Ezekiel
Ezekiel 16 ©
1 Under the similitude of an helpless exposed infant is represented the original state of Jerusalem, 6 whom God is described to have bred up, married, and treated with kind indulgence: 15 her unnatural whoredoms: 35 God threateneth her with severe judgment: 44 her sin, equal to her mother's, the Hittite, and exceeding that of her sisters, Sodom and Samaria, shall not go unpunished. 60 A promise of mercy in the end.
AGAIN the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
¶And when I passed by thee, and gsaw thee 3polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, hLive; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
I have 4caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to 5excellent ornaments: thy ibreasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.
jNow when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was kthe time of love; and I lspread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, mI sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou nbecamest mine.
And I put a jewel on thy 7forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and ta beautiful crown upon thine head.
Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy u*raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and *broidered work; vthou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper winto a kingdom.
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, gwhom thou hast borne unto me, and hthese hast thou sacrificed unto them to 10be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
That thou hast also built unto thee an 11eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.
Behold, therefore oI have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished pthine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them qthat hate thee, the 12daughters of the rPhilistines, which are sashamed of thy *lewd way.
Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot twith them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
Thou uhast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; cBecause thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness d*discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;
Behold, therefore eI will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will fdiscover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.
And I will also give thee into their hand, and ithey shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall jstrip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy 16fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.
And they shall mburn thine houses with fire, and nexecute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: oand I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and pthou also shalt give no hire any more.
Because thou hast rnot remembered the days of thy youth, but hast s*fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore tI also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit uthis lewdness above all thine abominations.
¶Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, vAs is the mother, so is her daughter.
And ythine elder sister is zSamaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy 17younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is aSodom and bher daughters.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, epride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, fneither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
jNeither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.
kThou also, which hast judged thy sisters, lbear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.
When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
nWhen thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; tI will even deal with thee as uthou hast done, which hast vdespised the oath in breaking the wcovenant.
¶Nevertheless I will xremember ymy covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and zI will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Then athou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when bthou shalt receive cthy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, dbut not by thy ecovenant.
That gthou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.