Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, November 24th, 2024
the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Read the Bible

George Lamsa Translation

Ezekiel 16

1 AGAIN the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,2 Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations,3 And say, Thus says the LORD God to Jerusalem: Your root and your nativity is of the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.4 And as for the one who bore you, in the day you were born she did not cut your navel, neither did she wash you with water nor did she salt your body with salt nor wrap you in swaddling clothes at all.5 Nor did her eye have pity upon you, to do any of these things to you and to have compassion upon you; but you were cast out in the open field, to the loathing of your person on the day that you were born.

6 And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your own blood, I said to you as you lay thus wallowing in your blood, Live,7 And multiply like the grass of the field. And you have increased and grown great; then you went into the cities. Your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, but you were naked and bare.8 Now when I passed by you and looked upon you, behold, you had reached the marriage age; and I spread my hand over you and covered your nakedness; yea, I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the LORD God, and you became mine.9 Then I bathed you with water, and I washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.10 I clothed you also with embroidered clothes, and shod you with shoes; and I girded your loins with fine linen and clothed you with silk.11 I decked you also with ornaments, and I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace on your neck.12 And I put a jewel on your forehead and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.13 Thus you were decked with gold and gems, and you were clothed with fine linen and purple and embroidered cloth; and you ate fine flour and honey and oil; and you became exceedingly beautiful, and you grew prosperous among the kingdoms.14 And your renown went forth among the Gentiles for your beauty, because of the beautiful crown of my glory which I put upon you, says the LORD God.

15 But you trusted in your own beauty and played the harlot because of your renown, and poured out your fornications on every one who passed by;16 And you took some of my garments and decorated the high places for yourself, and played the harlot upon them; they shall not be brought back, neither shall they be yours.17 You have also taken your costly jewels of gold and silver which I had given you, and made to yourself images of men, and committed whoredom with them;18 And you took your embroidered garments and covered them; and you have set my oil and my incense before them.19 And the food which I gave you, the fine flour and oil and honey with which I fed you, you have set before them for a sweet savor; says the LORD God.20 Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you have sacrificed to them for food. These things you did besides your whoredoms,21 That you have slaughtered my children, and offered them to the idols after you had been ravished by them.22 And in all your abominations and your whoredoms you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and lay wallowing in blood.23 And after all your wickedness, woe, woe to you! says the LORD God;24 You have built yourself a house of idols, and made yourself altars in every street.25 You have built yourself small temples for idol worship at every head of the way, and defiled your beauty and exposed yourself to every one that passed by, and multiplied your fornications.26 You have also played the harlot with the Egyptians your neighbors, who have large male organs; and you have multiplied your fornications, to provoke me to anger.27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and have abolished your ordinances and delivered you into the hand of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who rebuked you because of your ways of whoredom.28 You have played the whore also with the Assyrians, and yet you were not satisfied.29 You have moreover multiplied your fornications in the land of Canaan and in Chaldea; and yet, even with them you were not satisfied.30 How shall I judge you, O daughter, says the LORD God, seeing that you did all these things, the works of a whore and a rebellious woman?31 In that you built your notorious shrines at the head of every way, and set your altars in every street; and yet you were not as clever as a harlot who charges a price;32 And even not as clever as a whorish wife who takes a price from strangers.33 Men pay a price to all harlots; but instead you pay a price to all your lovers and bribe them with your whoredom, that they may come to you from every side round about you.34 So you are different from other women in your whoredoms, in that you pay others a price, and no one pays a price to you.

35 Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD;36 Thus says the LORD God: Because you have practiced divination and exposed your nakedness through your whoredoms with your lovers, and because of all the idols of your abominations and the blood of your children which you offered to them;37 Behold, therefore I will gather all your lovers with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those you have loved, with all those you have hated; I will even gather them against you from every side and will expose your nakedness in their presence, and they shall see all your nakedness.38 And I will judge you with the judgment of an adulteress, and as those who shed blood are judged; and I will deliver you to slaughter and to fury and indignation.39 And I will also deliver you into their hands, and shall demolish your brothels and tear down the houses of your idols; they shall strip you also of your clothes, and shall take your precious jewels and leave you naked and bare.40 They shall also bring up multitudes of people against you, and they shall stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords.41 And they shall burn you in the midst of fire, and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women; and I will cause you to cease from playing the harlot, and you also shall give no hire to your lovers any more.42 So will I make my wrath to rest upon you, and my indignation shall depart from you, and I will be quiet and will be no more angry.43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have provoked me in all these things; behold, therefore I have also recompensed your evil ways upon your head, says the LORD God, because you have committed abomination and fornication.

44 Behold, every one who uses a proverb shall use this proverb against you, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.45 You are your mothers daughter, who deserted her husband and her children; and you are the sister of women who deserted their husbands and their children; your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.46 And your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand with her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom with her daughters.47 Yet you have not walked according to their ways, nor done according to their abominations; but in a very little time you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.48 As I live, says the LORD God, Sodom your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.49 Behold, this is the iniquity of Sodom your proud sister: she and her daughters had abundant food and lived in tranquillity, but she did not help the poor and needy.50 And they were haughty and committed evil before me; therefore when I saw these things in them I overthrew them.51 Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they and have outdone your sisters in all your abominations which you have committed.52 You also shall endure the shame because you have outdone your sisters in your sins, and have polluted yourself more than they; they are more righteous than you; you must be confounded also and bear your shame, for your sisters are more righteous than you.53 I will bring back their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters; then I will cause the captivity of your exiles to be carried among them,54 That you may bear shame and be confounded in all that you have done to provoke my anger.55 When your sister Sodom, with her daughters, shall be restored to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall be restored to their former state, then you and your daughters shall be restored to your former state.56 For your sister Sodom was not a proverb in your mouth in the day of your pride,57 Before your wickedness was exposed, as she was at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Edom, when all the daughters of the Philistines who were round about her used to despise her.58 Now you bear your lewdness and your abominations, says the LORD God.59 For thus says the LORD God: I will even deal with you as you have done, because you have despised my oaths and nullified my covenant.

60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant.61 Then you shall remember your evil ways and be ashamed, when I take your sisters, the elder and the younger, and give them to you for daughters, but not because of your covenant.62 And I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall know that I am the LORD,63 Because you shall remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, for I have forgiven you for all that you have done, says the LORD God.

 
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