Ezekiel 7

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

Impending Disaster

7 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “And you, O son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. ³ Now the end is upon you, and I will let loose my anger upon you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will punish you for all your abominations. ⁴ And my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity; but I will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: Disaster after disaster! Behold, it comes. ⁶ An end has come, the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. ⁷ Your doom^[a] has come to you, O inhabitant of the land; the time has come, the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting upon the mountains. ⁸ Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways; and I will punish you for all your abominations. ⁹ And my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the Lord, who smite.

¹⁰ “Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom^[b] has come, injustice^[c] has blossomed, pride has budded. ¹¹ Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness; none of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth; neither shall there be pre-eminence among them.^{[d] 12} The time has come, the day draws near. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all their multitude. ¹³ For the seller shall not return to what he has sold, while they live. For wrath^[e] is upon all their multitude; it shall not turn back; and because of his iniquity, none can maintain his life.^[f]

¹⁴ “They have blown the trumpet and made all ready; but none goes to battle, for my wrath is upon all their multitude. ¹⁵ The sword is without, pestilence and famine are within; he that is in the field dies by the sword; and him that is in the city famine and pestilence devour. ¹⁶ And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one over his iniquity. ¹⁷ All hands are feeble, and all knees weak as water. ¹⁸ They gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror covers them; shame is upon all faces, and baldness on all their heads. ¹⁹ They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing; their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity. ²⁰ Their^[g] beautiful ornament they used for vainglory, and they made their abominable images and their detestable things of it; therefore I will make it an unclean thing to them. ²¹ And I will give it into the hands of foreigners for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it. ²² I will turn my face from them, that they may profane my precious^[h] place; robbers shall enter and profane it, ²³ and make a desolation.^[i]

“Because the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence, ²⁴ I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses; I will put an end to their proud might, and their holy places shall be profaned. ²⁵ When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there shall be none. ²⁶ Disaster comes upon disaster, rumor follows rumor; they seek a vision from the prophet, but the law perishes from the priest, and counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are palsied by terror. According to their way I will do to them, and according to their own judgments I will judge them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.”