For she sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,

Whosoever is simple, let him turn in here: and as for him that lacks understanding, she says to him,

A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that makes ashamed is like rottenness in his bones.

Hearken unto your father that begat you, and despise not your mother when she is old.

Your father and your mother shall be glad, and she that bore you shall rejoice.

She also lies in wait as for a prey, and increases the unfaithful among men.

This is the way of an adulterous woman; she eats, and wipes her mouth, and says, I have done no wickedness.

For an unloved woman when she is married; and a maidservant that is heir to her mistress.

She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

She seeks wool, and flax, and works willingly with her hands.

She is like the merchants' ships; she brings her food from afar.

She rises also while it is yet night, and gives food to her household, and a portion to her maidservants.

She considers a field, and buys it: with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

She girds her loins with strength, and strengthens her arms.

She perceives that her merchandise is good: her lamp goes not out by night.

She lays her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

She stretches out her hand to the poor; yea, she reaches forth her hands to the needy.

She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

She makes herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is fine linen and purple.

She makes fine linen, and sells it; and delivers sashes unto the merchants.

Strength and honor are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

She opens her mouth with wisdom; and on her tongue is the law of kindness.

She looks well to the ways of her household, and eats not the bread of idleness.

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that fears the LORD, she shall be praised.

My dove, my perfect one, is the only one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the favorite one of her that bore her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.

Who is she that looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and awesome as an army with banners?

Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I awakened you under the apple tree: there your mother brought you forth: there she brought you forth that bore you.

We have a little sister, and she has no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

If she is a wall, we will build upon her towers of silver: and if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.

And by great waters the grain of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a marketplace of nations.

And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget you.

There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.

Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

They say, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man's, may he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the LORD.

The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And it came to pass through the lightness of her harlotry, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with trees.

Like keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she has been rebellious against me, says the LORD.

For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be punished; she is full of oppression in the midst of her.

As a fountain casts out her waters, so she casts out her wickedness: violence and plundering are heard in her; before me continually are grief and wounds.

If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has worked lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice.

She that has borne seven languishes: she has breathed her last; her sun has gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the rest of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD.

Thus says the LORD; Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

For, lo, I will raise up and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a skilled warrior; none shall return in vain.

Your mother shall be utterly confounded; she that bore you shall be ashamed: behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all you that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against the LORD.

Shout against her round about: she has given her hand: her foundations have fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do unto her.

Call together the archers against Babylon: all you that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none of them escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do unto her: for she has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

The sea has come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of its waves.

Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall plunderers come unto her, says the LORD.

How does the city sit lovely, that was full of people! how has she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how has she become a slave!

She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she has none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest: all her persecutors overtook her in her distress.

The roads to Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sighs, and turns away.

Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembers not her latter end; therefore she came down awesomely: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy has magnified himself.

The adversary has spread out his hand over all her precious things: for she has seen that the nations entered into her sanctuary, whom you did command that they should not enter into your congregation.

For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of 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.

And I will judge you, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy.

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.

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.

Your mother is like a vine in your vineyard, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

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 now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.

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.

You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed; and have defiled yourself in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and have come even unto your years: therefore have I made you a reproach unto the nations, and a mocking to all countries.

Behold, the princes of Israel, each one in you used his power to shed blood.

In you are men that slander to shed blood: and in you they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of you they commit lewdness.

In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD.

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

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.

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

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.