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This further message came to me from God:

“Tell Israel, ‘Wherever you look—east, west, north, or south—your land is finished. No hope remains, for I will loose my anger on you for your worshiping of idols. I will turn my eyes away and show no pity; I will repay you in full, and you shall know I am the Lord.’”

5-6 The Lord God says: “With one blow after another I will finish you. The end has come; your final doom is waiting. O Israel, the day of your damnation dawns; the time has come; the day of trouble nears. It is a day of shouts of anguish, not shouts of joy! 8-9 Soon I will pour out my fury and let it finish its work of punishing you for all your evil deeds. I will not spare nor pity you, and you will know that I, the Lord, am doing it. 10-11 The day of judgment has come; the morning dawns, for your wickedness and pride have run their course and reached their climax—none of these rich and wicked men of pride shall live. All your boasting will die away, and no one will be left to bewail your fate.

12 “Yes, the time has come; the day draws near. There will be nothing to buy or sell, for the wrath of God is on the land. 13 And even if a merchant lives, his business will be gone, for God has spoken against all the people of Israel; all will be destroyed. Not one of those whose lives are filled with sin will recover.

14 “The trumpets shout to Israel’s army, ‘Mobilize!’ but no one listens, for my wrath is on them all. 15 If you go outside the walls, there stands the enemy to kill you. If you stay inside, famine and disease will devour you. 16 Any who escape will be lonely as mourning doves hiding on the mountains, each weeping for his sins. 17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees as weak as water. 18 You shall clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and horror and shame shall cover you; you shall shave your heads in sorrow and remorse.

19 “Throw away your money! Toss it out like worthless rubbish, for it will have no value in that day of wrath. It will neither satisfy nor feed you, for your love of money is the reason for your sin. 20 I gave you gold to use in decorating the Temple, and you used it instead to make idols! Therefore, I will take it all away from you. 21 I will give it to foreigners and to wicked men as booty. They shall defile my Temple. 22 I will not look when they defile it, nor will I stop them. Like robbers, they will loot the treasures and leave the Temple in ruins.

23 “Prepare chains for my people, for the land is full of bloody crimes. Jerusalem is filled with violence, so I will enslave her people. 24 I will crush your pride by bringing to Jerusalem the worst of the nations to occupy your homes, break down your fortifications you are so proud of, and defile your Temple. 25 For the time has come for the cutting off of Israel. You will sue for peace, but you won’t get it. 26-27 Calamity upon calamity will befall you; woe upon woe, disaster upon disaster! You will long for a prophet to guide you, but the priests and elders and the kings and princes will stand helpless, weeping in despair. The people will tremble with fear, for I will do to them the evil they have done and give them all their just deserts. They shall learn that I am the Lord.”

Punishment for Abominations Throughout the Land

And the word of Yahweh came[a] to me, saying, “And you, son of man,[b] thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel: ‘The end comes, the end on the four corners of the land. Now the end is on you, and I will send my anger on you, and I will judge you according to your ways, and I will bring on you all your detestable things. And my eye will not take pity on you, and I will not show compassion for your ways; on you I will bring your detestable things; they will be in the midst of you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.’ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Look! Disaster after disaster is coming! The end comes, comes the end! It has awakened against you! Look! It comes! Doom is coming against you, the dweller[c] of the land; the time comes, the day is near, panic and not joy is on the mountains. Soon[d] I will pour out my rage on you, and I will fully vent my anger on you, and I will judge you according to your ways, and I will bring on you all of your detestable things. And my eye will not take pity, and I will not show compassion. According to your ways I will deal with you,[e] and your detestable things will be in the midst of you, and you will know that I am Yahweh who strikes.[f] 10 Look! The day is coming; doom goes out, the staff blossoms, pride sprouts. 11 Violence has grown to become a staff of wickedness; none[g] from them will remain, and none[h] from their abundance nor from their wealth;[i] and prominence will not be among them. 12 The time has come, the day has arrived; let not the buyer rejoice, and let the seller not mourn, for anger is on all their multitude. 13 For the seller will not return to the merchandise while they are still alive,[j] for the vision is about all of its multitude; it will not change, and a man because of his guilt will not be able to hold onto his life. 14 They shall blow on the trumpet and prepare everything,[k] but there is no one going to the battle, for my anger is on all of their multitude. 15 The sword is outside,[l] and the plague and the famine are inside;[m] the one who is in the field will die by the sword, and the one who is in the city, famine and plague will devour him. 16 And if their survivors will escape, they will be on the mountains, like the doves of the valley, all of them groaning, each because of his guilt. 17 All of the hands will hang limp, and all of the knees will be wet with urine.[n] 18 And they will wear sackcloth, and horror will cover them, and on all of the faces will be shame, and baldness on all of their heads. 19 Their silver they will discard on the streets, and filth will be their gold; their silver and their gold will not be able to rescue them on the day of the wrath of Yahweh. They will not satisfy their hunger[o] and their stomachs they will not fill, for their guilt will be their[p] stumbling block.

Judgment for the Profanation of the Temple and Sanctuary

20 “‘And the beauty of its[q] ornament he made into a prideful thing[r] and made with it their detestable things and their vile idols; therefore I will make it into an impure thing for them. 21 And I will give it into the hand of strangers as plunder and to the wicked people of the earth as spoil, and they will defile it. 22 And I will turn my face from them, and they will defile my treasured place, and violent ones will enter and defile it. 23 Make a chain for the land; it is full of bloody crimes[s] and the city is full of violence. 24 And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will take possession of their houses, and I will put to an end the pride of the mighty ones, and their sanctuaries will be defiled. 25 Anguish comes, and they will seek peace, and there will be none. 26 Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor will be upon rumor. And they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction will perish from the priest and counsel from the elders. 27 The king will mourn, and the prince will be dressed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their way I will do to[t] them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they will know that I am Yahweh.’”

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 7:1 Literally “was”
  2. Ezekiel 7:2 Or “mortal,” or “son of humankind”
  3. Ezekiel 7:7 Or “inhabitant”
  4. Ezekiel 7:8 Literally “now from near”
  5. Ezekiel 7:9 Literally “on you I will bring”
  6. Ezekiel 7:9 Or “smites”
  7. Ezekiel 7:11 Literally “not any
  8. Ezekiel 7:11 Literally “not any
  9. Ezekiel 7:11 Or “noise,” or “multitude”; the same word appears in each of the next three verses
  10. Ezekiel 7:13 Literally “while still is in the life, their life”
  11. Ezekiel 7:14 Literally “the all”
  12. Ezekiel 7:15 Literally “is in the outside place”
  13. Ezekiel 7:15 Literally “are from the house
  14. Ezekiel 7:17 Literally “the knees will flow with water”
  15. Ezekiel 7:19 Literally “selves,” or “desire”
  16. Ezekiel 7:19 Hebrew “the”
  17. Ezekiel 7:20 Or “their”
  18. Ezekiel 7:20 Literally “to a prideful thing he made it”
  19. Ezekiel 7:23 Literally “the judgment of blood”
  20. Ezekiel 7:27 Or “deal with”