The World English Bible (WEB) Part 69

50:1 The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet. 50:2 Declare you among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don't conceal: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed; her images are disappointed, her idols are dismayed. 50:3 For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and animal. 50:4 In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Yahweh their G.o.d. 50:5 They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, saying, Come you, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten. 50:6 My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place. 50:7 All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers. 50:8 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks. 50:9 For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain. 50:10 Chaldea shall be a prey: all who prey on her shall be satisfied, says Yahweh. 50:11 Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain, and neigh as strong horses; 50:12 your mother shall be utterly disappointed; she who bore you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. 50:13 Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. 50:14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against Yahweh. 50:15 Shout against her all around: she has submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh: take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her. 50:16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land. 50:17 Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of a.s.syria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones. 50:18 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the G.o.d of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of a.s.syria.

50:19 I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. 50:20 In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant. 50:21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: kill and utterly destroy after them, says Yahweh, and do according to all that I have commanded you. 50:22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. 50:23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut apart and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

50:24 I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren't aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven against Yahweh. 50:25 Yahweh has opened his armory, and has brought forth the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans. 50:26 Come against her from the utmost border; open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left. 50:27 Kill all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation. 50:28 The voice of those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our G.o.d, the vengeance of his temple. 50:29 Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow; encamp against her all around; let none of it escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel. 50:30 Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh. 50:31 Behold, I am against you, you proud one, says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; for your day is come, the time that I will visit you. 50:32 The proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are around him. 50:33 Thus says Yahweh of Armies: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; and all who took them captive hold them fast; they refuse to let them go. 50:34 Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Armies is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. 50:35 A sword is on the Chaldeans, says Yahweh, and on the inhabitants of Babylon, and on her princes, and on her wise men. 50:36 A sword is on the boasters, and they shall become fools; a sword is on her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed. 50:37 A sword is on their horses, and on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is on her treasures, and they shall be robbed. 50:38 A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols. 50:39 Therefore the wild animals of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be lived in from generation to generation. 50:40 As when G.o.d overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, so shall no man dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein. 50:41 Behold, a people comes from the north; and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. 50:42 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon. 50:43 The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. 50:44 Behold, the enemy shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who can stand before me? 50:45 Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, even the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.

50:46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.

51:1 Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind. 51:2 I will send to Babylon strangers, who shall winnow her; and they shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her around. 51:3 Against him who bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail: and don't you spare her young men; destroy you utterly all her army. 51:4 They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets. 51:5 For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his G.o.d, of Yahweh of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. 51:6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; don't be cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Yahweh's vengeance; he will render to her a recompense. 51:7 Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh's hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. 51:8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. 51:9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. 51:10 Yahweh has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our G.o.d. 51:11 Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the s.h.i.+elds: Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his temple. 51:12 Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Yahweh has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. 51:13 You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, the measure of your covetousness. 51:14 Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker worm; and they shall lift up a shout against you. 51:15 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: 51:16 when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries. 51:17 Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 51:18 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 51:19 The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name. 51:20 You are my battle axe and weapons of war: and with you will I break in pieces the nations; and with you will I destroy kingdoms; 51:21 and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; 51:22 and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein; and with you will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin; 51:23 and with you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I break in pieces governors and deputies. 51:24 I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says Yahweh. 51:25 Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain, says Yahweh, which destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain. 51:26 They shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever, says Yahweh.

51:27 Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker worm. 51:28 Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion. 51:29 The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant. 51:30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might has failed; they are become as women: her dwelling places are set on fire; her bars are broken. 51:31 One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter: 51:32 and the pa.s.sages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened. 51:33 For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the G.o.d of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a thres.h.i.+ng floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her. 51:34 Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies; he has cast me out. 51:35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. 51:36 Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry. 51:37 Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant. 51:38 They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions' cubs. 51:39 When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says Yahweh. 51:40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats. 51:41 How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! 51:42 The sea is come up on Babylon; she is covered with the mult.i.tude of its waves. 51:43 Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pa.s.s thereby. 51:44 I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more to him: yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. 51:45 My people, go you out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Yahweh. 51:46 Don't let your heart faint, neither fear for the news that shall be heard in the land; for news shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come news, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 51:47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. 51:48 Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come to her from the north, says Yahweh. 51:49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land. 51:50 You who have escaped the sword, go you, don't stand still; remember Yahweh from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 51:51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh's house. 51:52 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will execute judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan. 51:53 Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall destroyers come to her, says Yahweh.

51:54 The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! 51:55 For Yahweh lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered: 51:56 for the destroyer is come on her, even on Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for Yahweh is a G.o.d of recompenses, he will surely requite.

51:57 I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.

51:58 Thus says Yahweh of Armies: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary. 51:59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign.

Now Seraiah was chief quartermaster. 51:60 Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon. 51:61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words, 51:62 and say, Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor animal, but that it shall be desolate forever. 51:63 It shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: 51:64 and you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

52:1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 52:2 He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 52:3 For through the anger of Yahweh did it happen in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 52:4 It happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. 52:5 So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 52:6 In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. 52:7 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were against the city all around;) and they went toward the Arabah. 52:8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. 52:9 Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment on him. 52:10 The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he killed also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 52:11 He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death. 52:12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem: 52:13 and he burned the house of Yahweh, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he with fire. 52:14 All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. 52:15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the mult.i.tude. 52:16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers. 52:17 The pillars of bra.s.s that were in the house of Yahweh, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the house of Yahweh, did the Chaldeans break in pieces, and carried all the bra.s.s of them to Babylon. 52:18 The pots also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and all the vessels of bra.s.s with which they ministered, took they away.

52:19 The cups, and the fire pans, and the basins, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the spoons, and the bowls--that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver,--the captain of the guard took away. 52:20 The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh. The bra.s.s of all these vessels was without weight.

52:21 As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits did compa.s.s it; and its thickness was four fingers: it was hollow. 52:22 A capital of bra.s.s was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bra.s.s: and the second pillar also had like these, and pomegranates. 52:23 There were ninety- six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network all around. 52:24 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold: 52:25 and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and seven men of those who saw the king's face, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city. 52:26 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. 52:27 The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land. 52:28 This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand twenty-three Jews; 52:29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons; 52:30 in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred. 52:31 It happened in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison; 52:32 and he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, 52:33 and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life: 52:34 and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Notes:

[1] back to 49:21 or, Sea of Reeds

Lamentations

1:1 How the city sits solitary, that was full of people!

She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces is become tributary! 1:2 She weeps sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her: All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they are become her enemies. 1:3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest: all her persecutors overtook her within the straits. 1:4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn a.s.sembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests do sigh: her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness. 1:5 Her adversaries are become the head, her enemies prosper; for Yahweh has afflicted her for the mult.i.tude of her transgressions: her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary. 1:6 From the daughter of Zion all her majesty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, they are gone without strength before the pursuer. 1:7 Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old: when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and none did help her, The adversaries saw her, they did mock at her desolations. 1:8 Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is become as an unclean thing; all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she sighs, and turns backward. 1:9 Her filthiness was in her skirts; she didn't remember her latter end; therefore is she come down wonderfully; she has no comforter: see, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself. 1:10 The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things: for she has seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you did command that they should not enter into your a.s.sembly. 1:11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for food to refresh the soul: look, Yahweh, and see; for I am become abject. 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pa.s.s by? Look, and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, With which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. 1:13 From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them; He has spread a net for my feet, he has turned me back: He has made me desolate and faint all the day. 1:14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are come up on my neck; he has made my strength to fail: The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand. 1:15 The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men in the midst of me; He has called a solemn a.s.sembly against me to crush my young men: The Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. 1:16 For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water; Because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me: My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed. 1:17 Zion spreads forth her hands; there is none to comfort her; Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries: Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing. 1:18 Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow: My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. 1:19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, While they sought them food to refresh their souls. 1:20 See, Yahweh; for I am in distress; my heart is troubled; My heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: Abroad the sword bereaves, at home there is as death. 1:21 They have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me; All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it: You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they shall be like me. 1:22 Let all their wickedness come before you; Do to them, as you have done to me for all my transgressions: For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint. 2:1 How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, And hasn't remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. 2:2 The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not pitied: He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground; he has profaned the kingdom and its princes. 2:3 He has cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel; He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around. 2:4 He has bent his bow like an enemy, he has stood with his right hand as an adversary, Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye: In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like fire. 2:5 The Lord is become as an enemy, he has swallowed up Israel; He has swallowed up all her palaces, he has destroyed his strongholds; He has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. 2:6 He has violently taken away his tent, as if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his place of a.s.sembly: Yahweh has caused solemn a.s.sembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, Has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. 2:7 The Lord has cast off his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary; He has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: They have made a noise in the house of Yahweh, as in the day of a solemn a.s.sembly. 2:8 Yahweh has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together. 2:9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; Yes, her prophets find no vision from Yahweh. 2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they keep silence; They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 2:11 My eyes do fail with tears, my heart is troubled; My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city. 2:12 They tell their mothers, Where is grain and wine? When they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city, When their soul is poured out into their mothers'

bosom. 2:13 What shall I testify to you? what shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your breach is great like the sea: who can heal you? 2:14 Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions; They have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captivity, But have seen for you false oracles and causes of banishment.

2:15 All that pa.s.s by clap their hands at you; They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? 2:16 All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you; They hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up; Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. 2:17 Yahweh has done that which he purposed; he has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old; He has thrown down, and has not pitied: He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; he has exalted the horn of your adversaries. 2:18 Their heart cried to the Lord: wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no respite; don't let the apple of your eye cease. 2:19 Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street. 2:20 Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? 2:21 The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: You have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered, and not pitied. 2:22 You have called, as in the day of a solemn a.s.sembly, my terrors on every side; There was none that escaped or remained in the day of Yahweh's anger: Those that I have dandled and brought up has my enemy consumed. 3:1 I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 3:2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. 3:3 Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day. 3:4 My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones. 3:5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail. 3:6 He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead. 3:7 He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy. 3:8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. 3:9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked. 3:10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places. 3:11 He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate. 3:12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. 3:13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. 3:14 I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day. 3:15 He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood. 3:16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes. 3:17 You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity. 3:18 I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh. 3:19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 3:20 My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. 3:21 This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope. 3:22 It is of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compa.s.sion doesn't fail. 3:23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 3:24 Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 3:25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. 3:26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 3:28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. 3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. 3:30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach. 3:31 For the Lord will not cast off forever. 3:32 For though he cause grief, yet he will have compa.s.sion according to the mult.i.tude of his loving kindnesses. 3:33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. 3:34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, 3:35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, 3:36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve. 3:37 Who is he who says, and it comes to pa.s.s, when the Lord doesn't command it? 3:38 Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?

3:39 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.

3:41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to G.o.d in the heavens. 3:42 We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned. 3:43 You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied. 3:44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pa.s.s through. 3:45 You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples. 3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. 3:47 Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction. 3:48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 3:49 My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission, 3:50 Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven. 3:51 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. 3:52 They have chased me sore like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. 3:53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. 3:54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off. 3:55 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon. 3:56 You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry. 3:57 You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid. 3:58 Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life. 3:59 Yahweh, you have seen my wrong; judge you my cause. 3:60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me. 3:61 You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me, 3:62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. 3:63 See you their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song. 3:64 You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. 3:65 You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.

3:66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh. 4:1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. 4:2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! 4:3 Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 4:4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst: The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them. 4:5 Those who did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

4:6 For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her. 4:7 Her n.o.bles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polis.h.i.+ng was as of sapphire. 4:8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. 4:9 Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field. 4:10 The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. 4:11 Yahweh has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations. 4:12 The kings of the earth didn't believe, neither all the inhabitants of the world, That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem. 4:13 It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her. 4:14 They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments. 4:15 Depart you, they cried to them, Unclean! depart, depart, don't touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn here. 4:16 The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; he will no more regard them: They didn't respect the persons of the priests, they didn't favor the elders. 4:17 Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save. 4:18 They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets: Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. 4:19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky: They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits; Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations. 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz: The cup shall pa.s.s through to you also; you shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked. 4:22 The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into captivity: He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins. 5:1 Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach. 5:2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, Our houses to aliens. 5:3 We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows. 5:4 We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us. 5:5 Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest. 5:6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, To the a.s.syrians, to be satisfied with bread. 5:7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; We have borne their iniquities. 5:8 Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand. 5:9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness. 5:10 Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine. 5:11 They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah. 5:12 Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored. 5:13 The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled under the wood. 5:14 The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music. 5:15 The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning. 5:16 The crown is fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned. 5:17 For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim; 5:18 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it. 5:19 You, Yahweh, abide forever; Your throne is from generation to generation. 5:20 Why do you forget us forever, And forsake us so long time? 5:21 Turn you us to you, Yahweh, and we shall be turned; Renew our days as of old. 5:22 But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.

Ezekiel

1:1 Now it happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of G.o.d. 1:2 In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity, 1:3 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. 1:4 I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with flas.h.i.+ng lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of its midst as it were glowing metal, out of the midst of the fire. 1:5 Out of its midst came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. 1:6 Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings. 1:7 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 bra.s.s.

1:8 They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings thus: 1:9 their wings were joined one to another; they didn't turn when they went; each one went straight forward. 1:10 As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four had also the face of an eagle. 1:11 Their faces and their wings were separate above; two wings of each one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. 1:12 Each one went straight forward: where the spirit was to go, they went; they didn't turn when they went. 1:13 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. 1:14 The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. 1:15 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. 1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl: and they four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel. 1:17 When they went, they went in their four directions: they didn't turn when they went. 1:18 As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and they four had their rims full of eyes all around. 1:19 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. 1:20 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. 1:21 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. 1:22 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. 1:23 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. 1:24 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. 1:25 There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads: when they stood, they let down their wings. 1:26 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. 1:27 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. 1:28 As the appearance of the bow 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.

2:1 He said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you. 2:2 The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me. 2:3 He said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious, which have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day. 2:4 The children are impudent and stiff-hearted: I am sending you to them; and you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh. 2:5 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. 2:6 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. 2:7 You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious.

2:8 But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; don't be you rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you. 2:9 When I looked, behold, a hand was put forth to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein; 2:10 He spread it before me: and it was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

3:1 He said to me, Son of man, eat that which you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. 3:2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll. 3:3 He said to me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you.

Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. 3:4 He said to me, Son of man, go, get you to the house of Israel, and speak with my words to them. 3:5 For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel; 3:6 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. 3:7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are of hard forehead and of a stiff heart. 3:8 Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. 3:9 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.

3:10 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. 3:11 Go, get you 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. 3:12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rus.h.i.+ng, saying, Blessed be the glory of Yahweh from his place. 3:13 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 rus.h.i.+ng. 3:14 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. 3:15 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. 3:16 It happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 3:17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. 3:18 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. 3:19 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. 3:20 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. 3:21 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.

3:22 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. 3:23 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. 3:24 Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me, and said to me, Go, shut yourself within your house.

3:25 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: 3:26 and I will make your tongue cleave 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. 3:27 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.

4:1 You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem: 4:2 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. 4:3 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.

4:4 Moreover lie you 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. 4:5 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. 4:6 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. 4:7 You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it. 4:8 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. 4:9 Take for yourself also wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make you 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. 4:10 Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time you shall eat it. 4:11 You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time you shall drink. 4:12 You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man. 4:13 Yahweh said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them. 4:14 Then said I, 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. 4:15 Then he said to me, Behold, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread thereon. 4:16 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: 4:17 that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

5:1 You, son of man, take a sharp sword; You shall take it as a barber's razor to you, and shall cause it to pa.s.s on your head and on your beard: then take balances to weigh, and divide the hair. 5:2 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. 5:3 You shall take of it a few in number, and bind them in your skirts. 5:4 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. 5:5 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are around her. 5:6 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. 5:7 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; 5:8 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. 5:9 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. 5:10 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. 5:11 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.

5:12 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. 5:13 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. 5:14 Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pa.s.s by. 5:15 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;) 5:16 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; 5:17 and I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pa.s.s through you; and I will bring the sword on you: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

6:1 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 6:2 Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them, 6:3 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. 6:4 Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 6:5 I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6:6 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.

6:7 The slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh. 6:8 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. 6:9 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 prost.i.tute after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. 6:10 They shall know that I am Yahweh: I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them. 6:11 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Smite 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. 6:12 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. 6:13 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. 6:14 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.

7:1 Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 7:2 You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, An end: the end is come on the four corners of the land. 7:3 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. 7:4 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. 7:5 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: An evil, an only evil; behold, it comes. 7:6 An end is come, the end is come; it awakes against you; behold, it comes. 7:7 Your doom is come to you, inhabitant of the land: the time is come, the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting, on the mountains. 7:8 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. 7:9 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. 7:10 Behold, the day, behold, it comes: your doom is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded. 7:11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them shall remain, nor of their mult.i.tude, nor of their wealth: neither shall there be eminency among them. 7:12 The time is come, the day draws near: don't let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its mult.i.tude. 7:13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they be yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole mult.i.tude of it, none shall return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life. 7:14 They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but none goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all its mult.i.tude. 7:15 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. 7:16 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. 7:17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water. 7:18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. 7:19 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. 7:20 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. 7:21 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. 7:22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane my secret place; and robbers shall enter into it, and profane it. 7:23 Make the chain; for the land is full of b.l.o.o.d.y crimes, and the city is full of violence. 7:24 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. 7:25 Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. 7:26 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. 7:27 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.

8:1 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. 8