“Thus says the Lord God, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the center of the nations, and countries are around her.

And she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the [pagan] nations and against My statutes more than the countries that are around her; for Israel has rejected My ordinances and has not walked in My statutes.’

Furthermore, He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great repulsive acts which the house of Israel is committing here, to drive Me far away from My sanctuary? But you will again see greater repulsive acts.”

And He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked, repulsive acts that they are committing here.”

He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it too slight a thing for the house of Judah to commit the repulsive acts which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and repeatedly provoked Me to anger? And behold, they are putting the branch to their nose.

along with the [false] prophets of Israel who prophesy [deceitfully] to Jerusalem, and who see [false] visions of peace for her when there is no peace,’ says the Lord God.

“Son of man, make Jerusalem understand [the heinous and vile nature of] her repulsive (idolatrous) acts

You adulterous wife, who welcomes and receives strangers instead of her husband!

“Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’

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

Now your older sister is Samaria, she with her daughters (outlying cities) who live north of you; and your younger sister is Sodom, she with her daughters who live south of you.

As I live,” says the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

Behold, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters (outlying cities) had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.

“Nevertheless, I will restore them [again] from their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters (outlying cities), the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and along with them [I will restore you from] your own captivity [in the day of the Lord God],

Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state; and you and your daughters will return to your former state.

before your [own] wickedness was uncovered. Now you have become an object of reproach and a byword for the daughters of Aram and of Edom and all who are around her, and for the daughters of the Philistines—those surrounding you who despise you.

and does not eat [at the pagan shrines] on the mountains or raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her [monthly] time of impurity—

and say,

‘What was your mother [Jerusalem and Judah]?
A lioness among lions!
She lay down among young lions,
She reared her cubs.

‘When she [the royal mother-city] brought up [Jehoahaz] one of her cubs,
He became a [young] lion,
And he learned to catch and tear the prey;
He devoured men.

‘When she saw, as she waited,
That her hope was lost,
She took another of her cubs
And made him a young lion.

“And you, son of man [Ezekiel], will you judge, will you judge the city of bloodshed? Then make her recognize all her repulsive acts.

You shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time [of doom] will come, and makes idols to defile her, contrary to her interest!

“Son of man, say to her, ‘You [Israel] are a land that is not pronounced clean or rained on in the day of indignation.’

There is a conspiracy of her [false] prophets in her midst, like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured [human] life; they have taken [in their greed] treasure and precious things; they have made many widows among her.

Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy (sacred) and the profane (secular), they have not taught [people] the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Her princes within her are like wolves tearing and devouring the prey, shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain.

Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for 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 gave birth to sons and daughters. And as for [the identity of] their names, Oholah is Samaria (capital city of Israel) and Oholibah is Jerusalem (capital city of Judah).

“Oholah played the prostitute while she was Mine; and she adored and lusted after her lovers (allies), the Assyrians, her neighbors,

She bestowed [freely] her immoralities on them, the choicest men of Assyria, all of them; and with all whom she adored and lusted after, she defiled herself with their idols.

She did not give up the acts of prostitution that originated during her time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their depravity on her.

Therefore, I placed her in the hand of her lovers (allies), into the hand of the Assyrians whom she adored.

They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters and they killed her with the sword. So she became notorious among women, and they executed judgments on her.

“Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her acts of prostitution were more [wanton] than the immoralities of her sister.

She lusted after the Assyrians—governors and officials, her neighbors, magnificently clothed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

But Oholibah carried her depravity further, for she saw men pictured on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans (Babylonians) sketched and portrayed in vermilion (bright red pigment),

The Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and they defiled her with their evil desire; and when she had been defiled by them, she (Jerusalem) broke the relationship and pushed them away from her in disgust.

So she flaunted her acts of prostitution and exposed her nakedness; then I became disgusted with her [and turned away], as I had become disgusted with her sister [and turned away].

Yet she multiplied her depravities, remembering the days of her youth, when she was actively immoral in the land of Egypt.

For she lusted after her lovers [there], whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

You have walked in the way of your sister (Samaria); therefore I will give her cup [of judgment] into your hand.’

The sound of a carefree crowd was with her; and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with men of a common sort, who put bracelets on the hands of the women (both sisters) and beautiful crowns on their heads.

“Then I said concerning the one (Oholah) worn out by adulteries, ‘Will they now commit adultery with her when she is like this?’

But they committed adultery with her as they would with a prostitute. So they went in to Oholah (Israel) and to Oholibah (Judah), the lewd women.

“For her blood [that she has shed] remains in her midst;
She put it on the bare rock;
She did not pour it on the ground
To cover it with dust.

“That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance,
I have put her blood [guilt for her children sacrificed to Molech] on the bare rock,
That it may not be covered.”

“She has wearied Me with toil,
Yet her great rust has not left her;
Her thick rust and filth will not be burned away by fire [no matter how hot the flame].

They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; and I will scrape her dust and debris from her and make her as bare as [the top of] a rock.

Her island in the midst of the sea will become a dry place to spread nets, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord God, ‘and she will become a prey and a spoil for the nations.

Also Tyre’s daughters (towns, villages) on the mainland will be killed by the sword, and they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.’”

They will take up a dirge (funeral poem to be sung) for you and say to you,

‘How you have perished and vanished, O renowned city,
From the seas, O renowned city,
Which was mighty on the sea,
She and her inhabitants,
Who imposed her terror
On all who lived there!

“Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against her

and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God,

“Behold, I am against you, O Sidon,
And I will show My glory and be glorified in your midst.
Then they will know [by personal experience] that I am the Lord when I bring judgment and punishment on her,
And I will manifest My holiness in her.

“For I will send virulent disease to her
And blood into her streets,
And the wounded will fall in her midst
By the sword upon her from every side,
And they shall know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

So I will make the land of Egypt a desolation [plundered and ruined] among desolated lands; and her cities, among cities that are laid waste, will be desolate forty years. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and [I will] disperse them through the lands.”

Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will carry off her wealth and capture her spoil and seize her plunder; and it shall be the wages for his army.

“A sword will come upon Egypt,
And anguish and trembling will be in Ethiopia (Cush),
When the slain fall in Egypt
And they [of Babylon] carry away her great mass of people and her riches
And her foundations are torn down.

‘Thus says the Lord,
“Those who uphold and support Egypt will fall
And the pride of her power will come down;
From Migdol [in the north] to Syene [in the south]
They will fall within her by the sword,”
Says the Lord God.

“And they will be desolate
In the midst of countries that are desolated;
And her cities will be
Among cities that are devastated [by plunder and slavery].

“And they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord,
When I have set a fire in Egypt
And all her helpers are shattered and destroyed.

“In Tehaphnehes the day will be dark
When I break the yoke bars and dominion of Egypt there.
Then the pride of her power will come to an end;
A cloud [of disasters] will cover her,
And her daughters will go into captivity.

“And when I extinguish you,
I will cover the heavens [of Egypt] and darken their stars;
I will cover the sun with a cloud
And the moon will not give its light.

This is the dirge (funeral poem to be sung) and they shall sing it [for her]. The daughters of the nations shall sing it; for Egypt and for all her hordes they shall sing it,” says the Lord God.

“Son of man, wail over the hordes of Egypt and cast them down, both her and the daughters of the powerful and majestic nations, to the nether world (the place of the dead), with those who go down to the pit;

They will fall among those who are slain by the sword. She (Egypt) is handed over to the sword; they have drawn her and all her hordes away [to judgment].

“Assyria is there with all her warriors; their graves are all around her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword,

whose graves are set in the remotest parts of the pit and her army is all around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.

“Elam [a conquest of Assyria] is there and all her hordes around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, who made their terror spread in the land of the living and bore their shame and defeat with those who went down to the pit.

They have made a bed for her among the slain with all her hordes. Her graves are around it; they are all uncircumcised (barbaric, boorish, crude), slain by the sword (for their terror had been spread in the land of the living), and they bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit; they were laid among the slain.

“Edom is there also, her kings and all her princes, who for all their power and strength are laid with those who were slain by the sword; they will lie [in shame and defeat] with the uncircumcised and with those who go down to the pit.

And I will make the land [of Israel] a desolation and a ruin, and her pride in her power will be brought to an end; and the mountains of Israel will be so deserted that no one will pass through.

“Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their [own] behavior and by their [idolatrous] actions. Their conduct before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman during her [physical] impurity.

Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so will the desolate cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know [with confident assurance] that I am the Lord.”’”

The man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and set your heart on all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here that I may show it to you. Declare to the house of Israel all that you see.”

And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman; but they shall marry virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow who was previously married to a priest.