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

² Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward 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 his 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 out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:

⁵ That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his 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 unto thee, Wherefore 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 unto 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 sore 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 give it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this 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 contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.

¹⁴ Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine 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 privy 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 wrapped up 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 mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it.

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

¹⁹ Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of 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 Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.

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 unto 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 discovered, 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 come 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 Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto 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 his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.

³¹ And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful 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 The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?

² Thou that art full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: thy slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.

³ All thy rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: all that are found in thee are bound together, which have fled from far.

⁴ Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.

⁵ For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.

⁶ And Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷ And it shall come to pass, that thy choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate.

⁸ And he discovered the covering of Judah, and thou didst look in that day to the armour of the house of the forest.

⁹ Ye have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and ye gathered together the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰ And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall.

¹¹ Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.

¹² And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

¹³ And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.

¹⁴ And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

¹⁵ Thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,

¹⁶ What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock?

¹⁷ Behold, the LORD will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee.

¹⁸ He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord's house.

¹⁹ And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down.

²⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:

²¹ And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

²² And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

²³ And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.

²⁴ And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.

²⁵ In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.