Ezekiel 16

²“As for you, son of man, will you judge her? Will you pass judgment on the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations

⁴Will you judge them, will you judge them, son of man? Confront them with the abominations of their fathers

¹“Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.

¹Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the Lord, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.

⁷As for you, O son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word from My mouth and give them the warning from Me.

⁸If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ but you do not speak out to dissuade him from his way, then that wicked man will die in his iniquity, yet I will hold you accountable for his blood.

⁹Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations they are committing here.”

¹⁰So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel.

⁴⁵You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

¹“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.

²Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.

¹⁷For you must devote them to complete destruction—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you,

⁴⁴You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

⁷You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.

¹⁶In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

³Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.

¹⁶No straw has been given to your servants, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”

¹⁷“You are slackers!” Pharaoh replied. “Slackers! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’

¹³Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

²And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.

¹⁵Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.

⁶God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

⁷‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’

¹⁰He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye.

¹⁶Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

²²Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”

³Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

¹⁰and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”

¹⁵“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!

⁴But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

²⁵Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

³⁴I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’

¹³You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

⁴‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.

⁵Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁷but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

¹⁰The Lord your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.

³You will be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the palm of your God.

¹⁰I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.

¹¹I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.

⁵Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.

²⁰He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His judgments. Hallelujah!

⁹“Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she replied. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, for you are a kinsman-redeemer.”

²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

³Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of His harvest. All who devoured her were found guilty; disaster came upon them,’” declares the Lord.

⁸But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁴Because you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and nations in place of your life.

¹³Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”

³¹For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.

⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

³Therefore wash yourself, put on perfume, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but do not let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.

²⁷And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.

⁸the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three are in agreement.

¹¹And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

²¹Now it is God who establishes both us and you in Christ. He anointed us,

¹⁸You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you set My oil and incense before them.

¹³So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be queen.

³⁶For the entrance to the tent, you are to make a curtain embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen.

¹³All glorious is the princess in her chamber; her gown is embroidered with gold.

¹⁴In colorful garments she is led to the king; her virgin companions are brought before you.

¹⁰I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

¹⁶Aram was your customer because of your many products; they exchanged turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies for your wares.

²²And after the camels had finished drinking, he took out a gold ring weighing a beka, and two gold bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels.

¹⁹their pendants, bracelets, and veils;

⁴²Then Pharaoh removed the signet ring from his finger, put it on Joseph’s finger, clothed him in garments of fine linen, and placed a gold chain around his neck.

⁴⁷Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She replied, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.

⁹For they are a garland of grace on your head and a pendant around your neck.

⁴²accompanied by the sound of a carefree crowd. Drunkards were brought in from the desert along with men from the rabble, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your head.

²¹their signet rings and nose rings;

⁵On that day the Lord of Hosts will be a crown of glory, a diadem of splendor to the remnant of His people,

²¹And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.

¹³He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,

¹⁴with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine.

²Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King.

¹³All glorious is the princess in her chamber; her gown is embroidered with gold.

¹⁴In colorful garments she is led to the king; her virgin companions are brought before you.

¹⁹And you set before them as a pleasing aroma the food I had given you—the fine flour, oil, and honey that I had fed you. That is what happened, declares the Lord God.

¹⁵All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

²⁴The whole world sought an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.

⁷For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

⁶Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

⁷For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call on Him?

⁹and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you.

¹⁰For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.

¹Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with difficult questions.

²She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large caravan—with camels bearing spices, gold in great abundance, and precious stones. And she came to Solomon and spoke to him all that was on her mind.

²⁵At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.

⁸Behind the door and doorpost you have set up your memorial. Forsaking Me, you uncovered your bed; you climbed up and opened it wide. And you have made a pact with those whose bed you have loved; you have gazed upon their nakedness.

²⁰“For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.

³and they played in Egypt, prostituting themselves from their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their virgin bosoms caressed.

⁴Do not trust in deceptive words, saying: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

²When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the Lord.”

⁷He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the Lord, where the women had woven tapestries for Asherah.

²⁰His beautiful ornaments they transformed into pride and used them to fashion their vile images and detestable idols. Therefore I will make these into something unclean for them.

²⁴Then Ahaz gathered up the articles of the house of God, cut them into pieces, shut the doors of the house of the Lord, and set up altars of his own on every street corner in Jerusalem.

⁸For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold—which they crafted for Baal.

¹⁴But Oholibah carried her prostitution even further. She saw the men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, engraved in vermilion,

¹⁵wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.

¹Israel was a luxuriant vine, yielding fruit for himself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better he made the sacred pillars.

⁹Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

¹Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”

²So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”

⁷On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.

⁸Behind the door and doorpost you have set up your memorial. Forsaking Me, you uncovered your bed; you climbed up and opened it wide. And you have made a pact with those whose bed you have loved; you have gazed upon their nakedness.

¹⁹They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and gold cannot save them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs with wealth, for it became the stumbling block that brought their iniquity.

²⁰His beautiful ornaments they transformed into pride and used them to fashion their vile images and detestable idols. Therefore I will make these into something unclean for them.

¹³So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be queen.

²¹When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

¹⁴with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine.

¹⁵But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

⁸For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold—which they crafted for Baal.

⁹Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness.

³⁷For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols.

²⁶And I pronounced them unclean through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn in the fire—so that I might devastate them, in order that they would know that I am the Lord.

³⁷They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

³⁸They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

²“Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The firstborn from every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, both of man and beast.”

³¹They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.

³¹When you offer your gifts, sacrificing your sons in the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, I will not be consulted by you!

¹⁷They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.

¹⁰Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,

²¹You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

⁵They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.

⁶He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.

³⁷They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

⁴³Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will surely bring your deeds down upon your own head, declares the Lord God. Have you not committed this lewdness on top of all your other abominations?

¹When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.

³and tell her that this is what the Lord God says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

⁴On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

⁶⁰But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

⁶¹Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.

³Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.

¹²Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea; with great fury the devil has come down to you, knowing he has only a short time.”

²⁷Your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution on the hills and in the fields—I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?”

¹⁸and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their wrists and make veils for the heads of people of every height, in order to ensnare their souls. Will you ensnare the souls of My people but preserve your own?

¹Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled!

⁶Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents.

¹³And as I observed, I heard an eagle flying overhead, calling in a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the remaining three angels!”

⁵⁸They enraged Him with their high places and provoked His jealousy with their idols.

²⁰“For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.

³¹But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

⁷On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.

³⁹Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will level your mounds and tear down your lofty shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

²⁸When I brought them into the land that I swore to give them and they saw any high hill or leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, presented offerings that provoked Me, sent up their fragrant incense, and poured out their drink offerings.

²⁹So I asked them: ‘What is this high place to which you go?’ (And to this day it is called Bamah.)

³¹But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

²“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.

³²This is what the Lord God says: ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, a cup deep and wide. It will bring scorn and derision, for it holds so much.

¹⁵Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the Lord.

⁹The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.

²³“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,

²⁴a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her.

¹⁹Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt

²⁰and lusted after their lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions.

⁷And I said to them: ‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’

⁸But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

¹⁰So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel.

¹⁸The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.

¹⁹But am I the One they are provoking? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves they spite, to their own shame?

⁸She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her.

³and they played in Egypt, prostituting themselves from their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their virgin bosoms caressed.

¹²Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have devoured Israel with open mouths. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

⁵⁷before your wickedness was uncovered? Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you.

³⁷therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.

⁴⁷And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were.

⁹Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.

²⁸For this is what the Lord God says: ‘Surely I will deliver you into the hands of those you hate, from whom you turned away in disgust.

²⁹They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity

⁷So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hands of the kings of Aram and Israel, who are rising up against me.”

¹⁸Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

³⁶How impulsive you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.

¹⁰Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. On seeing the altar in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction.

¹¹And Uriah the priest built the altar according to all the instructions King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, and he completed it before King Ahaz returned.

⁶Yes, it will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim will be seized with shame; Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols.

²³He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, who had defeated him, and he said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram have helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But these gods were the downfall of Ahaz and of all Israel.

¹⁴I will tear down the wall you whitewashed and level it to the ground, so that its foundation is exposed. The city will fall, and you will be destroyed within it. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁵And after I have vented My wrath against the wall and against those who whitewashed it, I will say to you: ‘The wall is gone, and so are those who whitewashed it—

⁹But the people did not listen and Manasseh led them astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

¹⁴But Oholibah carried her prostitution even further. She saw the men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, engraved in vermilion,

¹⁵wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.

¹²Thus they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed after various gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and provoked the Lord to anger,

¹³for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.

³The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”

¹³The woman named Folly is loud; she is naive and knows nothing.

²²“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”

⁹The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.

¹¹She is loud and defiant; her feet do not remain at home.

¹²Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.

³³Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.

³⁴So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite!

³For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”

¹¹Is there iniquity in Gilead? They will surely come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.

²⁴you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square.

²⁵At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.

³⁹Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will level your mounds and tear down your lofty shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.

²⁸But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.

¹Then the Lord said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”

²⁰But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord.

²I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

³I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

²⁵You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’

⁸Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord God.

⁹You went to Molech with oil and multiplied your perfumes. You have sent your envoys a great distance; you have descended even to Sheol itself.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.

¹⁰Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes.

⁴¹Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgment against you in the sight of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will never again pay your lovers.

³They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

¹⁶Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired.

¹⁷“I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered. But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.”

⁶This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.

⁷Egypt’s help is futile and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab Who Sits Still.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

⁶Now in the days of King Josiah, the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.

⁷I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.

²“Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Tell those who prophesy out of their own imagination: Hear the word of the Lord!

⁵For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’

²¹See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!

⁴⁷Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord God says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched.

¹⁰They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and put her to the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgment against her.

²⁵I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.

¹⁵I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you throughout the lands; I will purge your uncleanness.

²²And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.

²³Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.

²⁹They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity

¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me”—

¹²even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

²²And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.

³Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.

¹⁰And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.

⁵“Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.

⁶I will pelt you with filth and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you.

²⁶So I will pull your skirts up over your face, that your shame may be seen.

¹⁶And the ten horns and the beast that you saw will hate the prostitute. They will leave her desolate and naked, and they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

¹⁰If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.

²¹Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

¹⁷I will bring such distress on mankind that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.

³¹You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

²⁰You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough?

²¹You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols.

²⁶They will strip off your clothes and take your fine jewelry.

³Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.

²⁴you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square.

²⁵At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.

¹⁰I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.

¹¹I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck.

¹⁶The Lord also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles—

¹⁷the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will make their foreheads bare.”

⁹Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.

⁴⁷The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.

⁶For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

⁷They are dreaded and feared; from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty.

⁵In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?”

⁶They said this to test Him, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger.

¹⁰They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and put her to the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgment against her.

⁹behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

²¹Tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I am about to desecrate My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul. And the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword.’

⁴⁸So I will put an end to indecency in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your behavior.

²⁷So I will put an end to your indecency and prostitution, which began in the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’

⁸The Chaldeans set fire to the palace of the king and to the houses of the people, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem.

⁹He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

¹³He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

⁸Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

¹³And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the Lord, in My zeal have spoken.

¹“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

²“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.”

¹⁷I too will strike My hands together, and I will satisfy My wrath.’ I, the Lord, have spoken.”

²⁹And I will no longer hide My face from them, for I will pour out My Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”

⁹“For to Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.

¹⁰Though the mountains may be removed and the hills may be shaken, My loving devotion will not depart from you, and My covenant of peace will not be broken,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

⁸Then the Lord summoned me and said, “Behold, those going to the land of the north have given rest to My Spirit in the land of the north.”

²²And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.

⁴²They did not remember His power—the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

²¹But as for those whose hearts pursue detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.”

³¹So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.”

¹³Yet they soon forgot His works and failed to wait for His counsel.

⁹Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

²“What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge’?

³As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel.

³⁵but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs.

³⁶They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them.

¹³As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand will never be against you.

³and tell her that this is what the Lord God says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

¹After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.

⁹But the people did not listen and Manasseh led them astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

⁸And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.

⁴Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who act corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.

²“Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother,

⁸Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord God.

¹⁵But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking.

³¹You must not worship the Lord your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

⁴The older was named Oholah, and her sister was named Oholibah. They became Mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their identities, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁶¹Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.

⁵³But I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity, as well as Samaria and her daughters. And I will restore you along with them.

⁵⁴So you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did to comfort them.

¹⁰And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

¹¹So Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan for himself and set out toward the east. And Abram and Lot parted company.

⁵¹Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have multiplied your abominations beyond theirs, and all the abominations you have committed have made your sisters appear righteous.

⁸She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.

⁹Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

⁹But the people did not listen and Manasseh led them astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

⁶But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’

⁷Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’

⁵¹Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have multiplied your abominations beyond theirs, and all the abominations you have committed have made your sisters appear righteous.

⁴⁸As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done.

³¹And as if it were not enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he even married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and he then proceeded to serve and worship Baal.

²¹But they will treat you like this because of My name, since they do not know the One who sent Me.

²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.

¹⁵Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

¹¹If anyone will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that place, as a testimony against them.”

¹²I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

²³And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.

²⁴But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

⁶Though the Lord is on high, He attends to the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.

¹⁰And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

²“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord God says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.

¹⁶Then He told them a parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced an abundance.

¹⁷So he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?’

¹²He oppresses the poor and needy; he commits robbery and does not restore a pledge. He lifts his eyes to idols; he commits abominations.

⁹The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.

⁵They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”

¹³But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the Lord.

²⁴Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens.

²⁰Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous,

⁹Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”

⁴⁰As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbors,” declares the Lord, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.

⁸She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.

⁹Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

⁹What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin.

¹⁰As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.

⁴⁷That servant who knows his master’s will but does not get ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows.

⁴⁸But the one who unknowingly does things worthy of punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him who has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded.

⁴¹The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.

⁴²The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.

¹“Do not judge, or you will be judged.

²For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

³²Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

¹⁷and said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me with good, though I have rewarded you with evil.

⁵⁴So you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did to comfort them.

⁴⁰And I will bring upon you everlasting shame and perpetual humiliation that will never be forgotten.”

⁵¹“We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the Lord’s house.”

²⁵Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Now I will restore Jacob from captivity and will have compassion on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for My holy name.

¹⁴I will restore Egypt from captivity and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin. There they will be a lowly kingdom.

²⁴In that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing upon the earth.

²⁵The Lord of Hosts will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”

¹⁶And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people and swear by My name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’—just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among My people.

⁴⁷Yet in the latter days I will restore Moab from captivity,” declares the Lord. Here ends the judgment on Moab.

⁷Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion! When the Lord restores His captive people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad!

²²Yet, behold, some survivors will be left in it—sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their conduct and actions, you will be comforted regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem—all that I have brought upon it.

²³They will bring you consolation when you see their conduct and actions, and you will know that it was not without cause that I have done all these things within it,’ declares the Lord God.”

²⁶As the thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets

⁶³so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, declares the Lord God.”

³¹Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.

³²It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God—let it be known to you. Be ashamed and disgraced for your ways, O house of Israel!

⁵²So now you must bear your disgrace, since you have brought justification for your sisters. For they appear more righteous than you, because your sins were more vile than theirs. So you too must bear your shame and disgrace, since you have made your sisters appear righteous.

¹¹I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁴Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, as in days of old and years gone by.

⁵³But I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity, as well as Samaria and her daughters. And I will restore you along with them.

⁵They say, ‘Keep to yourself; do not come near me, for I am holier than you!’ Such people are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all day long.

¹¹On that day you will not be put to shame for any of the deeds by which you have transgressed against Me. For then I will remove from among you those who rejoice in their pride, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain.

²⁸The older son became angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.

²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

¹¹The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

⁵Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to wage war against Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him.

⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, drove out the men of Judah, and sent the Edomites into Elath, where they live to this day.

¹Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city.

³⁶This is what the Lord God says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them,

³⁷therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.

¹⁸The Philistines had also raided the cities of the foothills and the Negev of Judah, capturing and occupying Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, and Gederoth, as well as Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo with their villages.

¹⁹For the Lord humbled Judah because Ahaz king of Israel had thrown off restraint in Judah and had been most unfaithful to the Lord.

⁵So the Lord his God delivered Ahaz into the hand of the king of Aram, who attacked him and took many captives to Damascus. Ahaz was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force.

⁶For in one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 valiant men in Judah. This happened because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers.

¹⁸When Oholibah openly prostituted herself and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister.

¹⁹Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt

⁴⁹They will repay you for your indecency, and you will bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.’”

⁷Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.

¹³But Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.

¹⁹Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘As surely as I live, I will bring down upon his head My oath that he despised and My covenant that he broke.

⁵The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.

¹⁰All of you are standing today before the Lord your God—you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel,

¹¹your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—

³²It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

¹³He took a member of the royal family and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. Then he carried away the leading men of the land,

¹⁴so that the kingdom would be brought low, unable to lift itself up, surviving only by keeping his covenant.

¹“Do not judge, or you will be judged.

²For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

¹⁹So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion.

²⁰And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the Lord.”

¹⁰For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

²⁴to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

⁵They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

⁸Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord God.

⁴²then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

¹³By speaking of a new covenant, He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

²⁶But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.

²⁷For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

⁶This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

¹¹I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.

¹⁶to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

⁴³There you will remember your ways and all the deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evils you have done.

⁷I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart.

⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

²²From that day forward the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God.

⁴³There you will remember your ways and all the deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evils you have done.

⁴⁴Then you will know, O house of Israel, that I am the Lord, when I have dealt with you for the sake of My name and not according to your wicked ways and corrupt acts, declares the Lord God.”

¹⁷Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

⁶⁰But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

⁹I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

³¹Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.

³²It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God—let it be known to you. Be ashamed and disgraced for your ways, O house of Israel!

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

⁷To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You.

⁸O Lord, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You.

⁴“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.

⁵I have spoken once, but I have no answer—twice, but I have nothing to add.”