clothes and take your beautiful jewels. They will leave you naked and bare. 40 They will also bring up a company against you, and they will stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords. 41 They will burn your houses with fire, and execute judgements on you in the sight of many women. I will cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you will also give no hire any more. 42 So I will cause my wrath towards you to rest, and my jealousy will depart from you. I will be quiet, and will not be angry any more.
43 “ ‘ “Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head,” says the Lord GOD: “and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.
44 “ ‘ “Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you, saying, ‘As is the mother, so is her daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. 46 Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom with her daughters. 47 Yet you have not walked in their ways, nor done their abominations; but soon you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. 48 As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.
49 “ ‘ “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 They were arrogant and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away when I saw it. 51 Samaria hasn’t committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done. 52 You also bear your own shame yourself, in that you have given judgement for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous than you. Yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters.
53 “ ‘ “I will reverse their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives amongst them; 54 that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them. 55 Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former estate; and you and your daughters will return to your former estate. 56 For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you all around. 58 You have borne your lewdness and your abominations,” says the LORD.
59 “ ‘For the Lord GOD says: “I will also deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant. 60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, your elder sisters and your younger; and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant. 62 I will establish my covenant with you. Then you will know that I am the LORD; 63 that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done,” says the Lord GOD.’ ”
17
1 The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, tell a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel; 3 and say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “A great eagle with great wings and long feathers, full of feathers which had various colours, came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar. 4 He cropped off the topmost of its young twigs, and carried it to a land of traffic. He planted it in a city of merchants.
5 “ ‘ “He also took some of the seed of the land and planted it in fruitful soil. He placed it beside many waters. He set it as a willow tree. 6 It grew and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned towards him, and its roots were under him. So it became a vine, produced branches, and shot out sprigs.
7 “ ‘ “There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers. Behold, this vine bent its roots towards him, and shot out its branches towards him, from the ground where it was planted, that he might water it. 8 It was planted in a good soil by many waters, that it might produce branches and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a good vine.” ’
9 “Say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Will it prosper? Won’t he pull up its roots and cut off its fruit, that it may wither, that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? It can’t be raised from its roots by a strong arm or many people. 10 Yes, behold, being planted, will it prosper? Won’t it utterly wither when the east wind touches it? It will wither in the ground where it grew.” ’ ”
11 Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 12 “Say now to the rebellious house, ‘Don’t you know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king, and its princes, and brought them to him to Babylon. 13 He took one of the royal offspring,† and made a covenant with him. He also brought him under an oath, and took away the mighty of the land, 14 that the kingdom might be brought low, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand. 15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? Will he who does such things escape? Will he break the covenant, and still escape?
16 “ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the middle of Babylon he will die. 17 Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company won’t help him in the war, when they cast up mounds and build forts to cut off many persons. 18 For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things. He won’t escape.
19 “Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘As I live, I will surely bring on his own head my oath that he has despised and my covenant that he has broken. 20 I will spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgement with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me. 21 All his fugitives in all his bands will fall by the sword, and those who remain will be scattered towards every wind. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken it.’
22 “The Lord GOD says: ‘I will also take some of the lofty top of the cedar, and will plant it. I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23 I will plant it in the mountain of the height of Israel; and it will produce boughs, and bear fruit, and be a good cedar. Birds of every kind will dwell in the shade of its branches. 24 All the trees of the field will know that I, the LORD, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree flourish.
“ ‘I, the LORD, have spoken and have done it.’ ”
18
1 The LORD’s word came to me again, saying, 2 “What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
3 “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “you shall not use this proverb any more in Israel. 4 Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins, he shall die.

5 “But if a man is just,
and does that which is lawful and right,
6 and has not eaten on the mountains,
hasn’t lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,
hasn’t defiled his neighbour’s wife,
hasn’t come near a woman in her impurity,
7