¹ And in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

² Son of man, write thee the name of the day, of this selfsame day: on this selfsame day the king of Babylon draws near to Jerusalem.

³ And propose a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Set on the pot, set [it] on, and also pour water into it.

⁴ Gather the pieces thereof into it, every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder; fill [it] with the choice bones:

⁵ take the choice of the flock; and also [put] a pile of wood under it, for the bones; make it boil well, and let the bones of it seethe therein.

⁶ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose rust is therein, and whose rust is not gone out of it! Bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it:

⁷ for her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the bare rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust.

⁸ That it might cause fury to come up to execute vengeance, I have set her blood upon the bare rock, that it should not be covered.

⁹ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great.

¹⁰ Heap on the wood, kindle the fire, boil thoroughly the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned.

¹¹ Then set it empty upon its coals, that it may be hot, and the brass of it may burn, and that its filthiness may be molten in it, [and] that its rust may be consumed.

¹² She hath exhausted [her] labours, yet her great rust goeth not forth out of her: let her rust be in the fire.

¹³ In thy filthiness is lewdness, for I have purged thee, and thou art not pure. Thou shalt no more be purged from thy filthiness, till I have satisfied my fury upon thee.

¹⁴ I Jehovah have spoken [it]: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, nor will I repent. According to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁵ And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

¹⁶ Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; yet thou shalt not mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.

¹⁷ Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead; bind thy turban upon thee, and put thy sandals upon thy feet, and cover not the beard, and eat not the bread of men.

¹⁸ -- And I spoke unto the people in the morning; and at even my wife died. And I did in the morning as I was commanded.

¹⁹ And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, which thou doest?

²⁰ And I said to them, The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

²¹ Say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and your soul's longing; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left behind shall fall by the sword.

²² And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover the beard, neither eat the bread of men;

²³ and your turbans shall be upon your heads, and your sandals upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall waste away in your iniquities and moan one toward another.

²⁴ Thus Ezekiel shall be unto you a sign; according to all that he hath done shall ye do: when it cometh, then ye shall know that I [am] the Lord Jehovah.

²⁵ And thou, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereunto they lift up their soul, their sons and their daughters,

²⁶ that in that day he that escapeth shall come unto thee, to cause [thine] ears to hear [it]?

²⁷ In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him that is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb. So shalt thou be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

¹ Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

³ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

⁵ For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

⁶ that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

⁷ that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,

⁸ and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁹ The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰ They didn't keep God's covenant, and refused to walk in his law.

¹¹ They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.

¹² He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³ He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

¹⁴ In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

¹⁵ He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶ He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷ Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸ They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

¹⁹ Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

²¹ Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

²² because they didn't believe in God, and didn't trust in his salvation.

²³ Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴ He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them food from the sky.

²⁵ Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷ He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.

²⁸ He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.

²⁹ So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

³⁰ They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

³¹ when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.

³² For all this they still sinned, and didn't believe in his wondrous works.

³³ Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

³⁴ When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷ For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸ But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn't stir up all his wrath.

³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹ They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They didn't remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³ how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴ he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶ He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

⁴⁸ He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹ He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹ and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵² But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³ He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵ He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn't keep his testimonies;

⁵⁷ but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

⁵⁹ When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰ So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹ and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.

⁶² He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

⁶³ Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

⁶⁶ He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷ Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

⁷⁰ He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹ from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

⁷² So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. A Psalm by Asaph.