Son of man.

I started up, my heart beating wildly. I fumbled in the darkness for my lamp, knocking it off its stand in my haste. I heard its clay shell shatter and smelled the oil. I sprang out of bed fully, cursing the ill luck, when I heard it again.

Son of man.

I stood stock still. I had heard the voice often, and it rarely brought good tidings for the land. It whispered as a breath of wind, caressing my face, preparing me for the Word I would hear.

Son of man.

"Here, Lord. What now?" I asked, trembling.

Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her disgusting habits, traditions, and ceremonies and tell her the story of her birth in this allegory. Remind her of her ancestors, born in the land of the Canaanites. The Hittites and Amorites were your parents, O Jerusalem, but they did not want you. When you were born your parents did not care for you. Your umbilical cord they left attached, they did not wash from you the blood of labor, they did not rub salts in your skin or clothe you against the cold.

Instead they threw you out in a field to die, for they hated you with a deep loathing.

I passed by, and your cries drew my attention. I saw you, an infant, screaming and kicking in the blood of your mother's labor. Your screams grew faint, and I felt compassion for you. "Live!" I told you, "Live and become a nation!" And from that moment on, I was always with you. You were beautiful, like the flowers of the field, like a sapphire of great desire. You lived in your innocence, naked, and you felt no shame.

But the day came when I saw that your breasts were forming, and hair was growing where there had been none before. I realized you were old enough for love-making, so I placed my cloak on your shoulders to cover your nakedness. I swore my most solemn oath to you and entered a covenant with you. From then on, you were my betrothed.

With clean water I washed the blood from you, baked into your skin by so many years in the sun, until you were clean. I anointed you with sweet-smelling oils to soften your skin and gave you a most beautiful dress to display your loveliness. I bought sandals for your feet, that they would no longer be torn by sharp rocks and thorns. For your undergarments I ordered the finest linens and sent for the rarest jewels in the world. I had them made into bracelets and necklaces, earrings and crowns to adorn you. I placed a ring in your nose as well.

Your clothing was the finest, your jewels unsurpassed, your food incomparably rich, but your beauty outshone all the trappings. Nations adored you as your fame grew, because the things I had given you had perfected the beauty I had seen in you.

But you became vain, trusting that your beauty could get you anything and you used the adoration and fame you had received to become a whore, a prostitute to the nations.

Anyone who passed by you was drawn by your seductive song, for you slept with whoever would come, and each person who came carried away a little of your beauty. You took the dress and linens I had given you to make tabernacles for idols, where you combined your prostitution with men and your prostitution with gods! This should never have happened, and I mourn it.

As if that were not enough, the jewelry I gave you was sent to goldsmiths and silver workers who made for you male idols. In your complete, lustful debauchery, you engaged in orgies with these unfeeling pieces of metal. You acted as a child, dressing them in your clothes and laughing. What of the rich foods I provided? You offered it to the idols! This happened, I witnessed it.

But your worst crime is yet to be mentioned. You took our children, the sons and daughters you had born me, and sacrificed them to the idols. Our children! They cried to you, "Mother, why do you hurt us?" and "Mother, what are you doing?" but you bound them and cast them, shrieking with pain, into the flames to feed your gods.

In all this, you forgot who had saved you when you were a child yourself, struggling in a puddle of blood.

Yet you continued to pile your atrocities on. You built a hill for yourself in every town square and offered yourself to all passers by. You danced for them naked, you displayed your lewdness and caressed your own curves seductively, even enticing your neighbor Egypt.

I passed by and was filled with rage at these sights. I reached out and grabbed you by your necklace and dragged you down from the hill, down through the streets and squares. I gave you to be a slave to the daughters of Philistine, but even they were revolted at your condition. You fled them, choosing to rollick with the Assyrians, but even then your hunger for sex was not satisfied.

You left Assyria for Babylon, trading your body for their exotic goods. But you were still not satisfied.

You are disgusting to me! At least most prostitutes sell their bodies for payment, but you made love with any and all, rejecting all pay. You whore! You prefer complete strangers to me, your husband! You even pay them to sleep with you! Truly you are the opposite of a prostitute.

Hear me now, O Jerusalem! Because you gave your wealth to the empires of the world and proudly displayed your lasciviousness, having sex with idols and pouring out the blood of your children to them, I will come. I will come and gather all those who were once your lovers, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Philistine. I will gather them together, those you adored and those you loathed, and bring you in front of them. There I shall strip from you what is left of your clothes, leaving you naked and exposed for all their eyes to devour.

According to the law I will give you the sentence of a woman caught in adultery. I will then give you to your lovers, every last one whom you scorned. They will level your hills and destroy your shrines, though you beg them to stop. They will turn on you and tear from you your jewels and garments.

They will then gather a mob with them and will spread word for the women of their lands to watch. They will pelt you with rocks until you bleed and cannot stand. Then they will unsheathe their swords and slice you to pieces, hacking off your smooth, dark creamy skin. Though you scream in agony, they will not stop until you are left, barely alive, sitting in a pool of your own blood.

They will drag you, O Jerusalem, to each of your houses where they fell prey to your wiles and they will burn all. The women of their lands will weep with fear, for I will put a stop to your sluttery that day.

And when they leave, I will stand before you. See, I will stand there and watch as you weep in anguish. My anger will cool, and my jealousy will vanish. I will say, "I have only made you reap what you have sown. Everyone who speaks of you will cluck their tongues and say, 'Like mother like daughter.' for you are just as your mother was, loathing her husband and children. You even follow after your sisters, who did the same."

I will take your hand and lift you up, and tell you the rest of your birth story. "Your older sister was Samaria, and your younger sister was Sodom. You did what they did, but soon became a thousand times worse. I swear as I live, not even Sodom and her daughters followed your practices.

"This is what Sodom did: she was proud, arrogant, boasting in her own wealth, spilling over in her fatness. She did not care for any, especially the poor. She laughed in my face and did evil things in my sight, and because of this I destroyed her, as you witnessed.

"You have done twice the wicked things Samaria did. In comparison, Samaria and Sodom were holy saints! Be shamed, be shamed! For you have given your sisters the ability to be excused, only because you are ten times worse than they.

"But I will be gracious and restore you and your sisters, so that you may continue in your shame that you have provided such evil sisters comfort. Sodom and Samaria will return to their practices, as will you. Yet again!

"When you were full of yourself and swimming in pride, you would not deign to mention your sister Sodom, but this was before you were laid bare in your nakedness. But now the daughters of Edom and her neighbors will despise you, along with the daughters of Philistine. You will bear out the punishment for your actions."

Surely I will deal to you justice, what you deserve! You laughed at the solemn vow I swore to you and broke the covenant I offered when you were a child. But even though you have forgotten and rejected it, I will never forget. I will make a new covenant, one that will last forever. Then, when you remember what you have done in the past, you will be filled with a deep and lasting shame when you talk with your sisters. I will make them your daughters, that they may grow in learning and not in wickedness, but they will not be children of the covenant I make with you.

Then I will cover all your sins with a sacrifice, such as you have never seen, and then you will know that I, and I alone, am the Lord. When you see the sacrifice, you will be steeped in so much shame, you will never speak again.

This is my word to Jerusalem, O son of man, deliver to her my message, for I am the Sovereign Lord.

The whisper died away, leaving only its memory, and my own trembling limbs. I crawled to my mat and wept for my city. "Why, Jerusalem? Why?" I sobbed. "Was it not enough? Dayenu? When will it be enough?"

I lay there for a time, then rose unsteadily to my feet. I did not relish the thought of shouting this tale from the public square, but when the Almighty speaks, I do as I am bid. I tottered out the door and made my way to the Square.