Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries around her. Indeed, they have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes.

"'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.

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

She reared one of her cubs; he became a young lion. He learned to tear prey; he devoured people.

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

you are guilty because of the blood you shed and defiled by the idols you made. You have hastened the day of your doom; the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations, an object to be mocked by all lands.

"'See how each of the princes of Israel living within you has used his authority to shed blood.

Slanderous men shed blood within you. Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains; they commit obscene acts among you.

They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, declares the sovereign Lord.

"Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians -- warriors

She bestowed her sexual favors on them; all of them were the choicest young men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all whom she desired -- with all their idols.

She did not abandon the prostitution she had practiced in Egypt; for in her youth men had sex with her, fondled her virgin breasts, and ravished her.

Therefore I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted.

They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. She became notorious among women, and they executed judgments against her.

"Her sister Oholibah watched this, but she became more corrupt in her lust than her sister had been, and her acts of prostitution were more numerous than those of her sister.

She lusted after the Assyrians -- governors and officials, warriors in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

I saw that she was defiled; both of them followed the same path.

But she increased her prostitution. She saw men carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans carved in bright red,

When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

The Babylonians crawled into bed with her. They defiled her with their lust; after she was defiled by them, she became disgusted with them.

When she lustfully exposed her nakedness, I was disgusted with her, just as I had been disgusted with her sister.

Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution 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.

For her blood was in it; she poured it on an exposed rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it up with dust.

"Son of man, realize that I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you with a jolt, but you must not mourn or weep or shed tears.

"Son of man, because Tyre has said about Jerusalem, 'Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, now that she has been destroyed,'

She will be a place where fishing nets are spread, surrounded by the sea. For I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations,

They will sing this lament over you: "'How you have perished -- you have vanished from the seas, O renowned city, once mighty in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror!

Therefore say to them, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, pray to your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess the land?

So I poured my anger on them because of the blood they shed on the land and because of the idols with which they defiled it.