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

And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are around her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

He said furthermore to me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should withdraw from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

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

Then he said to me, Hast thou 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.

And say to the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord GOD of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with solicitude, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that 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, saith the Lord GOD.

Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

But as a wife that committeth adultery, who taketh strangers instead of her husband!

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

Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, who lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

And thy elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, 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 thy captives in the midst of them:

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

Before thy wickedness was disclosed, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise thee on every side.

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

Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by its roots.

And say, What is thy mother: A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

And she brought up one of her whelps: 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 whelps, 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 hight 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 hath gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yes, thou shalt show her all her abominations.

Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.

In thee have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.

Son of man, say to her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

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

Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, 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 the midst of her are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.

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

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

Thus she committed her lewd deeds 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 lewd deeds brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they first corrupted her, and poured their impurities upon her.

Wherefore 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 famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

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

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 prostitutions: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion.

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

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

So she disclosed her lewd deeds, and exposed her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, as my mind was alienated from her sister.

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

Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thy 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 hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.

Then said I to her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit lewd deeds with her, and she with them?

Yet they went in to her, as they go in to a woman that playeth the harlot: so they went in to Aholah and to Aholibah, 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 hath 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 thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited by sea-faring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who cause their terror to be on all that haunt it!

And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: 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 saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.

And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Cush, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.

Thus saith 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, saith 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.

The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round his plants, and sent out her little rivers to all the trees of the field.

And when I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

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, saith 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 nether 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: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:

Whose graves are set in the sides 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 nether parts of the earth, who 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 around him: 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: he is put in the midst of them that are slain.

There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are around him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.

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 lay 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.

And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that subjected them to service.

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.

Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before.