You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and defiled by your idols which you have made. Thus you have brought your day near and have come to your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all the lands.

In you they have taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and profits, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by oppression, and you have forgotten Me,” declares the Lord God.

“Oholah played the harlot while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians, her neighbors,

She bestowed her harlotries on them, all of whom were the choicest men of Assyria; and with all whom she lusted after, with all their idols she defiled herself.

She did not forsake her harlotries from the time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her.

Therefore, I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted.

They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, but they slew her with the sword. Thus she became a byword 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 harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister.

She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way.

So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

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

The Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. And when she had been defiled by them, she became disgusted with them.

She uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness; then I became disgusted with her, as I had become disgusted with her sister.

Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

“Then I said concerning her who was worn out by adulteries, ‘Will they now commit adultery with her when she is thus?’

But they, righteous men, will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.

“For her blood is in her midst;
She placed it on the bare rock;
She did not pour it on the ground
To cover it with dust.

“She has wearied Me with toil,
Yet her great rust has not gone from her;
Let her rust be in the fire!

“Son of man, because Tyre has said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has opened to me. I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste,’

She will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ declares the Lord God, ‘and she will become spoil for the nations.

They will take up a lamentation over you and say to you,
‘How you have perished, O inhabited one,
From the seas, O renowned city,
Which was mighty on the sea,
She and her inhabitants,
Who imposed her terror
On all her inhabitants!

They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword. She is given over to the sword; they have drawn her and all her hordes away.

Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “You eat meat with the blood in it, lift up your eyes to your idols as you shed blood. Should you then possess the land?

Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols.

After some years they will form an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the South will come to the king of the North to carry out a peaceful arrangement. But she will not retain her position of power, nor will he remain with his power, but she will be given up, along with those who brought her in and the one who sired her as well as he who supported her in those times.

He will set his face to come with the power of his whole kingdom, bringing with him a proposal of peace which he will put into effect; he will also give him the daughter of women to ruin it. But she will not take a stand for him or be on his side.

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them.

When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son.

“Contend with your mother, contend,
For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband;
And let her put away her harlotry from her face
And her adultery from between her breasts,

Or I will strip her naked
And expose her as on the day when she was born.
I will also make her like a wilderness,
Make her like desert land
And slay her with thirst.

“For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns,
And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.

“She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband,
For it was better for me then than now!’

“For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal.

“I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
Of which she said, ‘These are my wages
Which my lovers have given me.’
And I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field will devour them.

“I will punish her for the days of the Baals
When she used to offer sacrifices to them
And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord.

“Then I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

Samaria will be held guilty,
For she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
Their little ones will be dashed in pieces,
And their pregnant women will be ripped open.

Egypt will become a waste,
And Edom will become a desolate wilderness,
Because of the violence done to the sons of Judah,
In whose land they have shed innocent blood.

She has fallen, she will not rise again—
The virgin Israel.
She lies neglected on her land;
There is none to raise her up.

All of her idols will be smashed,
All of her earnings will be burned with fire
And all of her images I will make desolate,
For she collected them from a harlot’s earnings,
And to the earnings of a harlot they will return.

Harness the chariot to the team of horses,
O inhabitant of Lachish—
She was the beginning of sin
To the daughter of Zion—
Because in you were found
The rebellious acts of Israel.

Therefore He will give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has borne a child.
Then the remainder of His brethren
Will return to the sons of Israel.

Then my enemy will see,
And shame will cover her who said to me,
“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will look on her;
At that time she will be trampled down
Like mire of the streets.

It is fixed:
She is stripped, she is carried away,
And her handmaids are moaning like the sound of doves,
Beating on their breasts.

She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and waste!
Hearts are melting and knees knocking!
Also anguish is in the whole body
And all their faces are grown pale!

Yet she became an exile,
She went into captivity;
Also her small children were dashed to pieces
At the head of every street;
They cast lots for her honorable men,
And all her great men were bound with fetters.

This is the exultant city
Which dwells securely,
Who says in her heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
How she has become a desolation,
A resting place for beasts!
Everyone who passes by her will hiss
And wave his hand in contempt.

She heeded no voice,
She accepted no instruction.
She did not trust in the Lord,
She did not draw near to her God.

Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.”

Behold, the Lord will dispossess her
And cast her wealth into the sea;
And she will be consumed with fire.

Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
And she refused to be comforted,
Because they were no more.”

He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and waited on Him.

While He was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before Him, and said, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.”

for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.”

The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.

Having been prompted by her mother, she *said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.”

But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!”

But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She *said to Him, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.”

In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.”

so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table.

But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me.

For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.

And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them.

and *implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.”

and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse—

after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.

For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.”

Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded.

and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you.”

And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”

Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

But she answered and *said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”

And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.

and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.”

In the resurrection, when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.”

for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.”

While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head.

But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me.

She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial.

and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and *said, “You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.”

She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping.

After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying,

But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.

And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month.

And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!