Jerusalem's Unfaithfulness

1Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2Son of man, testify to Jerusalem of her iniquities; 3and thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord to Jerusalem; Thy root and thy birth are of the land of Chanaan: thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Chettite. 4And as for thy birth in the day wherein thou wast born, thou didst not bind thy breasts, and thou wast not washed in water, neither wast thou salted with salt, neither wast thou swathed in swaddling-bands. 5Nor did mine eye pity thee, to do for thee one of all these things, to feel at all for thee; but thou wast cast out on the face of the field, because of the deformity of thy person, in the day wherein thou wast born.

6And I passed by to thee, and saw thee polluted in thy blood; and I said to thee, Let there be life out of thy blood: 7increase; I have made thee as the springing grass of the field. So thou didst increase and grow, and didst enter into great cities: thy breasts were set, and thy hair grew, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

8And I passed by thee and saw thee, and, behold, it was thy time and a time of resting; and I spread my wings over thee, and covered thy shame, and swear to thee: and I entered into covenant with thee, saith the Lord, and thou becamest mine. 9And I washed thee in water, and washed thy blood from thee, and anointed thee with oil. 10And I clothed thee with embroidered garments, and clothed thee beneath with purple, and girded thee with fine linen, and clothed thee with silk, 11and decked thee also with ornaments, and put bracelets on thine hands, and a necklace on thy neck. 12And I put a pendant on thy nostril, and rings in thine ears, and a crown of glory on thine head. 13So thou wast adorned with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and variegated work: thou didst eat fine flour, and oil, and honey, and didst become extremely beautiful. 14And thy name went forth among the nations for thy beauty: because it was perfected with elegance, and in the comeliness which I put upon thee, saith the Lord.

15Thou didst trust in thy beauty, and didst go a-whoring because of thy renown, and didst pour out thy fornication on every passer by. 16And thou didst take of thy garments, and madest to thyself idols of needlework, and didst go a-whoring after them; therefore thou shalt never come in, nor shall the like take place. 17And thou tookest thy fair ornaments of my gold and of my silver, of what I gave thee, and thou madest to thyself male images, and thou didst commit whoredom with them. 18And thou didst take thy variegated apparel and didst clothe them, and thou didst set before them mine oil and mine incense. 19And thou tookest my bread which I gave thee, ( yea I fed thee with fine flour and oil and honey) and didst set them before them for a sweet-smelling savour: yea, it was so, saith the Lord. 20And thou tookest thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou borest, and didst sacrifice these to them to be destroyed. Thou didst go a-whoring as if that were little, 21and didst slay thy children, and gavest them up in offering them to them for an expiation. 22This is beyond all thy fornication, and thou didst not remember thine infancy, when thou wast naked and bare, and didst live though defiled in thy blood.

23And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, saith the Lord, 24that thou didst build thyself a house of fornication, and didst make thyself a public place in every street; 25and on the head of every way thou didst set up thy fornications, and didst defile thy beauty, and didst open thy feet to every passer by, and didst multiply thy fornication. 26And thou didst go a-whoring after the children of Egypt thy neighbors, great of flesh; and didst go a-whoring, often to provoke me to anger. 27And if I stretch out my hand against thee, then will I abolish thy statutes, and deliver thee up to the wills of them that hate thee, even to the daughters of the Philistines that turned thee aside from the way wherein thou sinned. 28And thou didst go a-whoring to the daughters of Assur, and not even thus wast thou satisfied; yea, thou didst go a-whoring, and wast not satisfied. 29And thou didst multiply thy covenants with the land of the Chaldeans; and not even with these wast thou satisfied.

30Why should I make a covenant with thy daughter, saith the Lord, while thou doest all these things, the works of a harlot? and thou hast gone a-whoring in a threefold degree with thy daughters. 31Thou hast built a house of harlotry in every top of a way, and hast set up thine high place in every street; and thou didst become as a harlot gathering hires. 32An adulteress resembles thee, taking rewards of her husband. 33She has even given rewards to all that went a-whoring after her, and thou hast given rewards to all thy lovers, yea, thou didst load them with rewards, that they should come to thee from every side for thy fornication. 34And there has happened in thee perverseness in thy fornication beyond other women, and they have committed fornication with thee, in that thou givest hires over and above, and hires were not given to thee; and thus perverseness happened in thee.

Judgment on Jerusalem

35Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the Lord: 36Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast poured forth thy money, therefore thy shame shall be discovered in thy harlotry with thy lovers, and with regard to all the imaginations of thine iniquities, and for the blood of thy children which thou hast given to them. 37Therefore, behold, I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast consorted, and all whom thou hast loved, with all whom thou didst hate; and I will gather them against thee round about, and will expose thy wickedness to them, and they shall see all thy shame. 38And I will be avenged on thee with the vengeance of an adulteress, and I will bring upon thee blood of fury and jealousy. 39And I will deliver thee into their hands, and they shall break down thy house of harlotry, and destroy thine high place; and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take thy proud ornaments, and leave thee naked and bare. 40And they shall bring multitudes upon thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and pierce thee with their swords. 41And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and shall execute vengeance on thee in the sight of many women: and I will turn thee back from harlotry, and I will no more give thee rewards. 42So will I slacken my fury against thee, and my jealousy shall be removed from thee, and I will rest, and be no more careful for thee. 43Because thou didst not remember thine infancy, and thou didst grieve me in all these things; therefore, behold, I have recompensed thy ways upon thine head, saith the Lord: for thus hast thou wrought ungodliness above all thine other iniquities.

44These are all the things they have spoken against thee in a proverb, saying, 45As is the mother, so is thy mother's daughter: thou art she that has rejected her husband and her children; and the sisters of thy sisters have rejected their husbands and their children: your mother was a Chettite, and your father an Amorite. 46Your elder sister who dwells on thy left hand is Samaria, she and her daughters: and thy younger sister, that dwells on the right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. 47Yet notwithstanding thou hast not walked in their ways, neither hast thou done according to their iniquities within a little, but thou hast exceeded them in all thy ways. 48As I live, saith the Lord, this Sodom and her daughters have not done as thou and thy daughters have done. 49Moreover this was the sin of thy sister Sodom, pride: she and her daughters lived in pleasure, in fullness of bread and in abundance: this belonged to her and her daughters, and they helped not the hand of the poor and needy. 50And they boasted, and wrought iniquities before me: so I cut them off as I saw fit. 51Also Samaria has not sinned according to half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine iniquities beyond them, and thou hast justified thy sisters in all thine iniquities which thou hast committed. 52Thou therefore bear thy punishment, for that thou hast corrupted thy sisters by thy sins which thou hast committed beyond them; and thou hast made them appear more righteous than thyself: thou therefore be ashamed, and bear thy dishonour, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.

53And I will turn their captivity, even the captivity of Sodom and her daughters; and I will turn the captivity of Samaria and her daughters; and I will turn thy captivity in the midst of them: 54that thou mayest bear thy punishment, and be dishonoured for all that thou hast done in provoking me to anger. 55And thy sister Sodom and her daughters shall be restored as they were at the beginning, and thou and thy daughters shall be restored as ye were at the beginning. 56And surely thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the days of thy pride: 57before thy wickedness was discovered, even now thou art the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all that are round about her, even of the daughters of the Philistines that compass thee round about. 58As for thine ungodliness and thine iniquities, thou hast borne them, saith the Lord.

The Covenant Remembered

59Thus saith the Lord; I will even do to thee as thou hast done, as thou hast dealt shamefully in these things to transgress my covenant.

60And I will remember my covenant made with thee in the days of thine infancy, and I will establish to thee an everlasting covenant. 61Then thou shalt remember thy way, and shalt be utterly dishonoured when thou receivest thine elder sisters with thy younger ones: and I will give them to thee for building up, but not by thy covenant. 62And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: 63that thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and mayest no more be able to open thy mouth for thy shame, when I am reconciled to thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord.