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Sabato, 27 aprile 2024 - Santa Zita ( Letture di oggi)

Ezekiel 16


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1The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,2'Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her loathsome practices!3Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: By origin and birth you belong to the land of Canaan. Your fatherwas an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.4At birth, the very day you were born, there was no one to cut your navel-string, or wash you in water toclean you, or rub you with salt, or wrap you in swaddling clothes.5No one looked at you with pity enough to do any of these things out of sympathy for you. You wereexposed in the open fields in your own dirt on the day you were born.6"I saw you kicking on the ground in your blood as I was passing, and I said to you as you lay in yourblood: Live!7and I made you grow like the grass of the fields. You developed, you grew, you reached marriageableage. Your breasts became firm and your hair grew richly, but you were stark naked.8Then I saw you as I was passing. Your time had come, the time for love. I spread my cloak over youand covered your nakedness; I gave you my oath, I made a covenant with you -- declares the Lord Yahweh --and you became mine.9I bathed you in water, I washed the blood off you, I anointed you with oil.10I gave you embroidered dresses, fine leather shoes, a linen headband and a cloak of silk.11I loaded you with jewels, gave you bracelets for your wrists and a necklace for your throat.12I gave you nose-ring and earrings; I put a beautiful diadem on your head.13You were loaded with gold and silver and dressed in linen and silk and brocade. Your food was thefinest flour, honey and oil. You grew more and more beautiful; and you rose to be queen.14The fame of your beauty spread through the nations, since it was perfect, because I had clothed youwith my own splendour -- declares the Lord Yahweh.15"But you became infatuated with your own beauty and used your fame to play the whore, lavishingyour debauchery on al comers.16You took some of your clothes to make for yourself high places bright with colours and there youplayed the whore.17You also took your jewel ery, made with my gold and silver which I had given you, and made yourselfmale images to serve your whorings.18You took your embroidered clothes and used these to dress them up, and you offered them my oiland my incense.19And the bread I gave you, the finest flour, the oil and honey with which I fed you, you offered them asa pleasing smel . "What is more -- declares the Lord Yahweh-20you took the sons and daughters you had borne me and sacrificed them as food to the images. Wasnot your whoring enough in itself,21for you to slaughter my children and hand them over to be burnt in their honour?22And in al your loathsome practices and your whorings you never cal ed your early days to mind,when you were stark naked, kicking on the ground in your own blood.23"To crown your wickedness -- disaster upon you, disaster! declares the Lord Yahweh-24you built yourself a mound and made yourself a high place in every open space.25At the entry to every al ey you made yourself a high place, defiling your beauty and opening your legsto al comers in countless acts of fornication.26You have also fornicated with your big-membered neighbours, the Egyptians, provoking my angerwith further acts of fornication.27So now I have raised my hand against you, I have cut down on your food, I have put you at themercy of your enemies, the Philistine women, who blush at your lewd behaviour.28Stil unsatisfied, you prostituted yourself to the Assyrians; you played the whore with them, but werenot satisfied even then.29You committed further acts of fornication in the country of merchants, with the Chaldaeans, andthese did not satisfy you either.30"How simple-minded you are!-declares the Lord Yahweh -- for although you do all the things that aprofessional prostitute would,31in building a mound and making yourself a high place in every street, you do not act like a properprostitute because you disdain to take a fee.32An adulteress welcomes strangers instead of her husband.33Al prostitutes accept presents, but you give presents to all your lovers, you bribe them to come fromal over the place to fornicate with you!34In fornicating, you are the opposite of other women, since no one runs after you to fornicate with you;since you give the fee and do not get one, you are the very opposite!35"Very wel , whore, hear the word of Yahweh!36The Lord Yahweh says this: For having squandered your money and let yourself be seen nakedwhile whoring with your lovers and all the foul idols of your loathsome practices and for giving them yourchildren's blood-37for al this, I shal assemble all the lovers to whom you have given pleasure, al the ones you likedand also al the ones you disliked; yes, I shal assemble them round you and strip you naked in front of them,and let them see you naked from head to foot.38I shal pass on you the sentence that adulteresses and murderesses receive; I shall hand you over totheir jealous fury;39I shal hand you over to them; they wil destroy your mound and pul down your high place; they wiltear off your clothes, take away your jewels and leave you stark naked.40Then they wil call an assembly of citizens to deal with you, who wil stone you to death and hack youto pieces with their swords,41and burn down your premises and execute justice on you, while many other women look on; and Ishall put an end to your whoring: no more paid lovers for you!42Once my fury is exhausted with you, then my jealousy wil leave you; I shal be calm and not angryany more.43Since you never cal ed to mind your early days and have done nothing but provoke me, now I in myturn shall bring your conduct down on your own head -- declares the Lord Yahweh! "Have you not added thislewd behaviour to your other loathsome practices?44So now al dealers in proverbs will apply this one to you: Like mother, like daughter.45Yes; you are a true daughter of your mother, who hated her husband and her children; you are a truesister of your sisters, who hated their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father anAmorite.46Your elder sister is Samaria, who lives to the north of you with her daughters. Your younger sister isSodom, who lives to the south of you with her daughters.47You never failed to imitate their behaviour and copy their loathsome practices, and soon yourbehaviour was more corrupt than theirs was.48As I live -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you andyour daughters have done.49The crime of your sister Sodom was pride, gluttony, calm complacency; such were hers and herdaughters' crimes. They never helped the poor and needy;50they were proud, and engaged in loathsome practices before me, and so I swept them away as youhave seen.51And yet Samaria never committed half the crimes that you have. "You have done more loathsomethings than they have. By al your loathsome practices you have made your sisters seem innocent,52and now you bear the shame of which you have freed your sisters; since the sins which you havecommitted are more revolting than theirs, they are more upright than you are. So now, bear the disgrace andshame of having put your sisters in the right.53"I shal restore their fortunes, I shal restore Sodom and her daughters, I shal re- store Samaria andher daughters, and then I shal restore your fortune with theirs,54so that you can bear your shame and disgrace for al you have done, and so console them.55When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, are restored to what they were, and Samaria and herdaughters are restored to what they were, then you too and your daughters wil be restored to what you were.56Did you not gloat over your sister Sodom when you were so proud,57before you were stripped naked? Like her, you are now the laughing-stock of the women of Edom, ofal the women round, of the women of Philistia, who pour out their contempt on you.58You have brought this on yourself, with your lewdness and your loathsome practices -- declares theLord Yahweh.59"For the Lord Yahweh says this: I shal treat you as you have deserved for making light of an oathand breaking a covenant,60but I shal remember my covenant with you when you were a girl and shal conclude a covenant withyou that wil last for ever.61And you for your part wil remember your behaviour and feel ashamed of it when you receive yourelder and younger sisters and I make them your daughters, although this is not included in my covenant withyou.62I shal renew my covenant with you; and you wil know that I am Yahweh,63and so remember and feel ashamed and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I forgive youfor everything you have done -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '