Jer 3:1-2, Eze 16:25-34, 23:2-21 | ESV | STEP | If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted ? You have played the whore with many lovers ; and would you return to me? declares the Lord .

1 ^a“If ^{▼▼Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew Saying, “If} a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man’s wife,
will he return to her?
^cWould not that land be greatly polluted?
^dYou have played the whore with many lovers;
and would you return to me?

declares the Lord.
2 Lift up your eyes to ^ethe bare heights, and see!
Where have you not been ravished?
^fBy the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
like an Arab in the wilderness.
^gYou have polluted the land
with your vile whoredom.

Ezekiel 16:25-34

25 At the head of every street ^hyou built your lofty place and made ⁱyour beauty an abomination, ^joffering yourself ^{▼▼Hebrew spreading your legs} to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. 26 ^lYou also played the whore ^mwith the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, ⁿmultiplying your whoring, ^oto provoke me to anger. 27 Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you ^pand diminished your allotted portion ^qand delivered you to the greed of your enemies, ^rthe daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. 28 ^sYou played the whore also ^twith the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. 29 You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land ^uof Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

30 “How sick is your heart, ^{▼▼Revocalization yields How I am filled with anger against you} declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, 31 building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, ^wbecause you scorned payment. 32 Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! 33 Men give gifts to all prostitutes, ^xbut you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. 34 So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and ^yyou gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

Ezekiel 23:2-21

2 ^z“Son of man, there were ^aatwo women, the daughters of one mother. 3 ^abThey played the whore in Egypt; ^acthey played the whore ^adin their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms ^{▼▼Hebrew nipples; also verses 8, 21} handled. 4 Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. ^afThey became mine, and they ^agbore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is ^ahSamaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

5 “Oholah played the whore ^aiwhile she was mine, and ^ajshe lusted after her lovers ^akthe Assyrians, warriors 6 clothed in purple, ^algovernors and commanders, ^amall of them desirable young men, ^anhorsemen riding on horses. 7 She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted. 8 She did not give up her whoring ^aothat she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her. 9 Therefore ^apI delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted. 10 ^aqThese uncovered her nakedness; ^arthey seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became ^asa byword among women, ^atwhen judgment had been executed on her.

11 ^au“Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became ^avmore corrupt than her sister ^{▼▼Hebrew than she} in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister. 12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, ^axall of them desirable young men. 13 And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. 14 But she carried her whoring further. She saw men ^ayportrayed on the wall, the ^azimages of ^bathe Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, 15 wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. 16 When she saw them, she lusted after them and ^bbsent messengers to them ^bcin Chaldea. 17 And the Babylonians came to her ^bdinto the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, ^beshe turned from them in disgust. 18 When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. 19 Yet she increased her whoring, ^bfremembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt 20 and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. 21 Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed ^{▼▼Vulgate, Syriac; Hebrew bosom for the sake of} your young breasts.”