Neh 1:7, 9:26, 29-30, Isa 5:24-25, Jer 8:9, Eze 16, 20:13, 16, 24 | ESV | STEP | We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments , the statutes , and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses .

26 ^c“Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you ^dand cast your law behind their back ^eand killed your prophets, who ^fhad warned them in order to turn them back to you, ^gand they committed great blasphemies.

Nehemiah 9:29-30

29 ^hAnd you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet ⁱthey acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, ^jwhich if a person does them, he shall live by them, ^kand they turned a stubborn shoulder ^land stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30 Many years ^myou bore with them ⁿand warned them ^oby your Spirit through your prophets. ^pYet they would not give ear. ^qTherefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

Isaiah 5:24-25

24 Therefore, ^ras the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so ^stheir root will be ^tas rottenness,
and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have ^urejected the law of the Lord of hosts,
and have ^vdespised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore ^wthe anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them,
and ^xthe mountains quaked;
and their corpses were ^yas refuse
in the midst of the streets.
^zFor all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.

Jeremiah 8:9

9 ^aaThe wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed ^aband taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?

Ezekiel 16

The Lord’s Faithless Bride

1 Again the word of the Lord came to me: 2 ^ac“Son of man, ^admake known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3 and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an ^aeAmorite and your mother a ^afHittite. 4 And as for your birth, ^agon the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, ^ahbut you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, ^aion the day that you were born.

6 “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing ^ajin your blood, I said to you ^akin your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you ^alin your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 ^amI made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall ^anand arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet ^aoyou were naked and bare.

8 “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and ^apI spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you ^aqand entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, ^arand you became mine. 9 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and ^asanointed you with oil. 10 ^atI clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. ^{▼▼Or with rich fabric} 11 ^avAnd I adorned you with ornaments and ^awput bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. 12 And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. ^axYou ate fine flour and honey and oil. ^ayYou grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. 14 And ^azyour renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.

15 ^ba“But you trusted in your beauty ^bband played the whore ^{▼▼Or were unfaithful; also verses 16, 17, 26, 28} because of your renown ^bdand lavished your whorings ^{▼▼Or unfaithfulness; also verses 20, 22, 25, 26, 29, 33, 34, 36} on any passerby; your beauty ^{▼▼Hebrew it} became his. 16 You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be. ^{▼▼The meaning of this Hebrew sentence is uncertain} 17 You also took ^bhyour beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and ^bimade for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. 18 And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, ^bjand set my oil and my incense before them. 19 ^bkAlso my bread that I gave you— ^blI fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for ^bma pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God. 20 ^bnAnd you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and ^bothese you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter 21 that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? 22 And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember ^bpthe days of your youth, ^bqwhen you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.

23 “And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord God), 24 you built yourself ^bra vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. 25 At the head of every street ^bsyou built your lofty place and made ^btyour beauty an abomination, ^buoffering yourself ^{▼▼Hebrew spreading your legs} to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. 26 ^bwYou also played the whore ^bxwith the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, ^bymultiplying your whoring, ^bzto provoke me to anger. 27 Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you ^caand diminished your allotted portion ^cband delivered you to the greed of your enemies, ^ccthe daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. 28 ^cdYou played the whore also ^cewith 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 ^cfof 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, ^chbecause you scorned payment. 32 Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! 33 Men give gifts to all prostitutes, ^cibut 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 ^cjyou gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.

35 “Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord: 36 Thus says the Lord God, Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your whorings with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, ^ckand because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, 37 therefore, behold, ^clI will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and ^cmall those you hated. ^cnI will gather them against you from every side ^coand will uncover your nakedness to them, that ^cpthey may see all your nakedness. 38 ^cqAnd I will judge you ^cras women who commit adultery and ^csshed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. 39 And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your ^ctvaulted chamber and break down ^cuyour lofty places. ^cvThey shall strip you of your clothes and take ^cwyour beautiful jewels and leave you ^cxnaked and bare. 40 ^cyThey shall bring up a crowd against you, ^czand they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. 41 ^daAnd they shall ^dbburn your houses and ^dcexecute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. ^ddI will make you stop playing the whore, and ^deyou shall also give payment no more. 42 ^dfSo will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry. 43 Because you have not remembered ^dgthe days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things, therefore, behold, ^dhI have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord God. Have you not ^dicommitted lewdness in addition to all your abominations?

44 “Behold, everyone ^djwho uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of ^dkyour sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. ^dlYour mother was a Hittite and ^dmyour father an Amorite. 46 And ^dnyour elder sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and ^doyour younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. 47 ^dpNot only did you walk in their ways and do according to their abominations; within a very little time ^dqyou were more corrupt than they in all your ways. 48 ^drAs I live, declares the Lord God, your sister ^dsSodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, ^dtexcess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and ^dudid an abomination before me. So ^dvI removed them, when I saw it. 51 ^dwSamaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and ^dxhave made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed. 52 ^dyBear your disgrace, you also, for you have intervened on behalf of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

53 ^dz“I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst, 54 that you may bear your disgrace ^eaand be ashamed of all that you have done, ^ebbecoming a consolation to them. 55 As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state, ^ecand Samaria and her daughters shall return ^edto their former state, ^eeand you and your daughters shall return ^efto your former state. 56 Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth ^egin the day of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become ^ehan object of reproach for the daughters of Syria ^{▼▼Some manuscripts (compare Syriac) of Edom} and all those around her, and for ^ejthe daughters of the Philistines, ^ekthose all around who despise you. 58 ^elYou bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the Lord.

The Lord’s Everlasting Covenant

59 “For thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you ^emwho have despised the oath in breaking the covenant, 60 yet ^enI will remember my covenant with you ^eoin the days of your youth, ^epand I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. 61 ^eqThen you will remember your ways ^erand be ashamed when you take ^esyour sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you ^etas daughters, but not on account of ^{▼▼Or not apart from} the covenant with you. 62 I will establish my covenant with you, ^evand you shall know that I am the Lord, 63 that you may remember and be confounded, and ^ewnever open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.”

Ezekiel 20:13

13 ^exBut the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. ^eyThey did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; ^ezand my Sabbaths they greatly profaned.

^fa“Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make a full end of them.

Ezekiel 20:16

16 because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; ^fbfor their heart went after their idols.

Ezekiel 20:24

24 because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, ^fcand their eyes were set on their fathers’ idols.