Ezekiel 16:44-46
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
44 See, everyone who makes proverbs will make this proverb about you, “Like mother, like daughter.” 45 Yes, you are truly the daughter of your mother[a] who rejected her husband and children: you are truly a sister to your sisters who rejected their husbands and children—your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.(A) 46 [b]Your elder sister was Samaria with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister was Sodom and her daughters, south of you.(B)
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- 16:45 Truly the daughter of your mother: Jerusalem’s depraved behavior follows from the bad behavior of its non-Israelite forebears; cf. v. 3.
- 16:46–47 Jerusalem is so much more corrupt than Samaria, the elder sister in size, and the smaller Sodom that both now appear just and righteous. Ezekiel’s reference to Sodom indicates that the city’s identification with wickedness and evil was already an established tradition in fifth century B.C. Judah.
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