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When you were born, no one cut you loose from your mother or washed your body. No one rubbed your skin with salt and olive oil,[a] and wrapped you in warm blankets. Not one person loved you enough to do any of these things, and no one even felt sorry for you. You were despised, thrown into a field, and forgotten.

I saw you lying there, rolling around in your own blood, and I couldn't let you die.

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Footnotes

  1. 16.4 rubbed your skin with salt and olive oil: People believed this toughened the skin of the babies.

On the day you were born(A) your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

“‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”[a](B)

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 16:6 A few Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts repeat and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”