Ezekiel 5-7

Ezekiel 5

¹And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, using it like a haircutter's blade, and making it go over your head and the hair of your chin: and take scales for separating the hair by weight.

²You are to have a third part burned with fire inside the town, when the days of the attack are ended; and a third part you are to take and give blows with the sword round about it; and give a third part for the wind to take away, and let loose a sword after them.

³And take from them a small number of hairs, folding them in your skirts.

⁴And again take some of these and put them in the fire, burning them up in the fire; and say to all the children of Israel,

⁵This is what the Lord has said: This is Jerusalem: I have put her among the nations, and countries are round her on every side;

⁶And she has gone against my orders by doing evil more than the nations, and against my rules more than the countries round her: for they have given up my orders, and as for my rules, they have not gone in the way of them.

⁷For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have been more uncontrolled than the nations round about you, and have not been guided by my rules or kept my orders, but have kept the orders of the nations round about you;

⁸For this cause the Lord has said: See, I, even I, am against you; and I will be judging among you before the eyes of the nations.

⁹And I will do in you what I have not done and will not do again, because of all your disgusting ways.

¹⁰For this cause fathers will take their sons for food among you, and sons will make a meal of their fathers; and I will be judge among you, and all the rest of you I will send away to every wind.

¹¹For this cause, by my life, says the Lord, because you have made my holy place unclean with all your hated things and all your disgusting ways, you will become disgusting to me; my eye will have no mercy and I will have no pity.

¹²A third of you will come to death from disease, wasting away among you through need of food; a third will be put to the sword round about you; and a third I will send away to every wind, letting loose a sword after them.

¹³So my wrath will be complete and my passion will come to rest on them; and they will be certain that I the Lord have given the word of decision, when my wrath against them is complete.

¹⁴And I will make you a waste and a name of shame among the nations round about you, in the eyes of everyone who goes by.

¹⁵And you will be a name of shame and a cause of bitter words, an example and a wonder to the nations round about you, when I give effect to my judging among you in wrath and in passion and in burning protests: I the Lord have said it:

¹⁶When I send on you the evil arrows of disease, causing destruction, which I will send to put an end to you; and, further, I will take away your necessary food.

¹⁷And I will send on you need of food and evil beasts, and they will be a cause of loss to you; and disease and violent death will go through you; and I will send the sword on you: I the Lord have said it.

Ezekiel 6

¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²Son of man, let your face be turned to the mountains of Israel, and be a prophet to them, and say,

³You mountains of Israel, give ear to the words of the Lord: this is what the Lord has said to the mountains and the hills, to the waterways and the valleys: See, I, even I, am sending on you a sword for the destruction of your high places.

⁴And your altars will be made waste, and your sun-images will be broken: and I will have your dead men placed before your images.

⁵And I will put the dead bodies of the children of Israel in front of their images, sending your bones in all directions about your altars.

⁶In all your living-places the towns will become broken walls, and the high places made waste; so that your altars may be broken down and made waste, and your images broken and ended, and so that your sun-images may be cut down and your works rubbed out.

⁷And the dead will be falling down among you, and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

⁸But still, I will keep a small band safe from the sword among the nations, when you are sent wandering among the countries.

⁹And those of you who are kept safe will have me in mind among the nations where they have been taken away as prisoners, how I sent punishment on their hearts which were untrue to me, and on their eyes which were turned to their false gods: and they will be full of hate for themselves because of the evil things which they have done in all their disgusting ways.

¹⁰And they will be certain that I am the Lord: not for nothing did I say that I would do this evil to them.

¹¹This is what the Lord has said: Give blows with your hand, stamping with your foot, and say, O sorrow! because of all the evil and disgusting ways of the children of Israel: for death will overtake them by the sword and through need of food and by disease.

¹²He who is far away will come to his death by disease; he who is near will be put to the sword; he who is shut up will come to his death through need of food; and I will give full effect to my passion against them.

¹³And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when their dead men are stretched among their images round about their altars on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every branching tree, and under every thick oak-tree, the places where they made sweet smells to all their images.

¹⁴And my hand will be stretched out against them, making the land waste and unpeopled, from the waste land to Riblah, through all their living-places: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 7

¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²And you, son of man, say, This is what the Lord has said to the land of Israel: An end has come, the end has come on the four quarters of the land.

³Now the end has come on you, and I will send my wrath on you, judging you for your ways, I will send punishment on you for all your disgusting acts.

⁴My eye will not have mercy on you, and I will have no pity: but I will send the punishment of your ways on you, and your disgusting works will be among you: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

⁵This is what the Lord has said: An evil, even one evil; see, it is coming.

⁶An end has come, the end has come; see, it is coming on you.

⁷The crowning time has come on you, O people of the land: the time has come, the day is near; the day will not be slow in coming, it will not keep back.

⁸Now, in a little time, I will let loose my passion on you, and give full effect to my wrath against you, judging you for your ways, and sending punishment on you for all your disgusting works.

⁹My eye will not have mercy, and I will have no pity: I will send on you the punishment of your ways, and your disgusting works will be among you; and you will see that I am the Lord who gives punishment.

¹⁰See, the day; see, it is coming: the crowning time has gone out; the twisted way is flowering, pride has put out buds.

¹¹Violent behaviour has been lifted up into a rod of evil; it will not be slow in coming, it will not keep back.

¹²The time has come, the day is near: let not him who gives a price for goods be glad, or him who gets the price have sorrow:

¹³For the trader will not go back to the things for which he had his price, even while he is still living:

¹⁴And he who has given a price for goods will not get them, for my wrath is on all of them.

¹⁵Outside is the sword, and inside disease and need of food: he who is in the open country will be put to the sword; he who is in the town will come to his end through need of food and disease.

¹⁶And those of them who get away safely will go and be in the secret places like the doves of the valleys, all of them will come to death, every one in his sin.

¹⁷All hands will be feeble and all knees without strength, like water.

¹⁸And they will put haircloth round them, and deep fear will be covering them; and shame will be on all faces, and the hair gone from all their heads.

¹⁹They will put out their silver into the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to keep them safe in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they will not get their desire or have food for their need: because it has been the cause of their falling into sin.

²⁰As for their beautiful ornament, they had put it on high, and had made the images of their disgusting and hated things in it: for this cause I have made it an unclean thing to them.

²¹And I will give it into the hands of men from strange lands who will take it by force, and to the evil-doers of the earth to have for themselves; and they will make it unholy.

²²And my face will be turned away from them, and they will make my secret place unholy: violent men will go into it and make it unholy.

²³Make the chain: for the land is full of crimes of blood, and the town is full of violent acts.

²⁴For this reason I will send the worst of the nations and they will take their houses for themselves: I will make the pride of their strength come to an end; and their holy places will be made unclean.

²⁵Shaking fear is coming; and they will be looking for peace, and there will be no peace.

²⁶Destruction will come on destruction, and one story after another; and the vision of the prophet will be shamed, and knowledge of the law will come to an end among the priests, and wisdom among the old.

²⁷The king will give himself up to sorrow, and the ruler will be clothed with wonder, and the hands of the people of the land will be troubled: I will give them punishment for their ways, judging them as it is right for them to be judged; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.