiplied your prostitution.
16:26You prostituted yourself with the sons of Egypt, your neighbors great in flesh, and prostituted yourself in many ways to anger Me.
16:27But if I stretch My hand against you, I will remove your ordinances and hand you over to the desires of those who hate you, daughters of foreigners who turn you aside from your way in which you acted impiously.
16:28You prostituted yourself with the daughters of Assyria, and not even so were you filled; you prostituted yourself, and were not filled.
16:29You multiplied your covenants toward the Chaldeans’ land, and not even with these were you filled.
16:30What shall I do to your daughter, says the Lord, when you do all these things, the works of a prostitute? And you prostituted yourself threefold
16:31among your daughters. You built your brothel at every road head and made your platform in every broad street, and became like a prostitute gathering payments.
16:32The adulterous wife is like you, receiving payments from her husband;
16:33she kept giving payments to all who prostituted her. You too gave payments to all your lovers and loaded them up to come to you from all around in your prostitution.
16:34With you it became distorted compared with other women in your prostitution. They have prostituted themselves with you as you paid extra payments, and no payments were given to you; with you things became distorted.
The Judgment of the Prostitute
16:35Therefore, prostitute, hear the Lord’s word!
16:36Thus says the Lord: Because you poured out your copper, your shame will be exposed in your prostitution with your lovers, in all the reflections of your lawlessness, and in the blood of your children whom you gave to them.
16:37Therefore behold, I am gathering against you all your lovers with whom you mingled, all whom you loved together with all whom you hated. I will gather them against you from all around, reveal your evils to them, and they will see all your shame.
16:38I will exact retribution upon you with the retribution of an adulteress and a woman shedding blood, and place you in blood of wrath and jealousy.
16:39I will hand you into their hands. They will tear down your brothel, pull down your platform, strip your clothing from you, take your vessels of boasting, and leave you naked and exposed.
16:40They will bring crowds against you, stone you with stones, and slaughter you with their swords.
16:41They will burn your houses with fire and exact retributions upon you before many women. I will turn you away from your prostitution, and you certainly will give no more payments.
16:42I will release My wrath upon you; My jealousy will be removed from you. I will rest and certainly be concerned no longer.
16:43Because you did not remember the day of your infancy but grieved Me with all these things, behold, I have brought your ways upon your head, says the Lord. Thus you committed impiety in addition to all your lawlessness.
Like Mother, Like Daughter
16:44These are all the things they said against you in a proverb, saying, ‘As the mother, so the daughter.’
16:45You are the daughter of your mother, who rejected her husband and her children, and the sister of your sisters, who rejected their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
Your Sisters Samaria and Sodom
16:46Your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, dwelling at your left; your sister younger than you, dwelling at your right, is Sodom and her daughters.
16:47Not even so did you walk in their ways or act according to their lawlessness. Before long, you surpassed them in all your ways.
16:48As I live, says the Lord, your sister Sodom, she and her daughters, certainly did not do as you and your daughters have done.
16:49Yet this was the lawlessness of your sister Sodom: arrogance. In fullness of bread and abundance of wine she and her daughters lived luxuriously. This belonged to her and her daughters, but they did not support the hand of the poor and needy.
16:50They boasted greatly and committed acts of lawlessness before Me, and I removed them as I saw.
16:51Samaria did not sin half your sins. You multiplied your lawlessness beyond theirs and justified your sisters by all the lawlessness you committed.
16:52You too, receive your torment, in which you corrupted your sisters by your sins, in which you acted more lawlessly than they and justified them above yourself. You too, be ashamed and take your dishonor, in that you justified your sisters.
Sodom, Samaria, and Jerusalem Restored
16:53I will reverse their reversals—the reversal of Sodom and her daughters; I will reverse the reversal of Samaria and her daughters; and I will reverse your reversal among them,
16:54so that you may receive your torment and be dishonored for all you did in provoking Me.
16:55Your sister Sodom and her daughters will be restored as they were from the beginning; Samaria and her daughters will be restored as they were from the beginning; and you and your daughters will be restored as you were from the beginning.
16:56And if your sister Sodom was not a report in your mouth in the days of your arrogance,
16:57before your evils were revealed—as now you are a reproach of Syria’s daughters and all around her, daughters of foreigners who surround you all around?
16:58Your impieties and your lawlessness—you have borne them, says the Lord.
I Will Remember My Covenant
16:59Thus says the Lord: I will deal with you as you have done, as you dishonored these things by transgressing My covenant.
16:60I Myself will remember My covenant with you in the days of your infancy and raise up for you an eternal covenant.
16:61You will remember your way and be dishonored when you take up your sisters, those older than you together with those younger than you. I will give them to you for building up, and not from your covenant.
16:62I Myself will raise up My covenant with you, and you will recognize that I am the Lord,
16:63so that you may remember and be ashamed, and no longer have occasion to open your mouth because of your dishonor, when I am propitious to you concerning all that you have done, says the Lord.’”
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.