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EZK

1 lt was in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, as I was among the exiles at the river Kebar, that heaven opened and I saw visions of God. 2 [[It was on the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year of king Jehoiakin’s exile, 3 that the word of the Eternal came to the priest Ezekiel the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans, at the river Kebar.]] The hand of the Eternal was on me 4 in a trance, and as I gazed, there was a storm-wind blowing from the north!--a huge cloud with fire flashing out of it, and with a sheen encircling it and issuing from it, the colour of amber. 5 Out of it appeared the forms of four Creatures, and this was their appearance: they had the same form, 6 each with four faces and four wings, 7 with limbs straight and gleaming like burnished bronze, and with the soles of their feet rounded like the feet of calves. 8 Under their wings, on the four sides of them, were human hands. As for their four faces and wings-- 9 their wings touched one another, and their faces never turned as they moved; each moved straight forward. 10 As for the likeness of their faces--all four had in front the face of a man, on the right the face of a lion, on the left the face of a bull, and the face of an eagle at the back. 11 Their wings were stretched out, one pair to touch the next Creature, the other pair to cover the body. 12 Each moved straight forward; wherever the Spirit impelled them to go they went, never turning as they moved. 13 Also, in the middle of the Creatures there was Something moving to and fro, like glowing coals, like torches, 14 a fire that gleamed and flashed out lightning.

15 As I gazed, there was a wheel on the ground beside each of the four Creatures! 16 The wheels were the colour of a topaz, and all four had the same shape, arranged as if one wheel were inside the other. 17 When they moved, they moved in any direction that their four sides faced, never turning as they moved. 18 The felloes and spokes of the four, I saw, were full of eyes all round. 19 Whenever the Creatures moved, the wheels moved with them, and whenever the Creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose with them; 20 wherever the Spirit impelled them to go they went, for a living Spirit was in the wheels. 21 When the Creatures moved, they moved; when the Creatures stood still, they stood still; when the Creatures rose from earth, they rose; for a living Spirit was in these wheels.

22 Above the Creatures there was the semblance of a vault, which looked like crystal, stretching over their heads, 23 and under the vault their wings were level, each with one pair touching the next Creature and one pair covering its body. 24 Whenever they moved, I heard their wings sound like the sound of many waters, like the thunder of the Almighty, the sound of a tumult like the sound of a host; when they stood still, they dropped their wings.

25 Above the vault over their heads 26 was the semblance of a throne, blue like a sapphire, and on the throne-like appearance there was the semblance of a human form; 27 from the waist upwards I saw Something glowing like amber or fire, from the waist downwards there was Something resembling fire, while all around 28 there was a bright halo like the rainbow that appears in the clouds after rain. Such was the appearance of what resembled the Splendour of the Eternal. When I saw it, I fell on my face; 2 then I heard the voice of one speaking; he said to me, 2 “Son of man, stand up and I will speak to you.” As he spoke, the Spirit entered me and made me stand upon my feet. 3 I heard him address me. “Son of man,” he said, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious race who have rebelled against me; they and their fathers have sinned against me down to this day. 4 I am sending you to them, impudent and obstinate as they are, and you must tell them what the Eternal says. 5 Whether they will listen or refuse to listen (for they are a rebellious folk), they shall learn that there is a prophet among them. 6 Son of man, fear them not, fear not what they say, although they cut and wound you, these scorpions round you with their sting--fear not what they say, dread not their scowls (for they are a rebellious folk). 7 Tell them what I say, whether they will listen or refuse to listen (for they are a rebellious folk). 8 Son of man, listen to what I say; be not rebellious like this rebellious folk; open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”

9 Then I looked, and there was a hand stretched out to me, holding a written scroll! 10 When he unrolled it before me,it was written all over, outside as well as inside, with laments and dirges and woes. 3 “Son of man,” he said, “eat this scroll, then go and speak to Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth and he made me eat the scroll, 3 telling me, “Son of man, swallow and digest this scroll I am giving you.” When I ate it, the scroll tasted sweet as honey in my mouth.

4 “Son of man,” he said to me, “go to Israel and speak my words to them. 5 It is to no people of a foreign tongue or a difficult language that you are sent, but to Israel. 6 It is to no foreign nations whose language you could not understand. No, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you! 7 But Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to me. Defiant and stubborn are they, every one of them. 8 But I will make you as defiant and as stubborn, 9 I will make your temper unyielding as adamant, harder than flint; fear them not, dread not their scowls (for they are a rebellious folk). 10 Son of man,” he added, “attend and listen to all I tell you; 11 then go to the exiles, to the members of your race, and tell them what the Eternal says, whether they will listen or refuse to listen.”

12 Then the Spirit picked me up (I heard behind me a loud sound of rustling, as the Splendour of the Eternal rose from its place; 13 it was the noise made by the wings of the Creatures touching one another and by the wheels beside them)-- 14 the Spirit picked me up and carried me away; I went away hot and indignant (for the hand of the Eternal pressed hard upon me), 15 and reached the exiles living at Telabib by the river Kebar. There I sat for seven days among them, overwhelmed. 16 At the end of seven days this word from the Eternal came to me: 17 “Son of man, I appoint you a sentinel to Israel; whenever you hear a word from me, you must give them my warning. 18 When I tell the wicked, ‘You must die,’ if you do not warn him, if you say nothing to warn the wicked from his wicked course, in order to save his life, then that wicked man shall die for his iniquity, but I will hold you responsible for his death. 19 If you do warn the wicked, and if he will not give up his wickedness and wicked course, he shall die for his iniquity, but you have saved yourself. 20 Again, if a good man gives up his goodness to commit iniquity, when I put temptation before him, he shall die, because you have not given him warning--he shall die of his sin, for the good deeds he has done shall not be remembered; only, I will hold you responsible for his death. 21 But if you warn the good man not to sin, and if he does not sin, he shall live, because he took warning; and you have saved yourself.”

22 The hand of the Eternal was upon me in a trance. He said to me, “Move away to the valley, and I will talk to you there.” 23 So I started off to the valley, and there stood the Splendour of the Eternal, like the Splendour I had seen beside the river Kebar! I fell on my face. 24 But the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; then he spoke to me, saying, “Go and shut yourself up inside your house. 25 Son of man, you are to be roped and bound, and never to go out to them; 26 I will make your tongue cleave to your palate, till you cannot talk or censure them (for they are a rebellious folk). 27 But when I talk to you, I will open your mouth, and you must tell them what the Lord the Eternal says, whether they listen or refuse to listen (for they are a rebellious folk).

4 Son of man, take a brick and a put it in front of you; trace‘s upon it a city, the city of Jerusalem, 2 and lay siege to it, run trenches, raise a mound against it, pitch troops against it, and place battering rams round it. 3 Also take an iron plate and place it as an iron wall between yourself and the city, turning your face to it, to make it besieged and lay siege to the city. This is an omen for Israel. 4 Then lie on your left side. I am making you bear the punishment of Israel; you must bear it for the number of days you lie upon your side. 5 I assign you for the years of their punishment an equal number of days, one hundred and ninety; so shall you bear the punishment of Israel. 6 And, when you have completed this, you must lie on your right side and bear the punishment of Judah for forty days; a day for a year I assign you. 7 As for the siege of Jerusalem, you must turn your face and bare your arm and prophesy against the city. 8 And I fasten you with cords that you may not turn from one side to the other till you complete the days of your siege. 9 During the days you are lying on your side . . . 10 you must ration your food, eating only eight ounces a day and eating at fixed intervals, 11 and you must ration your water, drinking only two pints and at fixed intervals. 16 Son of man,” he added, “I will break the support of their life in Jerusalem; they will have to ration their bread with anxious faces and ration their water in dismay, 17 till they lack bread and water and are all dismayed and waste away under their punishment. 9 But take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt, put them into a single vessel and make some food for yourself; 12 eat it cooked like barley-cakes, and bake it before their eyes on human dung, 13 telling them this from the Eternal, the God of Israel, ‘So shall the Israelites have to eat impure food among the nations.’ ” 14 “But, O Lord the Eternal,” I said, “never from my boyhood have I defiled myself, never have I eaten anything that died a natural death or was torn to pieces, never have I touched a morsel of carrion!” 15 “Well,” he said to me, “I will let you have cows’ dung instead of human dung, to prepare your food.

5 Son of man, take a sharp sword and ply it like a barber’s razor, running it over your head and beard. Then take a pair of scales and divide the hair; 2 bum a third of it in the fire that is blazing inside the city after the siege is over, strike a third of it with the sword all round the city, and scatter a third of it to the winds. 3 [[However, take a few hairs and wrap them in the fold of your robe; 4 of these again take and burn some in the fire.]]

5 Then give this message from the Lord the Eternal to the whole community of Israel: This Jerusalem! I placed her in the centre of the nations, with the lands of the world around her, 6 and she has rebelled against my laws and orders, sinning worse than the nations and the lands around her; for her folk have set aside my orders and they have not lived by my laws. 7 This therefore is the sentence of the Lord the Eternal: Because you have been worse rebels than the nations around you, because you have not lived by my laws nor followed my orders but have followed the practices of the nations around you, 8 therefore--it is the sentence of the Lord the Eternal--I am against you, I am; I will inflict punishment upon you before the eyes of the nations, 9 and do to you what I have never done before, a thing that I will never do again, owing to all your detestable deeds. 10 Within you, fathers shall eat their sons, and sons shall eat their fathers! I will inflict punishment upon you, and scatter all your survivors to the winds. 11 By my life!--it is the sentence of the Lord the Eternal--as you have polluted my sanctuary with all your loathsome and detestable impieties,! am going to cut you down, I will have neither mercy nor pity; 12 a third of your folk shall die within your walls of pestilence and famine, a third shall fall by the sword around your walls, and a third I will scatter to the four winds and pursue them with a sword. 13 Thus my anger shall be visited on them and my fury appeased; it will ease my mind, and it will let them know that I the Eternal spoke in just resentment when I visited my fury upon them. 14 I will turn you into a desolate ruin, an object of scorn to every passer-by; 15 you shall be scorned and derided, a warning and a wonder to the nations around you, when I inflict punishment upon you in anger and fury and my furious rebukes, 16 when I hurl at you my deadly arrows to destroy you, when I send famine after you and break the support of your life, 17 when I send wild beasts to prey upon you, when pestilence and bloodshed sweep across you, and I send the sword against you. I the Eter­nal have passed sentence.”

6 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, turn to the mountains of Israel and prophesy thus to them: 3 O mountains of Israel, listen to the word of doom from the Lord the Eternal. The Lord the Eternal declares to the mountains, the hills, the ravines, and the valleys: I bring a sword against you, 4 I will destroy your shrines, your altars shall be demolished, your sun-pillars shattered, 5 your corpses laid low in front of your idols, and your bones scattered about your altars. 6 Wherever people dwell, the villages shall be laid waste and the shrines ruined, that your altars may be waste and desolate, that your idols may be shattered to nothing, that your sun-pillars may be cut down, and all you have constructed blotted out; 7 men shall fall slain among you, and you shall learn that I am the Eternal. 8 But when some of you escape the sword and are scattered in foreign lands, 9 then those of you who escape will remember me amid the nations where you lie in exile, remembering how I crush the hearts that break their troth with me and the eyes that turn lustfully to their idols; they shall loathe themselves for the wickedness they have committed, for all their detestable ways, 10 and learn that I am the Eternal--it was not in vain that I said I would bring this evil upon them.

11 Clap your hands, says the Lord the Eternal, stamp your feet, and shout ‘Aha! for all the detestable deeds of Israel’; for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12 He who is far away shall die of pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is besieged shall die of famine; so will I glut my fury upon them. 13 They shall learn that I am the Eternal, when their slain men lie among their idols round about their altars, at every shrine on the top of every hill, and under every green tree and below every leafy terebinth, where they used to offer fragrant smoke to their idols. 14 I will strike at them and lay the land waste and desolate, wherever they dwell, from the south desert up to Riblah; it will teach them that I am the Eternal.” * * *

This word from the Eternal m also came to me: 2 “Son of man, here is the Lord the Eternal’s message for the land of Israel. ‘The hour has come, the hour has come, on the four quarters of the land! 3 The hour has come for you; I will hurl my wrath upon you and punish you for your conduct and requite you for all your detestable doings; 4 I will have neither mercy nor pity, I will requite you for your conduct and confront you with your detestable doings; it will teach you that I am the Eternal.

5 [[Evil on evil! says the Lord the Eternal--it is coming, 6 the hour has come, the hour is striking, and striking at you, the hour and the end! 7 Your doom has come, O dweller in the land! The time draws on, the day is near, a day with panic, no merry shouts upon the hills! 8 Soon will I vent my fury on you and execute my anger against you, I will punish you for your conduct and requite you for all your detestable doings; 9 I will have neither mercy nor pity; I will visit your doings on your head, and confront you with your detestable deeds; it will teach you that I, the Eternal, can strike.]]

10 Here is the day! It has dawned! Your doom appears; your sin has blossomed, your pride has budded . . . 12 The time has come, the day draws near! The buyer need not rejoice,', and the seller need not lament, for wrath falls upon the entire city. 13 Never, so long as they live, shall the sellers get back to their estates, and none shall prosper by iniquitous dealing.

14 The trumpet is sounded, and all is prepared; but none marches out to the fight, for my wrath falls upon the entire city. 15 Outside, the sword; inside, pestilence and famine! A man in the open country falls by the sword, a man inside the city is consumed by famine and by pestilence; 16 and if any survivors escape, they shall all be hiding in the hills, mourning over their sins, moaning like doves of the valley. 17 Their hands shall all be limp, their knees as weak as water; 18 they shall put sackcloth round their waist and shave their heads, they shall be covered with terror, their faces with shame; 19 they shall fling their silver into the streets and loathe their gold with disgust; for on the day of the Eternal’s anger no silver or gold can save them or satisfy their appetite. Money has been their ruin and their sin; 20 they prided themselves upon the beauty of their silver and their gold, and made out of them detestable and loathsome idols; 21 therefore I will make their temple a disgust to them, handing it over to foreigners as plunder and to knaves of the world as booty, to profane it; 22 I will turn my face away and let these creatures profane my precious place; robbers shall invade it and profane it and disorder it. 23 For the land is full of bloody crimes, the city is filled with violence. 24 So I will bring in the worst of pagans to take possession of the houses, and I will put an end to the strength on which the land prided itself, and let their sanctuaries be profaned. 25 When anguish comes, they shall seek peace, and peace there shall be none. 26 Disaster on disaster, rumour upon rumour! The prophet is deprived of vision, the priest is bereft of instruction, and aged counsellors have not a word to say; 27 the authorities shall be wrapt in dismay, and the common folk shall be a-tremble. I will treat them as they have behaved, and punish them for their practices--to teach them that I am the Eternal.’ ” * * *

8 In the sixth year, on theo fifth day of the sixth month, O as I was sitting in my house, with the sheikhs of Judah sitting in front of me, the hand of the Lord the Eternal fell upon me in a trance. 2 As I gazed, there was a form resembling a man!--from the waist downwards, like fire, and from the waist upwards, glowing like amber. 3 He put out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; then the Spirit lifted me between earth and heaven and brought me, in visions of God, to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gateway into the inner court where the idol stood which provoked the Eternal to resentment. 4 There stood the Splendour of the God of Israel, as I had seen it in the valley! 5 “Son of man,” he said to me, “turn your eyes to the north.” So I turned my eyes to the north, and there, north of the gate, opposite the altar, stood this idol which he resented! 6 “Son of man,” he said, “do you see what they are doing? Do you see the horrible impieties that the Israelites are practising here, forcing me to leave my sanctuary? You shall see worse than that.”

7 He took me to the door of the court. As I looked, I saw a hole in the wall. 8 “Son of man,” he said, “break through the wall.” So I broke through, and there was a door! 9 “Go inside,” he said, “look at the detestable impieties they are practising here.” 10 So I went and looked; there, pictured all round the wall, were all kinds of vermin and reptiles, loathsome representations, and all the idols of Israel! 11 In front of them stood seventy of the sheikhs of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man holding a censer, from which rose the scent of incense in clouds. 12 “Son of man,” he said, “do you see what the sheikhs of Israel are doing in the dark, each offering incense to his idol? They think, ‘The Eternal cannot see us, the Eternal has left the land.’ ” 13 Then he added, “You shall see still worse”; 14 and he took me to the outer door of the north gateway into the Eternal’s temple, where I saw women wailing for Tammuz. 15 “Son of man,” he said, “do you see that? You shall see even worse.”

16 And he took me back into the inner court of the Eternal’s temple, where, at the very door of the temple of the Eternal, between the porch and the altar, I saw about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Eternal and their faces turned to the east, worshipping the sun in the east. 17 “Do you see that, O son of man?” he asked. “And is it too slight a thing for Judah to practise these detestable impieties of theirs here? Must they also fill the land with violence and anger me still further? They are filling my nostrils with their stench! 18 But I will take action in my fury, I will have neither mercy nor pity upon them [[I will not listen to them, even if they call to me at the pitch of their voices]].”

9 Then I heard him shouting at the pitch of his voice, “Come here, you executioners of the city, each with his deadly weapon!” 2 And six men came from the direction of the upper gate that faces north, each holding a battle-axe, and accompanied by another man in linen dress, with a writer’s ink-horn at his side. They passed inside the temple, and stood at the bronze altar. 3 Now the Splendour of the God of Israel had ascended from the kherubs on which it rested and gone to the threshold of the temple. He called to the man in linen, with the writer’s ink-horn, 4 and said to him, “Go through the city of Jerusalem and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who bewail and bemoan all the detestable impieties that are being practised here.” 5 And I heard him say to the others, “Follow him through the city and strike, without mercy or pity, 6 kill old men, young men, maidens, children, women-—kill them, kill, but never touch anyone with the mark; and begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the sheikhs in front of the temple. 7 “Pollute the temple,” he cried, “fill the temple-courts with corpses; then out to the city!” So they went off to kill throughout the city.

8 While they were killing, I was left alone; and I fell on my face, crying, “Ah, Lord Eternal! wilt thou destroy all that is left of Israel, in this outburst of thy fury against Jerusalem?” 9 He answered, “The iniquity of Israel and Judah is enormous, the land is full of bloodshed, the city is full of rampant injustice; for men think that the Eternal has left the land, the Eternal will never see them. 10 No, I will have neither mercy nor pity upon them, I will make them suffer for their conduct.”

11 The man in linen with the ink-horn made his report: “I have obeyed thine orders.” He said to the man in linen,

2 “Go in between the whirling wheels under the kherubs, fill your hands with blazing coals from the fire between the kherubs, and scatter the coals over the city.” I saw him go in. 3 When he went in, the kherubs were standing on the south side of the temple; a cloud filled the inner court. 4 When the Splendour of the Eternal ascended from the kherubs and went to the threshold of the temple, the temple was filled with the cloud, and the inner court was filled with radiance from the Splendour of the Eternal. 5 The noise made by the wings of the kherubs was heard even in the outer court, loud as the thunder of God Almighty when he speaks. 6 So, when he told the man in linen to take some fire from between the whirling wheels, between the kherubs, 7 he put his hand into the fire between the kherubs and took some; then he went out.

9 As I gazed, I saw four wheels beside the kherubs, one beside each of the kherubs; they resembled a topaz in colour; all four had the same shape, 10 and they were arranged as if one wheel were inside the other. 11 When they moved, they moved in the direction of any of their four sides, never turning as they moved, but following their front wherever it faced. 12 The felloes and spokes of the four wheels were full of eyes all round, 13 and I myself heard the wheels called “the whirling wheels.” 16 Whenever the kherubs moved, the wheels moved with them; whenever the kherubs spread their wings to rise from the earth, the wheels never left them; 17 when the kherubs stood still, the wheels stood still, and when the kherubs rose, they rose along with them--for a living Spirit was in the wheels.

18 Then the Splendour of the Eternal left the threshold of the temple and stood over the kherubs; 19 I saw the kherubs spread their wings and rise from the earth as they withdrew, accompanied by the wheels; they stood outside the door of the east gateway into the Eternal’s temple, and over them was the Splendour of the God of Israel. 20 These were the Creatures I had seen at the river Kebar under the God of Israel; I recognized them as kherubs. 21 Each had four faces and four wings, and under their wings the semblance of human hands. 22 As for the semblance of their faces, they were the faces I had seen at the river Kebar.

11 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the eastern gateway of the Eternal’s temple; and there, at the door of the gateway, I saw twenty-five men, among whom I noticed Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, the popular leaders! 2 “Son of man,” he said to me, “these are the men who make wicked plans and offer evil counsel in this city; 3 they argue, ‘Houses have been recently rebuilding; all is well! The city is a cauldron, and we are the flesh, safe inside it!’ 4 So prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.” 5 Then the Spirit of the Eternal seized me; he said to me, “Utter this word from the Eternal: ‘So you think, O Israel! I know what occurs to your mind! 6 But it is the many men you have murdered in this city, heaping the streets with their corpses, 7 it is these murdered men, laid low by you, it is they--says the Lord Eternal--they who are to be the flesh inside this cauldron of a city; as for you, I will drag you out of it. 8 You are in terror of the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you--says the Lord the Eternal. 9 Out of the city I will drag you, and hand you over to foreigners; I will inflict punishment upon you, 10 as by the sword you fall, and I punish you at the far borders of Israel--to teach you that I am the Eternal. 11 This city shall be no cauldron for you; you shall not be the flesh inside it, safe and sound! At the far borders of Israel I will punish you-- 12 to teach you that I am the Eternal; for you have not lived by my laws, you have not carried out my orders, you have followed the practices of the nations around you.’ ”

13 As I was delivering this prediction, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell on my face and cried aloud, “Alas, O Lord Eternal, wilt thou wipe out the survivors of Israel?” 14 Then this word from the Eternal came to me, 15 “Son of man, the citizens of Jerusalem say of your kinsmen, your fellow-exiles, the entire community of Israel, ‘You are far away from the Eternal; this land belongs to us.’ 16 Say this therefore: The Lord the Eternal declares, ‘True, I have sent them afar among the nations and scattered them over foreign lands; but I will be a sanctuary for them in their place of exile for a while, 17 and then--says the Lord the Eternal--I will gather them from the nations and collect them from the countries where they have been scattered and give them the land of Israel; 18 they shall come back and clear it of all its loathsome and detestable impieties. 19 And I will give them a new nature and put a new spirit into them, I will remove their hard nature and give them a nature that can be touched, 20 that they may live by my laws and observe and obey my orders; so they shall be my own people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for these others, who are devoted to their loathsome practices and detestable impieties, I will make them suffer for their conduct, says the Lord the Eternal.’ ”

22 Then the kherubs spread their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the Splendour of the God of Israel over them both; 23 and the Splendour of the Eternal ascended from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountains to the east of the city. 24 The Spirit lifted me and brought me in the vision back to the exiles in Chaldea; the vision I saw departed from me, 25 and I told the exiles all that the Eternal had shown me.

12 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, you are living among rebellious folk who have eyes and will not see, who have ears and will not listen--a rebellious folk. 3 Son of man, prepare your outfit for exile; let them see you moving in broad daylight, let them see you removing out of your house; perhaps they will under­stand, though they are a rebel- 4 lious folk. Let them see you moving your stuff by day, as though for exile; then let them see you leaving yourself in the 5 evening, as exiles leave. Let them see you breaking through the town wall and passing out; 6 let them see you carrying your belongings on your shoulders in the dark; cover up your face, that you may not see the ground —for I have made you an omen for Israel.”

7 I did as I was told; I carried out my belongings in open daylight, like an outfit for exile; at night I broke through the town-wall, bearing my belongings on my shoulder in the dark. I let them see me.

8 Then in the morning this word from the Eternal came to me: 9 “Son of man, has that rebellious folk Israel never asked you what you were doing? 10 Give them this message from the Lord the Eternal: ‘This bearing of a burden applies to the prince and all the Israelites in Jerusalem.’ Tell them:

11 I am an omen for you; as with me, so with you--to exile, to captivity, you go. 12 The prince among you, he shall go out in the dark, by the way he has broken, shouldering his burden, covering up his face, not to see the ground. 13 I will fling my net over him, and he shall be caught in my toils; I will take him to Babylon in Chaldea [[he will never see it, though he shall die there]], 14 and his attendants, his retinue and all his regiments, I will scatter to the winds, and pursue them with the sword. 15 When I disperse them among the nations and scatter them over foreign lands, then shall they realize that I am the Eternal. 16 A few of them I will save from the sword, from famine, and from pestilence, that they may confess all their detestable impieties among the nations of their exile. So shall they learn that I am the Eternal.”

17 This word from the Eternal came to me: 18 “Son of man, quake as you eat your bread, tremble anxiously as you drink your water, 19 and tell your countrymen that the Lord the Eternal has this word for the citizens of Jerusalem in the land of Israel: ‘They shall be anxious as they eat their bread and dismayed as they drink their water, for the land is to be stripped of all that it contains, owing to the violence done by all its inhabitants; 20 the peopled towns shall be emptied and the land laid desolate. It will teach you that I am the Eternal.’ ”

21 This word from the Eternal came to me: 22 “Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, ‘Time passes, but no vision ever comes to anything’? 23 Tell them this from the Lord the Eternal: ‘I will put an end to this proverb, it shall never be repeated in Israel.’ Tell them, ‘The time is coming for the truth of every vision. 24 No more vain visions and smooth oracles in Israel! 25 For I the Eternal will speak a word, and my word shall be fulfilled; it shall not be delayed, for in your own day, O rebellious folk, I will both speak the word and fulfil it, says the Lord the Eternal.’ ” 26 This word from the Eternal also came to me: 27 “Son of man, the Israelites are saying, ‘The vision he sees is for a long time ahead; he is predicting about a far-off age.’ 28 Tell them this word from the Lord the Eternal: ‘None of my words shall be delayed, but what I say shall be done, says the Lord the Eternal.’ ”

13 "I This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, and give them this prophetic word from the Eternal. 3 The Lord the Eternal declares: Woe to the fools of prophets who only prophesy from what they feel, without a real vision! 4 O Israel, your prophets are like jackals burrowing among the ruins! 5 You prophets never man the breach, you never build walls for the folk of Israel, to make a stand upon the day when the Eternal summons to the fray. 6 Yours are false visions, lying oracles! You give ‘the word of the Eternal,’ and the Eternal never sent you! And you expect your words to be fulfilled! 7 To cry ‘the word of the Eternal,’ when the Eternal has not spoken, is this not a vain vision, a lying oracle of yours? 8 Therefore the Lord the Eternal proclaims: because your words are vain, your visions false, I am against you, says the Lord the Eternal; 9 my hand shall be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying oracles. They shall have no place in the council of my people, they shall not be on the register of Israel, they shall not be allowed inside the land of Israel--it will teach you that I am the Eternal.

10 Since they mislead my people by saying ‘All is well,’ when all is not well, since these daubers whitewash any flimsy wall run up to safe-guard the people, 11 tell such daubers that a deluge of rain is coming, huge hail-stones shall come down, and a stormy blast shall break out, till down falls the flimsy wall; 12 and then you will be asked, will you not, ‘What about your whitewash?’ 13 The Lord the Eternal proclaims: I will let loose a stormy blast in my wrath, a deluge of rain in my anger, and hail-stones in my fury, 14 destroying the wall you daubed with your whitewash, demolishing it till its very foundations are laid bare; the wall shall fall, and crush you under it--to let you know that I am the Eternal. 15 This will satisfy my wrath against the wall and those who daubed it with their whitewash. You will be asked, ‘Where is the wall? Where are those who daubed it?-- 16 these prophets of Israel who prophesy about Jerusalem with their visions of “All is well” for her, when all is not well!’ The Lord the Eternal has spoken.

17 Son of man, face the women of your country who only prophesy from what they feel; 18 give them this prophetic word from the Lord Eternal: ‘Woe to the women who tie amulets on anyone’s wrist and mantle folk of every height in veils, to get hold of human souls! You would get hold of human souls among my people, to make a profit from your trade? 19 You are degrading me among my people for a handful of barley and some bread from your clients; you cheat my people, and they believe your cheats--your spells invoking death on honest folk and promising life to the dishonest! 20 Therefore the Lord the Eternal declares: I am against these amulets you use to snare poor human souls; I will strip them off and let the souls go free whom you would fain control; 21 I will tear off your veils and rescue my people from your sway--to let you know that I am the Eternal. 22 Since your cheats and spells have dismayed honest folk whom I never dismayed, and encouraged the dishonest, till they would not give up their evil life and be saved, 23 there shall be an end to your vain visions and incantations; I will rescue my people from your sway--to let you know that I am the Eternal.’ ”

14 When some sheikhs of Israel came and sat down in front of me, 2 this word from the Eternal came to me: 3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols to their very hearts, they are bent upon the sin that trips them up; am I to answer their inquiries? 4 Give them this message from the Lord the Eternal: ‘Any man of Israel who takes his idols to his very heart and is bent upon the sin that trips him up, and who consults a prophet, he shall get an answer from myself as heavy as all his idols; 5 for I would ruin Israel with their heart’s desire, since they have abandoned me for all their idols.’ 6 So give Israel this message from the Lord the Eternal: ‘Turn away, turn away from your idols, turn your face from all your detestable impieties! 7 For anyone belonging to Israel or any alien resident in Israel who abandons me, taking his idols to his very heart and bent upon the sin that trips him up, any such man who consults a prophet in order that the prophet may consult me on his behalf, shall get his answer from myself; 8 I will set my face against that man, I will make an example of him, I will make him a byword and exterminate him from my people--to let you know that I am the Eternal.’

9 When a prophet is beguiled into some prophetic utterance, it is I, the Eternal, who have beguiled him; I will strike at that prophet and destroy him out of my people Israel. 10 They shall both suffer punishment; the punishment of the prophet shall be like the punishment of the man who consults him-- 11 so that Israel may no longer go astray from me, nor pollute themselves any longer with all their transgressions; they are to be my own people, and I am to be their God. The Lord the Eternal has said it.”

12 This word from the Eternal 13 came to me: “Son of man,

when a land sins against me by unfaithfulness,

and I strike a blow at it,

when I send famine on it, to cut off man and beast,

then, even were these three men within it, Noah, Daniel, and Eyob,

they would save only themselves by their goodness--

the Lord the Eternal declares.

Were I to send wild beasts over the land, man-eaters,

till the land lay waste and empty, after the beasts,

then, even were these three men within it--

by my life! declares the Lord the Eternal--

they would not save their sons and daughters,

they alone would be saved, and the land lie waste.

Were I to send a sword upon that land,

saying, ‘Sword, sweep through the land!’

and were I to cut off man and beast,

then, even were these three men within it--

by my life! declares the Lord the Eternal--

they would not save their sons and daughters,

they alone would be saved.

Were I to send pestilence upon that land,

venting my deadly rage upon it, cutting off man and beast,

even were Noah, Daniel, and Eyob within it--

by my life! declares the Lord the Eternal--

they would not save their sons and daughters,

they would save only themselves by their goodness.

And how much more, says the Lord the Eternal,

when I send my four fatal judgments,

sword, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence,

to cut off man and beast from Jerusalem?

Should any survive and escape, any sons and daughters,

and make their way to you in Babylon,

you will be consoled for the evil

I have brought on Jerusalem,

consoled for all I have inflicted, when you see their life and ways!--

yes, it will console you to see their life and ways,

you will see I had good cause for all I did,

says the Lord the Eternal.”

15 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, what use is the wood of the vine, compared with wood from any tree in the forest? 3 Is it used to make anything? Is even a peg cut from it, to hang a vessel on? 4 Why, it is flung into the fire for fuel; the fire consumes its two ends, and the middle is burned up; is it fit then for anything? 5 Even when it is whole, it is never used for anything; much less, when the fire has consumed it, and it is burned up. 6 Well, then, says the Lord the Eternal, as the wood of the vine is flung into the fire as fuel, so I hand over the citizens of Jerusalem; 7 I set my face against them. They have been taken out of the flames already, but fire shall consume them; they shall learn that I am the Eternal, when I set my face against them 8 and lay the land desolate for their unfaithfulness to me. The Lord the Eternal has said it.”

16 This word from the Eternal also came to me: 2 “Son of man, put the loathsomeness of Jerusalem before her, 3 and proclaim this word of the Lord the Eternal to Jerusalem:

Your origin and birth are from the land of Canaanites; your father was an Amorite, your mother a Hittite. 4 As for your birth, on the day you were born no one cut your navel- string, no one washed you clean with water, no one rubbed salt on you or swaddled you, 5 none looked with pity on you to do any such service to you; you were thrown out on the open field, a loathed object, on the day that you were born. 6 But as I passed and saw you weltering in your own blood, I said to you, as you lay thus weltering in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I brought you up, till you throve like a plant, growing tall and strong; you came to womanhood, your breasts were formed, your hair grew long. But you were bare and naked. 8 Then, as I passed, I saw you were ripe for love; so I spread my robe over you, to cover your nakedness, and pledged myself to you in marriage, making a compact with you--says the Lord the Eternal. Thus did you become my own. 9 I bathed you in water, I washed all the blood off you, and anointed you with oil; 10 I decked you with embroidered robes, I shod you with Egyptian leather, I swathed you in fine linen, I clothed you in silk; 11 I adorned you with finery, bracelets on your arms, a necklace round your throat, 12 a ring on your nose, ear-rings in your ears, and a lovely crown upon your head.

13 You were adorned with silver and gold, robed in fine linen and silk and embroidered robes; your food was fine flour, honey, and oil. You blossomed into a great beauty, 14 and the fame of your beauty went over the world; your beauty was perfect, through the splendour of my endowment--says the Lord the Eternal.

15 But, trusting to your beauty, in the fame of it you played the harlot; you lavished your favours upon any passer-by. 16 You took your robes to make gay tents of love, where you played the harlot’s trade. 17 You took the fine jewels of gold and silver that I had given to you, and made yourself human figures, with which you played the harlot; 18 you covered these idols with my embroidered robes, you offered them my oil and incense: 19 the food I gave you, my fine flour and oil and honey, that I fed you with, you burned for them as fragrant smoke--says the Lord the Eternal. 20 The sons and daughters that you bore me, these you took and burned to them in sacrifice. Was your harlotry not enough, 21 that you must murder my children and burn them alive for these idols of yours? 22 And amid all your loathsomeness and harlotry you never remembered your own early days, when you lay bare and naked, when you were weltering in your blood. 23 And now, to crown your vice (woe betide you! woe betide you! says the Lord the Eternal), 24 you have raised a shrine for yourself, a resort in every street; 25 you have raised your shrines at every street comer, prostituting your beauty, offering your body to any passer-by, in many an act of harlotry. 26 You have played the harlot with your neighbours, the sensual Egyptians; over and over again have you done it, to provoke my anger. 27 [[So I struck at you, I cut down your rations and handed you over to the will of your foes, the Philistine towns, themselves ashamed of your lascivious life.]] 28 You have played the harlot with the Assyrians, so insatiable was your lust; and even then you were not satisfied. 29 You repeated your harlotry over and again with Chaldea, the traders’ land; but even that left you unsatisfied. 30 What a passion consumes you, says the Lord the Eternal, to act like this!--to live like an abandoned harlot, 31 raising your shrine at every street corner, with a resort in every street. True, you were no harlot! You scorned to be paid for your favours! 32 [[O adulterous wife, taking strangers instead of your husband!]] 33 No, harlots receive presents, but you gave presents to all your lovers; you bribed them to come from all quarters to your embraces! 34 You were the opposite of other harlots; no man had to solicit you, and no man had to pay you; this made you the opposite of other harlots!

35 You harlot, listen to what the Eternal has to say. 36 The Lord the Eternal declares: For the lavishing of your favours, for the unbaring of your body in your harlot’s play with your lovers, for all your detestable idols, and for the murder of your children whom you gave up to them, 37 I will gather all the lovers with whom you have lain, all you loved and all you did not love, I will gather them all round you and expose you to their gaze, baring your nakedness to them; 38 I will punish you as women are punished for unfaithfulness and for child-murder, I will let my fury and jealousy work on you their bloody doom; 39 I will leave you to your lovers, and they shall pull down your shrines and break down your resorts, stripping you of your clothes, robbing you of your fine jewels, and leaving you bare and naked; 40 they shall collect a crowd, to stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords; 41 they shall let many a woman witness your punishment by burning your houses. So will I put a stop to your harlotry; no more bribes from you! 42 It will appease my fury, I will cease being jealous of you, I will be quiet, and angry no more. 43 It is because you never remembered your early days, but roused me to rage with all your doings, that I will make you suffer for your conduct, says the Lord the Eternal. Oh that you had not been foully unfaithful!

44 Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb against you, ‘Like mother, like daughter!’ 45 You are the daughter of a mother who scorned her husband and her children. And you are the sister of women who scorned their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, your father was an Amorite. 46 Your elder sister is Samaria, with her daughters, to the north; your younger sister is Sodom, with her daughters, to the south. 47 You did not live as they lived, you did not follow their detestable ways? No, that would not have been enough! You lived a life still more depraved than theirs. 48 By my life! says the Lord Eternal, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not been so bad as you and your daughters. 49 This was your sister Sodom’s crime: she and her daughters lived in pride, in plenty, and in careless ease; she never lent a hand to the weak and wretched. 50 Haughty they grew, and they committed detestable impieties before my face. So I swept them off, when I noticed it. 51 Nor has Samaria committed half your sins. No, you have committed more detestable impieties than they have; yours serve to palliate your sisters’ crimes, and that is some consolation to them; 52 you must endure the shame of lessening your sisters’ guilt by your far more abominable life; you make them out better than yourself--take the shame and the disgrace of that to yourself!

53 I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes along with theirs 54 --to make you feel the shame and the disgrace of having been some consolation to them. 55 When Sodom and Samaria, your sisters, and their daughters, regain their former state, you and your daughters also shall regain your former state. 56 Yet was not Sodom a byword in your mouth, during your days of pride, before your nakedness was exposed? 57 And now you are, like her, the scorn of the daughters of Edom and the malignant daughters of the Philistines around. 58 You bear the penalty of your lasciviousness and your abominable life, says the Lord the Eternal. 59 For this is the Lord the Eternal’s decision: I will repay you for your conduct, for scorning the marriage-oath by breaking our compact. 60 Yet I will remember my compact with you in the days of your youth; I will ratify a lasting compact with you; 61 then you will remember how you have lived and be ashamed as you receive your sisters, the elder and the younger, when I give them to you as daughters. 62 It shall not be through your compact with me; no, I will ratify my own compact with you, that you may learn that I am the Eternal, 63 that you may remember and be ashamed and be silent under your disgrace, when I forgive you for all you have done. The Lord the Eternal has spoken.”

17 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, propound a riddle, put a parable before Israel, 3 and tell them this from the Lord the Eternal:

‘A huge speckled eagle, with broad wings and long pinions in full plumage, flew to Lebanon and tore off the tip of a cedar; 4 he plucked the young twig on the very top of the branch, and carried it to the land of traffic, setting it in a city of merchants. 5 He also took some seed from the land of Judah and planted it in fertile soil ... to sprout like a slip beside brimming streams 6 and turn into a spreading vine of low size, whose branches might turn towards him, whose roots might be under him—a vine bearing branches and putting out boughs. 7 But there was another huge eagle, with broad wings and thick plumage; and the vine actually bent its roots towards him and stretched its branches towards him, away from the bed where it was planted! 8 It would have him to water it, though it was planted beside brimming streams in a rich soil to bear its branches and yield fruit and prove a noble vine!’ 9 Now ask them, from the Lord the Eternal: ‘Can it prosper? Shall it not be torn up by the roots? Shall not its fruit be plucked, till all its sprouting leaves shall wither? Will it require much power or many a hand to uproot it? 10 It is planted, but shall it prosper? Shall it not wither when the east wind strikes it, wither in the bed where it is growing?’ ”

11 Then this word from the Eternal came to me: 12 “Ask that rebellious folk, ‘Do you not know what all this means?’ Tell them, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took away her king and leaders, carrying them home to Babylon. 13 He also took one of the royal family and made a compact with him; the nobles he removed, 14 that the realm might be submissive and not ambitious, serving him in terms of his compact. 15 But this prince rebelled against him, sending envoys to Egypt for horses and a large army. Shall he prosper? Can a man like that escape? Can he break a compact and escape? 16 By my life! declares the Lord the Eternal, he shall die, die where the king lives to whom he owed his realm, whose oath he spurned, whose compact he broke, die beside him in Babylon. 17 The Pharaoh’s great army and huge host can do nothing for him in the struggle, though mounds are thrown up and forts built to cut off many a life. 18 The man spurned his oath by breaking his compact. He pledged his word, and yet he did all this! Escape he cannot! 19 Therefore the Lord the Eternal decrees: By my life! I will punish him for my oath that he spurned and my compact that he broke; 20 I will fling my net over him and catch him in my toils, carrying him to Babylon, where I will deal with him for his treason to me; 21 all the picked men in his regiment shall fall by the sword, and the survivors shall be scattered to the four winds--to teach you that I the Eternal have decreed this.”

22 The Lord the Eternal declares: “I too will take a branch from the top of the high cedar; I will pluck from its topmost twigs a tender one and plant it on a high, conspicuous hill, 23 on Israel’s lofty mountain, where it shall put out boughs, bear fruit, and grow into a noble cedar, with birds of every feather living under it, in the shadow of its branches. 24 Then all the trees of the country shall learn that I the Eternal lower the high tree, raise the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I the Eternal have said it, and I will do it.”

18 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “What do you mean by quoting this proverb in the land of Israel, ‘The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? 3 By my life! says the Lord the Eternal, you must never quote that proverb again in Israel. 4 All souls are mine, the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son; the soul that sins, that soul shall die. 5 If anyone is a good man, doing what is right and honest, 6 if he does not eat meat with the blood in it, if he does not adore the idols of Israel, if he does not seduce his neighbour’s wife nor touch a menstruous woman, 7 if he oppresses no one but returns what his debtor pledged, if he robs no one, if he feeds the hungry and clothes the naked, 8 if he takes no interest on a loan, if he abstains from crime and decides fairly between man and man, 9 if he lives by my laws, if he observes and obeys my rules, then he is good, he shall live, says the Lord the Eternal. 10 If he has a son who is a brigand, given to bloodshed, 11 who does none of these duties, but eats meat with the blood in it, seduces his neighbour’s wife, 12 oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, refuses to restore a pledge, adores idols, commits detestable impieties, 13 and takes interest upon a loan--is he to live? He shall not live; he has done all these abominable things, and he must die; he is responsible for his own death. 14 If he in turn has a son who, seeing all the sins done by his father, avoids them in fear, 15 eats no meat with the blood in it, adores no idols of Israel, seduces no man’s wife, 16 oppresses no one, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, 17 abstains from crime, refuses to take interest on a loan, and carries out my orders, lives by my laws--he shall not die for the iniquity of Iris father, he shall live. 18 His father died for his own iniquity, because he practised oppression and outrage and wrongdoing among his fellows. 19 You ask, ‘Why should the son not suffer for his father’s iniquity?’ If the son does what is right and honest, if he observes and obeys all my orders, he shall live. 20 The person who sins shall die. A son is not to suffer for his father’s iniquity, nor a father for his son’s iniquity; the good man shall be credited with his own goodness, and the wicked man with his own wickedness.

21 But if a wicked man gives up all his sinful practices to follow all my orders and to do what is right and honest, he shall live--he shall not die. 22 None of the transgressions he has committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live by the goodness of his life. 23 Have I any desire for the death of the wicked? says the Lord the Eternal. If he gives up his evil life, shall he not live? 24 Again, when a good man gives up being good and practises iniquity, doing every abominable thing that a wicked man does, none of his good deeds shall be remembered; for the treason he has committed and for the sin of which he is guilty he shall die. 25 And yet you complain, ‘The Lord is not acting fairly!’ Listen, O Israel; my methods not fair! Is it not rather your methods that are not fair and right? 26 If a good man gives up being good to commit iniquity, he shall die, and die for the iniquities he has done. 27 If a wicked man gives up being wicked and does what is lawful and right, he shall save his life; 28 as he fears and gives up all his transgressions, he shall live, he shall not die. 29 And yet Israel complains, ‘The Lord is not acting fairly!’ My methods not fair, O Israel! Is it not rather your methods that axe not fair and right? 30 O Israel, I will deal with every one of you as he has lived, says the Lord the Eternal. Repent and give up all your transgressions, or iniquity will be your ruin; 31 have done with all your transgressions against me, and get a new nature, a new spirit, for yourselves. O Israel, why will you die? 32 I have no desire for anyone to die, says the Lord the Eternal. So repent and live.” * * *

19 Raise this dirge over the prince of Israel.

How like a lioness among lions

was your mother!

She crouched among young lions

as she reared her whelps;

one whelp she brought up,

a lion young;

he learned to seize his prey,

men he devoured;

the nations raised a hue and cry,

they caught him in their pit,

and dragged him off with hooks

into the land of Egypt.

She saw he had been reft from her,

her hope had vanished;

she took and reared another whelp,

a lion young,

who lived among the lions,

and grew up a young lion;

he learned to seize his prey--

men he devoured,

ravaging their palaces,

and wasting their towns,

till all in the land were a-dread

at his roar.

Then the nations raised a hue and cry

from the realms around,

spread nets for him,

and caught him in their pit,

dragged him off with hooks, a captive,

to the king of Babylon,

that no more his voice might sound

on the uplands of Israel.

Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard,

planted beside streams,

fruitful, rich in branches,

thanks to the wealth of water;

she had a great branch that grew

into a royal sceptre,

soaring to the clouds,

seen afar amid a mass of boughs.

But in wrath the vine was torn up,

flung to the ground;

the east wind withered up its fruit,

and its great branch was broken off;

now it is planted in a desert,

in a waterless land.

Fire spread from the branch,

and burned the boughs,

and now the vine has no great branch,

no royal sceptre.

This is a dirge, and current as a dirge. * * *

20 In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some sheikhs of Israel came to consult the Eternal, and sat down in front of me. 2 Then this word from the Eternal came to me: 3 “Son of man, give the sheikhs of Israel this message from the Lord the Eternal. ‘You come to consult me? By my life! says the Lord the Eternal, I will not be consulted by you.’ 4 Arraign them, son of man, arraign them; let them hear the detestable impieties of their fathers, 5 and tell them this from the Lord the Eternal: ‘On the day when I chose Israel and swore to the descendants of the household of Jacob, revealing myself to them in the land of Egypt and swearing to them that I was the Eternal their God, 6 on that day I swore to them that I would bring them from the land of Egypt to a land that I had assigned them, a land abounding in milk and honey, the glory of all lands. 7 I said to them, “Let every man of you put aside the detestable impieties you love, befoul not yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Eternal your God.” 8 But they rebelled against me, they would not listen to me; they would not put aside the detestable impieties they loved, they would not abandon the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to vent my fury upon them and to execute my anger against them within the land of Egypt. 9 Only, in dealing with them, I had regard to my own honour, lest it should be sullied in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, the nations who had seen me revealing my­self to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt. 10 From the land of Egypt I brought them, I took them into the desert, 11 I gave them my rules and showed them my regulations, obeying which a man shall live; 12 I gave them my sabbath, to mark the tie between me and them, to teach them that it is I, the Eternal, who sets them apart. 13 But Israel rebelled against me in the desert; they would not follow my rules, and they spurned my regulations, obeying which a man shall live, and they desecrated my sabbath deeply. So I resolved to vent my fury upon them in the desert and destroy them. 14 Only, in dealing with them, I had regard to my own honour, lest it should be sullied in the sight of the nations who had seen me bring them out. 15 I did swear to them in the desert that I would not bring them to the land I had assigned them, a land abounding in milk and honey, the glory of all lands, 16 since they had spurned my regulations and refused to live by my rules, desecrating my sabbaths (their hearts set upon their idols); 17 but I pitied them and spared them, I did not destroy them in the desert. 18 I said to their children in the desert, “Live not by your fathers’ rules, follow not their regulations, do not befoul yourselves with their idols: 19 I am the Eternal your God, live by my rules, observe and obey my regulations, 20 keep my sabbath sacred and let it mark the tie between us--to teach you that I am the Eternal your God.” 21 In spite of this, the children rebelled against me; they would not live by my rules, they would not observe and obey my regulations, obeying which a man shall live, and they desecrated my sabbath. So I resolved to vent my fury upon them, to execute my anger against them in the desert. 22 However, I withheld my hand, out of regard for my own honour, lest it should be sullied in the sight of the nations who had seen me bring them out. 23 But I swore to them in the desert that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them over foreign countries, 24 because they had not carried out my orders but had spumed my laws and desecrated my sabbath, in their passion for the idols of their fathers. 25 I let them have laws that were evil and customs that could not bring them life, 26 and I made their very sacrifices befoul them, as they burned their first-born children alive--that I might destroy them. It was to teach them that I am the Eternal.’ 27 Son of man, give Israel this message from the Lord the Eternal: ‘Your fathers further blasphemed me by this act of treason. 28 After I had brought them to the land I had sworn to assign them, whenever they saw a high hill or a leafy tree, there did they offer sacrifice, there did they exasperate me with their oblations, offering their fragrant smoke and pouring out their libations. 29 I asked them, “What is the high place you hie to?” And to this day it is called ‘high place.’ 30 So tell Israel this from the Lord Eternal: You befoul yourselves like your fathers, you break your troth with me for their detestable impieties, 31 and you befoul yourselves with all your sacrifices to idols--burning your sons alive--down to this very day! And I am to be consulted by you, O Israel? By my life! says the Lord the Eternal, no!

32 You must never dream of resembling the pagans, the natives, by worshipping things of wood and stone. 33 By my life! the Lord the Eternal swears, I will be your king, with a strong hand, with arm outstretched, in overflowing fury; 34 I will bring you from the nations, I will gather you out of the lands of your dispersion, with a strong hand, with arm outstretched, and in overflowing fury; 35 I will take you into the great desert, and deal with you there face to face. 36 As I dealt with your fathers in the Egyptian desert, so will I deal with you, says the Lord the Eternal; 37 I will count you one by one and number you, 38 purging out the rebels and the traitors--they shall be brought out of the land where they were living, but they shall never enter the land of Israel. 39 It will teach you that I am the Eternal. As for the rest of you, O Israel, this is what the Lord the Eternal has to say: Go and worship your idols, all of you! Later on you will listen to me and cease to sully my sacred honour with your sacrifices and idols! 40 On my sacred hill, on the high mountain of Israel, the Lord the Eternal predicts, the whole community of Israel, every man of them, shall worship me; there I will accept them, there I will require your offerings and the very choicest of your sacred dues; 41 I will accept you when I smell this fragrant smoke, after I have brought you from the nations and gathered you out of the lands where you were scattered. So the nations shall see what a deity I am, as I deal with you, 42 and you yourselves shall learn that I am the Eternal, after I have brought you to the land of Israel, the country I swore that I would give to your fathers. 43 There you shall remember how you lived and all you did, as you befouled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evil you committed. 44 O Israel, you shall learn that I am the Eternal, when I have dealt with you for the sake of my own honour, not as your evil life deserved, not as your corrupt practices deserved*— says the Lord the Eternal.”

45 This word from the Eternal 46 came to me: “Son of man, turn to the south, declaim against the south, prophesy against the forest-land in the south, 47 and tell the forest in the south this message from the Eternal. ‘The Lord the Eternal declares, I will kindle a fire within you, to burn up every green tree and every dry tree in you; there will be no quenching of the blaze, and every face from south to north shall be scorched. 48 The whole world shall see that I, the Eternal, kindled the fire; it never shall be quenched.’ ”

49 “Ah, Lord Eternal!” I said, “they say of me, ‘Is he not a story-teller?’ ”

21 "I Then this word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, turn to Jerusalem, declaim against her sanctuaries, prophesy against the land of Israel, 3 and tell the land of Israel this message from the Eternal: ‘I am against you, I will unsheathe my sword and slay both good and bad within you; 4 and because I will slay both good and bad within you, my sword shall be unsheathed against all the world, from south to north; 5 the world shall know that I the Eternal have unsheathed my sword--not to be sheathed again.’ 6 Sigh then, O son of man, sigh before them a heart-breaking, bitter sigh. 7 And when they ask you why you are sighing, answer, ‘For bad news! Evil is coming; every heart shall tremble, every hand shall be limp, every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water. Evil is coming—the Lord the Eternal has declared it.’ ”

8 This word from the Eternal came to me: 9 “Son of man, utter this prophetic word from the Eternal. Say:

A sword, a sword,

whetted and polished,

whetted to slay,

polished to flash like lightning

handed to slayers

to wield,

whetted and polished

for slayers to handle!

Shriek, son of man, and howl;

’tis drawn against my people,

against all Israel’s leaders--

they and my people

surrendered to the sword!

Smite your breast despairingly,

for I spurn them in my wrath,

says the Lord the Eternal.

14 Prophesy, then, son of man, call the doom down,

swing the sword twice, thrice,

the sword of mortal wounds,

the huge sword of mortal wounds,

that hems them in.

Scare them till their hearts are trembling,

and the dead lie heaped at every gate.

They are abandoned to the slaughtering sword,

flashing like lightning,

whetted for slaughter.

Whirl to the rear,

sword, right, front, left--

wherever your edge must whirl;

and I will clap you on,

I will glut my fury--

I, the Eternal, have said it!”

18 This word from the Eternal came to me; 19 “Son of man, trace two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to take, both from the same land; draw a hand to mark out the path of the sword to each city, 20 to Rabbah of the Ammonites and to Jerusalem inside Judah. 21 For the king of Babylon is standing at the cross-roads, where the two paths fork, to practise divination; he is shaking the two arrows, consulting the oracle, and inspecting a beast’s liver. 22 To his right hand comes the lot against Jerusalem, for cries of havoc, for battle-shouts, for battering-rams against the gates, for raising ramparts, for erecting forts. 23 Jerusalem thinks it is a lot cast in vain; but it recalls to me their guilt, and for their guilt they shall be captured. 24 Here, then, is the Lord the Eternal’s word: ‘Since you recall to me your guilt, by your open transgressions and all the deeds that bring your sins to light, since you remind me of yourselves, And you, you knave, 25 O prince of Israel to be slain, for whom the hour of sin’s full punishment brings doom-- 26 ‘Off with his diadem, away with his crown!’ says the Lord the Eternal; ‘turn things upside down, up with the low, down with the high! 27 I lay all in ruins, ruins, ruins; everything shall be overturned, till the rightful man arrives--and I will give him everything.’

28 Son of man, deliver this prophetic word also from the Lord the Eternal about the Ammonites and their deriding. Say, ‘A sword, a sword is drawn for slaughter, polished to flash lightning! 29 In false visions, by a lying oracle, you were told that you would wield it on the necks of the wicked, the doomed, whose end comes in the hour of sin’s full punishment. 30 Back with it into the scabbard! I will punish you yourself in the land of your origin, the land of your birth; 31 I will vent my anger upon you, blow the flames of my wrath on you, and hand you over to savage agents of destruction. 32 You shall be fuel to the fire, your blood shall fill the land, and you shall be forgotten--for I the Eternal have decreed it.’ ”

22 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, arraign, arraign the bloody city; then let her hear all her detestable impieties, 3 and tell her this from the Lord the Eternal: ‘O city, shedding blood to draw your doom upon you, making idols for yourself that you may be befouled! 4 You are guilty of the blood you shed, befouled by the idols you have made; you have brought on your own hour of doom, your day of reckoning. So I leave you to the scorn of the nations and the mockery of all the world. 5 Far and near they shall mock you, you infamous thing, seething with disorder! 6 The leaders of Israel within you have been overbearing, bent on bloodshed; 7 within you fathers and mothers are despised, foreigners are oppressed, orphans and widows wronged. 8 You scorn what is sacred to me, you desecrate my sabbath. 9 You harbour men who murder their fellows by false evidence. Within you flesh is eaten with the blood in it. 10 Within you men live lasciviously; they take their fathers’ concubines, they lie with menstruous women; 11 one does the act of shame with his neighbour’s wife, another lewdly couples with his daughter-in-law, another weds his sister, the daughter of his father. 12 Within you, bribes are taken to shed blood; you take interest on loans, you oppress your neighbour by extortion--and you forget me, says the Lord the Eternal. 13 I shake my hand in horror at your extortion and your bloodshed. 14 Will you keep a stout heart, will you be undaunted, when I come to deal with you? I the Eternal have said it, and I will do it: 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you over foreign lands, consuming the impurity out of you; 16 you shall be put to shame before all nations--to teach you that I am the Eternal.’ ”

17 This word from the Eternal came to me. 18 “Son of man, the community of Israel is all dross to me, brass, tin, iron, lead, for the furnace—mere silver-dross. 19 So—the Lord Eternal declares —since you are all mere dross, I will collect you in Jerusalem; 20 as men collect silver, brass, iron, lead, and tin, to blow the flames upon them and melt them in the furnace, so will I collect you in my anger and my fury, 21 fling you in, and melt you; yes, I will collect you and blow the flames of my wrath upon you, till you are melted in Jerusa- 22 lem. As silver is melted inside a furnace, so shall you be melted within it; and you shall learn that I the Eternal have vented my fury upon you.”

23 This word from the Eternal came to me: 24 “Son of man, say to her, ‘On the day of my indignant wrath, you are a land bereft of rain and shower, 25 where the local leaders are roaring lions that tear their prey, their prey of human lives, seizing on treasures and valuables, and making many a widow; 26 where the priests violate my law and profane what is sacred to me, making no difference between the sacred and the secular, never teaching any distinction between the consecrated and the unconsecrated, paying no heed to my sabbath--till I am profaned among them; 27 where the authorities are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood and murdering men to win dishonest gain; 28 where the prophets daub for them with whitewash, with vain visions and false oracles, saying “The word of the Eternal,” when the Eternal has never spoken; 29 where the natives practise oppression and commit robbery, wronging the weak and wretched, and inflicting injustice upon foreigners. 30 I have looked for a man among them to build up the wall and man the breach on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I could not find a man. 31 So I vent my indignation on them, I burn them up with my wrath, I make them suffer for their conduct--the Lord the Eternal declares.’ ”

23 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother; 3 when they were young, they played the harlot in Egypt, where men pressed their breasts and handied their virgin nipples. 4 Their names were Oholah, the elder, and Oholibah, the younger. They became my wives, and bore sons and daughters [[as for their names, Oholah is Samaria, Oholibah Jerusalem]].

5 But Oholah played the harlot, though she was my wife; she doted on her lovers the Assyrians, 6 soldiers clad in purple, prefects and governors, handsome young fellows all of them, riding on horseback; 7 she bestowed her favours upon them, the pick of Assyria, all of them, and befouled herself with the idols of every man on whom she doted; 8 she never ceased her harlotry since in Egypt men lay with her as a girl and handled her virgin nipples and had intercourse with her freely. 9 So I handed her over to her lovers, to the Assyrians on whom she had doted; 10 they exposed her nakedness, they seized her sons and daughters, and they slew her with the sword; so punishment was inflicted on her, till she became a warning to women.

11 Her sister Oholibah saw this, but she went further in depravity, in her lust and harlotry. 12 She doted on the Assyrians, prefects and governors, soldiers clad in purple, riding on horseback, handsome young fellows all of them. 13 I saw that she was befouling herself; both sisters were going the same road. 14 But she carried her harlotry further; she saw men pictured upon walls, figures of Chaldeans drawn in vermilion, 15 with sashes round their waists, with turbans adorning their heads, fine fellows to look at, portraits of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea; 16 and when she saw them she doted upon them. So she sent messengers to them in Chaldea, 17 and the Babylonians came to embrace her with lust, befouling her with their intercourse, 18 till she grew sated and broke with them in disgust. And I broke with her in disgust, as I had broken with her sister, for flaunting her harlotry and uncovering her naked body. 19 But she carried her harlotry still further, remembering her early days of harlotry in Egypt; 20 she doted upon paramours who were like asses and stallions in the grossness of their lust. 21 Yes, you sought to repeat the lustful' days of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your nipples and pressed your young breasts.

22 Therefore, Oholibah--here is the Lord the Eternal’s sentence--I will rouse your lovers against you, the lovers you broke with; I will mass them all round you, 23 the Babylonians, all the Chaldeans from Pukudu, Sutu, and Kutu, and with them all the Assyrians, handsome young fellows all of them, prefects and governors, captains and councillors, all riding on horseback; 24 they shall attack you with many chariots and cars, and with a host of nations, they shall invest you with shields, targes, and helmets; I will entrust judgment to them, and they shall sentence you; 25 I will vent my jealous fury upon you, and let them deal with you fiercely, cutting off your nose and ears; your survivors shall fall by the sword, your sons and daughters shall be carried off, and your survivors burned to death. 26 They shall strip you of your clothes and take away your fine jewels. 27 So will I put an end to your lasciviousness and Egyptian harlotry; you shall never take to that again, nor remember Egypt. 28 For this is the Lord the Eternal’s sentence: I hand you over to men you hate, to men you broke with, 29 and they shall vent their hate on you, seizing the wealth you worked for, leaving you bare and naked, and exposing all your shameful debauchery. 30 Your lasciviousness and harlotry have brought it on you, for playing the harlot with the nations by befouling yourself with their idols. 31 You have gone the road of your sister, and I will make you drain the cup 32 she had to drain. For this is the Lord the Eternal’s sentence:

You shall drink your sister’s cup,

deep and large and full!

drink deep of ruin and of grief,

a cup of despair and desolation.

You must drain it to the dregs,

your sister’s cup, Samaria’s,

drink it up and drain it,

and tear your breasts--

I have decreed it,

says the Lord the Eternal.

Since you forgot me and flung me aside,

then suffer for your sensual harlot ways!” 36 “Son of man,” said the Eternal, “arraign Oholah and Oholibah, and show them their detestable impieties. 37 They have been guilty of adultery, and there is blood upon their hands; they’have been guilty of adultery with their idols, and they abandoned the very sons they bore to me, to be burned up for their idols. 38 They did this to me also; they polluted my sanctuary and desecrated my sabbath, 39 for the very day they sacrificed their sons to their idols they polluted my sanctuary by entering it. And this is how they behaved within my temple; 40 they actually sent for men who came from abroad, sent messengers to them! And for them you bathed yourself, you painted your eyes, you put on your ornaments, 41 you sat on a handsome diwan, with a table spread in front of it, where you set out my incense and my oil, 42 and sounds of revelry arose! Yes, and they sent for common men, mere drunkards from the desert, and even for them put bracelets on their arms and splendid crowns upon their heads . . . 44 And the men embraced them like harlots; thus did they embrace Oholah and Oholibah in their lust. 45 But honest men shall inflict on them the punishment of the adulteress and the murderess, for adulteresses they are and blood is on their hands.

46 This therefore is the Lord the Eternal’s sentence: Bring a host of folk against them, and hand them over to be maltreated and robbed! 47 Let them be stoned and put to the sword, let their sons and daughters be slain, and let their houses be burned up! 48 So will I put an end to sensuality in the country, that all women may take warning and avoid your sensual ways; 49 I will requite you for your sensual ways; you will have to bear the consequences of your sinful idolatry, and so learn that I am the Lord the Eternal.”

24 In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, this word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, write down the name of this day; on this very day the king of Babylon has begun to invest Jerusalem. 3 Tell this rebellious community a parable; give them this message from the Lord the Eternal:

‘Set the cauldron on the fire, set it on,

pour in water,

put in the pieces,

all the good pieces,

thighs and shoulders,

fill it with the choicest bones,

choose the finest of the flock;

then pile wood under it,

make it boil merrily,

seething the bones in it!’

6 For this is the Lord the Eternal’s word: ‘Woe to the bloody city! 9 I myself will pile the fuel high. 10 Heap on the wood, kindle the fire, but empty out the flesh, pour out the broth, 11 and then set the cauldron empty on the coals to heat, to let its copper glow, and melt out its impurity, consuming its rust. 12 But the thick rust will not leave it; not even the fire can purge it. 6 Woe to the cauldron full of rust, with rust that will not leave it! Empty it anyhow, pull out the pieces as they come! 7 [[For the blood of her murders is in her; she poured it out on the bare rock, not on the ground for the dust to hide it, 8 but to rouse my fury, to provoke vengeance upon herself.]] 13 The rust is your impurity so foul. Because I would have cleansed you and you would not be clean, you shall never be cleansed from your impurity till I glut my fury on you. 14 I the Eternal have said it, and I will do it; I will not refrain, I will not pity, I will not relent, I will punish you as you have lived and acted’--so says the Lord the Eternal.”

15 This word from the Eternal came to me: 16 “Son of man, I am taking from you at a stroke the treasure of your eyes. 17 But no mourning for her, not a tear! Sigh silently, raise no lament for the dead; put on your turban and your sandals, cover not up your beard, and eat no funeral food.” 18 I told this to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died.

19 Next day I did as I had been told. The people asked me, “Will you not tell us what this means for us--this conduct of yours?” 20 I answered, “This word from the Eternal came to me: 21 Tell the community of Israel this message from the Lord the Eternal--‘I am about to desecrate my own sanctuary, your pride and confidence, the treasure of your eyes, your darling care; and the sons and daughters you have left behind are to fall by the sword. 22 [[You shall do as I have done; you shall not cover up your beards, nor eat funeral food; 23 you shall wear your turbans and your sandals, you shall neither lament nor weep but pine away in your sins and groan to yourselves.]] 24 This is how Ezekiel shall be an example to you; as he does, so shall you do when the time comes. It will teach you that I am the Lord the Eternal.’ 25 And, son of man, on the day I take from them their confidence, their proud delight, the treasure of their eyes, their heart’s desire, together with their sons and daughters, 26 a fugitive will come to you with the news. 27 Then you may open your lips to the fugitive, you may speak aloud, you need not be any longer dumb. So shall you be an example to them, and they shall learn that I am the Eternal.” * * *

25 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, turn to the Ammonites and prophesy against them; 3 tell the Ammonites to listen to this message from the Lord the Eternal. ‘The Lord the Eternal declares: Since you gloated over my sanctuary being desecrated, and over the land of Israel being laid waste, and over the community of Judah being carried into exile, 4 therefore will I hand you over to the Bedawin for their own; they shall pitch their tents and make their encampments all over you, eating your crops and drinking your milk; 5 I will let camels pasture in Rabbah and flocks graze in the towns of the Ammonites--to teach you that I am the Eternal.’ 6 The Lord the Eternal declares: ‘Since you clapped your hands and jumped for joy in your malicious delight over the land of Israel, 7 therefore will I strike you and hand you over to be ravaged by the nations; I will cut you off from the races of men and blot your land out of the earth, destroying you--to teach you that I am the Eternal.’

8 The Lord the Eternal declares: ‘Since Moab says, “Judah is now no better than any other nation,” 9 therefore will I lay open the flank of Moab, from the towns on its frontier to Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kureyat, the glory of the land; 10 I will give Moab as well as the Ammonites to the Bedawin, as their own, that Ammon may be no more remembered as a nation, and on Moab will I inflict punishment--to teach them that I am the Eternal.’

12 The Lord the Eternal declares: ‘Since Edom has acted revengefully to Judah and has been guilty of bitter revenge, 13 therefore, the Lord the Eternal declares, I will strike Edom, cutting off man and beast from it, and laying it waste; from Teman to Dedan the Edomites shall fall by the sword. 14 I will employ my people Israel to carry out my vengeance upon Edom, and they shall act upon my anger and fury to Edom--to let the Edomites feel my vengeance. The Lord the Eternal has said it.’

15 The Lord the Eternal declares: ‘Since the Philistines have acted revengefully, and sought in spiteful vengeance to destroy Israel with a lasting hatred, 16 therefore, the Lord the Eternal declares, I will strike the Philistines, cutting off the Kerethites, and destroying the rest of them along the sea-coast; 17 I will take heavy vengeance on them, and when I carry out my vengeance they shall learn that I am the Eternal.’ ”

26 In the eleventh year, the first day of the month, this word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, since Tyre has gloated over Jerusalem,

‘Aha! this door into the nations is broken down!

It lies open to me; I shall prosper, now she is laid waste,’ 3 therefore the Lord the Eternal 3 utters this sentence:

‘Tyre, I am against you, and against you

I will bring many a nation, as the sea brings many a wave,

till they destroy the walls of Tyre and level her high towers;

I will scrape the very dust from her and leave her a bare rock,

a place for spreading nets on, in the middle of the sea--

I have said it, the Lord the Eternal declares--

and her townships on the mainland shall fall by the sword:

to let them know that I am the Eternal.’

7 For this is the Lord the Eternal’s sentence: ‘I bring down upon Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, the king of kings, with horses and chariots and cavalry and a host of many races from the north.

Your townships on the mainland

he puts to the sword;

against you he raises forts,

against you he throws up mounds,

against you he masses shields,

drives the battering-ram

against your walls,

breaks your towers down

with his axes.

So many are his horses

that their dust covers you;

your walls shake

at the din of his cavalry,

his chariots and cars,

as he enters your gates

like a conqueror entering

a tower that is breached;

all your streets he tramples

with his horses’ hoofs,

your folk he slays with the sword,

your proud pillars crash to the ground;

your wealth is plundered,

your merchandise looted,

your walls are shattered,

your fine halls ruined,

your stones and timber and your very dust

are sunk within the sea.

I will silence the music of your songs,

no lyre shall be heard any longer;

I will make you a bare rock,

a place for spreading nets on,

and never to be built again--

for I the Eternal have said it.’

Such is the sentence of the Lord the Eternal.

15 This is the Lord the Eternal’s word for Tyre: ‘At the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan during the massacre, shall not the coast-lands tremble? 16 The princes of the seaboard will come down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and strip off their embroidered dress; trembling all over, they will sit on the earth, quivering every moment and shuddering over you. 17 They will raise this dirge for you, crying:

How you have vanished from the seas,

O city of renown!

Once so strong upon the seas,

you and your folk,

once a terror to

haunters of the sea!

Now at your passing the sea-lands

are scared.’

19 For the Lord the Eternal declares: ‘When I make you a desolate city, like cities uninhabited, when I turn the ocean upon you and the deep waters cover you, 20 then I will thrust you down with those who descend to the world below, to the ancient dead; I will make you dwell in the nether regions, in primeval wastes, never to be inhabited, never to take your place again in the land of the living; 21 I will utterly destroy you, and you shall exist no longer; you may be sought for, but never shall you be found--the Lord the Eternal has said it.’ ” 27 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, raise a dirge also for Tyre, 3 and say to Tyre that sits at the door of the sea, trading with many a coast-land for the nations--‘The Lord the Eternal declares:

O Tyre, you deemed

your beauty perfect;

your moorings were deep--

a perfect beauty had your builders made you,

with cypress trees from Senir

for your planks,

with cedars from Lebanon

for your masts,

with oaks from Bashan

for your oars,

with ivory inlaid in larch

from Cyprus for your deck;

fine linen with Egyptian embroidery

made your canvas,

serving as your pennon;

purple and blue from the coasts of Elishah

furnished your awnings;

men from Sidon and Arvad

were your rowers,

your own experts, O Tyre,

they were your pilots,

the sheikhs and councillors of Gebal

were your caulkers.

All ships and their sailors were in your harbour

to handle your trade;

Persia, Lud, and Put served in your army

as your soldiers,

they hung their shields and helmets within you,

and lent you splendour. 11 Men of Arvad and of Cilicia manned your walls, men of Gammad were in your towers, hanging their shields all round your walls and making your beauty perfect. 12 Tartessus brought you merchandise for your great wealth of every kind, fetching you wares of silver, iron, tin, and lead. 13 Ionians, Tubal, and Meshek brought you merchandise, supplies of slaves and copper ware. 14 Armenians fetched you wares of horses and mules. 15 Men from Rhodes brought you merchandise, and many a seaport at your service brought you traffic, with ivory tusks and ebony as their tribute. 16 Edom brought you merchandise for your rich wealth, fetching you wares of garnets, coral, and agates, of purple dyes, embroidery, and fine linen. 17 Judah and the land of Israel brought you merchandise, fetching you wares of wheat from Minnith, wax, honey, oil, and balsam. 18 Damascus brought you merchandise for your rich wealth, supplies of wine from Chalbun, and white wool. 19 From Uzal you received wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane; 20 Dedan brought you wares of saddle-cloths for riding; 21 Arabia and all the chiefs of Kedar were at your service, bringing you merchandise of lambs and rams and goats; 22 Sheba and Raamah brought you merchandise, supplying you with the pick of all spices, with jewels and with gold. 23 Harran and Kalneh and Eden, Assyria and all the Medes, brought you merchandise, 24 supplying you with choice fabrics, mantles blue and embroidered, stuffs of all colours, and strong, twisted cords. 25 Ships of Tartessus carried your trade.

So, richly laden you laboured

in deep water; 26 your rowers took you out

into the high seas,

and an east wind wrecked you

in the deep.

Your wealth and wares, your merchandise,

your sailors and your pilots,

your caulkers and your dockers,

and every soldier in you,

with all your company,

they sank into the sea

when you were wrecked.

At the shriek of your pilots

the coast is a-quiver;

and oarsmen, all of them,

sailors and pilots,

come out of their ships

to stand on the beach,

wailing over you,

crying out bitterly,

flinging dust on their heads,

sprinkling ashes upon them,

shaving their heads to bemoan you,

girding themselves with sackcloth,

and weeping for you bitterly

with bitter lamentation.

They raise a dirge for you, a wail,

lamenting over you:

Who was glorious as Tyre was in the deep?

When your wares were landed,

you filled many a nation;

with your abundant wealth and wares

you enriched kings of the world.

And now you are wrecked

in deep water;

your wares and all your crew

have sunk!

All seafaring folk are appalled

at the sight of you;

their kings are aghast,

their faces convulsed;

merchants abroad are shocked.

Your fate is awful;

there is no future for you!’ ”

28 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 "‘Son of man, give the prince of Tyre this message from the Lord the Eternal:

‘Since you are proud of heart,

thinking that you are a god,

in a god’s seat, by the deep,

when you are no god but a man,

though you deem yourself a god--

ay, wiser than a Daniel,

no clear-eyed sage like yourself!--

your wisdom and your shrewdness

winning you wealth,

pouring gold and silver

into your treasury;

since by your great wisdom and your trade

you have enriched yourself,

and wealth has made you proud of heart,

then here is the Lord Eternal’s sentence:

since you think yourself a god,

I will set foreigners on you,

most ruthless of races,

to draw their swords against your beautiful wisdom,

to stain your splendour,

to thrust you down into the underworld.

A violent death shall you die,

there by the deep.

Will you still say, before your murderer,

“I am a god”?

To your murderer

you are no god but mortal!

At the hand of foreigners

you shall die a cruel death;

for I have said it--so runs the Lord the Eternal’s sentence.’ ” 11 This word from the Eternal also came to me: 12 “Son of man, raise a dirge over the king of Tyre, and give him this message from the Lord the Eternal--'You were the very father of wisdom, the perfection of beauty; 13 you lived in Eden, the garden of God; you were adorned with every jewel, the jasper, the chrysolite, the sardonyx, the topaz, the beryl, the onyx, the sapphire, the garnet, and the rock-crystal, their setting wrought in gold . . . 14 On the day you were created, I placed you beside the kherubs on the sacred hill of God; you walked amid the flashing thunderstones. 15 From the day you were created, you lived a perfect life, till you were discovered doing wrong; 16 rich traffic made you rife with violence, and you sinned. Hence I have expelled you as a profane thing from the hill of God, and the kherub has driven you to your ruin away from the flashing thunderstones. 17 Your beauty made you proud of heart, your brilliance depraved your wisdom; so I have cast you down, abandoning you for kings to feast their eyes on you. 18 By the greatness of your guilt, by the crimes of your commerce, you have profaned your sacred position; therefore have I made you set fire to yourself, with flames that consume you, and reduced you to ashes on earth in the sight of all who behold you. 19 All who know you among the nations shall be appalled at you--your fate is awful, there is no future for you.’ ”

20 This word from the Eternal also came to me: 21 “Son of man, turn towards Sidon and tell her 22 this prophetic word from the Lord the Eternal:—-

‘O Sidon, I am against you,

I will show what I am as I deal with you!’ When I inflict punishment on her and show what I am by my dealings with her, it will teach her that I am the Eternal.

‘For I will send pestilence into her,

bloodshed into her streets,

till the wounded fall thick within her

by the sword striking her on every side’--

to teach them that I am the Lord the Eternal.

24 Of all the malignants who surround Israel, none shall fret them like a briar or pierce them like a thorn any longer; they shall learn that I am the Lord the Eternal. 25 The Lord the Eternal proclaims: When I have gathered the community of Israel from the races where they have been scattered, when I show the nations who I am by my dealings with Israel, then shall they live in their own land, the land I assigned to my servant Jacob; 26 they shall live in it securely, building houses and planting vineyards; securely shall they live, when I have inflicted punishment on all the malignants who surround them--to teach them that I am the Eternal their God.”

29 In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenths month, this word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, turn to the Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and all Egypt; 3 proclaim this message from the Lord the Eternal:

‘I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt,

you mighty monster lying in your streams,

thinking the Nile is your own, your own making!

I will drive hooks into your jaws,

and make the fishes of the Nile stick to your scales,

and I will haul you up out of your Nile,

with your fishes sticking to your scales,

and fling you out into the desert,

you and all the fishes of your Nile,

dropping you on the fields,

never to be gathered up or buried;

to the wild beasts and birds

I leave you for food.

So shall all dwellers in Egypt learn

that I am the Eternal.

Since you have been a poor staff of reeds to Israel,

breaking when they seized you,

tearing all their hand,

breaking when they leant on you,

shaking them to pieces-- 8 therefore the Lord the Eternal proclaims, I will bring a sword upon you, destroying man and beast within you, 9 till the land of Egypt lies desolate and waste. It is to teach Egypt that I am the Eternal, since he thought the Nile was his own, his own making! 10 Therefore am I against you and your Nile; I will turn the land of Egypt into an utter waste of desolation, from Migdol to Syene, to the very frontier of Ethiopia; 11 no foot of man shall pass over it, no foot of beast shall pass over it; for forty years it shall not be inhabited; 12 I will make the land of Egypt one of the desolate lands, and her cities, among desolate cities, shall lie waste for forty years; I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them over foreign countries. 13 Then, after forty years--says the Lord the Eternal--I will gather the Egyptians from the nations where they have been scattered, 14 and restore the fortunes of Egypt; I will bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin. There they shall form a weak kingdom, 15 the weakest of all kingdoms, a kingdom that never again shall rise to rule the nations; I will diminish them, till they cannot hold sway again over the nations. 16 No more shall Israel rely on Egypt, turning to them and thus reminding me of their crime. It will teach them that I am the Lord the Eternal.’ ”

17 In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, this word from the Eternal came to me: 18 “Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon forced his army to make a great effort against Tyre, till every soldier’s head was rubbed bald and every shoulder galled, by this great effort against Tyre. 19 Therefore the Lord the Eternal declares, I will let Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon have the land of Egypt; he shall carry off its teeming people, he shall plunder it, and take it as his prey, to pay his army; 20 I assign him the land of Egypt in payment for the service that he rendered me, says the Lord the Eternal.”

21 [[In those days I will make the community of Israel thrive and flourish, and I wall open your lips among them; so shall they learn that I am the Eternal.]]

30 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 "“Son of man, utter this prophetic word from the Lord the Eternal: ‘Wail aloud, woe for the day!

For the day draws nigh,

the Eternal’s day draws nigh,

a cloudy day,

a day of doom for the nations.

A sword shall fall on Egypt,

Ethiopia shall be in anguish,

as the slain drop in Egypt,

as her teeming folk are borne away,

as her foundations are demolished.’ 5 [[Ethiopia and Put and Lud, all the Arabians and Libyans and Kerethites along with them, shall fall by the sword.]] 6 The Eternal proclaims:

‘Egypt’s supporters shall fall,

her proud power shall give way;

from Migdol to Syene they shall

fall by the sword--

the Lord the Eternal decrees it;

they shall be one of the desolate lands,

their cities shall belong to cities lying waste.

So shall they learn that I am the Eternal,

when I have set fire to Egypt,

and shattered all her helpers.

On that day I send out messengers in ships

to terrify Ethiopia so secure;

Ethiopia shall be seized with anguish

on the day of Egypt’s doom--

for it is coming.’ 10 The Lord the Eternal declares:

‘I will destroy the nation of Egypt

by Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;

he and his people, most ruthless of races,

shall be brought in to destroy the land,

drawing their swords against Egypt,

and filling the land with the slain;

I will dry up the Nile,

and sell the land to evil men,

employing foreigners

to devastate the land and all it holds.

I the Eternal have said it.

13 The Lord the Eternal declares:

‘I will abolish the magnates of Memphis,

and leave no prince in Egypt.

I will put fear on the land of Egypt;

I will lay Pathros waste,

set fire to Zoan, punish Thebes,

vent my fury on Pelusium, Egypt’s stronghold,

and cut off the people of Thebes;

I will set fire to Egypt,

Pelusium shall writhe with pangs,

Thebes shall be stormed,

and Memphis battered down,

the braves of On and Bubastis shall fall by the sword,

and the citizens pass into exile.

At Daphne too ’twill be a dark day

when there I shatter Egypt’s sway,

and her proud power vanishes;

clouds shall cover her,

and her subjects pass into exile.

Thus will I punish Egypt;

and they shall learn that I am the Eternal.’ ”

20 In the eleventh year, on the seventh day of the first month, this word from the Eternal came to me: 21 “Son of man, I break the arm of the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and there is no binding of it up, no poulticing, no bandaging, to make it strong enough to grasp the sword again. 22 The Lord the Eternal proclaims: I am against the Pharaoh king of Egypt, I will break both his arms, the strong arm and the injured arm, till the sword drops from his hand. 23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them over foreign lands. 24 The arms of the king of Babylon I will strengthen; I will put my sword in his hand, and break the arms of the Pharaoh till he groans before him like a man mortally wounded; 25 I will put strength into the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of the Pharaoh shall give way. It will teach them that I am the Eternal, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, to brandish it over Egypt. 26 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them over foreign lands; it will teach them that I am the Eternal.”

31 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, this word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, say this to the Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his host:

Who is like you in size?

You were a stately cedar in Lebanon,

with fair branches, very tall,

its top among the clouds.

Waters nourished it,

deep waters made it grow,

pouring streams round the plantation,

running rills through all the soil.

So it rose in height,

over all towering trees,

with many a bough,

with branches stretching out--

thanks to the wealth of water.

Within its boughs

all birds of the air nested;

under its branches

all animals brought forth their young;

yes, under its shadow

all the great nations lived.

It was fair in its great size,

with its long branches--

so rooted was it

beside ample water.

The very cedars in God’s garden could not rival it;

no cypress had boughs like it,

no plane had branches like it;

not a tree in God’s own garden

was like it for beauty,

for number of branches;

the trees of Eden, in God’s garden,

all envied it.

10 Therefore the Lord the Eternal declares: Because it towered so high and raised its top to the clouds, priding itself on its height, 11 I handed it over to the great power among the nations; 12 foreigners, the most ruthless of races, cut it down and flung it on the hills, till its branches fell into every valley, and its broken boughs lay in all the ravines of the land; all races of the world forsook its shadow in dismay; 13 the birds all perched upon its ruined trunk, and the animals all lay upon its branches. 14 And this was in order that hereafter no trees growing beside water should exalt themselves in size, raising their tops to the clouds, that no trees fed by water should display their height; all of them are consigned to death, to the nether regions, to mix with common men, with those who go down to the pit below.”

15 The Lord the Eternal proclaims: “On the day he went down below, I made the deep waters mourn for him, I checked the streams till the broad waters were stayed; I made Lebanon mourn for him, and all the trees drooped for him; 16 I shook the nations with the crash of his downfall, when I threw him into the underworld to mix with those who go down to the pit below, while in the nether regions the trees of Eden, the choicest and the best trees of Lebanon, nourished by water, were all consoled by his fate. 17 The nations shall also go down with him into the underworld, to join those whom the sword has slain, and his supporters, who lived under his shadow among the nations, shall also perish. 18 What tree of Eden rivals you in splendour and in size? Yet you must go down like the trees of Eden into the nether regions, and lie there in a shameful death, among men whom the sword has slain. So much for the Pharaoh and for all his host, says the Lord the Eternal.”

32 In the eleventh year, upon the first day of the twelfth month, this word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, raise a dirge over the Pharaoh king of Egypt; say to him,

‘Woe to you, Pharaoh,

you are all undone!

You are like a monster in the streams,

snorting water from your nostrils,

splashing the river with your feet,

fouling the streams. 3 The Lord the Eternal declares:

I will throw my net over you,

and haul you up in my net;

I will toss you on the land,

and fling you on the field;

I will make the birds all settle on you,

and glut the animals of all the earth with you;

I will strew your flesh upon the hills,

and fill the valleys with your carcase;

I will drench earth with your gushing blood,

till the water-courses are full of you.

When I extinguish you,

I will shroud the sky

and darken its stars,

I will shroud the sun with clouds,

and the moon shall not shine;

all the bright lights of the sky

I will darken over you,

bringing darkness on your land--

says the Lord the Eternal.’

9 The heart of many a nation will I trouble, when I proclaim your ruin to the nations, to countries that you never knew; 10 I will make many a race dismayed over you, and their kings shall shudder over you, when they behold me brandishing my sword; they shall tremble every moment, every man for his own life, on the day of your downfall. 11 For the Lord the Eternal decrees: The sword of the king of Babylon shall fall upon you; 12 I will make all your host fall by the sword of warriors;

all of them are the most ruthless of races,

and they shall ruin Egypt’s pride,

her host shall all be destroyed;

and all her beasts will I destroy,

that live beside her many streams;

no foot of man, no hoof of beast,

shall foul the streams again;

I will make the waters settle,

till the rivers run smooth as oil--

says the Lord the Eternal.

And when I lay the land of Egypt waste and desolate,

emptied of all that filled it,

when I strike down all its dwellers,

then shall they learn that I am the Eternal.

This is the dirge to be chanted,

chanted by women of the nations;

let them chant it over Egypt and all her host,

says the Lord the Eternal.”

17 In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the first month, this word from the Eternal came to me: 18 “Son of man, wail over the host of Egypt, and send them down with a lament, you and the women of the mighty nations, to the nether regions, to join those who go down into the pit below.

‘Whom do you surpass in beauty?

Down with you, down to a shameful death,

you and all your host,

amid victims of the sword!’ 21 The mighty warriors in the underworld shall hail him and his allies:

‘Down with you, down, to a shameful death,

you and all your host,

amid victims of the sword!’

22 Assyria is down there with all her folk, their graves around their king’s, 23 buried in the abysses of the pit, all victims of the sword, who were a terror in the land of the living. 24 Elam is there, with all her folk round her grave, all victims of the sword who have passed down into the nether regions, men who were a terror in the land of the living and have gone down to a shameful death, 25 sharing disgrace with the victims who have gone down into the pit of death. 26 Meshek and Tubal are there, with all their folk in graves around them, all lying in a shameful death, victims of the sword, because they were a terror in the land of the living; 27 they shall not lie beside the mighty warriors of old, who went down to the underworld with their weapons, their swords lying under their heads, and their shields upon their skeletons, because they were a terror in the land of the living. 28 (And, Pharaoh, you shall lie among the defeated in disgrace, the victims of the sword!)

29 Edom is there, with its kings and princes, who for all their might lie among the victims of the sword, with the defeated in disgrace, with those who go down to the pit of death. 30 The princes of the north are all there and all the Phoenicians; they have gone down with the slain, for all the terror of their might, and lie with the defeated in disgrace, sharing the shame of those who go down to the pit of death. 31 To see all these may be some comfort to the Pharaoh, over all his own host, says the Lord the Eternal! 32 He put terror on the land of the living, and for that he shall be laid among the defeated in disgrace, with the victims of the sword--the Pharaoh and all his host, says the Lord the Eternal.” * * *

33 This word from the Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your own people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a country, and the natives take one of their number and make him their sentinel; 3 if he sees the sword coming on the land and blows the trumpet to warn the folk, 4 then anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning but is swept off by the sword, that man is responsible for his own death. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and he did not take warning; he is responsible for his own death. Had he taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the sentinel does not blow the trumpet when he sees the sword coming, and if the sword comes and sweeps off anyone of the folk, that man is swept off on account of his iniquity, but for his death I will hold the sentinel responsible! 7 Now, son of man, I have placed you as a sentinel for Israel; whenever you hear a word from my lips, warn them from me. 8 When I tell the wicked, “You must die,”--then, if you do not say a word of warning to the wicked to give up his evil course, he has to die for his iniquity, but I will hold you responsible. 9 Yet if you warn the wicked to give up his evil course and if he will not give it up, he has to die for his iniquity, but you have saved yourself.

10 Son of man, tell Israel: ‘This is your cry, that “our transgressions and our sins press upon us, we are wasting away under them; how can we live?” 11 Tell them: By my life! says the Lord the Eternal, I have no desire for the death of the wicked, but for him to live by giving up his evil course. Give up your evil courses, give them up: O Israel, why will you die?’ 12 And tell your people this, O son of man: ‘A good man’s goodness shall not save him when he goes wrong: a wicked man’s wickedness shall not ruin him when he gives up his wickedness [[; neither shall a good man’s goodness keep him alive when he sins]]. 13 When I tell the good man, “You shall live,” and when he relies upon his goodness and commits iniquity, none of his good deeds shall be remembered, he shall die for the iniquity he has committed. 14 And when I tell the wicked, “You shall die,” and when he gives up his sins and does What is lawful and right, 15 restoring the pledge deposited with him, refunding what he has robbed, and following the rules that lead to life, then he shall certainly live, he shall not die; 16 none of the sins he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right, he shall certainly live. 17 Yet your people complain, “The Lord is not acting fairly!” It is they who are not acting fairly. 18 When a good man gives up being good to commit iniquity, he shall die for it; 19 when a wicked man gives up being wicked to do what is lawful and right, he shall live by that. 20 And yet you complain, “The Eternal is not acting fairly!” O Israel, I will deal with every one of you as he has lived.’ ”

21 In the eleventh year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came and told me, “The city has fallen.” 22 Now the hand of the Eternal had been upon me the evening before the fugitive arrived, but he had opened my mouth at the moment when the man reached me in the morning; my mouth had been opened and I was silent no longer. 23 This word from the Eternal had come to me:

24 “Son of man, those who haunt the ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man and yet he was given possession of the entire land; we are many, and we are sure to have the land for our own.’ 25 Tell them what the Lord the Eternal says: ‘You to possess the land, you who eat flesh with the blood in it and worship idols and commit bloodshed! You to possess the land, 26 you who have recourse to the sword, you who commit detestable impieties, you who seduce one another’s wives!’ 27 Tell them this is what the Lord the Eternal says: ‘By my life! those in the ruins shall fall by the sword, those who are out in the open I shall let wild beasts devour, and those in the fortresses and caves shall die by pestilence; 28 I will lay the land waste and desolate, the strength that was its pride shall pass, and the uplands of Israel shall be deserted, without a wayfarer. 29 When I lay the land desolate and waste for all their detestable impieties, then shall they realize that I am the Eternal.’

30 As for you, O son of man, your people are talking about you in the streets and at the doors of their houses, saying to one another, ‘Come and let us hear what is the word from the Eternal to-day!’ 31 They come to you as usual, they sit in front of you, they hear your words, but they will not obey them; their lips are full of lies, their minds are set upon their selfish ends, 32 and they heed you as they would a love-song beautifully rendered and well played--they hear your words, but they will not obey them. 33 Yet when the hour comes--and it is coming--they shall realize that there was a prophet among them!”

34 This word from the Eternal also came to me; 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the rulers of Israel, prophesy thus to these shepherds: ‘Here is what the Lord the Eternal says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who have fed none but themselves! Ought not shepherds to feed their flock? 3 You have seized the milk, you have clothed yourselves with the wool, you have killed the fatlings, but you have not fed the flock. 4 You never put strength into the weak, you never healed the sickly, you never bandaged the cripples, you never recovered those who had been driven away, you never looked for those who were lost, and you were rough to those who were strong. 5 So my flock has been scattered because they had no shepherd, and it has been devoured by all the wild beasts. 6 My flock strayed over all the uplands and over every high hill, scattered all over the face of the earth, with none to search for them, none to look for them.’ 7 Hear, then, what the Eternal has to say to you shepherds. 8 ‘By my life!’ says the Lord the Eternal, ‘since my flock has become the prey and food of every wild animal, because there was no one to shepherd them (for the shepherds cared nothing about my flock, but fed themselves instead of feeding my flock)’-- 9 hear then what the Lord the Eternal says, you shepherds-- 10 ‘I am against the shepherds, I will demand my flock back from them, I will stop them from tending my flock; no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves, I will rescue my flock from their greed, and no longer shall it be food for them.’ 11 For this is what the Lord the Eternal says: ‘I myself, I will search for my flock and look for them. 12 As a shepherd looks for his flock on the day when his sheep have been scattered, so will I search for my flock and bring them safe from all the places whither they have been scattered on a day of clouds and darkness; 13 I will gather them out of the nations and collect them from foreign lands and bring them into their own land, feeding them on the uplands of Israel, in the valleys, and in all habitable parts of the country. 14 I will feed them upon good pasture; their grazing shall be on the uplands of Israel, where they shall lie down in a good place and graze on rich pasture amid the heights of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my flock, I will take them to their pasture,’ says the Lord the Eternal. 16 ‘I will look for the lost, I will recover those who have been driven away, I will bandage the cripples, I will put strength into the sick, and I will guard the strong and prosperous, attending to them properly.

17 As for you, my flock,’ says the Lord the Eternal, ‘I will judge between the weak sheep and the rams and he-goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to graze on the good pasture? Must you trample over the rest of the pasture? Is it not enough for you to claim the clear water? Must you foul the rest of the water with your feet? 19 Are my sheep to eat what you have trampled and to drink what you have fouled?’ 20 This is what the Lord the Eternal says: ‘I myself will take action. You plump creatures, you have pushed the lean sheep away, 21 with your sides and shoulders, butting at these feeble creatures with your horns till you have scattered them abroad! 22 Now I will rescue my flock, they shall be a prey no longer, and I will judge between sheep and sheep. 23 Also I will place a single ruler over them, that is, my servant David, who shall feed them and be their shepherd; 24 I the Eternal will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I the Eternal proclaim this. 25 I will make a compact of peace with them, banishing wild beasts from the country, so that they may live undisturbed in the open and sleep within the woods; 26 I will settle them round my own hill, blessing them with showers of rain at the right season; 27 the trees of the field shall bear fruit, the earth shall bring forth crops, and they shall live undisturbed in the land; they shall learn that I am the Eternal, when I break their yoke of slavery and rescue them from those who made them slaves; 28 they shall no longer be the prey of the nations, wild beasts shall not devour them, they shall live undisturbed, and none shall make them afraid. 29 I will grant them a right fertile soil, so that they shall no longer be consumed by hunger in the land and taunted by the nations. 30 Then shall they learn that I the Eternal am their God, and that they, Israel, are my people,’ says the Lord the Eternal. 31 ‘You are my own flock, the flock I tend, and I am your God,’ says the Lord the Eternal.”

35 This word from the Eternal further came to me: 2 “Son of man, turn to mount Seir and prophesy thus against it.

The Lord the Eternal declares:

Mount Seir, I am against you,

I strike a blow at you,

and lay you waste and desolate;

I lay your townships waste,

and you shall lie all desolate--

to teach you that I am the Eternal.

5 Because you cherished a lasting enmity against the Israelites, because you handed them over to the sword on the day of their calamity, when they suffered final punishment, 6 therefore, by my life! says the Lord the Eternal, you have been guilty of bloodshed, and blood shall pursue you; 7 I will lay mount Seir waste and desolate, cutting off all who come and go, and filling the uplands with dead Edomites. 8 Men slain by the sword shall fall, over your hills and valleys and all your water-courses; 9 I will lay you desolate for all time, and your townships shall never be peopled--to teach you that I am the Eternal. 10 Because you said, ‘These two nations and their lands shall be ours, and we shall hold them’ (although the Eternal lived there), 11 therefore, by my life! says the Lord the Eternal, I will deal with you for the anger and envy you dealt out to them in your hatred; I will let you see who I am, when I punish you, 12 and you shall learn that I, the Eternal, have heard all your reviling against the uplands of Israel. You said, ‘They are desolate, they are ours, our prey!’ 13 You vaunted loudly against me; I heard it all! 14 So this is what the Lord the Eternal says: ‘I will lay you desolate, to the delight of all the world; 15 as you maliciously delighted over the desolation of Israel, so will I deal with you; desolate shall you be, O mount Seir, O Edom, every inch of you.’ It will teach them that I am the Eternal.”

“Son of man, prophesy thus to the mountains of Israel. ‘Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Eternal. 2 Here is what the Lord the Eternal says: Because the enemy gloated over you and cried, “The old sites on the hills are ours!” 3 therefore prophesy thus: The Lord the Eternal declares, Because you have been left desolate and crushed on every side, seized by the riff-raff of the world, the talk and evil gossip of the mob, 4 therefore, O mountains of Israel, listen to what the Lord the Eternal has to say to mountains, hills, water-courses, valleys, waste lands, and deserted cities, that have become a prey and a derision to the riff-raff of the surrounding pagans 5 --therefore, the Lord the Eternal declares, I speak in hot indignation of the riff-raff of the pagans and especially of Edom, of all Edom, for taking my land to be their own, exulting in malicious spite, to prey upon its pastures. 6 Therefore prophesy about the land of Israel and tell the mountains, hills, water-courses, and valleys that the Lord the Eternal declares: I speak in indignation and in fury, because you have had to bear the taunting of the nations. 7 Therefore, says the Lord the Eternal, I swear that the nations round you shall have to bear taunts when they are ruined. 8 But you shall put out your branches, O mountains of Israel, you shall bear fruit for Israel my people; for soon they will be coming back. 9 I am with you, I will care for you, and see that you are tilled and sown; 10 I will put many people on you, even all the Israelites, every one of them; the towns shall be re-peopled, the waste places rebuilt; 11 I will make the men and beasts upon you numerous, and settle you as you used to be--I will do better for you than at the first, and you shall learn that I am the Eternal. 12 Yes, I will make men tread you again, the men of my people Israel; they shall possess you, and you shall be their property; you shall no longer be deadly to them.

13 The Lord the Eternal declares: Because men taunt you with devouring men and being deadly to your nation, 14 you shall no longer devour men nor be deadly to your nation--says the Lord the Eternal. 15 I will no longer allow any sneer of the nations against you; you shall not suffer the taunting of the world, for you shall no longer be deadly to your nation. The Lord the Eternal has said it.’ ”

16 This word from the Eternal further came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the Israelites lived in their own land, they polluted it with their practices; to me their practices were as loathsome as a woman’s menstruous discharge; 18 so I vented my fury upon them, for drenching my land with bloodshed and polluting it with their idols; 19 I scattered them among the nations, till they were dispersed over the world; I punished them for their practices. 20 But it lowered my sacred honour to have them scattered thus among the nations; for people sneered, ‘These are the Eternal’s people, and yet they are driven out of the land!’ 21 Now I had some concern for my sacred honour thus lowered by the dispersion of the Israelites. 22 So tell the Israelites that this is what the Lord the Eternal has to say: It is not for your sakes, O Israel, that I take action, but for the sake of my own sacred honour which has been lowered by your dispersion among the nations. 23 I will uphold my high honour which has been lowered and degraded by you among the nations; and when I show them what I am, by my dealings with you, then, says the Lord the Eternal, the nations shall learn that I am the Eternal. 24 For I am about to gather you out of the nations and collect you from all countries and bring you back to your own land; 25 then I will pour clean water over you, cleansing you from all your impieties and purifying you from all your idols; 26 I will give you a new nature, and I will put a new spirit into you, I will take away your hard nature and give you a nature that can be touched; 27 I will put my own spirit within you, I will make you live by my laws, and you shall obey and observe my orders. 28 You shall live in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be my own people, and I will be your God; 29 I will keep you clear of all your impurities. I will call to the grain, till it multiplies; I will spare you any famine. 30 I will make your fruit and your crops abundant, that you may no longer be taunted by the nations with famine. 31 And then you shall remember your evil practices and your bad conduct, and loathe yourselves for your iniquities and detestable deeds. 32 But mark this, it is not for your sake that I act thus, says the Lord the Eternal; be ashamed and abashed for your misconduct, O Israel!”

33 This is what the Lord the Eternal says: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will have the towns re-peopled and the waste places rebuilt; 34 the desolate land shall be tilled, instead of lying waste under the eyes of every passer-by, 35 till men say, ‘This land that once was desolate is like the garden of Eden to-day; waste places, desolate and ruined towns, are fortified and peopled!’ 36 It will teach the nations left around you that I the Eternal have rebuilt the ruined towns and replanted the desolate land. I the Eternal have said it, and I will do it.” 37 The Lord the Eternal declares, “I will also let Israel ask this from me and have it done for them: I will increase their numbers like a flock; 38 like large flocks for sacrifice, like the flocks at Jerusalem for the festivals, so shall the ruined towns teem with men. It will teach them that I am the Eternal.”

37 The hand of the Eternal was laid upon me; he carried me off in the spirit and set me down in a valley. It was full of bones; 2 he made me go all round them, and I saw that they were very many on the surface of the valley, and very dry. 3 “Son of man,” he said, “can these bones live?” “O Lord Eternal,” I answered, “that is known only to thyself.” 4 He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones; say to them, ‘O dry bones, listen to the word of the Eternal.’ 5 The Lord the Eternal has this word for the bones: ‘I will make the breath of life enter you, 6 I will put sinews upon you and cover you with flesh, and put breath into you; so shall you live, and learn that I am the Eternal.’ ”

7 I prophesied as I was told. While I was prophesying, there was a sound of rattling; the bones came together, bone to bone, 8 and, as I looked, there were sinews upon them! Flesh spread up over them, skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 So he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind, son of man, give the wind these orders from the Lord the Eternal: ‘Come from the four ends of the earth, O breath, and breathe life into these corpses.’ ”

10 I prophesied as I was told, and the breath did enter into them; they came to life and stood upon their feet, a mighty host of them. 11 “Son of man,” he said to me, “these bones are the whole community of Israel. They cry, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is gone, we are undone!’ 12 Prophesy therefore to them, tell them this word from the Lord the Eternal: ‘O my people, I will open your graves and bring you out of your graves, back to the land of Israel. 13 You shall be sure that I am the Eternal, after I have opened your graves and raised you from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit into you, and you shall live, and I will restore you to your own land; it will teach you that I the Eternal have said it and done it--says the Eternal.’ ”

15 This word from the Eternal further came to me: 16 “Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘Judah and the Israelites attached to him’; then take another stick and write upon it, ‘Joseph and all in Israel attached to him’; 17 join them together, making a single stick within your hand. 18 When your countrymen ask you, ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by this?’ 19 tell them that this is the word from the Lord the Eternal: ‘Here I am about to take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and his fellow- clans, and join them to the stick of Judah, making a single stick within my hand.’ 20 Hold the sticks before their eyes 21 and tell them that this is the word from the Lord the Eternal: ‘Here am I about to take the Israelites from the nations where they have gone, gathering them from every quarter and bringing them back to their own land, 22 where I will make them into a single nation, upon the uplands of Israel, with a single king reigning over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they be divided into two kingdoms any longer. 23 They shall no longer befoul themselves with idols or detestable practices or any other transgressions; I will keep them clear of all the rebelliousness with which they have sinned, and I will purify them; so shall they be my own people, and I will be their God. 24 My servant David shall be king over them, their sole shepherd. They shall live by my laws, and observe and obey my orders. 25 They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where their fathers lived; there shall they live, they and their children and their children’s children for all time, with my servant David as their perpetual prince. 26 I will make a compact of peace with them, a lasting compact; I will settle them and multiply them and set my sanctuary among them for all time; 27 my dwelling-place shall be with them, I will be their God, and 28 they shall be my people; and when my sanctuary remains among them for ever, the nations shall learn that I am the Eternal who sets Israel apart.’ ”

38 This word from the O Eternal came to me: 2 “Son of man, turn to Gog [[in the land of Magog]], the prince of Bosh and Meshek and Tubal; 3 prophesy against him and tell him this from the Lord the Eternal: ‘O Gog, prince of Rosh and Meshek and Tubal, I am against you. 4 I will bring you along, with all your army, horses and horsemen, in full armour, a mighty host all armed with shields and targes and all wielding swords, 5 warriors from Persia, Kush, and Put, equipped with targes and helmets, 6 all the hordes of the Cimmerians, all the hordes from Armenia in the far north, and many another nation in your train. 7 Be ready, hold yourself ready, you and all your muster, hold yourself in reserve for me! 8 You [[shall be summoned after many a day, and after many a year you]] shall attack the land that has been restored from desolation, the nation that has been gathered home from many a people, the uplands of Israel, once a perpetual waste but now held by a nation gathered home from the peoples and living all undisturbed. 9 You shall sweep up like a storm, covering the country like a storm-cloud, you and all your hordes and all the nations in your train. 10 A plan will occur to your mind, says the Lord the Eternal; you will concoct an evil design, 11 thinking, “I will invade this land of villages, I will attack this quiet folk who are all living in security, with never a wall or a bar or a gate.” 12 You will plan to get booty, to seize your prey, to assail re-peopled wastes, where a people gathered from the nations are living with their stores of cattle and property at the centre of the earth. 13 The merchants of Sheba and Dedan, the traders of Tartessus, will be all asking you, “Is it for booty you have come? Have you mustered for plunder, to carry off silver and gold, to seize cattle and property, to win rich booty?” ’

14 Prophesy therefore to Gog, son of man, tell him this from the Lord the Eternal: ‘When my people Israel are living undisturbed, 15 will you bestir yourself and leave your seat in the far north, you and many a nation with you, all mounted on horseback, a mighty host, a huge army, sweeping up, after many a day, 16 against my people Israel like a storm-cloud to cover the country? Yes, I will indeed bring you against my land, to let the nations learn what I am, when I show them my dread divinity in handling you, O Gog.’ 17 The Lord the Eternal proclaims: ‘It is you of whom I predicted long ago by my servants the prophets of Israel (who prophesied for many a year then), that I would bring on your attack.’ 18 The Lord the Eternal declares: ‘On that day, the day when Gog invades the land of Israel, my fury will be roused; 19 yes, in my indignation, in my hot anger, I decree that on that day there shall be a mighty earthquake in the land of Israel, 20 when all fish in the sea, and wild birds, wild beasts, reptiles, and human beings, shall all tremble at my presence, when mountains shall be torn apart, and cliffs topple over, and every wall drop to the ground. 21 I will summon an utter panic against him, says the Lord the Eternal, till every man in his host shall draw the sword against his fellow; 22 I will punish him with pestilence and bloodshed, I will rain on him and his hordes and all the nations in his train an overpowering flood, with hail-stones, fire, and brimstone. 23 I will let all the nations see my might and dread divinity--to teach them that I am the Eternal.’

Son of man, prophesy against Gog, tell him this from the Lord the Eternal: ‘I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshek, and Tubal! 2 I will turn you, lead you on, bring you from the far north to attack the uplands of Israel, 3 and then I will strike the bow from your left hand and knock the arrows out of your right hand; 4 on the uplands of Israel you shall fall, you and all your hordes and allies; I will leave you as food for all sorts of ravenous birds and wild beasts to devour; 5 in the open country you shall fall—I have said it, says the Lord the Eternal.’ 6 I will send fire to burn up Magog and the coast-lands where men live securely--to teach them that I am the Eternal. 7 I will let my dread divinity be seen within my people Israel, and never allow my sacred honour to be lowered again; it will teach the nations that I am the Eternal, the Majestic One in Israel. 8 It is coming, it shall come to be, says the Lord the Eternal--here is the day I predicted! 9 The citizens of Israel shall go out and make firewood of the weapons, the targes, the shields, the bows and arrows, the pikes and spears; it will serve them as firewood for some years, 10 they shall not require to cut wood from the fields or the forests but shall use weapons as firewood; they shall plunder those who plundered them and prey on those who preyed on them (so the Lord the Eternal decrees).

11 I will give Gog then a famous place for his grave within Israel, the valley of Abarim, east of the Dead Sea; there shall they bury Gog and all his mob, and call it ‘The valley of Gog-mob’! 12 The Israelites will be seven months in burying them, in order to cleanse the land; 13 all the natives shall bury them, and it will be a famous thing for them when I uphold my honour, says the Lord the Eternal. 14 They must select men who are to be constantly occupied in traversing the land and collecting the corpses that lie on the surface, so as to cleanse the land; this search is to be made after seven months, 15 and in the course of the search, when anyone sees a human bone, he must put up a mark beside it, till the burial parties come and bury the bone in the valley of Gog-mob. 16 So shall they cleanse the land.

17 Son of man, give this message from the Lord the Eternal to all sorts of birds and to every wild beast: ‘Come, gather and collect from all quarters to the feast of a sacrifice that I am preparing for you, a rich feast on the uplands of Israel, where you can eat flesh and drink blood; 18 you shall eat the flesh of heroes and drink the blood of the world’s princes—their rams and lambs and goats and bullocks, all fatted animals of Bashan; 19 you shall eat your fill of the fat and drink yourselves drunk with the blood of the feast I am preparing for you: 20 yes, at my board you can glut yourselves on horses and riding animals, on heroes and warriors to the full! The Lord the Eternal has said it.’

21 Thus will I set up my honour among the nations, till all see the vengeance I inflict and the heavy hand I lay upon them. 22 From that day onwards, Israel shall be sure that I am the Eternal their God, 23 and the nations shall understand that Israel was exiled on account of their iniquity, that it was because they had been unfaithful to me that I withdrew my favour from them and handed them over to their foes, till they all fell by the sword; 24 it was for their unclean lives and their transgressions that I punished them and withdrew my favour from them. 25 But now, says the Lord the Eternal, I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole community of Israel, as I am jealous for my sacred honour. 26 They shall forget their shame and all their faithlessness to me, once they live undisturbed in their own land, with no one to scare them, 27 once I bring them back from the nations and gather them from the countries of their foes, and let the nations see what I am by my dealings with Israel. 28 They shall understand that I am the Eternal their God by this, that it was I who sent them into exile abroad and I who gathered them back into their own land, 29 where I will never leave any of them alone again, never withdraw my favour from them again--for on the community of Israel I have poured out my spirit, says the Lord the Eternal.” * * *

40 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the begin- ning of the year, on the tenth of the month, the fourteenth year since the city had been captured, that very day the hand of the Eternal was laid upon me in a trance, 2 and he brought me in visions of God to the land of Israel and placed me on a very high mountain, upon which was a building like a city in front of me. 3 When he brought me thither, there stood a man whose appearance was like shining bronze, with a measuring tape of flax in his hand and also a measuring rod! The man stood at the gateway, 4 and he said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes and listen with your ears, and fix your mind upon all that I am going to show you, for this is why you have been brought hither, that I might show it all to you; then tell the house of Israel whatever you see.”

5 There, all round the outside of the building, a wall ran; and when the man measured it with the measuring rod in his hand, which was ten and a half feet long, he found the wall was ten and a half feet thick and ten and a half feet high. 6 He then went to the gatehouse facing eastward and, climbing the steps, measured the outer lobby; it was ten and a half feet. 7 Each of the guard-rooms was ten and a half feet long and ten and a half feet broad, with a space of eight feet and three-quarters between them, 8 while the inside lobby of the gatehouse at the vestibule facing in to the temple was ten and a half feet. 9 He then measured the vestibule itself, which was fourteen feet, while the jambs were three feet six. 10 This gatehouse facing eastward had three guard-rooms on each side, all of the same size, like the spaces between them. 11 He measured the breadth of the outside entrance; it was seventeen and a half feet . . . 12 a partition projected for twenty-one inches below the guard-rooms, on either side of the passage, while the guard-rooms themselves were ten and a half feet square. 13 The gatehouse measured forty-three and three-quarters feet across, from the back door of one guard-room to another, 14 while the vestibule measured thirty-five feet—the vestibule leading from the gatehouse into the outer court. 15 From the outside front to the inner entry the gatehouse measured eighty-seven feet and a half. 16 Latticed loopholes were let into the guard-rooms, the spaces between them, and also the porch, all round the interior, while the jambs were decorated with palms.

17 Then he took me into the outer court, and there were chambers fronting on a pavement which ran round the walls of the court; thirty chambers there were, 18 and this the lower pavement was next the gateways, corresponding to them in breadth. 19 Then he measured the breadth of the court between the inside of the outer gate and the outside of the inner court; it was a hundred and seventy-five feet, measured alike from east and north. 20 He also measured the length and breadth of the gateway of the outer court which faced northward; 21 it had three guard-rooms on each side, the jambs and porch were the same size as those of the first gate, and it was eighty-seven and a half feet long by forty-three and three-quarters broad. 22 The windows, its porch, and its palms were the same size as those of the gatehouse facing eastward; it was reached by a flight of seven steps, and the porch looked inward. 23 The inner court had a gatehouse opposite the outer gatehouse, to the north and to the east, at a distance of a hundred and seventy-five feet, measured from one gatehouse to another. 24 He then led me southward, and there was a gatehouse facing southward; he took the same measurements of the jambs and the porch; 25 it had latticed loopholes, as the porch had, all round, like the other loopholes, and was eighty-seven and a half feet long, by forty-three and three-quarters in breadth. 26 It was reached by seven steps, and the porch looked inward; it had also palms upon the jambs on either side. 27 There was also a gatehouse in the inner court facing southward; he measured the distance between them, a hundred and seventy-five feet.

28 He then took me into the inner court through the southern gatehouse, taking the same measurements of the southern gateway, with its guard-rooms, its jambs, and its porch; 29 it had loopholes, as the porch had, all round, and was eighty-seven and a half feet long, by forty-three and three-quarters in breadth. 31 The porch looked outward, the jambs were decorated with palms, and it was reached by eight steps. 32 He then took me into the inner court on the east side, taking the same measurements of that gatehouse, with its guard-rooms, its jambs, and its porch; 33 it had loopholes, as the porch had, all round, and was eighty-seven and a half feet long by forty-three and three-quarters in breadth. 34 The porch looked outward, the jambs on both sides were decorated with palms, and it was reached by eight steps. 35 He took me to the northern gatehouse, taking the same measurements of it, 36 of the guard-rooms, the jambs, and the porch; it also had loopholes all round, and it was eighty-seven and a half feet long, by forty-three and three-quarters in breadth. 37 The porch looked outward, the jambs on both sides were decorated with palms, and it was reached by eight steps.

38 There was a chamber entering from the porch of the gatehouse, where they washed the burnt-offering victims. 39 And on each side of the porch of the gatehouse stood two tables, for slaying the victims for the burnt-offering and the sin-offering and the guilt-offering. 40 On the outside, at the stair on the north side of the entry, stood two tables, and on the opposite side of the porch stood two tables. 41 Four tables stood on either side of the gatehouse, eight tables in all, for the purposes of slaughter. 42 Four tables for the burnt-offering were cut out of stone, two and a half feet in length, two and a half feet in breadth, and twenty-one inches in height; on these they laid the implements for slaying the victims for the burnt-offering [[and the sacrifice]]. 43 Inside the porch there were ledges fastened all round, nine inches broad. The sacrificial flesh lay on the tables. 44 Outside the inner gatehouses there were two chambers in the inner court, one beside the northern gatehouse, facing southward, and the other beside the southern gatehouse, facing northward. 45 And he said to me, “This chamber to the south is for the priests who are in charge of the temple; 46 the chamber to the north is for the priests who are in charge of the altar, that is, for the sons of Zadok, the Levites who approach the Eternal to minister.” 47 He measured the court--a hundred and seventy-five feet long, by a hundred and seventy-five feet broad—also the altar in front of the temple. 48 Then he took me to the vestibule of the temple and measured each jamb on either side, eight feet and three-quarters thick; the entrance was twenty-four and a half feet broad, and the side-pieces of the entrance of the vestibule were each five and a quarter feet. 49 The vestibule itself was thirty-five feet long, by nineteen and a quarter broad, and it was reached by a flight of ten steps, while two pillars stood one on each side of the jambs.

41 He then took me into the nave, measuring the jambs on either side; they were ten and a half feet thick--such was the a thickness of the jambs. 2 The entrance was seventeen and a half feet wide, and each front of the door was eight and three-quarters feet; he measured the nave, it was seventy feet long by thirty-five feet broad. Then, 3 passing inside, he measured each jamb of the entrance--three and a half feet thick; the entrance measured ten and a half feet, and the sides of the entrance were twelve feet and a quarter on each side. 4 The chancel itself measured thirty-five feet long and broad, in front of the shrine: “This,” he said to me, “is the most sacred shrine.” 5 He then measured the wall of the temple; it was ten and a half feet thick. Each of the side-chambers round the wall was seven feet broad. 6 There were three stories, each with thirty side-chambers which were attached to the wall for support but not let into it. 7 The higher the side-chambers rose, the wider they became all round the building, which they surrounded more closely than ever; you went up from the lowest story to the top by the middle story.

8 The temple seemed to be surrounded by a raised platform fully ten and a half feet high, on which the side-chambers rested; 9 their outside wall was eight feet and three-quarters thick; beyond that lay a margin of eight feet and three-quarters, 10 while a passage of thirty-five feet ran all round the side-chambers. 11 The doors of the side-chambers opened on the platform, one to the north and one to the south, the breadth of the margin being eight feet and three-quarters. 12 The annexe facing the western side of the rear-court was a hundred and twenty-two and a half feet broad; the wall round it was seven and a half feet thick, and it was a hundred and fifty-seven and a half feet long. 13 He measured the temple building--it was a hundred and seventy-five feet long; the temple court and the west building with its walls was a hundred and seventy-five feet long; 14 and the eastern part of the building with the temple court was also a hundred and seventy-five feet long, 15 while the length of the annexe with its arcades and side-walls in front of the rear temple court was also a hundred and seventy-five feet. The nave and the sacred shrine, with its outer porch, were roofed in; 16 all three had latticed loopholes and galleries, and the whole interior was wainscoted with wood; 17 from the floor of the interior up to the windows and over the door, as well as along the outer walls, 18 it was all panelled with kherubs and palms, a palm between each pair of kherubs and each kherub with two faces, 19 the face of a man turned to one palm and the face of a lion to the other. This ran all round the building. 20 Kherubs and palms were carved from the floor to above the door. 21 The wall of the sacred shrine was four-square; 22 in front of it there was something resembling an altar of wood, five and a quarter feet high and three and a half feet long, the tips and the base and the sides being entirely of wood. “This,” he said to me, “is the table sacred to the Eternal’s service.” 23 The nave and the shrine had two doors apiece; 24 and the doors had each two leaves that swung round; on the doors of the nave kherubs and palms were carved, 25 like those upon the walls. There was a heavy wooden canopy over the front of the outside porch, 26 and the porch had latticed loopholes and palms on either side of it. Then the side-chambers and the canopies of the building . . .

42 Then he took me into the outer court towards the northern entrance, to the chambers stretching along the passage, opposite the northern wall of the building; 2 their length on the northern side was a hundred and seventy-five feet, and their breadth eighty-seven and a half feet, 3 between the inner court and the platform belonging to the outer court. On the third story there were gangways facing one another; 4 a passage, seventeen and a half feet broad, and a hundred and seventy-five feet long, leading to the inner court, ran in front of the chambers; upon which the doors of the chambers, that faced north, opened. 5 The chambers in the top story were smaller, since the gangways took from their size, as compared with the ground story and the middle story. 6 (For there were three stories; only, they had no pillars like the chambers of the outer court.) Hence the top story was contracted, unlike the ground story and the middle story. 7 The outer wall of the chambers, facing the outer court, was eighty-seven and a half feet long; 8 for the length of the chambers in the outer block was eighty-seven and a half feet, and these two rows faced the others which stretched for a hundred and seventy-five feet. 9 Below the chambers of this outer block was the eastern entrance from the outer court, at the head of the outer wall. 10 On the south side, opposite the temple court and the outer wall of the building, lay chambers with a passage in front of them; 11 they were like the chambers facing the north, the same length and the same breadth, 12 with the same exits and arrangements, and with doors corresponding to theirs, only facing the south, At the head of the passage there was a door in front of the wall on the east, as one entered from the outer court. 13 Then he said to me, “The north and the south chambers opposite the temple court are the sacred chambers where the priests who attend the Eternal can eat the sacred food and deposit the sacred portions of the cereal-offering, the sin-offering, and the guilt-offer­ing; for the place is sacred. 14 When the priests enter the inner court, they must not leave it for the outer court without depositing in this sacred place their robes of service (which are sacred) and putting on other robes; then they can approach the people outside.”

15 Then, after he had finished measuring the inner house, he took me outside to the gateway facing eastward. He measured the building all round with his rod; 16 the east side measured eight hundred and seventy-five feet. 17 Turning to the north, he measured that side; it was eight hundred and seventy-five feet. 18 Turning to the south, he measured that side; it was eight hundred and seventy-five feet. 19 Turning to the west, he measured that side; it was eight hundred and seventy-five feet. 20 He measured the building on its four sides, walled round for eight hundred and seventy-five feet in length and in breath, to mark the boundary between what was sacred and what was unconsecrated.

43 He then took me to the gateway that looked eastward, 2 and there from the east came the Splendour of the God of Israel! The sound of him was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his splendour. 3 The appearance I saw was like the appearance I had seen in the vision when he came to destroy the city, or like what I had seen at the river Kebar. I fell upon my face, 4 and the Splendour of the Eternal passed into the temple through the gateway facing eastward.

5 Then the Spirit caught me up into the inner court. The Eternal’s Splendour filled the temple, 6 and I heard someone speaking to me out of the temple, while the man stood beside me. 7 “Son of man,” I was told, “here is the seat of my throne, here is the place for the soles of my feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites for ever; the house of Israel, they and their kings, shall never again sully my sacred presence with their idolatry and the corpses of their dead kings, 8 by putting the royal threshold next my threshold and the royal door-posts beside my door-posts, with only a wall between myself and them; they sullied my sacred presence with these abominable practices, and therefore in anger I destroyed them. 9 Now let them remove their idolatry and the corpses of their dead kings far away from me, and then I will dwell among them for ever. 10 Son of man, show the house of Israel the temple, its form and its design, 11 that they may feel ashamed of all they have done; show them the construction of the temple, its exits and entrances, and all its rules and regulations and constitution; write it all down before their eyes that they may keep all its constitution and carry out all its regulations.

12 Here is the law for the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain shall be sacred ground. Such is the law for the temple. 13 Here are the special measurements of the altars. The gutter is to be twenty-one inches deep and twenty-one inches broad, with a rim of nine inches round the edge; this is to form the basement of the altar. 14 Three and a half feet up from the basement there is to be a ledge twenty-one inches wide; then, seven feet higher there is to be another ledge twenty-one inches wide. 15 The topmost stone of the altar is also to be seven feet high, with four knobs projecting from this altar-hearth, each twenty-one inches in height. 16 The altar-hearth is to be twenty-one feet square; 17 the stone beneath it, twenty-four and a half feet square--with rims round them of ten inches. The basement at the foot is to be twenty-one inches wide. And the steps are to face east.

18 “Son of man,” he continued, “these are the orders of the Lord Eternal. The regulations for the altar are; on the day it is erected, for sacrificing burnt-offerings and being splashed with blood, 19 you must give the Levitical priests who belong to the Zadokite family and who approach me to minister (says the Lord Eternal), a bullock as a sin-offering; 20 take some of its blood and smear the four knobs of the altar and the four corners of the ledge and the rim round the ledge; so the altar shall be cleansed and purified. 21 Take the bullock of the sin-offering and have it burned at the proper spot, outside the sanctuary. 22 Then, on the second day, you must offer an unblemished he-goat for a sin-offering, and the altar must again be cleansed as in the case of the bullock. 23 When you have finished cleansing it, you must sacrifice an unblemished bullock and an unblemished ram, 24 presenting them before the Eternal; the priests must sprinkle salt upon them and sacrifice them as a burnt-offering to the Eternal. 25 For seven days you must provide every day a he-goat as a sin-offering; also an unblemished bullock and a ram must be provided daily for seven days; 26 so the priests must go on purifying and purging the altar and consecrating it. 27 At the end of these days, from the eighth day onwards, the priests shall sacrifice your burnt-offerings and your recompense-offerings upon the altar, and I will admit you to my favour, says the Lord the Eternal.”

44 Then he brought me back to the outer gatehouse of the sanctuary that faces eastward, and it was shut. 2 “This gate shall be shut,” said the Eternal to me, “it shall never be opened, no man shall enter by this gate; the Eternal, the God of Israel, has entered by it, and therefore it shall be shut. 3 The prince alone may sit within the gatehouse to eat the sacrificial meal before the Eternal there, but he must enter and leave by way of the vestibule.”

4 Then he took me, by way of the north gate, to the front of the temple; and when I looked, there was the Splendour of the Eternal filling the temple of the Eternal! I fell upon my face, 5 and the Eternal said to me, “Son of man, attend, look with your eyes, hear with your ears all that I tell you about all the rules and regulations for the temple of the Eternal and note all about the entry to the temple and the exits from the sanctuary. 6 Tell these rebels of Israelites: Here are the orders of the Lord Eternal. No more of your abominable conduct, O Israelites, 7 profaning this house of mine by introducing into my sanctuary aliens who are uncircumcised in heart as well as in flesh, as you sacrifice the fat and the blood that are my food! You have violated your compact with me by all this abominable conduct. 8 You have not done your sacred duties to me yourselves, but appointed these foreigners to do duty inside my sanctuary!

9 Here are the orders of the Lord the Eternal then: No foreigner whatever among the Israelites, no foreigner uncircumcised in heart as well as in flesh, is to enter my sanctuary. 10 The Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray, who left me for their idols, they must suffer the penalty of being no more than attendants in my sanctuary; 11 they must take charge of the gates of the temple and do service in the temple, slaughtering the animals of the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people, and waiting on the people by way of ministry. 12 As they ministered to the people in presence of their idols and made the Israelites fall into iniquity, so have I sworn an oath against them, says the Lord the Eternal; 13 they must suffer the penalty of never approaching me again to act as my priests and never approaching again any of my sacred, my most sacred possessions. No, they must suffer the shame of their abominable conduct, 14 and I shall reduce them to taking charge of all the work and of all that goes on in the temple. 15 But the Levitical priests, the Zadokites, who did duty in my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, they shall approach me to serve me; they shall stand in my presence to offer me the fat and the blood, says the Lord the Eternal, 16 they shall enter my sanctuary, they shall approach my table to serve me, they shall do their duty to me. 17 When they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall wear linen robes; they must not wear anything woollen when they are on service at the gates of the inner court or in the interior. 18 They must wear linen turbans on their heads, and linen drawers on their loins; they must not wear anything that causes sweat. 19 On going out to the people, in the outer court, they must take off their robes of ministry and deposit them in the sacred chambers, lest they make the people sacred by the touch of their robes. 20 They must not shave their heads nor let their hair grow long; they are only to trim their hair. 21 No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court; 22 no priest shall marry a widow or a divorced woman, but only an Israelite virgin or the widow of a priest. 23 They must teach the people the difference between what is sacred and what is unconsecrated, and show them how to distinguish what is unclean and what is clean. 24 In the case of a dispute they are to act as judges, deciding the case in terms of my law. They must carry out my instructions and directions at all my sacred festivals, and maintain my sabbaths sacred. 25 They must never contaminate themselves by touching a dead body, except in the case of a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, or an unmarried sister. 26 Seven days must pass after a priest has been thus contaminated, 27 and when he enters the inner court, to serve in the sanctuary, he must sacrifice a sin-offering for himself, says the Lord the Eternal. 28 Priests shall hold no property; I am all their property! You must not give them any holding in Israel; I am their holding! 29 The cereal-offerings, the flesh of the sin-offering and of the guilt-offering, that shall be their food, and anything set apart for the Eternal shall be theirs. 30 The best of all the first-fruits and every oblation that you offer shall go to the priests; also you must give the priest the best of your baking, that a blessing may rest upon your house. 31 No priest must eat any bird or beast that has died a natural death or that has been torn to pieces.

45 When you are dividing up the land you must set apart a sacred district for the Eternal, eight and a third miles long and six and two-thirds miles broad, the whole extent of which is to be sacred. 3 Measure off from this a strip for the priests who serve in the sanctuary, who approach the Eternal in his service; 4 it shall contain their houses and their grounds, 2 and cover ground eight and a third miles long, and three and a third miles broad, within which shall stand the sacred sanctuary on a square plot of two hundred and ninety yards, surrounded by an enclosure of twenty-nine yards. 5 Another strip eight and a third miles long and three and a third miles broad shall belong to the Levites who serve the temple; they are to have that land for their townships 6 Then the city is to have a strip of land eight and a third miles long and a mile and two-thirds broad, alongside of the sacred reservation; this shall belong to the whole of Israel. 7 The prince is to hold the whole of the land east and west of the sacred reservation and of the city-land, on both sides, corresponding in length to one of the clan-zones and stretching from the western to the eastern frontier. 8 Such is to be his holding in Israel. No prince shall oppress my people in future; Israel is to hold the land according to its clans.

9 Here are the orders of the Lord the Eternal: Enough, O princes of Israel! Cease harrying and despoiling the people, enforce law and justice, relieve my people of your evictions, says the Lord the Eternal. 10 You must have just balances, just dry and liquid measures; 11 the dry homer and the liquid bath must be of the same standard, the bath containing a tenth of the liquid homer, and the ephah a tenth of the dry homer, the homer being the standard of measurement. 12 The shekel is to be twenty gerahs; five shekels are to count five, ten shekels ten, and the maneh is to be fifty shekels. 13 By way of dues, one- sixth of every bushel of wheat is to be set aside, with one-sixth of every bushel of barley, 14 and a proportion of oil amounting to one per cent., 15 with one lamb out of every two hundred; all the families of Israel shall make this contribution for the cereal-offering, the burnt-offering, and the recompense-offering, by way of expiation, says the Lord Eternal; 16 the entire population must offer this contribution to the prince in Israel, 17 and it shall be the prince’s duty to provide the burnt-offering, the cereal-offering, and the libation; at the festivals, at every new moon, and on the sabbaths, at all the great occasions in Israel, he shall provide the sin-offering, the cereal-offering, the burnt-offering, and the recompense-offering, by way of expiation for Israel. 18 Here are the orders of the Lord the Eternal: On the first day of the first month you must take an unblemished bullock to purify the sanctuary; 19 the priest is to take some of the blood from the sin- offering and smear the door-posts of the temple, the four corners of/the ledge of the altar, and the posts at the gateways of the inner court. 20 This must be repeated on the first day of the seventh month, for anyone who has erred inadvertently or by mistake; so shall you make expiation for the temple. 21 On the fourteenth day of the first month you shall hold the festival of passover, eating unleavened bread for seven days; 22 and on that day the prince shall provide a bullock as a sin-offering for himself and for the entire population, 23 while during the seven days of the festival he shall provide every day a sacrifice for the Eternal consisting of seven bullocks and seven rams, all unblemished, besides a he-goat as a sin-offering every day. 24 He must also provide, by way of cereal-offering, a bushel of grain for every bullock, a bushel of grain for every ram, and a gallon and a half of oil with every bushel. 25 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he must do the same, for seven days at the festival, providing for the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, the cereal-offering, and the oil.”

46 Here are the orders of the Lord the Eternal: “The gate of the inner court that faces eastward shall be shut during the six working days, and open on the sabbath as well as on the day of the new moon. 2 The prince must enter by the vestibule of the gatehouse and remain standing at the door-post of the gatehouse, while the priests offer his burnt-offering and his recompense-offering; he must perform his worship at the threshold of the gate, and then go out; the gate is not to be shut till the evening. 3 The commons are also to worship before the Eternal at the door of that gate, on sabbaths and at new moons. 4 The burnt-offering which the prince is to sacrifice to the Eternal on sabbath shall be six lambs and one ram, all unblemished; 5 the cereal-offering shall be a bushel of grain for the ram, as much as he pleases for the lambs, and a gallon and a half of oil with every bushel. 6 At the new moon it shall be an unblemished bullock, six unblemished lambs, and an unblemished ram; 7 he must provide also a cereal-offering of a bushel of grain for the bullock, a bushel of grain for the ram, as much as he pleases for the lambs, and a gallon and a half of oil with every bushel. 8 When the prince enters, it must be by the vestibule of the gate, and he must leave by the same way; 9 but when the commons come into the presence of the Eternal at the fixed festivals, whoever enters by the north gate to worship must leave by the south gate, and whoever enters by the south gate must leave by the north gate; no one is to leave by the gate at which he entered, he must pass out straight ahead. 10 The prince shall enter along with them, and leave when they leave. 11 On the festivals and feast-days the cereal-offering is to be a bushel of grain for every bullock, a bushel of grain for every ram, and as much as he pleases for every lamb, and a gallon and a half of oil with every bushel. 12 When the prince provides a freewill offering for the Eternal, a burnt-offering or a recompense-offering, the eastern gate shall be opened for him, and he shall make his burnt-offering and recompense-offering as on the sabbath; then he must leave, and the gate shall be shut after him. 13 He must provide daily an unblemished yearling lamb as a burnt-offering to the Eternal; that must be provided morning by morning, 14 and every morning he must furnish it with a cereal-offering, a sixth of a bushel of grain, also a third of a gallon of oil to moisten the fine flour; this is a standing order for the service of the Eternal.

15 He must provide the lamb, the cereal-offering, and the oil, every morning for a perpetual burnt-offering. 16 Here are the orders of the Lord the Eternal: If the prince present any part of his property to one of his sons, it shall belong to the son; it is his own possession. 17 But if he present any part of his property to one of his servants, it shall only remain his till the year of liberty, when it shall revert to the prince. Whereas what his sons hold remains their own. 18 Nor shall the prince seize any of the people’s land, to eject them from their property; he must provide for his sons out of his own property; none of my people is to be evicted from his property.”

19 Then he took me through the entrance beside the gateway to the north row of the sacred chambers of the priests; there I saw a place at the western end, 20 and he said to me, “This is the place where the priests are to boil the flesh of the guilt-offering and the sin-offering, and to bake the cereal-offering, so as not to bring them into the outer court and thus make the people sacred.” 21 Then he took me into the outer court past the four corners of the court; and there, at each corner, was a small enclosure; 22 at the four corners of the court there were four small courts, the same in size, each seventy feet long and fifty-two and a half broad. 23 Round each of them, inside, ran a row of masonry, with fire-places arranged under it. 24 “These,” he told me, “are the fire-places where the officials of the temple boil the sacrificial meat for the people.”

47 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and there was water flowing east from under the threshold of the temple (the temple fronted east)! The water was flowing from the south side of the temple, past the altar on south. 2 He then took me out by the northern gate and led me round upon the outside to the outer gate that faced eastward, and there was water pouring on the south side! 3 Passing eastward, with the measuring tape in his hand, he measured a third of a mile, and then took me across: the water was up to my ankles. 4 Again he measured a third of a mile, and took me across: the water was up to my knees. Again he measured a third of a mile, and took me across: the water was up to my waist. 5 Again he measured a third of a mile; and it was a stream I could not ford, the water was deep enough to swim in, it was a stream too high to be forded. 6 “Son of man,” he asked, “do you see this?”

Then he took me back along the bank of the stream, 7 and there by the bank of the stream on both sides, 8 many a tree was growing! He told me, “This water flows to the region of the east, down through the Arabah ravine, into the Dead Sea, into the brackish waters which shall turn fresh. 9 Wherever the stream goes, every living creature that swarms shall live; there shall be shoals of fish, 10 and fishermen shall stand beside the Dead Sea from Engedi to Eneglaim; it shall be a place for casting nets, and its fish shall be as varied and numerous as the fish of the great Mediterranean. 11 Only, the marshes and swamps shall not turn fresh; they are to be left for supplying salt. 12 On the bank of the stream, along both sides, every sort of food-tree shall grow; their leaves shall not wither and their fruit shall never fail; every month they shall bear fresh fruit, thanks to the water that flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit shall serve for food, their leaves for healing.” * * *

13 Here are the orders of the Lord the Eternal: “This is the frontier for your division of the land among the twelve clans of Israel. 14 You must share it equally; I swore to give the land to your fathers, and it shall fall to you as your possession. 15 The frontier of the land on the north is from the Mediterranean through Hethlon to the pass of Hamath as far as Zedad, 16 then on to Berotha, Sibraim (lying between the frontiers of Damascus and Hamath), and Hazar-enon (on the frontier of Hauran); 19 that is, the frontier shall run from the sea to Hazar-enon on the frontier of Damascus, bounded by the pass of Hamath to the north. That is the northern frontier. 18 The eastern frontier shall start from between Hauran and Damascus, and, between Gilead and the land of Israel, it shall be the Jordan; it shall stretch from the northern frontier to the Dead Sea on the east, 19 as far south as Tamar. That is the eastern frontier. The southern frontier shall run from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribath-Kadesh, to the Wady-el-Arish and then to the Mediterranean. That is the southern frontier. 20 The western shall be the Mediterranean from the southern frontier up to a point opposite the pass of Hamath; that is the western frontier.

21 This land you must divide among yourselves, the clans of Israel. 22 You must allot it among yourselves and among the resident aliens who bring up families among you; they are to count as natives and to be allotted land of their own among the clans of Israel; 23 you must assign the resident alien his land within the clan where he stays, says the Lord the Eternal.”

48 The following are the names of the clans. On the northern frontier from the Mediterranean by Hethlon to the pass of Hamath, as far as Ha-zar-enon, bounded on the north by Hamath, Dan has one zone, from east to west. 2 Next to Dan, from east to west, Asher’s zone; 3 next to Asher, from east to west, 4 Naphtali’s zone; next to Naphtali, from east to west, Manasseh’s zone; 5 next to Manasseh, from east to west, Ephraim’s zone; 6 next to Ephraim, from east to west, Reuben’s zone; 7 next to Reuben, from east to west, Judah’s zone.

8 Next to Judah, from east to west, shall be the reservation which you must set apart, eight and a third miles wide, and as long as one of the clan-zones from east to west; the sanctuary shall stand here. 9 The reservation you must set apart for the Eternal shall be eight and a third miles wide and six and a third miles long. 10 Of this sacred reservation the priests shall have a zone eight and a third miles long from east to west, and three and a third miles wide from north to south, containing the sanctuary of the Eternal; 11 these consecrated priests, the Zadokites, who did their duty to me and did not go astray, as the Levites did, when the Israelites went astray, 12 shall have a special section of the reservation, a most sacred strip, on the southern border of the Levites, 13 whereas the Levites shall have a zone along the northern border of the priests, measuring eight and a third miles long and three and a third miles wide. The entire reservation shall be eight and a third miles long and six and a third miles wide. 14 No part of this choice land is ever to be sold or exchanged or alienated: it is sacred to the Eternal. 15 The remaining section of the reservation, a mile and two-thirds wide and eight and a third miles in length, shall not be sacred; it is for the city with its houses and suburbs, the city lying in the middle.

16 The city shall measure a mile and a half square; 17 its suburbs shall cover a hundred and forty-seven yards on each side of the square, 18 and the remainder of the strip, over three miles on the east and over three miles on the west, stretching along the sacred reservation, shall serve to support the workers in the city, 19 and shall be cultivated by the workers in the city, belonging to all the clans of Israel. 20 The entire reservation, including the city-strip, is to measure seven and a third miles square. 21 The rest of the territory shall belong to the prince, that is, the land on either side of the sacred reservation and of the city-strip, also eight and a third miles broad and running parallel to the zones of the clans—the sacred reservation 22 (with the temple and the Levites’ domain) and the city-strip intersecting it, and the frontier of Judah and Benjamin bounding it. 23 As for the rest of the clans: from east to west, Benjamin’s zone; 24 next to Benjamin, from east to west, Simeon’s zone; 25 next to Simeon, from east to west, 26 Issachar’s zone; next to Issachar, from east to west, 27 Zebulun’s zone; next to Zebulun, from east to west, Gad’s zone; 28 next to Gad, on the south, the frontier shall run from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-Kadesh, thence to the Wady-el-Arish, and on to the Mediterranean. 29 Such is the land you are to allot to the clans of Israel as their possession, and such shall be their holdings, says the Lord Eternal. 30 These shall be the dimensions of the city. 31 The gates shall be named after the clans of Israel; 30 on the northern side of a mile and a half, 31 three gates, Reuben, Judah, and Levi; 32 on the eastern side of a mile and a half, three gates, Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan; 33 on the southern side of a mile and a half, three gates, Simeon, Issachar, and Zebulun; 34 and on the western side of a mile and a half, three gates, Gad, Asher, and Naphtali. 35 In circumference it shall measure about six miles. And from that day the city’s name shall be: “The Eternal-there.”