The Degenerate City

21 (A)How the faithful city has become a [a]harlot!
It was full of justice;
Righteousness lodged in it,
But now (B)murderers.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 1:21 Unfaithful

21 See how the faithful city
    has become a prostitute!(A)
She once was full of justice;
    righteousness(B) used to dwell in her—
    but now murderers!(C)

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Also behind the doors and their posts
You have set up your remembrance;
For you have uncovered yourself to those other than Me,
And have gone up to them;
You have enlarged your bed
And [a]made a covenant with them;
(A)You have loved their bed,
Where you saw their [b]nudity.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 57:8 Lit. cut
  2. Isaiah 57:8 Lit. hand, a euphemism

Behind your doors and your doorposts
    you have put your pagan symbols.
Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed,
    you climbed into it and opened it wide;
you made a pact with those whose beds you love,(A)
    and you looked with lust on their naked bodies.(B)

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20 “For of old I have (A)broken your yoke and burst your bonds;
And (B)you said, ‘I will not [a]transgress,’
When (C)on every high hill and under every green tree
You lay down, (D)playing the harlot.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 2:20 Kt. serve

20 “Long ago you broke off your yoke(A)
    and tore off your bonds;(B)
    you said, ‘I will not serve you!’(C)
Indeed, on every high hill(D)
    and under every spreading tree(E)
    you lay down as a prostitute.(F)

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“Lift up your eyes to (A)the desolate heights and see:
Where have you not [a]lain with men?
(B)By the road you have sat for them
Like an Arabian in the wilderness;
(C)And you have polluted the land
With your harlotries and your wickedness.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 3:2 Kt. been violated

“Look up to the barren heights(A) and see.
    Is there any place where you have not been ravished?
By the roadside(B) you sat waiting for lovers,
    sat like a nomad in the desert.
You have defiled the land(C)
    with your prostitution(D) and wickedness.

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A Call to Repentance

The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what (A)backsliding Israel has done? She has (B)gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.

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Unfaithful Israel

During the reign of King Josiah,(A) the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what faithless(B) Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree(C) and has committed adultery(D) there.

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20 Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her [a]husband,
So (A)have you dealt treacherously with Me,
O house of Israel,” says the Lord.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 3:20 Lit. companion

20 But like a woman unfaithful to her husband,
    so you, Israel, have been unfaithful(A) to me,”
declares the Lord.

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The Younger Sister, Jerusalem

11 “Now (A)although her sister Oholibah saw this, (B)she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotry more corrupt than her sister’s harlotry.

12 “She lusted for the neighboring (C)Assyrians,
(D)Captains and rulers,
Clothed most gorgeously,
Horsemen riding on horses,
All of them desirable young men.
13 Then I saw that she was defiled;
Both took the same way.
14 But she increased her harlotry;
She looked at men portrayed on the wall,
Images of (E)Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,
15 Girded with belts around their waists,
Flowing turbans on their heads,
All of them looking like captains,
In the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea,
The land of their nativity.
16 (F)As soon as her eyes saw them,
She lusted for them
And sent (G)messengers to them in Chaldea.

17 “Then the [a]Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love,
And they defiled her with their immorality;
So she was defiled by them, (H)and alienated herself from them.
18 She revealed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness.
Then (I)I (J)alienated Myself from her,
As I had alienated Myself from her sister.

19 “Yet she multiplied her harlotry
In calling to remembrance the days of her youth,
(K)When she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
20 For she lusted for her [b]paramours,
Whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys,
And whose issue is like the issue of horses.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 23:17 Lit. sons of Babel
  2. Ezekiel 23:20 Illicit lovers

11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this,(A) yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister.(B) 12 She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors in full dress, mounted horsemen, all handsome young men.(C) 13 I saw that she too defiled herself; both of them went the same way.(D)

14 “But she carried her prostitution still further. She saw men portrayed on a wall,(E) figures of Chaldeans[a] portrayed in red,(F) 15 with belts(G) around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like Babylonian chariot officers, natives of Chaldea.[b] 16 As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers(H) to them in Chaldea.(I) 17 Then the Babylonians(J) came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. After she had been defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust.(K) 18 When she carried on her prostitution openly and exposed her naked body,(L) I turned away(M) from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister.(N) 19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.

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Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 23:14 Or Babylonians
  2. Ezekiel 23:15 Or Babylonia; also in verse 16

The Family of Hosea

When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:

(A)“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For (B)the land has committed great [a]harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 1:2 Spiritual adultery

Hosea’s Wife and Children

When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous(A) woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness(B) to the Lord.”

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