11 Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, ^[a]the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].

² For by [faith—^[b]trust and holy fervor born of faith] the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report.

³ By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible.

⁴ [Prompted, actuated] by faith Abel brought God a better and more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, because of which it was testified of him that he was righteous [that he was upright and in right standing with God], and God bore witness by accepting and acknowledging his gifts. And though he died, yet [through the incident] he is still speaking.^(A)

⁵ Because of faith Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven, so that he did not have a glimpse of death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For even before he was taken to heaven, he received testimony [still on record] that he had pleased and been satisfactory to God.^(B)

⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out].

⁷ [Prompted] by faith Noah, being forewarned by God concerning events of which as yet there was no visible sign, took heed and diligently and reverently constructed and prepared an ark for the deliverance of his own family. By this [his faith which relied on God] he passed judgment and sentence on the world’s unbelief and became an heir and possessor of righteousness (^[c]that relation of being right into which God puts the person who has faith).^(C)

⁸ [Urged on] by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went forth to a place which he was destined to receive as an inheritance; and he went, although he did not know or trouble his mind about where he was to go.

⁹ [Prompted] by faith he dwelt as a temporary resident in the land which was designated in the promise [of God, though he was like a stranger] in a strange country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs with him of the same promise.^(D)

¹⁰ For he was [waiting expectantly and confidently] looking forward to the city which has fixed and firm foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God.

¹¹ Because of faith also Sarah herself received physical power to conceive a child, even when she was long past the age for it, because she considered [God] Who had given her the promise to be reliable and trustworthy and true to His word.^(E)

¹² So from one man, though he was physically as good as dead, there have sprung descendants whose number is as the stars of heaven and as countless as the innumerable sands on the seashore.^(F)

¹³ These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God’s] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth.^(G)

¹⁴ Now those people who talk as they did show plainly that they are in search of a fatherland (their own country).

¹⁵ If they had been thinking with [homesick] remembrance of that country from which they were emigrants, they would have found constant opportunity to return to it.

¹⁶ But the truth is that they were yearning for and aspiring to a better and more desirable country, that is, a heavenly [one]. For that reason God is not ashamed to be called their God [even to be surnamed their God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob], for He has prepared a city for them.^(H)

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5 And you, son of man [Ezekiel], take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor and shave your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair into three parts.

² You shall burn one part with fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a second part and strike with the sword round about it; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.

³ You shall also take from these a small number of hairs and bind them in the skirts of your robe.

⁴ And of these again take some hairs and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire; from there a fire shall come forth into all the house of Israel.

⁵ Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem; in the center of the nations I have set her, and countries are round about her.

⁶ And she has changed and rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the [heathen] nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for [Israel] rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they have not walked in them.^(A)

⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you were more turbulent and raged [against Me] more than the nations that are round about you and have not walked in My statutes, neither have kept My ordinances, nor have done according to the ordinances [concerning] the nations that are round about you;^(B)

⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations.

⁹ And because of all your abominations, I will do in you that which I have not done and the like of which I will never do again.^(C)

¹⁰ Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you and all who are left of you I will scatter to all the winds.^(D)

¹¹ Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish you and withdraw My eye that it shall not spare you. And I also will have no pity.

¹² And a third of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed by famine in the midst of you; a third shall fall by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a third to all the winds and will draw out a sword after them.

¹³ Thus shall My anger be spent and I will cause My wrath toward them to rest and I will be eased and comforted. And they shall know, understand, and realize that I the Lord have spoken in My zeal, when I have accomplished My wrath upon them.^(E)

¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are round about you and in the sight of all who pass by.^(F)

¹⁵ So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror and an astonishment to the [heathen] nations around you when I shall execute judgments upon you in anger and in wrath and in furious chastisements and rebukes—I the Lord have spoken it.^(G)

¹⁶ When I shall loose against them the evil arrows of hunger that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, then I will increase the famine upon you and will break your staff of bread.

¹⁷ And I will send upon you hunger and wild beasts, and they shall bereave you [of your loved ones]; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I the Lord have spoken it.

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

² Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them,

³ And say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the river ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places [of idolatrous worship],

⁴ And your altars shall be made desolate and your sun-pillars shall be broken in pieces, and I will cast down your slain before your idols.^(H)

⁵ And I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

⁶ In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste and the high places shall be made desolate, that your altars may bear their guilt and be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and destroyed, your sun-images may be hewn down, and your handiworks may be wiped away and blotted out.

⁷ And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall ^[a]know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord.

⁸ Yet will I leave some of you alive. When you have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when you shall be scattered through the countries,

⁹ Then those of you who escape shall [earnestly] remember Me among the nations to which they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken by their lewdness and have Myself broken their wanton heart which has departed from Me and blinded their eyes which turn after their idols wantonly; and they shall be loathsome in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

¹⁰ And they shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord. I have not said in vain that I would bring this evil calamity [in punishment] upon them.

¹¹ Thus says the Lord God: Strike with your fist, stamp with your foot, and say, Alas! over all the vile abominations of the house of Israel for which [Israel] shall fall by sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

¹² He who is far off shall die of the pestilence, and he that is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is preserved shall die by the famine. Thus will I accomplish My wrath upon them.

¹³ Then shall you know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord, when their slain shall lie among their idols round about their altars upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thickly leafed oak, the places where they were accustomed to offer sweet incense to all their idols.

¹⁴ And I will stretch out My hand upon them and make the land desolate and waste, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah [a Moabite city], throughout all their dwelling places; and they shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord.

7 Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

² Also, 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.^(I)

³ Now is the end upon you, and I will send My anger upon you and will judge you according to your ways and will bring upon you retribution for all your abominations.

⁴ And My eye will not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring recompense for your evil ways upon you, while your abominations are in the midst of you [calling down punishment from a righteous God]; and you shall know (recognize, understand, and realize) that I am the Lord.

⁵ Thus says the Lord God: Behold, an evil is coming, [an evil so destructive and injurious, so sudden and violent, that it stands alone, not as a succession but as] only one evil.

⁶ An end has come! The end has come! [The end—after sleeping so long] awakes against you. See, it has come!

⁷ Your turn (your doom) has come upon you, O inhabitant of the land; the time has come, the day is near, a day not of joyful shouting, but a day of tumult upon the mountains.

⁸ Now will I shortly pour out My wrath upon you and finish spending My anger against you, and I will judge you according to your ways and will recompense you with punishment 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 right in the midst of you. And you shall know, understand, and realize that it is I the Lord Who smites you.

¹⁰ Behold, the day! Behold, it has come! Your doom has gone forth, the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.

¹¹ Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness; none of [Israel] shall remain, none of their abundance, none of their wealth; neither shall there be preeminence among them or wailing for them.

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 that which is sold, even were they yet alive. For the vision [of punishment] is touching [Israel’s] whole multitude; he shall not come back, neither shall any strengthen himself whose life is in his iniquity.

¹⁴ They have blown the trumpet and have made all ready, but none goes to the battle, for My wrath is upon all their multitude.

¹⁵ The sword is without and pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field shall die by the sword, and him who is in the city shall famine and pestilence devour.

¹⁶ But those of them that escape shall escape, but shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity’s [punishment].

¹⁷ All hands shall be feeble and all knees shall be weak as water.^(J)

¹⁸ They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth; horror and dismay shall cover them, and shame shall be upon all faces and baldness upon all their heads [as evidence of grief].

¹⁹ They shall cast their silver into the streets, and their gold shall be [discarded] like an unclean thing or rubbish; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they shall not satisfy their animal cravings nor fill their stomachs with them, for [wealth] has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.^(K)

²⁰ As for the beauty of gold for ornament, they turned it to pride and made of it the images of their abominations (idols) and of their detestable things. Therefore I will make it to them as an unclean thing.

²¹ And I will give it for plunder into the hands of strangers and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil, and they shall profane it.

²² Also I will turn My face from them and they shall profane My secret treasure [the temple]; and robbers shall enter into it and profane it.

²³ Prepare the chain [of imprisonment], for the land is full of bloodguiltiness [murders committed with pretended formalities of justice] and the city is full of violence.

²⁴ Therefore I will bring in the worst of the [heathen] nations, who will take possession of the houses [of the people of Judah]; I will also silence their strongholds and put an end to their proud might, and their holy places and those who sanctify them shall be profaned.

²⁵ Distress, panic, and destruction shall come, and they [of Judah] shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

²⁶ Calamity shall come upon calamity and rumor shall be upon rumor, and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; and the law and instruction shall cease from the [distracted] priest and counsel from the [dismayed] elders.^(L)

²⁷ The king [of Judah] shall wear mourning and the prince shall clothe himself with garments of despair and desolation, while the hands of the people of the land shall tremble [palsied by terror]; for I will do to them in accordance with their ways, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know, recognize, and realize that I am the Lord.