Yechezkel, starting at chapter 16
{16:1} Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, {16:2} Son of
man, cause Yerushalayim to know her abominations; {16:3} and say, Thus
says the Lord GOD to Yerushalayim: Your birth and your birth is of the
land of the Kana`ani; the Amori was your father, and your mother was a
Hittite. {16:4} As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel
was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you
weren't salted at all, nor swaddled at all. {16:5} No eye pitied you,
to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you
were cast out in the open field, for that your person was abhorred, in
the day that you were born. {16:6} When I passed by you, and saw you
weltering in your blood, I said to you, [Though you are] in your
blood, live; yes, I said to you, [Though you are] in your blood, live.
{16:7} I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and
you did increase and wax great, and you attained to excellent
ornament; your breasts were fashioned, and your hair was grown; yet
you were naked and bare. {16:8} Now when I passed by you, and looked
at you, behold, your time was the time of 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.
{16:9} Then washed I you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away
your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. {16:10} I clothed
you also with embroidered work, and shod you with sealskin, and I
girded you about with fine linen, and covered you with silk. {16:11} I
decked you with ornaments, and I put bracelets on your hands, and a
chain on your neck. {16:12} I put a ring on your nose, and ear-rings
in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. {16:13} Thus was you
decked with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen, and
silk, and embroidered work; you ate fine flour, and honey, and oil;
and you were exceeding beautiful, and you did prosper to royal estate.
{16:14} Your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty; for
it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you, says the
Lord GOD. {16:15} But you did trust in your beauty, and played the
prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on
everyone who passed by; his it was. {16:16} You took of your garments,
and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and
played the prostitute on them: [the like things] shall not come,
neither shall it be [so]. {16:17} You did also take your beautiful
jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and mad for
you images of men, and did play the prostitute with them; {16:18} and
you took your embroidered garments, and covered them, and did set my
oil and my incense before them. {16:19} My bread also which I gave
you, fine flour, and oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you did
even set it before them for a sweet savor; and [thus] it was, says the
Lord GOD. {16:20} Moreover you have taken your sons and your
daughters, whom you have borne to me, and these have you sacrificed to
them to be devoured. Were your prostitution a small matter, {16:21}
that you have slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing
them to pass through [the fire] to them? {16:22} In all your
abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of
your youth, when you were naked and bare, and was weltering in your
blood. {16:23} It is happen after all your wickedness, (woe, woe to
you! says the Lord GOD,) {16:24} that you have built to you a vaulted
place, and have made you a lofty place in every street. {16:25} You
have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made
your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who
passed by, and multiplied your prostitution. {16:26} You have also
committed sexual immorality with the Mitzrim, your neighbors, great of
flesh; and have multiplied your prostitution, to provoke me to anger.
{16:27} See therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you, and have
diminished your ordinary [food], and delivered you to the will of
those who hate you, the daughters of the Pelishtim, who are ashamed of
your lewd way. {16:28} You have played the prostitute also with the
Ashshur, because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the
prostitute with them, and yet you weren't satisfied. {16:29} You have
moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land of merchants, to
Kasdim; and yet you weren't satisfied with this. {16:30} How weak is
your heart, says the Lord GOD, seeing you do all these things, the
work of an impudent prostitute; {16:31} in that you build your vaulted
place at the head of every way, and make your lofty place in every
street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn hire.
{16:32} A wife who commits adultery! who takes strangers instead of
her husband! {16:33} They give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give
your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to
you on every side for your prostitution. {16:34} You are different
from [other] women in your prostitution, in that none follows you to
play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given
to you, therefore you are different. {16:35} Therefore, prostitute,
hear the word of the LORD: {16:36} Thus says the Lord GOD, Because
your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness uncovered through
your prostitution with your lovers; and because of all the idols of
your abominations, and for the blood of your children, that you gave
to them; {16:37} therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with
whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with
all those who you have hated; I will even gather them against you on
every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see
all your nakedness. {16:38} I will judge you, as women who break
wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood
of wrath and jealousy. {16:39} I will also give you into their hand,
and they shall throw down your vaulted place, and break down your
lofty places; and they shall strip you of your clothes, and take your
beautiful jewels; and they shall leave you naked and bare. {16:40}
They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone
you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords. {16:41}
They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in
the sight of many women; and I will cause you to cease from playing
the prostitute, and you shall also give no hire any more. {16:42} So
will I cause my wrath toward you to rest, and my jealousy shall depart
from you, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry. {16:43}
Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged
against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring
your way on your head, says the Lord GOD: and you shall not commit
this lewdness with all your abominations. {16:44} Behold, everyone who
uses proverbs shall use [this] proverb against you, saying, As is the
mother, so is her daughter. {16:45} You are the daughter of your
mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the
sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children:
your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amori. {16:46} Your
elder sister is Shomron, who dwells at your left hand, she and her
daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is
Sedom and her daughters. {16:47} Yet have you not walked in their
ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as [if that were] a very
little [thing], you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.
{16:48} As I live, says the Lord GOD, Sedom your sister has not done,
she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.
{16:49} Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sedom: pride,
fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her
daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
{16:50} They were haughty, and committed abomination before me:
therefore I took them away as I saw [good]. {16:51} Neither has
Shomron committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your
abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all
your abominations which you have done. {16:52} You also, bear you your
own shame, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through
your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are
more righteous that you: yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame,
in that you have justified your sisters. {16:53} I will turn again
their captivity, the captivity of Sedom and her daughters, and the
captivity of Shomron and her daughters, and the captivity of your
captives in the midst of them; {16:54} that you may bear your own
shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that
you are a comfort to them. {16:55} Your sisters, Sedom and her
daughters, shall return to their former estate; and Shomron and her
daughters shall return to their former estate; and you and your
daughters shall return to your former estate. {16:56} For your sister
Sedom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,
{16:57} before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the
reproach of the daughters of Aram, and of all who are round about her,
the daughters of the Pelishtim, who do despite to you round about.
{16:58} You have borne your lewdness and your abominations, says the
LORD. {16:59} For thus says the Lord GOD: I will also deal with you as
you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
{16:60} Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days
of your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant.
{16:61} Then shall you remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you
shall receive your sisters, your elder [sisters] and your younger; and
I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant.
{16:62} I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall know that
I am the LORD; {16:63} that you may remember, and be confounded, and
never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have
forgiven you all that you have done, says the Lord GOD.
{17:1} The word of the LORD came to me, saying, {17:2} Son of man,
put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Yisra'el;
{17:3} and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A great eagle with great wings
and long pinions, full of feathers, which had various colors, came to
Levanon, and took the top of the cedar: {17:4} he cropped off the
topmost of the young twigs of it, and carried it to a land of traffic;
he set it in a city of merchants. {17:5} He took also of the seed of
the land, and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside many
waters; he set it as a willow tree. {17:6} It grew, and became a
spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and
the roots of it were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth
branches, and shot forth sprigs. {17:7} There was also another great
eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did
bend its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him,
from the beds of its plantation, that he might water it. {17:8} It was
planted in a good soil by many waters, that it might bring forth
branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly
vine. {17:9} Say you, Thus says the Lord GOD: Shall it prosper? shall
he not pull up the roots of it, and cut off the fruit of it, that it
may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? and not by
a strong arm or much people can it be raised from the roots of it.
{17:10} Yes, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not
utterly wither, when the east wind touches it? it shall wither in the
beds where it grew. {17:11} Moreover the word of the LORD came to me,
saying, {17:12} Say now to the rebellious house, Don't you know what
these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Bavel came to
Yerushalayim, and took the king of it, and the princes of it, and
brought them to him to Bavel: {17:13} and he took of the seed royal,
and made a covenant with him; he also brought him under an oath, and
took away the mighty of the land; {17:14} that the kingdom might be
base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his
covenant it might stand. {17:15} But he rebelled against him in
sending his ambassadors into Mitzrayim, that they might give him
horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape who does
such things? shall he break the covenant, and yet escape? {17:16} As I
live, says the Lord GOD, surely in the place where the king dwells who
made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke,
even with him in the midst of Bavel he shall die. {17:17} Neither
shall Par`oh with his mighty army and great company help him in the
war, when they cast up mounds and build forts, to cut off many
persons. {17:18} For he has despised the oath by breaking the
covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all
these things; he shall not escape. {17:19} Therefore thus says the
Lord GOD: As I live, surely my oath that he has despised, and my
covenant that he has broken, I will even bring it on his own head.
{17:20} I will spread my net on him, and he shall be taken in my
snare, and I will bring him to Bavel, and will enter into judgment
with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.
{17:21} All his fugitives in all his bands shall fall by the sword,
and those who remain shall be scattered toward every wind: and you
shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it. {17:22} Thus says the
Lord GOD: I will also take of the lofty top of the cedar, and will set
it; I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one,
and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain: {17:23} in the
mountain of the height of Yisra'el will I plant it; and it shall bring
forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it
shall dwell all birds of every wing; in the shade of the branches of
it shall they dwell. {17:24} All the trees of the field shall know
that I, the LORD, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the
low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to
flourish; I, the LORD, have spoken and have done it.
{18:1} The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, {18:2} What do
you mean, that you use this proverb concerning Eretz-Yisra'el, saying,
The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set
on edge? {18:3} As I live, says the Lord GOD, you shall not have
[occasion] any more to use this proverb in Yisra'el. {18:4} Behold,
all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the
son is mine: the soul who sins, he shall die. {18:5} But if a man is
just, and does that which is lawful and right, {18:6} and has not
eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of
the house of Yisra'el, neither has defiled his neighbor's wife,
neither has come near to a woman in her impurity, {18:7} and has not
wronged any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken
nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered
the naked with a garment; {18:8} he who has not given forth on
interest, neither has taken any increase, who has withdrawn his hand
from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man, {18:9}
has walked in my statutes, and has kept my ordinances, to deal truly;
he is just, he shall surely live, says the Lord GOD. {18:10} If he
fathers a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, and who does any
one of these things, {18:11} and who does not any of those [duties],
but even has eaten on the mountains, and defiled his neighbor's wife,
{18:12} has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not
restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has
committed abomination, {18:13} has given forth on interest, and has
taken increase; shall he then live? he shall not live: he has done all
these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be on him.
{18:14} Now, behold, if he fathers a son, who sees all his father's
sins, which he has done, and fears, and does not such like; {18:15}
who has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to
the idols of the house of Yisra'el, has not defiled his neighbor's
wife, {18:16} neither has wronged any, has not taken anything to
pledge, neither has taken by robbery, but has given his bread to the
hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment; {18:17} who has
withdrawn his hand from the poor, who has not received interest nor
increase, has executed my ordinances, has walked in my statutes; he
shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.
{18:18} As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his
brother, and did that which is not good among his people, behold, he
shall die in his iniquity. {18:19} Yet say you, Why does not the son
bear the iniquity of the father? when the son has done that which is
lawful and right, and has kept all my statutes, and has done them, he
shall surely live. {18:20} The soul who sins, he shall die: the son
shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father
bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall
be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him. {18:21}
But if the wicked turn from all his sins that he has committed, and
keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall
surely live, he shall not die. {18:22} None of his transgressions that
he has committed shall be remembered against him: in his righteousness
that he has done he shall live. {18:23} Have I any pleasure in the
death of the wicked? says the Lord GOD; and not rather that he should
return from his way, and live? {18:24} But when the righteous turns
away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according
to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None
of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered: in his
trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in
them shall he die. {18:25} Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not
equal. Hear now, house of Yisra'el: Is my way not equal? Aren't your
ways unequal? {18:26} When the righteous man turns away from his
righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies therein; in his iniquity
that he has done shall he die. {18:27} Again, when the wicked man
turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that
which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. {18:28}
Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that
he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. {18:29} Yet
says the house of Yisra'el, The way of the Lord is not equal. house of
Yisra'el, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? {18:30}
Therefore I will judge you, house of Yisra'el, everyone according to
his ways, says the Lord GOD. Return you, and turn yourselves from all
your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. {18:31} Cast
away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed;
and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house
of Yisra'el? {18:32} For I have no pleasure in the death of him who
dies, says the Lord GOD: therefore turn yourselves, and live.
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