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Jerusalem — an Unfaithful Wife
Then another message came to me from the LORD:
Then another message came to me from the LORD:
Jerusalem's Unfaithfulness
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
“Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable sins.
Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
Give her this message from the Sovereign LORD: You are nothing but a Canaanite! Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto Jerusalem: Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of the Canaanite: thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite.
On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth.
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water for cleansing; thou wast not rubbed with salt at all, nor swaddled at all.
No one had the slightest interest in you; no one pitied you or cared for you. On the day you were born, you were unwanted, dumped in a field and left to die.
No eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, from abhorrence of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.
“But I came by and saw you there, helplessly kicking about in your own blood. As you lay there, I said, ‘Live!’
And I passed by thee, and saw thee weltering in thy blood, and I said unto thee, in thy blood, Live! yea, I said unto thee, in thy blood, Live!
And I helped you to thrive like a plant in the field. You grew up and became a beautiful jewel. Your breasts became full, and your body hair grew, but you were still naked.
I caused thee to multiply, as the bud of the field; and thou didst increase and grow great, and thou camest to fulness of beauty; [thy] breasts were fashioned, and thy hair grew: but thou wast naked and bare.
And when I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love. So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows. I made a covenant with you, says the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.
And I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, and behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness; and I swore unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord Jehovah, and thou becamest mine.
“Then I bathed you and washed off your blood, and I rubbed fragrant oils into your skin.
And I washed thee with water, and thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil;
I gave you expensive clothing of fine linen and silk, beautifully embroidered, and sandals made of fine goatskin leather.
and I clothed thee with embroidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I bound thee about with byssus, and covered thee with silk.
I gave you lovely jewelry, bracelets, beautiful necklaces,
And I decked thee with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck;
a ring for your nose, earrings for your ears, and a lovely crown for your head.
and I put a ring on thy nose, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.
And so you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothes were made of fine linen and costly fabric and were beautifully embroidered. You ate the finest foods — choice flour, honey, and olive oil — and became more beautiful than ever. You looked like a queen, and so you were!
Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was byssus, and silk, and embroidered work. Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil; and thou becamest exceedingly beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
Your fame soon spread throughout the world because of your beauty. I dressed you in my splendor and perfected your beauty, says the Sovereign LORD.
And thy fame went forth among the nations for thy beauty; for it was perfect through my magnificence, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord Jehovah.
“But you thought your fame and beauty were your own. So you gave yourself as a prostitute to every man who came along. Your beauty was theirs for the asking.
But thou didst confide in thy beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy whoredoms on every one that passed by: his it was.
You used the lovely things I gave you to make shrines for idols, where you played the prostitute. Unbelievable! How could such a thing ever happen?
And of thy garments thou didst take, and madest for thyself high places decked with divers colours, and didst play the harlot thereupon: [the like] hath not come to pass, and shall be no more.
You took the very jewels and gold and silver ornaments I had given you and made statues of men and worshiped them. This is adultery against me!
And thou didst take thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of males, and didst commit fornication with them.
You used the beautifully embroidered clothes I gave you to dress your idols. Then you used my special oil and my incense to worship them.
And thou tookest thine embroidered garments, and coveredst them; and thou didst set mine oil and mine incense before them.
Imagine it! You set before them as a sacrifice the choice flour, olive oil, and honey I had given you, says the Sovereign LORD.
And my bread which I had given thee, the fine flour and the oil and the honey wherewith I fed thee, thou didst even set it before them for a sweet savour: thus it was, saith the Lord Jehovah.
“Then you took your sons and daughters — the children you had borne to me — and sacrificed them to your gods. Was your prostitution not enough?
And thou didst take thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hadst borne unto me, and these didst thou sacrifice unto them, to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter,
Must you also slaughter my children by sacrificing them to idols?
that thou didst slay my children and give them up in passing them over to them?
In all your years of adultery and detestable sin, you have not once remembered the days long ago when you lay naked in a field, kicking about in your own blood.
And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, when thou wast weltering in thy blood.
“What sorrow awaits you, says the Sovereign LORD. In addition to all your other wickedness,
And it came to pass after all thy wickedness (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord Jehovah),
you built a pagan shrine and put altars to idols in every town square.
that thou didst also build unto thee a place of debauchery, and didst make thee a high place in every street:
On every street corner you defiled your beauty, offering your body to every passerby in an endless stream of prostitution.
thou didst build thy high place at every head of the way, and madest thy beauty to be abhorred, and thou didst open thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiply thy whoredom.
Then you added lustful Egypt to your lovers, provoking my anger with your increasing promiscuity.
And thou didst commit fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and didst multiply thy whoredom to provoke me to anger.
That is why I struck you with my fist and reduced your boundaries. I handed you over to your enemies, the Philistines, and even they were shocked by your lewd conduct.
And behold, I stretched out my hand over thee, and diminished thine appointed portion; and I gave thee over unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, who were confounded at thy lewd way.
You have prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, too. It seems you can never find enough new lovers! And after your prostitution there, you still were not satisfied.
And thou didst commit fornication with the Assyrians, because thou wast insatiable; yea, thou didst commit fornication with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
And thou didst multiply thy whoredom with the land of merchants, Chaldea, and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
“What a sick heart you have, says the Sovereign LORD, to do such things as these, acting like a shameless prostitute.
How weak is thy heart, saith the Lord Jehovah, seeing thou doest all these [things], the work of a whorish woman, under no restraint;
You build your pagan shrines on every street corner and your altars to idols in every square. In fact, you have been worse than a prostitute, so eager for sin that you have not even demanded payment.
in that thou buildest thy place of debauchery at the head of every way, and makest thy high place in every street! And thou hast not been as a harlot, in that thou scornest reward,
Yes, you are an adulterous wife who takes in strangers instead of her own husband.
O adulterous wife, that taketh strangers instead of her husband.
Prostitutes charge for their services — but not you! You give gifts to your lovers, bribing them to come and have sex with you.
They give rewards to all harlots; but thou gavest thy rewards to all thy lovers, and rewardedst them, that they might come unto thee on every side for thy whoredoms.
So you are the opposite of other prostitutes. You pay your lovers instead of their paying you!
And in thee is the contrary from [other] women, in thy whoredoms, in that none followeth thee to commit fornication; and whereas thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, so art thou contrary.
Judgment on Jerusalem’s Prostitution
“Therefore, you prostitute, listen to this message from the LORD!
Judgment on Jerusalem
Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah.
Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Jehovah.
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thy money hath been poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy fornications with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thine abominations, and because of the blood of thy children which thou didst give unto them;
this is what I am going to do. I will gather together all your allies — the lovers with whom you have sinned, both those you loved and those you hated — and I will strip you naked in front of them so they can stare at you.
therefore, behold, I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all that thou hast loved, with all that thou hast hated, -- I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.
I will punish you for your murder and adultery. I will cover you with blood in my jealous fury.
And I will judge thee with the judgments of women that commit adultery and shed blood; and I will give thee up to the blood of fury and jealousy;
Then I will give you to these many nations who are your lovers, and they will destroy you. They will knock down your pagan shrines and the altars to your idols. They will strip you and take your beautiful jewels, leaving you stark naked.
and I will give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thy place of debauchery, and shall break down thy high places; and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.
They will band together in a mob to stone you and cut you up with swords.
And they shall bring up an assemblage against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.
They will burn your homes and punish you in front of many women. I will stop your prostitution and end your payments to your many lovers.
And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women; and I will cause thee to cease from being a harlot, and thou also shalt give no more any reward.
“Then at last my fury against you will be spent, and my jealous anger will subside. I will be calm and will not be angry with you anymore.
And I will appease my fury against thee, and my jealousy shall depart from thee; and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.
But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by doing all these evil things, I will fully repay you for all of your sins, says the Sovereign LORD. For you have added lewd acts to all your detestable sins.
Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast raged against me in all these [things], behold, therefore, I also will recompense thy way upon [thy] head, saith the Lord Jehovah, and thou shalt not commit this lewdness besides all thine abominations.
Everyone who makes up proverbs will say of you, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall speak in a proverb against thee, saying, As the mother, [so is] her daughter!
For your mother loathed her husband and her children, and so do you. And you are exactly like your sisters, for they despised their husbands and their children. Truly your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
Thou art the daughter of thy mother that loathed her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
“Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters in the north. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters in the south.
And thine elder sister is Samaria that dwelleth at thy left hand, she and her daughters; and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
But you have not merely sinned as they did. You quickly surpassed them in corruption.
And thou hast not walked in their ways, nor done according to their abominations; but as though that were a very little, thou hast been more corrupt than they in all thy ways.
As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters.
[As] I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters!
Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and careless ease was in her and in her daughters, but she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me, and I took them away when I saw [it].
“Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more detestable things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you.
And Samaria hath not sinned according to the half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters by all thine abominations which thou hast done.
Shame on you! Your sins are so terrible that you make your sisters seem righteous, even virtuous.
Thou also, who hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own confusion, because of thy sins in which thou hast acted more abominably than they: they are more righteous than thou. So be thou ashamed also, and bear thy confusion, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.
“But someday I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria, and I will restore you, too.
And I will bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them;
Then you will be truly ashamed of everything you have done, for your sins make them feel good in comparison.
that thou mayest bear thy confusion, and mayest be confounded for all that thou hast done, in that thou comfortest them.
Yes, your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, and all their people will be restored, and at that time you also will be restored.
And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; thou also and thy daughters, ye shall return to your former estate.
In your proud days you held Sodom in contempt.
Yea, Sodom thy sister was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,
before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise thee on every side.
This is your punishment for all your lewdness and detestable sins, says the LORD.
Thy lewdness and thine abominations, thou bearest them, saith Jehovah.
“Now this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will give you what you deserve, for you have taken your solemn vows lightly by breaking your covenant.
The Covenant Remembered
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the oath, and broken the covenant.
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, who hast despised the oath, and broken the covenant.
Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Then you will remember with shame all the evil you have done. I will make your sisters, Samaria and Sodom, to be your daughters, even though they are not part of our covenant.
And thou shalt remember thy ways, and be confounded, when thou shalt receive thy sisters who are older than thou, together with those who are younger than thou; for I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by virtue of thy covenant.
And I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I [am] Jehovah;
You will remember your sins and cover your mouth in silent shame when I forgive you of all that you have done. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!”
that thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and no more open thy mouth because of thy confusion, when I forgive thee all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah.