¹ And 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, one of their meanest, and make him a watchman over them:

³ And he see the sword coming upon the land, and sound the trumpet, and tell the people:

⁴ Then he that heareth the sound of the trumpet, whosoever he be, and doth not look to himself, if the sword come, and cut him off: his blood shall be upon his own head.

⁵ He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not look to himself, his blood shall be upon him: but if he look to himself, he shall save his life.

⁶ And if the watchman see the sword coming, and sound not the trumpet: and the people look not to themselves, and the sword come, and cut off a soul from among them: he indeed is taken away in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at the hand of the watchman.

⁷ So thou, O son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and shalt tell it 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 man from his way: that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand.

⁹ But if thou tell the wicked man, that he may be converted from his ways, and he be not converted from his way: he shall die in his iniquity: but thou hast delivered thy soul.

¹⁰ Thou therefore, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus you have spoken, saying: Our iniquities, and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them: how then can we live?

¹¹ Say to them: As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die, O house of Israel?

¹² Thou therefore, O son of man, say to the children of thy people: The justice of the just shall not deliver him, in what day soever he shall sin: and the wickedness of the wicked shall not hurt him, in what day soever he shall turn from his wickedness: and the just shall not be able to live in his justice, in what day soever he shall sin.

¹³ Yea, if I shall say to the just that he shall surely live, and he, trusting in his justice, commit iniquity: all his justices shall be forgotten, and in his iniquity, which he hath committed, in the same shall he die.

¹⁴ And if I shall say to the wicked: Thou shalt surely die: and he do penance for his sin, and do judgment and justice,

¹⁵ And if that wicked man restore the pledge, and render what he had robbed, and walk in the commandments of life, and do no unjust thing: he shall surely live, and shall not die.

¹⁶ None of his sins, which he hath committed, shall be imputed to him: he hath done judgment and justice, he shall surely live.

¹⁷ And the children of thy people have said: The way of the Lord is not equitable: whereas their own way is unjust.

¹⁸ For when the just shall depart from his justice, and commit iniquities, he shall die in them.

¹⁹ And when the wicked shall depart from his wickedness, and shall do judgments, and justice: be shall live in them.

²⁰ And you say: The way of the Lord is not right, I will judge every one of you according to his ways, O house of Israel.

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 there came to me one that was fled from Jerusalem, saying: The city is laid waste.

²² And the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening, before he that was fled came: and he opened my mouth till he came to me in the morning, and my mouth being opened, I was silent no more.

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

²⁴ Son of man, they that dwell in these ruinous places in the land of Israel, speak, saying: Abraham was one, and he inherited the land, but we are many, the land is given us in possession.

²⁵ Therefore say to them: Thus saith the Lord God, You that eat with the blood and lift up your eyes to your uncleannesses, and that shed blood: shall you possess the land by inheritance?

²⁶ You stood on your swords, you have committed abominations, and every one hath defiled his neighbour's wife; and shall you possess the land by inheritance?

²⁷ Say thou thus to them: Thus saith the Lord God: As I live, they that dwell in the ruinous places, shall fall by the sword: and he that is in the field, shall be given to the beasts to be devoured: and they that are in holds, and caves, shall die of the pestilence.

²⁸ And I will make the land a wilderness, and a desert, and the proud strength thereof shall fail, and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, because there is none to pass by them.

²⁹ And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have made their land waste and desolate, for all their abominations which they have committed.

³⁰ And thou son of man: the children of thy people, that talk of thee by the walls, and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another each men to his neighbour, saying: Come, and let us hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.

³¹ And they come to thee, as if a people were coming in, and my people sit before thee: and hear thy words, and do them not: for they turn them into a song of their mouth, and their heart goeth after their covetousness.

³² And thou art to them as a musical song which is sung with a sweet and agreeable voice: and they hear thy words, and do them not.

³³ And when that which was foretold shall come to pass, (for behold it is coming,) then shall they know that a prophet bath been among them.

¹ AND after the tumult was ceased, Paul calling to him the disciples, and exhorting them, took his leave, and set forward to go into Macedonia.

² And when he had gone over those parts, and had exhorted them with many words, he came into Greece;

³ Where, when he had spent three months, the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria; so he took a resolution to return through Macedonia.

⁴ And there accompanied him Sopater the son of Pyrrhus, of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus, and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.

⁵ These going before, stayed for us at Troas.

⁶ But we sailed from Philippi after the days of the Azymes, and came to them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven days.

⁷ And on the first day of the week, when we were assembled to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, being to depart on the morrow: and he continued his speech until midnight.

⁸ And there were a great number of lamps in the upper chamber where we were assembled.

⁹ And a certain young man named Eutychus, sitting on the window, being oppressed with a deep sleep, (as Paul was long preaching,) by occasion of his sleep fell from the third loft down, and was taken up dead.

¹⁰ To whom, when Paul had gone down, he laid himself upon him, and embracing him, said: Be not troubled, for his soul is in him.

¹¹ Then going up, and breaking bread and tasting, and having talked a long time to them, until daylight, so he departed.

¹² And they brought the youth alive, and were not a little comforted.

¹³ But we, going aboard the ship, sailed to Assos, being there to take in Paul; for so he had appointed, himself purposing to travel by land.

¹⁴ And when he had met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene.

¹⁵ And sailing thence, the day following we came over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos; and the day following we came to Miletus.

¹⁶ For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, lest he should be stayed any time in Asia. For he hasted, if it were possible for him, to keep the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem.

¹⁷ And sending from Miletus to Ephesus, he called the ancients of the church.

¹⁸ And when they were come to him, and were together, he said to them: You know from the first day that I came into Asia, in what manner I have been with you, for all the time,

¹⁹ Serving the Lord with all humility, and with tears, and temptations which befell me by the conspiracies of the Jews;

²⁰ How I have kept back nothing that was profitable to you, but have preached it to you, and taught you publicly, and from house to house,

²¹ Testifying both to Jews and Gentiles penance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

²² And now, behold, being bound in the spirit, I go to Jerusalem: not knowing the things which shall befall me there:

²³ Save that the Holy Ghost in every city witnesseth to me, saying: That bands and afflictions wait for me at Jerusalem.

²⁴ But I fear none of these things, neither do I count my life more precious than myself, so that I may consummate my course and the ministry of the word which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

²⁵ And now behold, I know that all you, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.

²⁶ Wherefore I take you to witness this day, that I am clear from the blood of all men;

²⁷ For I have not spared to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

²⁸ Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

²⁹ I know that, after my departure, ravening wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

³⁰ And of your own selves shall arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

³¹ Therefore watch, keeping in memory, that for three years I ceased not, with tears to admonish every one of you night and day.

³² And now I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, who is able to build up, and to give an inheritance among all the sanctified.

³³ I have not coveted any man's silver, gold, or apparel, as

³⁴ You yourselves know: for such things as were needful for me and them that are with me, these hands have furnished.

³⁵ I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how he said: It is a more blessed thing to give, rather than to receive.

³⁶ And when he had said these things, kneeling down, he prayed with them all.

³⁷ And there was much weeping among them all; and falling on the neck of Paul, they kissed him,

³⁸ Being grieved most of all for the word which he had said, that they should see his face no more. And they brought him on his way to the ship.