Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty; your beauty was perfect because of the splendor which I bestowed on you, declares the sovereign Lord.

“But you trusted in and relied on your beauty and prostituted yourself [in idolatry and its debauched rituals] because of your fame, and you poured out your immoralities on every [willing] passer-by and your beauty was his [as you worshiped the idols of the Gentile nations].

Yea, thou hast taken thy garments of divers colors, and decked thine altars therewith, whereupon thou mightest fulfill thine whoredom, of such a fashion as never was done, nor shall be.

Also My bread which I gave you, [made from the] fine flour and oil and honey with which I fed you, you even offered it before idols [no better than cow dung] as a sweet and soothing aroma; so it happened,” says the Lord God.

And you took your sons and your daughters whom I had by you, offering even these to them to be their food. Was your loose behaviour so small a thing,

And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast weltering in thy blood.

At every street corner you made your beauty abhorrent when you made yourself available for sex to anyone who was passing by. By doing this, you kept on committing more and more immorality.

And you went with the Assyrians, because of your desire which was without measure; you were acting like a loose woman with them, and still you had not enough.

Thou hast moreover multiplied thy whoredom unto the land of traffic, unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.

How weak was thy heart! Exclaimeth My Lord Yahweh, - That thou couldst have done all these things, The doing of a lewd woman without shame:

You were different from other prostitutes because no one solicited you. When you gave payment and no payment was given to you, you became the opposite!

This is what the sovereign Lord says: Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness was uncovered in your prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children you have given to them,

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

Your older sister was Samaria, who lived north of you with her daughters, and your younger sister, who lived south of you, was Sodom with her daughters.

Still you have not gone in their ways or done the disgusting things which they have done; but, as if that was only a little thing, you have gone deeper in evil than they in all your ways.

"'See here -- this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had majesty, abundance of food, and enjoyed carefree ease, but they did not help the poor and needy.

They were full of pride and did what was disgusting to me: and so I took them away as you have seen.

Thou also bear thine own reproach, which thou didst adjudge to thy sisters, by thy sins in which thou wast more abominable than they, thou didst make them appear more righteous than thou, - Thou also, therefore turn thou pale and bear thine own reproach, for making thy sisters appear righteous!

In your days of majesty, was not Sodom your sister a byword in your mouth,

before your evil was exposed? Now you have become an object of scorn to the daughters of Aram and all those around her and to the daughters of the Philistines -- those all around you who despise you.

Say to them: 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: "'A great eagle with broad wings, long feathers, with full plumage which was multi-hued, came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar.

Then did it grow, and was a great vine stock, but low by the ground: thus there came of it a vine, and it brought forth blossoms, and spread out branches.

"'There was another great eagle with broad wings and thick plumage. Now this vine twisted its roots toward him and sent its branches toward him to be watered from the soil where it was planted.

In a good field, by abundant waters, it was planted to grow branches, bear fruit, and become a beautiful vine.

And if it is planted will it do well? will it not become quite dry at the touch of the east wind, drying up in the bed where it was planted?

And I spread my net upon him and he was taken in my net, and I brought him to Babel, and I contended with him there for his transgression which he transgressed against me.

In the mountain of the height of Israel I will plant it: and it bare a branch, and it made fruit, and it was for a great cedar: and there dwelt under it all fowls of every wing; in the shadow of its branches shall they dwell.

So shall all the trees of the field know that I Yahweh Have laid low the high tree Have exalted the low tree, Have dried up the moist tree, And have caused to flourish the tree, that was dry, - I, Yahweh, have spoken, and performed.

does not oppress anyone, but gives the debtor back whatever was given in pledge, does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and clothes the naked,

oppresses the poor and the needy, commits robbery, does not give back what was given in pledge, prays to idols, performs abominable acts,

Or done wrong to any, or taken anything from one in his debt, or taken goods by force, but has given food to him who was in need of it, and clothing to him who was without it;

As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was not good among his people, behold, he will die for his iniquity.

"Yet you keep asking, "Why wouldn't the son bear the punishment of his father's sin?' Because the son has done what was lawful and right, and has kept all my statutes and obeyed them, he's certainly going to live.

Because he had fear and was turned away from all the wrong which he had done, life will certainly be his, death will not be his fate.

and say: "'What a lioness was your mother among the lions! She lay among young lions; she reared her cubs.

And she will bring up one of her whelps: it was a young lion, and it will learn to rend the prey eating man.

The nations heard about him; he was trapped in their pit. They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

"'When she realized that she waited in vain, her hope was lost. She took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.

And he will go about in the midst of the lions; he was a young lion, and he will learn to tear in pieces the prey, eating man.

He broke down their strongholds and devastated their cities. The land and everything in it was frightened at the sound of his roaring.

The nations -- the surrounding regions -- attacked him. They threw their net over him; he was caught in their pit.

"'Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, planted by water. It was fruitful and full of branches because it was well-watered.

‘And it had strong branches for the scepters of rulers,
And its height was raised above the thick branches and into the clouds
So that it was seen [easily] in its height with the mass of its branches.

But it was plucked up in anger; it was thrown down to the ground. The east wind dried up its fruit; its strong branches broke off and withered -- a fire consumed them.

A fire has gone out from its branch; it has consumed its shoot and its fruit. No strong branch was left in it, nor a scepter to rule.' This is a lament song, and has become a lament song."

In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month [after the beginning of the exile in Babylon], certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and sat down before me.

And the word of Jehovah was to me, saying,

In that day, lifted I up my hand to them, to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, - into a land that I had looked out for them flowing with milk and honey, The beauty, it was of all lands,

And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean before the eyes of the nations among whom they were, and before whose eyes I gave them knowledge of myself, by taking them out of the land of Egypt.

Moreover also my sabbaths, gave I unto them, to become a sign betwixt me and them, - that it might be known that, I, Yahweh, was hallowing them.

And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had taken them out.

Yet even l lifted up my hand to them. in the desert, - That I would not b1ing them into the land which I had given to them flowing with milk and honey, The beauty, it was. of all lands:

And that because they refused my laws, and walked not in my commandments, but had unhallowed my Sabbaths - for their heart was gone after their Idols.

"But they rebelled against me. They didn't live according to my statutes, observe my ordinances, or practice them, by which a person will live. They also kept profaning my Sabbaths. So I said that I was going to pour out my anger on them and in my anger I'm going to bring about a complete end to them in the wilderness.

And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had taken them out.

And further, I gave them rules which were not good and orders in which there was no life for them;

As I was judged with your fathers, In the wilderness of the land of Egypt, So I am judged with you, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

With the odor of sweetness I will receive you into favor in my bringing you forth from the peoples, and I gathered you from the lands where ye were scattered in them; and I was consecrated in you before the eyes of the nations.

And it was when they shall say to thee, For what sighest thou? and say, For the report, because it came: and every heart melted and all hands were relaxed, and every spirit was weak, and all knees shall go into water: behold, it came, and it was, says the Lord Jehovah.

Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus said Jehovah: say, A sword, a sword was sharpened, and also polished.

In order to slaughter a slaughter it was sharpened; in order for lightning to be to it, it was polished; then shall we exult? the rod of my son despised, every tree.

And he will give it to be polished, to be taken in the hand: this sword was sharpened, and it was polished to give it into the hand of him slaying.

Cry and wail, son of man, for it was upon my people, it was upon all the princes of Israel: terrors for the sword were upon my people: for this, strike upon thy thigh.

For it is a trial, and what if also the rod was rejected? it shall not be, says the Lord Jehovah.

In order to melt the heart and to multiply the ruins, I gave the turning of the sword against all their gates: Ah! it was made for lightnings, it was polished for slaughter.

In his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.

And it was to them as a divination of falsehood in their eyes, swearing an oath to them, remembering iniquity to be taken.

So says the Lord Jehovah: Remove the diadem, and take off the crown. This shall not be as it was. Lift up the low one, and put down the high one.

Perverted, perverted, perverted, will I set her: and this was not till he came which to him the judgment; and I gave him.

And thou son of man, prophesy and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovah to the sons of Ammon, and for their reproach; and say, The sword, the sword was loosed: for slaughter it was polished, to consume for sake of the lightning:

because thou hast looked thee out vanities, and prophesied lies, that it may come upon thy neck like as upon the other ungodly which be slain: whose day came, when their wickedness was full.

Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy birth, will I judge thee.

In thee have they uncovered their fathers nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was unclean in her impurity.

And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter.

And behold, I struck my hand at thy plunder which thou madest, and at thy blood which was in the midst of thee.

Son of man, say to her, Thou a land not being cleansed; it was not rained upon in the day of anger.

And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one.

and they played the harlot in Egypt; they played the harlot in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.

Oholah was the name of the older and Oholibah the name of her younger sister. They became mine, and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,

Thus through her whoredom, she cleaved unto all the young men of Assyria: Yea she was mad upon them, and defiled herself with all their Idols.

And she has not given up her loose ways from the time when she was in Egypt; for when she was young they were her lovers, and by them her young breasts were crushed, and they let loose on her their unclean desire.

For this cause I gave her up into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians on whom her desire was fixed.

By these her shame was uncovered: they took her sons and daughters and put her to death with the sword: and she became a cause of wonder to women; for they gave her the punishment which was right.

And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.

She was full of desire for the Assyrians, captains and rulers, her neighbours, clothed in blue, horsemen going on horses, all of them young men to be desired.

Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,

girded with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, like the Babylonian men whose native land was Chaldea.

And when she saw them she was full of desire for them, and sent servants to them in Chaldaea.

And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.

So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.

Yea she multiplied her unchaste desires,-calling to mind the days of her youth, when she was unchaste in the land of Egypt; -

She lusted after their genitals -- as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions.

And you longed [after] the obscene conduct of your youth when your bosom was caressed by Egypt, fondling your young breasts.

For this, O Aholibah, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Behold me raising up those loving thee, against thee, whom thy soul was rent away from them, and I brought them against thee from round about

For thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am giving thee into a hand that thou hast hated, Into a hand from which thou wast alienated.

And they did with thee in hatred, and they took all thy labor, and they left thee naked and nakedness: and the nakedness of thy fornication was uncovered, and thy wickedness and thy fornications.

These things will happen to you because of your sexual immorality that was patterned after what the nations do. You've been defiled by their idols.

And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments,

then sat down on an elegant bed. A table was arranged in front of it, on which you set out my incense and oil.