¹ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

² Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house: who have eyes to see, and see not: and ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a provoking house.

³ Thou, therefore, O son of man, prepare thee all necessaries for removing, and remove by day in their sight: and thou shalt remove out of thy place to another place in their sight, if so be they will regard it: for they are a provoking house.

⁴ And thou shalt bring forth thy furniture as the furniture of one that is removing by day in their sight: and thou shalt go forth in the evening in their presence, as one goeth forth that removeth his dwelling.

⁵ Dig thee a way through the wall before their eyes: and thou shalt go forth through it.

⁶ In their sight thou shalt be carried out upon men's shoulders, thou shalt be carried out in the dark: thou shalt cover thy face, and shalt not see the ground: for I have set thee for a sign of things to come to the house of Israel.

⁷ I did therefore as he had commanded me: I brought forth my goods by day, as the goods of one that removeth: and in the evening I digged through the wall with my hand: and I went forth in the dark, and was carried on men's shoulders in their sight.

⁸ And the word of the Lord came to me in the morning, saying:

⁹ Son of man, hath not the house of Israel, the provoking house, said to thee: What art thou doing?

¹⁰ Say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: This burden concerneth my prince that is in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel, that are among them.

¹¹ Say: I am a sign of things to come to you: as I have done, so shall it be done to them: they shall be removed from their dwellings, and go into captivity.

¹² And the prince that is in the midst of them, shall be carried on shoulders, he shall go forth in the dark: they shall dig through the wall to bring him out: his face shall be covered, that he may not see the ground with his eyes.

¹³ And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my net: and I will bring him into Babylon, into the land of the Chaldeans, and he shall not see it, and there he shall die.

¹⁴ And all that are about him, his guards, and his troops I will scatter into every wind: and I will draw out the sword after them.

¹⁵ And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have dispersed them among the nations, and scattered them in the countries.

¹⁶ And I will leave a few men of them from the sword, and from the famine, and from the pestilence: that they may declare all their wicked deeds among the nations whither they shall go: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

¹⁷ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

¹⁸ Son of man, eat thy bread in trouble: and drink thy water in hurry and sorrow.

¹⁹ And say to the people of the land: Thus saith the Lord God to them that dwell in Jerusalem in the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread in care, and drink their water in desolation: that the land may become desolate from the multitude that is therein, for the iniquity of all that dwell therein.

²⁰ And the cities that are now inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

²¹ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

²² Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel? saying: The days shall be prolonged, and every vision shall fail.

²³ Say to them therefore: Thus saith the Lord God: I will make this proverb to cease, neither shall it be any more a common saying in Israel: and tell them that the days are at hand, and the effect of every vision.

²⁴ For there shall be no more any vain visions, nor doubtful divination in the midst of the children of Israel.

²⁵ For I the Lord will speak: and what word soever I shall speak, it shall come to pass, and shall not be prolonged any more: but in your days, ye provoking house, I will speak the word, and will do it, saith the Lord God.

²⁶ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

²⁷ Son of man, behold the house of Israel, they that say: The vision that this man seeth, is for many days to come: and this men prophesieth of times afar off.

²⁸ Therefore say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Not one word of mine shall be prolonged any more: the word that I shall speak shall be accomplished, saith the Lord God.

¹ Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and consider, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can fins a man that executeth judgement, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.

² And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear falsely.

³ O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return.

⁴ But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God.

⁵ I will go therefore to the great men, and I will speak to them: for they known the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God: and behold these have together broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.

⁶ Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening, hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.

⁷ How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot's house.

⁸ They are become as amorous horses and stallions, every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.

⁹ Shall I not visit for these things, sayeth the Lord? and shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

¹⁰ Scale down the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do not utterly destroy: take away the branches thereof, because they are not the Lord's.

¹¹ For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.

¹² They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine.

¹³ The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of God in them: these things therefore shall befall them.

¹⁴ Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: Because you have spoken this word, behold I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them.

¹⁵ Behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say.

¹⁶ Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.

¹⁷ And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest.

¹⁸ Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you to utter destruction.

¹⁹ And if you shall say: why hath the Lord our God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you have forsaken me, and served a strange God in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own.

²⁰ Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda, saying:

²¹ Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and Hear not.

²² Will not you then fear me, saith the Lord: and will you not repent at my presence? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over: and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell, and shall not pass over it.

²³ But the heart of this people is become hard of belief and provoking, they are revolted and gone away.

²⁴ And they have not said in their heart: let us fear the Lord our God, who giveth us the early and the latter rain in due season: who preserveth for us the fullness of the yearly harvest.

²⁵ Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

²⁶ For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.

²⁷ As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.

²⁸ They are grown gross and fat: andhave most wickedly transgressed my words. They have not judged the cause of the widow, they have not managed the cause of the fatherless, they have not judged the judgement of the poor.

²⁹ Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

³⁰ Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.

³¹ The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the end thereof?