New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures Reference Bible

Ezekiel

1 Now it came about in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], on the fifth [day] of the month, while I was in the midst of the exiled+ people by the river Chebar,+ that the heavens were opened+ and I began to see visions of God.*+ 2 On the fifth [day] of the month, that is, [in] the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin,*+ 3 the word of Jehovah occurred+ specifically to Ezekiel+ the son of Buzi the priest in the land of the Chaldeans+ by the river Chebar, and upon him in that place the hand of Jehovah came to be.+

4 And I began to see, and, look! there was a tempestuous wind*+ coming from the north, a great cloud mass+ and quivering fire,+ and it* had a brightness all around, and out of the midst of it* there was something like the look of electrum,* out of the midst of the fire.+ 5 And out of the midst of it there was the likeness of four living creatures,*+ and this was how they looked: they had the likeness of earthling man.* 6 And [each] one had four faces,+ and [each] one of them four wings.+ 7 And their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of the foot of a calf;+ and they were gleaming as with the glow* of burnished copper.+ 8 And there were the hands of a man* under their wings on their four sides,+ and the four of them had their faces and their wings.+ 9 Their wings were joining one to the other. They would not turn when they went; they would go each one straight forward.+

10 And as for the likeness of their faces, the four of them had a man’s+ face with a lion’s+ face to the right,+ and the four of them had a bull’s+ face on the left;+ the four of them also had an eagle’s face.+ 11 That is the way their faces were. And their wings+ were spreading out upward. Each one had two joining to each other, and two were covering their bodies.+

12 And they would go each one straight forward.+ To wherever the spirit* would incline to go, they would go.+ They would not turn as they went.+ 13 And as for the likeness of the living creatures,* their appearance was like burning coals of fire.+ Something like the appearance of torches+ was moving back and forth between the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire there was lightning going forth.+ 14 And on the part of the living creatures there was a going forth and a returning as with the appearance of the lightning.+

15 As I kept seeing the living creatures, why, look! there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures,+ by the four faces of each.+ 16 As for the appearance of the wheels+ and their structure, it was like the glow of chrysolite;+ and the four of them had one likeness. And their appearance and their structure were just as when a wheel proved to be in the midst* of a wheel.+ 17 When they went they would go on their four respective sides.*+ They would not turn another way when they went.+ 18 And as for their rims, they had such height that they caused fearfulness; and their rims were full of eyes all around the four of them.+ 19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels would go beside them, and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels would be lifted up.+ 20 Wherever the spirit inclined to go, they would go, the spirit [inclining] to go there; and the wheels themselves would be lifted up close alongside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 21 When they went, these would go; and when they stood still, these would stand still; and when they were lifted up from the earth, the wheels would be lifted up close alongside them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.+

22 And over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse+ like the sparkle of awesome ice, stretched out over their heads up above.+ 23 And under the expanse their wings were straight, one to the other. Each one had two wings covering on this side and each one had two covering on that side their bodies. 24 And I got to hear the sound of their wings, a sound like that of vast waters,+ like the sound of the Almighty One, when they went, the sound of a tumult,+ like the sound of an encampment.+ When they stood still, they would let their wings down.

25 And there came to be a voice above the expanse that was over their head. (When they stood still, they would let their wings down.) 26 And above the expanse that was over their head there was something in appearance like sapphire stone,+ the likeness of a throne.+ And upon the likeness of the throne there was a likeness of someone in appearance like an earthling man upon it,+ up above. 27 And I got to see something like the glow of electrum,+ like the appearance of fire all around inside thereof,+ from the appearance of his hips and upward; and from the appearance of his hips and downward I saw something like the appearance of fire, and he had a brightness all around. 28 There was something like the appearance of the bow+ that occurs in a cloud mass on the day of a pouring rain. That is how the appearance was of the brightness round about. It was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah.+ When I got to see [it], then I fell upon my face,+ and I began to hear the voice of one speaking.

2 And he proceeded to say to me: “Son of man,*+ stand up upon your feet that I may speak with you.”+ 2 And spirit began to come into me as soon as he spoke to me,+ and it* finally made me stand up upon my feet that I might hear the One speaking to me.+

3 And he went on to say to me: “Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel,+ to rebellious nations that have rebelled against me.+ They themselves and their forefathers have transgressed against me down to this selfsame day.+ 4 And the sons insolent of face+ and hard of heart+—I am sending you to them, and you must say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah* has said.’ 5 And as for them, whether they will hear+ or will refrain+—for they are a rebellious house+—they will certainly know also that a prophet himself happened to be in the midst of them.+

6 “And you, O son of man, do not be afraid of them;+ and of their words do not be afraid, because there are obstinate ones+ and things pricking+ you and it is among scorpions+ that you are dwelling. Of their words do not you be afraid,+ and at their faces do not you be struck with terror,+ for they are a rebellious house.+ 7 And you must speak my words to them, regardless of whether they hear or they refrain, for they are a case of rebellion.+

8 “And you, O son of man, hear what I am speaking to you. Do not become rebellious like the rebellious house.+ Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”+

9 And I began to see, and, look! there was a hand thrust out to me,+ and, look! in it there was the roll of a book.+ 10 And he gradually spread it out before me, and it was written upon in front and on the back;+ and there were written in it dirges and moaning and wailing.+

3 And he proceeded to say to me: “Son of man, what you find, eat. Eat this roll,+ and go, speak to the house of Israel.”

2 So I opened my mouth, and he gradually made me eat this roll.+ 3 And he went on to say to me: “Son of man, you should cause your own belly to eat, that you may fill your very intestines with this roll that I am giving you.” And I began to eat it, and it came to be in my mouth like honey for sweetness.+

4 And he continued saying to me: “Son of man, go, enter in among the house+ of Israel, and you must speak with my words to them. 5 For it is not to a people who are unintelligible in language*+ or heavy* of tongue+ that you are being sent—to the house of Israel, 6 not to numerous peoples unintelligible in language or heavy in tongue, whose words you cannot hear [understandingly].+ If it was to them that I had sent you, those very ones would listen to you.+ 7 But as for the house of Israel, they will not want to listen to you, for they are not wanting to listen to me;+ because all those of the house of Israel are hardheaded* and hardhearted.+ 8 Look! I have made* your face exactly as hard as their faces+ and your forehead exactly as hard as their foreheads.+ 9 Like a diamond,* harder than flint,+ I have made* your forehead. You must not be afraid of them,+ and you must not be struck with terror at their faces,+ for they are a rebellious house.”+

10 And he went on to say to me: “Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you, take into your heart+ and hear with your own ears. 11 And go, enter in among the exiled people,+ among the sons of your people, and you must speak to them and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said,’ regardless of whether they hear or they refrain.”+

12 And a spirit* proceeded to bear me along+ and I began to hear behind me the sound of a great rushing:+ “Blessed be the glory of Jehovah from his place.”+ 13 And there was the sound of the wings of the living creatures that were closely touching each other,+ and the sound of the wheels close beside them,+ and the sound of a great rushing. 14 And [the] spirit bore me along+ and proceeded to take me, so that I went bitterly in the rage of my spirit, and the hand of Jehovah upon me was strong.+ 15 So I entered in among the exiled people at Tel-abib, who were dwelling+ by the river Chebar,+ and I began to dwell* where they were dwelling; and I kept dwelling there for seven days, stunned in the midst of them.+

16 And it came about at the end of seven days that the word of Jehovah proceeded to occur to me, saying:

17 “Son of man, a watchman* is what I have made you to the house of Israel,+ and you must hear from my mouth speech and you must warn them from me.+ 18 When I say to someone wicked, ‘You will positively die,’*+ and you do not actually warn him and speak in order to warn the wicked one from his wicked way to preserve him alive,+ he being wicked, in his error he will die,+ but his blood I shall ask back from your own hand.+ 19 But as for you, in case you have warned someone wicked+ and he does not actually turn back from his wickedness and from his wicked way, he himself for his error will die;+ but as for you, you will have delivered your own soul.*+ 20 And when someone righteous turns back from his righteousness+ and actually does injustice and I must put a stumbling block before him,+ he himself will die because you did not warn him. For his sin he will die,+ and his righteous acts that he did will not be remembered,+ but his blood I shall ask back from your own hand.+ 21 And as for you, in case you have warned someone righteous that the righteous one should not sin,+ and he himself does not actually sin, he will without fail keep on living because he had been warned,+ and you yourself will have delivered your own soul.”+

22 And the hand of Jehovah came to be upon me there and he proceeded to say to me: “Get up, go forth to the valley plain,+ and there I shall speak with you.” 23 So I got up and went forth to the valley plain, and, look! the glory of Jehovah was standing there,+ like the glory that I had seen by the river Chebar,+ and I went falling upon my face.+ 24 Then spirit entered into me+ and made me stand up on my feet,+ and he began to speak with me and say to me:

“Come, be shut up inside your house. 25 And you, O son of man, look! they will certainly put cords upon you and bind you with them so that you cannot go forth into the midst of them.+ 26 And your very tongue I will make stick to the roof of your mouth,+ and you will certainly become mute,+ and you will not become to them a man* administering reproof,+ because they are a rebellious+ house. 27 And when I speak with you I shall open your mouth, and you must say to them,+ ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said.’ Let the one hearing hear,+ and let the one refraining refrain, because they are a rebellious house.+

4 “And you, O son of man, take for yourself a brick, and you must put it before you and engrave upon it a city, even Jerusalem.+ 2 And you must lay siege against it+ and build a siege wall against it+ and throw up* a siege rampart against it+ and set encampments against it and put battering rams all around against it.+ 3 And as for you, take to yourself an iron griddle, and you must put it as an iron wall between you and the city, and you must fix your face against it, and it must get to be in a siege, and you must besiege it. It is a sign to the house of Israel.+

4 “And as for you, lie upon your left side, and you must lay the error of the house of Israel upon it.+ For the number of the days that you will lie upon it you will carry their error. 5 And I myself must give to you the years of their error+ to the number of three hundred and ninety days,+ and you must carry the error of the house of Israel. 6 And you must complete them.

“And you must lie upon your right side in the second case, and you must carry the error of the house of Judah forty days.+ A day for a year, a day for a year, is what I have given you.+ 7 And to the siege of Jerusalem you will fix your face,+ with your arm bared, and you must prophesy against it.

8 “And, look! I will put cords+ upon you that you may not turn yourself from your one side to your other side, until you will have completed the days of your siege.

9 “And as for you, take for yourself wheat+ and barley and broad beans+ and lentils+ and millet and spelt,+ and you must put them in one utensil and make them into bread* for you, for the number of the days that you are lying upon your side; three hundred and ninety days you will eat it.+ 10 And your food that you will eat will be by weight—twenty shekels a day.+ From time to time you will eat it.

11 “And water you will drink merely by measure, the sixth part of a hin.* From time to time you will drink.

12 “And as a round cake of barley+ you will eat it; and as for it, upon dung cakes of the excrement+ of mankind* you will bake it before their eyes.” 13 And Jehovah went on to say: “Just like this the sons of Israel will eat their bread unclean+ among the nations to which I shall disperse them.”+

14 And I proceeded to say: “Alas, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! Look! My soul is not a defiled one;+ neither a body [already] dead nor a torn animal have I eaten from my youth up,+ even until now, and into my mouth there has come no foul flesh.”+

15 Accordingly he said to me: “See, I have given you cattle manure instead of the dung cakes of mankind, and you must make your bread upon it.” 16 And he continued saying to me: “Son of man, here I am breaking the rods around which ring-shaped loaves are suspended,*+ in Jerusalem, and they will have to eat bread by weight and in anxious care,+ and it will be by measure and in horror that they will drink water itself,+ 17 to the intent that they may be lacking bread and water and they may look astonished at one another and rot away in their error.+

5 “And as for you, O son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword. As a barbers’ razor you will take it for yourself, and you must make it pass along upon your head and upon your beard,+ and you must take for yourself weighing scales and divide [the hair]* in portions. 2 A third you will burn in the very fire in the midst of the city as soon as the days of the siege have come to the full.+ And you must take another third. You will strike [it] with the sword all around her,+ and the [last] third you will scatter to the wind,* and I shall draw out a sword itself after them.+

3 “And you must take therefrom a few in number and wrap them up in your skirts.+ 4 And others of them you will take and you must pitch them into the midst of the fire and incinerate them in the fire. From one* a fire will go forth to all the house of Israel.+

5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘This is Jerusalem. In the midst of the nations I have set her, with lands all around her. 6 And she proceeded to behave rebelliously against my judicial decisions in wickedness more than the nations,+ and against my statutes more than the lands that are all around her, for my judicial decisions they rejected and, as for my statutes, they did not walk in them.’+

7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that YOU people were more turbulent*+ than the nations that are all around YOU, in my statutes YOU did not walk and my judicial decisions YOU did not perform;+ but according to the judicial decisions of the nations that are all around YOU, YOU performed, did YOU not?+ 8 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am against you,* [O city,] even I,+ and I will execute in the midst of you judicial decisions in the eyes of the nations.+ 9 And I will do in you that which I have not done and the like of which I shall not do anymore by reason of all your detestable things.+

10 “‘“Therefore fathers themselves will eat sons in the midst of you,+ and sons themselves will eat their fathers, and I will execute in you acts of judgment and scatter all the remainder of you to every wind.”’*+

11 “‘Therefore as I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘surely for the reason that it was my sanctuary that you defiled with all your disgusting things+ and with all your detestable things,+ I myself also am the One that will diminish [you]+ and my eye will not feel sorry+ and I myself also will not show compassion.+ 12 A third of you—by the pestilence they will die,+ and by famine they will come to their end in the midst of you.+ And another third—by the sword they will fall all around you. And the [last] third I shall scatter even to every wind,+ and a sword is what I shall draw out after them.+ 13 And my anger will certainly come to its finish+ and I will appease my rage on them+ and comfort myself;+ and they will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have spoken in my insistence on exclusive devotion,+ when I bring my rage to its finish upon them.

14 “‘And I shall make you* a devastated place and a reproach among the nations that are all around you before the eyes of every passerby.+ 15 And you must become a reproach+ and an object of reviling words,+ a warning example+ and a horror to the nations that are all around you, when I do in you acts of judgment in anger and in rage and in raging reproofs.+ I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.

16 “‘When I send the injurious arrows of the famine upon them,+ which must prove to be for ruination, which [arrows] I shall send to bring YOU people to ruin,+ even famine I shall increase upon YOU people and I will break YOUR rods around which ring-shaped loaves are suspended.*+ 17 And I will send upon YOU people famine and injurious wild beasts,+ and they must bereave you of children, and pestilence+ and blood+ themselves will pass along through you, and a sword I shall bring in upon you.+ I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.’”

6 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy+ to them.+ 3 And you must say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah:+ This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to the mountains and to the hills,+ to the streambeds and to the valleys: “Here I am! I am bringing upon YOU a sword, and I shall certainly destroy YOUR high places.+ 4 And YOUR altars must be made desolate+ and YOUR incense stands must be broken, and I will cause YOUR slain ones to fall before YOUR dungy idols.+ 5 And I will put the carcasses of the sons of Israel before their dungy idols, and I will scatter YOUR bones all around YOUR altars.+ 6 In all YOUR dwelling places+ the very cities will become devastated+ and the high places themselves will become desolated, in order that they may lie devastated+ and YOUR altars may lie desolated and be actually broken+ and YOUR dungy idols may be actually made to cease+ and YOUR incense stands cut down+ and YOUR works wiped out. 7 And the slain one will certainly fall in the midst of YOU,+ and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah.*+

8 “‘“And when it occurs I will let YOU have as a remnant the ones escaping from the sword among the nations, when YOU get scattered among the lands.+ 9 And YOUR escaped ones will certainly remember me among the nations to which they will have been taken captive,+ because I have been broken up at their fornicating heart that has turned aside from me+ and at their eyes that are going in fornication after their dungy idols;+ and they will certainly feel a loathing in their faces at the bad things that they have done in all their detestable things.+ 10 And they will have to know that I am Jehovah; not in vain did I speak+ about doing to them this calamitous thing.”’+

11 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Clap your hands+ and stamp with your foot, and say: “Alas!” on account of all the bad detestable things of the house of Israel,+ because by the sword,+ by the famine+ and by the pestilence they will fall.+ 12 As for the one far away,+ by the pestilence he will die; and as for the one that is nearby, by the sword he will fall; and as for the one that has been left remaining and that has been safeguarded, by the famine he will die, and I will bring to its finish my rage against them.+ 13 And YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah,+ when their slain ones come to be in the midst of their dungy idols,+ all around their altars,+ upon every high hill,+ on all the tops of the mountains+ and under every luxuriant tree+ and under every branchy big tree,+ the place where they have offered a restful* odor to all their dungy idols.+ 14 And I will stretch out my hand against them+ and make the land a desolate waste, even a desolation worse than the wilderness toward Diblah,* in all their dwelling places. And they will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”

7 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “And as for you, O son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to the soil of Israel, ‘An end, the end, has come upon the four extremities* of the land.*+ 3 Now the end is upon you,*+ and I must send my anger against you, and I will judge you according to your ways+ and bring upon you all your detestable things. 4 And my eye will not feel sorry for you,+ neither will I feel compassion, for upon you I shall bring your own ways, and in the midst of you your own detestable things will come to be;+ and YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah.’+

5 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘A calamity, a unique calamity, look! it is coming.+ 6 An end itself must come.+ The end must come; it must awaken for you.* Look! It is coming.+ 7 The garland* must come to you,* O inhabiter of the land,* the time must come, the day is near.+ There is confusion, and not the shouting of the mountains.

8 “‘Now shortly I shall pour out my rage upon you,+ and I will bring my anger against you to its finish,+ and I will judge you according to your ways+ and bring upon you all your detestable things. 9 Neither will my eye feel sorry+ nor shall I feel compassion.+ According to your ways shall I do the bringing upon you yourself, and your own detestable things will come to be right in the midst of you;+ and YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah doing the smiting.*+

10 “‘Look! The day! Look! It is coming.+ The garland has gone forth.+ The rod has blossomed.+ Presumptuousness has sprouted.+ 11 Violence itself has risen up into a rod of wickedness.+ It is not from them, nor is it from their wealth; and it is not from their own selves, nor is there any eminency* in them. 12 The time must come, the day must arrive. As regards the buyer, let him not rejoice;+ and as regards the seller, let him not go into mourning, for there is hot feeling against all its crowd. 13 For to what was sold the seller himself will not return, while their life is yet among the living ones; for the vision is for all its crowd. No one will return, and they will not possess themselves each one* of his own life by his own error.

14 “‘They have blown the trumpet+ and there has been a preparing of everybody, but there is no one going to the battle, because my hot feeling is against all its crowd.+ 15 The sword+ is outside, and the pestilence and the famine are inside.+ Whoever is in the field, by the sword he will die, and whoever are in the city, famine and pestilence themselves will devour them.+ 16 And their escapees will certainly make their escape+ and become on the mountains like the doves of the valleys,+ all of which are moaning, each one in his own error. 17 As for all the hands, they keep dropping down;+ and as for all knees, they keep dripping with water.*+ 18 And they have girded on sackcloth,+ and shuddering has covered them;+ and on all faces there is shame+ and on all their heads there is baldness.+

19 “‘Into the streets they will throw their very silver, and an abhorrent thing their own gold will become. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s fury.+ Their souls they will not satisfy, and their intestines they will not fill, for it has become a stumbling block causing their error.+ 20 And the decoration of one’s ornament—one has set it as reason for pride; and their detestable images,+ their disgusting things,+ they have made with it.* That is why I will make it to them an abhorrent thing.+ 21 And I will give it into the hand of the strangers for plunder and to the wicked ones of the earth for spoil,+ and they will certainly profane it.

22 “‘And I shall have to turn away my face from them,+ and they will actually profane my concealed place,* and into it* robbers will really come and profane it.+

23 “‘Make the chain,*+ for the land* itself has become full of bloodstained judgment*+ and the city itself has become full of violence.+ 24 And I will bring in the worst ones of the nations,+ and they will certainly take possession of their houses,+ and I will cause the pride of the strong ones to cease,+ and their sanctuaries must be profaned.+ 25 There will come anguish, and they will certainly seek peace but there will be none.+ 26 There will come adversity upon adversity,+ and there will occur report upon report, and people will actually seek a vision from a prophet,+ and the law itself will perish from a priest and counsel from elderly men.+ 27 The king himself will go into mourning;+ even a chieftain will clothe himself with desolation,+ and the very hands of the people of the land* will get disturbed. According to their way I shall act toward them,+ and with their judgments I shall judge them;+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”+

8 And it came about in the sixth year, in the sixth [month], on the fifth day of the month, that I was sitting in my house and the older men* of Judah were sitting before me,+ when the hand of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah fell upon me there.+ 2 And I began to see, and, look! a likeness similar to the appearance of fire;+ from the appearance of his hips even downward there was fire,+ and from his hips even upward there was something like the appearance of a shining, like the glow of electrum.*+ 3 Then he thrust out the representation of a hand+ and took me by a tuft of hair of my head, and a spirit*+ carried me between the earth and the heavens and brought me to Jerusalem in the visions of God,+ to the entrance of the inner gate+ that is facing northward, where the dwelling place is of the symbol of jealousy that is inciting to jealousy.+ 4 And, look! the glory of the God* of Israel was there,+ like the appearance that I had seen in the valley plain.

5 And he proceeded to say to me: “Son of man, please, raise your eyes in the direction of the north.” So I raised my eyes in the direction of the north, and, look! to the north of the gate of the altar there was this symbol* of jealousy*+ in the entranceway. 6 And he went on to say to me: “Son of man, are you seeing what great detestable things they are doing,+ the things that the house of Israel are doing here [for me] to become far off from my sanctuary?+ And yet you will see again great detestable things.”

7 Accordingly he brought me to the entrance of the courtyard, and I began to see, and, look! a certain hole in the wall. 8 He now said to me: “Son of man, bore, please, through the wall.”+ And I gradually bored through the wall, and, look! there was a certain entrance. 9 And he further said to me: “Go in and see the bad detestable things that they are doing here.”+ 10 So I went in and began to see, and, look! there was every representation+ of creeping things and loathsome beasts,+ and all the dungy idols of the house of Israel,+ the carving being upon the wall all round about. 11 And seventy men*+ of the elderly ones of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah* the son of Shaphan+ standing in among them, were standing before them, each one with his censer in his hand, and the perfume of the cloud of the incense was ascending.+ 12 And he proceeded to say to me: “Have you seen, O son of man, what the elderly ones of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness,+ each one in the inner rooms of his showpiece? For they are saying, ‘Jehovah is not seeing us.*+ Jehovah has left the land.’”*

13 And he continued on to say to me: “You will yet see again great detestable things that they are doing.”+ 14 So he brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of Jehovah, which is toward the north, and, look! there the women were sitting, weeping over the [god] Tammuz.*

15 And he further said to me: “Have you seen [this], O son of man? You will yet see again great detestable+ things worse than these.” 16 So he brought me to the inner courtyard of the house of Jehovah,+ and, look! at the entrance of the temple of Jehovah, between the porch and the altar,+ there were about twenty-five men*+ with their backs to the temple* of Jehovah+ and their faces to the east, and they were bowing down to the east, to the sun.+

17 And he went on to say to me: “Have you seen [this], O son of man? Is it such a light thing to the house of Judah to do the detestable things that they have done here, that they have to fill the land* with violence+ and that they should offend me again, and here they are thrusting out the shoot* to my nose?* 18 And I myself also shall act in rage.+ My eye will not feel sorry, neither shall I feel compassion.+ And they will certainly call out in my ears with a loud voice, but I shall not hear them.”+ 

9 And he proceeded to call out in my ears with a loud voice, saying: “HAVE those giving their attention to the city come near, each one with his weapon in his hand for bringing ruin!”

2 And, look! there were six men* coming from the direction of the upper+ gate that faces to the north, each one with his weapon for smashing in his hand; and there was one man* in among them clothed with linen,+ with a secretary’s inkhorn* at his hips, and they proceeded to come in and stand beside the copper altar.+

3 And as regards the glory of the God* of Israel,+ it was taken up from over the cherubs*+ over which it happened to be to the threshold of the house,+ and he began calling out to the man* that was clothed with the linen,+ at whose hips there was the secretary’s inkhorn. 4 And Jehovah went on to say to him: “Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and you must put a mark* on the foreheads of the men that are sighing and groaning+ over all the detestable things that are being done in the midst of it.”+

5 And to these [others] he said in my ears: “Pass through the city after him and strike. Let not your eye feel sorry, and do not feel any compassion.+ 6 Old man, young man and virgin and little child and women+ YOU should kill off—to a ruination. But to any man upon whom there is the mark do not go near,+ and from my sanctuary YOU should start.”+ So they started with the old men* that were before the house.+ 7 And he said further to them: “Defile the house and fill the courtyards with the slain ones.+ Go forth!” And they went forth and struck in the city.

8 And it came about that, while they were striking and I was left remaining, I proceeded to fall upon my face+ and cry out and say: “Alas,+ O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! Are you bringing to ruin all the remaining ones of Israel while you are pouring out your rage upon Jerusalem?”+

9 So he said to me: “The error of the house of Israel and Judah+ is very, very great,+ and the land is filled with bloodshed*+ and the city is full of crookedness;+ for they have said, ‘Jehovah has left the land,*+ and Jehovah is not seeing.’*+ 10 And as for me also, my eye will not feel sorry,+ neither shall I show compassion.+ Their way I shall certainly bring upon their own head.”+

11 And, look! the man* clothed with the linen, at whose hips there was the inkhorn,* was bringing back word, saying: “I have done just as you have commanded me.”+

10 And I continued to see, and, look! upon the expanse+ that was over the head of the cherubs there was something like sapphire stone,+ like the appearance of the likeness of a throne,+ appearing above them. 2 And he proceeded to say to the man clothed with the linen,+ even to say: “Enter in between the wheelwork,+ in under the cherubs,* and fill the hollows of both your hands with coals+ of fire from between the cherubs and toss [them] over the city.”+ So he entered in before my eyes.

3 And the cherubs were standing to the right of the house when the man* entered, and the cloud was filling the inner courtyard.+ 4 And the glory of Jehovah+ proceeded to rise up from the cherubs to the threshold of the house, and the house gradually became filled with the cloud,+ and the courtyard itself was full of the brightness of the glory of Jehovah. 5 And the very sound of the wings of the cherubs+ made itself heard to the outer courtyard, like the sound of God Almighty* when he speaks.+

6 And it came about, when he commanded the man clothed with the linen, saying: “Take fire from between the wheelwork, from between the cherubs,” that he proceeded to enter and stand beside the wheel. 7 Then the cherub thrust his hand out from between the cherubs to the fire+ that was between the cherubs+ and carried and put [it] into the hollows of the hands of the one clothed with the linen,+ who now took [it] and went out. 8 And there was seen belonging to the cherubs the representation of a hand of earthling man* under their wings.+

9 And I continued to see, and, look! there were four wheels beside the cherubs, one wheel beside the one cherub and one wheel beside the other cherub,+ and the appearance of the wheels was like the glow of a chrysolite stone. 10 And as for their appearance, the four of them had one likeness, just as when a wheel proves to be in the midst* of a wheel.+ 11 When they would go, to their four sides* they would go. They would not change direction when they went, because the place to which the head would face, after it they would go. They would not change direction when they went.+ 12 And all their flesh and their backs and their hands and their wings and the wheels were full of eyes all around.+ The four of them had their wheels. 13 As regards the wheels, to them it was called out in my ears, “O wheelwork!”

14 And [each] one had four faces.+ The first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of earthling man,*+ and the third was the face of a lion, and the fourth was the face of an eagle.+

15 And the cherubs would rise+—it was the [same] living creature that I had seen at the river Chebar+— 16 and when the cherubs went, the wheels would go alongside them;+ and when the cherubs lifted up their wings to be high above the earth, the wheels would not change direction, even they themselves, from alongside them.+ 17 When these stood still, they would stand still; and when these rose,+ they would rise with them, for the spirit of the living creature* was in them.+

18 And the glory+ of Jehovah proceeded to go forth from over the threshold of the house and to stand still over the cherubs.+ 19 And the cherubs now lifted up their wings and rose from the earth+ before my eyes. When they went forth, the wheels also were close alongside them; and they began standing at the eastern entrance of the gate of the house of Jehovah, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them, from above.

20 This is the living creature+ that I had seen under the God of Israel* at the river Chebar,+ so that I came to know that they were cherubs. 21 As for the four, [each] one had four faces+ and [each] one had four wings, and the likeness of the hands of earthling man* was under their wings. 22 And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces the appearance of which I had seen by the river Chebar, the very ones.+ They would go each one straight forward.+

11 And a spirit+ proceeded to lift me up+ and bring me to the eastern gate of the house of Jehovah that is facing eastward,+ and, look! in the entrance of the gate there were twenty-five men,*+ and I got to see in the midst of them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah* the son of Benaiah,* princes of the people.+ 2 Then he* said to me: “Son of man, these are the men* that are scheming hurtfulness and advising bad counsel against this city;+ 3 that are saying, ‘Is not the building of houses close at hand?+ She* is the widemouthed cooking pot,+ and we are the flesh.’

4 “Therefore prophesy against them. Prophesy, O son of man.”+

5 Then the spirit* of Jehovah fell upon me,+ and he went on to say to me: “Say, ‘This is what Jehovah has said:+ “YOU people said the right thing, O house of Israel; and as regards the things that come up in YOUR spirit,* I myself have known+ it.* 6 YOU have caused YOUR slain ones in this city to be many, and YOU have filled her streets with the slain [ones].”’”+ 7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘As regards YOUR slain ones whom YOU people have put in the midst of her,* they are the flesh,+ and she is the widemouthed cooking pot;+ and there will be a bringing forth* of YOU yourselves out of the midst of her.’”+

8 “‘A sword YOU have feared,+ and a sword I shall bring upon YOU,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.+ 9 ‘And I shall certainly bring YOU forth out of the midst of her and give YOU into the hand of strangers+ and execute upon YOU acts of judgment.+ 10 By the sword YOU will fall.+ On the border* of Israel+ I shall judge YOU people; and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah.+ 11 She herself will not prove to be for YOU a widemouthed cooking pot,+ and YOU yourselves will not* prove to be flesh in the midst of her. On the border* of Israel I shall judge YOU, 12 and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah, because in my regulations YOU did not walk and my judgments YOU did not do,+ but according to the judgments of the nations that are round about YOU, YOU have done.’”+

13 And it came about that as soon as I prophesied Pelatiah the son of Benaiah* himself died,+ and I proceeded to fall upon my face and cry with a loud voice+ and say: “Alas, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah!+ Is it an extermination that you are executing with the remaining ones of Israel?”+

14 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 15 “Son of man, as regards your brothers,+ your brothers, the men* concerned with your right to repurchase, and all the house of Israel, all of it, are the ones to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Get far away from Jehovah. To us it belongs; the land has been given [us] as a thing to possess’;+ 16 therefore say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Although I have put them far away among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the lands,+ yet I shall become to them a sanctuary for a little while* among the lands to which they have come.”’+

17 “Therefore say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “I will also collect YOU from the peoples and gather YOU from the lands among which YOU have been scattered, and I will give YOU the soil of Israel.+ 18 And they will certainly come there and remove all its disgusting things and all its detestable things out of it.+ 19 And I will give them one heart,+ and a new spirit I shall put inside them;*+ and I shall certainly remove the heart of stone from their flesh+ and give them a heart of flesh,+ 20 in order that they may walk in my own statutes and keep my own judicial decisions and actually carry them out;+ and they may really become my people+ and I myself may become their God.”’+

21 “‘“But as for those whose heart* is walking in their disgusting things and their detestable things,+ upon their head I shall certainly bring their own way,” is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.’”+

22 And the cherubs+ now lifted up their wings, and the wheels were close by them,+ and the glory+ of the God of Israel was over them, from above.+ 23 And the glory of Jehovah+ went ascending from over the midst of the city and began to stand over the mountain+ that is to the east of the city.+ 24 And a spirit+ itself lifted me up+ and finally brought me to Chaldea to the exiled people,+ in the vision by the spirit* of God; and the vision that I had seen went ascending from upon me. 25 And I began to speak to the exiled people all the things of Jehovah that he had caused me to see.+

12 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, in the midst of a rebellious house+ is where you are dwelling, that have eyes to see but they actually do not see,+ that have ears to hear but they actually do not hear,+ for they are a rebellious house.+ 3 As for you, O son of man, make up for yourself luggage for exile and go into exile in the daytime before their eyes, and you must go into exile from your place to another place before their eyes. Perhaps they will see, though* they are a rebellious house.+ 4 And you must bring out your luggage like luggage for exile in the daytime before their eyes, and you yourself will go out in the evening before their eyes like those being brought forth for exile.+

5 “Before their eyes, bore your way through the wall, and you must do the bringing out through it.+ 6 Before their eyes you will do the carrying on the shoulder itself. During the darkness you will do the bringing out. You will cover your very face that you may not see the earth, because a portent+ is what I have made you to the house of Israel.”+

7 And I proceeded to do just the way that I had been commanded.+ My luggage I brought out, just like luggage for exile, in the daytime; and in the evening I bored my way through the wall by hand. During the darkness I did the bringing out. On my shoulder I did the carrying, before their eyes.

8 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me in the morning, saying: 9 “Son of man, did not those of the house of Israel, the rebellious house,+ say to you, ‘What are you doing?’ 10 Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “As regards the chieftain,+ there is this pronouncement against Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are in the midst of them.”’

11 “Say, ‘I am a portent+ for YOU. Just as I have done, that is the way it will be done to them. Into exile, into captivity they will go.+ 12 And as regards the chieftain who is in the midst of them, on the shoulder he will do carrying in the darkness and go out; through the wall they will bore in order to do the bringing forth through it.+ His face he will cover in order that he may not see with his own eye the earth.’ 13 And I shall certainly spread my net over him, and he must be caught in my hunting net;+ and I will bring him to Babylon,* to the land of the Chaldeans,+ but it he will not see; and there he will die.+ 14 And all who are round about him as a help, and all his military bands, I shall scatter to every wind;*+ and a sword I shall draw out after them.+ 15 And they will have to know that I am Jehovah when I disperse them among the nations and I actually scatter them among the lands.+ 16 And I will leave remaining from them a few men* from the sword,+ from the famine and from the pestilence, in order that they may recount all their detestable+ things among the nations to whom they must come in;+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.”

17 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 18 “Son of man, with quaking your bread you should eat, and with agitation and with anxious care your water you should drink.+ 19 And you must say to the people of the land,* ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to the inhabitants of Jerusalem upon the soil* of Israel:+ “With anxious care their bread they will eat, and with horror their water they will drink, in order that its land may be laid desolate of its fullness+ because of the violence of all those dwelling in it.+ 20 And the inhabited cities themselves will be devastated,+ and the land itself will become a mere desolate waste;+ and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah.”’”+

21 And the word of Jehovah occurred further to me, saying: 22 “Son of man, what is this proverbial saying that YOU people have on the soil of Israel,+ saying, ‘The days are prolonged,+ and every vision has perished’?+ 23 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “I shall certainly cause this proverbial saying to cease, and they will no more say it as a proverb in Israel.”’+ But speak to them, ‘The days have drawn near,+ and the matter of every vision.’ 24 For there will no more prove to be any valueless vision+ nor double-faced* divination in the midst of the house of Israel.+ 25 ‘“For I myself, Jehovah, shall speak what word I shall speak, and it will be done.+ There will be no postponement anymore,+ for in YOUR days,+ O rebellious house, I shall speak a word and certainly do it,” is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.’”

26 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 27 “Son of man, look! those of the house of Israel are saying, ‘The vision that he is visioning is many days off, and respecting times far off he is prophesying.’+ 28 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “‘There will be no postponement anymore as to any words of mine.+ What word I shall speak, it will even be done,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”’”+

13 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, prophesy concerning the prophets of Israel who are prophesying,+ and you must say to those prophesying out of their own heart,+ ‘Hear the word of Jehovah.+ 3 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Woe to the stupid+ prophets, who are walking after their own spirit,*+ when there is nothing that they have seen!+ 4 Like foxes in the devastated places are what your own prophets have become, O Israel.+ 5 YOU men will certainly not go up into the gaps,+ neither will YOU build up a stone wall+ in behalf of the house of Israel, in order to stand in the battle* in the day of Jehovah.”+ 6 “They have visioned what is untrue and a lying divination,+ those who are saying, ‘The utterance of Jehovah is,’ when Jehovah himself has not sent them, and they have waited to have a word come true.+ 7 Is it not an untrue vision that YOU men have visioned, and a lying divination that YOU have said, when saying, ‘The utterance of Jehovah is,’ when I myself have spoken nothing?”’+

8 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “‘For the reason that YOU men have spoken untruth and YOU have visioned a lie, therefore here I am against YOU,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.” 9 And my hand has come to be against the prophets that are visioning untruth and that are divining a lie.+ In the intimate+ group of my people they will not continue on, and in the register* of the house of Israel they will not be written,+ and to the soil of Israel they will not come;+ and YOU people* will have to know that I am the Sovereign Lord Jehovah,+ 10 for the reason, yes, for the reason that they have led my people astray, saying, “There is peace!” when there is no peace,+ Jer.6:14 and there is one that is building a partition wall, but in vain+ there are those plastering it with whitewash.’+

11 “Say to those plastering with whitewash that it will fall. A flooding downpour will certainly occur, and YOU, O hailstones, will fall,* and a blast* of windstorms itself will cause a splitting.+ 12 And, look! the wall must fall. Will it not be said to YOU men, ‘Where is the coating* with which YOU did the plastering?’+

13 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘I will also cause a blast of windstorms to burst forth in my rage, and in my anger there will occur a flooding downpour, and in rage there will be hailstones for an extermination.+ 14 And I will tear down the wall that YOU men have plastered with whitewash and bring it into contact with the earth, and its foundation must be exposed.+ 2Th.2:8 And she* will certainly fall, and YOU must come to an end in the midst of her; and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah.’+

15 “‘And I will bring my rage to its finish upon the wall and upon those plastering it with whitewash, and I shall say to YOU men: “The wall is no more, and those plastering it are no more,+ 16 the prophets of Israel that are prophesying to Jerusalem and that are visioning for her a vision of peace,+ when there is no peace,”’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.+

17 “And as for you, O son of man, set your face+ against the daughters of your people who are acting as prophetesses+ out of their own heart,+ and prophesy against them. 18 And you must say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Woe to the women sewing bands together upon all elbows* and making veils upon the head of every size in order to hunt souls!*+ Are the souls that YOU women hunt down the ones belonging to my people, and the souls belonging to YOU the ones that YOU preserve alive? 19 And will YOU profane me toward my people for the handfuls of barley and for the morsels of bread,+ in order to put to death the souls that ought not to die+ and in order to preserve alive the souls that ought not to live by YOUR lie to my people, the hearers of a lie?”’+

20 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am against the bands of YOU women, with which YOU are hunting down the souls as though they were flying things,* and I will rip them from off YOUR arms and let go* the souls that YOU are hunting down, souls* as though they were flying things.+ 21 And I will rip away YOUR veils and deliver my people out of YOUR hand, and they will no more prove to be in YOUR hand something caught in the hunt; and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah.+ 22 By reason of dejecting the heart of a righteous one with falsehood,+ when I myself had not caused him pain, and for making the hands of a wicked one strong+ so that he would not turn back from his bad way in order to preserve him alive,+ 23 therefore untruth YOU women will not keep on visioning,+ and divination+ YOU will divine+ no longer;+ and I will deliver my people out of YOUR hand,+ and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”+

14 And men* from the elderly ones of Israel proceeded to come to me and sit down before me.+ 2 Then the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 3 “Son of man, as regards these men, they have brought up their dungy idols upon their heart, and the stumbling block causing their error they have put in front of their faces.+ Shall I be inquired of at all by them?+ 4 Therefore speak with them and you must say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Any man at all* of the house of Israel that brings up his dungy idols+ upon his heart and that places the very stumbling block causing his error in front of his face and that actually comes to the prophet, I, Jehovah, I will let myself be brought to answer him in the matter according to the multitude of his dungy idols,+ 5 for the purpose of catching the house of Israel by their heart,+ because they have withdrawn themselves from me through their dungy idols—all of them.”’+

6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Come back and turn yourselves back from YOUR dungy idols+ and turn YOUR faces back even from all YOUR detestable things;+ 7 for any man at all from the house of Israel or from the alien residents that reside as aliens in Israel, that withdraws himself from following me+ and that brings up his dungy idols upon his heart and that sets the very stumbling block causing his error in front of his face and that actually comes to the prophet to make inquiry for himself by me,+ I, Jehovah, I am letting myself be brought to answer him by myself. 8 And I must set my face against that man*+ and place him for a sign+ and for proverbial sayings,+ and I must cut him off from the midst of my people;+ and YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah.”’+

9 “‘And as for the prophet, in case he gets fooled and actually speaks a word, I myself, Jehovah, have fooled that prophet;+ and I will stretch out my hand against him and annihilate him from the midst of my people Israel.+ Deut.18:20; 13:3-5 10 And they will have to bear their error.+ The error of the inquirer will prove to be just the same as the error of the prophet,+ 2Thess.2:10 11 in order that those of the house of Israel may no more go wandering off from following me+ and may no more go defiling themselves with all their transgressions. And they must become my people and I myself shall become their God,’* is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”+

12 And the word of Jehovah continued to come to me, saying: 13 “Son of man, as regards a land, in case it commits sin against me in acting unfaithfully,+ I will also stretch out my hand against it and break for it the rods around which ring-shaped loaves are suspended,*+ and I will send upon it famine+ and cut off from it earthling man and domestic animal.”+ 14 “‘And had these three men* proved to be in the midst of it, Noah,+ Daniel+ and Job,+ they themselves because of their righteousness+ would deliver their soul,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”+

15 “‘Or if I should make injurious wild beasts pass through the land+ and they actually bereaved it of children+ and it actually became a desolate waste without anybody passing through on account of the wild beasts,+ 16 were these three men in the midst of it, as I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘neither sons nor daughters would they deliver; they, only they themselves, would be delivered and the land itself would become a desolate waste.’”+

17 “‘Or were it a sword that I should bring upon that land,+ and should I actually say: “Let a sword itself pass through the land,” and should I actually cut off from it earthling man* and domestic animal,+ 18 even were these three men in the midst of it,+ as I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they, only they themselves, would be delivered.’”+

19 “‘Or were it pestilence that I should send* upon that land+ and should I actually pour out my rage upon it with blood,+ in order to cut off from it earthling man and domestic animal, 20 even were Noah,+ Daniel+ and Job+ in the midst of it,+ as I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘neither son nor daughter would they deliver; they themselves because of their righteousness would deliver their soul.’”+

21 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘So, too, [it will be] when there will be my four injurious acts of judgment+—sword and famine and injurious wild beast and pestilence+—that I shall actually send upon Jerusalem in order to cut off from it earthling man and domestic animal.+ 22 But, look! there will certainly be left remaining in it an escaped company, those being brought forth.+ Sons and daughters, here they are! They are going forth to YOU people, and YOU will have to see their way and their dealings.+ And YOU will certainly be comforted over the calamity that I shall have brought upon Jerusalem, even all that I shall have brought upon her.’”

23 “‘And they will certainly comfort YOU people when YOU see their way and their dealings; and YOU will have to know that it was not without cause that I shall have done all that I must do against* her,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”+

15 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, in what way does the vine+ tree happen to be different from every other tree, the shoot, that has come to be among the trees of the forest? 3 Is there taken from it a pole with which to do some work? Or do people take from it a peg on which to hang any kind of utensil? 4 Look! Into the fire is where it must be put for fuel.+ Both ends of it the fire certainly devours, and the very middle of it does get scorched.+ Is it fit for any work? 5 Look! When it happens to be intact, it is not used for any work. How much less so, when fire itself has devoured it and it gets scorched, can it actually be used for any further work!”+

6 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Just like the vine tree among the trees of the forest, that I have given to the fire as fuel, so I have given the inhabitants of Jerusalem.+ 7 And I have set* my face against them.+ Out of the fire they have gone forth, but the fire itself will devour them.+ And YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah, when I direct my face against them.’”+

8 “‘And I will make the land a desolate waste,+ for the reason that they have acted unfaithfully,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

16 And the word of Jehovah came further to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, make known+ to Jerusalem her detestable things.+ 3 And you must say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth were from the land of the Canaanite.+ Your father was the Amorite,+ and your mother was a Hittite.+ 4 And as regards your birth, on the day of your being born+ your navel string had not been cut, and in water you had not been washed for cleansing, and with salt you had not at all been rubbed, and by no means had you been swaddled. 5 No eye felt sorry for you to do for you one of these things in compassion upon you,+ but you were thrown upon the surface of the field because there was an abhorring of your soul in the day of your being born.
 

6 “‘“And I came passing along by you and got to see you kicking about in your blood, and I proceeded to say to you in your blood, ‘Keep living!’+ yes, to say to you in your blood, ‘Keep living!’ 7 A very big multitude* like the sprouting of the field is what I made you so that you would grow big+ and become great and come in with the finest ornament.+ The two breasts themselves were firmly developed, and your own hair grew luxuriantly, when you had been naked and nude.”’*
 

8 “‘And I came passing along by you and got to see you, and, look! your time was the time for love’s expressions.+ So I proceeded to spread my skirt over you+ and to cover your nudeness and to make a sworn statement to you and enter into a covenant with you,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘and so you became mine.+ 9 Furthermore, I washed you with water+ and rinsed away your blood from off you and greased you with oil.+ 10 And I went on to clothe you with an embroidered garment+ and to shoe you with sealskin+ and to wrap you in fine linen+ and to cover you with costly material. 11 And I went on to deck you with ornaments and to put bracelets+ upon your hands and a necklace+ about your throat. 12 Furthermore, I put a nose ring+ in your nostril and earrings on your ears+ and a beautiful crown on your head.+ 13 And you kept decking yourself with gold and silver, and your attire was fine linen and costly material and an embroidered garment.+ Fine flour and honey and oil+ were what you ate, and you grew to be very, very pretty, and gradually you became fit for royal position.’”+
 

14 “‘And for you a name began to go forth among the nations because of your prettiness, for it was perfect because of my splendor that I placed upon you,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”
 

15 “‘But you began to trust in your prettiness+ and become a prostitute on account of your name+ and to pour out your acts of prostitution on every passerby;+ his it came to be. 16 And you proceeded to take some of your garments and make for yourself high places+ of varied colors and you would prostitute yourself on them+—such things are not coming in, and it should not happen.* 17 And you would take your beautiful articles from my gold and from my silver that I had given to you+ and you would make for yourself images of a male+ and prostitute yourself with them.*+ 18 And you would take your embroidered garments and cover them; and my oil and my incense+ you would actually put before them. 19 And my bread that I had given to you—fine flour and oil and honey that I had had you eat+—you also actually put it before them as a restful* odor,+ and it continued to occur,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”
 

20 “‘And you would take your sons and your daughters whom you had borne to me,+ and you would sacrifice these to them to be devoured+—is that not enough of your acts of prostitution? 21 And you would slaughter my sons,*+ and by making them pass through [the fire] you would give these to them.+ 22 And in all your detestable things and your acts of prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth when you happened to be naked and nude; kicking about in your blood you happened to be.+ 23 So it came about after all your badness (“woe, woe to you,”+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah) 24 that you went building for yourself a mound* and making for yourself a height in every public square.+ 25 At every head of the way you built your height+ and you began to make your prettiness something detestable+ and sprawl out your feet to every passerby+ and multiply your acts of prostitution.+ 26 And you went prostituting yourself to the sons of Egypt,+ your neighbors great of flesh,*+ and you continued making your prostitution abound in order to offend me. 27 And, look! I shall certainly stretch out my hand against you+ and I shall diminish your allowance+ and give you to the soul[ful desire]+ of the women hating you,+ the daughters of the Philistines,+ the women humiliated on account of your way as regards loose conduct.+

28 “‘And you went on to prostitute yourself to the sons of Assyria because there was no satisfying of you,+ and you kept prostituting yourself with them and also did not get satisfaction. 29 So you kept making your prostitution abound toward the land of Canaan,+ toward the Chaldeans;+ and even in this you did not get satisfaction. 30 O how I am filled up with rage+ against you,’* is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘by your doing all these things, the work of a woman,+ a domineering prostitute!+ 31 When you built your mound at the head of every way and you made your own height in every public square, yet you became unlike a prostitute in disdaining hire. 32 In the case of the wife that commits adultery,* she takes strangers instead of her own husband.+ 33 To all prostitutes they are accustomed to give a present,+ but you—you have given your presents to all those passionately loving you,+ and you offer a bribe to them to come in to you from all around in your acts+ of prostitution. 34 And in your case the opposite thing takes place from that of other women in your acts of prostitution, and after your style no prostitution has been committed, even in your giving hire when no hire has been given to you, and so it occurs in the opposite way.’

35 “Therefore, O prostitute,+ hear the word of Jehovah.+ 36 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that your lustfulness* has been poured out+ and your private parts+ are uncovered in your acts of prostitution toward those passionately loving you+ and toward all your detestable dungy idols,+ even with the blood of your sons whom you gave to them,+ 37 therefore here I am collecting together all those passionately loving you toward whom you were pleasurable and all those whom you loved along with all those whom you hated, and I will collect them together against you from all around and uncover your private parts to them, and they must see all your private parts.+

38 “‘And I will judge you with the judgments of adulteresses+ and women shedding blood,+ and I will give you the blood of rage and jealousy.+ 39 And I will give you into their hand, and they will certainly tear down your mound+ and your heights will certainly be pulled down,+ and they must strip you of your garments+ and take your beautiful articles+ and leave you behind naked and nude. 40 And they must bring up against you a congregation+ and pelt you with stones+ and slaughter you with their swords.+ 41 And they must burn your houses with fire+ and execute in you acts of judgment before the eyes of many women;+ and I will cause you to cease from [being] a prostitute,+ and also no more hire will you give. 42 And I will bring my rage to its rest in you,+ and my jealousy must turn away from you;+ and I will stay quiet and I shall no more feel offended.’

43 “‘For the reason that you did not remember the days of your youth+ and you would cause me agitation because of all these things,+ even here I also, for my part, will put your own way upon [your] very head,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘and you will certainly not carry on any loose conduct alongside all your detestable things.

44 “‘Look! Everyone using a proverb+ against you will use the proverb, saying: “Like mother is her daughter!”+ 45 You are the daughter of your mother,+ one abhorring her husband+ and her sons. And you are the sister of your sisters, who abhorred their husbands and their sons. The mother of YOU women was a Hittite,+ and YOUR father was an Amorite.’”+

46 “‘And your older sister is Samaria+ herself with her dependent towns,*+ who is dwelling on your left, and your sister younger than you, who is dwelling on your right, is Sodom+ with her dependent towns.+ 47 And it was not in their ways that you walked, nor according to their detestable things that you did.+ In a very little while you even began to act more ruinously than they did in all your ways.+ 48 As I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘Sodom your sister, she with her dependent towns, has not done according to what you did, you and your dependent towns.+ 49 Look! This is what proved to be the error of Sodom your sister: Pride,+ sufficiency of bread+ and the carefreeness+ of keeping undisturbed were what happened to belong to her and her dependent towns,+ and the hand of the afflicted one+ and the poor one she did not strengthen.+ 50 And they* continued to be haughty+ and to carry on a detestable thing before me,+ and I finally removed them, just as I saw [fit].*+

51 “‘And as for Samaria,+ she has not sinned even up to half of your sins, but you kept making your detestable things abound more than they did, so that you made your sisters appear righteous because of all your detestable things that you carried on.+ 52 You also, bear your humiliation when you must argue in favor of your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more detestably than they did, they are more righteous than you.+ And you also, be ashamed and bear your humiliation in that you make your sisters appear righteous.’

53 “‘And I will gather their captive ones,+ the captive ones of Sodom and of her dependent towns, and the captive ones of Samaria and of her dependent towns; I will also gather* your captive ones in the midst of them,+ 54 in order that you may bear your humiliation;+ and you must feel humiliated owing to all that you have done, in that you comforted them.+ 55 And your own sisters, Sodom and her dependent towns, will return to their former state, and Samaria and her dependent towns will return to their former state, and you yourself and your own dependent towns will return to YOUR former state.+ 56 And Sodom your sister did not prove to be anything worth hearing about from your mouth in the day of your pride,+ 57 before your own badness got to be exposed,+ just as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria*+ and of all round about her, the daughters of the Philistines,+ those treating you with scorn on all sides.+ 58 Your loose conduct+ and your detestable things, you yourself must bear them,’+ is the utterance of Jehovah.”

5
9 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘I also must do with you just as you have done,+ because you despised the oath in breaking [my] covenant.*+ 60 And I, I myself, must remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth,+ and I must establish for you an indefinitely lasting covenant.+ 61 And you will certainly remember your ways+ and feel humiliated when you receive your sisters, the ones older than you as well as the ones younger than you, and I shall certainly give them to you as daughters,+ but not owing to your covenant.’+

62 “‘And I, I myself, will establish my covenant with you;+ and you will have to know that I am Jehovah, 63 in order that you may remember and actually be ashamed+ and you may no more come to have any reason to open [your] mouth+ because of your humiliation, when I make an atonement+ for you for all that you have done,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

17 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, propound a riddle+ and compose a proverbial saying toward the house of Israel.+ 3 And you must say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “The great eagle,+ having great wings,+ with long pinions, full of plumage, which had color variety, came to Lebanon+ and proceeded to take the treetop+ of the cedar.+ 4 He plucked off the very top of its young shoots and came bringing it to the land of Canaan;+ in a city of traders he placed it. 5 Furthermore, he took some of the seed of the land+ and put it in a field for seed. As a willow by vast waters,+ as a willow tree he placed it. 6 And it began to sprout and gradually became a luxuriantly growing vine low in height,+ inclined to turn its foliage inward; and as for its roots, they gradually came to be under it. And it finally became a vine and produced shoots and sent forth branches.+

7 “‘“And there came to be another great eagle,+ having great wings, and having large pinions,+ and, look! this very vine stretched its roots hungrily toward him.+ And its foliage it thrust out to him in order [for him] to irrigate it, away from the garden beds where it was planted.+ 8 Into a good field, by vast waters, it was already transplanted,+ in order to produce boughs and to bear fruit, to become a majestic vine.”’

9 “Say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Will it have success?+ Will not someone tear out its very roots+ and make its very fruit scaly? And must [not] all its freshly plucked sprouts become dry?+ It will become dry. Neither by a great arm nor by a multitudinous people will it have to be lifted up from its roots. 10 And, look! although transplanted, will it have success? Will it not dry up completely, even as when the east wind touches it?+ In the garden beds of its sprout it will dry up.”’”+

11 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 12 “Say, please, to the rebellious house,+ ‘Do YOU people actually not know what these things mean?’ Say, ‘Look! The king of Babylon* came to Jerusalem and proceeded to take its king+ and its princes and bring them to himself at Babylon.+ 13 Furthermore, he took one of the royal seed+ and concluded* a covenant with him and brought him into an oath;+ and the foremost men of the land he took away,+ 14 in order that the kingdom might become low,+ unable to lift itself up, that by keeping his covenant it* might stand.+ 15 But he finally rebelled+ against him in sending his messengers to Egypt, [for it] to give him horses+ and a multitudinous people. Will he have success? Will he escape, he who is doing these things, and who has broken a covenant? And will he actually escape?’+

16 “‘“As I am alive,”+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, “in the place of the king who put in as king the one that despised his oath+ and that broke his covenant, with him in the midst of Babylon he will die.+ 17 And by a great military force and by a multitudinous congregation Pharaoh will not make him effective in the war,+ by throwing up a siege rampart and by building a siege wall, in order to cut off many souls.+ 18 And he has despised an oath+ in breaking a covenant, and, look! he had given his hand+ and has done even all these things. He will not make his escape.”’+

19 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “As I am alive, surely my oath that he has despised+ and my covenant that he has broken—I will even bring it upon his head. 20 And I will spread over him my net, and he will certainly be caught in my hunting net;+ and I will bring him to Babylon and put myself on judgment with him there respecting his unfaithfulness with which he acted against me.+ 21 And as regards all the fugitives of his in all his bands, by the sword they will fall, and the ones left remaining will be spread abroad even to every wind.*+ And YOU people will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have spoken [it].”’+

22 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “I myself will also take and put some of the lofty treetop of the cedar;+ from the top of its twigs I shall pluck off a tender one+ and I will myself transplant [it] upon a high and lofty mountain.+ 23 On the mountain of the height of Israel I shall transplant it,+ and it will certainly bear boughs and produce fruit+ and become a majestic cedar.+ And under it there will actually reside all the birds of every wing; in the shadow of its foliage they will reside.+ 24 And all the trees of the field will have to know that I myself, Jehovah,+ have abased the high tree,+ have put on high the low tree,+ have dried up the still-moist tree+ and have made the dry tree blossom. I myself, Jehovah, have spoken and have done+ [it].”’”

18 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “What does it mean to YOU people that YOU are expressing this proverbial saying on the soil of Israel, saying, ‘Fathers are the ones that eat unripe grapes, but it is the teeth of the sons that get set on edge’?*+

3 “‘As I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘it will no more continue to be YOURS to express this proverbial saying in Israel. 4 Look! All the souls*—to me they belong.+ As the soul+ of the father so likewise the soul of the son—to me they belong.+ The soul that is sinning+—it itself will die.*+

5 “‘And as regards a man,* in case he happens to be righteous and he has executed justice and righteousness;+ 6 on the mountains+ he did not eat+ and his eyes he did not raise to the dungy idols of the house of Israel,+ and his companion’s wife he did not defile+ and to a woman in her impurity he would not go near;+ 7 and no man would he maltreat;+ the pledge that he took for indebtedness, he would return;+ nothing would he wrest away in robbery;+ to the hungry one he would give his own bread+ and the naked one he would cover with a garment;+ 8 nothing would he give on interest+ and no usury would he take;+ from injustice he would draw back his hand;+ true justice he would execute between man and man;+ 9 in my statutes he kept walking+ and my judicial decisions he kept in order to execute truth,+ he is righteous.+ He will positively keep living,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

10 “‘And [if] one has become father to a son who is a robber,+ a shedder of blood,+ who has done the like of one of these things* 11 (but he himself has done none of these very things); in case he has eaten also upon the mountains,+ and his companion’s wife he has defiled;+ 12 the afflicted and poor one he has maltreated;+ things he has wrested away in robbery,+ a pledged thing he would not return;+ and to the dungy idols he lifted up his eyes,+ a detestable thing is what he has done.+ 13 On usury he has given,+ and interest he has taken,+ and he positively will not keep living. All these detestable things he has done.+ He will positively be put to death. On him his own blood will come to be.+

14 “‘And, look! one has become father to a son, who keeps seeing all the sins of his father that he has done, and he sees* and does not do things like them.+ 15 On the mountains he has not eaten, and his eyes he has not lifted up to the dungy idols of the house of Israel;+ his companion’s wife he has not defiled;+ 16 and no man* has he maltreated,+ no pledge has he seized,+ and nothing has he taken in robbery;+ to the hungry one he has given his own bread,+ and the naked one he has covered with a garment;+ 17 from the afflicted one* he has drawn back his hand; no usury+ and interest+ has he taken; my judicial decisions he has carried out;+ in my statutes he has walked;+ he himself will not die because of the error of his father.+ He will positively keep living.+ 18 As for his father, because he committed outright defrauding,+ wrested something away in robbery of a brother,+ and whatever is not good he has done in the midst of his peoples,+ look! then he must die for his error.+

19 “‘And YOU people will certainly say: “Why is it that the son does not have to bear anything because of the error of the father?”+ Now as regards the son, justice and righteousness he has executed,+ all the statutes of mine he has kept and he keeps doing them.+ He will positively keep living.+ 20 The soul that is sinning—it itself will die.*+ A son himself will bear nothing because of the error of the father, and a father himself will bear nothing because of the error of the son.+ Upon his own self the very righteousness of the righteous one will come to be,+ and upon his own self the very wickedness of a wicked one will come to be.+

21 “‘Now as regards someone wicked, in case he should turn back from all his sins that he has committed+ and he should actually keep all my statutes and execute justice and righteousness,+ he will positively keep living. He will not die.+ 22 All his transgressions that he has committed—they will not be remembered against him.+ For his righteousness that he has done he will keep living.’+

23 “‘Do I take any delight at all in the death of someone wicked,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘[and] not in that he should turn back from his ways and actually keep living?’+

24 “‘Now when someone righteous turns back from his righteousness and actually does injustice;+ according to all the detestable things that the wicked one has done he keeps doing+ and he is living, none of all his righteous acts that he has done will be remembered.+ For his unfaithfulness that he has committed and for his sin with which he has sinned, for them he will die.+

25 “‘And YOU people will certainly say: “The way of Jehovah* is not adjusted right.”+ Hear, please, O house of Israel. Is not my own way adjusted right?+ Are not the ways of YOU people not adjusted right?+

26 “‘When someone righteous turns back from his righteousness and he actually does injustice+ and dies on account of them, for his injustice that he has done he will die.+

27 “‘And when someone wicked turns back from his wickedness that he has committed and proceeds to execute justice and righteousness,+ he is the one that will preserve his own soul alive.+ 28 When he sees*+ and he turns back from all his transgressions that he has done,+ he will positively keep living. He will not die.+

29 “‘And the house of Israel will certainly say: “The way of Jehovah* is not adjusted right.”+ As for my ways, are they not adjusted right, O house of Israel?+ Are not the ways of YOU people the ones that are not adjusted right?’+

30 “‘Therefore each one according to his ways is how I shall judge YOU,+ O house of Israel,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.+ ‘Turn back, yes, cause a turning back from all YOUR transgressions,+ and let nothing prove to be for YOU people a stumbling block causing error.+ 31 Throw off from yourselves all YOUR transgressions in which YOU have transgressed+ and make for yourselves a new heart+ and a new spirit,+ for why should YOU die,+ O house of Israel?’

32 “‘For I do not take any delight in the death of someone dying,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. ‘So cause a turning back and keep living,+ O YOU people.’”

19 “And as for you, raise a dirge+ concerning the chieftains of Israel,+ 2 and you must say, ‘What was your mother? A lioness among lions.*+ She lay down in among maned young lions. She reared her cubs.

3 “‘And gradually she brought up one of her cubs.+ A maned young lion is what he became, and he began to learn how to tear apart prey.+ He devoured even earthling man.* 4 And nations kept hearing about him. In their pit he was caught, and they proceeded to bring him by means of hooks* to the land of Egypt.+

5 “‘When she got to see that she had waited [and] her hope had perished, then she took another of her cubs.+ As a maned young lion she put him forth. 6 And he began to walk about in the midst of lions. A maned young lion is what he became. And he gradually learned how to tear apart prey.+ He devoured even earthling man.+ 7 And he got to know his dwelling towers,* and he devastated even their cities,+ so that the land was laid desolate and he filled it with the sound of his roaring.+ 8 And nations all around from the jurisdictional districts began to set* against him+ and got to spread over him their net.+ In their pit he was caught.+ 9 Finally they put him in the cage by means of hooks* and brought him to the king of Babylon.*+ They got to bring him by means of hunting nets, in order that his voice might no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.+

10 “‘Your mother+ was like a vine in your blood,*+ planted by waters. A bearer of fruit and full of branches she became because of abundant water.+ 11 And they came to be for her strong rods, meant for the scepters of rulers.+ And its height gradually became tall up among branches, and it got to be visible because of its tallness, because of the abundance of its foliage.+ 12 But she was finally uprooted in fury.+ To the earth she was thrown, and there was an east wind that dried up her fruit.+ Her strong rod was torn off and became dry.+ Fire itself devoured it.+ 13 And now she is planted in the wilderness,+ in a waterless and thirsty land.+ 14 And fire proceeded to come forth from [her] rod.+ It devoured her very shoots, her very fruit, and there proved to be in her no strong rod, no scepter for ruling.+

“‘That is a dirge, and it will become a dirge.’”+

20 Now it came about in the seventh year, in the fifth [month], on the tenth [day] of the month, [that] men from the elderly ones of Israel came in to inquire of Jehovah,+ and they proceeded to sit down before me.+ 2 Then the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 3 “Son of man, speak with the elderly men of Israel, and you must say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Is it in order to inquire of me that YOU men are coming?+ ‘As I am alive, I will not be inquired of by* YOU,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”’

4 “Will you judge them? Will you judge [them], O son of man?+ Cause them to know the detestable things of their forefathers.+ 5 And you must say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “In the day of my choosing Israel,+ I also proceeded to lift up my hand+ [in an oath] to the seed of the house of Jacob+ and to make myself known to them in the land of Egypt.+ Yes, I proceeded to lift up my hand [in an oath] to them, saying, ‘I am Jehovah YOUR God.’*+ 6 In that day I lifted up my hand+ [in an oath] to them to bring them forth from the land of Egypt to a land that I had spied out for them, one flowing with milk and honey.+ It was the decoration of all the lands.+ 7 And I went on to say to them, ‘Throw away, each one of YOU, the disgusting things of his eyes,+ and with the dungy idols of Egypt do not defile yourselves.+ I am Jehovah YOUR God.’+

8 “‘“And they began to rebel against me,+ and they did not consent to listen to me. The disgusting things of their eyes they did not individually throw away, and the dungy idols of Egypt they did not leave,+ so that I promised* to pour out my rage upon them, in order to bring my anger to its finish upon them in the midst of the land of Egypt.+ 9 And I went acting for the sake of my own name that [it] might not be profaned before the eyes of the nations in among whom they were,+ because I had made myself known to them before their eyes on bringing them forth from the land of Egypt.+ 10 So I brought them forth from the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.+

11 “‘“And I proceeded to give them my statutes;+ and my judicial decisions+ I made known to them, in order that the man* who keeps doing them might also keep living by them.+ 12 And my sabbaths I also gave to them,+ to become a sign between me and them,+ in order [for them] to know that I am Jehovah who is sanctifying them.*

13 “‘“But they, the house of Israel, rebelled against me in the wilderness.+ In my statutes they did not walk,+ and my judicial decisions they rejected,+ which, should the man keep doing, he will also keep living by them.+ And my sabbaths they profaned very much,+ so that I promised* to pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, in order to exterminate them.+ 14 But I acted for the sake of my own name that [it] might not be profaned before the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had brought them forth.+ 15 And I myself also lifted up my hand [in an oath] to them in the wilderness,+ not to bring them into the land that I had given, one flowing with milk and honey,+ (it is the decoration of all the lands,)+ 16 for the reason that they rejected my own judicial decisions; and as regards my statutes, they did not walk in them, and my sabbaths they profaned, because it was after their dungy idols that their heart was going.+

17 “‘“And my eye began to feel sorry for them [to keep me] from bringing them to ruin,+ and I did not make an extermination of them in the wilderness. 18 And I proceeded to say to their sons in the wilderness,+ ‘In the regulations of your forefathers do not YOU walk,+ and their judgments do not YOU keep,+ and with their dungy idols do not YOU defile yourselves.+ 19 I am Jehovah YOUR God.*+ Walk in my own statutes,+ and keep my own judicial decisions*+ and do them.+ 20 And sanctify my own sabbaths,+ and they must serve as a sign between me and YOU, [for YOU] to know that I am Jehovah YOUR God.’+

21 “‘“And the sons began to rebel against me.+ In my statutes they did not walk, and my judicial decisions they did not keep by doing them, which, should the man* keep doing, he will also keep living by them.+ My sabbaths they profaned.+ So I promised* to pour out my rage upon them, in order to bring my anger to its finish upon them in the wilderness.+ 22 And I drew back my hand+ and went acting for the sake of my own name, that [it] should not be profaned before the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had brought them out.+ 23 Also, I myself lifted up my hand [in an oath] to them in the wilderness,+ to scatter them among the nations and to disperse them among the lands,+ 24 for the reason that they did not carry out my own judicial decisions+ and they rejected my own statutes+ and they profaned my own sabbaths,+ and it was after the dungy idols of their forefathers that their eyes proved to be.+ 25 And I myself also let them have* regulations that were not good and judicial decisions by which they could not keep living.+ 26 And I would let them become defiled* by their gifts when [they] made every child opening the womb pass through [the fire],+ in order that I might make them desolate, in order that they might know that I am Jehovah.”’+

27 “Therefore speak to the house of Israel, O son of man, and you must say to them,+ ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Yet in this respect, YOUR forefathers spoke abusively of me, in their acting against me with unfaithfulness.+ 28 And I proceeded to bring them into the land+ that I had lifted up my hand [in an oath] to give them.+ When they got to see every exalted hill+ and every branchy tree, then they began sacrificing there their sacrifices+ and giving there their offensive offering, and presenting there their restful* odors+ and pouring out there their drink offerings.+ 29 So I said to them, ‘What does the high place mean to which YOU are coming, that its name should be called a High Place* down to this day?’”’+

30 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “In the way of YOUR forefathers are YOU people defiling yourselves,+ and after their disgusting things are YOU going in immoral intercourse?+ 31 And in lifting up YOUR gifts by making YOUR sons pass through the fire,+ are YOU defiling yourselves for all YOUR dungy idols down till today?+ At the same time shall I myself be inquired of by YOU people, O house of Israel?”’+

“‘As I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘I will not be inquired of by YOU.+ 32 And that which is coming up into YOUR spirit+ will itself positively not happen,+ in that YOU are saying: “Let us become like the nations, like the families of the lands,+ in ministering to wood and stone.”’”+

33 “‘As I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘it will be with a strong hand and with a stretched-out arm+ and with outpoured rage that I will rule as king over YOU people.+ 34 And I will bring YOU forth from the peoples, and I will collect YOU together out of the lands to which YOU have been scattered with a strong hand and with a stretched-out arm and with outpoured rage.+ 35 And I will bring YOU into the wilderness of the peoples+ and put myself on judgment with YOU there face to face.+

36 “‘Just as I put myself on judgment with YOUR forefathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt,+ so I shall put myself on judgment with YOU,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 37 ‘And I will make YOU pass under the rod+ and bring YOU into the bond of the covenant.+ 38 And I will clean out from YOU the revolters and the transgressors+ against me, for out of the land of their alien residence I shall bring them forth, but onto the soil of Israel they will not come;+ and YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah.’+

39 “And YOU, O house of Israel, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Go serve each one of YOU his own dungy idols.+ And afterward if YOU are not listening to me, then my holy name YOU will no more profane by YOUR gifts and by YOUR dungy idols.’+

40 “‘For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘there is where they, the whole house of Israel in its entirety, will serve me, in the land.+ There I shall take pleasure in them, and there I shall require YOUR contributions and the firstfruits of YOUR presentations in all YOUR holy things.+ 41 Because of the restful odor I shall take pleasure in YOU,+ when I bring YOU forth from the peoples and I actually collect YOU together from the lands to which YOU have been scattered,+ and I will be sanctified in YOU before the eyes of the nations.’+

42 “‘And YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah,+ when I bring YOU onto the soil of Israel,+ into the land that I lifted up my hand [in an oath] to give to YOUR forefathers. 43 And YOU will certainly remember there YOUR ways+ and all YOUR dealings by which YOU defiled yourselves,+ and YOU will actually feel a loathing at YOUR own faces because of all YOUR bad things that YOU did.+ 44 And YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah+ when I take action with YOU for the sake of my name,+ not according to YOUR bad ways or according to YOUR corrupted dealings,+ O house of Israel,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

45* And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 46 “Son of man, set your face+ in the direction of the southern quarter* and drip+ [words] to the south,* and prophesy to the forest of the field of [the] south.* 47 And you must say to the forest of the south, ‘Hear the word of Jehovah. This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am setting a fire ablaze against you,+ and it must devour in you every still-moist tree and every dry tree.+ The kindling flame will not be extinguished,+ and by it all faces must be scorched from [the] south to the north.+ 48 And all those of flesh must see that I myself, Jehovah, have set it afire, so that it will not be extinguished.”’”+

49 And I proceeded to say: “Alas, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! They are saying respecting me, ‘Is he not composing proverbial sayings?’”+

21* And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and drip+ [words] toward the holy places,+ and prophesy against the soil of Israel.+ 3 And you must say to the soil of Israel, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “Here I am against you,+ and I will bring forth my sword out of its sheath+ and cut off from you righteous one and wicked one.+ 4 In order that I may actually cut off from you righteous one and wicked one, therefore my sword will go forth from its sheath against all flesh from south to north.+ 5 And all those of flesh will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have brought forth my sword from its sheath.+ No more will it go back.”’+

6 “And as for you, O son of man, sigh with shaking hips.*+ Even with bitterness you should sigh before their eyes.+ 7 And it must occur that, in case they say to you, ‘On account of what are you sighing?’+ you must say, ‘At a report.’+ For it will certainly come,+ and every heart must melt+ and all hands must drop down and every spirit must become dejected and all knees themselves will drip with water.*+ ‘Look! It will certainly come+ and be brought to occur,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

8 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 9 “Son of man, prophesy, and you must say, ‘This is what Jehovah* has said: “Say, ‘A sword, a sword!+ It has been sharpened,+ and it is also polished. 10 For the purpose of organizing a slaughter it has been sharpened; for the purpose of its getting a glitter* it has been polished.’”’”+
“Or shall we exult?”+
“‘Is it rejecting the scepter+ of my own son,+ as [it does] every tree?+

11 “‘And one gives it to be polished, in order to wield [it] with the hand. It—a sword has been sharpened, and it—it has been polished, in order to give it into the hand of a killer.+

12 “‘Cry out and howl,+ O son of man, for it itself has come to be against my people;+ it is against all the chieftains of Israel.+ The very ones hurled to the sword have come to be with my people.+ Therefore make a slap on [the] thigh.+ 13 For an extermination has been made,+ and what [of it] if it is rejecting also the scepter?+ This* will not continue existing,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

14 “And you, O son of man—prophesy, and strike palm against palm,+ and ‘A sword!’ should be repeated for three times.+ The sword of the slain ones it is. It is the sword of someone slain who is great, which is making an encirclement of them.+ 15 In order for the heart to melt+ and [in order] to multiply those who are overthrown at all their gates,+ I will make a slaughter by the sword. Alas, it is made for a glittering,* polished for a slaughter!+ 16 Show yourself sharp;*+ go to the right! Set your position; go to the left! To wherever your face is directed! 17 And I myself also shall strike my one palm against my other palm,+ and I will bring my rage+ to its rest.+ I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.”

18 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 19 “And as for you, O son of man, set for yourself two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon* to enter.+ From the one land both of them should go forth, and an [index] hand should be cut out;+ at the head of the way to the city it should be cut out.* 20 A way you should set for [the] sword to enter against Rabbah+ of the sons of Ammon, and [one] against Judah, against Jerusalem fortified.+ 21 For the king of Babylon stood still at the crossways,* at the head of the two ways, in order to resort to divination.+ He has shaken the arrows. He has asked by means of the teraphim;*+ he has looked into the liver. 22 In his right hand the divination proved to be for Jerusalem, to set battering rams,+ to open one’s mouth for a slaying,* to raise the sound in an alarm signal,+ to set battering rams against gates, to throw up a siege rampart, to build a siege wall.+ 23 And it has become to them like an untrue divination in their eyes+—those who are sworn with oaths to them;+ and he is calling error to remembrance,+ in order [for them] to be caught.+

24 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘By reason of YOUR causing YOUR error to be remembered by YOUR transgressions being uncovered, in order that YOUR sins may be seen according to all YOUR dealings, by reason of YOUR being called to remembrance+ YOU people will be seized even by the hand.’+

25 “And as for you, O deadly wounded, wicked chieftain+ of Israel,+ whose day has come in the time of the error of [the] end,+ 26 this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Remove the turban, and lift off the crown.+ This* will not be the same.*+ Put on high even what is low,+ and bring low even the high one.+ 27 A ruin, a ruin, a ruin* I shall make it.*+ As for this* also, it will certainly become no [one’s] until he comes who has the legal right,+ and I must give [it]* to him.’+

28 “And you, O son of man, prophesy, and you must say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said concerning the sons of Ammon and concerning the reproach from them.’ And you must say, ‘A sword, a sword drawn for a slaughter, polished to cause [it] to devour,* in order to glitter,+ 29 because of [their] beholding for you* an unreality, because of [their] divining for you a lie,+ in order to put you on the necks of the slain ones, the wicked men whose day has come in the time of the error of [the] end.+ 30 Return [it] to its sheath. In the place that you were created, in the land of your origin,+ I shall judge you. 31 And I will pour out upon you my denunciation. With the fire of my fury I shall blow upon you,+ and I will give you into the hand of men who are unreasoning, the craftsmen of ruination.+ 32 For the fire you will become fuel.+ Your own blood will prove to be in the midst of the land. You will not be remembered, for I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.’”+

22 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “And as for you, O son of man, will you judge,+ will you judge the bloodguilty city*+ and certainly cause her to know all her detestable things?+ 3 And you must say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “O city that is shedding blood+ in her midst till her time comes,+ and that has made dungy idols within herself in order to become unclean,+ 4 by your blood that you have shed you have become guilty,+ and by your dungy idols that you have made you have become unclean.+ And you bring your days near, and you will come to your years. That is why I must make you an object of reproach to the nations and of jeering to all the lands.+ 5 The [lands] nearby and those far away from you will jeer you, O you unclean in name, abounding in confusion.+ 6 Look! The chieftains+ of Israel have proved to be in you, each one [given over] to his arm for the purpose of shedding blood.+ 7 Father and mother they have treated with contempt in you.+ Toward the alien resident they have acted with defrauding in the midst of you.+ Fatherless boy and widow they have maltreated in you.”’”+

8 “‘My holy places you have despised, and my sabbaths you have profaned.+ 9 Outright slanderers* have proved to be in you, for the purpose of shedding blood;+ and on the mountains they have eaten in you.+ Loose conduct they have carried on in the midst of you.+ 10 The nakedness of a father they have uncovered* in you;+ a woman unclean in [her] menstruation they have humiliated in you.+ 11 And with the wife of his companion a man has done a detestable thing,+ and his own daughter-in-law a man has defiled with loose conduct;+ and his sister, the daughter of his own father, a man has humiliated in you.+ 12 A bribe they have taken in you for the purpose of shedding blood.+ Interest+ and usury you have taken,+ and you violently keep making gain+ of your companions with defrauding,+ and me you have forgotten,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

13 “‘And, look! I have struck my hand+ at your unjust gain that you have made,+ and over your acts of bloodshed* that have proved to be in the midst of you.+ 14 Will your heart keep enduring+ or your hands furnish strength in the days when I am taking action toward you?+ I myself, Jehovah, have spoken and I will take action.+ 15 And I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among the lands,+ and I will destroy* your uncleanness* out of you.+ 16 And you will certainly be profaned within yourself before the eyes of [the] nations, and you will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”+

17 And the word of Jehovah continued to come to me, saying: 18 “Son of man, to me those of the house of Israel have become as scummy dross.+ All of them are copper and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace. Much scummy dross, [that of] silver, they have become.+

19 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that all of YOU have become as much scummy dross,+ therefore here I am collecting YOU together into the midst of Jerusalem.+ 20 As in collecting silver and copper and iron+ and lead and tin into the midst of a furnace, in order to blow+ upon it with fire to cause a liquefying,+ so I shall collect [them] together in my anger and in my rage, and I will blow* and cause YOU people to liquefy. 21 And I will bring YOU together and blow upon YOU with the fire of my fury,+ and YOU must be liquefied in the midst of her.*+ 22 As in the liquefying of silver in the midst of a furnace, so YOU people will be liquefied in the midst of her; and YOU will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have poured out my rage upon YOU.’”+

23 And the word of Jehovah continued to come to me, saying: 24 “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land not being cleansed, one not rained down upon in the day of denunciation.+ 25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her,+ like the roaring lion, tearing prey.+ A soul they actually devour.+ Treasure and precious things they keep taking.+ Her widows they have multiplied in the midst of her.+ 26 Her priests themselves have done violence to my law,+ and they keep profaning my holy places.+ Between the holy thing and the common*+ they have made no distinction,+ and between the unclean thing and the clean they have made nothing known,+ ■ and from my sabbaths they have hidden their eyes,+ and I am profaned in the midst of them.+ 27 Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves tearing prey in shedding blood,+ in destroying souls* for the purpose of making unjust gain.+ 28 And her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash,+ visioning an unreality+ and divining for them a lie,+ saying: “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said,” when Jehovah himself has not spoken. 29 The people of the land themselves have carried on a scheme of defrauding+ and have done a tearing away in robbery,+ and the afflicted one and the poor one they have maltreated,+ and the alien resident they have defrauded without justice.’+

30 “‘And I kept looking for a man* from among them who would be repairing the stone wall+ and standing in the gap+ before me in behalf of the land, in order [for me] not to bring it to ruin;+ and I found no one. 31 So I shall pour out my denunciation+ upon them. With the fire of my fury I will exterminate them.+ Their way I will bring upon their own head,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

23 And the word of Jehovah proceeded to come to me,+ saying: 2 “Son of man, two women, the daughters of one mother, there happened to be.+ 3 And they began to prostitute themselves in Egypt.+ In their youth they committed prostitution.+ There their breasts were squeezed,+ and there they pressed the bosoms of their virginity. 4 And their names were Oholah* the older one* and Oholibah* her sister, and they came to be mine+ and began to give birth to sons and daughters.+ And as for their names, Oholah is Samaria,+ and Oholibah is Jerusalem.+

5 “And Oholah began to prostitute herself,+ while subject to me, and kept lusting after those passionately loving her,+ after the Assyrians,+ who were near, 6 governors clothed with blue material, and deputy rulers—desirable young men all of them, cavalrymen riding horses. 7 And she continued giving forth her prostitutions upon them, the choicest sons of Assyria all of them; and with all those after whom she lusted—with their dungy idols—she defiled herself.+ 8 And her prostitutions [carried] from Egypt she did not leave, for with her they had lain down in her youth, and they were the ones that pressed the bosoms of her virginity and they kept pouring out their immoral intercourse upon her.+ 9 Therefore I gave her into the hand of those passionately loving her,+ into the hand of the sons of Assyria, toward whom she had lusted.+ 10 They were the ones that uncovered her nakedness.+ Her sons and her daughters they took,+ and her they killed even with sword. And she came to be infamy* to women, and acts of judgment were what they executed upon her.

11 “When her sister Oholibah got to see [it],+ then she exercised her sensual desire more ruinously than she, and her prostitution more than the fornication* of her sister.+ 12 For the sons of Assyria she lusted,+ governors and deputy rulers who were near, clothed with perfect taste, cavalrymen riding horses—desirable young men all of them.+ 13 And I got to see that, because she had defiled herself, both of them had one way.+ 14 And she kept adding to her acts of prostitution when she got to see the men in carvings upon the wall,+ images+ of Chaldeans carved in vermilion,+ 15 girded with belts+ on their hips, with pendant turbans on their heads, having the appearance of warriors,* all of them, the likeness of the sons of Babylon,* Chaldeans as respects the land of their birth. 16 And she began to lust after them at the sight of her eyes+ and proceeded to send messengers to them in Chaldea.+ 17 And the sons of Babylon kept coming in to her, to the bed of expressions of love, and defiling her with their immoral intercourse;+ and she continued getting defiled by them, and her soul began to turn away disgusted from them.

18 “And she went on uncovering her acts of prostitution and uncovering her nakedness,+ so that my soul turned away disgusted from company with her, just as my soul had turned away disgusted from company with her sister.+ 19 And she kept multiplying her acts of prostitution+ to the point of calling to mind the days of her youth,+ when she prostituted herself in the land of Egypt.+ 20 And she kept lusting in the style of concubines belonging to those whose fleshly member* is as the fleshly member of male asses and whose genital organ is as the genital organ of male horses.+ 21 And you continued calling attention to the loose conduct of your youth by the pressing of your bosoms from Egypt+ onward, for the sake* of the breasts of your youth.+

22 “Therefore, O Oholibah, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am rousing up your passionate lovers against you,+ those from whom your soul has turned away in disgust, and I will bring them in against you on all sides,+ 23 the sons of Babylon+ and all the Chaldeans,+ Pekod+ and Shoa and Koa, all the sons of Assyria with them, desirable young men, governors and deputy rulers all of them, warriors* and summoned ones, riding on horses, all of them. 24 And they must come in against you with rattling* of war chariots and wheels,+ and with a congregation of peoples, with large shield and buckler and helmet. They will set themselves against you all around, and I will give judgment over to them, and they must judge you with their judgments.+ 25 And I will express my ardor against you,+ and they must take action against you in rage.+ Your nose and your ears they will remove, and the remainder of you will fall even by the sword. Your sons and your daughters+ they themselves will take,+ and the remainder of you will be devoured by the fire.+ 26 And they will certainly strip off you your garments+ and take away your beautiful articles.+ 27 And I shall actually cause your loose conduct to cease from you,+ and your prostitution [carried] from the land of Egypt;+ and you will not raise your eyes to them, and Egypt you will remember no more.’

28 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am giving you into the hand of those whom you have hated, into the hand of those from whom your soul has turned away disgusted.+ 29 And they must take action against you in hatred and take away all your product of toil and leave you naked and nude;*+ and the nudeness of your acts of fornication and your loose conduct and your acts of prostitution must be uncovered.+ 30 There will be a doing* of these things to you because of your going like a prostitute after [the] nations,+ on account of the fact that you defiled yourself with their dungy idols.+ 31 In the way of your sister you have walked;+ and I shall have to give her cup into your hand.’+

32 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘The cup of your sister you will drink, the deep and wide one.+ You will become an object of laughter and derision, [the cup] containing much.+ 33 With drunkenness and grief you will be filled, with the cup of astonishment and of desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria. 34 And you will have to drink it and drain [it] out,+ and its earthenware fragments you will gnaw, and your breasts you will tear out.+ “For I myself have spoken,” is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.’

35 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that you have forgotten me+ and you proceeded to cast me behind your back,+ then you yourself also bear your loose conduct and your acts of prostitution.’”

36 And Jehovah went on to say to me: “Son of man, will you judge+ Oholah and Oholibah+ and tell them their detestable things?+ 37 For they have committed adultery+ and there is blood on their hands,+ and with their dungy idols they have committed adultery.+ And, besides that, their sons whom they had borne to me they made pass through [the fire] to them* as food.+ 38 What is more, this is what they have done to me: They have defiled+ my sanctuary+ in that day, and my sabbaths they have profaned.+ 39 And when they had slaughtered their sons to their dungy idols+ they even proceeded to come into my sanctuary on that day to profane it,+ and, look! that is what they have done in the midst of my house.+ 40 And in addition to that, when they began to send to the men* coming from far away, to whom there was sent a messenger,+ then, look! they came,+ for whom you had washed yourself,+ painted your eyes+ and decked yourself with ornaments.+ 41 And you sat down upon a glorious couch,+ with a table set in order before it,+ and my incense+ and my oil you put upon it.+ 42 And the sound of a crowd at ease was in her,+ and to the men out of the mass of mankind* there were drunkards+ being brought in from the wilderness, and they proceeded to put bracelets on the hands of the women* and beautiful crowns upon their heads.+

43 “Then I said respecting her who was worn out with adultery,+ ‘Now she will keep on committing her prostitution, even she herself.’+ 44 And they kept on coming in to her, just as one comes in to a woman that is a prostitute; in that manner they came in to Oholah and to Oholibah as women of loose conduct.+ 45 But as regards righteous+ men, they are the ones that will judge her* with the judgment for adulteresses+ and with the judgment for female shedders of blood;+ for adulteresses are what they are, and there is blood on their hands.+

46 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘There will be the bringing up of a congregation against them+ and a making* of them a frightful object and something to plunder.+ 47 And the congregation must pelt them with stones,+ and there will be a cutting of them down with their swords. Their sons and their daughters they will kill,+ and with fire their houses they will burn.+ 48 And I shall certainly cause loose conduct+ to cease out of the land,+ and all the women will have to let themselves be corrected, so that they will not do according to YOUR* loose conduct.+ 49 And they must bring YOUR loose conduct upon YOU,+ and the sins of YOUR dungy idols YOU will bear; and YOU people will have to know that I am the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.’”+

24 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth [day] of the month, saying: 2 “Son of man, write down for yourself the name of the day, this selfsame day. The king of Babylon has thrown himself against Jerusalem on this selfsame day.+ 3 And compose a proverbial saying concerning the rebellious house,+ and you must say concerning them,

“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Put the widemouthed cooking pot on; put [it] on, and also pour water into it.+ 4 Gather pieces in it,+ every good piece, thigh and shoulder; fill [it] even with the choicest bones. 5 Let there be a taking of the choicest sheep,+ and also stack the logs* in a circle under it. Boil its pieces,* also cook its bones in the midst of it.”’”+

6 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Woe to the city of deeds of bloodshed,*+ the widemouthed cooking pot, the rust of which is in it, and the very rust of which has not gone forth from it! Piece by piece of it, bring it out;+ no lot must be cast over it.+ 7 For its very blood has come to be right in the midst of it.+ Upon the shining, bare surface of a crag she placed it. She did not pour it out upon the earth, in order to cover it over with dust.+ 8 In order to bring up rage for the executing of vengeance,+ I have put her blood upon the shining, bare surface of a crag, in order that it may not be covered over.’+

9 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Woe to the city of deeds of bloodshed!+ I myself also shall make the pile great.+ 10 Make the logs many. Kindle the fire. Boil the flesh thoroughly. And empty out the broth,* and let the bones themselves become piping hot. 11 Stand it* empty upon its coals in order that it may get hot; and its copper must become heated up, and its uncleanness must be liquefied in the midst of it.+ Let its rust get consumed.+ 12 Troubles! It has made [one] tired, but the great amount of its rust does not go forth from it.+ Into [the] fire with its rust!’

13 “‘There was loose conduct in your* uncleanness.+ For that reason I had to cleanse you, but you did not become clean from your uncleanness.+ You will become clean no more until I cause my rage to come to its rest in your case.+ 14 I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.+ It must come,+ and I will act. I shall not neglect,+ neither shall I feel sorry+ nor feel regret.+ According to your ways and according to your dealings they* will certainly judge you,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

15 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 16 “Son of man, here I am taking away from you the thing desirable+ to your eyes by a blow,+ and you should not beat your breast, neither should you weep nor should your tears come on.+ 17 Sigh without words.* For the dead ones no mourning should you make.+ Your headdress bind on yourself,+ and your sandals you should put upon your feet.+ And you should not cover over [the] mustache,*+ and the bread of men you should not eat.”+

18 And I proceeded to speak to the people in the morning, and my wife gradually died in the evening. So I did in the morning just as I had been commanded. 19 And the people kept saying to me: “Will you not tell us what these things have to do with us, that you are doing?”+ 20 Then I said to them: “The very word of Jehovah has occurred to me, saying, 21 ‘Say to the house of Israel: “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am profaning my sanctuary,+ the pride of YOUR strength,+ the thing desirable to YOUR eyes+ and the object of YOUR soul’s compassion, and YOUR sons and YOUR daughters whom YOU people have left behind—by the sword they will fall.+ 22 And YOU will have to do just as I have done. Mustaches* YOU will not cover over,+ and the bread of men YOU will not eat.+ 23 And YOUR headdress will be on YOUR heads, and YOUR sandals be upon YOUR feet. YOU will not beat yourselves nor will YOU weep,+ and YOU will have to rot away in YOUR errors,+ and YOU will actually groan over one another.+ 24 And Ezekiel has become for YOU a portent.+ In accord with all that he has done, YOU will do. When it comes,+ YOU will also have to know that I am the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.’”’”+

25 “And as for you, O son of man, will it not be in the day of my taking away from them their fortress, the beautiful object of their exultation, the thing desirable to their eyes+ and the longing of their soul, their sons and their daughters,+ that 26 in that day there will come to you the escaped one for making the ears hear?+ 27 In that day your mouth will be opened to the escaped one,+ and you will speak and be mute no longer;+ and you will certainly become to them a portent,+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.”+

25 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward the sons of Ammon and prophesy against them.+ 3 And you must say concerning the sons of Ammon, ‘Hear the word of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “For the reason that you* have said Aha! against my sanctuary, because it has been profaned, and against the soil of Israel, because it has been laid desolate, and against the house of Judah, because they have gone into exile,+ 4 therefore here I am giving you to the Orientals* as something to possess,+ and they will set up their walled camps in you and will certainly put in you their tabernacles. They themselves will eat your fruitage, and they themselves will drink your milk.+ 5 And I will make Rabbah+ a pasture ground of camels and the sons of Ammon a resting-place of a flock;+ and YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah.”’”+

6 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that you* clapped the hands+ and you stamped with the feet and you kept rejoicing with all scorn on your part in [your] soul against the soil of Israel,+ 7 therefore here I am; I have stretched out my hand against you,+ and I will give you as something to plunder to the nations; and I will cut you off from the peoples and destroy you from the lands.+ I shall annihilate you,+ and you will have to know that I am Jehovah.’

8 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that Moab+ and Seir+ have said: “Look! The house of Judah is like all the other nations,”+ 9 therefore here I am opening the slope of Moab at the cities, at his cities to his frontier, the decoration of [the] land, Beth-jeshimoth,+ Baal-meon,+ even to Kiriathaim,+ 10 to the Orientals,*+ alongside the sons of Ammon;+ and I will make it something to possess, in order that it may not be remembered,+ [that is,] the sons of Ammon, among the nations. 11 And in Moab I shall execute acts of judgment;+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.’+

12 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that Edom has acted in taking vengeance upon the house of Judah and they kept doing wrong extensively and avenged themselves on them,+ 13 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “I will also stretch out my hand against Edom+ and cut off from it man* and domestic animal,+ and I will make it a devastated place from Teman,+ even to Dedan.+ By the sword they will fall. 14 ‘And I will bring my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel;+ and they must do in Edom according to my anger and according to my rage; and they will have to know what my vengeance is,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”’

15 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that the Philistines have acted with vengeance+ and they kept avenging themselves with a vengeance with scorn in [the] soul,* in order to cause ruin,+ with an indefinitely lasting enmity,+ 16 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am stretching out my hand against the Philistines,+ and I will cut off the Cherethites+ and destroy the rest of the seacoast.+ 17 And I will execute in them great acts of vengeance, with raging reproofs;+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah when I bring my vengeance on them.”’”+

26 And it came about in the eleventh year, on the first [day] of the month, that the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, for the reason that Tyre+ has said against Jerusalem,+ ‘Aha! She has been broken,+ the doors* of the peoples!+ The trend will certainly be to me. I shall be filled—she has been devastated,’+ 3 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up against you many nations,+ just as the sea brings up its waves.+ 4 And they will certainly bring the walls of Tyre to ruin+ and tear down her towers,+ and I will scrape her dust away from her and make her a shining, bare surface of a crag. 5 A drying yard for dragnets+ is what she will become in the midst of the sea.’+

“‘For I myself have spoken,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘and she must become an object of plunder for the nations. 6 And her dependent towns* that are in the field—by the sword they will be killed, and people* will have to know that I am Jehovah.’+

7 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am bringing against Tyre Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon* from the north,+ a king of kings,+ with horses+ and war chariots+ and cavalrymen and a congregation,+ even a multitudinous people. 8 Your* dependent towns in the field he will kill even with the sword, and he must make against you a siege wall and throw up against you a siege rampart+ and raise up against you a large shield; 9 and the strike of his attack engine he will direct against your walls, and your towers he will pull down, with his swords. 10 Owing to the heaving mass of his horses their dust will cover you.+ Owing to the sound of cavalryman and wheel and war chariot your walls will rock, when he comes in through your gates, as in the cases of entering into a city opened by breaches. 11 With the hoofs of his horses he will trample down all your streets.+ Your people he will kill even with the sword, and to the earth your own pillars of strength will go down.* 12 And they will certainly spoil your resources+ and plunder your sales goods,+ and tear down your walls, and your desirable houses they will pull down. And your stones and your woodwork and your dust they will place in the very midst of the water.’

13 “‘And I will cause the turmoil of your singing to cease,+ and the very sound of your harps will be heard no more.+ 14 And I will make you a shining, bare surface of a crag.+ A drying yard for dragnets is what you will become.+ Never will you be rebuilt; for I myself, Jehovah, have spoken,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.+

15 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to Tyre, ‘At the sound of your downfall, when the fatally wounded one groans, when there is a killing with slaughter in the midst of you, will not the islands* rock?+ 16 And down from their thrones+ all the chieftains of the sea will certainly come+ and remove their sleeveless coats, and they will strip off their own embroidered garments. They will put on trembling spells. Upon the earth they will sit down,+ and they will certainly tremble every moment+ and stare in amazement at you. 17 And they must raise up over you a dirge+ and say to you:

“‘“How you have perished, that used to be inhabited from the seas,*+ O praised city, who became a strong one in the sea,+ she and those inhabiting her, those who gave their terror to all the inhabitants [of the earth]!* 18 Now the islands will tremble in the day of your downfall. And the islands that are in the sea must be disturbed owing to your going out.”’+

19 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘When I make you a devastated city, like the cities that are actually not inhabited, when [I] bring up over you the watery deep,* and the vast waters will have covered you,+ 20 I will also bring you down with those going down into the pit to the people of long ago,+ and I will cause you to dwell in the lowest land,+ like places devastated for a long time, with those going down into the pit,+ in order that you may not be inhabited; and I will put decoration in the land of those alive.+

21 “‘Sudden terrors are what I shall make you,+ and you will not be; and you will be sought for,+ but you will no more be found to time indefinite,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

27 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “And as for you, O son of man, raise up concerning Tyre a dirge,+ 3 and you must say to Tyre,

“‘O you who are dwelling at the entrances of [the] sea,+ the tradeswoman of the peoples for many islands,+ this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “O Tyre, you yourself have said, ‘I am perfect in prettiness.’*+ 4 In the heart of [the] seas are your territories.+ Your own builders have perfected your prettiness.+ 5 Out of juniper timbers from Senir*+ they built for you all the planks. A cedar from Lebanon+ they took to make a mast upon you. 6 Out of massive trees from Bashan they made your oars. Your prow* they made with ivory in cypress wood,* from the islands of Kittim.+ 7 Linen in various colors from Egypt+ your cloth expanse happened to be, in order for [it] to serve as your sail. Blue thread+ and wool dyed reddish purple+ from the islands of Elishah+ are what your deck covering proved to be.

8 “‘“The inhabitants of Sidon+ and of Arvad+ themselves became rowers for you. Your skilled* ones,+ O Tyre, happened to be in you; they were your sailors.+ 9 Even old men of Gebal+ and her skilled ones happened to be in you as caulkers for your seams.*+ All the ships of the sea and their mariners themselves proved to be in you, in order to exchange articles of merchandise. 10 Persians+ and Ludim+ and men of Put+—they happened to be in your military force, your men of war. Shield and helmet they hung up in you.+ They were the ones that caused your splendor. 11 The sons of Arvad,+ even your military force, were upon your walls all around, and valorous men* were the ones that happened to be in your own towers. Their circular shields they hung up on your walls all around.+ They themselves perfected your prettiness.

12 “‘“Tarshish+ was your merchant because of the abundance of all sorts of valuable things.+ For [its] silver, iron, tin and lead, your stores were given.*+ 13 Javan,+ Tubal+ and Meshech+ themselves were your traders. For the souls of mankind*+ and articles of copper your articles of exchange were given.* 14 From the house of Togarmah+ there were horses and steeds and mules, [for which] your stores were given. 15 The sons of Dedan*+ were your traders; many islands were merchants in your employ;* horns of ivory+ and ebony they have paid back as gift* to you. 16 Edom* was your merchant because of the abundance of your works. For turquoise,+ wool dyed reddish purple and material of various colors and fine fabric and corals and rubies, your stores were given in exchange.

17 “‘“Judah and the land of Israel themselves were your traders. For the wheat+ of Minnith+ and special foodstuff* and honey+ and oil and balsam,+ your articles of exchange were given.+

18 “‘“Damascus+ was your merchant in the abundance of your works, because of the abundance of all your valuable things, with the wine+ of Helbon and the wool of reddish gray. 19 Vedan and Javan from Uzal—for your stores they gave. Iron in wrought works, cassia and cane+—for your articles of exchange they proved to be. 20 Dedan+ was your trader in garments of woven material for riding. 21 The Arabs+ and all the chieftains of Kedar+ themselves were merchants in your employ.* In male lambs and rams and he-goats+—in them they were your merchants. 22 The traders of Sheba+ and Raamah+ themselves were your traders; for the finest of all sorts of perfumes and for all sorts of precious stones and gold, your stores were given.+ 23 Haran+ and Canneh and Eden,+ the traders of Sheba,+ Asshur+ [and] Chilmad were your traders. 24 They were your traders in gorgeous garments, in wraps of blue material and material of various colors and in carpets of two-colored stuff, in ropes twined and solidly made, in your trading center.

25 “‘“The ships of Tarshish+ were your caravans for your articles of exchange, so that you get filled and become very glorious in the heart of the open sea.+

26 “‘“Into vast waters those rowing you have brought you.+ The east wind itself has broken you in the heart of the open sea.+ 27 Your valuable things and your stores,+ your articles of exchange,+ your mariners and your sailors,+ the caulkers of your seams*+ and those exchanging your articles of merchandise and all your men of war,+ who are in you and in all your congregation, who are in the midst of you,—they will fall in the heart of the open sea in the day of your downfall.+

28 “‘“At the sound of the outcry of your sailors the open country will rock.+ 29 And all those handling an oar, mariners, all the sailors of the sea, will certainly go down from their ships; upon the land they will stand.+ 30 And over you they will certainly let themselves be heard with their voice and will cry out bitterly.+ And they will bring up dust upon their heads.+ In the ashes they will wallow.+ 31 And they will have to make [themselves] bald with a baldness for you,+ and gird on sackcloth+ and weep over you in bitterness of soul,+ with bitter wailing. 32 And for you in their lamentation they will certainly lift up a dirge and chant over you,+

“‘“‘Who is like Tyre,+ like her that has been brought to silence in the midst of the sea?+ 33 When your stores+ went forth from the open sea,+ you satisfied many peoples.+ With the abundance of your valuable things and your articles of exchange you made earth’s kings rich.+ 34 Now you have been broken* by the open sea, in the depths of the waters.+ As for your articles of exchange and all your congregation,+ in the midst of you they have fallen. 35 All the inhabitants of the islands+—in amazement they will certainly stare at you, and their kings themselves will have to shudder in horror.+ Faces must become perturbed.+ 36 As for merchants among the peoples, they will certainly whistle over you.+ Sudden terrors are what you must become, and you will be no more to time indefinite.’”’”+

28 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said:

“‘“For the reason that your heart has become haughty,+ and you keep saying, ‘I am a god.*+ In the seat of god* I have seated myself,+ in the heart of the open sea,’+ whereas an earthling man* is what you are,+ and not a god,+ and you keep making your heart like the heart of god— ISA14:14 3 look! you are wiser than Daniel.+ There are no secrets that have proved a match for you.+ 4 By your wisdom and by your discernment you have made wealth for your own self, and you keep getting gold and silver in your storehouses.+ 5 By the abundance of your wisdom,+ by your sales goods,+ you have made your wealth abound,+ and your heart began to be haughty because of your wealth.”’+

6 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “For the reason that you make your heart like the heart of god,+ 7 therefore here I am bringing upon you strangers,+ the tyrants of [the] nations,+ and they will certainly draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and profane your beaming splendor.+ 8 Down to the pit they will bring you,+ and you must die the death of someone slain in the heart of the open sea.+ 9 Will you without fail say, ‘I am god,’ before the one killing you,+ whereas you are a mere earthling man, and not a god,+ in the hand of those profaning you?”’

10 “‘The deaths of uncircumcised ones you will die by the hand of strangers,+ for I myself have spoken,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

11 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 12 “Son of man, lift up a dirge concerning the king of Tyre,+ and you must say to him, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said:

“‘“You are sealing up a pattern, full of wisdom+ and perfect in beauty.+ I13 In Eden, the garden* of God,* you proved to be.+ GEN3:1-5 Every precious stone was your covering, ruby, topaz and jasper; chrysolite,* onyx+ and jade; sapphire, turquoise+ and emerald; and of gold was the workmanship of your settings and your sockets in you. In the day of your being created they were made ready. 14 You are the* anointed cherub* that is covering, and I have set* you.* On the holy mountain of God* you proved to be.+ In the midst of fiery stones* you walked about. 15 You were faultless in your ways from the day of your being created+ until unrighteousness was found in you.+ 1JO3:8

16 “‘“Because of the abundance of your sales goods+ they filled the midst of you* with violence, and you began to sin.+ And I shall put you as profane out of the mountain of God,* and I shall destroy you,+ O cherub that is covering,* from the midst of the fiery stones.*

17 “‘“Your heart became haughty because of your beauty.+ You brought your wisdom to ruin on account of your beaming splendor.+  ISA14:14 Onto the earth I will throw you.+ REV12:9 Before kings I will set you, [for them] to look upon you.+

18 “‘“Owing to the abundance of your errors,+ because of the injustice of your sales goods,+ you have profaned* your sanctuaries. And I shall bring forth a fire from the midst of you. It is what must devour you.+ And I shall make you ashes upon the earth before the eyes of all those seeing you.+ 19 As for all those knowing you among the peoples, they will certainly stare in amazement at you.+ Sudden terrors are what you must become, and you will be no more to time indefinite.”’”+

20 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 21 “Son of man, set your face toward Sidon,+ and prophesy against her. 22 And you must say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am against you,+ O Sidon, and I shall certainly be glorified in the midst of you;+ and people will have to know that I am Jehovah when I execute acts of judgment+ in her and I am actually sanctified in her.+ 23 And I will send pestilence into her and blood into her streets.+ And the slain one must fall in the midst of her by the sword against her on every side;+ and people will have to know that I am Jehovah.+ 24 And no more will there prove to be to the house of Israel a malignant prickle+ or a painful thorn out of all those round about them, those who are treating them with scorn; and people will have to know that I am the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”’

25 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “When I collect together the house of Israel out from the peoples among whom they have been scattered,+ I will also be sanctified among them in the eyes of the nations.+ And they will certainly dwell upon their soil+ that I gave to my servant, to Jacob.+ 26 And they will actually dwell upon it in security+ and build houses+ and plant vineyards,+ and they must dwell in security+ when I execute acts of judgment upon all those treating them with scorn all round about them;+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah their God.”’”*

29 In the tenth year, in the tenth [month], on the twelfth [day] of the month, the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh the king of Egypt+ and prophesy against him and against Egypt in its entirety.+ 3 Speak, and you must say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am against you, O Pharaoh, king of Egypt,+ the great sea monster+ lying stretched out in the midst of his Nile canals,+ that has said, ‘My Nile River belongs to me, and I—I have made [it] for myself.’+ 4 And I will put hooks* in your jaws+ and cause the fish of your Nile canals to cling to your scales. And I will bring you up out of the midst of your Nile canals and all the fish of your Nile canals that cling to your very scales. 5 And I will abandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your Nile canals.+ Upon the surface of the field you will fall.+ You will not be gathered up nor be collected together. To the wild beasts of the earth and to the flying creatures of the heavens I will give you for food.+ 6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt will have to know that I am Jehovah,+ for the reason that they* proved to be, as a support, a reed to the house of Israel.+ 7 When they took hold of you by the hand,* you got to be crushed,+ and you caused a split in their entire shoulder.* And when they supported themselves upon you, you got to be broken,+ and you caused all their hips to wobble.”*+

8 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am bringing upon you a sword,+ and I will cut off from you earthling man and domestic animal.+ 9 And the land of Egypt must become a desolate waste and a devastated place;+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah, for the reason that he has said, ‘To me the Nile River belongs, and I myself have made [it].’+ 10 Therefore here I am against you and against your Nile canals,+ and I will make the land of Egypt devastated places, dryness, a desolated waste,+ from Migdol+ to Syene*+ and to the boundary of Ethiopia.* 11 There will not pass through it the foot of earthling man,+ nor will the foot of domestic animal pass through it,+ and for forty years it will not be inhabited.+ 12 And I will make the land of Egypt a desolate waste in the midst of desolated lands;+ and its own cities will become a desolate waste in the very midst of devastated cities for forty years;+ and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands.”+

13 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “At the end of forty years+ I shall collect the Egyptians together out of the peoples among whom they will have been scattered,+ 14 and I will bring back the captive group of the Egyptians; and I will bring them back to the land of Pathros,+ to the land of their origin, and there they must become a lowly kingdom. 15 Lower than the [other] kingdoms it will become, and it will no more lift itself up over the [other] nations,+ and I will make them so few as not to have the [other] nations in subjection.+ 16 And it will no more prove to be the house of Israel’s confidence,+ bringing error to remembrance by their turning after them.+ And they will have to know that I am the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”’”

17 Now it came about in the twenty-seventh year, in the first [month], on the first [day] of the month, that the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 18 “Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar himself,+ the king of Babylon,* made his military force perform a great service against Tyre.+ Every head was one made bald, and every shoulder was one rubbed bare.+ But as for wages,+ there proved to be none for him Luke10:7 and his military force from Tyre for the service that he had performed against her.

19 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am giving to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon the land of Egypt,+ and he must carry off its wealth and make a big spoil of it+ and do a great deal of plundering of it; and it must become wages for his military force.’

20 “‘As his compensation for service that he did against her I have given him the land of Egypt, because they acted for me,’+ Jer.25:9 is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

21 “In that day I shall cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel,+ and to you I shall give occasion to open the mouth in the midst of them;+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.”

30 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, prophesy, and you must say,+ ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Howl, YOU people, ‘Alas for the day!’+ 3 for a day is near, yes, a day belonging to Jehovah is near.+ A day of clouds,+ an appointed time of nations it will prove to be.+ 4 And a sword will certainly come into Egypt,+ and severe pains must occur in Ethiopia* when one falls slain in Egypt and they actually take its wealth and its foundations are actually torn down.+ 5 Ethiopia+ and Put+ and Lud and all the mixed company*+ and Chub and the sons of the land of the covenant—with them they will fall by the very sword.”’+

6 “This is what Jehovah has said, ‘The supporters of Egypt must also fall, and the pride of its strength must come down.’+

“‘From Migdol+ to Syene*+ they will fall in it even by the sword,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 7 ‘They must also be made desolate in the midst of desolated lands, and its own cities will come to be right in the midst of devastated cities.+ 8 And they will have to know that I am Jehovah when I set a fire in Egypt and all its helpers are actually broken.+ 9 In that day messengers will go forth from before me in the ships,* in order to drive self-confident Ethiopia into trembling.+ And severe pains must occur among them in the day of Egypt, for, look! it must come.’+

10 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘I will also cause the crowd of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon.+ 11 He and his people with him, the tyrants of [the] nations,+ are being brought in to reduce the land to ruin. And they must draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.+ 12 And I will make the Nile canals+ dry ground and will sell the land into the hand of bad men,+ and I will cause the land and its fullness to be desolated by the hand of strangers.+ I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.’+

13 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘I will also destroy the dungy idols+ and cause the valueless gods to cease out of Noph,*+ and there will no more prove to be a chieftain out of the land of Egypt; and I shall certainly put fear in the land of Egypt.+ 14 And I will bring Pathros+ to desolation and set a fire in Zoan+ and execute acts of judgment in No.*+ 15 And I will pour out my rage+ upon Sin,* the fortress of Egypt, and cut off the crowd of No.+ 16 And I will set a fire in Egypt. Sin will without fail be in severe pains, and No itself will come to be for capture by breaches; and as regards Noph—there will be adversaries during the daytime! 17 As for the young men of On*+ and Pibeseth, by the sword they will fall, and into captivity the [cities] themselves will go. 18 And in Tehaphnehes+ the day will actually grow dark, when I break there the yoke bars of Egypt.+ And in her the pride of her strength will actually be made to cease.+ As for her, clouds themselves will cover her,+ and into captivity her own dependent towns* will go.+ 19 And I will execute acts of judgment in Egypt;+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”

20 And it occurred further that in the eleventh year, in the first [month], on the seventh [day] of the month, the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 21 “Son of man, the arm of Pharaoh the king of Egypt I shall certainly break,+ and, look! it will not be bound up at all in order to give [it] healing by putting a bandage on for binding it up,+ for it to become strong to take hold of the sword.”

22 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am against Pharaoh the king of Egypt,+ and I will break his arms,+ the strong one and the broken one,+ and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.+ 23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands.+ 24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon+ and give my sword into his hand,+ and I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and as a deadly wounded one he will certainly do a great deal of groaning before him.+ 25 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the very arms of Pharaoh will fall; and they will have to know that I am Jehovah when I give my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he actually extends it out against the land of Egypt.+ 26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations+ and disperse them among the lands; and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”

31 And it occurred further that in the eleventh year, in the third [month], on the first [day] of the month, the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to his crowd,+

“‘Whom have you come to resemble in your greatness? 3 Look! An Assyrian,* a cedar in Lebanon,+ pretty in bough,+ with a woody thicket offering shadow, and high in stature,+ so that among the clouds* its treetop proved to be.+ 4 Waters were what made it get big;+ the watery deep* caused it to grow high. With its* streams it was going all around its planting place; and its channels it sent forth to all the trees of the field. 5 That is why it grew higher in its stature than all the [other] trees of the field.+

“‘And its boughs kept multiplying, and its branches continued getting longer because of much water in its watercourses.*+ 6 On its boughs all the flying creatures of the heavens made their nests,+ and under its branches all the wild beasts of the field gave birth,+ and in its shade all the populous nations would dwell. 7 And it came to be pretty in its greatness,+ in the length of its foliage, for its root system proved to be over many waters. 8 [Other] cedars were no match for it in the garden of God.*+ As for juniper trees, they bore no resemblance as respects its boughs. And plane trees themselves did not prove to be like it in branches. No [other] tree in the garden of God resembled it in its prettiness.+ 9 Pretty is the way that I made it in the abundance of its foliage,+ and all the [other] trees of Eden* that were in the garden of the [true] God* kept envying it.’+

10 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that you* became high in stature, so that it put its treetop even among the clouds*+ and its heart became exalted because of its height,+ 11 I shall also give it into the hand of the despot of [the] nations.+ Without fail he will act against it. According to its wickedness I will drive it out.+ 12 And strangers, the tyrants of [the] nations, will cut it down, and people will abandon it upon the mountains; and in all the valleys its foliage will certainly fall, and its branches will be broken among all the streambeds of the earth.+ And out from its shade all the peoples of the earth will come down and abandon it.+ 13 Upon its fallen trunk all the flying creatures of the heavens will reside, and upon its branches there will certainly come to be all the wild beasts of the field;+ 14 to the end that none of the watered trees may become high in their stature, or put their treetops even among the clouds, and that none drinking water may stand up against them in their height, for they will certainly all of them be given to death,+ to the land down below,+ in the midst of the sons of mankind,* to those going down into the pit.’

15 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘On the day of its going down to Sheol I shall certainly cause a mourning.+ On its account I will cover the watery deep, that I may hold back its streams and [that] the many waters may be restrained; and on its account I shall darken Lebanon, and on its account the trees of the field will all swoon away. 16 At the sound of its downfall I shall certainly cause nations to rock when I bring it down to Sheol with those going down into the pit,+ and in the land down below all the trees of Eden,*+ the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all those drinking water, will be comforted.+ 17 With him they themselves also have gone down to Sheol,*+ to those slain by the sword, and those who as his seed* have dwelt in his shadow in the midst of nations.’+

18 “‘Whom have you come to resemble thus in glory+ and greatness among the trees of Eden?+ But you will certainly be brought down with the trees of Eden* to the land down below.+ In the midst of the uncircumcised ones you will lie down with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his crowd,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

32 And it occurred further that in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first [day] of the month, the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, lift up a dirge concerning Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and you must say to him, ‘As a maned young lion of nations you have been silenced.+

“‘And you have been like the marine monster in the seas,+ and you kept gushing in your rivers* and kept muddying the waters with your feet and fouling their rivers.’

3 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘I will also spread over you my net+ by means of a congregation of many peoples, and they* will certainly bring you in my dragnet.+ 4 And I must abandon you on the land. Upon the surface of the field I shall hurl you.+ And on you I will cause all the flying creatures of the heavens to reside, and off you I will satisfy the wild beasts of the whole earth.+ 5 And I will put your flesh upon the mountains and fill the valleys with the refuse* of you.+ 6 And I will cause [the] land to drink up your discharged matter, from your blood,+ upon the mountains; and streambeds themselves will be filled up from you.’

7 “‘And when you get extinguished I will cover [the] heavens and darken their stars. As for [the] sun, with clouds I shall cover it, and [the] moon itself will not let its light shine.+ 8 All the luminaries of light in the heavens—I shall darken them on your account, and I will put darkness upon your land,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. Mtt.24:29

9 “‘And I will offend the heart of many peoples when I bring the captives* from you among the nations to lands that you have not known.+ 10 And at you I shall certainly cause many peoples to be awestruck,+ and their kings themselves will shudder in horror at you when I brandish my sword in their faces,+ and they will have to tremble every moment, each one for his own soul, on the day of your downfall.’+

11 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘The very sword of the king of Babylon will come upon you.+ 12 I shall cause your crowd to fall by the very swords of mighty ones, the tyrants of [the] nations, all of them;+ and they will actually despoil the pride of Egypt, and all her crowd must be annihilated.+ 13 And I will destroy all her domestic animals from beside many waters,+ and the foot of earthling man will no more muddy+ them, nor will even the hoofs of a domestic animal muddy them.’

14 “‘At that time I shall make their waters clear up, and their rivers I shall make go just like oil,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

15 “‘When I make the land of Egypt a desolate waste and the land is desolated of its fullness,+ when I strike down all the inhabitants in it, they will also have to know that I am Jehovah.+

16 “‘This is a dirge, and people will certainly chant it. Even the daughters of the nations will chant it; over Egypt and over all its crowd they will chant it,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

17 And it occurred further that in the twelfth year,* on the fifteenth [day] of the month, the word of Jehovah occurred to me, saying: 18 “Son of man, lament over the crowd of Egypt and bring it down,+ her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the land down below,+ with those going down into [the] pit.+

19 “‘Compared with whom are you more pleasant?+ Do go down, and you must be laid with the uncircumcised ones!’+

20 “‘In the midst of those slain by the sword they will fall.+ [To] a sword she has been given. Drag her away and all her crowds, YOU men.

21 “‘The foremost men of the mighty ones will speak out of the midst of Sheol even to him, with his helpers.+ They will certainly go down;+ they must lie down as the uncircumcised, slain by the sword. 22 There is where Assyria and all her congregation are.+ His burial places are round about him. All of them are slain, those falling by the sword.+ 23 For her burial places have been put in the innermost parts of a pit,+ and her congregation proves to be round about her grave, all of them slain, falling by the sword, because they had caused terror in the land of those alive.

24 “‘There are Elam+ and all her crowd round about her grave, all of them slain ones, those falling by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised to the land down below, those who have caused their terror in the land of those alive; and they will bear their humiliation with those going down into [the] pit.+ 25 In the midst of slain ones they have set a bed+ for her among all her crowd. Her burial places are round about it. All of them are uncircumcised, slain by the sword,+ because their terror was caused in the land of those alive; and they will bear their humiliation with those going down into [the] pit. In the midst of slain ones he* has been put.

26 “‘There is where Meshech+ [and] Tubal+ and all her crowd are. Her burial places are round about him. All of them are uncircumcised, pierced through by the sword, because they have caused their terror in the land of those alive. 27 And will they not* lie down with mighty ones,+ falling from among the uncircumcised, who have gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war? And they will put their swords under their heads, and their errors will come to be upon their bones,+ because mighty ones were a terror in the land of those alive.+ 28 And as for you,* in the midst of uncircumcised ones you will be broken, and you will lie down with those slain by the sword.

29 “‘There is where Edom,+ her kings and all her chieftains are, who, in their mightiness, were put with those slain by the sword;+ they themselves will lie down even with the uncircumcised+ ones and with those going down into [the] pit.

30 “‘There is where the dukes of the north are, all of them, and all the Sidonians,+ who have gone down with the slain ones, in their terribleness because of their mightiness, ashamed. And they will lie down uncircumcised with those slain by the sword and will bear their humiliation with those going down into [the] pit.+

31 “‘These are the ones that Pharaoh will see, and he will certainly be comforted over all his crowd.+ Pharaoh and all his military force will be people slain by the sword,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

32 “‘For he has* caused his terror* in the land of those alive,+ and he must be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised ones, with those slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his crowd,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

33 And the word of Jehovah proceeded to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people,+ and you must say to them,

“‘As regards a land, in case I bring upon it a sword+ and the people of the land,* one and all, actually take a man* and set him as their watchman,*+ 3 and he really sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the horn* and warns the people,+ 4 and the hearer actually hears the sound of the horn but he takes no warning at all,+ and a sword comes and takes him away, his own blood will come to be upon his own head.+ 5 The sound of the horn he heard, but he took no warning. His own blood will come to be upon his own self. And had he himself taken warning, his own soul* would have escaped.+

6 “‘Now as regards the watchman, in case he sees the sword coming and he actually does not blow the horn+ and the people itself gets no warning at all and a sword comes and takes away from them soul, for its own error it itself must be taken away,+ but its blood I shall ask back from the hand of the watchman* himself.’+

7 “Now as regards you, O son of man, a watchman is what I have made you to the house of Israel,+ and at my mouth you must hear [the] word and give them warning from me.+ 8 When I say to someone wicked, ‘O wicked one, you will positively die!’+ but you actually do not speak out to warn the wicked one from his way,+ he himself as a wicked one will die in his own error,+ but his blood I shall ask back at your own hand. 9 But as regards you, in case you actually warn someone wicked from his way [for him] to turn back from it but he actually does not turn back from his way, he himself will die in his own error,+ whereas you yourself will certainly deliver your own soul.*+

10 “Now as regards you, O son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus YOU people have said: “Because our revolts and our sins are upon us and in them we are rotting away,+ how, then, shall we keep living?”’+ 11 Say to them, ‘“As I am alive,” is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, “I take delight, not in the death of the wicked one,+ but in that someone wicked turns back+ from his way and actually keeps living.+ Turn back, turn back from YOUR bad ways,+ for why is it that YOU should die, O house of Israel?”’+

12 “And as for you, O son of man, say to the sons of your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous one will not itself deliver him in the day of his revolt.+ But as regards the wickedness of the wicked one, he will not be made to stumble by it in the day of his turning back from his wickedness.+ Nor will even anyone having righteousness be able to keep living because of it in the day of his sinning.+ 13 When I say to the righteous one: “You will positively keep living,” and he himself actually trusts in his own righteousness and does injustice,+ all his own righteous acts will not be remembered, but for his injustice that he has done—for this he will die.+

14 “‘And when I say to the wicked one: “You will positively die,”+ and he actually turns back from his sin+ and carries on justice and righteousness,+ 15 [and] the wicked one returns the very thing pledged,+ pays back the very things taken by robbery,+ [and] actually walks in the very statutes of life by not doing injustice,+ he will positively keep living.+ He will not die. 16 None of his sins with which he has sinned will be remembered against him.+ Justice and righteousness are what he has carried on. He will positively keep living.’+

17 “And the sons of your people have said, ‘The way of Jehovah* is not adjusted right,’+ but, as for them, it is their way that is not adjusted right.

18 “When someone righteous turns back from his righteousness and actually does injustice, he must also die for them.+ 19 And when someone wicked turns back from his wickedness and actually carries on justice and righteousness, it will be on account of them that he himself will keep living.+

20 “And YOU people have said, ‘The way of Jehovah* is not adjusted right.’+ It will be each one according to his ways that I shall judge YOU,+ O house of Israel.”

21 At length it occurred in the twelfth year, in the tenth [month], on the fifth day of the month of our exile, that there came to me the escaped one from Jerusalem,+ saying: “The city has been struck down!”+ 40:1; ■

22 Now the very hand of Jehovah had come to be upon me in the evening before the coming of the escaped one,+ and He proceeded to open my mouth prior to [that one’s] coming to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened and I proved to be speechless no longer.+

23 And the word of Jehovah began to occur to me, saying: 24 “Son of man, the inhabitants of these devastated places+ are saying even concerning the soil of Israel, ‘Abraham happened to be just one and yet he took possession of the land.+ And we are many; to us the land has been given as something to possess.’+

25 “Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “With* the blood YOU keep eating,+ and YOUR eyes YOU keep lifting to YOUR dungy idols,+ and blood YOU keep pouring out.+ So should YOU possess the land?+ 26 YOU have depended* upon YOUR sword.+ YOU* have done a detestable thing,+ and YOU have defiled each one the wife of his companion.+ So should YOU possess the land?”’+

27 “This is what you should say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “As I am alive, surely the ones who are in the devastated places will fall by the sword itself;+ and the one who is upon the surface of the field, to the wild beast I shall certainly give him for food;+ and those who are in the strong places and in the caves+ will die by the pestilence itself. 28 And I shall actually make the land a desolate waste,+ even a desolation, and the pride of its strength must be made to cease+ and the mountains of Israel must be laid desolate,+ with no one passing through. 29 And they will have to know that I am Jehovah when I make the land a desolate waste,+ even a desolation, on account of all their detestable things that they have done.”’+

30 “And as for you, O son of man, the sons of your people are speaking with one another about you beside the walls and in the entrances of the houses,+ and the one has spoken with the other, each one with his brother, saying, ‘COME, please, and hear what the word is that is going forth from Jehovah.’+ 31 And they will come in to you, like the coming in of people, and sit before you as my people;+ and they will certainly hear your words but these they will not do,+ for with their mouth they are expressing lustful desires [and] after their unjust gain is where their heart is going.+ 32 And, look! you are to them like a song of sensuous loves, like one with a pretty voice and playing a stringed instrument well.+ And they will certainly hear your words, but there are none doing them.+ 33 And when it comes true—look! it must come true+—they will also have to know that a prophet himself had proved to be in the midst of them.”+

34 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and you must say to them, to the shepherds, ‘‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel,+ who have become feeders* of themselves!+ Jer, 23:1-2 Is it not the flock that the shepherds ought to feed?+ 3 The fat is what YOU eat,+ and with the wool YOU clothe your own selves. The plump+ animal is what YOU slaughter.+ The flock* itself YOU do not feed. 4 The sickened ones YOU have not strengthened,+ and the ailing one YOU have not healed, and the broken one YOU have not bandaged, and the dispersed one YOU have not brought back, and the lost* one YOU have not sought to find,+ but with harshness YOU have had them in subjection, even with tyranny.+ 5 And they were gradually scattered because of there being no shepherd,+ so that they became food for every wild beast of the field, and they continued to be scattered.+ 6 My sheep* kept straying on all the mountains and on every high hill;+ and on all the surface of the earth my sheep+ were scattered, with no one making a search and with no one seeking to find.

7 “‘“Therefore, YOU shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah, 8 ‘“As I am alive,” is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, “surely for the reason that my sheep became something for plunder and my sheep continued to be food for every wild beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, and my shepherds did not search for my sheep, but the shepherds kept feeding themselves,+ and my own sheep they did not feed,”’ 9 therefore, YOU shepherds, hear the word of Jehovah. 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am against the shepherds,+ and I shall certainly ask back my sheep from their hand and make them cease from feeding* [my] sheep,+ and the shepherds will no longer feed themselves;+ and I will deliver my sheep out of their mouth, and they will not become food for them.’”+

11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am, I myself, and I will search for my sheep and care for them.+ Jer.23:3-4 12 According to the care of one feeding his drove+ in the day of his coming to be in the midst of his sheep that have been spread abroad,+ that is the way that I shall care for my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all the places to which they have been scattered in the day of clouds and thick gloom.+ 13 And I will bring them out+ from the peoples and collect them together from the lands and bring them in onto their soil+ and feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streambeds and by all the dwelling places of the land.+ 14 In a good pasturage I shall feed them, and on Israel’s high mountains their abiding place will come to be.+ There they will lie down in a good abiding place,+ and on a fat pasturage they will feed upon the mountains of Israel.”

15 “‘“I myself shall feed my sheep,*+ and I myself shall make them lie down,”+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 16 “The lost* one I shall search for,+ and the dispersed one I shall bring back, and the broken one I shall bandage and the ailing one I shall strengthen, but the fat one+ and the strong one I shall annihilate. I shall feed that one* with judgment.”*+

17 “‘And as for YOU my sheep, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am judging between a sheep and a sheep,* between the rams and the he-goats.+ 18 Is it such a little thing for YOU men that on the very best pasturage* YOU feed+ but the rest of YOUR pasturages YOU should trample down with YOUR feet, and that the clear* waters YOU drink but the ones left over YOU should foul by stamping with YOUR very feet? 19 And as for my sheep, on the pasture ground trampled by YOUR feet should they feed and the water befouled by the stamping of YOUR feet should they drink?”

20 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to them: “Here I am, I myself, and I shall certainly judge between a plump sheep* and a lean sheep, 21 for the reason that with flank and with shoulder YOU kept pushing and with YOUR horns YOU kept shoving all the sickened ones until YOU had scattered them to the outside.+ 22 And I will save my sheep,* and they will no longer become something for plunder;+ and I will judge between a sheep and a sheep.* 23 And I will raise up over them one shepherd,+ and he must feed* them, even my servant David.+ He himself will feed them, and he himself will become their shepherd.+ 24 And I myself, Jehovah, will become their God,*+ and my servant David a chieftain* in the midst of them.+ I myself, Jehovah, have spoken.

25 “‘“And I will conclude* with them a covenant of peace,+ and I shall certainly cause the injurious wild beast to cease out of the land,+ and they will actually dwell in the wilderness in security and sleep in the forests.+ 26 And I will make them and the surroundings of my hill a blessing,+ and I will cause the pouring rain to descend in its time. Pouring rains of blessing there will prove to be.+ 27 And the tree of the field must give its fruitage,+ and the land itself will give its yield,+ and they will actually prove to be on their soil in security.+ And they will have to know that I am Jehovah when I break the bars of their yoke+ and I have delivered them out of the hand of those who had been using them as slaves.+ 28 And they will no longer become something to plunder for the nations;+ and as regards the wild beast of the earth, it will not devour them, and they will actually dwell in security, with no one to make [them] tremble.+

29 “‘“And I will raise up for them a planting for a name,*+ and they will no more become those taken away by famine in the land,+ and they will no longer bear the humiliation by the nations.+ 30 ‘And they will have to know that I, Jehovah their God, am with them+ and that they are my people, the house of Israel,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”’+

31 “‘And as regards YOU* my sheep,*+ the sheep of my pasturing, YOU* are earthling men.* I am YOUR God,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

35 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, set your face+ against the mountainous region of Seir+ and prophesy against it.+ 3 And you must say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Here I am against you, O mountainous region of Seir,+ and I will stretch out my hand against you+ and make you a desolate waste, even a desolation.+ 4 Your cities I shall set as a devastated place, and you yourself will become a sheer desolate waste;+ and you will have to know that I am Jehovah,+ 5 for the reason that you proved to have an indefinitely lasting enmity+ and you kept delivering the sons of Israel over to the power* of the sword,+ in the time of their disaster,+ in the time of [their] final error.”’*+

6 “‘Therefore as I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘because it was for blood that I was preparing you, blood itself will also pursue you.+ Surely it was blood that you hated, and blood itself will* pursue you.+ 7 And I shall certainly make the mountainous region of Seir a desolate waste, even a desolation,+ and I will cut off from it the one passing through and the one returning.+ 8 And I will fill its mountains with its slain ones; as for your hills and your valleys and all your streambeds, the very ones slain by [the] sword will fall in them.+ 9 Indefinitely lasting desolate wastes are what I shall make you, and your own cities will not be inhabited;+ and YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah.’+

10 “By reason of your saying, ‘These two nations and these two lands—they will become my own, and we shall certainly take possession of each [land],’+ whereas Jehovah himself happened to be right there,+ 11 ‘therefore as I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘I will act also according to your anger and according to your jealousy that you have expressed owing to your feelings of hatred toward them;+ and I will make myself known among them* when I judge you.+ 12 And you will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have heard all your disrespectful things that you have said concerning the mountains of Israel,+ saying: “They have* been laid desolate. To us they have been given for food.”+ 13 And YOU people kept acting in great style against me with YOUR mouths,*+ and YOU have multiplied against me YOUR words.+ I myself have heard [them].’+

14 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘At the same time that all the earth rejoices, a desolate waste is what I shall make of you. 15 Just as there was rejoicing on your part at the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was laid desolate, the same thing I shall make of you.+ A desolate waste is what you will become, O mountainous region of Seir, even all Edom, all of it;+ and they will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”+

36 “And as for you, O son of man, prophesy concerning the mountains of Israel, and you must say, ‘O mountains of Israel,+ hear the word of Jehovah. 2 This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “For the reason that the enemy has said against YOU,+ ‘Aha! Even the high places of old time+—as a possession it has become ours!’”’+

3 “Therefore prophesy, and you must say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “For the reason, even for the reason that there has been a lying desolate+ and a snapping at YOU from all sides,+ in order for YOU to become a possession to the remaining ones of the nations+ and YOU continue being talked about with the tongue+ and there is a bad report among people,+ 4 therefore, O mountains of Israel,+ hear the word of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah! This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to the mountains and to the hills, to the streambeds and to the valleys and to the devastated places that were laid desolate+ and to the abandoned cities that have come to be for plunder and for ridicule to the remaining ones of the nations that are round about;+ 5 therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Certainly in the fire of my zeal I will speak+ against the remaining ones of the nations and against Edom, all of it,+ those who have given my land to themselves as a possession with the rejoicing of all the heart,+ with scorn in [the] soul,+ for the sake of its pasture ground [and] for the plunder.’”’+

6 “Therefore prophesy concerning the soil of Israel, and you must say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streambeds and to the valleys, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Look! I myself in my zeal and in my rage must speak, for the reason that humiliation by nations is what YOU have borne.”’+

7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘I myself have raised my hand [in an oath]+ that the nations that YOU have round about—they themselves will bear their own humiliation.+ 8 And YOU yourselves, O mountains of Israel, will give forth YOUR very own boughs and bear YOUR own fruitage for my people Israel,+ for they have drawn near to the point of coming in.+ 9 For here I am in favor of YOU, and I shall certainly turn toward YOU,+ and YOU will actually be cultivated and sown with seed.+ 10 And I will multiply upon YOU humankind,* the whole house of Israel, all of it,+ and the cities must become inhabited,+ and the devastated places themselves will be rebuilt.+ 11 Yes, I will multiply upon YOU humankind and animalkind,+ and they will certainly multiply and become fruitful, and I shall actually cause YOU to be inhabited as in YOUR former condition+ and I will do more good than in YOUR initial state;+ and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah.+ 12 And upon YOU I will cause humankind to walk, even my people Israel, and they must take possession of YOU,*+ and YOU must become a hereditary possession to them,+ and YOU will not bereave+ them again of any more children.’”

13 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘For the reason that there are those saying to YOU: “A devourer of humankind is what you yourself are, and [a land]* bereaving your nations of children is what you have become,”’+ 14 ‘therefore humankind you will no more devour,+ and your nations you will no more bereave of children,’*+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 15 ‘And I shall cause no further humiliating talk by the nations to be heard concerning you,+ and reproach by peoples you will bear no more,+ and your nations you will no more cause to stumble,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”

16 And the word of Jehovah continued to occur to me, saying: 17 “Son of man, the house of Israel [were] dwelling upon their soil, and they kept making it unclean with their way and with their dealings.+ Like the uncleanness of menstruation their way has become before me.+ 18 And I proceeded to pour out my rage upon them on account of the blood that they had poured out upon the land,+ which [land] they had made unclean with their dungy idols.+ 19 And I proceeded to scatter them among the nations, so that they were dispersed among the lands.+ According to their way and according to their dealings I judged them.+ 20 So they* came in to the nations where they came in, and people* proceeded to profane my holy name+ in saying with reference to them, ‘These are the people of Jehovah, and from his land they have gone out.’+ 21 And I shall have compassion on my holy name, which the house of Israel have profaned among the nations where they have come in.”+

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Not for YOUR sakes am I doing [it], O house of Israel, but for my holy name, which YOU have profaned among the nations where YOU have come in.”’+ 23 ‘And I shall certainly sanctify* my great name,+ which was being profaned among the nations, which YOU profaned in the midst of them; and the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah,’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘when I am sanctified among YOU before their eyes.+ 24 And I will take YOU out of the nations and collect YOU together out of all the lands and bring YOU in upon YOUR soil.+ 25 And I will sprinkle upon YOU clean water, and YOU will become clean;+ from all YOUR impurities+ and from all YOUR dungy idols I shall cleanse YOU.+ 26 And I will give YOU a new heart,+ and a new spirit I shall put inside YOU,+ and I will take away the heart of stone from YOUR flesh and give YOU a heart of flesh.+ 27 And my spirit I shall put inside YOU,+ and I will act so that in my regulations YOU will walk,+ and my judicial decisions YOU will keep and actually carry out.+ 28 And YOU will certainly dwell in the land that I gave to YOUR forefathers,+ and YOU must become my people and I myself shall become YOUR God.’*+

29 “‘And I will save YOU from all YOUR impurities+ and call to the grain and make it abound, and I shall put upon YOU no famine.+ 30 And I shall certainly make the fruitage of the tree abound, and the produce of the field, in order that YOU may no more receive among the nations the reproach of famine.+ 31 And YOU will be bound to remember YOUR bad ways and YOUR dealings that were not good,+ and YOU will be bound to feel a loathing at YOUR own person on account of YOUR errors and on account of YOUR detestable things.+ 32 Not for YOUR sakes am I doing [this],’+ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘let it be known to YOU. Be ashamed and feel humiliation because of YOUR ways, O house of Israel.’+

33 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘In the day of my cleansing YOU from all YOUR errors I will also cause the cities to be inhabited,+ and the devastated places must be rebuilt.+ 34 And the desolated land itself will be cultivated, whereas it had become a desolate waste before the eyes of every passerby.+ 35 And people will certainly say: “That land yonder which was laid desolate has become like the garden* of Eden,+ and the cities that were a waste and that were laid desolate and that were torn down are fortified; they have become inhabited.”+ 36 And the nations that will be left remaining round about YOU will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have built the things torn down,+ I have planted what has been laid desolate. I myself, Jehovah, have spoken and I have done [it].’+

37 “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘This is what I shall yet let myself be searched for by the house of Israel to do for them:+ I shall multiply them like a flock with men.*+ 38 Like a flock of holy persons, like the flock of Jerusalem in her festal seasons,+ thus the cities that had been a waste will become full of a flock of men;+ and people will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”

37 The hand of Jehovah proved to be upon me,+ so that he brought me forth in the spirit* of Jehovah+ and set me down in the midst of the valley plain, and it was full of bones.+ 2 And he had me pass along by them all round about, and, look! there were very many on the surface of the valley plain and, look! they were very dry.+ 3 And he began to say to me: “Son of man, can these bones come to life?” To that I said: “Sovereign Lord Jehovah, you yourself well know.”+ 4 And he went on to say to me: “Prophesy over these bones, and you must say to them, ‘O YOU dry bones, hear the word of Jehovah:

5 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said to these bones: “Here I am bringing into YOU breath,* and YOU must come to life.+ 6 And I will put upon YOU sinews and cause to come upon YOU flesh, and I will overlay upon YOU skin and put in YOU breath, and YOU must come to life;+ and YOU will have to know that I am Jehovah.”’”+