Ezekiel 23 Cross References - LEB

¹ And the word of Yahweh _⌊came_⌋* to me, _⌊saying_⌋,* ² "Son of man,* there were two women, the daughters of one mother, ³ and they prostituted themselves in Egypt in their childhood; they were prostituting themselves there, and their breasts were fondled, and there they caressed the bosoms of their virginity. ⁴ Now as for their names, the older was Oholah, and Oholibah was her sister. And _⌊they became mine_⌋,* and they bore sons and daughters, and their names* are Samaria for Oholah, and Jerusalem for Oholibah. ⁵ And Oholah prostituted herself _⌊while she was still mine_⌋,* and she lusted for her lovers, for Assyria who was nearby, ⁶ clothed in blue cloth, governors and prefects, _⌊handsome young men_⌋* and all of them horsemen, _⌊experts on horseback_⌋.* ⁷ And she bestowed her fornication on them, on the choice ones of the _⌊Assyrians_⌋,* all of them, and with every one after which she lusted; with all of their idols she defiled herself. ⁸ And her whorings from the time of Egypt she did not abandon, for they slept with her in her childhood, and they caressed the bosoms of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication on her. ⁹ Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the _⌊Assyrians_⌋* _⌊after whom she lusted_⌋.* ¹⁰ They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. And she became a name for the women, and they executed judgments against her. ¹¹ "And though Oholibah her sister saw, yet in her lust _⌊she behaved more corruptly than her_⌋,* and her whoring was more than the prostitution of her sister. ¹² She lusted after the _⌊Assyrians_⌋,* governors and prefects, warriors* clothed in* perfection,* _⌊expert horsemen_⌋,* all of them _⌊handsome young men_⌋.* ¹³ And I saw that she was defiled; _⌊they had both taken the same path_⌋!* ¹⁴ And she increased her whorings, and she saw men carved* on the wall, images of Chaldeans* carved in red, ¹⁵ belted with a belt at* their waist with turbans on their heads, all of them giving the appearance of adjutants,* the image* of the _⌊Babylonians_⌋;* Chaldea was the land of their birth. ¹⁶ And she lusted for them _⌊when her eyes saw them_⌋,* and she sent messengers to them at Chaldea. ¹⁷ And so the _⌊Babylonians_⌋* came to her for the bed of lovemaking; and they defiled her with their fornication, and she was defiled by them, and she turned from them. ¹⁸ And she revealed her whorings, and she revealed her nakedness, and so I turned from her _⌊just as_⌋* I turned from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet* she increased her whorings, _⌊recalling_⌋* the days of her childhood when she was prostituted* in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ And she lusted after her male lovers whose genitalia were the genitalia of male donkeys and their seminal emission was the seminal emission of horses. ²¹ And you longed after the obscene conduct of your youth when your bosom was caressed by Egypt, fondling your young breasts. ²² "Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I am stirring up your lovers against you concerning whom you turned away, and I will bring them against you from all around: ²³ the _⌊Babylonians_⌋* and all of the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all of the _⌊Assyrians_⌋* along with them, _⌊handsome young men_⌋,* governors and prefects, all of them adjutants* _⌊and excellent horsemen_⌋.* ²⁴ And they will come against you with an army chariot and wagon and with a crowd* of peoples; they will set themselves against you from all around with large shield and small shield and helmet. And I will give _⌊before them_⌋* judgment, and they will judge you with their judgments. ²⁵ And I will direct my zeal against you, and they will deal with you in anger; your nose and your ears they will remove, and _⌊those who are left_⌋,* they will fall by the sword, and they will take your sons and your daughters, and _⌊your remnant_⌋* will be consumed by fire. ²⁶ And they will strip you of your clothes, and they will take _⌊your splendid jewelry_⌋.* ²⁷ And I will put an end to your obscene conduct coming from you and your fornication from the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them; and you will not remember Egypt again.' ²⁸ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I am giving you into the hand of those you hated, into the hand of those from whom* you turned away. ²⁹ And they will deal with you in hatred, and they will take all of your acquisitions, and they will leave you naked and in bareness; and the nakedness of your fornication and your obscene conduct and your whorings will be exposed. ³⁰ These things are accomplished* against* you since you prostituted yourself after the nations, and on account of that, you defiled yourself by their idols. ³¹ You went in the same way of your sister, and I will give her cup into your hand." ' ³² Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "You will drink the deep and wide* cup of your sister; you will be as laughter and as scorn; _⌊the cup holds so much_⌋!* ³³ You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, for a cup of horror and desolation is the cup of your sister, Samaria. ³⁴ And you will drink it, and you will drain it, and its potsherds you will gnaw, and you will tear out your breasts, for _⌊I myself_⌋* spoke," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh. ³⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because you have forgotten me, and you threw me behind your back, now in turn* you bear your obscene conduct and your whorings." ³⁶ And Yahweh said to me, "Son of man,* will you judge Oholah and Oholibah and declare their abominable deeds to* them? ³⁷ For they committed adultery, and blood is on their hands, and they committed adultery with their idols, and even their children that they had borne for me—they sacrificed them as food! ³⁸ Also they did this to me: they defiled my sanctuary on that day, and they profaned my Sabbaths, ³⁹ and when they slaughtered their children for their idols, they came to my sanctuary on that day to profane it. And look, _⌊this is what they did in my house_⌋!* ⁴⁰ _⌊What is worse_⌋,* they sent for men _⌊who come_⌋* from a distant place, to whom a messenger was sent to them, and look! They came! Men for whom you bathed and painted your eyes, and you adorned yourself with an ornament. ⁴¹ And you sat on a magnificent couch and a table prepared _⌊before her_⌋,* and my incense and my olive oil you put on her.* ⁴² And a sound of a carefree crowd was with it,* and in addition to these men, _⌊a crowd of drunken men* was brought in_⌋* from the desert,* and they put bracelets on their arms and a crown of splendor on their heads. ⁴³ And I said to* the one worn out with adulteries, 'Now they will prostitute her concerning her fornication, even her.'* ⁴⁴ And so they went to her like going to a female* prostitute; and thus they went to Oholah and to Oholibah, the women of obscene conduct. ⁴⁵ But righteous men, they will judge them with the judgment of committing adultery, and with the judgment of shedding blood; for they were committing adultery, and blood was on their hands." ⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Bring up against them an assembly, and make them as a thing of horror and as plunder. ⁴⁷ And an assembly must stone them with stones,* and they must cut them down. With their swords they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and with fire they shall burn their houses. ⁴⁸ And _⌊I will cause obscene conduct to cease from the land_⌋,* and all of the women will be warned, and they will not do according to your wickedness. ⁴⁹ And they will repay your obscene conduct upon you, and the guilt of your idols you will bear, and you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.

⁷ And I thought, 'After her doing all these things to me she will return,' but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.* ⁸ And I saw that _⌊for this very reason, that_⌋* on account of apostate* Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted herself also. ⁹ And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree. ¹⁰ Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, _⌊but only_⌋* in pretense,"* _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh.

⁴⁴ Look! Everyone quoting a proverb* against you, he will quote, _⌊saying_⌋,* 'Like her mother is her daughter!' ⁴⁵ You are a daughter of your mother who abhorred her husband and her children, and you are a sister of your sisters who abhorred their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father was an Amorite. ⁴⁶ And your elder sister, she is Samaria, and her daughters, who are dwelling on your north, and your younger sister is the one dwelling on your south; she is Sodom and her daughters.

⁷ And _⌊they may no longer sacrifice_⌋* their sacrifices to the goat-idols after which they were prostituting. This is _⌊a lasting statute_⌋* for them _⌊throughout_⌋* their generations." '

¹⁶ For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the midst of the nations that you traveled* through.

¹⁴ "So now, revere Yahweh and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness; remove the gods that your ancestors* served beyond the river* and in Egypt, and serve Yahweh.

²² And in all of your detestable things and your fornication you did not remember the days of your childhood _⌊when you were naked and bare_⌋,* when you were kicking about in your blood.

⁸ But they rebelled against me, and they were not willing to listen to me; each one _⌊did not throw away_⌋* the detestable things of their eyes; and _⌊they did not abandon_⌋* the idols of Egypt, and I decided to pour out my rage on them, to fully vent my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

⁸ And her whorings from the time of Egypt she did not abandon, for they slept with her in her childhood, and they caressed the bosoms of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication on her.

¹⁹ Yet* she increased her whorings, _⌊recalling_⌋* the days of her childhood when she was prostituted* in the land of Egypt.

²¹ And you longed after the obscene conduct of your youth when your bosom was caressed by Egypt, fondling your young breasts.

¹⁵ From there I will give her her vineyards, and the Valley of Achor as a doorway of hope. And there she will respond, as in the days of her youth, just as in the day of her coming out of the land of Egypt.

⁵ And now if you will carefully listen to my voice and keep my covenant, you will be a treasured possession for me out of all the peoples, _⌊for all the earth is mine_⌋,* ⁶ but you, you will belong to me as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you will speak to the _⌊Israelites_⌋."*

²⁹ so that your eyes will be open to this house night and day, to the place which you said, 'My name will be there,' to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.

²⁰ It happened that just when all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all of Israel. Not one followed after the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

²⁶ Then Jeroboam _⌊said to himself_⌋,* "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David ²⁷ if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house* of Yahweh in Jerusalem. The heart of this people will return to their master Rehoboam the king of Judah, and they shall kill me and _⌊return to him_⌋."* ²⁸ And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them,* "_⌊You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough_⌋;* here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt." ²⁹ He put one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰ This thing became a sin, and the people walked before the one as far as Dan. ³¹ Then he built the houses on the high places, and he appointed priests _⌊from all walks of life_⌋* who were not from the sons of Levi. ³² Jeroboam also inaugurated a religious feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the religious feast which was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. Thus he did in Bethel, by sacrificing to the calves that he had made; and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. ³³ He offered sacrifices on the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month which his heart had devised. He inaugurated a religious feast for the _⌊Israelites_⌋,* and he went up to the altar to offer incense.

¹¹ Let the king desire your beauty.* Because he is your lord, therefore* bow down to him. ¹² Even the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift. The rich from among people will seek your _⌊favor_⌋.* ¹³ The king's daughter is all glorious within;* her garment is of gold embroidered cloth. ¹⁴ She is brought to the king in colorful garments. The young women behind her, her attendants, are being brought to you. ¹⁵ They are led with joy and gladness. They enter the palace of the king. ¹⁶ In place of your* fathers will be your sons. You will make them princes in all the land.*

² His den* has been in Salem, his lair* in Zion.

¹³ For Yahweh has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation. ¹⁴ "This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.

² "Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, _⌊saying_⌋,* 'Thus says Yahweh,
"I remember concerning you the loyal love of your childhood,* the love of your betrothal-time, your going* after me in the desert,* in the land not sown. ³ Israel was holy to Yahweh, the first fruit of his produce. All those who ate it were held guilty; disaster came to them," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh.'"

⁸ " 'And I passed by you, and I saw you, and look, _⌊your time of lovemaking had come_⌋,* and so I spread out my hem over you, and I covered your nakedness, and I swore to you, and I entered into* a covenant with you,' _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, 'and _⌊you became mine_⌋.*

²⁰ 'And you took your sons and your daughters whom you had borne for me, and you sacrificed them to them to be eaten,* _⌊as if your whorings were not enough_⌋.*

⁴⁰ And they will bring up against you a crowd, and they will stone you with stones,* and they will cut you to pieces with their swords.

²² You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews.

⁴ So then, my brothers, you also were brought to death with respect to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

⁹ But you did more evil than all who were before you. You have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten idols to provoke me, but me you have _⌊completely disregarded_⌋.*

¹⁶ He will give up Israel because of the sin of Jeroboam which he sinned and which he caused Israel to sin."

²⁶ He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and he walked in the way of his father and in his sin that he caused Israel to commit.

³⁰ because of the sins of Jeroboam that he had committed and that he had caused Israel to commit and because of his anger with which he had provoked Yahweh the God of Israel.

³¹ _⌊If it wasn't enough that he went_⌋* after the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he also took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal the king of the Sidonians. He went and served Baal and bowed down to him. ³² And he built an altar to Baal in the house of Baal which he had built in Samaria.

²⁶ Also, he acted very abominably by going after idols like all the Amorites had done whom Yahweh had driven out from before the _⌊Israelites_⌋."*

¹⁹ Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, so Menahem gave a thousand talents of silver to Pul so that his hand would be with him _⌊to strengthen his hold on the kingdom_⌋.*

⁷ Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel who are rising up against me."

³ Shalmaneser the king of Assyria* came up against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid tribute to him.

⁷ Now this happened because the _⌊Israelites_⌋* had sinned against Yahweh their God when he brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt and they feared other gods. ⁸ They walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out from before the _⌊Israelites_⌋,* which the kings of Israel had introduced. ⁹ The _⌊Israelites_⌋* secretly did things which were not right, against Yahweh their God; they built high places for themselves in all their towns, from the watchtower up to the fortified city. ¹⁰ They set up for themselves stone pillars and poles of Asherah worship on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹ They burned incense there on all the high places, like the nations which Yahweh deported before them, and they did evil things to provoke Yahweh. ¹² They served idols which Yahweh had said to them, "You shall not do this thing!" ¹³ Yahweh warned Israel and Judah by the hand of his every prophet, with every seer saying, "Turn from all of your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my ordinances, according to all the law which I commanded your ancestors,* which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets." ¹⁴ But they did not listen and they stiffened their necks, like the necks of their ancestors* who did not believe in Yahweh their God. ¹⁵ They rejected his statutes, his covenant which he _⌊made_⌋* with their ancestors,* and his warnings which he gave to them; and they went after the idols, became vain, and went after all the nations which were all around them, which Yahweh had commanded them not to do as they did. ¹⁶ They abandoned all the commands of Yahweh their God and made for themselves two molten calf-shaped idols; they made a pole of Asherah worship and bowed down to the army of the heavens and served Baal. ¹⁷ They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, they practiced divination and read omens, and they sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him. ¹⁸ So Yahweh was very angry with Israel and he removed them from his presence; none remained except the tribe of Judah alone.

³⁸ A drought will come against her waters, and they will dry up, for it is a land of images, and because of the frightful objects, they act like madmen.

²⁸ And you prostituted with the _⌊Assyrians_⌋* on account of _⌊your insatiable lust_⌋,* and you prostituted with them, and still you were not satisfied.

³⁷ therefore, look! I am gathering all of your lovers _⌊whom you were pleased about_⌋,* and all of whom you loved in addition to all of whom you hated, and I will gather them against you from _⌊everywhere_⌋,* and I will uncover your nakedness to them, and they will see all of your nakedness.

⁷ And she bestowed her fornication on them, on the choice ones of the _⌊Assyrians_⌋,* all of them, and with every one after which she lusted; with all of their idols she defiled herself.

⁹ Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the _⌊Assyrians_⌋* _⌊after whom she lusted_⌋.*

¹² She lusted after the _⌊Assyrians_⌋,* governors and prefects, warriors* clothed in* perfection,* _⌊expert horsemen_⌋,* all of them _⌊handsome young men_⌋.*

¹⁶ And she lusted for them _⌊when her eyes saw them_⌋,* and she sent messengers to them at Chaldea.

²⁰ And she lusted after her male lovers whose genitalia were the genitalia of male donkeys and their seminal emission was the seminal emission of horses.

¹³ And when Ephraim saw his illness, and Judah his wound, Ephraim went to Assyria, he sent to the great king.* But he was unable to cure you and heal your wound.

⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey alone to itself; Ephraim has sold itself for lovers. ¹⁰ Even though they have sold themselves to the nations, now I will gather them. They will soon writhe from the burden of kings* and princes.

⁶ It will also be brought to Assyria, as tribute to the great king.* Ephraim will obtain disgrace and Israel will be ashamed from his advice.*

¹ Ephraim herds the wind* and is pursuing the east wind all day long; he multiplies deception and violence and he* _⌊makes a treaty with Assyria_⌋,* and oil is brought to Egypt.

²³ the _⌊Babylonians_⌋* and all of the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all of the _⌊Assyrians_⌋* along with them, _⌊handsome young men_⌋,* governors and prefects, all of them adjutants* _⌊and excellent horsemen_⌋.*

²² The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

³⁹ And they became unclean by their works, and were unfaithful in their deeds.

¹⁵ 'And you trusted in your beauty, and you prostituted on account of your name, and you poured out your fornication on every one passing by, saying, "Let it be his."

⁷ Then I said to them, 'Let each one throw away the detestable things of his eyes, and you must not make yourselves unclean with the idols of Egypt! I am Yahweh your God.'

³ And you must say, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "A city pouring out blood in the midst of her; _⌊its time has come_⌋,* and it made idols for itself, becoming unclean. ⁴ By your blood that you poured out you have become guilty, and by your idols that you made you have become unclean, and you have brought your days near, _⌊and your appointed years have come_⌋.* Therefore I have made you a disgrace for the nations and a laughingstock to all of the countries.

³⁰ These things are accomplished* against* you since you prostituted yourself after the nations, and on account of that, you defiled yourself by their idols.

³ I myself know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; because now you have played the whore, O Ephraim— Israel is defiled.

¹⁰ In the house of Israel I have seen something horrible; Ephraim's unfaithfulness is there. Israel is defiled.

⁴ And he took from their hand, and he shaped it with a tool, and he made it a cast-image bull calf, and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

²⁸ And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them,* "_⌊You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough_⌋;* here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

²⁹ Only Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat by which he caused Israel to sin; namely, the calf-shaped idols of gold which were in Bethel and Dan.

¹⁶ They abandoned all the commands of Yahweh their God and made for themselves two molten calf-shaped idols; they made a pole of Asherah worship and bowed down to the army of the heavens and served Baal.

³ and they prostituted themselves in Egypt in their childhood; they were prostituting themselves there, and their breasts were fondled, and there they caressed the bosoms of their virginity.

²⁹ In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel-Beth-Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, the Gilead, the Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali; then he deported them to Assyria.

³ Shalmaneser the king of Assyria* came up against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid tribute to him. ⁴ But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and he did not offer tribute to the king of Assyria as he had year after year; so the king of Assyria arrested him, and confined him in a house of imprisonment. ⁵ So the king of Assyria went up in all the land, then he went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. ⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported Israel to Assyria. He placed them in Halah, in Habor, in the river regions of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

²³ until Yahweh removed Israel from his presence as he had foretold by the hand of all his servants, the prophets. And so he deported Israel from upon his land to Assyria until this day.

⁹ It happened in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, that is, the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came against Samaria and laid siege against her. ¹⁰ At the end of three years, he captured it in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel; Samaria was captured. ¹¹ Then the king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Habor, in the river regions of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹² because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God, and they transgressed his covenant; all that he had commanded Moses, the servant of Yahweh, they did not listen to nor did they obey.

²⁶ So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-Pilneser, king of Assyria, and he took them into exile, namely, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And he brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river Gozan, until this day.

⁵ He will return* to the land of Egypt, and Assyria will be his king,* because they refused to return.

¹² And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they will receive authority as kings for one hour with the beast. ¹³ These have one opinion, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.

¹⁶ And the ten horns that you saw and the beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her desolate and naked, and they will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.

⁸ And many nations will pass by this city and they will say each one to his neighbor, '_⌊Why_⌋* has Yahweh done in this manner to this great city?' ⁹ Then they will answer, 'Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God, and bowed down in worship to other gods, and served them.'"

³⁷ therefore, look! I am gathering all of your lovers _⌊whom you were pleased about_⌋,* and all of whom you loved in addition to all of whom you hated, and I will gather them against you from _⌊everywhere_⌋,* and I will uncover your nakedness to them, and they will see all of your nakedness. ³⁸ And I will judge you with the judgment of women committing adultery and shedding blood, and I will give you the blood of rage and jealousy. ³⁹ And I will give you into their hand, and they will demolish your mound, and they will break down your high places, and they will strip you of your clothes, and they will take _⌊your beautiful jewelry_⌋,* and they will leave you naked and bare. ⁴⁰ And they will bring up against you a crowd, and they will stone you with stones,* and they will cut you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹ And they will burn your houses with fire, and they will execute against you judgments _⌊before_⌋* many women, and I will stop you from prostitution, and also a harlot's wages you will not give* again.

²⁹ And they will deal with you in hatred, and they will take all of your acquisitions, and they will leave you naked and in bareness; and the nakedness of your fornication and your obscene conduct and your whorings will be exposed.

⁴⁸ And _⌊I will cause obscene conduct to cease from the land_⌋,* and all of the women will be warned, and they will not do according to your wickedness.

³ Lest I strip her naked and expose her like the day when she was born; I will make her like the desert and turn her into parched land; I will kill her with thirst.

¹⁰ And now I will uncover her nakedness before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.

⁸ And I saw that _⌊for this very reason, that_⌋* on account of apostate* Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted herself also. ⁹ And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree. ¹⁰ Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, _⌊but only_⌋* in pretense,"* _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh. ¹¹ Then Yahweh said to me, "Apostate* Israel has proved herself more upright* than treacherous Judah.

⁴⁷ And you have not only gone in their ways, but* you also did according to their detestable things. _⌊In such a short time_⌋* you behaved more corruptly than they in all of your ways. ⁴⁸ _⌊As surely as I live_⌋,'* _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, 'surely your sister Sodom and her daughters did not do as* you and your daughters did. ⁴⁹ Look! This was the iniquity of Sodom, your sister: Pride, abundance of food, and _⌊prosperous ease_⌋* was to her and to her daughters, and _⌊she did not sustain the needy and the poor_⌋.* ⁵⁰ And they were proud, and they did a detestable thing _⌊before me_⌋,* and I removed them _⌊because_⌋* I saw it. ⁵¹ And Samaria did not sin _⌊according to even half of your sins_⌋,* and you caused your detestable things to increase more than they, and you made your sister righteous in comparison with all of your detestable things that you did.*

⁴ Now as for their names, the older was Oholah, and Oholibah was her sister. And _⌊they became mine_⌋,* and they bore sons and daughters, and their names* are Samaria for Oholah, and Jerusalem for Oholibah.

⁷ Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel who are rising up against me." ⁸ Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the house of Yahweh and in the treasury rooms of the palace of the king, and he sent a gift to the king of Assyria. ⁹ So the king of Assyria listened to him and he went up to Damascus and captured it and deported them to Kir. He also killed Rezin. ¹⁰ So King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria in Damascus, and he saw the altar which was in Damascus, so King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the builder's plan of the altar and the _⌊exact model of how it had been made_⌋.* ¹¹ So Uriah the priest built the altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; thus Uriah the priest did before King Ahaz came from Damascus. ¹² When the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar, so he went near to the altar and went up on it. ¹³ Then he offered his burnt offerings and his grain offerings, he poured his libations and dashed the blood of his fellowship offerings against the altar. ¹⁴ Now the bronze altar which was before Yahweh, he brought over from the front of the temple, from between his altar and the temple of Yahweh, and he placed it at the side of his altar to the north. ¹⁵ Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, "On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the grain offering of the evening, the burnt offering of the king and his grain offering, the burnt offering of all of the people of the land, their offerings, their libations, and all of the blood of the burnt offerings, the blood of the sacrifices you must dash on it. But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by."

¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria to help him, ¹⁷ since again the Edomites came and struck against Judah and took captives. ¹⁸ And the Philistines sent raids into the cities of the Shephelah and the Negeb of Judah. And they captured Beth-Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Socoh with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. And they settled there. ¹⁹ For Yahweh subdued Judah for the sake of Ahaz, king of Israel, for he created disorder in Judah and acted unfaithfully against Yahweh. ²⁰ Then Tiglath-Pileser* the king of Assyria came against him and brought trouble for him, _⌊instead of helping him_⌋,* ²¹ for Ahaz took a portion from the house of Yahweh and the house of the king and the princes, and he gave it to the king of Assyria, but it was no help to him. ²² And in the time of his distress, King Ahaz continued to act unfaithfully against Yahweh. ²³ He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, "Because the gods of the king of Aram* helped them, I will sacrifice to them so that they will help me." But they were _⌊a disaster_⌋* to him and to all Israel.

⁵ And Oholah prostituted herself _⌊while she was still mine_⌋,* and she lusted for her lovers, for Assyria who was nearby, ⁶ clothed in blue cloth, governors and prefects, _⌊handsome young men_⌋* and all of them horsemen, _⌊experts on horseback_⌋.*

¹⁸ So Yahweh was very angry with Israel and he removed them from his presence; none remained except the tribe of Judah alone. ¹⁹ Even Judah did not keep the commands of Yahweh their God, and they walked in the customs of Israel which they introduced,

³¹ You went in the same way of your sister, and I will give her cup into your hand." '

¹ Ephraim herds the wind* and is pursuing the east wind all day long; he multiplies deception and violence and he* _⌊makes a treaty with Assyria_⌋,* and oil is brought to Egypt. ² Yahweh has a quarrel* with Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

¹ Bel bows down; Nebo is stooping. Their idols are _⌊on_⌋* animals* and _⌊on_⌋* cattle; your _⌊cargo_⌋* is carried as a burden _⌊on_⌋* weary animals.

¹⁴ Who says 'I will build for myself a spacious house with large upper rooms,' and he cuts windows for it, and it is* paneled with cedar, and he paints it* with vermilion.

² "Declare among the nations and proclaim, and lift up a banner. Proclaim, you must not conceal it. Say, 'Babylon is captured, Bel is ashamed, Merodach is filled with terror, her idols are ashamed, her idols are filled with terror.

¹⁰ And I came, and I saw, and look, all kinds of creatures* and detestable beasts;* and all of the idols of the house of Israel were carved on the wall _⌊all around_⌋.*

²⁹ And you increased your fornication to the land of traders,* to Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

¹⁸ And he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, "What type were the men whom you killed at Tabor?" And they said, "_⌊They were like you_⌋;* each one of them had the appearance of the sons of the king."

⁴ Jonathan stripped off the robe _⌊that he was wearing_⌋* and gave it to David, along with his fighting attire,* and even his sword, his bow, and his belt.

²⁵ As far as Absalom, there was not a more handsome man in all of Israel to admire so much; from the sole of his foot up to his crown, there was no physical defect on him.

²¹ and I will clothe him with your tunic, and I will bind your sash firmly about him, and I will put your authority into his hand, and he shall be like a father to the inhabitants* of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

⁶ When* the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise, then* she took from its fruit and she ate. And she gave it also to her husband with her, and he ate.

² Then* the sons of God saw the daughters of humankind, that they were beautiful. And they took for themselves wives from all that they chose.

⁷ And it happened that after these things his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph, and she said, "Lie with me."

² It happened _⌊late one afternoon_⌋* that David got up from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king's house, and he saw a woman bathing on her* roof. Now the woman _⌊was very beautiful_⌋.*

¹ In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up because Jehoiakim had become his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.

¹ "I made a covenant with my eyes, so* how could I look closely upon a virgin?

³⁷ Turn away my eyes from looking at what is worthless; revive me in your ways.

²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart; may she not capture you with her eyelashes.

³³ Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart* will speak perverse things.

¹⁷ And you took _⌊your beautiful jewelry_⌋* made from my gold and from my silver that I had given to you, and you made for yourself _⌊male images_⌋,* and you prostituted with them.

⁴⁰ _⌊What is worse_⌋,* they sent for men _⌊who come_⌋* from a distant place, to whom a messenger was sent to them, and look! They came! Men for whom you bathed and painted your eyes, and you adorned yourself with an ornament. ⁴¹ And you sat on a magnificent couch and a table prepared _⌊before her_⌋,* and my incense and my olive oil you put on her.*

²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

¹⁴ having eyes full of desire for an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, and* having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children!

¹⁰ Now,* the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, for there Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

¹⁵ Then Amnon hated her _⌊very deeply_⌋,* for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. So Amnon said to her, "Get up and go."

²² "Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I am stirring up your lovers against you concerning whom you turned away, and I will bring them against you from all around:

²⁸ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I am giving you into the hand of those you hated, into the hand of those from whom* you turned away.

¹⁹ Then Yahweh saw, and he spurned them, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

⁵⁹ God heard and he was very angry and rejected Israel utterly.

⁴⁰ So Yahweh's anger burned against his people, and he abhorred his inheritance.

⁹ The look on their faces testifies against them and they declare their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have dealt out evil to themselves.

⁸ Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn away from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, a land that is not inhabited."

¹² Were they ashamed, for they had committed a detestable thing? What's worse,* they were not ashamed at all, and they did not know to feel humiliated. _⌊Therefore_⌋* they will fall among those who fall; at the time of their punishment they will stumble," says Yahweh.

⁸ My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She has lifted up against me her voice; _⌊therefore_⌋* I hate her.

¹ Then Yahweh said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood _⌊before me_⌋,* my heart would not be to this people. Send them away from my _⌊sight_⌋,* and let them go out.

⁷ The Lord has rejected his altar; he has rejected his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hands of the enemy the walls of its citadel fortresses.* They have cried out in the house of Yahweh like a day of an appointed feast.

³⁶ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because of the pouring out of your shame and because your nakedness was revealed in your whoring with your lovers, and on account of all of the idols of your detestable things, and according to the blood of your children whom you gave to them,

²⁴ "Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt by the uncovering of your transgressions, so that your sins in all of your deeds appear—because of your being remembered, you will be captured in the hand.'

² Plead with your mother, plead— because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her whoring _⌊from before her_⌋,* and her adultery from between her breasts.

¹ when I would heal Israel, and the corruption of Ephraim is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Samaria; because they deal in falsehood, the thief breaks in,* and the bandit raids the outside.

²¹ "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your assemblies.

⁸ My Lord Yahweh has sworn by himself, _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, the God of hosts: "I abhor the pride of Jacob and I hate his citadel fortresses and I will deliver the city and its fullness!"

⁸ And I got rid of three shepherds in one month, for _⌊I grew impatient_⌋* with them, and _⌊they also became tired of me_⌋.*

²⁵ At the head of every street you built your high place and you disgraced your beauty and you spread your feet for every passerby, and you increased your whoring.

⁵¹ And Samaria did not sin _⌊according to even half of your sins_⌋,* and you caused your detestable things to increase more than they, and you made your sister righteous in comparison with all of your detestable things that you did.*

¹⁴ And she increased her whorings, and she saw men carved* on the wall, images of Chaldeans* carved in red,

⁴ "Come to Bethel and transgress; to Gilgal and _⌊multiply transgression_⌋!* Bring your sacrifices in the morning and your tithes on the _⌊third day_⌋.*

⁸ They were well-fed lusty horses, they neighed each to the wife of his neighbor.

²⁶ And you prostituted with the _⌊Egyptians_⌋,* your neighbors _⌊who were sexually aroused_⌋,* and you increased your fornication to provoke me.

¹⁵ But he rebelled against him by sending his messengers to Egypt to give to him horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Will he escape doing these things, and can he break the covenant and escape?

⁵ Ah! Assyria, the rod of my anger, and a staff is in their hand: my wrath! ⁶ I send him against a godless nation, and I command him against the people of my wrath, to capture spoil and to carry off plunder, and to make them* a trampling place, like the clay of the streets.

³ And Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?" And Hezekiah _⌊answered_⌋,* "They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon." ⁴ And he* said, "What have they seen in your house?" And Hezekiah _⌊answered_⌋,* "They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing that I have not shown them in my storehouses."

²² Thus says Yahweh: "Look, a people is coming from the land of the north, a great nation is woken up from the farthest part of the earth. ²³ The bow and the short sword they grasp are cruel, and they show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea, and on horses they ride, drawn up like a man for battle against you, O daughter of Zion."

⁹ The lair of the hyena is my inheritance to me, the birds of prey* are all around her. Go, gather all of the animals* of the field, bring them _⌊to come and devour_⌋.* ¹⁰ Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled down my plot of land. They have made _⌊my pleasant field_⌋* like the desert* of desolation. ¹¹ They have made it a desolation. Desolate, it mourns to me. All the land is made desolate, but there is no person taking it to heart. ¹² Upon all the barren heights in the desert* destroyers have come, for the sword of Yahweh devours, from one end of the land to the other end of the land, there is no peace for all flesh.

⁶ For look! I am raising up the Chaldeans, the bitter and impetuous nation, the one who walks through the spacious places of earth to take possession of dwellings not belonging to it.* ⁷ They* are dreadful and awesome; their* justice and their* dignity proceed from themselves.* ⁸ Their* horses are more swift than leopards; they are more menacing than wolves at dusk. Their* horsemen gallop; their* horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle that is swift to devour. ⁹ All of them* come for violence, their faces pressing forward. They gather captives like the sand. ¹⁰ And they themselves scoff at kings and rulers are a joke to them. They laugh at every fortification, and they heap up earth and take it.

¹⁴ And the name of the third is Tigris. It flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁸ They settled from Havilah to Shur, which was opposite* Egypt, going toward Asshur, opposite;* he _⌊settled_⌋* opposite* all his brothers.

¹⁴ Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?" Hezekiah said, "From a far land; they have come from Babylon." ¹⁵ Then he asked, "What did they see in your palace?" And Hezekiah said, "All that is in my palace they have seen; there is nothing that I did not show them in my treasuries." ¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of Yahweh! ¹⁷ 'Look, days are coming when all that is in your palace will be carried off; even all that your ancestors* have stored up until this day, to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says Yahweh.

² So Yahweh sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, raiding bands of Aram, raiding bands of Moab, and raiding bands of the _⌊Ammonites_⌋.* He had sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahweh that he had spoken by the hand of his servants the prophets.

¹ It happened that in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came, he and his army, against Jerusalem. He encamped against it and built siege works against it all around. ² So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of the king. ³ In the ninth month, the famine became severe in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land.

²² With joy they celebrated the festival of unleavened bread for seven days, because Yahweh had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them in order to help them with the work of their hands on the house of the God of Israel.

¹⁷ While this one was still speaking, _⌊another_⌋* came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three divisions, and they made a raid on the camels, and they carried them away, and they struck your servants _⌊by the edge of the sword_⌋,* but I escaped, even I alone, to tell you."

¹³ Look at the land of the Chaldeans! _⌊This people no longer exists. Assyria destined_⌋* it for wild animals. They erected its siege towers; they demolished its citadel fortresses. It made her like a ruin.

²¹ To the land of Merathaim, go up against her, and against the inhabitants of Pekod, massacre and destroy them," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "and do according to all that I have commanded you.

¹⁹ "And you, son of man,* mark out for yourself* two roads for the coming of the sword of the king of Babylon; they must _⌊both_⌋* go out from the same land. And hew out a _⌊signpost_⌋;* hew it at the head of the road of the city. ²⁰ You must mark a road for the coming of the sword to Rabbah of the _⌊Ammonites_⌋* and to Judah, in Jerusalem the fortified. ²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the fork of the road at the head of the two roads to practice divination. _⌊He shakes the arrows_⌋,* he inquires with the teraphim, he _⌊examines_⌋* the liver. ²² In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem, to put up battering rams, to open a mouth for slaughter,* _⌊to raise the battle cry_⌋,* to put up battering rams against gates, to build a siege ramp, to build siege works.* ²³ And it will be to them like practicing divination falsely* in their eyes; _⌊they have sworn oaths for themselves_⌋.* But* he will bring their guilt to remembrance so as to seize them. ²⁴ "Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt by the uncovering of your transgressions, so that your sins in all of your deeds appear—because of your being remembered, you will be captured in the hand.' ²⁵ And as for you, profane one, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come with the time of the punishment of the end, ²⁶ thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Remove the turban and lift off the crown; things are no longer the same. Exalt the low and bring low the high. ²⁷ A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I will make it! Also* this has not ever happened;* it will remain until the coming of the one to whom the judgment belongs and I have given it to him.'

⁶ clothed in blue cloth, governors and prefects, _⌊handsome young men_⌋* and all of them horsemen, _⌊experts on horseback_⌋.*

⁴ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and* settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he caused him to move to this land in which you now live.

¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, "I am greatly distressed. Please let us fall into the hand of Yahweh, because he is great in his compassion; but into the hand of man don't let me fall."

⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he pronounced _⌊sentence_⌋* on him. ⁶ And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes. The king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.

³ from the sound of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, from the clattering of his chariots,* the noise of their wheels. Fathers do not turn to their children because of the slackness of their hands.

³⁸ And I will judge you with the judgment of women committing adultery and shedding blood, and I will give you the blood of rage and jealousy.

²³ And it will be to them like practicing divination falsely* in their eyes; _⌊they have sworn oaths for themselves_⌋.* But* he will bring their guilt to remembrance so as to seize them.

⁴⁵ But righteous men, they will judge them with the judgment of committing adultery, and with the judgment of shedding blood; for they were committing adultery, and blood was on their hands."

¹⁰ From the abundance of his horses he will cover you with their fine dust; at the sound of horseman and wheel and chariot your walls will shake, at his coming into your gates like the entrance of a city that is being broken through.

³ The shields of his warriors are dyed red; The powerful men are dressed in scarlet. The metal of the chariots* shines like fire _⌊on the day of battle_⌋,* and their spears quiver. ⁴ The chariots* race madly through the streets; they rush back and forth in the public squares. Their appearance like lightning bolts, they dart about like flashes of lightning.

² The crack of the whip! The rumbling of the chariot wheel! The galloping of the horse! The racing of the chariot! ³ Chariots charge! Swords flash! Spears glitter! _⌊Many corpses are piled high_⌋!* There is no end to the slain! They stumble over their dead!

¹⁴ For you will not bow in worship to another god, for 'Yahweh Is Jealous' is his name, he is a jealous God,

²⁰ Yahweh will not be willing to forgive him, for by then the anger of Yahweh will smoke, and his passion against that man and all the curses written in this scroll will descend on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven.

²¹ They annoyed me with what is not a god; they provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those not a people, with a foolish nation I will provoke them. ²² For a fire was kindled* by my anger, and it burned _⌊up to the depths of Sheol_⌋,* and it devoured the earth and its produce, and it set afire the foundation of the mountains.

³⁴ For jealousy is the fury of a husband, and he will not show restraint on the day of revenge.

⁶ Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death; passion is fierce as Sheol; its flashes are flashes of fire; it is a blazing flame.

¹³ And my anger will come to an end, and I will place my rage on them, and I will relent, and they will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my passion _⌊when I fully vent my rage against them_⌋.*

¹ _⌊And then_⌋* in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting _⌊before me_⌋.* And the hand of the Lord Yahweh fell on me there, ² and I saw,* and look! A figure like the appearance of a man;* from the appearance of his waist and below was fire, and from his waist and _⌊upward_⌋* was like the appearance of brightness,* like the _⌊outward appearance of_⌋* amber. ³ And he sent out the form of a hand, and he took me by a lock of hair of my head, and the Spirit lifted me between earth and heaven, and it brought me to Jerusalem in visions of God to the doorway of the inner gate _⌊that faced north_⌋,* at which there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which was making jealous. ⁴ And look! There was the glory of the God of Israel like the vision that I saw in the valley. ⁵ And he said to me, "Son of man,* lift up now* your eyes _⌊toward the north_⌋."* And I lifted up my eyes _⌊toward the north_⌋,* and, look, there was to the north of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy at the entrance. ⁶ And he said to me, "Son of man,* "_⌊Do you see_⌋* what they are doing—great detestable things that the house of Israel is committing* here so as to drive me from* my sanctuary, and yet _⌊you will see again_⌋* greater* detestable things." ⁷ And he brought me to the doorway of the courtyard, and I saw, and look! A hole in the wall. ⁸ And he said to me, "Son of man,* dig now* through the wall." And I dug through the wall, and look! There was a doorway. ⁹ And he said to me, "Come and see the detestable things, the evil that they are doing* here. ¹⁰ And I came, and I saw, and look, all kinds of creatures* and detestable beasts;* and all of the idols of the house of Israel were carved on the wall _⌊all around_⌋.* ¹¹ And seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, was standing in the midst of them, and they were standing _⌊before them_⌋.* Each one had his censer in his hand, and the fragrance of the cloud of the incense was going up. ¹² And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man,* what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the inner rooms of his idol, for they are saying, 'Yahweh is not seeing us; Yahweh has abandoned the land.'" ¹³ And he said to me, "Still _⌊you will see again_⌋* greater detestable things that they are doing." ¹⁴ And he brought me to the doorway of the gate of the house of Yahweh that is toward the north, and look! There were the women sitting weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man?* Still _⌊you will see again_⌋* greater detestable things than these." ¹⁶ And he brought me to the inner courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and look, at the doorway of the temple of Yahweh, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing down toward the east before the sun. ¹⁷ And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man?* _⌊Was it too small a thing_⌋* for the house of Judah _⌊to do_⌋* the detestable things that they did here? For they filled up the land with violence, and _⌊they provoked me to anger again_⌋,* and look! They are putting the branch to their nose. ¹⁸ And so I will act in rage, and my eye will not take pity, and I will not have compassion, and they will cry in my ear with a loud voice, and I will not hear them."

⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: _⌊Just like_⌋* the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest* which I gave to the fire for fuel, so I have given the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ⁷ And I will set my face against them. From the fire they may_⌊escape_⌋,* but the fire will yet consume them, and they will know that I am Yahweh _⌊when I set my face against them_⌋.*

³⁸ And I will judge you with the judgment of women committing adultery and shedding blood, and I will give you the blood of rage and jealousy. ³⁹ And I will give you into their hand, and they will demolish your mound, and they will break down your high places, and they will strip you of your clothes, and they will take _⌊your beautiful jewelry_⌋,* and they will leave you naked and bare. ⁴⁰ And they will bring up against you a crowd, and they will stone you with stones,* and they will cut you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹ And they will burn your houses with fire, and they will execute against you judgments _⌊before_⌋* many women, and I will stop you from prostitution, and also a harlot's wages you will not give* again. ⁴² And I will satisfy my rage on you, and my jealousy will turn away from you, and I will be calm, and I will not be angry any longer.

⁴⁷ And you must say to the forest of the Negev, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I am kindling against you a fire, and it will devour in you every fresh tree and every dry tree; the blaze of the flame will not be quenched, and all the surfaces from the south to the north will be scorched by it. ⁴⁸ And all creatures will see that I, Yahweh, I kindled it—it will not be quenched!" '"

¹⁸ "Son of man,* the house of Israel has become as silver dross to me; all of them are as bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace, even as silver dross, silver dross they became! ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Because all of you have become as silver dross, therefore look! I am gathering you to the midst of Jerusalem, ²⁰ like the gathering of silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin to the middle of a furnace to blow fire on it for melting. Thus I will gather in my anger and in my rage, and I will _⌊deposit_⌋* you, and I will melt you. ²¹ And I will gather you, and I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and so I will melt you in the midst of her. ²² Thus you will be melted like the melting of silver in the midst of a furnace, and you will know that I, Yahweh, I have poured out my rage on you.'"

⁴⁷ And an assembly must stone them with stones,* and they must cut them down. With their swords they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and with fire they shall burn their houses.

⁴ And I will not have pity on her children, because they are children of whoredom. ⁵ Because their mother was unfaithful;* she who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said: "I will go after my lovers, the ones who give me my bread, my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink."

¹⁸ Moreover, their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the wrath of Yahweh. And in the fire of his zeal, the whole land shall be consumed, for a terrifying end he shall make for all the inhabitants of the land.

⁸ Because of this her plagues will come in one day— death and mourning and famine— and she will be burned up with fire, because the Lord God who passes judgment on her is powerful!"

¹⁷ the Lord will make the heads* of the daughters of Zion scabby, and Yahweh will lay their foreheads bare." ¹⁸ In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets and the headbands and the crescent necklaces, ¹⁹ the pendants and the bracelets and the veils, ²⁰ the headdresses and the armlets and the sashes, and the _⌊perfume boxes_⌋* and the amulets, ²¹ the signet rings and the nose rings, ²² the festal robes and the mantles, and the cloaks and the handbags, ²³ and the mirrors and the linen garments, and the turbans and the wraps. ²⁴ And this shall happen: There will be a stench instead of perfume, and a rope instead of a sash, and baldness instead of a well-set hairdo, and a clothing wrap of sackcloth instead of a rich robe, branding instead of beauty.

²² And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these things happened to me?' Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts are uncovered; your heels have endured violence.

¹⁶ And you took from your clothes and you made for yourself colorful* shrines, and you prostituted on them; _⌊this had not happened before_⌋,* and it _⌊will not continue to happen_⌋.*

³⁹ And I will give you into their hand, and they will demolish your mound, and they will break down your high places, and they will strip you of your clothes, and they will take _⌊your beautiful jewelry_⌋,* and they will leave you naked and bare.

⁹ Therefore I will take again my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. ¹⁰ And now I will uncover her nakedness before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.

³ Let your* adornment not be the external kind, braiding hair and putting on gold jewelry or putting on fine clothing, ⁴ but the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is highly valuable in the sight of God.

¹⁴ "And _⌊the fruit your soul desires_⌋* has departed from you, and all the luxury and the splendor has perished from you, and they will never find them any more." ¹⁵ The merchants of these things, who became rich from them, will stand _⌊far off_⌋*, weeping and mourning because of the fear of her torment, ¹⁶ saying,
"Woe, woe, the great city, dressed in fine linen and purple cloth and scarlet cloth, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, ¹⁷ because in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!"
And every shipmaster and _⌊every seafarer_⌋* and sailors and all those who labor on the sea stood _⌊far off_⌋*

⁹ Therefore by this he will make atonement for the guilt of Jacob, and this will be all of the fruit of the removal of his sin: _⌊when he makes_⌋* all the stones of the altar like crushed stones of chalk, no poles of Asherah worship or incense altars will stand.

⁴¹ And they will burn your houses with fire, and they will execute against you judgments _⌊before_⌋* many women, and I will stop you from prostitution, and also a harlot's wages you will not give* again.

¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your uncleanness from you.

¹⁰ "And it will happen that in that day," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "then I will cut off your horses from among you, and I will destroy your chariots. ¹¹ And I will cut off the cities of your land, and I will demolish all your fortifications. ¹² And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you will not have soothsayers. ¹³ And I will cut off your idols and your stone pillars from among you, and you will no longer bow down to the work of your hands. ¹⁴ And I will uproot your Asherahs from among you, and I will destroy your cities.

² _⌊And then_⌋,* on that day,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh of hosts, 'I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I will banish from the land.

⁷ And _⌊afterward_⌋,"* _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "I will give Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those who remain in this city from the plague, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives, and he will strike them with the _⌊edge_⌋* of the sword. He will not take pity on them, and he will not have compassion, nor will he show compassion." ' ⁸ "And to this people you shall say, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Look, I am setting _⌊before you_⌋* the way of life and the way of death. ⁹ He who stays in this city will die by the sword, or by the famine, or by the plague. And he who goes out and goes over to the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you will live, and his life will be to him as booty. ¹⁰ For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire." '

⁸ But like the bad figs that cannot be eaten because of their bad quality—for thus says Yahweh—so I will treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt.

²⁰ and I will give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of the seekers of their lives, and their dead bodies* will become as food for the birds* of the heavens* and for the animals* of the earth.

¹⁷ And so the _⌊Babylonians_⌋* came to her for the bed of lovemaking; and they defiled her with their fornication, and she was defiled by them, and she turned from them.

⁴⁷ "_⌊Because_⌋* of the fact that you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ then you shall serve your enemies, whom Yahweh will send against you under conditions of famine, in thirst, in nakedness, and in a lack of everything; and he shall place* a yoke of iron on your neck _⌊until he has destroyed you_⌋.* ⁴⁹ Yahweh will raise up against you a nation from far off, from the end of the earth, attacking as the eagle swoops down, _⌊a nation whose language you will not understand_⌋,* ⁵⁰ _⌊a grim-faced nation_⌋* _⌊who does not show respect_⌋* to the old and the young and does not show pity. ⁵¹ And it* shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground _⌊until you are destroyed_⌋,* and who will not leave for you any grain, wine, and olive oil, _⌊calves of your herds_⌋,* and _⌊lambs of_⌋* your flock _⌊until it has destroyed you_⌋.*

³⁶ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because of the pouring out of your shame and because your nakedness was revealed in your whoring with your lovers, and on account of all of the idols of your detestable things, and according to the blood of your children whom you gave to them, ³⁷ therefore, look! I am gathering all of your lovers _⌊whom you were pleased about_⌋,* and all of whom you loved in addition to all of whom you hated, and I will gather them against you from _⌊everywhere_⌋,* and I will uncover your nakedness to them, and they will see all of your nakedness.

¹⁸ And she revealed her whorings, and she revealed her nakedness, and so I turned from her _⌊just as_⌋* I turned from her sister.

²⁵ And I will direct my zeal against you, and they will deal with you in anger; your nose and your ears they will remove, and _⌊those who are left_⌋,* they will fall by the sword, and they will take your sons and your daughters, and _⌊your remnant_⌋* will be consumed by fire. ²⁶ And they will strip you of your clothes, and they will take _⌊your splendid jewelry_⌋.*

⁴⁵ But righteous men, they will judge them with the judgment of committing adultery, and with the judgment of shedding blood; for they were committing adultery, and blood was on their hands." ⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Bring up against them an assembly, and make them as a thing of horror and as plunder. ⁴⁷ And an assembly must stone them with stones,* and they must cut them down. With their swords they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and with fire they shall burn their houses.

³⁵ but they mingled with the nations and learned their works, ³⁶ and served their idols, which became* a snare to them. ³⁷ They even sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons, ³⁸ and they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and so the land was defiled with the blood.*

¹⁸ And now _⌊why do you go_⌋* the way of Egypt to drink the waters of the Shihor? And _⌊why do you go_⌋* the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the _⌊Euphrates_⌋?* ¹⁹ Your wickedness will chastise you, and your apostasies will reprove you. Therefore know and see that it is evil and bitter, your forsaking of Yahweh, your God, and fear of me is not in you," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord, Yahweh of hosts. ²⁰ "For from long ago you have broken your yoke, you tore to pieces your bonds. And you said, 'I will not serve!' But on every high hill and under every leafy tree you were lying down as a prostitute.

¹¹ Then you shall say to them, '_⌊Because_⌋* your ancestors* have forsaken me,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, 'and they have gone after other gods, and they have served them, and they have bowed down in worship to them, and they have forsaken me, and they have not kept my laws. ¹² And _⌊you have behaved badly_⌋* more than your ancestors,* and look, you are going each one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without listening to me.

⁹ And your fugitives will remember me among the nations to which they were taken captive, that I was shattered by _⌊their adulterous heart_⌋* which departed from me, and by _⌊their adulterous eyes_⌋* which went after their idols, and they will feel loathing _⌊for themselves_⌋,* for the evil that they did, for all of their detestable things.

¹² She lusted after the _⌊Assyrians_⌋,* governors and prefects, warriors* clothed in* perfection,* _⌊expert horsemen_⌋,* all of them _⌊handsome young men_⌋.* ¹³ And I saw that she was defiled; _⌊they had both taken the same path_⌋!* ¹⁴ And she increased her whorings, and she saw men carved* on the wall, images of Chaldeans* carved in red, ¹⁵ belted with a belt at* their waist with turbans on their heads, all of them giving the appearance of adjutants,* the image* of the _⌊Babylonians_⌋;* Chaldea was the land of their birth. ¹⁶ And she lusted for them _⌊when her eyes saw them_⌋,* and she sent messengers to them at Chaldea. ¹⁷ And so the _⌊Babylonians_⌋* came to her for the bed of lovemaking; and they defiled her with their fornication, and she was defiled by them, and she turned from them. ¹⁸ And she revealed her whorings, and she revealed her nakedness, and so I turned from her _⌊just as_⌋* I turned from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet* she increased her whorings, _⌊recalling_⌋* the days of her childhood when she was prostituted* in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ And she lusted after her male lovers whose genitalia were the genitalia of male donkeys and their seminal emission was the seminal emission of horses. ²¹ And you longed after the obscene conduct of your youth when your bosom was caressed by Egypt, fondling your young breasts.

¹³ I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes the dish; he wipes it and turns it on its face.

¹⁴ therefore I will do to the house that is called _⌊by my name_⌋,* in which you are trusting, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors* _⌊what_⌋* I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵ And I will cast you _⌊out of my sight_⌋* just as I cast out all of your blood relatives,* all of the offspring of Ephraim." '

¹⁵ For thus said Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me, "Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and you must give it to all the nations to whom I am sending you to drink.

¹³ And I saw that she was defiled; _⌊they had both taken the same path_⌋!*

¹² And so he has carried out his words which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring upon us a great calamity which was not done under all of heaven as it was done in Jerusalem.

³⁷ And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there.

⁷ then I will cut Israel off from the face of the land that I have given to them, even the house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast away from my face; and Israel shall become a proverb and an object of taunting among all the peoples.

³ You have shown your people hard things; You have given us wine that staggers.

³ They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.

¹⁷ Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Stand up, Jerusalem, who have drunk from the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunk the goblet, the cup of staggering; you have drained it out.

⁹ look, I am going to send and take all the clans* of the north,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, 'and I will send* to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations all around, and I will destroy them, and I will make them a horror, and an object of hissing, and _⌊everlasting ruins_⌋.*

¹⁵ For thus said Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me, "Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and you must give it to all the nations to whom I am sending you to drink. ¹⁶ And they will drink, and they will stagger, and they will act like madmen because of the _⌊presence_⌋* of the sword that I am sending among them." ¹⁷ So I took the cup from the hand of Yahweh and I gave it* to all the nations to whom Yahweh sent me to drink: ¹⁸ Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and its kings, and its officials, to make them a site of ruins, a horror, an object of hissing, and a curse, as it is this day; ¹⁹ Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his officials, and all his people; ²⁰ and all the other* people; and all the kings of the land of Uz; and all the kings of the land of the Philistines—*Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; ²¹ Edom, and Moab, and the _⌊Ammonites_⌋;* ²² and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastland that is across the sea; ²³ and Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all those who are trimmed to the side; ²⁴ and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the other* people who dwell in the desert;* ²⁵ and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; ²⁶ and all the kings of the north, near and far, each one to his brother, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth; and the king of Sheshach, he will drink after them. ²⁷ "And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Drink and become drunk, and vomit, and fall, and you must not rise because of the _⌊presence_⌋* of the sword that I am sending among you." ' ²⁸ And it will happen, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "You must certainly drink!

²⁶ "Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against Yahweh, and let Moab wallow in his vomit. And he also will become a laughingstock.

¹⁵ They clap hands over you, all who pass along the way; they hiss and they shake their head, at the daughter of Jerusalem. Is this the city of which it is said, "A perfection of beauty, a joy for all the earth?" ¹⁶ They have opened their mouths against you, all your enemies. They hiss and gnash a tooth, and they say, "We have destroyed her! Surely this is the day we have hoped for; we have found it, we have seen it!"

⁴ By your blood that you poured out you have become guilty, and by your idols that you made you have become unclean, and you have brought your days near, _⌊and your appointed years have come_⌋.* Therefore I have made you a disgrace for the nations and a laughingstock to all of the countries. ⁵ The people near and the people far from you will make fun of you, _⌊the unclean and the terrified_⌋.*

⁶ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because of clapping your hand and stamping with your foot, and because you rejoiced in* yourself with all of your malice over the land of Israel,

² "Son of man,* because* Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, 'Ah! The gates of the peoples are broken; it has swung open to me; I shall be filled, for it lies in ruins!'

¹⁵ _⌊Like your rejoicing over the inheritance of the house of Israel_⌋* _⌊because_⌋* it was desolate, I will do to you; you will be a desolation, mountain of Seir and all of Edom, indeed all of it; and they will know that I am Yahweh.'" '

³ Therefore prophesy, and you must say, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "_⌊Because indeed_⌋* _⌊when you were desolate_⌋,* then they crushed you from all around, so that you became a possession to the remainder* of the nations, and you became _⌊a byword and object of slander for the people_⌋."*

⁸ You should not rejoice over me, O my enemy! When I fall I will stand up; when I sit in darkness Yahweh will be a light for me.

²² But Jesus answered and* said, "You do not know what you are asking! Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?" They said to him, "We are able." ²³ He said to them, "You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine* to grant, but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father."

¹⁹ And the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of his furious wrath.*

⁶ Pay back to her as she herself also paid out, and _⌊pay back double_⌋* according to her deeds; in the cup that she mixed, mix double for her.

²² Thus says your Lord, Yahweh, and your God pleads the cause of his people: "Look! I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering. You shall not _⌊continue_⌋* to drink the goblet, the cup of my wrath, any longer.

¹⁵ For thus said Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me, "Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and you must give it to all the nations to whom I am sending you to drink. ¹⁶ And they will drink, and they will stagger, and they will act like madmen because of the _⌊presence_⌋* of the sword that I am sending among them."

²⁷ "And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Drink and become drunk, and vomit, and fall, and you must not rise because of the _⌊presence_⌋* of the sword that I am sending among you." '

¹⁶ You will be sated with shame rather than glory. Drink also yourself, and expose yourself! The cup of the right hand of Yahweh will come around upon you and disgrace upon your glory.

⁸ For there is a cup in the hand of Yahweh with* wine that foams, fully mixed, and he pours out from this. Surely all the wicked of the land _⌊will quaff it down to its dregs_⌋. *

⁷ As much as she glorified herself and lived in luxury, give to her so much torment and mourning, because in her heart she said, 'I sit as a queen, and am not a widow, and I will never see mourning!'

¹⁵ And you shall speak to the _⌊Israelites_⌋,* saying, '_⌊Any man_⌋* when he curses his God shall bear* his sin.

³⁴ According to the number of the days* that you explored the land, forty days,* _⌊a day for each year_⌋,* you will bear your sins forty years,* and you will know my opposition.'

²² The _⌊Israelites_⌋* will not come near again to the tent of assembly, or _⌊they will bear sin_⌋* and die.

²⁶ "But they rebelled and were rebellious against you and cast your law* behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them to turn back to you, and they did great blasphemies.

¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and you have not remembered the rock of your refuge; therefore you plant plants of pleasantness, and you _⌊plant_⌋* a vine of a foreigner.

³² Can a young woman forget her ornaments?* Or a bride her sashes? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

²¹ "A voice is heard on the barren heights, the weeping of the pleas for mercy of the children of Israel, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.

²⁵ This is your lot, the portion of your measure from me," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "because you have forgotten me, and you have trusted in the lie.

²⁷ who plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell each one to his neighbor, just as their ancestors* forgot my name through Baal?

³³ And they have turned to me their backs* and not their faces, though _⌊I have taught them over and over again_⌋,* but they were not listening to accept discipline.

⁴ And my eye will not take pity on you, and I will not show compassion for your ways; on you I will bring your detestable things; they will be in the midst of you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.'

¹² They take a bribe among* you in order to shed blood; and you take usury, and you make gain from your neighbors by extortion, and so you have forgotten me, _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh.

⁴⁵ But righteous men, they will judge them with the judgment of committing adultery, and with the judgment of shedding blood; for they were committing adultery, and blood was on their hands." ⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Bring up against them an assembly, and make them as a thing of horror and as plunder. ⁴⁷ And an assembly must stone them with stones,* and they must cut them down. With their swords they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and with fire they shall burn their houses. ⁴⁸ And _⌊I will cause obscene conduct to cease from the land_⌋,* and all of the women will be warned, and they will not do according to your wickedness. ⁴⁹ And they will repay your obscene conduct upon you, and the guilt of your idols you will bear, and you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁰ _⌊But_⌋* the Levites who removed themselves from me _⌊at the going astray of Israel_⌋,* who went astray from me and went after their idols, as a result they will bear their guilt.

¹⁴ Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send fire on his cities and it will devour her strongholds.

⁶ When I fed them,* they were satisfied; they were satisfied and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.

²⁸ And just as they did not see fit _⌊to recognize God_⌋*, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do the things that are not proper,

¹ "Call with the throat; you must not keep back! lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare* to my people their rebellion, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

¹⁰ See, I appoint you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, and to destroy and to tear down, to build and to plant."

¹⁴ Therefore you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty, or a prayer, for I will not listen in the time of their calling to me, in the time of their trouble.

¹¹ So Yahweh said to me, "You must not pray for this people, for their happiness.*

² "Son of man,* make known to Jerusalem its detestable things,

⁴ Will you judge them? Will you judge them, son of man?* Make known to them the detestable things of their ancestors.*

² "And you, son of man,* will you judge? Will you judge the _⌊bloody city_⌋?* Then you must make known to her all of her detestable things!

⁸ But I, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of Yahweh, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his rebellion, and to Israel his sin. ⁹ Hear this, O rulers of the house of Jacob and leaders of the house of Israel, those detesting justice and perverting all that is right, ¹⁰ he who builds Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wickedness. ¹¹ Its rulers judge for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money. But they lean on Yahweh, saying, "Is not Yahweh in our midst? Disaster will not come upon us."

¹³ "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you shut the kingdom of heaven before people! For you do not enter, nor permit those wanting to go in* to enter.*

¹⁵ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you travel around the sea and the dry land to make one convert, and when he becomes one,* you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are! ¹⁶ "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing! But whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound by his oath.'* ¹⁷ Fools and blind people! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that makes the gold holy? ¹⁸ And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing! But whoever swears by the gift that is on it is bound by his oath.'* ¹⁹ Blind people! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift holy? ²⁰ Therefore the one who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything that is on it. ²¹ And the one who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. ²² And the one who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one who sits on it. ²³ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you pay a tenth of mint and dill and cumin, and neglect the more important matters of the law—justice and mercy and faithfulness! It was necessary* to do these things _⌊while not neglecting those_⌋.* ²⁴ Blind guides who filter out a gnat and swallow a camel! ²⁵ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence! ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish,* so that the outside of it may become clean also. ²⁷ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean! ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you also appear righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. ²⁹ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, ³⁰ and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in the blood of the prophets!' ³¹ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets! ³² And you—fill up the measure of your fathers! ³³ Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How will you escape from the condemnation to hell? ³⁴ For this reason, behold, I am sending to you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and will pursue from town to town, ³⁵ so that upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel up to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

³⁹ But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but your inside is full of greediness and wickedness. ⁴⁰ Fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But give as charitable giving the things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. ⁴² "But woe to you, Pharisees, because you pay a tenth of mint and rue and every garden herb, and neglect justice and love for God! But it was necessary to do these things without neglecting those things also. ⁴³ Woe to you, Pharisees, because you love the best seat in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces! ⁴⁴ Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, and the people who walk over them* do not know it!* ⁴⁵ And one of the legal experts answered and* said to him, "Teacher, when you* say these things, you insult us also!" ⁴⁶ So he said, "Woe to you also, legal experts, because you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers! ⁴⁷ Woe to you, because you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them! ⁴⁸ As a result you are witnesses, and you approve of the deeds of your fathers, because they killed them and you build their tombs!* ⁴⁹ For this reason also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,' ⁵⁰ so that the blood of all the prophets that has been shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the temple building.* Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation! ⁵² Woe to you, legal experts, because you have taken away the key to knowledge! You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering!"

⁵¹ "You stiff-necked people and uncircumcised in hearts and in your* ears! You constantly resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so also do you! ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand about the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, ⁵³ you who received the law by directions of angels and have not observed it!"

² Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if by you the world is judged, are you unworthy of the most insignificant courts? ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention ordinary matters?

²¹ " 'And you shall not give _⌊any of_⌋* your offspring* in order to sacrifice them to Molech, nor* shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.

² "And to the _⌊Israelites_⌋* you shall say, 'If there is _⌊anyone_⌋* from the _⌊Israelites_⌋* or* from the alien who is dwelling in Israel, who gives _⌊any of_⌋* his offspring to Molech, he must surely be put to death; the people of the land must stone him with stones.* ³ And I myself will set my face against that man, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given _⌊some of_⌋* his offspring to Molech, so that _⌊he makes my sanctuary unclean_⌋* and profanes* _⌊my holy name_⌋.* ⁴ And if the people of the land ever shut their eyes from* that man at his giving _⌊some of_⌋* his offspring to Molech, not putting him to death, ⁵ then* I myself will set my face against that man and against his clan, and I will cut him off and all those from the midst of their people who prostitute after Molech.

³¹ You must not do so toward Yahweh your God, because of every detestable thing they have done for their gods Yahweh hates, for even their sons and their daughters they would burn in the fire to their gods.

¹⁷ They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, they practiced divination and read omens, and they sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him.

⁶ He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He increased the doing of evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him.

⁴ Also, for the blood of the innocent that he had shed—and he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood—Yahweh was not willing to forgive.

¹⁵ And when you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers,* I will not be listening. Your hands are full of blood.

⁶ you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and you do not go after other gods _⌊to your harm_⌋,*

⁹ Will you steal? Will you murder? And will you commit adultery? And will you swear _⌊falsely_⌋?* And will you make a smoke offering to the Baal? And will you go after other gods whom you have not known?

³¹ And they built the high place of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I have not commanded, and it did not come into my mind.*

³⁵ And they built the high places of Baal that are in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to present as offerings their sons and their daughters to Molech, which I had not commanded them, and it had not come to my _⌊mind_⌋* to do this detestable thing in order to cause Judah to sin."

²⁰ 'And you took your sons and your daughters whom you had borne for me, and you sacrificed them to them to be eaten,* _⌊as if your whorings were not enough_⌋.* ²¹ And you slaughtered my children, and you gave them _⌊to be sacrificed to them_⌋.*

³² O, adulterous woman! In the place of her husband she received strangers.

⁴⁵ You are a daughter of your mother who abhorred her husband and her children, and you are a sister of your sisters who abhorred their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father was an Amorite.

²⁶ And I defiled them through their gifts in sacrificing all of the first offspring of the womb, in order that* I will cause them to be stunned, so that they will know that I am Yahweh.

³¹ And _⌊when you lift up your gifts, sacrificing your children_⌋* through the fire, you are defiling yourself through all of your idols until _⌊today_⌋,* and will I let myself* be consulted by you, house of Israel?" ' _⌊As I live_⌋,"* _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, "I will not let myself* be consulted by you!

² "And you, son of man,* will you judge? Will you judge the _⌊bloody city_⌋?* Then you must make known to her all of her detestable things!

⁴ Now as for their names, the older was Oholah, and Oholibah was her sister. And _⌊they became mine_⌋,* and they bore sons and daughters, and their names* are Samaria for Oholah, and Jerusalem for Oholibah. ⁵ And Oholah prostituted herself _⌊while she was still mine_⌋,* and she lusted for her lovers, for Assyria who was nearby,

³⁹ and when they slaughtered their children for their idols, they came to my sanctuary on that day to profane it. And look, _⌊this is what they did in my house_⌋!*

⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Woe to the city of bloodguilt! A pot that has its rust in it; _⌊its rust did not go out from it_⌋.* Bring it out _⌊piece by piece_⌋;* _⌊one is as good as another_⌋.* ⁷ For her blood was in the midst of her; _⌊she put it on a bare rock_⌋;* she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.* ⁸ To stir up rage, to avenge myself through vengeance, I placed its blood on the barrenness of a rock, _⌊so that it may not be covered_⌋."* ⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Woe to the city of bloodguilt! I, even I, will make the pile of wood great!

² _⌊At the beginning when Yahweh spoke_⌋* through Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, "Go, take for yourself a wife and children of whoredom, because the land commits great whoredom _⌊forsaking Yahweh_⌋."*

¹ And Yahweh said to me again, "Go, love a woman _⌊who has a lover_⌋* and is committing adultery, just like the love of Yahweh for the children of Israel, but they are turning to other gods and love raisin cakes."

² Swearing and lying, murdering and stealing, and adultery break out,* and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

¹⁰ he who builds Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wickedness.

³⁴ "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How many times I wanted to gather your children together _⌊the way_⌋* a hen gathers* her own brood under her* wings, and you were not willing!

⁴ He built altars in the temple of Yahweh about which Yahweh had said, "I will put my name in Jerusalem."

⁷ He put the image of the Asherah that he had made in the temple which Yahweh had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this temple and in Jerusalem which I have chosen from all of the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

¹¹ He kept the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun from coming to the temple of Yawheh at the side room of Nathan-Melech the eunuch, which was in the court; and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire. ¹² The altars which were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh, the king tore down and ran from there and threw their ashes into the Wadi Kidron.

¹⁷ So I quarreled with the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the day of the Sabbath? ¹⁸ Did not your ancestors* do this also, and our God brought on us all of this disaster and on this city too? Now you are adding fierce wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath!"

²⁷ But if you do not listen to me, to declare holy the day of the Sabbath, and to not carry a burden and enter through the gates of Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it will not be quenched." '"

¹¹ Therefore _⌊as surely as I live_⌋,* _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, _⌊Surely_⌋* because you have defiled my sanctuary with all of your vile idols and with all of your detestable things, _⌊now indeed I_⌋* will reduce, and my eye will not take pity, and surely I will show no compassion.

²⁰ " 'And the beauty of its* ornament _⌊he made into a prideful thing_⌋* and made with it their detestable things and their vile idols; therefore I will make it into an impure thing for them.

⁵ And he said to me, "Son of man,* lift up now* your eyes _⌊toward the north_⌋."* And I lifted up my eyes _⌊toward the north_⌋,* and, look, there was to the north of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy at the entrance. ⁶ And he said to me, "Son of man,* "_⌊Do you see_⌋* what they are doing—great detestable things that the house of Israel is committing* here so as to drive me from* my sanctuary, and yet _⌊you will see again_⌋* greater* detestable things." ⁷ And he brought me to the doorway of the courtyard, and I saw, and look! A hole in the wall. ⁸ And he said to me, "Son of man,* dig now* through the wall." And I dug through the wall, and look! There was a doorway. ⁹ And he said to me, "Come and see the detestable things, the evil that they are doing* here. ¹⁰ And I came, and I saw, and look, all kinds of creatures* and detestable beasts;* and all of the idols of the house of Israel were carved on the wall _⌊all around_⌋.* ¹¹ And seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, was standing in the midst of them, and they were standing _⌊before them_⌋.* Each one had his censer in his hand, and the fragrance of the cloud of the incense was going up. ¹² And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man,* what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in the inner rooms of his idol, for they are saying, 'Yahweh is not seeing us; Yahweh has abandoned the land.'" ¹³ And he said to me, "Still _⌊you will see again_⌋* greater detestable things that they are doing." ¹⁴ And he brought me to the doorway of the gate of the house of Yahweh that is toward the north, and look! There were the women sitting weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man?* Still _⌊you will see again_⌋* greater detestable things than these." ¹⁶ And he brought me to the inner courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and look, at the doorway of the temple of Yahweh, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing down toward the east before the sun.

¹³ "But* in the desert the house of Israel rebelled against me; _⌊they did not walk in my statutes_⌋,* and they rejected my regulations, which, if a person does them, he will live by them, and they greatly profaned my Sabbaths, and I decided to pour out my rage on them in the desert to destroy them,

²⁴ because they did not do my regulations, and my statutes they despised, and my Sabbaths they profaned, and their eyes were after the idols of their ancestors.*

⁸ You despised my holy objects; my Sabbaths you profaned.

⁴ And he built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh had said, "In Jerusalem my name shall be forever." ⁵ And he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of Yahweh. ⁶ And he himself burned his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. And he practiced sorcery and divination, and he engaged in witchcraft and dealt with mediums and spiritists. And he did much evil in the eyes of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger. ⁷ And he placed the carved image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

⁸ Look, you are relying for yourselves on _⌊deceitful words_⌋* without benefiting. ⁹ Will you steal? Will you murder? And will you commit adultery? And will you swear _⌊falsely_⌋?* And will you make a smoke offering to the Baal? And will you go after other gods whom you have not known? ¹⁰ And then you come and you stand _⌊before_⌋* me in this house, which is called _⌊by my name_⌋,* and you say, 'we are safe _⌊to go on doing_⌋* all of these detestable things.' ¹¹ Has this house, which is called _⌊by my name_⌋,* become a cave of robbers in your eyes? Look, I, even I, have seen it," * _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh.

¹⁵ _⌊What rights has my beloved in my house_⌋* when she has done many wicked things?* Can the flesh of holiness pass over you? For _⌊you engage in your wickedness_⌋,* then you exult.

¹¹ "For both prophet as well as priest are godless, even in my temple I have found their wickedness," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh.

³⁸ Also they did this to me: they defiled my sanctuary on that day, and they profaned my Sabbaths,

⁷ At* your bringing _⌊foreigners_⌋* who are uncircumcised of heart and uncircumcised of flesh to be in my sanctuary to profane it, my temple,* _⌊as you offered my food, fat, and blood_⌋,* so* you broke my covenant by all of your detestable things.

¹¹ Its rulers judge for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money. But they lean on Yahweh, saying, "Is not Yahweh in our midst? Disaster will not come upon us."

²⁸ Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor's residence. Now it was early, and they did not enter into the governor's residence so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.

³ Wash, anoint yourself, put your clothing on, and go down to the threshing floor. Do not make yourself known to the man until he finishes eating and drinking.

³⁰ When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, so she painted her eyes with black eye paint and adorned her head and looked through the window.

¹³ Hezekiah heard about them and showed them all of the house of his treasure, both the silver and the gold, the spices, the good olive oil, the room of his weapons, and all that could be found in his treasuries. There was nothing that he did not show them in his palace and in all of his kingdom. ¹⁴ Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?" Hezekiah said, "From a far land; they have come from Babylon." ¹⁵ Then he asked, "What did they see in your palace?" And Hezekiah said, "All that is in my palace they have seen; there is nothing that I did not show them in my treasuries."

¹² When the turn came for each girl to go to King Ahasuerus, after the end of twelve months of being under the regulations of the women—for the days of their beauty treatments had to be filled, six months with the oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and women's cosmetics—

¹⁰ Then behold! A woman comes to meet him with the garment of a prostitute* and _⌊a secret heart_⌋.*

¹⁸ In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets and the headbands and the crescent necklaces, ¹⁹ the pendants and the bracelets and the veils, ²⁰ the headdresses and the armlets and the sashes, and the _⌊perfume boxes_⌋* and the amulets, ²¹ the signet rings and the nose rings, ²² the festal robes and the mantles, and the cloaks and the handbags, ²³ and the mirrors and the linen garments, and the turbans and the wraps.

⁹ And you climbed down to the king with oil, and you made your perfumes numerous, and you sent your envoys _⌊far away_⌋,* and you _⌊sent down deep_⌋* to Sheol.

³⁰ And you, O devastated one, what do you do, that you put on crimson, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you make your eyes look bigger with the eye make-up? In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers reject you; they seek your life.

¹³ And you adorned yourself with gold and silver, and your clothing was fine linen and costly fabric and beautiful finished cloth; you ate finely milled flour and honey and olive oil, and you became exceedingly beautiful; _⌊you were fit to be a queen_⌋.* ¹⁴ And a name went out for you among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect because of my majesty that I bestowed on you,' _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh. ¹⁵ 'And you trusted in your beauty, and you prostituted on account of your name, and you poured out your fornication on every one passing by, saying, "Let it be his." ¹⁶ And you took from your clothes and you made for yourself colorful* shrines, and you prostituted on them; _⌊this had not happened before_⌋,* and it _⌊will not continue to happen_⌋.*

⁶ There were curtains of finely woven linen and blue cloth tied with cords of fine white linen and purple cloth to silver curtain rings and pillars of alabaster, and couches of gold and silver on a paved floor of alabaster, precious stone, mother-of-pearl, and costly stones.*

¹⁶ With coverings I have adorned my couch, spreads of the linen of Egypt; ¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

⁷ You have set your bed upon a high and lofty mountain; indeed, you went up there to slaughter sacrifice.

¹¹ But* you _⌊who forsake_⌋* Yahweh, forgetting _⌊my holy mountain_⌋,* who set a table for Fortune, and who _⌊pour out_⌋* a jug of mixed wine for Destiny,

¹⁷ But certainly we will do _⌊everything_⌋* that went out from our mouths,* to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors,* our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then _⌊we had enough to eat_⌋,* and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster.

¹⁸ And you took the clothes of your beautiful finished cloth, and you covered them and my oil and my incense you set _⌊before them_⌋.* ¹⁹ And my bread that I gave to you, finely milled flour and oil and honey with which I fed you, then you set it _⌊before them_⌋* as a _⌊pleasing odor_⌋,* and so it was,' _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁶ "They shall come to my sanctuary, and they shall approach my table to serve me, and they will observe my requirement.

⁸ But she did not know that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and who gave her silver in abundance, and gold which they made into a Baal. ⁹ Therefore I will take again my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.

⁸ They stretch themselves out beside every altar on clothing taken in pledge and they drink wine, bought with fines imposed,* in the house of their God.

⁴ Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches, and those eating young rams from the sheep and goats, and bull-calves from the middle of the animal stall.

⁷ You are presenting defiled food on my altar! But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' By saying that the table of Yahweh is despised!

³⁰ And when he saw the ring and the bracelets on the arms of his sister and heard the words of Rebekah his sister, who said, "Thus the man spoke to me," he went to the man. And behold, he was standing with the camels at the spring.

⁶ And they started early the next day, and they offered burnt offerings, and they presented fellowship offerings, and the people sat to eat and drink, and they rose up to revel.

¹⁸ But he said, "There is not a sound of shouting of victory, and there is not a sound of shouting of defeat. I hear a sound of singing." ¹⁹ _⌊And_⌋* as he came near to the camp, he saw the bull calf and dancing, and _⌊Moses became angry_⌋,* and he threw the tablets from his hand, and he broke them under the mountain.

¹⁵ Then* the Sabeans _⌊attacked_⌋,* and they took them, and they slew the servants _⌊by the edge of the sword_⌋.* But* I escaped, even I alone, to tell you."

¹¹ And I adorned you with ornaments,* and I put a bracelet on your arms and a necklace on your neck. ¹² And I put an ornamental ring on your nose and earrings on your ears and a _⌊beautiful crown_⌋* on your head.

⁸ I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans and to a nation far away, for Yahweh has spoken.

¹ Alas for those being at ease in Zion, and those who feel secure on Mount Samaria, the notables of the best of the nations! The house of Israel resorts to them. ² Cross over to Calneh and see, and go from there to Hamath Rabbah and go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than your territory? ³ You that put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of violence! ⁴ Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches, and those eating young rams from the sheep and goats, and bull-calves from the middle of the animal stall. ⁵ Alas for those who sing to the tune of the harp; like David they improvise on instruments of music. ⁶ Alas for those who drink from sprinkling bowls of wine and anoint themselves with the best of olive oils and are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.

³ And another sign appeared in heaven, and behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven royal headbands.*

⁷ From the days of our ancestors* until this day we have been in great guilt, and because of our sins we ourselves, our kings, and our priests have been handed into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to utter shame, as it is this day.

⁶ We have sinned along with our ancestors.* We have committed iniquity; we have incurred guilt.

²³ Can a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Then you also will be able to do good, who are accustomed to doing evil.

¹⁶ Lord, according to all your righteousness, please let your anger and your rage turn away from your city Jerusalem, _⌊your holy mountain_⌋,* because through our sins and through the iniquities of our ancestors* Jerusalem and your people have become an object of mockery among all of our neighbors.

⁹ Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the _⌊Assyrians_⌋* _⌊after whom she lusted_⌋.* ¹⁰ They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. And she became a name for the women, and they executed judgments against her. ¹¹ "And though Oholibah her sister saw, yet in her lust _⌊she behaved more corruptly than her_⌋,* and her whoring was more than the prostitution of her sister. ¹² She lusted after the _⌊Assyrians_⌋,* governors and prefects, warriors* clothed in* perfection,* _⌊expert horsemen_⌋,* all of them _⌊handsome young men_⌋.* ¹³ And I saw that she was defiled; _⌊they had both taken the same path_⌋!*

¹⁰ " 'As for* a man who commits adultery with a man's wife, who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the man who commits adultery and the woman who commits adultery shall surely be put to death.

⁹ " 'As for* the daughter of any priest, if she is defiled by prostituting, she is disgracing her father—she shall be burned in the fire.

²¹ and then they shall bring out the young woman to the doorway of the house of her father, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, and she shall die, because she did a disgraceful thing in Israel _⌊by playing the harlot_⌋* in the house of her father, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst. ²² "If a man is found lying _⌊with a married woman_⌋,* then they shall both die; _⌊both of them_⌋,* the man who lay with the woman and the woman also, so you shall purge the evil from Israel. ²³ "If it happens that a young woman, a virgin, is engaged to a man, and a man finds her in the town and lies with her, ²⁴ then you shall bring out _⌊both of them_⌋* to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones so that they shall die, the young woman because she did not cry out in the town, and the man because* he violated his neighbor's wife; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

¹⁴ _⌊Therefore_⌋* thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, "Because you have spoken this word, look, I am making my words in your mouth like a fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.

³⁸ And I will judge you with the judgment of women committing adultery and shedding blood, and I will give you the blood of rage and jealousy. ³⁹ And I will give you into their hand, and they will demolish your mound, and they will break down your high places, and they will strip you of your clothes, and they will take _⌊your beautiful jewelry_⌋,* and they will leave you naked and bare. ⁴⁰ And they will bring up against you a crowd, and they will stone you with stones,* and they will cut you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹ And they will burn your houses with fire, and they will execute against you judgments _⌊before_⌋* many women, and I will stop you from prostitution, and also a harlot's wages you will not give* again. ⁴² And I will satisfy my rage on you, and my jealousy will turn away from you, and I will be calm, and I will not be angry any longer. ⁴³ _⌊Because_⌋* you did not remember* the days of your childhood and you made me angry with all of these. And in turn I, look, I will return your way upon your head,' _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, 'and did* you not do wickedness* in addition to all of your detestable things?

³⁶ And Yahweh said to me, "Son of man,* will you judge Oholah and Oholibah and declare their abominable deeds to* them? ³⁷ For they committed adultery, and blood is on their hands, and they committed adultery with their idols, and even their children that they had borne for me—they sacrificed them as food! ³⁸ Also they did this to me: they defiled my sanctuary on that day, and they profaned my Sabbaths, ³⁹ and when they slaughtered their children for their idols, they came to my sanctuary on that day to profane it. And look, _⌊this is what they did in my house_⌋!*

⁵ Therefore, I have hewn them by the prophets; I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment* goes forth like the light.

⁶ However, did not my words and my regulations which I commanded my servants the prophets overtake your ancestors?* And they repented and said, 'Yahweh of hosts planned to do with us according to our ways, and according to our deeds so he has dealt with us.'" '"

³ Now the scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman* caught in adultery. And standing her in their midst, ⁴ they said to him, testing him,* "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery! ⁵ Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" ⁶ (Now they were saying this to test him, so that they would have an occasion* to bring charges against him.) But Jesus, bending down, began to write* with his* finger on the ground, taking no notice.* ⁷ And when they persisted in asking him, straightening up he said* to them, "The one of you without sin, let him throw the first stone at her!"

⁴ And I will make them a terror to all of the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.

⁹ And I will make them as a terror, an evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, as a disgrace and a proverb, as a taunt and a curse, in all the places where I will drive them.

¹⁷ "_⌊Therefore_⌋* thus says Yahweh, 'You have not listened to me to proclaim release each one to his fellow countryman and each one to his neighbor. Look, I am going to proclaim to you a release,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, 'to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine, and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

²² "Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I am stirring up your lovers against you concerning whom you turned away, and I will bring them against you from all around: ²³ the _⌊Babylonians_⌋* and all of the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all of the _⌊Assyrians_⌋* along with them, _⌊handsome young men_⌋,* governors and prefects, all of them adjutants* _⌊and excellent horsemen_⌋.* ²⁴ And they will come against you with an army chariot and wagon and with a crowd* of peoples; they will set themselves against you from all around with large shield and small shield and helmet. And I will give _⌊before them_⌋* judgment, and they will judge you with their judgments.

¹⁶ And then you shall gather all of its booty into the middle of its public square, and you shall burn the town and all of its war-booty totally for Yahweh your God, and it shall be _⌊a pile of rubble forever_⌋;* it shall not be built again.

¹⁷ Therefore he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, and he killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He showed no mercy on a young man, a virgin, the elderly, or decrepit. He delivered all into his hand. ¹⁸ And all the vessels of the house of God, the great and the small, the storehouses of the house of Yahweh, and the storehouses of the king and his princes, these all he brought to Babylon. ¹⁹ And they burned the house of God. And they shattered the walls of Jerusalem and burned its citadels with fire and destroyed all the vessels of its treasuries.

⁴ For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, that were torn down to make a defense against the siege ramps and against the sword: ⁵ 'They are coming to fight against the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the corpses of the people whom I will strike in my anger and in my wrath, for whom I have hidden my face from this city because of all their wickedness.

⁸ And the Chaldeans burned the palace* of the king and the houses* of the people with fire and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.

¹³ And he burned the _⌊temple_⌋* of Yahweh, and the palace* of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house he burned with fire.

⁶ You must kill _⌊totally_⌋* old man, young man and young woman, and little children and women, but _⌊concerning_⌋* every man _⌊with the mark on him_⌋* you must not approach; and from my sanctuary you must begin." And they began with the old men who _⌊were before_⌋* the house.*

²⁵ And I will direct my zeal against you, and they will deal with you in anger; your nose and your ears they will remove, and _⌊those who are left_⌋,* they will fall by the sword, and they will take your sons and your daughters, and _⌊your remnant_⌋* will be consumed by fire.

⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Woe to the city of bloodguilt! A pot that has its rust in it; _⌊its rust did not go out from it_⌋.* Bring it out _⌊piece by piece_⌋;* _⌊one is as good as another_⌋.*

²¹ "Say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I will be profaning my sanctuary, the pride of your strength and the delight of your eyes and the object of your own* affection; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind will fall by the sword,

¹¹ And all of Israel shall hear, and they shall fear, and _⌊they shall not continue to act_⌋* according to this evil thing in your midst.

⁹ I desire you with all my soul in the night; also I seek you with my spirit within me, for when your judgments are _⌊upon_⌋* the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁵ And it will be* an object of taunting* and an object of mockery, a warning and a horror to the nations that are around you whenever I execute judgments against you in anger and in wrath and in furious punishments! I, Yahweh, have spoken!

⁶ In all of your dwellings, the cities will be desolate and the high places will be ruined, so that your altars will be desolate and will suffer punishment. Your idols will be broken and will come to an end, and your incense altars will be cut down, and your works will be destroyed,

²⁷ And I will put an end to your obscene conduct coming from you and your fornication from the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them; and you will not remember Egypt again.'

²⁵ And I will sprinkle on you pure water, and you will be clean from all of your uncleanness, and I will cleanse you from all of your idols.

³ "I will destroy humanity and beast; I will destroy the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks* with the wicked. And I will cut off humankind from the face of the earth"—a declaration of Yahweh.

⁶ Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we should not be desirers of evil things, just as those also desired them, ⁷ and not become idolaters, as some of them did, just as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play,"* ⁸ nor commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed sexual immorality, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day, ⁹ nor put Christ to the test, as some of them tested him, and were destroyed by snakes, ¹⁰ nor grumble, just as some of them grumbled, and were destroyed by the destroyer. ¹¹ Now these things happened to those people as an example, but are written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

⁶ and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed them as an example for those who are going to be ungodly,

¹⁶ Yahweh has made himself known; he has executed judgment. The wicked is snared by the work of his hands. Higgaion* Selah

¹⁸ According to deeds, so he will repay; wrath to his enemies, requital to those who are his _⌊enemies_⌋.* He will repay requital to the coastlands.

⁷ and the slain one will fall in the midst of you, and then you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁹ And my eye will not take pity, and I will not show compassion. According to your ways I will _⌊deal with you_⌋,* and your detestable things will be in the midst of you, and you will know that I am Yahweh who strikes.*

¹⁰ And I, my eye will not take pity, and I will not have compassion; their way I will bring on their head."

²¹ But to* the heart of their abominations and the detestable things their heart is going. I will bring their way on their head," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh.'"

⁴³ _⌊Because_⌋* you did not remember* the days of your childhood and you made me angry with all of these. And in turn I, look, I will return your way upon your head,' _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, 'and did* you not do wickedness* in addition to all of your detestable things?

³⁸ And I will purge the rebels from among you and the ones transgressing against me; I will bring them out from the land _⌊where they are living as aliens_⌋,* but into the land of Israel they will not come, and then you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁴² And you will know that I am Yahweh _⌊when I bring you_⌋ to the land of Israel, to the land that _⌊I swore_⌋* to give to your ancestors.

⁴⁴ And you will know that I am Yahweh _⌊when I deal with you_⌋* for the sake of my name and _⌊not according to your evil ways_⌋* or _⌊according to_⌋* your corrupted deeds, house of Israel," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh.

³¹ and so I poured out my indignation on them. With the fire of my wrath I destroyed them; I returned their way upon their head," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh.

³⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because you have forgotten me, and you threw me behind your back, now in turn* you bear your obscene conduct and your whorings."

⁵ And I will make Rabbah as a pasture of camels and the _⌊Ammonites_⌋* as a haunt of flocks, and they will know that I am Yahweh." '"