¹ And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third [month], on the first of the month, [that] the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

² Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom art thou like in thy greatness?

³ Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature: and his top was amidst the thick boughs.

⁴ The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high; its streams ran round about his plantation, and it sent out its rivulets unto all the trees of the field.

⁵ Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of great waters, when he shot forth.

⁶ All the fowl of the heavens made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all the great nations.

⁷ Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: because his root was by great waters.

⁸ The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the cypresses were not like his boughs, and the plane-trees were not as his branches: no tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

⁹ I had made him fair by the multitude of his branches; and all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

¹⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast lifted up thyself in stature, ... and he hath set his top amidst the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height,

¹¹ I have given 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.

¹² And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off and have left him; upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken in all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

¹³ Upon his fallen [trunk] do all the fowl of the heavens dwell, and all the beasts of the field are upon his branches:

¹⁴ to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, nor set their top amidst the thick boughs, and that none of them that drink water stand up in his height by himself; for they are all given over unto death in the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

¹⁵ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day when he went down to Sheol, I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed; and I made Lebanon black for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

¹⁶ I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol, with them that go down 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.

¹⁷ They also went down into Sheol with him unto them that were slain with the sword, and [that were] his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

¹⁸ To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden, unto the lower parts of the earth; thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

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

² Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them all, and set him for their watchman:

³ if he see the sword coming upon the land, and blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

⁴ then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

⁵ He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood is upon him: whereas had he taken warning, he would have delivered his soul.

⁶ But if the watchman see the sword coming, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take a person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

⁷ So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; and thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me.

⁸ When I say unto the wicked, wicked [man], thou shalt certainly die; and thou speakest not to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked [man] shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand.

⁹ But if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

¹⁰ And thou, son of man, say unto the house of Israel, Thus ye speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we waste away in them, how then should we live?

¹¹ Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

¹² And thou, son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live thereby in the day that he sinneth.

¹³ When I say to the righteous that he shall certainly live, and he trusteth to his righteousness and doeth what is wrong, none of his righteous acts shall be remembered; but in his unrighteousness which he hath done, in it shall he die.

¹⁴ And when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt certainly die, and he turneth from his sin, and doeth judgment and justice;

¹⁵ if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, doing nothing that is wrong; he shall certainly live, he shall not die.

¹⁶ None of his sins which he hath committed shall be remembered against him: he hath done judgment and justice; he shall certainly live.

¹⁷ Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.

¹⁸ When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and doeth what is wrong, then he shall die therein.

¹⁹ And when the wicked turneth from his wickedness, and doeth judgment and justice, he shall live for these things.

²⁰ Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.

²¹ And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth [month], on the fifth of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten!

²² Now the hand of Jehovah had been upon me in the evening, before he that had escaped came; and he had opened my mouth against his coming to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.

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

²⁴ Son of man, they that inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited this land, and we are many: the land is given us for a possession.

²⁵ Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood; and shall ye possess the land?

²⁶ Ye stand upon your sword, ye work abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour's wife; and shall ye possess the land?

²⁷ Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: [As] I live, verily they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.

²⁸ And I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment, and the pride of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolated, so that none shall pass through.

²⁹ And they shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment because of all their abominations which they have committed.

³⁰ And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people keep talking of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from Jehovah.

³¹ And they come unto thee as a people cometh, and they sit before thee [as] my people, and they hear thy words, but they do them not; for with their mouth they shew much love, [but] their heart goeth after their dishonest gain.

³² And behold, thou art unto them as a lovely song, a pleasant voice, and one that playeth well on an instrument; and they hear thy words, but they do them not.

³³ And when this cometh to pass (behold, it will come), then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.