30 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers and go whoring after their detestable things? 31 When you present your gifts and offer up your children in fire,¹ you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And ^dshall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, declares the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.

32 “What is in your mind shall never happen—the thought, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, and worship ^ewood and stone.’

33 “As I live, declares the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out ^fI will be king over you. 34 I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out. 35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will ^genter into judgment with you face to face. 36 As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God. 37 I will make you ^hpass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 38 I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me. I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but ⁱthey shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

39 “As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: ^jGo serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more ^kprofane with your gifts and your idols.

40 “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will ^laccept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. 41 As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will ^mmanifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. 42 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers. 43 And there you shall ⁿremember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall ^oloathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. 44 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you ^pfor my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”

45 ² And the word of the Lord came to me: 46 “Son of man, set your face toward the southland;³ preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest land in the Negeb. 47 Say to the forest of the Negeb, Hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, ^qI will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces ^rfrom south to north shall be scorched by it. 48 All flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.” 49 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! They are saying of me, ^s‘Is he not a maker of ^tparables?’”

1 ⁴ The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries.⁵ Prophesy against the land of Israel 3 and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: ^uBehold, I am against you and will draw my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked. 4 Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh ^vfrom south to north. 5 And all flesh shall know that I am the Lord. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again.

6 “As for you, son of man, groan; with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan ^wbefore their eyes. 7 And when they say to you, ‘Why do you groan?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that it is coming. Every heart will melt, and ^xall hands will be feeble; every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming, and it will be fulfilled,’” declares the Lord God.

8 And the word of the Lord came to me: 9 “Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord, say:

(Or shall we rejoice? You have despised the rod, my son, with everything of wood.)⁶ 11 So the sword is given to be polished, that it may be grasped in the hand. It is sharpened and polished to be given into the hand of the slayer. 12 Cry out and wail, son of man, for it is against my people. It is against all the princes of Israel. They are delivered over to the sword with my people. ^yStrike therefore upon your thigh. 13 For it will not be a testing—what could it do if you despise the rod?”⁷ declares the Lord God.

14 “As for you, son of man, prophesy. ^zClap your hands and let the sword come down twice, yes, three times,⁸ the sword for those to be slain. It is the sword for the great slaughter, which surrounds them, 15 that their hearts may melt, and many stumble.⁹ At all their gates I have given the glittering sword. Ah, it is made like lightning; it is taken up¹⁰ for slaughter. 16 Cut sharply to the right; set yourself to the left, wherever your face is directed. 17 I also will clap my hands, and I will ^asatisfy my fury; I the Lord have spoken.”

18 The word of the Lord came to me again: 19 “As for you, son of man, mark two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them shall come from the same land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to a city. 20 Mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites and to Judah, into Jerusalem the fortified. 21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows; he consults the teraphim;¹¹ he looks at the liver. 22 Into his right hand comes the divination for Jerusalem, to set ^bbattering rams, to open the mouth with murder, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build siege towers. 23 But to them it will seem like a false divination. They have sworn solemn oaths, but he brings their guilt to remembrance, that they may be taken.

24 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have made your guilt to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins appear—because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand. 25 And you, O profane¹² wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day has come, ^cthe time of your final punishment, 26 thus says the Lord God: Remove the turban and take off the crown. Things shall not remain as they are. ^dExalt that which is low, and bring low that which is exalted. 27 A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This also shall not be, until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him.

28 “And you, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God ^econcerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach; say, A sword, a sword is drawn for the slaughter. It is polished to consume and to flash like lightning— 29 while they see for you ^ffalse visions, while they divine lies for you—to place you on the necks of the profane wicked, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment. 30 Return it to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you. 31 And I will pour out my indignation upon you; ^gI will blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and I will deliver you into the hands of brutish men, skillful to destroy. 32 You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. ^hYou shall be no more remembered, for I the Lord have spoken.”

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “And you, son of man, ⁱwill you judge, will you judge the ^jbloody city? Then declare to her all her abominations. 3 You shall say, Thus says the Lord God: A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself! 4 You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of¹³ your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. 5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; your name is defiled; you are full of tumult.

6 “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. 7 ^kFather and mother are treated with contempt in you; the ^lsojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the ^mfatherless and the widow are wronged in you. 8 You have ⁿdespised my holy things and ^oprofaned my Sabbaths. 9 There are men in you who ^pslander to shed blood, and people in you who ^qeat on the mountains; they commit ^rlewdness in your midst. 10 In you men ^suncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women ^twho are unclean in their menstrual impurity. 11 One commits abomination with his ^uneighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his ^vdaughter-in-law; another in you violates his ^wsister, his father’s daughter. 12 In you they take ^xbribes to shed blood; you take ^yinterest and profit¹⁴ and make gain of your neighbors by ^zextortion; but me you have ^aforgotten, declares the Lord God.

13 “Behold, I ^bstrike my hand at the dishonest gain that you have made, and at the blood that has been in your midst. 14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? ^cI the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. 15 I will ^dscatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will ^econsume your uncleanness out of you. 16 And you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

17 And the word of the Lord came to me: 18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become ^fdross to me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. 21 I will gather you and ^gblow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. 22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord; I have ^hpoured out my wrath upon you.”

23 And the word of the Lord came to me: 24 “Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is ⁱnot cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 The ^jconspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 Her priests have done violence to my law and have ^kprofaned my holy things. They have made no ^ldistinction between the holy and the common, neither have they ^mtaught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in her midst are like ⁿwolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. 28 And her prophets have smeared ^owhitewash for them, seeing ^pfalse visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. 30 And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and ^qstand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. 31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God.”