50:1The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet. 50:2“Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don’t conceal: say, ‘Babylon has been taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed! Her images are disappointed. Her idols are dismayed.’ 50:3For a nation comes up out of the north against her, which will make her land desolate, and no one will dwell in it. They have fled. They are gone, both man and animal. 50:4“In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping, and will seek Yahweh their God. 50:5They will inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.’ 50:6My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place. 50:7All who found them have devoured them. Their adversaries said, ‘We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.’ 50:8“Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks. 50:9For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they will set themselves in array against her. She will be taken from there. Their arrows will be as of an expert mighty man. None of them will return in vain. 50:10Chaldea will be a prey. All who prey on her will be satisfied,” says Yahweh. 50:11“Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain, and neigh as strong horses; 50:12your mother will be utterly disappointed. She who bore you will be confounded. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. 50:13Because of Yahweh’s wrath she won’t be inhabited, but she will be wholly desolate. Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. 50:14Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her. Spare no arrows; for she has sinned against Yahweh. 50:15Shout against her all around. She has submitted herself. Her bulwarks have fallen. Her walls have been thrown down, for it is the vengeance of Yahweh. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, do to her. 50:16Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the oppressing sword, they will each return to their own people, and they will each flee to their own land. 50:17“Israel is a hunted sheep. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.” 50:18Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. 50:19I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan. His soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. 50:20In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the iniquity of Israel will be sought for, and there will be none; also the sins of Judah, and they won’t be found; for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant. 50:21“Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Kill and utterly destroy after them,” says Yahweh, “and do according to all that I have commanded you. 50:22A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. 50:23How the hammer of the whole earth is cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations! 50:24I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren’t aware. You are found, and also caught, because you have fought against Yahweh. 50:25Yahweh has opened his armory, and has brought out the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans. 50:26Come against her from the farthest border. Open her storehouses. Cast her up as heaps. Destroy her utterly. Let nothing of her be left. 50:27Kill all her bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation. 50:28Listen to those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple. 50:29“Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her all around. Let none of it escape. Pay her back according to her work. According to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel. 50:30Therefore her young men will fall in her streets. All her men of war will be brought to silence in that day,” says Yahweh. 50:31“Behold, I am against you, you proud one,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; “for your day has come, the time that I will visit you. 50:32The proud one will stumble and fall, and no one will raise him up. I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all who are around him.” 50:33Yahweh of Armies says: “The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together. All who took them captive hold them fast. They refuse to let them go. 50:34Their Redeemer is strong: Yahweh of Armies is his name. He will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. 50:35“A sword is on the Chaldeans,” says Yahweh, “and on the inhabitants of Babylon, on her princes, and on her wise men. 50:36A sword is on the boasters, and they will become fools. A sword is on her mighty men, and they will be dismayed. 50:37A sword is on their horses, on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the middle of her; and they will become as women. A sword is on her treasures, and they will be robbed. 50:38A drought is on her waters, and they will be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols. 50:39Therefore the wild animals of the desert with the wolves will dwell there. The ostriches will dwell therein; and it will be inhabited no more forever; neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. 50:40As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says Yahweh, “so no man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein. 50:41“Behold, a people comes from the north; and a great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. 50:42They take up bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea. They ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon. 50:43The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, pains as of a woman in labor. 50:44Behold, the enemy will come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation; for I will suddenly make them run away from it. Whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over it; for who is like me? Who will appoint me a time? Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?” 50:45Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they will drag them away, even the little ones of the flock. Surely he will make their habitation desolate over them. 50:46At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles; and the cry is heard among the nations.
51:1Yahweh says: “Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind. 51:2I will send to Babylon strangers, who will winnow her. They will empty her land; for in the day of trouble they will be against her all around. 51:3Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, also against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. Don’t spare her young men! Utterly destroy all her army! 51:4They will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets. 51:5For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, by Yahweh of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. 51:6“Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Everyone save his own life! Don’t be cut off in her iniquity; for it is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance. He will render to her a recompense. 51:7Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand, who made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad. 51:8Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed! Wail for her! Take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed. 51:9“We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us each go into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. 51:10‘Yahweh has produced our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.’ 51:11“Make the arrows sharp! Hold the shields firmly! Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his temple. 51:12Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong! Set the watchmen, and prepare the ambushes; for Yahweh has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon. 51:13You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness. 51:14Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, ‘Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker worm; and they will lift up a shout against you.’ 51:15“He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom. By his understanding he has stretched out the heavens. 51:16When he utters his voice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries. 51:17“Every man has become brutish without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 51:18They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation, they will perish. 51:19The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the former of all things; including the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name. 51:20“You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms. 51:21With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider. 51:22With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth. With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin. 51:23With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock. With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke. With you will I break in pieces governors and deputies. 51:24“I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight,” says Yahweh. 51:25“Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain,” says Yahweh, “which destroys all the earth. I will stretch out my hand on you, roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burned mountain. 51:26They won’t take a cornerstone from you, nor a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate for ever,” says Yahweh. 51:27“Set up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her! Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz! Appoint a marshal against her! Cause the horses to come up as the rough canker worm! 51:28Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion! 51:29The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant. 51:30The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire. Her bars are broken. 51:31One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter. 51:32So the passages are seized. They have burned the reeds with fire. The men of war are frightened.” 51:33For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden. Yet a little while, and the time of harvest comes for her.” 51:34“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty vessel. He has, like a monster, swallowed me up. He has filled his mouth with my delicacies. He has cast me out. 51:35May the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon!” the inhabitant of Zion will say; and, “May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea!” will Jerusalem say. 51:36Therefore Yahweh says: “Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry. 51:37Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant. 51:38They will roar together like young lions. They will growl as lions’ cubs. 51:39When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says Yahweh. 51:40“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats. 51:41“How Sheshach is taken! How the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations! 51:42The sea has come up on Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of its waves. 51:43Her cities have become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells. No son of man passes by it. 51:44I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. The nations will not flow any more to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon will fall. 51:45“My people, go away from the middle of her, and each of you save yourselves from Yahweh’s fierce anger. 51:46Don’t let your heart faint. Don’t fear for the news that will be heard in the land. For news will come one year, and after that in another year news will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. 51:47Therefore behold, the days come that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land will be confounded. All her slain will fall in the middle of her. 51:48Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, will sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers will come to her from the north,” says Yahweh. 51:49“As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so the slain of all the land will fall at Babylon. 51:50You who have escaped the sword, go! Don’t stand still! Remember Yahweh from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.” 51:51“We are confounded, because we have heard reproach. Confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.” 51:52“Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will execute judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded will groan. 51:53Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet destroyers will come to her from me,” says Yahweh. 51:54“The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! 51:55For Yahweh lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice! Their waves roar like many waters. The noise of their voice is uttered. 51:56For the destroyer has come on her, even on Babylon. Her mighty men are taken. Their bows are broken in pieces, for Yahweh is a God of retribution. He will surely repay. 51:57I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies. 51:58Yahweh of Armies says: “The wide walls of Babylon will be utterly overthrown. Her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples will labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they will be weary.” 51:59The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief quartermaster. 51:60Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon. 51:61Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words, 51:62and say, ‘Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that no one will dwell in it, neither man nor animal, but that it will be desolate forever.’ 51:63It will be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the middle of the Euphrates. 51:64Then you shall say, ‘Thus will Babylon sink, and will not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they will be weary.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
52:1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign. He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 52:2He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 52:3For through Yahweh’s anger this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 52:4In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. 52:5So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 52:6In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. 52:7Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden. Now the Chaldeans were against the city all around. The men of war went toward the Arabah, 52:8but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. 52:9Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he pronounced judgment on him. 52:10The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 52:11He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death. 52:12Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem. 52:13He burned Yahweh’s house, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire. 52:14All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. 52:15Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude. 52:16But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers. 52:17The Chaldeans broke the pillars of brass that were in Yahweh’s house, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house in pieces, and carried all of their brass to Babylon. 52:18They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered. 52:19The captain of the guard took away the cups, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lamp stands, the spoons, and the bowls; that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver. 52:20They took the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made for Yahweh’s house. The brass of all these vessels was without weight. 52:21As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; and its thickness was four fingers. It was hollow. 52:22A capital of brass was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of brass: and the second pillar also had like these, and pomegranates. 52:23There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network all around. 52:24The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold: 52:25and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and seven men of those who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the middle of the city. 52:26Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. 52:27The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land. 52:28This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Jews; 52:29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons; 52:30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five people: all the people were four thousand six hundred. 52:31In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and released him from prison. 52:32He spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, 52:33and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life. 52:34For his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
Lamentations
1:1How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave! 1:2She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies. 1:3Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude. She dwells among the nations. She finds no rest. All her persecutors overtook her within the straits. 1:4The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness. 1:5Her adversaries have become the head. Her enemies prosper; for Yahweh has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary. 1:6All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture. They have gone without strength before the pursuer. 1:7Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old; when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and no one helped her. The adversaries saw her. They mocked at her desolations. 1:8Jerusalem has grievously sinned. Therefore she has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yes, she sighs, and turns backward. 1:9Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.” 1:10The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly. 1:11All her people sigh. They seek bread. They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul. “Look, Yahweh, and see; for I have become despised.” 1:12“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. 1:13“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and I faint all day long. 1:14“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He made my strength fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand. 1:15“The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men within me. He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a wine press. 1:16“For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.” 1:17Zion spreads out her hands. There is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing. 1:18“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. 1:19“I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, while they sought food for themselves to refresh their souls. 1:20“Look, Yahweh; for I am in distress. My heart is troubled. My heart turns over within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Abroad, the sword bereaves. At home, it is like death. 1:21“They have heard that I sigh. There is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that you have done it. You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they will be like me. 1:22“Let all their wickedness come before you. Do to them as you have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
2:1How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast the beauty of Israel down from heaven to the earth, and hasn’t remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. 2:2The Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob without pity. He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the kingdom and its princes. 2:3He has cut off all the horn of Israel in fierce anger. He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around. 2:4He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has stood with his right hand as an adversary. Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion, he has poured out his wrath like fire. 2:5The Lord has become as an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah. 2:6He has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden. He has destroyed his place of assembly. Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion. In the indignation of his anger, he has despised the king and the priest. 2:7The Lord has cast off his altar. He has abhorred his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have made a noise in Yahweh’s house, as in the day of a solemn assembly. 2:8Yahweh has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out the line. He has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made the rampart and wall lament. They languish together. 2:9Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not. Yes, her prophets find no vision from Yahweh. 2:10The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground. They keep silence. They have cast up dust on their heads. They have clothed themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. 2:11My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city. 2:12They ask their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” when they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom. 2:13What shall I testify to you? What shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your breach is as big as the sea. Who can heal you? 2:14Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to reverse your captivity, but have seen for you false revelations and causes of banishment. 2:15All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?” 2:16All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for. We have found it. We have seen it.” 2:17Yahweh has done that which he planned. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your adversaries. 2:18Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Don’t let the your eyes rest. 2:19Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street. 2:20“Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? 2:21“The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered, and not pitied. 2:22“You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. There was no one that escaped or remained in the day of Yahweh’s anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have cared for and brought up.
3:1I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 3:2He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. 3:3Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long. 3:4He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones. 3:5He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. 3:6He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead. 3:7He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy. 3:8Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. 3:9He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked. 3:10He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places. 3:11He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate. 3:12He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. 3:13He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys. 3:14I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long. 3:15He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood. 3:16He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes. 3:17You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity. 3:18I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from Yahweh.” 3:19Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness. 3:20My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me. 3:21This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope. 3:22It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. 3:23They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. 3:24“Yahweh is my portion,” says my soul. “Therefore I will hope in him.” 3:25Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 3:26It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh. 3:27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 3:28Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. 3:29Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope. 3:30Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach. 3:31For the Lord will not cast off forever. 3:32For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. 3:33For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. 3:34To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, 3:35to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High, 3:36to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve. 3:37Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it? 3:38Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High? 3:39Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 3:40Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. 3:41Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. 3:42“We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned. 3:43“You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied. 3:44You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through. 3:45You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples. 3:46“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. 3:47Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.” 3:48My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 3:49My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission, 3:50until Yahweh looks down, and sees from heaven. 3:51My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. 3:52They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. 3:53They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. 3:54Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.” 3:55I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon. 3:56You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.” 3:57You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.” 3:58Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life. 3:59Yahweh, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause. 3:60You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me. 3:61You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their plans against me, 3:62the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long. 3:63You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song. 3:64You will pay them back, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands. 3:65You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them. 3:66You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.
4:1How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. 4:2The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! 4:3Even the jackals offer their breast. They nurse their young ones. But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 4:4The tongue of the nursing child clings to the roof of his mouth for thirst. The young children ask bread, and no one breaks it for them. 4:5Those who ate delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace dunghills. 4:6For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment. No hands were laid on her. 4:7Her nobles were purer than snow. They were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was like sapphire. 4:8Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become like a stick. 4:9Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for lack of the fruits of the field. 4:10The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. 4:11Yahweh has accomplished his wrath. He has poured out his fierce anger. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations. 4:12The kings of the earth didn’t believe, neither did all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem. 4:13It is because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her. 4:14They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, So that men can’t touch their garments. 4:15“Go away!” they cried to them. “Unclean! Go away! Go away! Don’t touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, “They can’t live here any more.” 4:16Yahweh’s anger has scattered them. He will not pay attention to them any more. They didn’t respect the persons of the priests. They didn’t favor the elders. 4:17Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save. 4:18They hunt our steps, so that we can’t go in our streets. Our end is near. Our days are fulfilled, for our end has come. 4:19Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky. They chased us on the mountains. They set an ambush for us in the wilderness. 4:20The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, under his shadow we will live among the nations. 4:21Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwells in the land of Uz. The cup will pass through to you also. You will be drunken, and will make yourself naked. 4:22The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion. He will no more carry you away into captivity. He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom. He will uncover your sins.
5:1Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us. Look, and see our reproach. 5:2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to aliens. 5:3We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows. 5:4We have drunken our water for money. Our wood is sold to us. 5:5Our pursuers are on our necks. We are weary, and have no rest. 5:6We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. 5:7Our fathers sinned, and are no more. We have borne their iniquities. 5:8Servants rule over us. There is no one to deliver us out of their hand. 5:9We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness. 5:10Our skin is black like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine. 5:11They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah. 5:12Princes were hanged up by their hands. The faces of elders were not honored. 5:13The young men carry millstones. The children stumbled under loads of wood. 5:14The elders have ceased from the gate, and the young men from their music. 5:15The joy of our heart has ceased. Our dance is turned into mourning. 5:16The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! 5:17For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim. 5:18For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate. The foxes walk on it. 5:19You, Yahweh, remain forever. Your throne is from generation to generation. 5:20Why do you forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time? 5:21Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we will be turned. Renew our days as of old. 5:22But you have utterly rejected us. You are very angry against us.
Ezekiel
1:1Now in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. 1:2In the fifth of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, 1:3Yahweh’s word came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and Yahweh’s hand was there on him. 1:4I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north: a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of the middle of it as it were glowing metal, out of the middle of the fire. 1:5Out of its center came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: They had the likeness of a man. 1:6Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings. 1:7Their feet were straight feet. The sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished brass. 1:8They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides. The four of them had their faces and their wings like this: 1:9Their wings were joined to one another. They didn’t turn when they went. Each one went straight forward. 1:10As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man. The four of them had the face of a lion on the right side. The four of them had the face of an ox on the left side. The four of them also had the face of an eagle. 1:11Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Two wings of each one touched another, and two covered their bodies. 1:12Each one went straight forward: where the spirit was to go, they went. They didn’t turn when they went. 1:13As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches. The fire went up and down among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and lightning went out of the fire. 1:14The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. 1:15Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it. 1:16The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl. The four of them had one likeness. Their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel. 1:17When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn when they went. 1:18As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around. 1:19When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. Then the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. 1:20Wherever the spirit was to go, they went. The spirit was to go there. The wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 1:21When those went, these went. When those stood, these stood. When those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 1:22Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like an awesome crystal to look at, stretched out over their heads above. 1:23Under the expanse, their wings were straight, one toward the other. Each one had two which covered on this side, and each one had two which covered their bodies on that side. 1:24When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of an army. When they stood, they let down their wings. 1:25There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads. When they stood, they let down their wings. 1:26Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. On the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above. 1:27I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward; and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. 1:28As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of Yahweh’s glory. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.
2:1He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2:2The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me. 2:3He said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day. 2:4The children are impudent and stiff-hearted. I am sending you to them, and you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh.’ 2:5They, whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse, for they are a rebellious house, yet they will know that there has been a prophet among them. 2:6You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do dwell among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. 2:7You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse; for they are most rebellious. 2:8But you, son of man, hear what I tell you. Don’t be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth, and eat that which I give you.” 2:9When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was in it. 2:10He spread it before me. It was written within and without; and lamentations, mourning, and woe were written in it.
3:1He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 3:2So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll. 3:3He said to me, “Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you.” Then I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. 3:4He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them. 3:5For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel; 3:6not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can’t understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. 3:7But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to me; for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted. 3:8Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. 3:9I have made your forehead as a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.” 3:10Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, receive in your heart and hear with your ears all my words that I speak to you. 3:11Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh;’ whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse. 3:12Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, “Blessed be Yahweh’s glory from his place.” 3:13I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing. 3:14So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and Yahweh’s hand was strong on me. 3:15Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days. 3:16At the end of seven days, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 3:17“Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me. 3:18When I tell the wicked, ‘You will surely die;’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man will die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand. 3:19Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn’t turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.” 3:20“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he will die. Because you have not given him warning, he will die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but I will require his blood at your hand. 3:21Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he will surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.” 3:22Yahweh’s hand was there on me; and he said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and I will talk with you there.” 3:23Then I arose, and went out into the plain, and behold, Yahweh’s glory stood there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar. Then I fell on my face. 3:24Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet. He spoke with me, and said to me, “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 3:25But you, son of man, behold, they will put ropes on you, and will bind you with them, and you will not go out among them. 3:26I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you will be mute, and will not be able to correct them; for they are a rebellious house. 3:27But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.”
4:1“You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem. 4:2Lay siege against it, build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it. Also set camps against it and plant battering rams against it all around. 4:3Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. Then set your face toward it. It will be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. 4:4“Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. 4:5For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 4:6“Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have appointed forty days, each day for a year, to you. 4:7You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it. 4:8Behold, I put ropes on you, and you shall not turn yourself from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege. 4:9“Take for yourself also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel. Make bread of it. According to the number of the days that you will lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it. 4:10Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time you shall eat it. 4:11You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. From time to time you shall drink. 4:12You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.” 4:13Yahweh said, “Even thus will the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” 4:14Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals. No abominable meat has come into my mouth!” 4:15Then he said to me, “Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread on it.” 4:16Moreover he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness. They will drink water by measure, and in dismay; 4:17that they may lack bread and water, be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.
5:1“You, son of man, take a sharp sword. You shall take it as a barber’s razor to yourself, and shall cause it to pass over your head and over your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. 5:2A third part you shall burn in the fire in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled. You shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it. A third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. 5:3You shall take of it a few in number, and bind them in the folds of your robe. 5:4Of these again you shall take, and cast them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From it a fire will come out into all the house of Israel. 5:5“Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the middle of the nations, and countries are around her. 5:6She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.’ 5:7“Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have followed the ordinances of the nations that are around you; 5:8therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. 5:9I will do in you that which I have not done, and which I will not do anything like it any more, because of all your abominations. 5:10Therefore the fathers will eat the sons within you, and the sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you; and I will scatter the whole remnant of you to all the winds. 5:11Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity. 5:12A third part of you will die with the pestilence, and they will be consumed with famine within you. A third part will fall by the sword around you. A third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them. 5:13“‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them. 5:14“‘Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by. 5:15So it will be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes—I, Yahweh, have spoken it— 5:16when I send on them the evil arrows of famine that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you. I will increase the famine on you, and will break your staff of bread. 5:17I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood will pass through you. I will bring the sword on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.’”
6:1Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 6:2“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them, 6:3and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh! Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places. 6:4Your altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be broken. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 6:5I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6:6In all your dwelling places, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. 6:7The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh. 6:8“‘“Yet I will leave a remnant, in that you will have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. 6:9Those of you that escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols. Then they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. 6:10They will know that I am Yahweh. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”’ 6:11“Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, “Alas!” Because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they will fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. 6:12He who is far off will die of the pestilence. He who is near will fall by the sword. He who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus I will accomplish my wrath on them. 6:13You will know that I am Yahweh, when their slain men are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols. 6:14I will stretch out my hand on them, and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”
7:1Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 7:2“You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, ‘An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land. 7:3Now is the end on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways. I will bring on you all your abominations. 7:4My eye will not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.’ 7:5“Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘An evil! A unique evil! Behold, it comes. 7:6An end has come. The end has come! It awakes against you. Behold, it comes. 7:7Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land! The time has come! The day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting, on the mountains. 7:8Now I will shortly pour out my wrath on you, and accomplish my anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways. I will bring on you all your abominations. 7:9My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways. Your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, strike. 7:10“‘Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has gone out. The rod has blossomed. Pride has budded. 7:11Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness. None of them will remain, nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth. There will be nothing of value among them. 7:12The time has come! The day draws near. Don’t let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude. 7:13For the seller won’t return to that which is sold, although they are still alive; for the vision concerns the whole multitude of it. None will return. None will strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life. 7:14They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but no one goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all its multitude. 7:15“‘The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He who is in the field will die by the sword. He who is in the city will be devoured by famine and pestilence. 7:16But those of those who escape, they will escape and will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, everyone in his iniquity. 7:17All hands will be feeble, and all knees will be weak as water. 7:18They will also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror will cover them. Shame will be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. 7:19They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing. Their silver and their gold won’t be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath. They won’t satisfy their souls or fill their bellies; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity. 7:20As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein. Therefore I have made it to them as an unclean thing. 7:21I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a plunder; and they will profane it. 7:22I will also turn my face from them, and they will profane my secret place. Robbers will enter into it, and profane it. 7:23“‘Make chains; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. 7:24Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong to cease. Their holy places will be profaned. 7:25Destruction comes! They will seek peace, and there will be none. 7:26Mischief will come on mischief, and rumor will be on rumor. They will seek a vision of the prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders. 7:27The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed with desolation. The hands of the people of the land will be troubled. I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”
8:1In the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the Lord Yahweh’s hand fell on me there. 8:2Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his waist and downward, fire; and from his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal. 8:3He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north; where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. 8:4Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain. 8:5Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and saw, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. 8:6He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you will again see yet other great abominations.” 8:7He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. 8:8Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig now in the wall.” When I had dug in the wall, I saw a door. 8:9He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.” 8:10So I went in and looked, and saw every form of creeping things, abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall. 8:11Seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel stood before them. In the middle of them Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood, every man with his censer in his hand; and the smell of the cloud of incense went up. 8:12Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘Yahweh doesn’t see us. Yahweh has forsaken the land.’” 8:13He said also to me, “You will again see more of the great abominations which they do.” 8:14Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s house which was toward the north; and I saw the women sit there weeping for Tammuz. 8:15Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? You will again see yet greater abominations than these.” 8:16He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house; and I saw at the door of Yahweh’s temple, between the porch and the altar, there were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward Yahweh’s temple, and their faces toward the east. They were worshiping the sun toward the east. 8:17Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose. 8:18Therefore will I also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”
9:1Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Cause those who are in charge of the city to draw near, each man with his destroying weapon in his hand.” 9:2Behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lies toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand. One man in the middle of them was clothed in linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. They went in, and stood beside the bronze altar. 9:3The glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house; and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side. 9:4Yahweh said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done within it.” 9:5To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity. 9:6Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” Then they began at the old men who were before the house. 9:7He said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” They went out, and struck in the city. 9:8While they were killing, and I was left, I fell on my face, and cried, and said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Will you destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem?” 9:9Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion; for they say, ‘Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.’ 9:10As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.” 9:11Behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, “I have done as you have commanded me.”
10:1Then I looked, and see, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. 10:2He spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said, “Go in between the whirling wheels, even under the cherub, and fill both your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” He went in as I watched. 10:3Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. 10:4Yahweh’s glory mounted up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of Yahweh’s glory. 10:5The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when he speaks. 10:6It came to pass, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim,” that he went in, and stood beside a wheel. 10:7The cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it, and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen, who took it and went out. 10:8The form of a man’s hand appeared here in the cherubim under their wings. 10:9I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub. The appearance of the wheels was like a beryl stone. 10:10As for their appearance, the four of them had one likeness, like a wheel within a wheel. 10:11When they went, they went in their four directions. They didn’t turn as they went, but to the place where the head looked they followed it. They didn’t turn as they went. 10:12Their whole body, including their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes all around, even the wheels that the four of them had. 10:13As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, “the whirling wheels”. 10:14Every one them had four faces. The first face was the face of the cherub. The second face was the face of a man. The third face was the face of a lion. The fourth was the face of an eagle. 10:15The cherubim mounted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar. 10:16When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels also didn’t turn from beside them. 10:17When they stood, these stood. When they mounted up, these mounted up with them; for the spirit of the living creature was in them. 10:18Yahweh’s glory went out from over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. 10:19The cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went out, with the wheels beside them. Then they stood at the door of the east gate of Yahweh’s house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. 10:20This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim. 10:21Every one had four faces, and every one four wings. The likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. 10:22As for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I saw by the river Chebar, their appearances and themselves. They each went straight forward.