Ezekiel 21-22

Ezekiel 21

¹And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

²Son of man, set thy face against Jerusalem, and drop words against the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,

³and say to the land of Israel, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.

⁴Seeing that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh, from the south to the north;

⁵and all flesh shall know that I Jehovah have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath: it shall not return any more.

⁶Sigh then, thou son of man; with breaking of the loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

⁷And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore dost thou sigh? that thou shalt say, Because of the tidings, for it cometh; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall languish, and all knees shall melt into water: behold, it cometh; it is here, saith the Lord Jehovah.

⁸And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

⁹Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith Jehovah: Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished.

¹⁰It is sharpened for sore slaughter, it is furbished that it may glitter. Shall we then make mirth, saying, The sceptre of my son contemneth all wood?

¹¹And he hath given it to be furbished that it may be handled. The sword, -- it is sharpened, and it is furbished to give it into the hand of the slayer.

¹²Cry and howl, son of man; for it shall be against my people, it shall be against all the princes of Israel: they are given up to the sword along with my people: smite therefore upon the thigh.

¹³For the trial is made; and what if even the contemning sceptre shall be no more? saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁴And thou, son of man, prophesy, and smite thy hands together; for the strokes of the sword shall be doubled the third time: it is the sword of the slain, the sword that hath slain the great one, which encompasseth them privily.

¹⁵In order that the heart may melt, and the stumbling-blocks be multiplied, I have set the threatening sword against all their gates: ah! it is made glittering, it is whetted for the slaughter.

¹⁶Gather up strength, go to the right hand, turn thee, go to the left, whithersoever thy face is appointed.

¹⁷And I myself will smite my hands together, and I will satisfy my fury: I Jehovah have spoken it.

¹⁸And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

¹⁹And thou, son of man, set thee two ways, by which the sword of the king of Babylon may come -- out of one land shall they both come -- and make thee a signpost, make it at the head of the way to the city.

²⁰Appoint a way for the coming of the sword to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah at the fenced city of Jerusalem.

²¹For the king of Babylon standeth at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shaketh his arrows, he inquireth of the teraphim, he looketh in the liver.

²²In his right hand is the lot of Jerusalem to appoint battering-rams, to open the mouth for bloodshed, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering-rams against the gates, to cast mounds, to build siege-towers.

²³And this shall be a false divination in their sight, for them that have sworn oaths; but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.

²⁴Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye make your iniquity to be remembered in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.

²⁵And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, at the time of the iniquity of the end,

²⁶-- thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Remove the mitre and take off the crown; what is shall be no more. Exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.

²⁷I will overturn, overturn, overturn it! This also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it to him.

²⁸And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus speaketh the Lord Jehovah concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and thou shalt say, A sword, a sword is drawn; for the slaughter is it furbished, that it may consume, that it may glitter:

²⁹whilst they see vanity for thee, whilst they divine a lie unto thee, to lay thee upon the necks of the wicked that are slain, whose day is come at the time of the iniquity of the end.

³⁰Restore it to its sheath. I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy birth.

³¹And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow upon thee the fire of my wrath, and give thee into the hand of brutish men, skilful to destroy.

³²Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt not be remembered: for I Jehovah have spoken.

Ezekiel 22

¹And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

²And thou, son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? Yea, cause her to know all her abominations,

³and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: A city that sheddeth blood in her midst, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.

⁴Thou art become guilty by thy blood which thou hast shed, and hast defiled thyself with thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the nations, and a mocking unto all countries.

⁵Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall mock thee, who art infamous and full of tumult.

⁶Behold, the princes of Israel have been in thee to shed blood, each according to his power.

⁷In thee have they made light of father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger; in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

⁸Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.

⁹In thee there have been slanderous men to shed blood; and in thee have they eaten upon the mountains; in the midst of thee they have committed lewdness;

¹⁰in thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was unclean in her separation.

¹¹And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.

¹²In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast overreached thy neighbours by oppression, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹³And behold, I have smitten mine hand at thine overreaching which thou hast done, and at thy bloodshed which hath been in the midst of thee.

¹⁴Shall thy heart endure, shall thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I Jehovah have spoken, and will do it.

¹⁵And I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee through the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.

¹⁶And thou shalt be polluted through thyself in the sight of the nations, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah.

¹⁷And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

¹⁸Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross to me: they are all copper, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: they are become the dross of silver.

¹⁹Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

²⁰As they gather silver, and copper, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it, so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will lay you on and melt you.

²¹Yea, I will collect you, and blow upon you the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.

²²As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I Jehovah have poured out my fury upon you.

²³And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

²⁴Son of man, say unto her, Thou art a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

²⁵There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they devour souls; they take away treasure and precious things; they increase her widows in the midst of her;

²⁶her priests do violence to my law, and profane my holy things: they put no difference between the holy and profane, neither do they make known the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they hide their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

²⁸And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah! and Jehovah hath not spoken.

²⁹The people of the land use oppression and practise robbery; and they vex the poor and needy, and oppress the stranger wrongfully.

³⁰And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the fence, and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.

³¹And I will pour out mine indignation upon them; I will consume them in the fire of my wrath: their own way will I recompense upon their head, saith the Lord Jehovah.