But I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity, as well as Samaria and her daughters. And I will restore you along with them. So you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did to comfort them. And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state. Did you not treat your sister Sodom as an object of scorn in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was uncovered? Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you.
All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
Significance
Ezekiel 16:53-57 extends the Sodom comparison by promising that when God restores the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria, Jerusalem will bear her own shame. Deuteronomy 29:23 established Sodom's overthrow (מַהְפֵּכַת, mahpekat) as the benchmark of divine devastation, a warning to future generations about covenant violation. Ezekiel's extended oracle turns this benchmark against Jerusalem: the city that should have learned from Sodom's example instead became worse than her "sister" (16:48), and her own name became a byword (שְׁמוּעָה, shemu'ah) among the surrounding nations. The passage shows that covenant privilege intensifies rather than mitigates covenant accountability.
