"Thus says the Lord GOD: 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are around her.

She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.'

He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you shall again see yet other great abominations."

He said to me, "Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here."

Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and behold, they put the branch to their nose.

and tell the people of the land, 'Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with fearfulness, and drink their water in dismay, that her land may be desolate, and all that is therein, because of the violence of all those who dwell therein.

to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,'"' says the Lord GOD."

"Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations;

"'A wife who commits adultery. who takes strangers instead of her husband.

"'Behold, everyone who uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, "As is the mother, so is her daughter."

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.

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.

As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.

"'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.

"'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 their midst;

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.

before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who do despite to you all around.

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,

and say, 'What was your mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her cubs.

She brought up one of her cubs: he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.

"'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.

"You, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations.

You shall say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "A city that sheds blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her.

In you have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness; in you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity.

"Son of man, tell her, 'You are a land that is not cleansed, nor rained on in the day of indignation.'

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in its midst, like a roaring lion ravening the prey: they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in its midst.

Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Her officials in its midst are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' when the LORD has not spoken.

Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

"Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,

She bestowed her prostitution on them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.

Neither has she left her prostitution since the days of Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on her.

Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.

These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.

"Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which were more than the prostitution of her sister.

She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.

So she uncovered her prostitution, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.

Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.

You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.'

The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on their hands twain, and beautiful crowns on their heads.

Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, 'Now will they play the prostitute with her, and she with them.'

They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute: so went they in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.

For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it on the bare rock; she didn't pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust.

That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood on the bare rock, that it should not be covered.'

She has wearied herself with toil; yet her great rust doesn't go forth out of her; her rust doesn't go forth by fire.

They shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.

Her daughters who are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

They shall take up a lamentation over you, and tell you, "How you are destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, who was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who lived there.

In their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for you, and lament over you, saying, 'Who is there like Tyre, like her who is brought to silence in the midst of the sea?'

and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against you, Sidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of you;" and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall fall in the midst of her, with the sword on her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries."

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.

A sword shall come on Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt; and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.

"Thus says the LORD: 'They also who uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Seveneh shall they fall in it by the sword,' says the Lord GOD.

'They shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.

They shall know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed.

At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.

This is the lamentation with which they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith,' says the Lord GOD."

"Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit.

They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her away and all her multitudes.

"Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are all around her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword;

whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.

"There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit.

They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude; her graves are around her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of those who are slain.

"There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit.

I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.

"Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings: their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.

As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am the LORD.'"

The man said to me, "Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I shall show you; for, to the intent that I may show them to you, you are brought here: declare all that you see to the house of Israel."

Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her who is put away; but they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.