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

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

³ If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he shall blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

⁴ Then whoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword shall 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 shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

⁶ But if the watchman shall see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword shall come, and take any 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, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

⁸ When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak 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 Nevertheless, if thou shalt warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he shall not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

¹⁰ Therefore, O thou son of man, speak to the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

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

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

¹³ When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he shall trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

¹⁴ Again, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he shall turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;

¹⁵ If the wicked shall restore the pledge, give again that which he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.

¹⁶ None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned to him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely 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 committeth iniquity, for that he shall even die.

¹⁹ But if the wicked shall turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, for that he shall live.

²⁰ Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye 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, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city is smitten.

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

²³ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²⁴ Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given to us for inheritance.

²⁵ Wherefore say to them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes towards 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 neighbor's wife: and shall ye possess the land?

²⁷ Say thou thus to them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes 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 forts and in the caves shall die by the pestilence.

²⁸ For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.

²⁹ Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.

³⁰ Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against 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 the LORD.

³¹ And they come to thee as the people come, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.

³² And lo, thou art to them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do not perform them.

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

¹ It happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

² Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, You were likened to a young lion of the nations: yet you are as a monster in the seas; and you did break forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.

³ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring you up in my net.

⁴ I will leave you on the land, I will cast you forth on the open field, and will cause all the birds of the sky to settle on you, and I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth with you.

⁵ I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height.

⁶ I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of you.

⁷ When I shall extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.

⁸ All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁹ I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known.

¹⁰ Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.

¹¹ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come on you.

¹² By the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall; the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall bring to nothing the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude shall be destroyed.

¹³ I will destroy also all its animals from beside many waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of animals trouble them.

¹⁴ Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁵ When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that of which it was full, when I shall strike all those who dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁶ This is the lamentation with which they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁷ It happened also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁸ Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit.

¹⁹ Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised.

²⁰ They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her away and all her multitudes.

²¹ The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with those who help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

²² Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are all around her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword;

²³ whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.

²⁴ There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit.

²⁵ They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude; her graves are around her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of those who are slain.

²⁶ There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude; their graves are around them; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living.

²⁷ They shall not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are on their bones; for [they were] the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

²⁸ But you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shall lie with those who are slain by the sword.

²⁹ There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit.

³⁰ There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who are gone down with the slain; in the terror which they caused by their might they are put to shame; and they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.

³¹ Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh.

³² For I have put his terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.