016:004 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.
016:005 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.
016:006 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.
016:007 I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you
increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent ornament;
your breasts were fashioned, and your hair was grown;
yet you were naked and bare.
016:008 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 Yahweh,
and you became mine.
016:009 Then washed I you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away
your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.
016:010 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.
016:011 I decked you with ornaments, and I put bracelets on your hands,
and a chain on your neck.
016:012 I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears,
and a beautiful crown on your head.
016:013 Thus you were 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 prospered to royal estate.
016:014 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 Yahweh.
016:015 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.
016:016 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].
016:017 You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver,
which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men,
and played the prostitute with them;
016:018 and you took your embroidered garments, and covered them,
and did set my oil and my incense before them.
016:019 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 Yahweh.
016:020 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,
016:021 that you have slain my children, and delivered them up,
in causing them to pass through [the fire] to them?
016:022 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.
016:023 It is happen after all your wickedness, (woe, woe to you! says
the Lord Yahweh),
016:024 that you have built to you a vaulted place, and have made you
a lofty place in every street.
016:025 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.
016:026 You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians,
your neighbors, great of flesh; and have multiplied
your prostitution, to provoke me to anger.
016:027 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 Philistines,
who are ashamed of your lewd way.
016:028 You have played the prostitute also with the Assyrians,
because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the prostitute
with them, and yet you weren't satisfied.
016:029 You have moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land
of merchants, to Chaldea; and yet you weren't satisfied with this.
016:030 How weak is your heart, says the Lord Yahweh, seeing you
do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute;
016:031 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 pay.
016:032 A wife who commits adultery! who takes strangers instead
of her husband!
016:033 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.
016:034 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.
016:035 Therefore, prostitute, hear the word of Yahweh:
016:036 Thus says the Lord Yahweh, 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;
016:037 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.
016:038 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.
016:039 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.
016:040 They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall
stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords.
016:041 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.
016:042 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.
016:043 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 Yahweh:
and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.
016:044 Behold, everyone who uses proverbs shall use [this] proverb
against you, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
016:045 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 Amorite.
016:046 Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand,
she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells
at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
016:047 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.
016:048 As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done,
she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.
016:049 Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom:
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.
016:050 They were haughty, and committed abomination before me:
therefore I took them away as I saw [good].
016:051 Neither has Samaria 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.
016:052 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.
016:053 I will turn again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and
her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters,
and the captivity of your captives in the midst of them;
016:054 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.
016:055 Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their
former estate; and Samaria and her daughters shall return
to their former estate; and you and your daughters shall
return to your former estate.
016:056 For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day
of your pride,
016:057 before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the
reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are round
about her, the daughters of the Philistines, who do despite
to you round about.
016:058 You have borne your lewdness and your abominations, says Yahweh.
016:059 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also deal with you as you
have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
016:060 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days
of your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant.
016:061 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.
016:062 I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall know
that I am Yahweh;
016:063 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 Yahweh.
017:001 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
017:002 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the
house of Israel;
017:003 and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A great eagle with great wings
and long feathers, full of feathers, which had various colors,
came to Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar:
017:004 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.
017:005 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.
017:006 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.
017:007 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.
017:008 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.
017:009 Say you, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: 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.
017:010 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.
017:011 Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
017:012 Say now to the rebellious house, Don't you know what these things
mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem,
and took the king of it, and the princes of it, and brought
them to him to Babylon:
017:013 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;
017:014 that the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up,
but that by keeping his covenant it might stand.
017:015 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors
into Egypt, 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?
017:016 As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, 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 Babylon he shall die.
017:017 Neither shall Pharaoh 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.
017:018 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.
017:019 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 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.
017:020 I will spread my net on him, and he shall be taken in my snare,
and I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment
with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.
017:021 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, Yahweh, have spoken it.
017:022 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: 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:
017:023 in the mountain of the height of Israel 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.
017:024 All the trees of the field shall know that I, Yahweh, 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, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it.
018:001 The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,
018:002 What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land
of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge?
018:003 As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, you shall not have [occasion]
any more to use this proverb in Israel.
018:004 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.
018:005 But if a man is just, and does that which is lawful and right,
018:006 and has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up
his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither has
defiled his neighbor's wife, neither has come near to a woman
in her impurity,
018:007 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;
018:008 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,
018:009 has walked in my statutes, and has kept my ordinances, to deal truly;
he is just, he shall surely live, says the Lord Yahweh.
018:010 If he fathers a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood,
and who does any one of these things,
018:011 and who does not any of those [duties], but even has eaten
on the mountains, and defiled his neighbor's wife,
018:012 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,
018:013 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.
018:014 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;
018:015 who has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up
his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled
his neighbor's wife,
018:016 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;
018:017 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.
018:018 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.
018:019 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.
018:020 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.
018:021 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.
018:022 None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be
remembered against him: in his righteousness that he has
done he shall live.
018:023 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Yahweh;
and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?
018:024 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.
018:025 Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal.
Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal?
Aren't your ways unequal?
018:026 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.
018:027 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.
018:028 Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions
that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
018:029 Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal.
house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?
018:030 Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel,
everyone according to his ways, says the Lord Yahweh.
Return you, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions;
so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
018:031 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 Israel?
018:032 For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,
says the Lord Yahweh: therefore turn yourselves, and live.
019:001 Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
019:002 and say, What was your mother? A lioness: she couched among lions,
in the midst of the young lions she nourished her cubs.
019:003 She brought up one of her cubs: he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.
019:004 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit;
and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.
019:005 Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost,
then she took another of her cubs, and made him a young lion.
019:006 He went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.
019:007 He knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land
was desolate, and the fullness of it, because of the noise
of his roaring.
019:008 Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces;
and they spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.
019:009 They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king
of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, that his voice
should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.
019:010 Your mother was like a vine, in your blood, planted by the waters:
it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
019:011 It had strong rods for the scepters of those who bore rule,
and their stature was exalted among the thick boughs,
and they were seen in their height with the multitude
of their branches.
019:012 But it was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground,
and the east wind dried up its fruit: its strong rods were
broken off and withered; the fire consumed them.
019:013 Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.
019:014 Fire is gone out of the rods of its branches, it has devoured
its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a scepter
to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.
020:001 It happened in the seventh year, in the fifth [month],
the tenth [day] of the month, that certain of the elders
of Israel came to inquire of Yahweh, and sat before me.
020:002 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
020:003 Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them, Thus says
the Lord Yahweh: Is it to inquire of me that you have come?
As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired
of by you.
020:004 Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them?
Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers;
020:005 and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when I
chose Israel, and swore to the seed of the house of Jacob,
and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I
swore to them, saying, I am Yahweh your God;
020:006 in that day I swore to them, to bring them forth out of the land
of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them,
flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.
020:007 I said to them, Cast you away every man the abominations
of his eyes, and don't defile yourselves with the idols
of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.
020:008 But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me;
they did not every man cast away the abominations of
their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt.
Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish
my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
020:009 But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be
profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were,
in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them
forth out of the land of Egypt.
020:010 So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt,
and brought them into the wilderness.
020:011 I gave them my statutes, and shown them my ordinances,
which if a man do, he shall live in them.
020:012 Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign
between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh
who sanctifies them.
020:013 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness:
they didn't walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances,
which if a man keep, he shall live in them; and my Sabbaths
they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my wrath
on them in the wilderness, to consume them.
020:014 But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned
in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.
020:015 Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness, that I
would not bring them into the land which I had given them,
flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;
020:016 because they rejected my ordinances, and didn't walk in
my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths: for their heart went
after their idols.
020:017 Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I didn't destroy them,
neither did I make a full end of them in the wilderness.
020:018 I said to their children in the wilderness, Don't you walk in
the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their ordinances,
nor defile yourselves with their idols.
020:019 I am Yahweh your God: walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances,
and do them;
020:020 and make my Sabbaths holy; and they shall be a sign between me
and you, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.
020:021 But the children rebelled against me; they didn't walk in
my statutes, neither kept my ordinances to do them, which if
a man do, he shall live in them; they profaned my Sabbaths.