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

² And you, son of man, will you be a judge, will you be a judge of the town of blood? then make clear to her all her disgusting ways.

³ And you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: A town causing blood to be drained out in her streets so that her time may come, and making images in her to make her unclean!

⁴ You are responsible for the blood drained out by you, and you are unclean through the images which you have made; and you have made your day come near, and the time of your judging has come; for this cause I have made you a name of shame to the nations and a cause of laughing to all countries.

⁵ Those who are near and those who are far from you will make sport of you; your name is unclean, you are full of sounds of fear.

⁶ See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you.

⁷ In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow.

⁸ You have made little of my holy things, and have made my Sabbaths unclean.

⁹ In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death; in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in your streets they have put evil designs into effect.

¹⁰ In you they have let the shame of their fathers be seen; in you they have done wrong to a woman at the time when she was unclean.

¹¹ And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter.

¹² In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord.

¹³ See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath against your taking of goods by force and against the blood which has been flowing in you.

¹⁴ Will your heart be high or your hands strong in the days when I take you in hand? I the Lord have said it and will do it.

¹⁵ And I will send you in flight among the nations and wandering among the countries; and I will completely take away out of you everything which is unclean.

¹⁶ And you will be made low before the eyes of the nations; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord.

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

¹⁸ Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste.

¹⁹ For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have all become waste metal, see, I will get you together inside Jerusalem.

²⁰ As they put silver and brass and iron and lead and tin together inside the oven, heating up the fire on it to make it soft; so will I get you together in my wrath and in my passion, and, heating the fire with my breath, will make you soft.

²¹ Yes, I will take you, breathing on you the fire of my wrath, and you will become soft in it.

²² As silver becomes soft in the oven, so you will become soft in it; and you will be certain that I the Lord have let loose my passion on you.

²³ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²⁴ Son of man, say to her, You are a land on which no rain or thunderstorm has come in the day of wrath.

²⁵ Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her.

²⁶ Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them.

²⁷ Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit.

²⁸ And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing.

²⁹ The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land.

³⁰ And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one.

³¹ And I let loose my passion on them, and have put an end to them in the fire of my wrath: I have made the punishment of their ways come on their heads, says the Lord.

¹ And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, saying,

² Son of man, put down in writing this very day: The king of Babylon let loose the weight of his attack against Jerusalem on this very day.

³ And make a comparison for this uncontrolled people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Put on the cooking-pot, Put it on the fire and Put water in it:

⁴ And get the bits together, the fat tail, every good part, the leg and the top part of it: make it full of the best bones.

⁵ Take the best of the flock, put much wood under it: see that its bits are boiling well; let the bones be cooked inside it.

⁶ For this is what the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood, the cooking-pot which is unclean inside, which has never been made clean! take out its bits; its fate is still to come on it.

⁷ For her blood is in her; she has put it on the open rock not draining it on to the earth so that it might be covered with dust;

⁸ In order that it might make wrath come up to give punishment, she has put her blood on the open rock, so that it may not be covered.

⁹ For this cause the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood! and I will make great the burning mass.

¹⁰ Put on much wood, heating up the fire, boiling the flesh well, and making the soup thick, and let the bones be burned.

¹¹ And I will put her on the coals so that she may be heated and her brass burned, so that what is unclean in her may become soft and her waste be completely taken away.

¹² I have made myself tired to no purpose: still all the waste which is in her has not come out, it has an evil smell.

¹³ As for your unclean purpose: because I have been attempting to make you clean, but you have not been made clean from it, you will not be made clean till I have let loose my passion on you in full measure.

¹⁴ I the Lord have said the word and I will do it; I will not go back or have mercy, and my purpose will not be changed; in the measure of your ways and of your evil doings you will be judged, says the Lord.

¹⁵ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁶ Son of man, see, I am taking away the desire of your eyes by disease: but let there be no sorrow or weeping or drops running from your eyes.

¹⁷ Let there be no sound of sorrow; make no weeping for your dead, put on your head-dress and your shoes on your feet, let not your lips be covered, and do not take the food of those in grief.

¹⁸ So in the morning I was teaching the people and in the evening death took my wife; and in the morning I did what I had been ordered to do.

¹⁹ And the people said to me, Will you not make clear to us the sense of these things; is it for us you do them?

²⁰ Then I said to them, The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²¹ Say to the people of Israel, The Lord has said, See, I will make my holy place unclean, the pride of your strength, the pleasure of your eyes, and the desire of your soul; and your sons and daughters, who did not come with you here, will be put to the sword.

²² And you will do as I have done, not covering your lips or taking the food of those in grief.

²³ And your head-dresses will be on your heads and your shoes on your feet: there will be no sorrow or weeping; but you will be wasting away in the punishment of your evil-doing, and you will be looking at one another in wonder.

²⁴ And Ezekiel will be a sign to you; everything he has done you will do: when this takes place, you will be certain that I am the Lord.

²⁵ And as for you, son of man, your mouth will be shut in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that on which their hearts are fixed, and their sons and daughters.

²⁶ In that day, one who has got away safe will come to you to give you news of it.

²⁷ In that day your mouth will be open to him who has got away safe, and you will say words to him and your lips will no longer be shut: so you will be a sign to them and they will be certain that I am the Lord.