Contemporary English Version Anglicised

Ezekiel 16:4-20 Contemporary English Version Anglicised (CEVUK00)

4. 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, and wrapped you in warm blankets.

5. 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.

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

7. I took care of you, like someone caring for a tender, young plant. You grew up to be a beautiful young woman with perfect breasts and long hair, but you were still naked.

8. When I saw you again, you were old enough to have sex. So I covered your naked body with my own robe. Then I solemnly promised that you would belong to me and that I, the Lord God, would take care of you.

9. I washed the blood off you and rubbed your skin with olive oil.

10. I gave you the finest clothes and the most expensive robes, as well as sandals made from the best leather.

11. I gave you bracelets, a necklace,

12. a ring for your nose, some earrings, and a beautiful crown.

13. Your jewellery was gold and silver, and your clothes were made of only the finest material and embroidered linen. Your bread was baked from fine flour, and you ate honey and olive oil. You were as beautiful as a queen,

14. and everyone on earth knew it. I, the Lord God, had helped you become a lovely young woman.

15. You learnt that you were attractive enough to have any man you wanted, so you offered yourself to every passer-by.

16. You made shrines for yourself and decorated them with some of your clothes. That's where you took your visitors to have sex with them. These things should never have happened!

17. You made idols out of the gold and silver jewellery I gave you, then you sinned by worshipping those idols.

18. You dressed them in the clothes you got from me, and you offered them the olive oil and incense I gave you.

19. I supplied you with fine flour, olive oil, and honey, but you sacrificed it all as offerings to please those idols. I, the Lord God, watched this happen.

20. But you did something even worse than that—you sacrificed your own children to those idols!