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And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
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Son of man , set thy face toward Jerusalem , and let thy speech flow towards the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel :
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And say to the land of Israel : Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against thee, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off in thee the just , and the wicked .
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And forasmuch as I have cut off in thee the just , and the wicked , therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh , from the south even to the north .
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That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my sword out of its sheath not to be turned back .
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And thou, son of man , mourn with the breaking of thy loins , and with bitterness sigh before them.
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And when they shall say to thee: Why mournest thou? thou shalt say : For that which I hear: because it cometh , and every heart shall melt , and all hands shall be made feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and water shall run down every knee : behold it cometh , and it shall be done, saith the Lord God.
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And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
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Son of man , prophesy, and say : Thus saith the Lord God: Say : The sword , the sword is sharpened, and furbished.
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It is sharpened to kill victims: it is furbished that it may glitter: thou removest the sceptre of my son , thou hast cut down every tree .
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And I have given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, that it may be in the hand of the slayer.
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Cry , and howl , 0 son of man , for this sword is upon my people, it is upon all the princes of Israel , that are fled: they are delivered up to the sword with my people, strike therefore upon thy thigh ,
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Because it is tried: and that when it shall overthrow the sceptre, and it shall not be, saith the Lord God.
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Thou therefore, O son of man , prophesy, and strike thy hands together, and let the sword be doubled, and let the sword of the slain be tripled: this is the sword of a great slaughter , that maketh them stand amazed,
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And languish in heart , and that multiplieth ruins. In all their gates I have set the dread of the sharp sword , the sword that is furbished to glitter, that is made ready for slaughter .
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Be thou sharpened, go to the right hand, or to the left, which way soever thou hast a mind to set thy face .
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And I will clap my hands together, and will satisfy my indignation: I the Lord have spoken .
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And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
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And thou son of man , set thee two ways , for the sword of the king of Babylon to come : both shall come forth out of one land : and with his hand he shall draw lots, he shall consult at the head of the way of the city .
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Thou shalt make a way that the sword may come to Rabbath of the children of Ammon , and to Juda unto Jerusalem the strong city.
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For the king of Babylon stood in the highway, at the head of two ways , seeking divination, shuffling arrows : he inquired of the idols, and consulted entrails.
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On his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem , to set battering rams, to open the mouth in slaughter , to lift up the voice in howling, to set engines against the gates , to cast up a mount, to build forts.
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And he shall be in their eyes as one consulting the oracle in vain , and imitating the leisure of sabbaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity that they may be taken.
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Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have remembered your iniquity , and have discovered your prevarications , and your sins have appeared in all your devices: because, I say , you have remembered , you shall be taken with the hand.
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But thou profane wicked prince of Israel , whose day is come that hath been appointed in the time of iniquity :
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Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, take off the crown : is it not this that hath exalted the low one, and brought down him that was high ?
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I will shew it to be iniquity, iniquity, iniquity: but this was not done till he came to whom judgment belongeth, and I will give it him.
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And thou son of man , prophesy, and say : Thus saith the Lord God concerning the children of Ammon , and concerning their reproach , and thou shalt say : sword , O sword , come out of the scabbard to kill, be furbished to destroy, and to glitter,
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Whilst they see vain things in thy regard, and they divine lies : to bring thee upon the necks of the wicked that are wounded, whose appointed day is come in the time of iniquity .
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Return into thy sheath. I will judge thee in the place wherein thou wast created , in the land of thy nativity.
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And I will pour out upon thee my indignation: in the fire of my rage will I blow upon thee, and will give thee into the hands of men that are brutish and contrive thy destruction.
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Thou shalt be fuel for the fire , thy blood shall be in the midst of the land , thou shalt be forgotten: for I the Lord have spoken it.