Ezekiel 31-36

Ezekiel 31

¹Now in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²Son of man, say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his people; Whom are you like in your great power?

³See, a pine-tree with beautiful branches and thick growth, giving shade and very tall; and its top was among the clouds.

⁴It got strength from the waters and the deep made it tall: its streams went round about its planted land and it sent out its waterways to all the trees of the field.

⁵In this way it became taller than all the trees of the field; and its branches were increased and its arms became long because of the great waters.

⁶In its branches all the birds of heaven came to rest, and under its arms all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and great nations were living in its shade.

⁷So it was beautiful, being so tall and its branches so long, for its root was by great waters.

⁸No cedars were equal to it in the garden of God; the fir-trees were not like its branches, and plane-trees were as nothing in comparison with its arms; no tree in the garden of God was so beautiful.

⁹I made it beautiful with its mass of branches: so that all the trees in the garden of God were full of envy of it.

¹⁰For this cause the Lord has said: Because he is tall, and has put his top among the clouds, and his heart is full of pride because he is so high,

¹¹I have given him up into the hands of a strong one of the nations; he will certainly give him the reward of his sin, driving him out.

¹²And men from strange lands, who are to be feared among the nations, after cutting him off, have let him be: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches have come down; his arms are broken by all the waterways of the land; all the peoples of the earth have gone from his shade, and have let him be.

¹³All the birds of heaven have come to rest on his broken stem where it is stretched on the earth, and all the beasts of the field will be on his branches:

¹⁴In order that no trees by the waters may be lifted up in their growth, putting their tops among the clouds; and that no trees which are watered may take their place on high: for they are all given up to death, to the lowest parts of the earth among the children of men, with those who go down to the underworld.

¹⁵This is what the Lord has said: The day when he goes down to the underworld, I will make the deep full of grief for him; I will keep back her streams and the great waters will be stopped: I will make Lebanon dark for him, and all the trees of the field will be feeble because of him.

¹⁶I will send shaking on the nations at the sound of his fall, when I send him down to the underworld with those who go down into the deep: and on earth they will be comforting themselves, all the trees of Eden, the best of Lebanon, even all the watered ones.

¹⁷And they will go down with him to the underworld, to those who have been put to the sword; even those who were his helpers, living under his shade among the nations

¹⁸Whom then are you like? for you will be sent down with the trees of Eden into the lowest parts of the earth: there you will be stretched out among those without circumcision, with those who were put to the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his people, says the Lord.

Ezekiel 32

¹And it came about in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²Son of man, make a song of grief for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him, Young lion of the nations, destruction has come on you; and you were like a sea-beast in the seas, sending out bursts of water, troubling the waters with your feet, making their streams dirty.

³This is what the Lord has said: My net will be stretched out over you, and I will take you up in my fishing-net.

⁴And I will let you be stretched on the land; I will send you out violently into the open field; I will let all the birds of heaven come to rest on you and will make the beasts of all the earth full of you.

⁵And I will put your flesh on the mountains, and make the valleys full of your blood.

⁶And the land will be watered with your blood, and the waterways will be full of you.

⁷And when I put out your life, the heaven will be covered and its stars made dark; I will let the sun be covered with a cloud and the moon will not give her light.

⁸All the bright lights of heaven I will make dark over you, and put dark night on your land, says the Lord.

⁹And the hearts of numbers of peoples will be troubled, when I send your prisoners among the nations, into a country which is strange to you.

¹⁰And I will make a number of peoples overcome with wonder at you, and their kings will be full of fear because of you, when my sword is waved before them: they will be shaking every minute, every man fearing for his life, in the day of your fall.

¹¹For this is what the Lord has said: The sword of the king of Babylon will come on you.

¹²I will let the swords of the strong be the cause of the fall of your people; all of them men to be feared among the nations: and they will make waste the pride of Egypt, and all its people will come to destruction.

¹³And I will put an end to all her beasts which are by the great waters, and they will never again be troubled by the foot of man or by the feet of beasts.

¹⁴Then I will make their waters clear and their rivers will be flowing like oil, says the Lord.

¹⁵When I make Egypt an unpeopled waste, cutting off from the land all the things in it; when I send punishment on all those living in it, then it will be clear to them that I am the Lord.

¹⁶It is a song of grief, and people will give voice to it, the daughters of the nations will give voice to it, even for Egypt and all her people, says the Lord.

¹⁷And in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁸Son of man, let your voice be loud in sorrow for the people of Egypt and send them down, even you and the daughters of the nations; I will send them down into the lowest parts of the earth, with those who go down into the underworld.

¹⁹Are you more beautiful than any? go down, and take your rest among those without circumcision,

²⁰Among those who have been put to the sword: they will give a resting-place with them to all their people.

²¹The strong among the great ones will say to him from the underworld, Are you more beautiful than any? go down, you and your helpers, and take your rest among those without circumcision, and those who have been put to the sword.

²²There is Asshur and all her army, round about her last resting-place: all of them put to death by the sword:

²³Whose resting-places are in the inmost parts of the underworld, who were a cause of fear in the land of the living.

²⁴There is Elam and all her people, round about her last resting-place: all of them put to death by the sword, who have gone down without circumcision into the lowest parts of the earth, who were a cause of fear in the land of the living, and are put to shame with those who go down to the underworld:

²⁵They have made a bed for her among the dead, and all her people are round about her resting-place: all of them without circumcision, put to death with the sword; for they were a cause of fear in the land of the living, and are put to shame with those who go down to the underworld: they have been given a place among those who have been put to the sword.

²⁶There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her people, round about her last resting-place: all of them without circumcision, put to death by the sword; for they were a cause of fear in the land of the living.

²⁷And they have been put to rest with the fighting men who came to their end in days long past, who went down to the underworld with their instruments of war, placing their swords under their heads, and their body-covers are over their bones; for their strength was a cause of fear in the land of the living.

²⁸But you will have your bed among those without circumcision, and will be put to rest with those who have been put to death with the sword.

²⁹There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who have been given a resting-place with those who were put to the sword: they will be resting among those without circumcision, even with those who go down to the underworld.

³⁰There are the chiefs of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, who have gone down with those who have been put to the sword: they are shamed on account of all the fear caused by their strength; they are resting there without circumcision, among those who have been put to the sword, and are put to shame with those who go down to the underworld.

³¹Pharaoh will see them and be comforted on account of all his people: even Pharaoh and all his army, put to death by the sword, says the Lord.

³²For he put his fear in the land of the living: and he will be put to rest among those without circumcision, with those who have been put to death with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his people, says the Lord.

Ezekiel 33

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

²Son of man, give a word to the children of your people, and say to them, When I make the sword come on a land, if the people of the land take a man from among their number and make him their watchman:

³If, when he sees the sword coming on the land, by sounding the horn he gives the people news of their danger;

⁴Then anyone who, hearing the sound of the horn, does not take note of it, will himself be responsible for his death, if the sword comes and takes him away.

⁵On hearing the sound of the horn, he did not take note; his blood will be on him; for if he had taken note his life would have been safe.

⁶But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not give a note on the horn, and the people have no word of the danger, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them; he will be taken away in his sin, but I will make the watchman responsible for his blood.

⁷So you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the children of Israel; and you are to give ear to the word of my mouth and give them news from me of their danger.

⁸When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly overtake you; and you say nothing to make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his way; death will overtake that evil man in his evil-doing, but I will make you responsible for his blood.

⁹But if you make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his way for the purpose of turning him from it, and he is not turned from his way, death will overtake him in his evil-doing, but your life will be safe.

¹⁰And you, son of man, say to the children of Israel, You say, Our wrongdoing and our sins are on us and we are wasting away in them; how then may we have life?

¹¹Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the evil-doer; it is more pleasing to me if he is turned from his way and has life: be turned, be turned from your evil ways; why are you looking for death, O children of Israel?

¹²And you, son of man, say to the children of your people, The righteousness of the upright man will not make him safe in the day when he does wrong; and the evil-doing of the evil man will not be the cause of his fall in the day when he is turned from his evil-doing; and the upright man will not have life because of his righteousness in the day when he does evil.

¹³When I say to the upright that life will certainly be his; if he puts his faith in his righteousness and does evil, not one of his upright acts will be kept in memory; but in the evil he has done, death will overtake him.

¹⁴And when I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your fate; if he is turned from his sin and does what is ordered and right;

¹⁵If the evil-doer lets one who is in his debt have back what is his, and gives back what he had taken by force, and is guided by the rules of life, doing no evil; life will certainly be his, death will not overtake him.

¹⁶Not one of the sins which he has done will be kept in mind against him: he has done what is ordered and right, life will certainly be his.

¹⁷But the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: when it is they whose way is not equal.

¹⁸When the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him in it.

¹⁹And when the evil man, turning away from his evil-doing, does what is ordered and right, he will get life by it.

²⁰And still you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O children of Israel, I will be your judge, giving to everyone the reward of his ways.

²¹Now in the twelfth year after we had been taken away prisoners, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, one who had got away in flight from Jerusalem came to me, saying, The town has been taken.

²²Now the hand of the Lord had been on me in the evening, before the man who had got away came to me; and he made my mouth open, ready for his coming to me in the morning; and my mouth was open and I was no longer without voice.

²³And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²⁴Son of man, those who are living in these waste places in the land of Israel say, Abraham was but one, and he had land for his heritage: but we are a great number; the land is given to us for our heritage.

²⁵For this cause say to them, This is what the Lord has said: You take your meat with the blood, your eyes are lifted up to your images, and you are takers of life: are you to have the land for your heritage?

²⁶You put your faith in your swords, you do disgusting things, everyone takes his neighbour's wife: are you to have the land for your heritage?

²⁷This is what you are to say to them: The Lord has said, By my life, truly, those who are in the waste places will be put to the sword, and him who is in the open field I will give to the beasts for their food, and those who are in the strong places and in holes in the rocks will come to their death by disease.

²⁸And I will make the land a waste and a cause of wonder, and the pride of her strength will come to an end; and the mountains of Israel will be made waste so that no one will go through.

²⁹Then they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a waste and a cause of wonder, because of all the disgusting things which they have done,

³⁰And as for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking together about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, saying to one another, Come now, give ear to the word which comes from the Lord.

³¹And they come to you as my people come, and are seated before you as my people, hearing your words but doing them not: for deceit is in their mouth and their heart goes after profit for themselves.

³²And truly you are to them like a love song by one who has a very pleasing voice and is an expert player on an instrument: for they give ear to your words but do them not.

³³And when this comes about (see, it is coming), then it will be clear to them that a prophet has been among them.

Ezekiel 34

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

²Son of man, be a prophet against the keepers of the flock of Israel, and say to them, O keepers of the sheep! this is the word of the Lord: A curse is on the keepers of the flock of Israel who take the food for themselves! is it not right for the keepers to give the food to the sheep?

³You take the milk and are clothed with the wool, you put the fat beasts to death, but you give the sheep no food.

⁴You have not made the diseased ones strong or made well that which was ill; you have not put bands on the broken or got back that which had been sent away or made search for the wandering ones; and the strong you have been ruling cruelly.

⁵And they were wandering in every direction because there was no keeper: and they became food for all the beasts of the field.

⁶And my sheep went out of the way, wandering through all the mountains and on every high hill: my sheep went here and there over all the face of the earth; and no one was troubled about them or went in search of them.

⁷For this cause, O keepers of the flock, give ear to the word of the Lord:

⁸By my life, says the Lord, truly, because my sheep have been taken away, and my sheep became food for all the beasts of the field, because there was no keeper, and my keepers did not go in search of the sheep, but the keepers took food for themselves and gave my sheep no food;

⁹For this reason, O you keepers of the flock, give ear to the word of the Lord;

¹⁰This is what the Lord has said: See I am against the keepers of the flock, and I will make search and see what they have done with my sheep, and will let them be keepers of my sheep no longer; and the keepers will no longer get food for themselves; I will take my sheep out of their mouths so that they may not be food for them.

¹¹For this is what the Lord has said: Truly, I, even I, will go searching and looking for my sheep.

¹²As the keeper goes looking for his flock when he is among his wandering sheep, so I will go looking for my sheep, and will get them safely out of all the places where they have been sent wandering in the day of clouds and black night.

¹³And I will take them out from among the peoples, and get them together from the countries, and will take them into their land; and I will give them food on the mountains of Israel by the water-streams and wherever men are living in the country.

¹⁴I will give them good grass-land for their food, and their safe place will be the mountains of the high place of Israel: there they will take their rest in a good place, and on fat grass-land they will take their food on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵I myself will give food to my flock, and I will give them rest, says the Lord.

¹⁶I will go in search of that which had gone wandering from the way, and will get back that which had been sent in flight, and will put bands on that which was broken, and give strength to that which was ill: but the fat and the strong I will give up to destruction; I will give them for their food the punishment which is theirs by right.

¹⁷And as for you, O my flock, says the Lord, truly, I will be judge between sheep and sheep, the he-sheep and the he-goats.

¹⁸Does it seem a small thing to you to have taken your food on good grass-land while the rest of your grass-land is stamped down under your feet? and that after drinking from clear waters you make the rest of the waters dirty with your feet?

¹⁹And as for my sheep, their food is the grass which has been stamped on by your feet, and their drink the water which has been made dirty by your feet.

²⁰For this reason the Lord has said to them, Truly, I, even I, will be judge between the fat sheep and the thin sheep.

²¹Because you have been pushing with side and leg, pushing the diseased with your horns till they were sent away in every direction;

²²I will make my flock safe, and they will no longer be taken away, and I will be judge between sheep and sheep.

²³And I will put over them one keeper, and he will give them food, even my servant David; he will give them food and be their keeper.

²⁴And I the Lord will be their God and my servant David their ruler; I the Lord have said it.

²⁵And I will make with them an agreement of peace, and will put an end to evil beasts through all the land: and they will be living safely in the waste land, sleeping in the woods.

²⁶And I will give the rain at the right time, and I will make the shower come down at the right time; there will be showers of blessing.

²⁷And the tree of the field will give its fruit and the earth will give its increase, and they will be safe in their land; and they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have had their yoke broken and have given them salvation from the hands of those who made them servants.

²⁸And their goods will no longer be taken by the nations, and they will not again be food for the beasts of the earth; but they will be living safely and no one will be a cause of fear to them.

²⁹And I will give them planting-places of peace, and they will no longer be wasted from need of food or put to shame by the nations.

³⁰And they will be certain that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, the children of Israel, are my people, says the Lord.

³¹And you are my sheep, the sheep of my grass-lands, and I am your God, says the Lord.

Ezekiel 35

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

²Son of man, let your face be turned to Mount Seir, and be a prophet against it,

³And say to it, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am against you, O Mount Seir, and my hand will be stretched out against you, and I will make you a waste and a cause for wonder.

⁴I will make your towns unpeopled and you will be a waste; and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

⁵Because yours has been a hate without end, and you have given up the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their trouble, in the time of the punishment of the end:

⁶For this cause, by my life, says the Lord, because you have been sinning through blood, blood will come after you.

⁷And I will make Mount Seir a cause for wonder and a waste, cutting off from it all comings and goings.

⁸I will make his mountains full of those who have been put to death; in your valleys and in all your water-streams men will be falling by the sword.

⁹I will make you waste for ever, and your towns will be unpeopled: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

¹⁰Because you have said, The two nations and the two countries are to be mine, and we will take them for our heritage; though the Lord was there:

¹¹For this cause, by my life, says the Lord, I will do to you as you have done in your wrath and in your envy, which you have made clear in your hate for them; and I will make clear to you who I am when you are judged by me.

¹²And you will see that I the Lord have had knowledge of all the bitter things which you have said against the mountains of Israel, saying, They have been made waste, they are given to us to take for our heritage.

¹³And you have made yourselves great against me with your mouths, increasing your words against me; and it has come to my ears.

¹⁴This is what the Lord has said: Because you were glad over my land when it was a waste, so will I do to you:

¹⁵You will become a waste, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 36

¹And you, son of man, be a prophet about the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord:

²This is what the Lord has said: Because your hater has said against you, Aha! and, The old waste places are our heritage, we have taken them:

³For this cause be a prophet, and say, This is what the Lord has said: Because, even because they have been glad over you and put you to shame on every side, because you have become a heritage for the rest of the nations, and you are taken up on the lips of talkers and in the evil talk of the people:

⁴For this reason, you mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, to the unpeopled wastes and to the towns where no one is living, from which the goods have been taken and which have been put to shame by the rest of the nations who are round about:

⁵For this cause the Lord has said: Truly, in the heat of my bitter feeling I have said things against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who have taken my land as a heritage for themselves with the joy of all their heart, and with bitter envy of soul have made attacks on it:

⁶For this cause be a prophet about the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, This is what the Lord has said: Truly, in my bitter feeling and in my wrath I have said these things, because you have undergone the shame of the nations:

⁷For this cause the Lord has said, See, I have taken an oath that the nations which are round about you are themselves to undergo the shame which they have put on you.

⁸But you, O mountains of Israel, will put out your branches and give your fruit to my people Israel; for they are ready to come.

⁹For truly I am for you, and I will be turned to you, and you will be ploughed and planted:

¹⁰And I will let your numbers be increased, all the children of Israel, even all of them: and the towns will be peopled and the waste places will have buildings;

¹¹Man and beast will be increased in you, and they will have offspring and be fertile: I will make you thickly peopled as you were before, and will do more for you than at the first: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

¹²Yes, I will have you walked on by the feet of men, even my people Israel; they will have you for a heritage and you will be theirs, and never again will you take their children from them.

¹³This is what the Lord has said: Because they say to you, You, O land, are the destruction of men, causing loss of children to your nation;

¹⁴For this reason you will no longer take the lives of men and will never again be the cause of loss of children to your nation, says the Lord.

¹⁵And I will not let the shaming of the nations come to your ears, and no longer will you be looked down on by the peoples, says the Lord.

¹⁶Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁷Son of man, when the children of Israel were living in their land, they made it unclean by their way and their acts: their way before me was as when a woman is unclean at the time when she is kept separate.

¹⁸So I let loose my wrath on them because of those whom they had violently put to death in the land, and because they had made it unclean with their images:

¹⁹And I sent them in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries: I was their judge, rewarding them for their way and their acts.

²⁰And when they came among the nations, wherever they went, they made my holy name unclean, when it was said of them, These are the people of the Lord who have gone out from his land.

²¹But I had pity for my holy name which the children of Israel had made unclean wherever they went.

²²For this cause say to the children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: I am doing this, not because of you, O children of Israel, but because of my holy name, which you have made unclean among the nations wherever you went.

²³And I will make holy my great name which has been made unclean among the nations, which you have made unclean among them; and it will be clear to the nations that I am the Lord, says the Lord, when I make myself holy in you before their eyes.

²⁴For I will take you out from among the nations, and get you together from all the countries, and take you into your land.

²⁵And I will put clean water on you so that you may be clean: from all your unclean ways and from all your images I will make you clean.

²⁶And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.

²⁷And I will put my spirit in you, causing you to be guided by my rules, and you will keep my orders and do them.

²⁸So that you may go on living in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you will be to me a people, and I will be to you a God.

²⁹And I will make you free from all your unclean ways: and at my voice the grain will come up and be increased, and I will not let you be short of food.

³⁰And I will make the tree give more fruit and the field fuller produce, and no longer will you be shamed among the nations for need of food.

³¹And at the memory of your evil ways and your wrongdoings, you will have bitter hate for yourselves because of your evil-doings and your disgusting ways, O children of Israel.

³²Not because of you am I doing it, says the Lord; let it be clear to you, and be shamed and made low because of your ways, O children of Israel.

³³This is what the Lord has said: In the day when I make you clean from all your evil-doings I will let the towns be peopled and there will be building on the waste places.

³⁴And the land which was waste will be farmed, in place of being a waste in the eyes of everyone who went by.

³⁵And they will say, This land which was waste has become like the garden of Eden; and the towns which were unpeopled and wasted and pulled down are walled and peopled.

³⁶Then the rest of the nations round about you will be certain that I the Lord am the builder of the places which were pulled down and the planter of that which was waste: I the Lord have said it, and I will do it.

³⁷This is what the Lord has said: The children of Israel will again make prayer to me for this, that I may do it for them; I will make them increased with men like a flock.

³⁸Like sheep for the offerings, like the sheep of Jerusalem at her fixed feasts, so the unpeopled towns will be made full of men: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.