Ezekiel 16 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

God’s Grace to Unfaithful Jerusalem

1Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2“Son of man, make Jerusalem understand her repulsive (idolatrous) acts

3and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem (all of Israel), “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

4And as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing, nor were you rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.

5No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out in the open field, for you were loathed on the day that you were born.

6“When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were there in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were there in your blood, ‘Live!’

7I made you (Israel) multiply like plants in the field, and you grew up and became tall and you reached the age for fine jewelry; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.

8“Then I passed by you and looked on you; behold, you were maturing and at the time for love, and I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord God, “and you became Mine.”

9“Then I washed you with water; yes, I washed away from you the blood and anointed you with oil.

10I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk.

11I adorned you with ornaments and I put bracelets on your wrists and a necklace around your neck.

12I also put a ring in your nostril and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

13Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil; so you were extremely beautiful and you advanced and prospered into royalty.

14Then your fame went out among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My majesty and splendor which I bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.

15“But you trusted in and relied on your beauty and prostituted yourself because of your fame, and you poured out your immoralities on every passer-by and your beauty was his.

16You took some of your clothes and made for yourself high places and shrines of various colors and prostituted yourself on them—things which should never have come about and taken place.

17You also took your beautiful jewels and beautiful vessels made of My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men so that you could prostitute yourself with them;

18and you took your embroidered clothing and covered them, and offered My oil and My incense before them.

19Also My bread which I gave you, fine flour and oil and honey with which I fed you, you even offered it before idols as a sweet and soothing aroma; so it happened,” says the Lord God.

20“Moreover, you took your sons and your daughters whom you had borne to Me, and you destroyed them as sacrifices. Were your gross immoralities so small a matter?

21You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols, forcing them to pass through the fire.

22And in all your repulsive acts and prostitutions (idolatrous immoralities) you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, squirming in your blood.

23“Then it came about after all your wickedness (‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord God),

24that you built yourself an altar for prostitution and made yourself a high place in every square.

25At the beginning of every street you built your high place and made your beauty repulsive; and you offered your body to every passer-by and multiplied your obscene immorality.

26You also prostituted yourself with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and you multiplied your obscene immorality to provoke Me to anger.

27Behold now, I have stretched out My hand against you, reduced your portion, and handed you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your infamous behavior.

28You prostituted yourself with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied; you prostituted yourself with them and still were not satisfied.

29Moreover, you increased your obscene immorality with the land of tradesmen, Chaldea (Babylonia), and yet even with this you were not satisfied.” ’ ”

30“How weakened by longing and lust is your heart (mind),” says the Lord God, “while you do all these things, the actions of a bold and brazen prostitute.

31When you built your shrine altar for prostitution at the beginning of every street and made your high place in every public square, you were not like a prostitute because you refused payment.

32You adulterous wife, who welcomes and receives strangers instead of her husband!

33Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you give your gifts to all your lovers, bribing the pagan nations to come to you from every direction for your obscene immoralities.

34And you are different from other women in your promiscuity, in that no one follows you to lure you into prostitution, and because you give money and no money is given you; in this way you are different.”

35Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord.

36Thus says the Lord God, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your obscene immoralities with your lovers (pagan allies), and with all your idols, and because of the blood of your sons that you gave to them,

37therefore, listen, I will gather all your lovers (pagan allies) with whom you took pleasure, and all those whom you loved with all those whom you hated; I will even gather them against you from every direction and will expose your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness.

38And I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

39I will also hand you over to your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your jewels, and they will leave you naked and bare.

40They will also incite a crowd against you and they will stone you and slaughter you with their swords.

41They will burn down your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women (Gentile nations). Then I will make you cease your prostitution, and you will no longer hire your lovers.

42So I will calm My wrath toward you and My jealousy will turn away from you; I will be pacified and no longer angry.

43Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me with all these things, therefore, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head,” says the Lord God, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other repulsive acts.

44“Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’

45You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children. You are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

46Now your older sister is Samaria, she with her daughters (outlying cities) who live north of you; and your younger sister is Sodom, she with her daughters who live south of you.

47Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or behaved in accordance with their pagan practices; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your ways than they.

48As I live,” says the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

49Behold, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters (outlying cities) had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.

50They were haughty and committed repulsive acts before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.

51Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, but you have greatly increased your repulsive acts more than they. So you have made your sisters appear righteous and justified by all the disgusting things which you have done.

52Also bear your disgrace, having made judgment favorable for your sisters, for because of your sins in which you behaved more repulsively than they; they are more in the right than you. Yes, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you made your sisters seem righteous.

53“Nevertheless, I will restore them from their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters (outlying cities), the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and along with them your own captivity,

54so that you will bear your humiliation and disgrace, and be ashamed for all that you have done to console and comfort them.

55Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state; and you and your daughters will return to your former state.

56For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by you in the day of your pride,

57before your wickedness was uncovered. Now you have become an object of reproach and a byword for the daughters of Aram and of Edom and all who are around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines—those surrounding you who despise you.

58You have borne your lewdness and your repulsive acts,” says the Lord.

59Yes, thus says the Lord God, “I will also deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

The Covenant Remembered

60“Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

61Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant.

62And I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord,

63so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth again because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,” says the Lord God.