Jerusalem is like a prostitute
1The Lord talked to me and He said: 2‘Son of man, you must tell Jerusalem about all the bad things that she has done. 3You must say: “The Lord God says to Jerusalem: You came from the land of the Canaanites. You were born there. Your father came from the Amorites and your mother was a Hittite. 4On the day when you were born, they did not cut your umbilical-cord. They did not wash you or put salt on your skin or put cloths around you. 5No one felt sorry for you, and no one tried to help you. They threw you away in the field. No one loved you when you were born. 6Then I came there and I saw that you were lying in your blood and kicking. I saw that you were going to die but I said to you: “‘You must live.”’
You were lying in your blood and I said: “‘Live, 7and grow up.”’
I healed you and made you grow like a plant in the field. You grew and you became big and you became a beautiful girl. Your breasts became bigger and your hair became long. But you were naked. You were not wearing any clothes. 8Later when I came to you again, I saw that you were old enough to get married and I put my cloak over you and covered you. I promised that I would care for you and I made a covenant with you. You became mine.” This is what the Lord God said.
9“I bathed you, I washed the blood from you and I put olive oil on your body. 10I gave you beautiful clothes and shoes of soft leather. I covered you in linen and silk. 11I gave you beautiful jewellery, bracelets and chains around your neck, 12rings in your nose and your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13I gave you gold and silver to sew onto your clothes. You could wear clothes of linen and silk and beautiful material. I gave you bread made of the best wheat flour and honey and olive oil to eat. You became so beautiful that you could become a queen. 14All the nations knew that you were beautiful. No one else was as beautiful as you. It was I who made you beautiful.” This is what the Lord God said.
15“But you became proud and thought you could do anything because you were beautiful. Everyone had sex with you and you became a bad woman. You became a prostitute. You had sex with anyone who walked by. 16You took some of your clothes to make your places_of_sacrifice beautiful, to worship other gods there. That is where you took the men to have sex with them. Things like that had not happened before and they should never happen again. 17You also took the beautiful jewellery that I gave you, the gold and silver, and you made idols for yourself that looked like men, and you served other gods with those images. 18You took beautiful clothes and put them on the images. You took the olive oil and incense that you should have given to Me, and you sacrificed them to those images. 19You took the bread that I gave you to eat, the fine flour, olive oil and honey, and you sacrificed them to your gods so that they could smell it and be pleased. This is what you did,” said the Lord God.
20“I gave you sons and daughters but you took them and sacrificed them to the idols to be food for them. 21You have killed my children and burnt them and sacrificed them to idols. 22You did all these things that I hate. You became unfaithful and you did not remember the time when you were naked and without clothes, that time when you were very young and you lay in your blood. 23You have done all these bad things and that is why you will suffer very badly.” This is what the Lord God said.
24“You have built places_of_sacrifice everywhere. 25You have built places_of_sacrifice at each place where the roads come together. You were beautiful, but you used your beautiful body to do things that I hate. You were like a prostitute who opens her legs for anyone who comes by. You have not stopped serving other gods. 26You served other gods with the Egyptians, who always wanted to sleep with you. You loved them a lot and you were unfaithful to Me all the time and you were hurting Me. 27Then I decided to punish you. I took away your food and your land. I told your enemies, the Philistines, that they could do with you what they wanted to do. Even they were ashamed about the bad things that you did. 28You served other gods with the Assyrians, and you did not want to stop. You served other gods with them and you wanted to do it more and more. 29You kept on serving other gods with the people in the land of the merchants, the Babylonians, and you wanted to do it more and more. 30Your mind and heart are sick.” This is what the Lord God said: “You have done all these things like a prostitute who is not ashamed. 31You have built places_of_sacrifice at every place where the roads come together, and everywhere that you could find a place, but you did not do what a prostitute does. You did not ask the men to pay you. 32You were like a bad woman who chose to sleep with other men, not with her husband. 33All prostitutes want men to pay them, but you did not ask them to pay you. No, you paid them. You paid everyone who had sex with you. You paid them to come to you from all over and to serve other gods with you. 34You were different from all the other prostitutes when you became unfaithful. Men did not want to come to you. They did not pay you. No, you paid them to sleep with you. You were different.” ’
The Lord will judge the prostitute
35‘ “So, prostitute, listen to what the Lord says. 36The Lord God says: You have done very bad things. You have taken off your clothes for anyone to sleep with you. You loved the idols that I hate. You have killed your children and sacrificed their blood to your gods. 37Now I will call all your lovers, everyone who has had sex with you, those that you liked and also those that you did not like. I will call them together and I will take off your clothes so that everyone can see your naked body. 38I will punish you like men punish their wives who have committed_adultery or have murdered someone. You will have to die because I am angry and jealous. 39I will give you to your lovers and they will do with you what they want to do. They will break down your places_of_sacrifice, they will take off your clothes and take your jewellery, and they will leave you naked, without clothes. 40They will call people to come together to punish you. They will throw stones at you and kill you, and they will cut you to pieces with their swords. 41They will burn down your houses. They will punish you and all the other women will see it. Then you will stop being a bad woman. You will not have sex with other men again and you will never again pay your lovers. 42After I have punished you, I will stop being angry and jealous. I will be calm and have peace in my heart. 43I will punish you for all the wrong things that you have done because you have forgotten what happened when you were young. You made Me very angry when you did all those things.” This is what the Lord God said: “I hate all these things that you did. You have done very bad things. 44The people who make proverbs will make a proverb about you and they will say: “‘The daughter is like her mother.”’ 45You are your mother's daughter, and your mother hated her husband and her children. You are your sister's sister, and your sisters hated their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite woman and your father was an Amorite. 46Samaria is your oldest sister. She and her daughters lived to the north of you. Sodom is your younger sister. She and her daughters lived to the south of you. 47You like them and you have done the same things as they did, things that I hate. But you were not satisfied, and you did worse things than they did.”
48The Lord God says: “Your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as many sins as you and your daughters have done. This is sure, as sure as I live. 49Your sister Sodom was proud and selfish. She and her daughters had a lot of food. They had too much food, but they did not help people who could not help themselves, or people who had nothing. 50They were proud and they did things that I hate. That is why I made them disappear when I saw what they had done. 51Samaria had not done as many sins as you have done. You have done more than twice the bad things that they have done. You have done a lot more things that I hate. You have done so many things that I hate that it seems as if your sisters were living in the right way. 52You should be ashamed of it. You have done so many sins, so many things that I hate, that it seemed as if their lives were better than yours. You must be ashamed. You have done so many wrong things that it seems as if your sisters lived in the right way. 53But I will be good to Sodom and her daughters again, and also to Samaria and her daughters, and I will also be good to you, with them. 54You will be ashamed of all those bad things that you did. You even made your sisters feel better when they saw what you did. 55Your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, and their daughters, will again become the cities that they were before, and you and your daughters will again become the city that you were before. 56You humiliated your sister Sodom when you were proud, 57but that was before everyone saw how bad you were. The Syrian people and all who live near them are laughing at you now, and all the Philistines around you are mocking you. 58It is because of your sinful life that you are suffering now, and because of all the things you did that I hate.” This is what the Lord said.
59Yes, the Lord God says: “I will do to you what you have done. You did not respect the promise that you had made to Me, and you have broken the covenant. 60But I will not forget the covenant that I made with you when you were young and I will again make a covenant with you, a covenant that will be forever. 61I will give you your older sister and your younger sister. I will give them to you to be your daughters. I did not promise this when I made the covenant with you, but I will do it. Then you will remember how you have lived and you will be ashamed. 62I will make my covenant with you again, and you will say you know that I am the Lord. 63I will forgive you for everything that you have done wrong, and then you will think about what you have done, and you will be so ashamed that you will not be able to talk.” ’ This is what the Lord God said.
