Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, amake known to Jerusalem her abominations 3 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord 1God to Jerusalem, “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 As for your birth, aon the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. 5 No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the 1aopen field, 2for you were abhorred on the day you were born. 6 “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I amade you 1numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. 8 “Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, 1you were at the time for love; so I aspread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also bswore to you and centered into a covenant with you so that you dbecame Mine,” declares the Lord God. 9 “Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and aanointed you with oil. 10 I also clothed you with aembroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 I adorned you with ornaments, put abracelets on your hands and a bnecklace around your neck. 12 I also put a aring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a bbeautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with agold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to broyalty. 14 Then your afame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was bperfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord God. 15 “But you atrusted in your beauty and bplayed the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by 1who might be willing. 16 You took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places of various colors and played the harlot on them, 1which should never come about nor happen. 17 You also took your beautiful 1ajewels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them. 18 Then you took your embroidered cloth and covered them, and offered My oil and My incense before them. 19 Also aMy bread which I gave you, fine flour, oil and honey with which I fed you, 1you would offer before them for a soothing aroma; so it happened,” declares the Lord God. 20 “Moreover, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to aMe and bsacrificed them to 1idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter? 21 You slaughtered aMy children and offered them up to 1idols by bcausing them to pass through the fire. 22 Besides all your abominations and harlotries you did not remember the days of ayour youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood. 23 “Then it came about after all your wickedness (‘Woe, woe to you!’ declares the Lord God), 24 that you built yourself a ashrine and made yourself a bhigh place in every square. 25 You built yourself a high place at the top of aevery street and made your beauty abominable, and you spread your legs to every passer-by to multiply your harlotry. 26 You also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your 1lustful neighbors, and multiplied your harlotry to amake Me angry. 27 Behold now, I have stretched out My hand against you and diminished your rations. And I delivered you up to the desire of those who hate you, the adaughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd conduct. 28 Moreover, you played the harlot with the aAssyrians because you were not satisfied; you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. 29 You also multiplied your harlotry with the land of merchants, Chaldea, yet even with this you were not satisfied.”’” 30 “How alanguishing is your heart,” declares the Lord God, “while you do all these things, the actions of a 1bbold-faced harlot. 31 When you built your shrine at the beginning of every street and made your high place in every square, in adisdaining money, you were not like a harlot. 32 You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! 33 1Men give gifts to all harlots, but you agive your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries. 34 Thus you are different from those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot 1as you do, because you give money and no money is given you; thus you are different.” 35 Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord. 36 Thus says the Lord God, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your detestable aidols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to 1idols, 37 therefore, behold, I will agather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, even all those whom you loved and all those whom you bhated. So I will gather them against you from every direction and cexpose your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness. 38 Thus I will ajudge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of bwrath and jealousy. 39 I will also give you into 1the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, astrip you of your clothing, take away your 2jewels, and will leave you naked and bare. 40 They will 1incite a acrowd against you and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will aburn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will bstop you from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer pay 1your lovers. 42 So I awill calm My fury against you and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be pacified and angry bno more. 43 Because you have anot remembered the days of your youth but 1have benraged Me by all these things, behold, I in turn will cbring your conduct down on your own head,” declares the Lord God, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations. 44 “Behold, everyone who quotes aproverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying, ‘1Like mother, 1like daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the asister of your sisters, who bloathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46 Now your aolder sister is Samaria, who lives 1north of you with her 2daughters; and your younger sister, who lives 3south of you, is bSodom with her 2daughters. 47 Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were atoo little, you acted bmore corruptly in all your conduct than they. 48 As I live,” declares the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have anot done as you and your daughters have done. 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had aarrogance, babundant food and ccareless ease, but she did not 1help the dpoor and needy. 50 Thus they were haughty and committed aabominations before Me. Therefore I bremoved them 1when I saw it. 51 Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear arighteous by all your abominations which you have committed. 52 Also bear your disgrace in that you have 1made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted amore abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your disgrace, in that you made your sisters appear righteous. 53 “Nevertheless, I will restore their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and 1along with them 2your own captivity, 54 in order that you may bear your humiliation and feel aashamed for all that you have done when you become ba consolation to them. 55 Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, 1will return to their former state, and you with your daughters will also return to your former state. 56 As the name of your sister Sodom was not heard from your lips in your day of pride, 57 before your awickedness was uncovered, 1so now you have become the breproach of the daughters of 2Edom and of all who are around her, of the daughters of the Philistines—those surrounding you who despise you. 58 You have aborne the penalty of your lewdness and abominations,” the Lord declares. 59 For thus says the Lord God, “I will also do with you as you have done, you who have adespised 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 aeverlasting covenant with you. 61 Then you will aremember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. 62 Thus I will aestablish My covenant with you, and you shall bknow that I am the Lord, 63 so that you may aremember and be ashamed and bnever open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have cforgiven you for all that you have done,” the Lord God declares.
Parable of Two Eagles and a Vine
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, propound a riddle and speak a aparable to the house of Israel, 3 1saying, ‘Thus says the Lord 2God, “A great aeagle with bgreat wings, long pinions and a full plumage of many colors came to cLebanon and took away the top of the cedar. 4 He plucked off the topmost of its young twigs and brought it to a land of merchants; he set it in a city of traders. 5 He also took some of the seed of the land and planted it in 1afertile soil. He 2placed it beside abundant waters; he set it like a bwillow. 6 Then it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine with its branches turned toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and yielded shoots and sent out branches. 7 “But there was 1another great eagle with great wings and much plumage; and behold, this vine bent its roots toward him and sent out its branches toward him from the beds where it was aplanted, that he might water it. 8 It was planted in good 1soil beside abundant waters, that it might yield branches and bear fruit and become a splendid vine.”’ 9 Say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots and cut off its fruit, so that it withers—so that all its sprouting leaves wither? And neither by great 1strength nor by many people can it be raised from its roots again. 10 Behold, though it is planted, will it thrive? Will it not acompletely wither as soon as the east wind strikes it—wither on the beds where it grew?”’”
Zedekiah’s Rebellion
11 Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 12 “Say now to the arebellious house, ‘Do you not bknow what these things mean?’ Say, ‘Behold, the cking of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took its king and princes and brought them to him in Babylon. 13 He took one of the royal 1afamily and made a covenant with him, 2putting him under boath. He also took away the cmighty of the land, 14 that the kingdom might abe 1in subjection, not exalting itself, but keeping his covenant that it might continue. 15 But he arebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt that they might give him horses and many 1troops. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things bescape? Can he indeed break the covenant and escape? 16 As I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘Surely in the 1country of the king who 2put him on the throne, whose oath he adespised and whose covenant he broke, 3bin Babylon he shall die. 17 aPharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not 1help him in the war, when they cast up ramps and build siege walls to cut off many lives. 18 Now he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and behold, he 1apledged his allegiance, yet did all these things; he shall not escape.’” 19 Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “As I live, surely My oath which he despised and My covenant which he broke, I will 1inflict on his head. 20 I will spread My anet over him, and he will be bcaught in My snare. Then I will bring him to Babylon and center into judgment with him there regarding the unfaithful act which he has committed against Me. 21 All the 1achoice men in all his troops will fall by the sword, and the survivors will be scattered to every wind; and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.” 22 Thus says the Lord God, “I will also take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and set it out; I will pluck from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one and I will plant it on a ahigh and lofty mountain. 23 On the high mountain of Israel I will plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit and become a stately acedar. And birds of every 1kind will 2nest under it; they will 2nest in the shade of its branches. 24 All the atrees of the field will know that I am the Lord; I bring down the high tree, exalt the low tree, dry up the green tree and make the dry tree bflourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will perform it.”
God Deals Justly with Individuals
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “aWhat do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying,
‘bThe fathers eat the sour grapes,
But the children’s teeth 1are set on edge’?
3 As I live,” declares the Lord 1God, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. 4 Behold, aall 1souls are Mine; the 2soul of the father as well as the 2soul of the son is Mine. The 3soul who bsins will die. 5 “But if a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness, 6 and does not aeat at the mountain shrines or blift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or cdefile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her menstrual period— 7 if a man does not oppress anyone, but arestores to the debtor his pledge, bdoes not commit robbery, but cgives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing, 8 if he does not lend money on ainterest or take bincrease, if he keeps his hand from iniquity and cexecutes true justice between man and man, 9 if he walks in aMy statutes and My ordinances so as to deal faithfully—bhe is righteous and will surely clive,” declares the Lord God. 10 “Then he may 1have a violent son who sheds blood and who does any of these things to a brother 11 (though he himself did not do any of these things), that is, he even eats at the mountain shrines, and adefiles his neighbor’s wife, 12 oppresses the apoor and needy, bcommits robbery, does not restore a pledge, but lifts up his eyes to the idols and ccommits abomination, 13 he alends money on interest and takes increase; will he live? He will not live! He has committed all these abominations, he will surely be put to death; his bblood will be 1on his own head. 14 “Now behold, he 1has a son who has observed all his father’s sins which he committed, and aobserving does not do likewise. 15 He does not eat at the mountain shrines or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor’s wife, 16 or oppress anyone, or retain a pledge, or commit robbery, but he agives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing, 17 he keeps his hand from 1the poor, does not take interest or increase, but executes My ordinances, and walks in My statutes; ahe will not die for his father’s iniquity, he will surely live. 18 As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was not good among his people, behold, he will die for his iniquity. 19 “Yet you say, ‘aWhy should the son not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity?’ When the son has practiced bjustice and righteousness and has observed all My statutes and done them, he shall surely live. 20 The person who asins will die. The bson will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the crighteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. 21 “But if the awicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 aAll his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his brighteousness which he has practiced, he will live. 23 aDo I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord God, “1rather than that he should bturn from his ways and live? 24 “But when a righteous man aturns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? bAll his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his ctreachery which he has committed and his sin which he has committed; for them he will die. 25 Yet you say, ‘aThe way of the Lord is not right.’ Hear now, O house of Israel! Is bMy way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right? 26 When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and dies because of it, for his iniquity which he has committed he will die. 27 Again, when a wicked man turns away afrom his wickedness which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life. 28 Because he considered and turned away from all his transgressions which he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 29 But the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ Are My ways not right, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not right? 30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct,” declares the Lord God. “aRepent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. 31 aCast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a bnew heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have ano pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord God. “Therefore, repent and live.”