The Babylonian Exile

I will set my face against them they may have escaped one fire, but the fire will consume them yet. When I set my face against them, you will know that I am ADONAI.

I will make the land desolate because they have dealt so treacherously,' says Adonai ELOHIM."

The word of ADONAI came to me:

"Human being, make Yerushalayim realize how disgusting her practices are.

Say that Adonai ELOHIM is telling Yerushalayim, 'By origin and birth you are of the land of the Kena'ani - your father was an Emori, and your mother was a Hitti.

As for your birth - on the day you were born nobody cut your umbilical cord, washed you in water to clean you off, rubbed salt on you or wrapped you in cloth.

No one seeing you had enough pity on you to do any of these things for you - no one had any compassion on you. Instead, you were thrown into an open field in your own filth on the day you were born.

"'I passed by and saw you there, wallowing in your own blood; and as you lay in your blood I said to you, "Live!" Yes, I said to you, as you lay in your blood, "Live!

I will increase your numbers just like plants growing in the field." And you did increase, you developed, you reached puberty, your breasts appeared, and your hair grew long; but you were naked and exposed.

"'Again I passed by you, looked at you and saw that your time had come, the time for love. So I spread my cloak over you to cover your private parts and entered into a covenant with you,' says Adonai ELOHIM, 'and you became mine.

Then I bathed you in water, washed the blood off you, and anointed you with oil.

I also clothed you with an embroidered gown, gave you fine leather sandals to wear, put a fine linen headband on your head and covered you with silk.

I gave you jewelry to wear, bracelets for your hands, a necklace for your neck,

a ring for your nose, earrings for your ears and a beautiful crown for your head.

Thus you were decked out in gold and silver; your clothing was of fine linen, silk and richly embroidered cloth; you ate the finest flour, honey and olive oil. You grew increasingly beautiful - you were fit to be queen.

Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, because it was perfect, due to my having bestowed my own splendor on you' says Adonai ELOHIM.

"'But you put your trust in your own beauty and began prostituting yourself because of your fame, soliciting everyone passing by and accepting all comers.

You took your clothes and used them to decorate with bright colors the high places you made for yourself, and there you continued prostituting yourself. Such things shouldn't happen, and in the future they won't.

You also took your beautiful jewels made of my gold and my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images, with which you continued to prostitute yourself.

You took your embroidered clothing and covered them; you set my olive oil and my incense in front of them;

and you took my food, which I had given you - my fine flour, olive oil and honey, that I had given you to eat - and set it in front of them to give a pleasant aroma. That is how it was,' says Adonai ELOHIM.

"'Moreover, your sons and daughters, whom you bore me, you took and sacrificed for them to devour. Were these fornications of yours a casual matter? -

killing my children, handing them over and setting them apart for [these idols]?

In all your disgusting practices and fornications you never remembered the condition you were in when you were young - naked, exposed and wallowing in your own blood.

"'So, after all this wickedness of yours - woe, woe to you!' says Adonai ELOHIM -