1 Meqabyan (Ethiopian) 12

This is your shame, O daughter of Jerusalem, which is written by the prophet; for as the deeds and the transgression of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, even so are your deeds and your transgression, O daughter of Jerusalem.

And as Sodom and Gomorrah, even so is your shame; your vine was planted in fornication and in pride.

And there did not come down upon them the rain of humility and mercy, but the rain of pride and fornication, whereby the vine sprouts forth without anything but iniquity and oppression and violence and bloodshed, and the defiling of the name of the Lord their God.

And they did not know their Maker, but only their idols and their evil deeds; and they made merry with the work of their hands, and committed lewdness with beasts and with males.

And they did not know the Lord in their deeds, for they blinded their eyes that they might not see, and stopped their ears that they might not hear, and did not do the will of the Lord; and that which pleases them is the vine of Sodom, the clusters of the vine of Gomorrah, which yield no sweet grapes.

And even when they press out their wine, it becomes a deadly venom; for from its very nature it was planted in defilement, and its harvest came in a season of calamity.

And at no time is there any good in the vine of theirs; for with the dew of Sheol the vine was watered, and with the burning wind their clusters grew strong.

And when it bears fruit and is pressed out, it serves for destruction and for chastisement; and to those who drink it, it makes their hearts gross and renders them cold, far removed from the Lord.

And it becomes a dwelling for the devil; for in his evil way they walk; and the vine of Sodom too lays hold to consume, and climbs up upon the mountains and upon the trees.

And she crowns the lord of the high places whom they worship, and she sacrifices her sons and her daughters to the demons that know nothing of evil or of good.

And they pour out innocent blood, and into the wine-vats they squeeze out from the clusters of the vine of Sodom.

And she worships and honours the Dagon of the Philistines, and sacrifices to him of her fat beasts and of her flocks, that she may make merry with their food and with their folly, which the demons taught her, that she should sacrifice to them and do their will.

And she does not know her Maker, the Lord her God, who at all times nourishes her and builds her up from her youth until the days of her maturity, and even until the days of her old age and until the day of her death.

And further I will avenge Myself at the resurrection, and her time of judgment shall be for ever, because she did not turn back to My law nor walk in My commandment.

Let her gods rise up, if they are indeed gods, and let them run with her into Gehenna and save her, when I am angry against her in My wrath and have taken away all her lovers who committed fornication with her.

And I have made her a thing of shame for all the insult and disgrace she has wrought against My house and My holy things.

And she brought reproach upon My name which was named upon her, when men called her Here is the people of the Lord and the house of the Lord of Israel, and the dwelling of the name of the Most High, Jerusalem, holy of holies, the city of the great King.

And she boasts in Me, that she is My handmaid and I am her Lord; yet it is not that she fears Me and does My will as her Lord, but she strives against Me as a rebel.

And she serves strange gods who do not nourish her nor make her grow nor make her strong, but their bitterness became to her a stumbling-block of seduction, to draw her far away from Me.

And she sacrifices to them and eats their sacrifice, and brings forth for them and drinks the wine of their feast, and burns incense to them and offers up the fragrance of their incense; and they command her, and she obeys them.

And further she sacrifices her sons and her daughters, and labours with the work of her hands and the toil of her lips; for she burns them as offerings to them out of love for them.

Woe to her in the day of judgment, both to her and to her gods whom she loves and embraces; and with them she shall go down into Sheol, beneath the lowest depths, where the worm that does not sleep is, and which is never destroyed.

Woe to you, O daughter of Jerusalem, you thing of shame, because you have forsaken Me who created you, and have worshipped strange gods.

And I too will requite you according to your deeds and will avenge Myself upon you according to your insolence; for you have provoked Me, and you have despised Me, your Maker, and you have not made your ways good.

And I will despise you and not hasten your deliverance, because you it was who slighted My word and did not endure in My counsel which you covenanted with Me, that you should keep My commandment; yet I would have been with you and would have delivered you from all who oppose you, if you had kept My commandment which I commanded you and My ordinance.

But all this you did not keep, though I had spared you. And in the day of judgment I will avenge Myself upon you. Was it not I who created you? Yet you did not keep My word and My commandment, though I had blessed you that you might be Mine.

But as for you, you departed from Me, even as Sodom and Gomorrah departed.

And I cut them off in My wrath; for you are of the same root as Sodom and Gomorrah, whom I uprooted and whose remembrance I blotted out from the earth, that they should not live in their wantonness, because they provoked Me who created them, by going in to the wife of another and committing fornication without law, with males and with beasts as with women.

And there was no fear of the Lord before their eyes, from the least of them to the greatest; and there was none who reproved his neighbour, but he let it lodge with him to do that very thing; for they helped one another in every evil deed, being full of all iniquity and bloodshed, because their deeds were evil.

And there was set in their understanding every evil deed and pride and oppression and greed.

And therefore the Lord despised them and overthrew their cities; and some He burned with fire down to their foundations, and there was not one left of them, those who perished and were uprooted for ever.

And it abides until the day of judgment, for ever; and the day of judgment is great upon them, because they bound themselves in sin, and He will not teach them nor have mercy on them, because they provoked Me by the evil of their deeds.

And though I had spared them, even so you also, O daughter of Jerusalem, you thing of shame, even so shall you be bound in the day of judgment; for you shall find no excuse when I lay hold of you in My wrath, because all your deeds are bloodshed and oppression and greed and fornication and the speaking of lies, and every way of error and falsehood which I do not approve.

And I made you for honour, but you made yourself for shame. I would have called you Mine, but you have made yourself for another.

And I espoused you to be holy, but you became the devil's; and yet I do not avenge Myself upon you according to the evil of your deeds.

But I prolong the evil of vengeance upon you because of all that you did not hear My word and did not keep My commandment which I commanded you in the day I loved you; for I am the Lord who created you, and I will be angry against all the sinners who are like you, and I will requite them according to their evil in the day of judgment.

And you too I will judge together with them, because you did not keep My word and despised My judgment.

O Sodom and Gomorrah, who have no fear of the Lord in your heart.

Even so, O daughter of Jerusalem, you shall be judged together with them in the vision of Gehenna, and all those who did your deeds; for together you shall go down to where Gehenna is prepared, where there is no escape for ever and ever.

And you, and she also, who did not keep My word and My commandment, you shall go down together into Sheol in the day of judgment, because you did not keep My word and My commandment.

But as for those who kept My word and My commandment, that which the sinners stored up the righteous shall eat, and that which the wicked got for themselves the good shall share as glorious spoil, even as the Lord commanded; the righteous and the good shall rejoice and be glad.

But the sinners and the unrighteous shall weep and mourn for all their transgressions, in which they went astray from My commandment.

And he who keeps My word and walks in My commandment, he it is who shall eat of the blessing and be honoured in My presence.

And everyone who keeps My word and does My commandment shall eat the blessing of the earth, and into the resting-place of the good and upright kings he shall enter and dwell.