¹ And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

² Son of man, set thy face towards Jerusalem, and drop thy word towards the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,

³ And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.

⁴ Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth from its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:

⁵ That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn my sword out of its sheath: it shall not return any more.

⁶ Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

⁷ And it shall be, when they say to thee, Why sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.

⁸ Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁹ Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:

¹⁰ It is sharpened to make a grievous slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.

¹¹ And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.

¹² Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.

¹³ Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemneth even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.

¹⁴ Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thy hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their private chambers.

¹⁵ I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is sharpened for the slaughter.

¹⁶ Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.

¹⁷ I will also smite my hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it.

¹⁸ The word of the LORD came to me again, saying,

¹⁹ Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both ways shall come forth from one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.

²⁰ Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.

²¹ For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.

²² At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.

²³ And it shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.

²⁴ Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are disclosed, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.

²⁵ And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,

²⁶ Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.

²⁷ I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he cometh whose right it is; and I will give it him.

²⁸ And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:

²⁹ While they see vanity to thee, while they divine a lie to thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.

³⁰ Shall I cause it to return into its sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.

³¹ And I will pour out my indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skillful to destroy.

³² Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the LORD have spoken it.

¹ Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if ye can find a man, if there is any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.

² And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.

³ O LORD, are not thy eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

⁴ Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

⁵ I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

⁶ Wherefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

⁷ How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

⁸ They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.

⁹ Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD'S.

¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.

¹² They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

¹³ And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.

¹⁴ Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

¹⁵ Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

¹⁶ Their quiver is as an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men.

¹⁷ And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees: they shall impoverish with the sword thy fortified cities, in which thou hast trusted.

¹⁸ Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.

¹⁹ And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why doeth the LORD our God all these things to us? then shalt thou answer them, As ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

²⁰ Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

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

²² Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though its waves toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

²³ But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and gone.

²⁴ Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in its season: he reserveth to us the appointed weeks of harvest.

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

²⁶ For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

²⁷ As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they have become great, and have grown rich.

²⁸ They have become fat, they shine: yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

²⁹ Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

³⁰ A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?