Ezekiel 16:35-63

“ ‘Very well, Jerusalem, you whore! Hear the word of YAHWEH! Lord YAHWEH says to you: You poured out your lust and are ready for sex. As a prostitute, you uncovered your genitals for your lovers and for all those disgusting idols. You killed your children to honor those false gods. “ ‘Behold, I will bring together all your lovers to whom you gave pleasure—all those you loved and all those you hated. Yes, I will bring them from everywhere, and I will strip you naked in front of them and let them see your genitals. “ ‘I will judge you with the same death sentence of an adulterer or murderer and bring upon you the fury of my burning rage. I will hand you over to your “lovers,” and they will destroy your elevated chamber and pull down your sacred shrines. They will strip you of your clothes, take away your lovely jewels, and leave you stark naked. Then they will gather an angry mob against you who will stone you to death and hack you to pieces with their swords. They will burn down your homes and execute justice on you while many other women look on. I will once and for all put an end to your wicked harlotry—no more paid lovers for you! “ ‘Once my fury is exhausted with you, I will calm down and let my anger die away. Then I will not be angry anymore. You have entirely forgotten how I treated you when you were young. And you have done nothing but provoke me, so now I, in turn, will cause you to suffer the consequences for your own behavior. And haven’t you committed such gross lewdness in addition to all your other shocking sins? I, Lord YAHWEH, have spoken.’ ” YAHWEH says, “Behold, all who quote proverbs will surely apply this proverb to you, Jerusalem: Like mother, like daughter. Yes; you are a daughter exactly like your pagan mother, who hated her husband and her children. And you have become exactly like your sisters, who hated their husbands and their children. You and your sister cities had a Hittite mother and an Amorite father. Your big sister is Samaria with her daughter-villages to the north of you. Your little sister is Sodom with her daughter-villages to the south of you. Yet you were not satisfied to live as the people of Samaria and Sodom lived, copying all their wicked ways and imitating their loathsome practices. In very little time, you became more wicked than they were in all your ways. As surely as I, Lord YAHWEH, live, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did the evil that you and your daughters have done. Behold, the guilt of your sister Sodom! She and her daughters were arrogant, gluttonous, and lived in carefree complacency. They never thought to help the poor and needy. They were proud, stubborn, and defiantly evil before me, and so I swept them away as you have seen. And yet Samaria never committed half the sins that you have. You have done more detestable things than they. When compared to all your gross practices, you have made your sisters seem innocent! So now you will bear the shame of your deeds, which provides a measure of justification for your sisters, since your sins are viler than theirs. They now appear more upright than you are. So, suffer the utter disgrace and humiliation of having made your sisters appear more righteous than you! “I will restore their fortunes; I will restore Sodom and her daughters. I will restore Samaria and her daughters, and then I will also restore your fortunes along with them. You will be totally ashamed of yourself and bear disgrace for all you have done in giving them comfort. When your sisters, Sodom and her daughter-villages and Samaria and her daughter-villages, are restored to what they were, then you, too, and your surrounding villages will be restored to what you were. Jerusalem, did you not gloat in your pride over your sister Sodom before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you are just like her! You have become the laughingstock of the Philistines, the Syrians, and all your neighbors who hate you and heap scorn on you. You have brought this on yourself with your lewdness and your disgusting deeds. I, Lord YAHWEH, have spoken.” “For I, Lord YAHWEH say to you: I will treat you as you deserve, for you have broken your marriage covenant and despised your promises to me. But I will remember my covenant that I made with you in the days of your youth. I will renew that covenant with you, and it will last forever. When you get back your older and younger sisters, then you will remember your ways and feel ashamed. I will make them like daughters to you, but not on the basis of my new covenant with you. Yes, I will graciously renew my covenant with you, and then you will know me as YAHWEH-God. You may remember your wretched past and feel deep remorse, yet you will be reduced to silence when you realize that I have forgiven you for everything you have done. I, Lord YAHWEH, have spoken.”