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Chapter 16
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.
3 And you shall say: Thus said the Lord God to Jerusalem: your root, and your nativity is of the land of Chanaan, your father was an Amorrhite, and your mother a Cethite.
4 And when you were born, in the day of your nativity your navel wits not cut, neither were you washed with water for your health, nor salted with salt, nor swaddled with clouts.
5 No eye had pity on you to do any of these things for you, out of compassion to you: but you were cast out upon the face of the earth in the abjection of your soul, in the day that you were born.
6 And passing by you, I saw that you were trodden under foot in your own blood. and I said to you when you were in your blood: Live: I have said to you: Live in your blood.
7 I caused you to multiply as the bud of the field: and you did increase and grow great, and advanced, and came to woman's ornament: your breasts were fashioned, and your hair grew: and you were naked, and full of confusion.
8 And I passed by you, and saw you: and behold your time was the time of lovers: and I spread my garment over you, and covered your ignominy. And I swore to you, and I entered into a covenant with you, said the Lord God: and you became mine.
9 And I washed you with water, and cleansed away your blood from you: and I anointed you with oil.
10 And I clothed you with embroidery, and shed you with violet coloured shoes: and I girded you about with fine linen, and clothed you with fine garments.
11 I decked you also with ornaments, and put bracelets on your hands, and a chain about your neck.
12 And I put a jewel upon your forehead and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.
13 And you were adorned with gold, and silver, and were clothed with fine linen, and embroidered work, and many colours: you did eat fine hour, and honey, and oil, and were made exceeding beautiful: and were advanced to be a queen.
14 And your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty: for you were perfect through my beauty, which I had put upon you, said the Lord God.
15 But trusting in your beauty, you played the harlot because of your renown, and you have prostituted yourself to every passenger, to be his.
16 And taking of your garments you have made you high places sewed together on each side: and have played the harlot upon them, as has not been done before, nor shall be hereafter.
17 And you took your beautiful vessels, of my gold, and my silver, which I gave you, and you made you images of men, and have committed fornication with them.
18 And you took your garments of divers colours, and covered them: and set my oil and my sweet incense before them.
19 And my bread which I gave you, the fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed you, you have set before them for a sweet odour; and it was done, said the Lord God.
20 And you have taken your sons, and your daughters, whom you have borne to me: and best sacrificed the same to them to be devoured. Is your fornication small?
21 You have sacrificed and given my children to them, consecrating them by fire.
22 And after all your abominations, and fornications, you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked, and full of confusion, trodden under foot in your own blood.
23 And it came to pass after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you, said the Lord God)
24 That you did also build you a common stew, and made you a brothel house in every street.
25 At every head of the way you have set up a sign of your prostitution: and have made your beauty to be abominable: and have prostituted yourself to every one that passed by, and have multiplied your fornications.
26 And you have committed fornication with the Egyptians your neighbours, men of large bodies, and have multiplied your fornications to provoke me.
27 Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon you, and will take away your justification: and I will deliver you up to the will of the daughters of the Philistines that hate you, that are ashamed of your wicked way.
28 You have also committed fornication with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied: and after you had played the harlot with them, even so you were not contented.
29 You have also multiplied your fornications in the land of Chanaan with the Chaldeans: and neither so were then satisfied.
30 Wherein shall I cleanse your heart, said the Lord God: seeing you do all these the works of a shameless prostitute?
31 Because you have built your brothel house at the head of every way, and you have made your high place in every street: and were not as a harlot that by disdain enhances her price,
32 But as an adulteress, that brings in strangers over her husband.
33 Gifts are given to all harlots: but you have given hire to all your lovers, and you have given them gifts to come to you from every side, to commit fornication with you.
34 And it has happened in you contrary to the custom of women in your fornications, and after you there shall be no such fornication: for in that you gave rewards, and did not take rewards, the contrary has been done in you.
35 Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord.
36 Thus said the Lord God: Because your money has been poured out, and your shame discovered through your fornications with your lovers, and with the idols of your abominations, by the blood of your children whom you gave them:
37 Behold, I will gather together all your lovers with whom you have taken pleasure, and all whom you have loved, with all whom you have hated: and I will gather them together against you on every side, and will discover your shame in their sight, and they shall see all your nakedness.
38 And I will judge you as adulteresses, and they that shed blood are judged: and I will give you blood in fury and jealousy.
39 And I will deliver you into their hands, and they shall destroy your brothel house, and throw down your stews: and they shall strip you of your garments, and shall take away the vessels of your beauty: and leave you naked, and full of disgrace.
40 And they shall bring upon you a multitude, and they shall stone you with stones, and shall slay you with their swords.
41 And they shall burn your houses with fire, and shall execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women: and you shall cease from fornication, and shall give no hire any more.
42 And my indignation shall rest in you: and my jealousy shall depart from you, and I will cease and be angry no more.
43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have provoked me in all these things: wherefore I also have turned your ways upon your head, said the Lord God, and I have not done according to your wicked deeds in all your abominations.
44 Behold every one that uses a common proverb, shall use this against you, saying: As the mother was, so also is her daughter.
45 You are your mother's daughter, that cast off her husband, and her children: and you are the sister of your sisters, who cast off their husbands, and their children: your mother was a Cethite, and your father an Amorrhite.
46 And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at your left hand: and your younger sister that dwells at your right hand is Sodom, and her daughters.
47 But neither have you walked in their ways, nor have you done a little less than they according to their wickednesses: you have done almost more wicked things than they in all your ways
48 as I live, said the Lord God, your sister Sodom herself, and her daughters, have not done as you have done, and your daughters.
49 Behold this was the iniquity of Sodom your sister, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance, and the idleness of her, and of her daughters: and they did not put forth their hand to the needy, and to the poor.
50 And they were lifted up, and committed abominations before me: and I took them away as you have seen.
51 And Samaria committed not half your sins: but you have surpassed them with your crimes, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done.
52 Therefore do you also bear your confusion, you that have surpassed your sisters with your sine, doing more wickedly than they: for they are justified above you, therefore be also confounded, and bear your shame, you that have justified your sisters.
53 And I will bring back and restore them by bringing back Sodom, with her daughters, and by bringing back Samaria, and her daughters: and I will bring those that return of you in the midst of them.
54 That you may bear your shame, and may be confounded in all that you have done, comforting them.
55 And your sister Sodom and her daughters shall return to their ancient state: and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their ancient state: and you and your daughters shall return to your ancient state.
56 And Sodom your sister was not heard of in your mouth, in the day of your pride,
57 Before your malice was laid open: as it is at this time, making you a reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all the daughters of Palestine round about you, that encompass you on all sides.
58 You have borne your wickedness, and your disgrace, said the Lord God.
59 For thus said the Lord God: I will deal with you, as you have despised the oath, in breaking the covenant:
60 And I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth: and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant.
61 And you shall remember your ways, and be ashamed: when you shall receive your sisters, your elder and your younger: and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant.
62 And I will establish my covenant with you: and you shall know that I am the Lord,
63 That you may remember, and be confounded, and may no more open your mouth because of your confusion, when I shall be pacified toward you for all that you have done, said the Lord God.