Thus says the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.

And she has changed my ordinances into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my ordinances and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, see you what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn you yet again, and you shall see greater abominations.

And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

Then he said unto me, Have you seen this, O 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 returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

That is, 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,

But as a wife that commits adultery, who takes strangers instead of her husband!

Behold, every one that uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.

You are your mother's daughter, that loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at your left hand: and your younger sister, that 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 food, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of your captives in the midst of them:

When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former state, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former state, then you and your daughters shall return to your former state.

Before your wickedness was discovered, as at the time of your reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise you round about.

There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the bed of its planting.

And has not eaten upon 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 a woman during her impurity,

And say, What is your mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her cubs among young lions.

And she brought up one of her cubs: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it 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.

And she had strong rods for the scepters of them that bore rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.

But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.

And fire has gone out of a rod of her branches, which has devoured her fruit, so that she has no strong rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? yea, you shall show her all her abominations.

Then say you, Thus says the Lord GOD, The city sheds blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and makes idols within herself to defile herself.

In you have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness: in you have they violated her that was set apart for her impurity.

Son of man, say unto her, You are the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

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

Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and the common, neither have they shown difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus says the Lord GOD, when the LORD has not spoken.

And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

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

Thus she committed her harlotries with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.

Neither left she her harlotries brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the breasts of her virginity, and poured their harlotry upon her.

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

These uncovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

And when her sister Oholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotries more than her sister in her harlotries.

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

And that she increased her harlotries: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,

And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

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

So she uncovered her harlotries, and uncovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like my mind was alienated from her sister.

Yet she multiplied her harlotries, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

For she doted upon her paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

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

And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, who put bracelets upon their wrists, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.

Then said I unto her that had grown old in adulteries, Will they now commit harlotries with her, and she with them?

Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that plays the harlot: so went they in unto Oholah and unto Oholibah, the lewd women.

For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust;

That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered.

She has wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum shall be in the fire.

And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.

And her daughters who are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

And they shall take up a lamentation for you, and say to you, How are you destroyed, that were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, which was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who cause their terror to be on all that inhabit it!

And say, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against you, O 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 into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate 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 unto Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her wealth, and take her plunder; and it shall be the wages for his army.

And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain 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 that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, says the Lord GOD.

And 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.

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

At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength 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 her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, 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, unto the lower parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.

They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.

Asshur is there and all her company: their graves are about her: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:

Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living.

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

They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about her: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: they are put in the midst of them that are slain.

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

For I will make the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.

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

As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you; for to the intent that I might show them unto you are you brought here: declare all that you see to the house of Israel.

Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is divorced: but they shall take maidens of the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow of a priest.