¹ And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

² And thou, son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? Yea, cause her to know all her abominations,

³ and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: A city that sheddeth blood in her midst, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.

⁴ Thou art become guilty by thy blood which thou hast shed, and hast defiled thyself with thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the nations, and a mocking unto all countries.

⁵ Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall mock thee, who art infamous [and] full of tumult.

⁶ Behold, the princes of Israel have been in thee to shed blood, each according to his power.

⁷ In thee have they made light of father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger; in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

⁸ Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.

⁹ In thee there have been slanderous men to shed blood; and in thee have they eaten upon the mountains; in the midst of thee they have committed lewdness;

¹⁰ in thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was unclean in her separation.

¹¹ And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.

¹² In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast overreached thy neighbours by oppression, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹³ And behold, I have smitten mine hand at thine overreaching which thou hast done, and at thy bloodshed which hath been in the midst of thee.

¹⁴ Shall thy heart endure, shall thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I Jehovah have spoken, and will do [it].

¹⁵ And I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee through the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.

¹⁶ And thou shalt be polluted through thyself in the sight of the nations, and thou shalt know that I [am] Jehovah.

¹⁷ And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

¹⁸ Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross to me: they are all copper, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: they are become the dross of silver.

¹⁹ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

²⁰ [As] they gather silver, and copper, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it, so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will lay you on and melt you.

²¹ Yea, I will collect you, and blow upon you the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.

²² As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I Jehovah have poured out my fury upon you.

²³ And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

²⁴ Son of man, say unto her, Thou art a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

²⁵ There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they devour souls; they take away treasure and precious things; they increase her widows in the midst of her;

²⁶ her priests do violence to my law, and profane my holy things: they put no difference between the holy and profane, neither do they make known [the difference] between the unclean and the clean, and they hide their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷ Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

²⁸ And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered [mortar], seeing vanity and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah! and Jehovah hath not spoken.

²⁹ The people of the land use oppression and practise robbery; and they vex the poor and needy, and oppress the stranger wrongfully.

³⁰ And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the fence, and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.

³¹ And I will pour out mine indignation upon them; I will consume them in the fire of my wrath: their own way will I recompense upon their head, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁴ And in the prophets of Jerusalem have I seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in falsehood, and strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none doth return from his wickedness. They are all become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

¹ Then Yahweh said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

² It shall happen, when they tell you, Where shall we go forth? Then you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.

³ I will appoint over them four kinds, says Yahweh: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

⁴ I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

⁵ For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? or who will bemoan you? or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?

⁶ You have rejected me, says Yahweh, you have gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.

⁷ I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved [them] of children, I have destroyed my people; they didn't return from their ways.

⁸ Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

⁹ She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been disappointed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Yahweh.

¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; [yet] everyone of them does curse me.

¹¹ Yahweh said, Most certainly I will strengthen you for good; most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

¹² Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?

¹³ Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.

¹⁴ I will make [them] to pass with your enemies into a land which you don't know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you.

¹⁵ Yahweh, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; don't take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.

¹⁶ Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.

¹⁷ I didn't sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation.

¹⁸ Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you indeed be to me as a deceitful [brook], as waters that fail?

¹⁹ Therefore thus says Yahweh, If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.

²⁰ I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says Yahweh.

²¹ I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.