Chapter 15

¹ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

² And thou, son of man--of all the wood, of the branches that are among the trees of the forest, what shall be made of the wood of the vine? ³ Will they take wood of it to make it fit for work? will they take of it a peg to hang any vessel upon it? ⁴ It is only given to the fire to be consumed; the fire consumes that which is yearly pruned ¹of it, and it is utterly gone. Will it be useful for any work? ⁵ Not even while it is yet whole will it be useful for any work: if the fire shall have utterly consumed it, will it still be fit for work? ⁶ Therefore say,

Thus saith the Lord, As the vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given up to the fire to be consumed, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ⁷ And I will set my face against them; they shall go forth of the fire, and yet fire shall devour them; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have set my face against them. ⁸ And I will give up the land to ruin, because they have utterly transgressed, saith the Lord.

Chapter 16

¹ Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² Son of man, testify to Jerusalem of her iniquities; ³ and thou shalt say,

Thus saith the Lord to Jerusalem; Thy root and thy birth are of the land of Chanaan: thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Chettite. ⁴ And as for thy birth in the day wherein thou wast born, thou didst not bind thy breasts, and thou wast not washed in water, neither wast thou salted with salt, neither wast thou swathed in swaddling-bands. ⁵ Nor did mine eye pity thee, to do for thee one of all these things, to feel at all for thee; but thou wast cast out on the face of the field, because of the deformity of thy person, in the day wherein thou wast born.

⁶ And I passed by to thee, and saw thee polluted in thy blood; and I said to thee, Let there be life out of thy blood: ⁷ increase; I have made thee as the springing grass of the field. So thou didst increase and grow, and didst enter into great cities: thy breasts were set, and thy hair grew, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

⁸ And I passed by thee and saw thee, and, behold, it was thy time and a time of resting; and I spread my wings over thee, and covered thy shame, and swear to thee: and I entered into covenant with thee, saith the Lord, and thou becamest mine. ⁹ And I washed thee in water, and washed thy blood from thee, and anointed thee with oil. ¹⁰ And I clothed thee with embroidered garments, and ²clothed thee beneath with purple, and girded thee with fine linen, and clothed thee with silk, ¹¹ and decked thee also with ornaments, and put bracelets on

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thine hands, and a necklace on thy neck. ¹² And I put ³a pendant on thy nostril, and rings in thine ears, and a crown of glory on thine head. ¹³ So thou wast adorned with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and variegated work: thou didst eat fine flour, and oil, and honey, and didst become extremely beautiful. ¹⁴ And thy name went forth among the nations for thy beauty: because it was perfected with elegance, and in the comeliness which I put upon thee, saith the Lord.

¹⁵ Thou didst trust in thy beauty, and didst go a-whoring because of thy renown, and didst pour out thy fornication on every passer by. ¹⁶ and thou didst take of thy garments, and madest to thyself idols of needlework, and didst go a-whoring after them; therefore thou shalt never come in, nor shall the like take place. ¹⁷ And thou tookest ⁴thy fair ornaments of my gold and of my silver, of what I gave thee, and thou madest to thyself male images, and thou didst commit whoredom with them. ¹⁸ And thou didst take thy variegated apparel and didst clothe them, and thou didst set before them mine oil and mine incense. ¹⁹ And thou tookest my bread which I gave thee, (yea I fed thee with fine flour and oil and honey) and didst set them before them for a sweet-smelling savour: yea, it was so, saith the Lord.

²⁰ And thou tookest thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou borest, land didst sacrifice these to them to be destroyed. ⁵Thou didst go a-whoring as if that were little, ²¹ and didst slay thy children, and gavest them up in offering ⁶them to them for an expiation. ²² This is beyond all thy fornication, and thou didst not remember thine infancy, when thou wast naked and bare, and didst live though defiled in thy blood.

²³ And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, saith the Lord, ²⁴ that thou didst build thyself a house of fornication, and didst make thyself a public place in every street; ²⁵ and on the head of every way thou didst set up thy fornications, and didst defile thy beauty, and didst open thy feet to every passer by, and didst multiply thy fornication. ²⁶ And thou didst go a-whoring after the children of Egypt thy neighbors, great of flesh; and didst go a-whoring, often to provoke me to anger.

²⁷ And if I stretch out my hand against thee, then will I abolish thy ⁷statutes, and deliver thee up to the wills of them that hate thee, even to the daughters of the Philistines that turned thee aside from the way wherein thou sinned.

²⁸ And thou didst go a-whoring to the daughters of Assur, and not even thus wast thou satisfied; yea, thou didst go a-whoring, and wast not satisfied. ²⁹ And thou didst multiply thy covenants with the land of the Chaldeans; and not even with these wast thou satisfied.

³⁰ Why should I make a covenant with thy daughter, saith the Lord, while thou doest all these things, the works of a harlot? and thou hast gone a-whoring in a threefold degree with thy daughters. ³¹ Thou hast built

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a house of harlotry in every top of a way, and hast set up thine high place in every street; and thou didst become as a harlot gathering hires. ³² An adulteress resembles thee, taking rewards of her husband. ³³ She has even given rewards to all that went a-whoring after her, and thou hast given rewards to all thy lovers, yea, thou didst load them with rewards, that they should come to thee from every side for thy fornication.

³⁴ And there has happened in thee perverseness in thy fornication beyond other women, and they have committed fornication with thee, in that thou givest hires over and above, and hires were not given to thee; and thus ⁸perverseness happened in thee.

³⁵ Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the Lord: ³⁶ Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast poured forth thy ⁹money, therefore thy shame shall be discovered in thy harlotry with thy lovers, and with regard to all the imaginations of thine iniquities, and for the blood of thy children which thou hast given to them. ³⁷ Therefore, behold, I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast consorted, and all whom thou hast loved, with all whom thou didst hate; and I will gather them against thee round about, and will expose thy wickedness to them, and they shall see all thy shame. ³⁸ And I will be avenged on thee with the vengeance ¹⁰of an adulteress, and I will ¹¹bring upon thee blood of fury and jealousy. ³⁹ And I will deliver thee into their hands, and they shall break down thy house of harlotry, and destroy thine high place; and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take ¹²thy proud ornaments, and leave thee naked and bare. ⁴⁰ and they shall bring multitudes upon thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and pierce thee with their swords. ⁴¹ And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and shall execute vengeance on thee in the sight of many women: and I will turn thee back from harlotry, and ¹³I will no more give thee ¹⁴rewards.

⁴² So will I slacken my fury against thee, and my jealousy shall be removed from thee, and I will rest, and be no more careful for thee. ⁴³ Because thou didst not remember thine infancy, and thou didst grieve me in all these things; therefore, behold, I have recompensed thy ways upon thine head, saith the Lord: for thus hast thou wrought ungodliness above all thine other iniquities.

⁴⁴ These are all the things they have spoken against thee in a proverb, saying, ⁴⁵ As is the mother, so is thy mother's daughter: thou art she that has rejected her husband and her children; and the sisters of thy sisters have rejected their husbands and their children: your mother was a Chettite, and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶ Your elder sister who dwells on thy left hand is Samaria, she and her daughters: and thy younger sister, that dwells on the right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. ⁴⁷ Yet notwithstanding thou hast not walked in their ways, neither hast thou done according to their iniquities within a little, but thou hast exceeded them in all thy ways.

⁴⁸ As I live, saith the Lord, this Sodom

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¹⁵and her daughters have not done as thou and thy daughters have done. ⁴⁹ Moreover this was the sin of thy sister Sodom, pride: she and her daughters ¹⁶lived in pleasure, in fullness of bread and in abundance: this belonged to her and her daughters, and they helped not the hand of the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ And they boasted, and wrought iniquities before me: so I cut them off as I saw fit.

⁵¹ Also Samaria has not sinned according to half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine iniquities beyond them, and thou hast justified thy sisters in all thine iniquities which thou hast committed. ⁵² Thou therefore bear thy punishment, for that thou hast corrupted thy sisters by thy sins which thou hast committed beyond them; and thou hast made them appear more righteous than thyself: thou therefore be ashamed, and bear thy dishonour, in that thou hast justified thy sisters. ⁵³ And I will turn their captivity, even the captivity of Sodom and her daughters; and I will turn the captivity of Samaria and her daughters; and I will turn thy captivity in the midst of them: ⁵⁴ that thou mayest bear thy punishment, and be dishonoured ¹⁷for all that thou hast done in provoking me to anger.

⁵⁵ And thy sister Sodom and her daughters shall be restored as they were at the beginning, and thou and thy daughters shall be restored as ye were at the beginning.

⁵⁶ And surely thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the days of thy pride: ⁵⁷ before thy wickedness was discovered, even now thou art the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all that are round about her, even of the daughters of the Philistines that compass thee round about. ⁵⁸ As for thine ungodliness and thine iniquities, thou hast borne them, saith the Lord.

⁵⁹ Thus saith the Lord; I will even do to thee as thou hast done, as thou hast dealt shamefully in these things to transgress my covenant. ⁶⁰ And I will remember my covenant made with thee in the days of thine infancy, and I will ¹⁸establish to thee an everlasting covenant. ⁶¹ Then thou shalt remember thy way, and shalt be utterly dishonoured when thou receivest thine elder sisters with thy younger ones: and I will give them to thee for ¹⁹building up, but not by thy covenant. ⁶² And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: ⁶³ that thou mayest remember, and be ashamed, and mayest no more be able to open thy mouth for thy shame, when I am reconciled to thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord.