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Now it happened in the
thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth of the month, as I was
among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and
I saw visions of God. In the fifth of the month, which
was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, the word of Yahweh came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of
Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of
Yahweh was there on him. I
looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud,
with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of its midst
as it were glowing metal, out of the midst of the fire. Out of its midst came the likeness
of four living creatures. This was their appearance: they had the likeness
of a man. Everyone had
four faces, and each one of them had four wings. Their feet were straight feet; and
the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they
sparkled like burnished brass. They had the hands of a man under
their wings on their four sides; and the four of them had their faces and
their wings thus: their
wings were joined one to another; they didn’t turn when they went; each
one went straight forward. As for the likeness of their
faces, they had the face of a man; and the four of them had the face of a
lion on the right side; and the four of them had the face of an ox on the
left side; the four of them also had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. Their
wings were spread out above. Two wings of each one touched another, and
two covered their bodies. Each one went straight forward:
where the spirit was to go, they went; they didn’t turn when they went.
As for the likeness of
the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire,
like the appearance of torches: the fire went up and down among the living
creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth
lightning. The living
creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
Now as I saw the living
creatures, behold, one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for
each of the four faces of it. The appearance of the wheels and
their work was like a beryl: and the four of them had one likeness; and
their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.
When they went, they went
in their four directions: they didn’t turn when they went. As for their rims, they were high
and dreadful; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around.
When the living creatures
went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were
lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Wherever the spirit was to go,
they went; there was the spirit to go: and the wheels were lifted up
beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
When those went, these
went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up
from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them: for the spirit of
the living creature was in the wheels. Over the head of the living
creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like the awesome crystal to
look on, stretched forth over their heads above. Under the expanse were their
wings straight, the one toward the other: each one had two which covered
on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side, their
bodies. When they went, I
heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the
voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of an army: when
they stood, they let down their wings. There was a voice above the
expanse that was over their heads: when they stood, they let down their
wings. Above the expanse
that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance
of a sapphire stone; and on the likeness of the throne
was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above. I saw as it were glowing metal,
as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his
waist and upward; and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw
as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.
As the appearance of the
rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of
the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the
glory of Yahweh. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of
one that spoke.
He said to me, Son of
man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you. The Spirit entered into me when he
spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me.
He said to me, Son of man,
I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have
rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me
even to this very day. The
children are impudent and stiff-hearted: I am sending you to them; and you
shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh. They, whether they will hear, or
whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall
know that there has been a prophet among them. You, son of man, don’t be afraid
of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are
with you, and you do dwell among scorpions: don’t be afraid of their
words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
You shall speak my words
to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they
are most rebellious. But
you, son of man, hear what I tell you; don’t be rebellious like that
rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you. When I looked, behold, a hand was
put forth to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein; He spread it before me: and it
was written within and without; and there were written therein
lamentations, and mourning, and woe.
He said to me, Son of
man, eat that which you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house
of Israel. So I opened my
mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll. He said to me, Son of man, cause
your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you.
Then I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. He said to me, Son of man, go to
the house of Israel, and speak my words to them. For you are not sent to a people
of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;
not to many peoples of a
strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand.
Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not
listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel
are obstinate and hard-hearted. Behold, I have made your face hard
against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads.
As an adamant harder than
flint have I made your forehead: don’t be afraid of them, neither be
dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. Moreover he said to me, Son of
man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and
hear with your ears. Go
to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to
them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh; whether they will hear, or
whether they will forbear. Then the Spirit lifted me up, and
I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the
glory of Yahweh from his place. I heard the noise of the wings of
the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the
wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing. So the Spirit lifted me up, and
took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the
hand of Yahweh was strong on me. Then I came to them of the
captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they
lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days. It happened at the end of seven
days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, I have made you a
watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word from my mouth,
and give them warning from me. When I tell the wicked, You shall
surely die; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from
his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his
iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand. Yet if you warn the wicked, and
he doesn’t turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall
die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. Again, when a righteous man does
turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling
block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he
shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not
be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the
righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall
surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.
The hand of Yahweh was
there on me; and he said to me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will
there talk with you. Then
I arose, and went forth into the plain: and behold, the glory of Yahweh
stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on
my face. Then the Spirit
entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me, and said to
me, Go, shut yourself inside your house. But you, son of man, behold, they
shall lay bands on you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go
out among them: and I
will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be
mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious
house. But when I speak
with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, Thus says the
Lord Yahweh: He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him
forbear: for they are a rebellious house.
You also, son of man,
take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even
Jerusalem: and lay siege
against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it;
set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.
Take for yourself an iron
pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your
face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against
it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. Moreover lie on your left side,
and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; according to the number
of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.
For I have appointed the
years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred
ninety days: so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
Again, when you have
accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the
iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I
appointed it to you. You
shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm
uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it. Behold, I lay bands on you, and
you shall not turn you from one side to the other, until you have
accomplished the days of your siege. Take for yourself also wheat, and
barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one
vessel, and make bread of it; according to the number of the days that you
shall lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of
it. Your food which you
shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time you
shall eat it. You shall
drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time you
shall drink. You shall
eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung
that comes out of man. Yahweh said, Even thus shall the
children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will
drive them. Then I said,
Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth
up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is
torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
Then he said to me,
Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall
prepare your bread thereon. Moreover he said to me, Son of
man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall
eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by
measure, and in dismay: that they may want bread and
water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
You, son of man, take
a sharp sword; You shall take it as a barber’s razor to you, and shall
cause it to pass on your head and on your beard: then take balances to
weigh, and divide the hair. A third part you shall burn in the
fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled;
and you shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it; and
a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword
after them. You shall take
of it a few in number, and bind them in your skirts. Of these again you shall take, and
cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it
shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This is
Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are
around her. She has
rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations,
and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for
they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not
walked in them. Therefore
thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you are turbulent more than the nations
that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept
my ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that
are around you; therefore
thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will
execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations. I will do in you that which I have
not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all
your abominations. Therefore the fathers shall eat
the sons in the midst of you, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I
will execute judgments on you; and the whole remnant of you will I scatter
to all the winds. Therefore, as I live, says the
Lord Yahweh, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your
detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I also
diminish you; neither shall my eye spare, and I also will have no pity.
A third part of you shall
die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the
midst of you; and a third part shall fall by the sword around you; and a
third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword
after them. Thus shall my
anger be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and
I shall be comforted; and they shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in
my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them. Moreover I will make you a
desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the
sight of all that pass by. So it shall be a reproach and a
taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around
you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in
wrathful rebukes; (I, Yahweh, have spoken it;) when I shall send on them the
evil arrows of famine, that are for destruction, which I will send to
destroy you: and I will increase the famine on you, and will break your
staff of bread; and I
will send on you famine and evil animals, and they shall bereave you; and
pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring the sword on
you: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
The word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son of
man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them,
and say, You mountains of
Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the
mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys:
Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high
places. Your altars shall
become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken; and I will cast
down your slain men before your idols. I will lay the dead bodies of the
children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones
around your altars. In all
your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places
shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate,
and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut
down, and your works may be abolished. The slain shall fall in the midst
of you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh. Yet will I leave a remnant, in
that you shall have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you
shall be scattered through the countries. Those of you that escape shall
remember me among the nations where they shall be carried captive, how
that I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me,
and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols: and they
shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have
committed in all their abominations. They shall know that I am Yahweh:
I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Strike
with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, Alas! because of all
the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they shall fall by the
sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. He who is far off shall die of
the pestilence; and he who is near shall fall by the sword; and he who
remains and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my
wrath on them. You shall
know that I am Yahweh, when their slain men shall be among their idols
around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains,
and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where
they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols. I will stretch out my hand on
them, and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward
Diblah, throughout all their habitations: and they shall know that I am
Yahweh.
Moreover the word of
Yahweh came to me, saying, You, son of man, thus says the
Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, An end: the end has come on the four
corners of the land. Now
is the end on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you
according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.
My eye shall not spare
you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your
abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am
Yahweh. Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: An evil, an only evil; behold, it comes. An end has come, the end has come;
it awakes against you; behold, it comes. Your doom has come to you,
inhabitant of the land: the time has come, the day is near, a day of
tumult, and not of joyful shouting, on the mountains. Now will I shortly pour out my
wrath on you, and accomplish my anger against you, and will judge you
according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.
My eye shall not spare,
neither will I have pity: I will bring on you according to your ways; and
your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I,
Yahweh, do strike. Behold, the day, behold, it
comes: your doom is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.
Violence has risen up
into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor of their
multitude, nor of their wealth. There shall be nothing of value among
them. The time has come,
the day draws near: don’t let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn;
for wrath is on all its multitude. For the seller shall not return
to that which is sold, although they be yet alive: for the vision is
touching the whole multitude of it, none shall return; neither shall any
strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life. They have blown the trumpet, and
have made all ready; but none goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all
its multitude. The sword
is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within: he who is in the
field shall die with the sword: and he who is in the city, famine and
pestilence shall devour him. But those of those who escape
shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all
of them moaning, every one in his iniquity. All hands shall be feeble, and
all knees shall be weak as water. They shall also clothe themselves
with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be on all
faces, and baldness on all their heads. They shall cast their silver in
the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and
their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of
Yahweh: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels;
because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity. As for the beauty of his
ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their
abominations and their detestable things therein: therefore have I made it
to them as an unclean thing. I will give it into the hands of
the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and
they shall profane it. My
face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane my secret place;
and robbers shall enter into it, and profane it. Make the chain; for the land is
full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. Therefore I will bring the worst
of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the
pride of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be profaned.
Destruction comes; and
they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. Mischief shall come on mischief,
and rumor shall be on rumor; and they shall seek a vision of the prophet;
but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.
The king shall mourn, and
the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people
of the land shall be troubled: I will do to them after their way, and
according to their own judgments will I judge them; and they shall know
that I am Yahweh.
It happened in the
sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in
my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord
Yahweh fell there on me. Then I saw, and behold, a likeness
as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his waist and downward,
fire; and from his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as
it were glowing metal. He
put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the
Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the
visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court
that looks toward the north; where there was the seat of the image of
jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. Behold, the glory of the God of
Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.
Then he said to me, Son of
man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up my
eyes the way toward the north, and see, northward of the gate of the altar
this image of jealousy in the entry. He said to me, Son of man, do you
see what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel do
commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you shall
again see yet other great abominations. He brought me to the door of the
court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. Then he said to me, Son of man,
dig now in the wall: and when I had dug in the wall, behold, a door.
He said to me, Go in, and
see the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw; and see,
every form of creeping things, and abominable animals, and all the idols
of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall. There stood before them seventy
men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in their midst stood
Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand; and
the odor of the cloud of incense went up. Then he said to me, Son of man,
have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every
man in his rooms of imagery? for they say, Yahweh doesn’t see us; Yahweh
has forsaken the land. He
said also to me, You shall again see yet other great abominations which
they do. Then he brought
me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s house which was toward the north;
and see, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz. Then he said to me, Have you seen
this, son of man? You shall again see yet greater abominations than these.
He brought me into the
inner court of Yahweh’s house; and see, at the door of the temple of
Yahweh, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with
their backs toward the temple of Yahweh, and their faces toward the east;
and they were worshipping the sun toward the east. Then he said to me, Have you seen
this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they
commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the
land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and
behold, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in
wrath; my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they
cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
Then he cried in my
ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause those who are in charge of the city
to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. Behold, six men came from the way
of the upper gate, which lies toward the north, every man with his
slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in their midst clothed in linen,
with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. They went in, and stood beside the
bronze altar. The glory of
the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the
threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had
the writer’s inkhorn by his side. Yahweh said to him, Go through the
midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the
foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that
are done in its midst. To
the others he said in my hearing, Go through the city after him, and
strike: don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity; kill utterly the old man, the
young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but don’t come
near any man on whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they
began at the old men that were before the house. He said to them, Defile the house,
and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth! They went forth, and struck
in the city. It happened,
while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell on my face, and
cried, and said, Ah Lord Yahweh! will you destroy all the residue of
Israel in your pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem? Then he said to me, The iniquity
of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is
full of blood, and the city full of perversion: for they say, Yahweh has
forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see. As for me also, my eye shall not
spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.
Behold, the man clothed
in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I
have done as you have commanded me.
Then I looked, and
see, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared
above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the
appearance of the likeness of a throne. He spoke to the man clothed in
linen, and said, Go in between the whirling wheels, even under the cherub,
and fill both your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and
scatter them over the city. He went in as I watched. Now the cherubim stood on the
right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the
inner court. The glory of
Yahweh mounted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the
house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of
the brightness of Yahweh’s glory. The sound of the wings of the
cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty
when he speaks. It came
to pass, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire
from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim, that he went
in, and stood beside a wheel. The cherub stretched forth his
hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim,
and took of it, and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen,
who took it and went out. There appeared in the cherubim
the form of a man’s hand under their wings. I looked, and behold, four wheels
beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside
another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like a beryl stone.
As for their appearance,
the four of them had one likeness, like a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in
their four directions: they didn’t turn as they went, but to the place
where the head looked they followed it; they didn’t turn as they went.
Their whole body, and
their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full
of eyes all around, even the wheels that the four of them had. As for the wheels, they were
called in my hearing, the whirling wheels. Every one had four faces: the
first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of
a man, and the third face the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of
an eagle. The cherubim
mounted up: this is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar.
When the cherubim went,
the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings
to mount up from the earth, the wheels also didn’t turn from beside
them. When they stood,
these stood; and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them: for the
spirit of the living creature was in them. The glory of Yahweh went forth
from over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. The cherubim lifted up their
wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went forth, and
the wheels beside them: and they stood at the door of the east gate of
Yahweh’s house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
This is the living
creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I
knew that they were cherubim. Every one had four faces, and
every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under
their wings. As for the
likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I saw by the river
Chebar, their appearances and themselves; they went every one straight
forward.
Moreover the Spirit
lifted me up, and brought me to the east gate of Yahweh’s house, which
looks eastward: and see, at the door of the gate twenty-five men; and I
saw in their midst Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of
Benaiah, princes of the people. He said to me, Son of man, these
are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city;
who say, The time is not
near to build houses: this is the caldron, and we are the meat. Therefore prophesy against them,
prophesy, son of man. The
Spirit of Yahweh fell on me, and he said to me, Speak, Thus says Yahweh:
Thus you have said, house of Israel; for I know the things that come into
your mind. You have
multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with
the slain. Therefore thus
says the Lord Yahweh: Your slain whom you have laid in its midst, they are
the meat, and this is the caldron; but you shall be brought out of its
midst. You have feared
the sword; and I will bring the sword on you, says the Lord Yahweh.
I will bring you forth
out of its midst, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will
execute judgments among you. You shall fall by the sword; I
will judge you in the border of Israel; and you shall know that I am
Yahweh. This shall not
be your caldron, neither shall you be the meat in its midst; I will judge
you in the border of Israel; and you shall know that I am
Yahweh: for you have not walked in my statutes, neither have you executed
my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are
around you. It happened,
when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down
on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord Yahweh! will
you make a full end of the remnant of Israel? The word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, Son of man, your
brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house
of Israel, all of them, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Go
far away from Yahweh. This land has been given to us for a possession.
Therefore say, Thus says
the Lord Yahweh: Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations,
and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to
them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come.
Therefore say, Thus says
the Lord Yahweh: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out
of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the
land of Israel. They
shall come there, and they shall take away all the detestable things of it
and all its abominations from there. I will give them one heart, and
I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of
their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they may walk in my
statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my
people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart
walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I
will bring their way on their own heads, says the Lord Yahweh. Then the cherubim lifted up
their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and the glory of the God of
Israel was over them above. The glory of Yahweh went up from
the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side
of the city. The Spirit
lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into
Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up
from me. Then I spoke to
them of the captivity all the things that Yahweh had shown me.
The word of Yahweh
also came to me, saying, Son of man, you dwell in the
midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and don’t see, who
have ears to hear, and don’t hear; for they are a rebellious house.
Therefore, you son of
man, prepare your stuff for moving, and move by day in their sight; and
you shall move from your place to another place in their sight: it may be
they will consider, though they are a rebellious house. You shall bring forth your stuff
by day in their sight, as stuff for moving; and you shall go forth
yourself at even in their sight, as when men go forth into exile. Dig through the wall in their
sight, and carry your stuff out that way. In their sight you shall bear it
on your shoulder, and carry it forth in the dark; you shall cover your
face, so that you don’t see the land: for I have set you for a sign to
the house of Israel. I
did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for
removing, and in the even I dug through the wall with my hand; I brought
it forth in the dark, and bore it on my shoulder in their sight. In the morning came the word of
Yahweh to me, saying, Son
of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you,
What are you doing? Say
to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This burden concerns the prince in
Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel among whom they are. Say, I am your sign: like as I
have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall go into exile, into
captivity. The prince
who is among them shall bear on his shoulder in the dark, and shall go
forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall
cover his face, because he shall not see the land with his eyes. My net also will I spread on
him, and he shall be taken in my snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to
the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die
there. I will scatter
toward every wind all who are around him to help him, and all his bands;
and I will draw out the sword after them. They shall know that I am
Yahweh, when I shall disperse them among the nations, and scatter them
through the countries. But I will leave a few men of
them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they
may declare all their abominations among the nations where they come; and
they shall know that I am Yahweh. Moreover the word of Yahweh came
to me, saying, Son of
man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and
with fearfulness; and
tell the people of the land, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel: They shall eat their
bread with fearfulness, and drink their water in dismay, that her land may
be desolate, and all that is therein, because of the violence of all those
who dwell therein. The
cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be a
desolation; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. The word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, Son of man, what
is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are
prolonged, and every vision fails? Tell them therefore, Thus says
the Lord Yahweh: I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more
use it as a proverb in Israel; but tell them, The days are at hand, and
the fulfillment of every vision. For there shall be no more any
false vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel. For I am Yahweh; I will speak,
and the word that I shall speak shall be performed; it shall be no more
deferred: for in your days, rebellious house, will I speak the word, and
will perform it, says the Lord Yahweh. Again the word of Yahweh came to
me, saying, Son of man,
behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he sees is for
many day to come, and he prophesies of times that are far off. Therefore tell them, Thus says
the Lord Yahweh: None of my words shall be deferred any more, but the word
which I shall speak shall be performed, says the Lord Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to
those who prophesy out of their own heart, Hear the word of Yahweh:
Thus says the Lord
Yahweh, Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, and have
seen nothing! Israel,
your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places. You have not gone up into the
gaps, neither built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the
battle in the day of Yahweh. They have seen falsehood and
lying divination, who say, Yahweh says; but Yahweh has not sent them: and
they have made men to hope that the word would be confirmed. Haven’t you seen a false
vision, and haven’t you spoken a lying divination, in that you say,
Yahweh says; but I have not spoken? Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Because you have spoken falsehood, and seen lies, therefore,
behold, I am against you, says the Lord Yahweh. My hand shall be against the
prophets who see false visions, and who divine lies: they shall not be in
the council of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of
the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and
you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh. Because, even because they have
seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace; and when one
builds up a wall, behold, they plaster it with whitewash: tell those who plaster it with
whitewash, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and
you, great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it.
Behold, when the wall
has fallen, shall it not be said to you, Where is the plaster with which
you have plastered it? Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: I will even tear it with a stormy wind in my wrath; and there
shall be an overflowing shower in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath
to consume it. So will I
break down the wall that you have plastered with whitewash, and bring it
down to the ground, so that its foundation shall be uncovered; and it
shall fall, and you shall be consumed in its midst: and you shall know
that I am Yahweh. Thus
will I accomplish my wrath on the wall, and on those who have plastered it
with whitewash; and I will tell you, The wall is no more, neither those
who plastered it; to
wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see
visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, says the Lord Yahweh.
You, son of man, set
your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their
own heart; and prophesy against them, and say, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Woe to the women who sew pillows on all elbows, and make kerchiefs
for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls! Will you hunt the
souls of my people, and save souls alive for yourselves? You have profaned me among my
people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the souls
who should not die, and to save the souls alive who should not live, by
your lying to my people who listen to lies. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Behold, I am against your pillows, with which you there hunt the
souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms; and I will
let the souls go, even the souls whom you hunt to make them fly. Your kerchiefs also will I tear,
and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your
hand to be hunted; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. Because with lies you have
grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and
strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his
wicked way, and be saved alive: Therefore you shall no more see
false visions, nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of
your hand; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Then came certain of
the elders of Israel to me, and sat before me. The word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, Son of man, these
men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block
of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by
them? Therefore speak to
them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Every man of the house of
Israel who takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of
his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I Yahweh will
answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols; that I may take the house of
Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through
their idols. Therefore
tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Return, and turn
yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your
abominations. For
everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel,
who separates himself from me, and takes his idols into his heart, and
puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the
prophet to inquire for himself of me; I Yahweh will answer him by myself:
and I will set my face
against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a
proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and you shall
know that I am Yahweh. If
the prophet is deceived and speak a word, I, Yahweh, have deceived that
prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will destroy him from
the midst of my people Israel. They shall bear their iniquity:
the iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him who seeks
him; that the house of
Israel may go no more astray from me, neither defile themselves any more
with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may
be their God, says the Lord Yahweh. The word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, Son of man, when
a land sins against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand
on it, and break the staff of its bread, and send famine on it, and cut
off from it man and animal; though these three men, Noah,
Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by
their righteousness, says the Lord Yahweh. If I cause evil animals to pass
through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no
man may pass through because of the animals; though these three men were in
it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither sons nor
daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate.
Or if I bring a sword on
that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it
man and animal; though
these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should
deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only should be delivered
themselves. Or if I send
a pestilence into that land, and pour out my wrath on it in blood, to cut
off from it man and animal; though Noah, Daniel, and Job,
were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither
son nor daughter; they should but deliver their own souls by their
righteousness. For thus
says the Lord Yahweh: How much more when I send my four severe judgments
on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil animals, and the
pestilence, to cut off from it man and animal! Yet, behold, therein shall be
left a remnant that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters:
behold, they shall come forth to you, and you shall see their way and
their doings; and you shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have
brought on Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought on it.
They shall comfort you,
when you see their way and their doings; and you shall know that I have
not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the Lord Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, the vine-branch which is
among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken of it to make
any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire
for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and its midst is burned: is
it profitable for any work? Behold, when it was whole, it was
meet for no work: how much less, when the fire has devoured it, and it is
burned, shall it yet be meet for any work! Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given
to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will set my face against them;
they shall go forth from the fire, but the fire shall devour them; and you
shall know that I am Yahweh, when I set my face against them. I will make the land desolate,
because they have committed a trespass, says the Lord Yahweh.
Again the word of
Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to
know her abominations; and say, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh to Jerusalem: Your birth and your birth is of the land of the
Canaanite; the Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite.
As for your birth, in the
day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water
to cleanse you; you weren’t salted at all, nor swaddled at all. No eye pitied you, to do any of
these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in
the open field, for that your person was abhorred, in the day that you
were born. When I passed
by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, Though you are
in your blood, live; yes, I said to you, Though you are in your blood,
live. I caused you to
multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew
great, and you attained to excellent ornament; your breasts were
fashioned, and your hair was grown; yet you were naked and bare. Now when I passed by you, and
looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my
skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yes, I swore to you, and
entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Yahweh, and you became
mine. Then washed I you
with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I
anointed you with oil. I
clothed you also with embroidered work, and shod you with sealskin, and I
dressed you about with fine linen, and covered you with silk. I decked you with ornaments, and
I put bracelets on your hands, and a chain on your neck. I put a ring on your nose, and
earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were decked with gold
and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered
work; you ate fine flour, and honey, and oil; and you were exceeding
beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate. Your renown went forth among the
nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I
had put on you, says the Lord Yahweh. But you trusted in your beauty,
and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your
prostitution on everyone who passed by; his it was. You took of your garments, and
made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the
prostitute on them: the like things shall not come, neither shall
it be so. You
also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had
given you, and made for yourself images of men, and played the prostitute
with them; and you took
your embroidered garments, and covered them, and set my oil and my incense
before them. My bread
also which I gave you, fine flour, and oil, and honey, with which I fed
you, you even set it before them for a pleasant aroma; and thus it
was, says the Lord Yahweh. Moreover you have taken your
sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and you have
sacrificed these to them to be devoured. Was your prostitution a small
matter, that you have
slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through
the fire to them? In all your abominations and
your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you
were naked and bare, and were wallowing in your blood. It has happened after all your
wickedness, (woe, woe to you! says the Lord Yahweh), that you have built for
yourselves a vaulted place, and have made yourselves a lofty place in
every street. You have
built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty
an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and
multiplied your prostitution. You have also committed sexual
immorality with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh; and have
multiplied your prostitution, to provoke me to anger. See therefore, I have stretched
out my hand over you, and have diminished your ordinary food, and
delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the
Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way. You have played the prostitute
also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yes, you have played
the prostitute with them, and yet you weren’t satisfied. You have moreover multiplied
your prostitution to the land of merchants, to Chaldea; and yet you
weren’t satisfied with this. How weak is your heart, says the
Lord Yahweh, since you do all these things, the work of an impudent
prostitute; in that you
build your vaulted place at the head of every way, and make your lofty
place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you
scorn pay. A wife who
commits adultery! who takes strangers instead of her husband! They give gifts to all
prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them,
that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution. You are different from
other women in your prostitution, in that no one follows you to
play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given to
you, therefore you are different. Therefore, prostitute, hear the
word of Yahweh: Thus
says the Lord Yahweh, Because your filthiness was poured out, and your
nakedness uncovered through your prostitution with your lovers; and
because of all the idols of your abominations, and for the blood of your
children, that you gave to them; therefore see, I will gather all
your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have
loved, with all those who you have hated; I will even gather them against
you on every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may
see all your nakedness. I will judge you, as women who
break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood
of wrath and jealousy. I
will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your vaulted
place, and break down your lofty places; and they shall strip you of your
clothes, and take your beautiful jewels; and they shall leave you naked
and bare. They shall
also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones,
and thrust you through with their swords. They shall burn your houses with
fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will
cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you shall also give no
hire any more. So will I
cause my wrath toward you to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from you,
and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry. Because you have not remembered
the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things;
therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head, says the Lord
Yahweh: and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.
Behold, everyone who
uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, As is the
mother, so is her daughter. You are the daughter of your
mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister
of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children: your
mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. Your elder sister is Samaria,
who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger
sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. Yet have you not walked in their
ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as if that were a
very little thing, you were more corrupt than they in all your
ways. As I live, says
the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as
you have done, you and your daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of
your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in
her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor
and needy. They were
haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away
as I saw good. Neither has Samaria committed
half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than
they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you
have done. You also,
bear you your own shame, in that you have given judgment for your sisters;
through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they
are more righteous that you: yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame,
in that you have justified your sisters. I will turn again their
captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of
Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives in their
midst; that you may bear
your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in
that you are a comfort to them. Your sisters, Sodom and her
daughters, shall return to their former estate; and Samaria and her
daughters shall return to their former estate; and you and your daughters
shall return to your former estate. For your sister Sodom was not
mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride, before your wickedness was
uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and
of all who are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who do
despite to you all around. You have borne your lewdness and
your abominations, says Yahweh. For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I
will also deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in
breaking the covenant. Nevertheless I will remember my
covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish to you
an everlasting covenant. Then you shall remember your
ways, and be ashamed, when you shall receive your sisters, your elder
sisters and your younger; and I will give them to you for
daughters, but not by your covenant. I will establish my covenant
with you; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; that you may remember, and be
confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame,
when I have forgiven you all that you have done, says the Lord Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel;
and say, Thus says the
Lord Yahweh: A great eagle with great wings and long feathers, full of
feathers, which had various colors, came to Lebanon, and took the top of
the cedar: he cropped off
the topmost of the young twigs of it, and carried it to a land of traffic;
he set it in a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the
land, and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside many waters;
he set it as a willow tree. It grew, and became a spreading
vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and its roots were
under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth
sprigs. There was also
another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and behold, this
vine bent its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him,
from the beds of its plantation, that he might water it. It was planted in a good soil by
many waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear
fruit, that it might be a goodly vine. Say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit,
that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? and
not by a strong arm or many people can it be raised from its roots.
Yes, behold, being
planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind
touches it? it shall wither in the beds where it grew. Moreover the word of Yahweh came
to me, saying, Say now
to the rebellious house, Don’t you know what these things mean? tell
them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king,
and its princes, and brought them to him to Babylon: and he took of the seed royal,
and made a covenant with him; he also brought him under an oath, and took
away the mighty of the land; that the kingdom might be base,
that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it
might stand. But he
rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they
might give him horses and many people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape
who does such things? shall he break the covenant, and yet escape? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh,
surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he
despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of
Babylon he shall die. Neither shall Pharaoh with his
mighty army and great company help him in the war, when they cast up
mounds and build forts, to cut off many persons. For he has despised the oath by
breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done
all these things; he shall not escape. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: As I live, surely my oath that he has despised, and my covenant
that he has broken, I will even bring it on his own head. I will spread my net on him, and
he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will
enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed
against me. All his
fugitives in all his bands shall fall by the sword, and those who remain
shall be scattered toward every wind: and you shall know that I, Yahweh,
have spoken it. Thus
says the Lord Yahweh: I will also take of the lofty top of the cedar, and
will set it; I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender
one, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain: in the mountain of the height of
Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit,
and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all birds of every wing;
in the shade of its branches shall they dwell. All the trees of the field shall
know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low
tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to
flourish; I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it.
The word of Yahweh
came to me again, saying, What do you mean, that you use
this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten
sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh,
you shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
Behold, all souls are
mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the
soul who sins, he shall die. But if a man is just, and does
that which is lawful and right, and has not eaten on the
mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of
Israel, neither has defiled his neighbor’s wife, neither has come near
to a woman in her impurity, and has not wronged any, but has
restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given
his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment; he who has not given forth on
interest, neither has taken any increase, who has withdrawn his hand from
iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man, has walked in my statutes, and
has kept my ordinances, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live,
says the Lord Yahweh. If
he fathers a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, and who does any one
of these things, and who
does not any of those duties, but even has eaten on the mountains,
and defiled his neighbor’s wife, has wronged the poor and needy,
has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his
eyes to the idols, has committed abomination, has given forth on interest, and
has taken increase; shall he then live? he shall not live: he has done all
these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be on him.
Now, behold, if he
fathers a son, who sees all his father’s sins, which he has done, and
fears, and does not such like; who has not eaten on the
mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of
Israel, has not defiled his neighbor’s wife, neither has wronged any, has not
taken anything to pledge, neither has taken by robbery, but has given his
bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment; who has withdrawn his hand from
the poor, who has not received interest nor increase, has executed my
ordinances, has walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity
of his father, he shall surely live. As for his father, because he
cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother, and did that which is not good
among his people, behold, he shall die in his iniquity. Yet you say, Why doesn’t the
son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son has done that which is
lawful and right, and has kept all my statutes, and has done them, he
shall surely live. The
soul who sins, he shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the
father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the
righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the
wicked shall be on him. But if the wicked turn from all
his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that
which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his transgressions that
he has committed shall be remembered against him: in his righteousness
that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death
of the wicked? says the Lord Yahweh; and not rather that he should return
from his way, and live? But when the righteous turns
away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to
all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his
righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered: in his trespass that
he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he
die. Yet you say, The
way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not
equal? Aren’t your ways unequal? When the righteous man turns
away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies therein; in
his iniquity that he has done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turns
away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is
lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considers, and turns
away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely
live, he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says,
“The way of the Lord is not fair.” House of Israel, aren’t my ways
fair? Aren’t your ways unfair? Therefore I will judge you,
house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the Lord Yahweh.
Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity
shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your
transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new
heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the
death of him who dies, says the Lord Yahweh: therefore turn yourselves,
and live.
Moreover, take up a
lamentation for the princes of Israel, and say, What was your mother? A
lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she
nourished her cubs. She
brought up one of her cubs: he became a young lion, and he learned to
catch the prey; he devoured men. The nations also heard of him; he
was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of
Egypt. Now when she saw
that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her
cubs, and made him a young lion. He went up and down among the
lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he
devoured men. He knew
their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and
its fullness, because of the noise of his roaring. Then the nations set against him
on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him; he
was taken in their pit. They put him in a cage with
hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into
strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of
Israel. Your mother was
like a vine, in your blood, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and
full of branches by reason of many waters. It had strong rods for the
scepters of those who bore rule, and their stature was exalted among the
thick boughs, and they were seen in their height with the multitude of
their branches. But it
was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground, and the east wind
dried up its fruit: its strong rods were broken off and withered; the fire
consumed them. Now it is
planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. Fire is gone out of the rods of
its branches, it has devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong
rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a
lamentation.
It happened in the
seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the
month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of Yahweh, and
sat before me. The word
of Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, speak to the elders
of Israel, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Is it to inquire of
me that you have come? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be
inquired of by you. Will
you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Cause them to know the
abominations of their fathers; and tell them, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: In the day when I chose Israel, and swore to the seed of the house
of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore
to them, saying, I am Yahweh your God; in that day I swore to them, to
bring them forth out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched
out for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all
lands. I said to them,
Cast away every man the abominations of his eyes, and don’t defile
yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God. But they rebelled against me, and
would not listen to me; they each didn’t throw away the abominations of
their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I
would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in
the midst of the land of Egypt. But I worked for my name’s
sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among
which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing
them forth out of the land of Egypt. So I caused them to go forth out
of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes, and
showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them.
Moreover also I gave
them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know
that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled
against me in the wilderness: they didn’t walk in my statutes, and they
rejected my ordinances, which if a man keep, he shall live in them; and my
Sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on
them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I worked for my name’s
sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose
sight I brought them out. Moreover also I swore to them in
the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had
given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;
because they rejected my
ordinances, and didn’t walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths:
for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless my eye spared them,
and I didn’t destroy them, neither did I make a full end of them in the
wilderness. I said to
their children in the wilderness, Don’t walk in the statutes of your
fathers, neither observe their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with
their idols. I am Yahweh
your God: walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them;
and make my Sabbaths
holy; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that
I am Yahweh your God. But the children rebelled
against me; they didn’t walk in my statutes, neither kept my ordinances
to do them, which if a man do, he shall live in them; they profaned my
Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my
anger against them in the wilderness. Nevertheless I withdrew my hand,
and worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the
sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them forth. Moreover I swore to them in the
wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them
through the countries; because they had not executed my
ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths,
and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. Moreover also I gave them
statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live;
and I polluted them in
their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all
that opens the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they
might know that I am Yahweh. Therefore, son of man, speak to
the house of Israel, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In this
moreover have your fathers blasphemed me, in that they have committed a
trespass against me. For
when I had brought them into the land, which I swore to give to them, then
they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there
their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their
offering; there also they made their pleasant aroma, and they poured out
there their drink offerings. Then I said to them, What does
the high place where you go mean? So its name is called Bamah to this day.
Therefore tell the house
of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Do you pollute yourselves in the way
of your fathers? and do you play the prostitute after their abominations?
and when you offer your
gifts, when you make your sons to pass through the fire, do you pollute
yourselves with all your idols to this day? and shall I be inquired of by
you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be
inquired of by you; and
that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, in that you say, We
will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood
and stone. As I live,
says the Lord Yahweh, surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched
arm, and with wrath poured out, will I be king over you: and I will bring you out from
the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are
scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with
wrath poured out; and I
will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter
into judgment with you face to face. Like as I entered into judgment
with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter
into judgment with you, says the Lord Yahweh. I will cause you to pass under
the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; and I will purge out from among
you the rebels, and those who disobey against me; I will bring them forth
out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of
Israel: and you shall know that I am Yahweh. As for you, house of Israel,
thus says the Lord Yahweh: Go, serve everyone his idols, and hereafter
also, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more
profane with your gifts, and with your idols. For in my holy mountain, in the
mountain of the height of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh, there shall all
the house of Israel, all of them, serve me in the land: there will I
accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first fruits
of your offerings, with all your holy things. As a pleasant aroma will I
accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of
the countries in which you have been scattered; and I will be sanctified
in you in the sight of the nations. You shall know that I am Yahweh,
when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I
swore to give to your fathers. There you shall remember your
ways, and all your doings, in which you have polluted yourselves; and you
shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have
committed. You shall
know that I am Yahweh, when I have dealt with you for my name’s sake,
not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you
house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh. The word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, Son of man, set
your face toward the south, and drop your word toward the south,
and prophesy against the forest of the field in the South; and tell the forest of the
South, Hear the word of Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will
kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you, and
every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces
from the south to the north shall be burnt thereby. All flesh shall see that I,
Yahweh, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched. Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh!
they say of me, Isn’t he a speaker of parables?
The word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop your word toward
the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel; and tell the land of Israel, Thus
says Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of
its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.
Seeing then that I will
cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go
forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
and all flesh shall know
that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not
return any more. Sigh
therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your thighs and with
bitterness you will sigh before their eyes. It shall be, when they tell you,
Why do you sigh? that you shall say, Because of the news, for it comes;
and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every
spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it
comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh. The word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, Son of man,
prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: Say, A sword, a sword, it is
sharpened, and also furbished; it is sharpened that it may make
a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then
make mirth? the rod of my son, it condemns every tree. It is given to be furbished,
that it may be handled: the sword, it is sharpened, yes, it is furbished,
to give it into the hand of the killer. Cry and wail, son of man; for it
is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered
over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh. For there is a trial; and what
if even the rod that condemns shall be no more? says the Lord Yahweh.
You therefore, son of
man, prophesy, and strike your hands together; and let the sword be
doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword
of the great one who is deadly wounded, which enters into their rooms.
I have set the
threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and
their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is pointed
for slaughter. Gather
yourselves together, go to the right, set yourselves in array, go to the
left, wherever your face is set. I will also strike my hands
together, and I will cause my wrath to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
The word of Yahweh came
to me again, saying, Also, you son of man, appoint
two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they both shall
come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head
of the way to the city. You shall appoint a way for the
sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in
Jerusalem the fortified. For the king of Babylon stood at
the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he
shook the arrows back and forth, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in
the liver. In his right
hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to
open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to
set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.
It shall be to them as a
false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he
brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your
transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear;
because you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand. You, deadly wounded wicked one,
the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the iniquity of
the end, thus says the
Lord Yahweh: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; this shall
be no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is
high. I will overturn,
overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose
right it is; and I will give it him. You, son of man, prophesy, and
say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the children of Ammon, and
concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the
slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as
lightning; while they
see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on
the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day has come in the
time of the iniquity of the end. Cause it to return into its
sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth,
will I judge you. I will
pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my
wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to
destroy. You shall be
for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you
shall be remembered no more: for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
Moreover the word of
Yahweh came to me, saying, You, son of man, will you judge,
will you judge the bloody city? then cause her to know all her
abominations. You shall
say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A city that sheds blood in the midst of
her, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to
defile her! You have
become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your
idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and
have come even to your years: therefore have I made you a reproach to the
nations, and a mocking to all the countries. Those who are near, and those who
are far from you, shall mock you, you infamous one and full of
tumult. Behold, the
princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to
shed blood. In you have
they set light by father and mother; in the midst of you have they dealt
by oppression with the foreigner; in you have they wronged the fatherless
and the widow. You have
despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths. Slanderous men have been in you
to shed blood; and in you they have eaten on the mountains: in the midst
of you they have committed lewdness. In you have they uncovered their
fathers’ nakedness; in you have they humbled her who was unclean in her
impurity. One has
committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and another has lewdly
defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in you has humbled his sister,
his father’s daughter. In you have they taken bribes to
shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily
gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the
Lord Yahweh. Behold,
therefore, I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have
made, and at your blood which has been in the midst of you. Can your heart endure, or can
your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I, Yahweh,
have spoken it, and will do it. I will scatter you among the
nations, and disperse you through the countries; and I will consume your
filthiness out of you. You shall be profaned in
yourself, in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am
Yahweh. The word of
Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel
has become dross to me: all of them are brass and tin and iron and lead,
in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will
gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver and brass
and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire
on it, to melt it; so will I gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I
will lay you there, and melt you. Yes, I will gather you, and blow
on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst.
As silver is melted in
the midst of the furnace, so you will be melted in its midst; and you will
know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you. The word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, Son of man, tell
her, You are a land that is not cleansed, nor rained on in the day of
indignation. There is a
conspiracy of her prophets in its midst, like a roaring lion ravening the
prey: they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things;
they have made her widows many in its midst. Her priests have done violence
to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction
between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern
between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my
Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in its midst are
like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls,
that they may get dishonest gain. Her prophets have plastered for
them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them,
saying, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, when Yahweh has not spoken. The people of the land have used
oppression, and exercised robbery; yes, they have troubled the poor and
needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully. I sought for a man among them,
who should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land,
that I should not destroy it; but I found none. Therefore have I poured out my
indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their
own way have I brought on their heads, says the Lord Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh
came again to me, saying, Son of man, there were two women,
the daughters of one mother: and they played the prostitute in
Egypt; they played the prostitute in their youth; there were their breasts
pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity. Their names were Oholah the
elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons
and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem
Oholibah. Oholah played
the prostitute when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the
Assyrians her neighbors, who were clothed with blue,
governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on
horses. She bestowed her
prostitution on them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on
whoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself. Neither has she left her
prostitution since the days of Egypt; for in her youth they lay
with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out
their prostitution on her. Therefore I delivered her into
the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.
These uncovered her
nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with
the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed
judgments on her. Her
sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she,
and in her prostitution which were more than the prostitution of her
sister. She doted on the
Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most
gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.
I saw that she was
defiled; they both took one way. She increased her prostitution;
for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans
portrayed with vermilion, dressed with girdles on their
waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them princes to look
on, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their
birth. As soon as she
saw them she doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.
The Babylonians came to
her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution,
and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.
So she uncovered her
prostitution, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from
her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister. Yet she multiplied her
prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played
the prostitute in the land of Egypt. She doted on their paramours,
whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue
of horses. Thus you
called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom
by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth. Therefore, Oholibah, thus says
the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from
whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every
side: the Babylonians
and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the
Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of
them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. They shall come against you with
weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall
set themselves against you with buckler and shield and helmet all around;
and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according
to their judgments. I
will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in fury;
they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your residue shall fall
by the sword: they shall take your sons and your daughters; and your
residue shall be devoured by the fire. They shall also strip you of
your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels. Thus will I make your lewdness
to cease from you, and your prostitution brought from the land of
Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt
any more. For thus says
the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you
hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated; and they shall deal with you in
hatred, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and
bare; and the nakedness of your prostitution shall be uncovered, both your
lewdness and your prostitution. These things shall be done to
you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because
you are polluted with their idols. You have walked in the way of
your sister; therefore will I give her cup into your hand. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You
will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large; you will be
ridiculed and held in derision; it contains much. You shall be filled with
drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with
the cup of your sister Samaria. You shall even drink it and
drain it out, and you shall gnaw the broken pieces of it, and shall tear
your breasts; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back,
therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution. Yahweh said moreover to me: Son
of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? then declare to them their
abominations. For they
have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols
have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom
they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured.
Moreover this they have
done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have
profaned my Sabbaths. For when they had slain their
children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to
profane it; and behold, thus have they done in the midst of my house.
Furthermore you have
sent for men who come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold,
they came; for whom you did wash yourself, paint your eyes, and decorate
yourself with ornaments, and sit on a stately bed, with a
table prepared before it, whereupon you set my incense and my oil. The voice of a multitude being
at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought
drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on their hands
twain, and beautiful crowns on their heads. Then I said of her who was old
in adulteries, Now will they play the prostitute with her, and she with
them. They went in
to her, as they go in to a prostitute: so went they in to Oholah and to
Oholibah, the lewd women. Righteous men, they shall judge
them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who
shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
For thus says the Lord
Yahweh: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be
tossed back and forth and robbed. The company shall stone them
with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall kill their
sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. Thus will I cause lewdness to
cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your
lewdness. They shall
recompense your lewdness on you, and you shall bear the sins of your
idols; and you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.
Again, in the ninth
year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word
of Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, write the name of the
day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon drew close to
Jerusalem this same day. Utter a parable to the rebellious
house, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Set on the caldron, set
it on, and also pour water into it: gather its pieces into it, even
every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice
bones. Take the choice of
the flock, and also a pile of wood for the bones under the
caldron; make it boil well; yes, let its bones be boiled in its midst.
Therefore thus says the
Lord Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose rust is therein,
and whose rust is not gone out of it! take out of it piece after piece; No
lot is fallen on it. For
her blood is in the midst of her; she set it on the bare rock; she
didn’t pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust. That it may cause wrath to come
up to take vengeance, I have set her blood on the bare rock, that it
should not be covered. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great. Heap on the wood, make the fire
hot, boil well the flesh, and make thick the broth, and let the bones be
burned. Then set it
empty on its coals, that it may be hot, and its brass may burn, and that
its filthiness may be molten in it, that its rust may be consumed. She has wearied herself
with toil; yet her great rust doesn’t go forth out of her; her rust
doesn’t go forth by fire. In your filthiness is lewdness:
because I have cleansed you and you weren’t cleansed, you shall not be
cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath
toward you to rest. I,
Yahweh, have spoken it: it shall happen, and I will do it: I will not go
back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to your ways,
and according to your doings, shall they judge you, says the Lord Yahweh.
Also the word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, behold, I will take away from you the desire of your eyes with a
stroke: yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run
down. Sigh, but not
aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind your headdress on you, and put
your shoes on your feet, and don’t cover your lips, and don’t eat
men’s bread. So I
spoke to the people in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in
the morning as I was commanded. The people said to me, Won’t
you tell us what these things are to us, that you do so? Then I said to them, The word of
Yahweh came to me, saying, Speak to the house of Israel,
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride
of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities;
and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind shall fall by
the sword. You shall do
as I have done: you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
Your tires shall be on
your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but
you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.
Thus Ezekiel shall be a
sign to you; according to all that he has done, you will do. When this
comes, then you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh. You, son of man, shall it not be
in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory,
the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their heart, their
sons and their daughters, that in that day he who escapes
shall come to you, to cause you to hear it with your ears? In that day your mouth will be
opened to him who has escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more mute:
so you will be a sign to them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, set your face toward the children of Ammon, and prophesy against
them: and tell the
children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord
Yahweh, Because you said, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned;
and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the
house of Judah, when they went into captivity: therefore, behold, I will deliver
you to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall set their
encampments in you, and make their dwellings in you; they shall eat your
fruit, and they shall drink your milk. I will make Rabbah a stable for
camels, and the children of Ammon a resting place for flocks: and you
shall know that I am Yahweh. For thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Because you have clapped your hands, and stamped with the feet, and
rejoiced with all the despite of your soul against the land of Israel;
therefore, behold, I have
stretched out my hand on you, and will deliver you for a spoil to the
nations; and I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will cause you to
perish out of the countries: I will destroy you; and you shall know that I
am Yahweh. Thus says the
Lord Yahweh: Because Moab and Seir say, Behold, the house of Judah is like
all the nations; therefore, behold, I will open
the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his
frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and
Kiriathaim, to the
children of the east, to go against the children of Ammon; and I
will give them for a possession, that the children of Ammon may not be
remembered among the nations. and I will execute judgments on
Moab; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Because Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and
has greatly offended, and revenged himself on them; therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh, I will stretch out my hand on Edom, and will cut off man and
animal from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; even to Dedan
shall they fall by the sword. I will lay my vengeance on Edom
by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to my
anger and according to my wrath; and they shall know my vengeance, says
the Lord Yahweh. Thus
says the Lord Yahweh: Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and
have taken vengeance with despite of soul to destroy with perpetual
enmity; therefore thus
says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will stretch out my hand on the
Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant
of the sea coast. I will
execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes; and they shall know
that I am Yahweh, when I shall lay my vengeance on them.
It happened in the
eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of
Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, because Tyre has said
against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken: the gate of the peoples; she is
turned to me; I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste: therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh, Behold, I am against you, Tyre, and will cause many nations to
come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. They shall destroy the walls of
Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and
make her a bare rock. She
shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I
have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh; and she shall become a spoil to the
nations. Her daughters
who are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they shall know
that I am Yahweh. For
thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will bring on Tyre Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with
chariots, and with horsemen, and a company, and many people. He shall kill your daughters in
the field with the sword; and he shall make forts against you, and cast up
a mound against you, and raise up the buckler against you. He shall set his battering
engines against your walls, and with his axes he shall break down your
towers. By reason of the
abundance of his horses their dust shall cover you: your walls shall shake
at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wagons, and of the chariots, when
he shall enter into your gates, as men enter into a city in which is made
a breach. With the hoofs
of his horses shall he tread down all your streets; he shall kill your
people with the sword; and the pillars of your strength shall go down to
the ground. They shall
make a spoil of your riches, and make a prey of your merchandise; and they
shall break down your walls, and destroy your pleasant houses; and they
shall lay your stones and your timber and your dust in the midst of the
waters. I will cause the
noise of your songs to cease; and the sound of your harps shall be no more
heard. I will make you a
bare rock; you shall be a place for the spreading of nets; you shall be
built no more: for I Yahweh have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh. Thus says the Lord Yahweh to
Tyre: shall not the islands shake at the sound of your fall, when the
wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of you? Then all the princes of the sea
shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip
off their embroidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with
trembling; they shall sit on the ground, and shall tremble every moment,
and be astonished at you. They shall take up a lamentation
over you, and tell you, How you are destroyed, who were inhabited by
seafaring men, the renowned city, who was strong in the sea, she and her
inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who lived there! Now shall the islands tremble in
the day of your fall; yes, the islands that are in the sea shall be
dismayed at your departure. For thus says the Lord Yahweh:
When I shall make you a desolate city, like the cities that are not
inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep on you, and the great waters
shall cover you; then
will I bring you down with those who descend into the pit, to the people
of old time, and will make you to dwell in the lower parts of the earth,
in the places that are desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit,
that you be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living:
I will make you a
terror, and you shall no more have any being; though you are sought for,
yet you will never be found again, says the Lord Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh
came again to me, saying, You, son of man, take up a
lamentation over Tyre; and tell Tyre, you who dwell at
the entry of the sea, who are the merchant of the peoples to many islands,
thus says the Lord Yahweh: You, Tyre, have said, I am perfect in beauty.
Your borders are in the
heart of the seas; your builders have perfected your beauty. They have made all your planks of
fir trees from Senir; they have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast
for you. Of the oaks of
Bashan have they made your oars; they have made your benches of ivory
inlaid in boxwood, from the islands of Kittim. Of fine linen with embroidered
work from Egypt was your sail, that it might be to you for a banner; blue
and purple from the islands of Elishah was your awning. The inhabitants of Sidon and
Arvad were your rowers: your wise men, Tyre, were in you, they were your
pilots. The old men of
Gebal and the wise men of it were in you your repairers of ship seams: all
the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to deal in your
merchandise. Persia and
Lud and Put were in your army, your men of war: they hanged the shield and
helmet in you; they set forth your comeliness. The men of Arvad with your army
were on your walls all around, and valorous men were in your towers; they
hanged their shields on your walls all around; they have perfected your
beauty. Tarshish was
your merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with
silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for your wares. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they
were your traffickers; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass
for your merchandise. They of the house of Togarmah
traded for your wares with horses and war horses and mules. The men of Dedan were your
traffickers; many islands were the market of your hand: they brought you
in exchange horns of ivory and ebony. Syria was your merchant by
reason of the multitude of your handiworks: they traded for your wares
with emeralds, purple, and embroidered work, and fine linen, and coral,
and rubies. Judah, and
the land of Israel, they were your traffickers: they traded for your
merchandise wheat of Minnith, and confections, and honey, and oil, and
balm. Damascus was your
merchant for the multitude of your handiworks, by reason of the multitude
of all kinds of riches, with the wine of Helbon, and white wool. Vedan and Javan traded with yarn
for your wares: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were among your
merchandise. Dedan was
your trafficker in precious cloths for riding. Arabia, and all the princes of
Kedar, they were the merchants of your hand; in lambs, and rams, and
goats, in these were they your merchants. The traffickers of Sheba and
Raamah, they were your traffickers; they traded for your wares with the
chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. Haran and Canneh and Eden, the
traffickers of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad, were your traffickers.
These were your
traffickers in choice wares, in wrappings of blue and embroidered work,
and in chests of rich clothing, bound with cords and made of cedar, among
your merchandise. The
ships of Tarshish were your caravans for your merchandise: and you were
replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of the seas. Your rowers have brought you
into great waters: the east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas.
Your riches, and your
wares, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your repairers of
ship seams, and the dealers in your merchandise, and all your men of war,
who are in you, with all your company which is in the midst of you, shall
fall into the heart of the seas in the day of your ruin. At the sound of the cry of your
pilots the suburbs shall shake. All who handled the oar, the
mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their
ships; they shall stand on the land, and shall cause their voice to
be heard over you, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust on their
heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: and they shall make themselves
bald for you, and clothe them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for you
in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning. In their wailing they shall take
up a lamentation for you, and lament over you, saying, Who is there
like Tyre, like her who is brought to silence in the midst of the sea?
When your wares went
forth out of the seas, you filled many peoples; you enriched the kings of
the earth with the multitude of your riches and of your merchandise.
In the time that you
were broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, your merchandise and
all your company fell in your midst. All the inhabitants of the
islands are astonished at you, and their kings are horribly afraid; they
are troubled in their face. The merchants among the peoples
hiss at you; you are become a terror, and you shall nevermore have any
being.
The word of Yahweh
came again to me, saying, Son of man, tell the prince of
Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you
have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas;
yet you are man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of
God—behold, you are
wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from you; by your wisdom and by your
understanding you have gotten yourself riches, and have gotten gold and
silver into your treasures; by your great wisdom and
by your traffic you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted
up because of your riches—therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God, therefore, behold, I will bring
strangers on you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their
swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your
brightness. They shall
bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the death of those who are
slain, in the heart of the seas. Will you yet say before him who
kills you, I am God? but you are man, and not God, in the hand of him who
wounds you. You shall
die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have
spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh. Moreover the word of Yahweh came
to me, saying, Son of
man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, Thus says
the Lord Yahweh: You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in
beauty. You were in
Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz,
emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise,
and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day
that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who
covers: and I set you, so that you were on the holy mountain of
God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
You were perfect in your
ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found
in you. By the abundance
of your traffic they filled the midst of you with violence, and you have
sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God;
and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of
fire. Your heart was
lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason
of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before
kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of your
iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your
sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of you;
it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the
sight of all those who see you. All those who know you among the
peoples shall be astonished at you: you have become a terror, and you
shall nevermore have any being. The word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, Son of man, set
your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it, and say, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Sidon; and I will be glorified in the
midst of you; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall have
executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her. For I will send pestilence into
her, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall fall in the midst
of her, with the sword on her on every side; and they shall know that I am
Yahweh. There shall be
no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of
any that are around them, that scorned them; and they shall know that I am
the Lord Yahweh. Thus
says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from
the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them
in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which
I gave to my servant Jacob. They shall dwell securely
therein; yes, they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and shall
dwell securely, when I have executed judgments on all those who do them
despite all around them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh their God.
In the tenth year, in
the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of Yahweh came
to me, saying, “Son of
man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him
and against all Egypt. Speak and say, ‘Thus says the
Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great
monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river
is my own, and I have made it for myself.’ I will put hooks in your jaws,
and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales; and I will
bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, with all the fish of your
rivers which stick to your scales. I’ll cast you forth into the
wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. You’ll fall on the open
field. You won’t be brought together, nor gathered. I have given you for
food to the animals of the earth and to the birds of the sky. All the inhabitants of Egypt will
know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house
of Israel. When they took
hold of you by your hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders; and
when they leaned on you, you broke, and paralyzed all of their thighs.”
Therefore thus says the
Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I will bring a sword on you, and will cut off man
and animal from you. The
land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that
I am Yahweh. Because he has said, ‘The river is mine, and I have made
it;’ therefore,
behold, I am against you, and against your rivers, and I will make the
land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh
even to the border of Ethiopia. No foot of man shall pass
through it, nor foot of animal shall pass through it, neither shall it be
inhabited forty years. I
will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries
that are desolate; and her cities among the cities that are laid waste
shall be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among
the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.” For thus says the Lord Yahweh:
“At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples
where they were scattered; and I will bring back the
captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of
Pathros, into the land of their birth; and they shall be there a base
kingdom. It shall be the
base of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the
nations: and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the
nations. It shall be no
more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to memory,
when they turn to look after them: and they shall know that I am the Lord
Yahweh.”’” It came
to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the
first day of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service
against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet
had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had
served against it. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon; and he shall carry off her multitude, and take her spoil, and
take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of
Egypt as his recompense for which he served, because they worked for me,
says the Lord Yahweh. In
that day will I cause a horn to bud forth to the house of Israel, and I
will give you the opening of the mouth in their midst; and they shall know
that I am Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh
came again to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy, and say,
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Wail, Alas for the day! For the day is near, even the day
of Yahweh is near; it shall be a day of clouds, a time of the nations.
A sword shall come on
Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in
Egypt; and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall
be broken down. Ethiopia,
and Put, and Lud, and all the mixed people, and Cub, and the children of
the land that is allied with them, shall fall with them by the sword.
Thus says Yahweh: They
also who uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come
down: from the tower of Seveneh shall they fall in it by the sword, says
the Lord Yahweh. They
shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her
cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. They shall know that I am Yahweh,
when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed.
In that day shall
messengers go forth from before me in ships to make the careless
Ethiopians afraid; and there shall be anguish on them, as in the day of
Egypt; for, behold, it comes. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I
will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease, by the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He and his people with him, the
terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land; and they
shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.
I will make the rivers
dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men; and I will make the
land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I,
Yahweh, have spoken it. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I
will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from
Memphis; and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt: and I
will put a fear in the land of Egypt. I will make Pathros desolate,
and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments on No. I will pour my wrath on Sin, the
stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin
shall be in great anguish, and No shall be broken up; and Memphis shall
have adversaries in the daytime. The young men of Aven and of
Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these cities shall go into
captivity. At
Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, when I shall break there
the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall cease in her: as for
her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.
Thus will I execute
judgments on Egypt; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. It happened in the eleventh
year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month,
that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, I have broken the
arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been bound up, to
apply healing medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it be
strong to hold the sword. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his
arms, the strong arm, and that which was broken; and I will cause
the sword to fall out of his hand. I will scatter the Egyptians
among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. I will strengthen the arms of
the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break the
arms of Pharaoh, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a
deadly wounded man. I
will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon; and the arms of Pharaoh
shall fall down; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall put my
sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out on
the land of Egypt. I
will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through
the countries; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
It happened in the
eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the
month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of
Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness? Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar
in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of
high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs. The waters nourished it, the deep
made it to grow: its rivers ran all around its plantation; and it sent out
its channels to all the trees of the field. Therefore its stature was exalted
above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its
branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot them
forth. All the birds of
the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches all the
animals of the field brought forth their young; and all great nations
lived under its shadow. Thus was it beautiful in its
greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.
The cedars in the garden
of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the
plane trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of
God like it in its beauty. I made it beautiful by the
multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the
garden of God, envied it. Therefore thus said the Lord
Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among
the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; I will even deliver him into the
hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I
have driven him out for his wickedness. Strangers, the terrible of the
nations, have cut him off, and have left him: on the mountains and in all
the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the
watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down
from his shadow, and have left him. On his ruin all the birds of the
sky shall dwell, and all the animals of the field shall be on his
branches; to the end
that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their
stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their
mighty ones stand up on their height, even all who drink water: for
they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, in the
midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In
the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning:
I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers; and the great
waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the
trees of the field fainted for him. I made the nations to shake at
the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol
with those who descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice
and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower
parts of the earth. They
also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword;
yes, those who were his arm, that lived under his shadow in the
midst of the nations. To
whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden?
yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of
the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who
are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the
Lord Yahweh.
It happened in the
twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month,
that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation
over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, You were likened to a young lion
of the nations: yet you are as a monster in the seas; and you broke out
with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their
rivers. Thus says the
Lord Yahweh: I will spread out my net on you with a company of many
peoples; and they shall bring you up in my net. I will leave you on the land, I
will cast you forth on the open field, and will cause all the birds of the
sky to settle on you, and I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth
with you. I will lay your
flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height. I will also water with your blood
the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the watercourses
shall be full of you. When I shall extinguish you, I
will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with
a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. All the bright lights of the sky
will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord
Yahweh. I will also
trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring your destruction
among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. Yes, I will make many peoples
amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I
shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every
moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall. For thus says the Lord Yahweh:
The sword of the king of Babylon shall come on you. By the swords of the mighty will
I cause your multitude to fall; the terrible of the nations are they all:
and they shall bring to nothing the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude
shall be destroyed. I
will destroy also all its animals from beside many waters; neither shall
the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of animals trouble
them. Then will I make
their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, says the Lord
Yahweh. When I shall
make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that of
which it was full, when I shall strike all those who dwell therein, then
shall they know that I am Yahweh. This is the lamentation with
which they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament
therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament
therewith, says the Lord Yahweh. It happened also in the twelfth
year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and
the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with
those who go down into the pit. Whom do you pass in beauty? Go
down, and be laid with the uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of
those who are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her
away and all her multitudes. The strong among the mighty
shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with those
who help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised,
slain by the sword. Asshur is there and all her
company; her graves are all around her; all of them slain, fallen by the
sword; whose graves are
set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her
grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the
land of the living. There is Elam and all her
multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who
are gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused
their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with
those who go down to the pit. They have set her a bed in the
midst of the slain with all her multitude; her graves are around her; all
of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in
the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go
down to the pit: he is put in the midst of those who are slain. There is Meshech, Tubal, and all
their multitude; their graves are around them; all of them uncircumcised,
slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the
living. They shall not
lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down
to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their
heads, and their iniquities are on their bones; for they were the
terror of the mighty in the land of the living. But you shall be broken in the
midst of the uncircumcised, and shall lie with those who are slain by the
sword. There is Edom,
her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who
are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with
those who go down to the pit. There are the princes of the
north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who are gone down with the
slain; in the terror which they caused by their might they are put to
shame; and they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword,
and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. Pharaoh shall see them, and
shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army,
slain by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh. For I have put his terror in the
land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the
uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all
his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, speak to the children of your people, and tell them, When I bring
the sword on a land, and the people of the land take a man from among
them, and set him for their watchman; if, when he sees the sword come
on the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whoever hears the sound of
the trumpet, and doesn’t take warning, if the sword come, and take him
away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the
trumpet, and didn’t take warning; his blood shall be on him; whereas if
he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul. But if the watchman sees the
sword come, and doesn’t blow the trumpet, and the people aren’t
warned, and the sword comes, and take any person from among them; he is
taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the
watchman’s hand. So
you, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel;
therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
When I tell the wicked, O
wicked man, you shall surely die, and you don’t speak to warn the wicked
from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood
will I require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the
wicked of his way to turn from it, and he doesn’t turn from his way; he
shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul. You, son of man, tell the house
of Israel: Thus you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on
us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live? Tell them, As I live, says the
Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why
will you die, house of Israel? You, son of man, tell the
children of your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not
deliver him in the day of his disobedience; and as for the wickedness of
the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his
wickedness; neither shall he who is righteous be able to live thereby in
the day that he sins. When I tell the righteous, that
he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit
iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his
iniquity that he has committed, therein shall he die. Again, when I say to the wicked,
You shall surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful
and right; if the wicked
restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in
the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he
shall not die. None of
his sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him: he has
done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. Yet the children of your people
say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not
equal. When the
righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall
even die therein. When
the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and
right, he shall live thereby. Yet you say, The way of the Lord
is not equal. House of Israel, I will judge every one of you after his
ways. It happened in the
twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth
day of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to
me, saying, The city has been struck. Now the hand of Yahweh had been
on me in the evening, before he who was escaped came; and he had opened my
mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I
was no more mute. The
word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, they who inhabit
those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one,
and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for
inheritance. Therefore
tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up
your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?
You stand on your sword,
you work abomination, and every one of you defiles his neighbor’s wife:
and shall you possess the land? You shall tell them, Thus says
the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall
fall by the sword; and him who is in the open field will I give to the
animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and in the
caves shall die of the pestilence. I will make the land a
desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease;
and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass
through. Then shall they
know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an
astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed.
As for you, son of man,
the children of your people talk of you by the walls and in the doors of
the houses, and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying,
Please come and hear what is the word that comes forth from Yahweh.
They come to you as the
people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your
words, but don’t do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but
their heart goes after their gain. Behold, you are to them as a
very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an
instrument; for they hear your words, but they don’t do them. When this comes to pass,
(behold, it comes), then shall they know that a prophet has been among
them.
The word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and tell them,
even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the shepherds of
Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep?
You eat the fat, and you
clothe yourself with the wool, you kill the fatlings; but you don’t feed
the sheep. You haven’t
strengthened the diseased, neither have you healed that which was sick,
neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought
back that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was
lost; but with force and with rigor you have ruled over them. They were scattered, because
there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the animals of the
field, and were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the
mountains, and on every high hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the
surface of the earth; and there was none who searched or sought. Therefore, you shepherds, hear
the word of Yahweh: As I
live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became a prey, and my
sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no
shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my sheep, but the shepherds
fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep; therefore, you shepherds, hear
the word of Yahweh: Thus
says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will
require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the
sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; and I will
deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.
For thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek
them out. As a shepherd
seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are
scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out
of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
I will bring them out
from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them
into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by
the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good
pasture; and on the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be:
there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they
feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of
my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord Yahweh. I will seek that which was lost,
and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that
which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but the fat and
the strong I will destroy; I will feed them in justice. As for you, O my flock, thus
says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams
and the male goats. Does
it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must
tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? and to have drunk
of the clear waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet? As for my sheep, they eat that
which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have
fouled with your feet. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh to them: Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and
the lean sheep. Because
you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with
your horns, until you have scattered them abroad; therefore will I save my flock,
and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and
sheep. I will set up one
shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he
shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. I, Yahweh, will be their God,
and my servant David prince among them; I, Yahweh, have spoken it. I will make with them a covenant
of peace, and will cause evil animals to cease out of the land; and they
shall dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places
around my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its
season; there shall be showers of blessing. The tree of the field shall
yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be
secure in their land; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have
broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of
those who made slaves of them. They shall no more be a prey to
the nations, neither shall the animals of the earth devour them; but they
shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. I will raise up to them a
plantation for renown, and they shall be no more consumed with famine in
the land, neither bear the shame of the nations any more. They shall know that I, Yahweh,
their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people,
says the Lord Yahweh. You my sheep, the sheep of my
pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the Lord Yahweh.
Moreover the word of
Yahweh came to me, saying, Son of man, set your face against
Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and tell it, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my
hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment.
I will lay your cities
waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Because you have had a
perpetual enmity, and have given over the children of Israel to the power
of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of
the end; therefore, as I
live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall
pursue you: since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue
you. Thus will I make
Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off from it
him who passes through and him who returns. I will fill its mountains with
its slain: in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses
shall they fall who are slain with the sword. I will make you a perpetual
desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know
that I am Yahweh. Because you have said, These two
nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it;
whereas Yahweh was there: therefore, as I live, says the
Lord Yahweh, I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy
which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make
myself known among them, when I shall judge you. You shall know that I, Yahweh,
have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of
Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they have been given us to devour.
You have magnified
yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words
against me: I have heard it. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When
the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. As you rejoiced over the
inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do
to you: you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it;
and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
You, son of man,
prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel,
hear the word of Yahweh. Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Because the enemy has said against you, Aha! and, The ancient high places
are ours in possession; therefore prophesy, and say, Thus
says the Lord Yahweh: Because, even because they have made you desolate,
and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the
residue of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and
the evil report of the people; therefore, you mountains of
Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the
mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the
desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a
prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are all around;
therefore thus says the
Lord Yahweh: Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the
residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land
to themselves for a possession with the joy of all their heart, with
despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey. Therefore prophesy concerning the
land of Israel, and tell the mountains and to the hills, to the
watercourses and to the valleys, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I have
spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath, because you have borne the shame of
the nations: therefore
thus says the Lord Yahweh: I have sworn, saying, Surely the nations
that are around you, they shall bear their shame. But you, mountains of Israel, you
shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel;
for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I
will turn into you, and you shall be tilled and sown; and I will multiply men on you,
all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be
inhabited, and the waste places shall be built; and I will multiply on you man
and animal; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you
to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better to you
than at your beginnings: and you shall know that I am Yahweh. Yes, I will cause men to walk on
you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess you, and you shall be
their inheritance, and you shall no more henceforth bereave them of
children. Thus says the
Lord Yahweh: Because they say to you, You are a devourer of men, and have
been a bereaver of your nation; therefore you shall devour men
no more, neither bereave your nation any more, says the Lord Yahweh;
neither will I let you
hear any more the shame of the nations, neither shall you bear the
reproach of the peoples any more, neither shall you cause your nation to
stumble any more, says the Lord Yahweh. Moreover the word of Yahweh came
to me, saying, Son of
man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by
their way and by their doings: their way before me was as the uncleanness
of a woman in her impurity. Therefore I poured out my wrath
on them for the blood which they had poured out on the land, and because
they had defiled it with their idols; and I scattered them among the
nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their
way and according to their doings I judged them. When they came to the nations,
where they went, they profaned my holy name; in that men said of them,
These are the people of Yahweh, and are gone forth out of his land.
But I had respect for my
holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations, where
they went. Therefore
tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I don’t do
this for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which
you have profaned among the nations, where you went. I will sanctify my great name,
which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in
their midst; and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, says the Lord
Yahweh, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among
the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you
into your own land. I
will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your
filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I will also give you a new
heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
I will put my Spirit
within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my
ordinances, and do them. You shall dwell in the land that
I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your
God. I will save you
from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will
multiply it, and lay no famine on you. I will multiply the fruit of the
tree, and the increase of the field, that you may receive no more the
reproach of famine among the nations. Then you shall remember your
evil ways, and your doings that were not good; and you shall loathe
yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your
abominations. Nor for
your sake do I this, says the Lord Yahweh, be it known to you: be
ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In
the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the
cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built. The land that was desolate shall
be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all who passed by.
They shall say, This
land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste
and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left
around you shall know that I, Yahweh, have built the ruined places, and
planted that which was desolate: I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and I will do
it. Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel,
to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock. As the flock for sacrifice, as
the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities
be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
The hand of Yahweh was
on me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Yahweh, and set me down in
the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them all
around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and behold,
they were very dry. He
said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I answered, Lord Yahweh, you
know. Again he said to
me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear the word
of Yahweh. Thus says the
Lord Yahweh to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you,
and you shall live. I
will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with
skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I
am Yahweh. So I
prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and
behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
I saw, and, behold, there
were sinews on them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but
there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, Prophesy to
the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that
they may live. So I
prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they
lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then he said to me, Son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are
dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. Therefore prophesy, and tell
them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will open your graves, and
cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you
into the land of Israel. You shall know that I am Yahweh,
when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your
graves, my people. I
will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in
your own land: and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it and
performed it, says Yahweh. The word of Yahweh came again to
me, saying, You, son of
man, take one stick, and write on it, For Judah, and for the children of
Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write on it, For
Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his
companions: and join
them for you one to another into one stick, that they may become one in
your hand. When the
children of your people shall speak to you, saying, Will you not show us
what you mean by these? tell them, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of
Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with
it, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they
shall be one in my hand. The sticks whereon you write
shall be in your hand before their eyes. Say to them, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations,
where they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them
into their own land: and
I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and
one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations,
neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all; neither shall they defile
themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things,
nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all
their dwelling places, in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them:
so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. My servant David shall be king
over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in
my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them. They shall dwell in the land
that I have given to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers lived; and
they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children’s
children, forever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.
Moreover I will make a
covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with
them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary
in their midst forevermore. My tent also shall be with them;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. The nations shall know that I am
Yahweh who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in their midst
forevermore.
The word of Yahweh
came to me, saying, Son
of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of
Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:
and I will turn you
around, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, with all
your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great
company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords; Persia, Cush, and Put with them,
all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer, and all his hordes; the
house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes;
even many peoples with you. Be prepared, yes, prepare
yourself, you, and all your companies who are assembled to you, and be a
guard to them. After many
days you shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the
land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many
peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste;
but it is brought forth out of the peoples, and they shall dwell securely,
all of them. You shall
ascend, you shall come like a storm, you shall be like a cloud to cover
the land, you, and all your hordes, and many peoples with you. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: It
shall happen in that day, that things shall come into your mind, and you
shall devise an evil device: and you shall say, I will go up
to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to those who are at rest, who
dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither
bars nor gates; to take
the spoil and to take the prey; to turn your hand against the waste places
that are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out
of the nations, who have gotten livestock and goods, who dwell in the
middle of the earth. Sheba, and Dedan, and the
merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions of it, shall tell you,
Have you come to take the spoil? have you assembled your company to take
the prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods,
to take great spoil? Therefore, son of man, prophesy,
and tell Gog, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In that day when my people Israel
dwells securely, shall you not know it? You shall come from your place
out of the uttermost parts of the north, you, and many peoples with you,
all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army; and you shall come up against my
people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land: it shall happen in the latter
days, that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me,
when I shall be sanctified in you, Gog, before their eyes. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Are
you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel,
who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you
against them? It shall
happen in that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says
the Lord Yahweh, that my wrath shall come up into my nostrils. For in my jealousy and in the
fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great
shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fish of the sea, and
the birds of the sky, and the animals of the field, and all creeping
things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of
the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown
down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the
ground. I will call for
a sword against him to all my mountains, says the Lord Yahweh: every
man’s sword shall be against his brother. With pestilence and with blood
will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him, and on his
hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower,
and great hailstones, fire, and sulfur. I will magnify myself, and
sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations;
and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
You, son of man,
prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am
against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal: and I will turn you around, and
will lead you on, and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts
of the north; and I will bring you on the mountains of Israel; and I will strike your bow out of
your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.
You shall fall on the
mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the peoples who are
with you: I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the
animals of the field to be devoured. You shall fall on the open field;
for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh. I will send a fire on Magog, and
on those who dwell securely in the islands; and they shall know that I am
Yahweh. My holy name will
I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I allow my
holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am
Yahweh, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, it comes, and it shall be
done, says the Lord Yahweh; this is the day about which I have spoken.
Those who dwell in the
cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and
burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and
the war clubs, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven
years; so that they
shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the
forests; for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall plunder
those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord
Yahweh. It shall happen
in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the
valley of those who pass through on the east of the sea; and it shall stop
those who pass through: and there shall they bury Gog and all his
multitude; and they shall call it The valley of Hamon Gog. Seven months shall the house of
Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land. Yes, all the people of the land
shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown in the day that I shall
be glorified, says the Lord Yahweh. They shall set apart men of
continual employment, who shall pass through the land, and, with those who
pass through, those who bury those who remain on the surface of the land,
to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search. Those who pass through the land
shall pass through; and when any sees a man’s bone, then shall he set up
a sign by it, until the undertakers have buried it in the valley of Hamon
Gog. Hamonah shall also
be the name of a city. Thus shall they cleanse the land. You, son of man, thus says the
Lord Yahweh: Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the
field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to
my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on the
mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the
mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of
lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. You shall eat fat until you be
full, and drink blood until you are drunk, of my sacrifice which I have
sacrificed for you. You
shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and
with all men of war, says the Lord Yahweh. I will set my glory among the
nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed,
and my hand that I have laid on them. So the house of Israel shall
know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day and forward. The nations shall know that the
house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they
trespassed against me, and I hid my face from them: so I gave them into
the hand of their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword.
According to their
uncleanness and according to their transgressions did I to them; and I hid
my face from them. Therefore thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on
the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name. They shall bear their shame, and
all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against me, when they
shall dwell securely in their land, and none shall make them afraid;
when I have brought them
back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands,
and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations. They shall know that I am Yahweh
their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations,
and have gathered them to their own land; and I will leave none of them
any more there; neither
will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit on
the house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.
In the five and
twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the
tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city
was struck, in the same day, the hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought
me there. In the visions
of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me down on a very
high mountain, whereon was as it were the frame of a city on the south.
He brought me there; and,
behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of
brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood
in the gate. The man said
to me, Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set
your heart on all that I shall show you; for, to the intent that I may
show them to you, you are brought here: declare all that you see to the
house of Israel. Behold,
a wall on the outside of the house all around, and in the man’s hand a
measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and a handbreadth each: so he
measured the thickness of the building, one reed; and the height, one
reed. Then came he to the
gate which looks toward the east, and went up its steps: and he measured
the threshold of the gate, one reed broad; and the other threshold, one
reed broad. Every lodge
was one reed long, and one reed broad; and the space between the
lodges was five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the
gate toward the house was one reed. He measured also the porch of the
gate toward the house, one reed. Then measured he the porch of the
gate, eight cubits; and its posts, two cubits; and the porch of the gate
was toward the house. The lodges of the gate eastward
were three on this side, and three on that side; they three were of one
measure: and the posts had one measure on this side and on that side.
He measured the breadth
of the opening of the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate,
thirteen cubits; and a
border before the lodges, one cubit on this side, and a border, one
cubit on that side; and the lodges, six cubits on this side, and six
cubits on that side. He
measured the gate from the roof of the one lodge to the roof of the other,
a breadth of twenty-five cubits; door against door. He made also posts, sixty
cubits; and the court reached to the posts, around the gate.
From the
forefront of the gate at the entrance to the forefront of the inner porch
of the gate were fifty cubits. There were closed windows to the
lodges, and to their posts within the gate all around, and likewise to the
arches; and windows were around inward; and on each post were palm
trees. Then brought he
me into the outer court; and behold, there were rooms and a pavement, made
for the court all around: thirty rooms were on the pavement. The pavement was by the side of
the gates, answerable to the length of the gates, even the lower pavement.
Then he measured the
breadth from the forefront of the lower gate to the forefront of the inner
court outside, one hundred cubits, both on the east and on the
north. The gate of the
outer court whose prospect is toward the north, he measured its length and
its breadth. The lodges
of it were three on this side and three on that side; and its posts and
its arches were after the measure of the first gate: its length was fifty
cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits. The windows of it, and its
arches, and the palm trees of it, were after the measure of the gate whose
prospect is toward the east; and they went up to it by seven steps; and
its arches were before them. There was a gate to the inner
court over against the other gate, both on the north and on
the east; and he measured from gate to gate one hundred cubits. He led me toward the south; and
behold, a gate toward the south: and he measured its posts and its arches
according to these measures. There were windows in it and in
its arches all around, like those windows: the length was fifty cubits,
and the breadth twenty-five cubits. There were seven steps to go up
to it, and its arches were before them; and it had palm trees, one on this
side, and another on that side, on its posts. There was a gate to the inner
court toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the south
a hundred cubits. Then
he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the
south gate according to these measures; and its lodges, and its posts,
and its arches, according to these measures: and there were windows in it
and in its arches all around; it was fifty cubits long, and twenty-five
cubits broad. There were
arches all around, twenty-five cubits long, and five cubits broad. The arches of it were toward the
outer court; and palm trees were on its posts: and the ascent to it had
eight steps. He brought
me into the inner court toward the east: and he measured the gate
according to these measures; and its lodges, and its posts,
and its arches, according to these measures: and there were windows
therein and in its arches all around; it was fifty cubits long, and
twenty-five cubits broad. The arches of it were toward the
outer court; and palm trees were on its posts, on this side, and on that
side: and the ascent to it had eight steps. He brought me to the north gate:
and he measured it according to these measures; its lodges, its posts, and its
arches: and there were windows therein all around; the length was fifty
cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits. The posts of it were toward the
outer court; and palm trees were on its posts, on this side, and on that
side: and the ascent to it had eight steps. A room with its door was by the
posts at the gates; there they washed the burnt offering. In the porch of the gate were
two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to kill thereon the
burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering. On the one side outside,
as one goes up to the entry of the gate toward the north, were two tables;
and on the other side, which belonged to the porch of the gate, were two
tables. Four tables were
on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight
tables, whereupon they killed the sacrifices. There were four tables for the
burnt offering, of cut stone, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a
half broad, and one cubit high; whereupon they laid the instruments with
which they killed the burnt offering and the sacrifice. The hooks, a handbreadth long,
were fastened within all around: and on the tables was the flesh of the
offering. Outside of the
inner gate were rooms for the singers in the inner court, which was at the
side of the north gate; and their prospect was toward the south; one at
the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the north. He said to me, This room, whose
prospect is toward the south, is for the priests, the keepers of the duty
of the house; and the
room whose prospect is toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of
the duty of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok, who from among the
sons of Levi come near to Yahweh to minister to him. He measured the court, one
hundred cubits long, and a hundred cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar
was before the house. Then he brought me to the porch
of the house, and measured each post of the porch, five cubits on this
side, and five cubits on that side: and the breadth of the gate was three
cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side. The length of the porch was
twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits; even by the steps by which
they went up to it: and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side,
and another on that side.
He brought me to the
temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six
cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tent. The breadth of the entrance was
ten cubits; and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one
side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured its length, forty
cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits. Then went he inward, and measured
each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and
the breadth of the entrance, seven cubits. He measured its length, twenty
cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said to
me, This is the most holy place. Then he measured the wall of the
house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side room, four cubits, all
around the house on every side. The side rooms were in three
stories, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the
wall which belonged to the house for the side rooms all around, that they
might have hold therein, and not have hold in the wall of the
house. The side rooms
were broader as they encompassed the house higher and higher; for
the encompassing of the house went higher and higher around the house:
therefore the breadth of the house continued upward; and so one
went up from the lowest room to the highest by the middle
room. I saw also
that the house had a raised base all around: the foundations of the side
rooms were a full reed of six great cubits. The thickness of the wall, which
was for the side rooms, on the outside, was five cubits: and that which
was left was the place of the side rooms that belonged to the house.
Between the rooms was a
breadth of twenty cubits around the house on every side. The doors of the side rooms were
toward the place that was left, one door toward the north, and
another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left
was five cubits all around. The building that was before the
separate place at the side toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and
the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length
ninety cubits. So he
measured the house, one hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and
the building, with its walls, one hundred cubits long; also the breadth of the face of
the house, and of the separate place toward the east, one hundred cubits.
He measured the length
of the building before the separate place which was at its back, and its
galleries on the one side and on the other side, one hundred cubits; and
the inner temple, and the porches of the court; the thresholds, and the closed
windows, and the galleries around on their three stories, over against the
threshold, with wood ceilings all around, and from the ground up to
the windows, (now the windows were covered), to the space above the
door, even to the inner house, and outside, and by all the wall all around
inside and outside, by measure. It was made with cherubim and
palm trees; and a palm tree was between cherub and cherub, and every
cherub had two faces; so
that there was the face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side, and
the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. thus
was it made through all the house all around: from the ground to above the
door were cherubim and palm trees made: thus was the wall of the temple.
As for the temple, the
door posts were squared; and as for the face of the sanctuary, the
appearance of it was as the appearance of the temple.
The altar was of wood,
three cubits high, and its length two cubits; and its corners, and its
length, and its walls, were of wood: and he said to me, This is the table
that is before Yahweh. The temple and the sanctuary had
two doors. The doors had
two leaves apiece, two turning leaves: two leaves for the
one door, and two leaves for the other. There were made on them, on the
doors of the temple, cherubim and palm trees, like as were made on the
walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the face of the porch outside.
There were closed
windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides
of the porch: thus were the side rooms of the house, and the thresholds.
Then he brought me
forth into the outer court, the way toward the north: and he brought me
into the room that was over against the separate place, and which was over
against the building toward the north. Before the length of one hundred
cubits was the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits. Over against the twenty
cubits which belonged to the inner court, and over against the
pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery against gallery in
the third story. Before
the rooms was a walk of ten cubits’ breadth inward, a way of one cubit;
and their doors were toward the north. Now the upper rooms were shorter;
for the galleries took away from these, more than from the lower and the
middle, in the building. For they were in three stories,
and they didn’t have pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore
the uppermost was straitened more than the lowest and the middle
from the ground. The wall
that was outside by the side of the rooms, toward the outer court before
the rooms, its length was fifty cubits. For the length of the rooms that
were in the outer court was fifty cubits: and behold, before the temple
were one hundred cubits. From under these rooms was the
entry on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court.
In the thickness of the
wall of the court toward the east, before the separate place, and before
the building, there were rooms. The way before them was like the
appearance of the way of the rooms which were toward the north;
according to their length so was their breadth: and all their exits were
both according to their fashions, and according to their doors. According to the doors of the
rooms that were toward the south was a door at the head of the way, even
the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one enters into them.
Then he said to me, The
north rooms and the south rooms, which are before the separate place, they
are the holy rooms, where the priests who are near to Yahweh shall eat the
most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meal
offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place
is holy. When the
priests enter in, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the
outer court, but there they shall lay their garments in which they
minister; for they are holy: and they shall put on other garments, and
shall approach to that which pertains to the people. Now when he had made an end of
measuring the inner house, he brought me forth by the way of the gate
whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it all around. He measured on the east side
with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all
around. He measured on
the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed all around.
He measured on the south
side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. He turned about to the west
side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed. He measured it on the four
sides: it had a wall around it, the length five hundred, and the breadth
five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy and that
which was common.
Afterward he brought
me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east. Behold, the glory of the God of
Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like the sound of
many waters; and the earth shined with his glory. It was according to the
appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I
saw when I came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision
that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face. The glory of Yahweh came into the
house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. The Spirit took me up, and
brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of Yahweh filled
the house. I heard one
speaking to me out of the house; and a man stood by me. He said to me, Son of man,
this is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my
feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever.
The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor
their kings, by their prostitution, and by the dead bodies of their kings
in their high places; in their setting of their
threshold by my threshold, and their doorpost beside my doorpost, and
there was but the wall between me and them; and they have defiled
my holy name by their abominations which they have committed: therefore I
have consumed them in my anger. Now let them put away their
prostitution, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me; and I will
dwell in their midst forever. You, son of man, show the house
to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and
let them measure the pattern. If they be ashamed of all that
they have done, make known to them the form of the house, and its fashion,
and its exits, and its entrances, and all its forms, and all its
ordinances, and all its forms, and all its laws; and write it in their
sight; that they may keep the whole form of it, and all its ordinances,
and do them. This is the
law of the house: on the top of the mountain the whole limit around it
shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. These are the measures of the
altar by cubits (the cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth): the bottom shall
be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and its border around its edge a
span; and this shall be the base of the altar. From the bottom on the ground to
the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from
the lesser ledge to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the
breadth a cubit. The
upper altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar hearth and upward
there shall be four horns. The altar hearth shall be twelve
cubits long by twelve broad, square in the four sides of it.
The ledge shall be
fourteen cubits long by fourteen broad in the four sides of it; and
the border about it shall be half a cubit; and its bottom shall be a cubit
around; and its steps shall look toward the east. He said to me, Son of man, thus
says the Lord Yahweh: These are the ordinances of the altar in the day
when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle
blood thereon. You shall
give to the priests the Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who are near
to me, to minister to me, says the Lord Yahweh, a young bull for a sin
offering. You shall take
of its blood, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners
of the ledge, and on the border all around: thus you shall cleanse it and
make atonement for it. You shall also take the bull of
the sin offering, and it shall be burnt in the appointed place of the
house, outside of the sanctuary. On the second day you shall
offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall
cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bull. When you have finished cleansing
it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram out of the
flock without blemish. You shall bring them near to
Yahweh, and the priests shall cast salt on them, and they shall offer them
up for a burnt offering to Yahweh. Seven days you shall prepare
every day a goat for a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bull,
and a ram out of the flock, without blemish. Seven days shall they make
atonement for the altar and purify it; so shall they consecrate it.
When they have
accomplished the days, it shall be that on the eighth day, and forward,
the priests shall make your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace
offerings; and I will accept you, says the Lord Yahweh.
Then he brought me
back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which looks toward the
east; and it was shut. Yahweh said to me, This gate
shall be shut; it shall not be opened, neither shall any man enter in by
it; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has entered in by it; therefore it
shall be shut. As for the
prince, he shall sit therein as prince to eat bread before Yahweh; he
shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the
way of the same. Then he
brought me by the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked,
and behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh: and I fell on
my face. Yahweh said to
me, Son of man, mark well, and see with your eyes, and hear with your ears
all that I tell you concerning all the ordinances of the house of Yahweh,
and all its laws; and mark well the entrance of the house, with every exit
of the sanctuary. You
shall tell the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,
in that you have brought
in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in
my sanctuary, to profane it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the
fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant, to add to all
your abominations. You
have not performed the duty of my holy things; but you have set performers
of my duty in my sanctuary for yourselves. Thus says the Lord Yahweh, No
foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter
into my sanctuary, of any foreigners who are among the children of Israel.
But the Levites who went
far from me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their
idols, they shall bear their iniquity. Yet they shall be ministers in
my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house, and ministering
in the house: they shall kill the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the
people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. Because they ministered to them
before their idols, and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house
of Israel; therefore have I lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord
Yahweh, and they shall bear their iniquity. They shall not come near to me,
to execute the office of priest to me, nor to come near to any of my holy
things, to the things that are most holy; but they shall bear their shame,
and their abominations which they have committed. Yet will I make them performers
of the duty of the house, for all its service, and for all that shall be
done therein. But the
priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who performed the duty of my
sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come
near to me to minister to me; and they shall stand before me to offer to
me the fat and the blood, says the Lord Yahweh: they shall enter into my
sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister to me, and
they shall keep my instruction. It shall be that, when they
enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen
garments; and no wool shall come on them, while they minister in the gates
of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen tires on
their heads, and shall have linen breeches on their waists; they shall not
clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat. When they go forth into the
outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off
their garments in which they minister, and lay them in the holy rooms; and
they shall put on other garments, that they not sanctify the people with
their garments. Neither
shall they shave their heads, nor allow their locks to grow long; they
shall only cut off the hair of their heads. Neither shall any of the priests
drink wine, when they enter into the inner court. Neither shall they take for
their wives a widow, nor her who is put away; but they shall take virgins
of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a
priest. They shall teach
my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them
to discern between the unclean and the clean. In a controversy they shall
stand to judge; according to my ordinances shall they judge it: and they
shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts; and they
shall make my Sabbaths holy. They shall go in to no dead
person to defile themselves; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or
for daughter, for brother, or for sister who has had no husband, they may
defile themselves. After
he is cleansed, they shall reckon to him seven days. In the day that he goes into the
sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall
offer his sin offering, says the Lord Yahweh. They shall have an inheritance:
I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I
am their possession. They shall eat the meal
offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every
devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. The first of all the first
fruits of every thing, and every offering of everything, of all your
offerings, shall be for the priest: you shall also give to the priests the
first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on your house. The priests shall not eat of
anything that dies of itself, or is torn, whether it be bird or animal.
Moreover, when you
shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, you shall offer an offering
to Yahweh, a holy portion of the land; the length shall be the length of
twenty-five thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand:
it shall be holy in all its border all around. Of this there shall be for the
holy place five hundred in length by five hundred in
breadth, square all around; and fifty cubits for its suburbs all
around. Of this measure
you shall measure a length of twenty-five thousand, and a breadth of ten
thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary, which is most holy. It is a holy portion of the land;
it shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near
to minister to Yahweh; and it shall be a place for their houses, and a
holy place for the sanctuary. Twenty-five thousand in length,
and ten thousand in breadth, shall be to the Levites, the ministers of the
house, for a possession to themselves, for twenty rooms. You shall appoint the possession
of the city five thousand broad, and twenty-five thousand long, side by
side with the offering of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole
house of Israel. Whatever is for the prince
shall be on the one side and on the other side of the holy offering
and of the possession of the city, in front of the holy offering and in
front of the possession of the city, on the west side westward, and on the
east side eastward; and in length answerable to one of the portions, from
the west border to the east border. In the land it shall be to him
for a possession in Israel: and my princes shall no more oppress my
people; but they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to
their tribes. Thus says
the Lord Yahweh: Let it suffice you, princes of Israel: remove violence
and spoil, and execute justice and righteousness; dispossessing my people,
says the Lord Yahweh. You shall have just balances,
and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be
of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: its
measure shall be after the homer. The shekel shall be twenty
gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels shall
be your mina. This is
the offering that you shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah from a homer
of wheat; and you shall give the sixth part of an ephah from a homer of
barley; and the set
portion of oil, of the bath of oil, the tenth part of a bath out of the
cor, which is ten baths, even a homer; (for ten baths are a homer;)
and one lamb of the
flock, out of two hundred, from the well-watered pastures of Israel—for
a meal offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to
make atonement for them, says the Lord Yahweh. All the people of the land shall
give to this offering for the prince in Israel. It shall be the prince’s part
to give the burnt offerings, and the meal offerings, and the drink
offerings, in the feasts, and on the new moons, and on the Sabbaths, in
all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin
offering, and the meal offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace
offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In
the first month, in the first day of the month, you shall
take a young bull without blemish; and you shall cleanse the sanctuary.
The priest shall take of
the blood of the sin offering, and put it on the door posts of the house,
and on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the posts of the
gate of the inner court. So you shall do on the seventh
day of the month for everyone who errs, and for him who is simple:
so you shall make atonement for the house. In the first month, in
the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of
seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. On that day shall the prince
prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a sin
offering. The seven days
of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to Yahweh, seven bulls and
seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a male goat daily for
a sin offering. He shall
prepare a meal offering, an ephah for a bull, and an ephah for a ram, and
a hin of oil to an ephah. In the seventh month, in
the fifteenth day of the month, in the feast, shall he do the like the
seven days; according to the sin offering, according to the burnt
offering, and according to the meal offering, and according to the oil.
Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east shall be
shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and
on the day of the new moon it shall be opened. The prince shall enter by the way
of the porch of the gate outside, and shall stand by the post of the gate;
and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings,
and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth;
but the gate shall not be shut until the evening. The people of the land shall
worship at the door of that gate before Yahweh on the Sabbaths and on the
new moons. The burnt
offering that the prince shall offer to Yahweh shall be on the Sabbath day
six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish; and the meal offering shall be an
ephah for the ram, and the meal offering for the lambs as he is able to
give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. On the day of the new moon it
shall be a young bull without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram; they
shall be without blemish: and he shall prepare a meal
offering, an ephah for the bull, and an ephah for the ram, and for the
lambs according as he is able, and a hin of oil to an ephah. When the prince shall enter, he
shall go in by the way of the porch of the gate, and he shall go forth by
its way. But when the
people of the land shall come before Yahweh in the appointed feasts, he
who enters by the way of the north gate to worship shall go forth by the
way of the south gate; and he who enters by the way of the south gate
shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the
way of the gate by which he came in, but shall go forth straight before
him. The prince, when
they go in, shall go in with of them; and when they go out, he shall go
out. In the feasts and
in the solemnities the meal offering shall be an ephah
for a bull, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs as he is able to
give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. When the prince shall prepare a
freewill offering, a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill
offering to Yahweh, one shall open for him the gate that looks toward the
east; and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as
he does on the Sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going
forth one shall shut the gate. You shall prepare a lamb a year
old without blemish for a burnt offering to Yahweh daily: morning by
morning you shall prepare it. You shall prepare a meal
offering with it morning by morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the
third part of a hin of oil, to moisten the fine flour; a meal offering to
Yahweh continually by a perpetual ordinance. Thus shall they prepare the
lamb, and the meal offering, and the oil, morning by morning, for a
continual burnt offering. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: If
the prince give a gift to any of his sons, it is his inheritance, it shall
belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance. But if he give of his
inheritance a gift to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of
liberty; then it shall return to the prince; but as for his inheritance,
it shall be for his sons. Moreover the prince shall not
take of the people’s inheritance, to thrust them out of their
possession; he shall give inheritance to his sons out of his own
possession, that my people not be scattered every man from his possession.
Then he brought me
through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy rooms
for the priests, which looked toward the north: and behold, there was a
place on the hinder part westward. He said to me, This is the place
where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering,
and where they shall bake the meal offering; that they not bring
them forth into the outer court, to sanctify the people. Then he brought me forth into
the outer court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court;
and behold, in every corner of the court there was a court. In the four corners of the court
there were courts enclosed, forty cubits long and thirty broad:
these four in the corners were of one measure. There was a wall around in them,
around the four, and boiling places were made under the walls all around.
Then he said to me,
These are the boiling houses, where the ministers of the house shall boil
the sacrifice of the people.
He brought me back to
the door of the house; and behold, waters issued out from under the
threshold of the house eastward; (for the forefront of the house was
toward the east;) and the waters came down from under, from the right side
of the house, on the south of the altar. Then he brought me out by the way
of the gate northward, and led me round by the way outside to the outer
gate, by the way of the gate that looks toward the east; and
behold, there ran out waters on the right side. When the man went forth eastward
with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused
me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles. Again he measured one thousand,
and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees.
Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the
waters, waters that were to the waist. Afterward he measured one
thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the
waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed
through. He said to me,
Son of man, have you seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me
to return to the bank of the river. Now when I had returned, behold,
on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the
other. Then he said to
me, These waters issue forth toward the eastern region, and shall go down
into the Arabah; and they shall go toward the sea; into the sea shall
the waters go which were made to issue forth; and the waters shall be
healed. It shall happen,
that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers
come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish; for
these waters have come there, and the waters of the sea shall be
healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes. It shall happen, that fishermen
shall stand by it: from En Gedi even to En Eglaim shall be a place for the
spreading of nets; their fish shall be after their kinds, as the fish of
the great sea, exceeding many. But the miry places of it, and
its marshes, shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt. By the river on its bank, on
this side and on that side, shall grow every tree for food, whose leaf
shall not wither, neither shall its fruit fail: it shall bring forth new
fruit every month, because its waters issue out of the sanctuary; and its
fruit shall be for food, and its leaf for healing. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This
shall be the border, by which you shall divide the land for inheritance
according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two
portions. You shall
inherit it, one as well as another; for I swore to give it to your
fathers: and this land shall fall to you for inheritance. This shall be the border of the
land: On the north side, from the great sea, by the way of Hethlon, to the
entrance of Zedad; Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which
is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazer
Hatticon, which is by the border of Hauran. The border from the sea, shall
be Hazar Enon at the border of Damascus; and on the north northward is the
border of Hamath. This is the north side. The east side, between Hauran
and Damascus and Gilead, and the land of Israel, shall be the Jordan; from
the north border to the east sea you shall measure. This is the
east side. The south
side southward shall be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth
Kadesh, to the brook of Egypt, to the great sea. This is the south
side southward. The west
side shall be the great sea, from the south border as far as over
against the entrance of Hamath. This is the west side. So you shall divide this land to
you according to the tribes of Israel. It shall happen, that you shall
divide it by lot for an inheritance to you and to the aliens who live
among you, who shall father children among you; and they shall be to you
as the native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have
inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. It shall happen, that in what
tribe the stranger lives, there you shall give him his inheritance, says
the Lord Yahweh.
Now these are the
names of the tribes: From the north end, beside the way of Hethlon to the
entrance of Hamath, Hazar Enan at the border of Damascus, northward beside
Hamath, (and they shall have their sides east and west), Dan, one
portion. By the
border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one
portion. By the
border of Asher, from the east side even to the west side, Naphtali, one
portion. By the
border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh, one
portion. By the
border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one
portion. By the
border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the west side, Reuben, one
portion. By the
border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one
portion. By the
border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the
offering which you shall offer, twenty-five thousand reeds in
breadth, and in length as one of the portions, from the east side to the
west side: and the sanctuary shall be in its midst. The offering that you shall offer
to Yahweh shall be twenty-five thousand reeds in length, and ten
thousand in breadth. For
these, even for the priests, shall be the holy offering: toward the north
twenty-five thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in
breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south
twenty-five thousand in length: and the sanctuary of Yahweh shall be in
its midst. It shall
be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have
kept my instruction, who didn’t go astray when the children of Israel
went astray, as the Levites went astray. It shall be to them an offering
from the offering of the land, a thing most holy, by the border of the
Levites. Answerable to
the border of the priests, the Levites shall have twenty-five thousand in
length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be twenty-five
thousand, and the breadth ten thousand. They shall sell none of it, nor
exchange it, nor shall the first fruits of the land be alienated; for it
is holy to Yahweh. The
five thousand that are left in the breadth, in front of the twenty-five
thousand, shall be for common use, for the city, for dwelling and for
suburbs; and the city shall be in its midst. These shall be its measures: the
north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four
thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five
hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred. The city shall have suburbs:
toward the north two hundred fifty, and toward the south two hundred
fifty, and toward the east two hundred fifty, and toward the west two
hundred fifty. The
remainder in the length, answerable to the holy offering, shall be ten
thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward; and it shall be answerable
to the holy offering; and its increase shall be for food to those who
labor in the city. Those
who labor in the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall cultivate
it. All the offering
shall be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you shall offer the
holy offering foursquare, with the possession of the city. The residue shall be for the
prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy offering and of the
possession of the city; in front of the twenty-five thousand of the
offering toward the east border, and westward in front of the twenty-five
thousand toward the west border, answerable to the portions, it shall be
for the prince: and the holy offering and the sanctuary of the house shall
be in its midst. Moreover from the possession of
the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of
that which is the prince’s, between the border of Judah and the border
of Benjamin, it shall be for the prince. As for the rest of the tribes:
from the east side to the west side, Benjamin, one portion. By the border of Benjamin, from
the east side to the west side, Simeon, one portion. By the border of Simeon, from
the east side to the west side, Issachar, one portion. By the border of Issachar, from
the east side to the west side, Zebulun, one portion. By the border of Zebulun, from
the east side to the west side, Gad, one portion. By the border of Gad, at the
south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar to the waters of
Meribath Kadesh, to the brook of Egypt, to the great sea. This is the land which you shall
divide by lot to the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their
several portions, says the Lord Yahweh. These are the exits of the city:
On the north side four thousand and five hundred reeds by measure;
and the gates of the
city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates
northward: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of
Levi, one. At the east
side four thousand and five hundred reeds, and three gates: even
the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one.
At the south side four
thousand and five hundred reeds by measure, and three gates: the
gate of Simeon, one; the gate of Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one.
At the west side four
thousand and five hundred reeds, with their three gates: the gate
of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one. It shall be eighteen thousand
reeds around: and the name of the city from that day shall be,
Yahweh is there.
Notes: [1] back to 1:1
The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “Elohim.” [2] back to 1:3 “Yahweh” is God’s
proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other
translations. [3] back to 1:26
or, lapis lazuli [4] back to 2:4
The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.” [5]
back to 3:7 Literally, have a hard forehead [6] back to 10:1 or, lapis lazuli [7] back to 28:13 or, lapis
lazuli [8] back to 31:15 Sheol
is the place of the dead. [9] back
to 31:16 Sheol is the place of the dead. [10] back to 32:21 Sheol is the place of the dead. [11] back to 45:10 1 ephah is about 22
litres or about 2/3 of a bushel [12] back to 45:11 1 homer is about 220 litres or 6
bushels [13] back to 46:11 1
ephah is about 22 litres or about 2/3 of a bushel
Bible Index
Ezekiel
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