Beginning

21 And the word of the Lord was made to me, and he said,

² Thou, son of man, set thy face to Jerusalem, and drop thou (thy word) to the saintuaries, and prophesy thou against the earth of Israel. (Thou, son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thou thy word against the sanctuaries, and prophesy thou against the land of Israel.)

³ And thou shalt say to the land of Israel, The Lord God saith these things, Lo! I to thee, and I shall cast my sword out of his sheath, and I shall slay in thee a just man and a wicked man. (And thou shalt say to the land of Israel, The Lord God saith these things, Lo! I am against thee, and I shall draw my sword out of its sheath, and I shall kill there the righteous and the wicked.)

⁴ Forsooth for that that I have slain in thee a just man and a wicked man, therefore my sword shall go out of his sheath to each man, from the south till to the north; (Yea, because I shall kill there the righteous and the wicked, and so my sword shall go out of its sheath against every person, from the south unto the north;)

⁵ that each man know, that I the Lord have drawn out my sword from his sheath, that shall not be called again. (so that every person know, that I the Lord have drawn out my sword from its sheath, and it shall not be called back, or recalled.)

⁶ And thou, son of man, wail in [the] sorrow of loins, and in bitternesses thou shalt wail before them.

⁷ And when they shall say to thee, Why wailest thou? thou shalt say, For [the] hearing (For the news), for it cometh; and each heart shall fail, and all hands shall be benumbed, and each spirit shall be feeble, and waters shall flow down by all knees; lo! it cometh, and it shall be done, saith the Lord God.

⁸ And the word of the Lord was made to me, and he said,

⁹ Son of man, prophesy thou; and thou shalt say, The Lord God saith these things, Speak thou, The sword, the sword is made sharp, and is made bright;

¹⁰ it is made sharp to slay sacrifices; it is made bright, (so) that it shine. Thou that movest the sceptre of my son, hast cut down each tree.

¹¹ And I gave it to be furbished, that it be holden with hand; this sword is made sharp, and this is made bright (and it is made bright), that it be in the hand of the slayer.

¹² Son of man, cry thou, and yell, for this sword is made in my people, this in all the dukes of Israel; they that fled be given to sword with my people. Therefore smite thou on thine hip, (Son of man, cry thou, and yell, for this sword is sent upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes, or all the leaders, of Israel; they who fled be given to the sword along with my people. And so strike thou upon thy hip,)

¹³ for it is proved; and this when it hath destroyed the sceptre, and it shall not be, saith the Lord God.

¹⁴ Therefore, son of man, prophesy thou, and smite thou hand to hand (and strike thou one hand to the other, that is, clap thy hands), and the sword be doubled, and the sword of the slayers be trebled; this is the sword of great slaying, that shall make them astonied, and to fail in heart, and multiplieth fallings.

¹⁵ In all the gates of them I gave (the) troubling of a sword, sharp and made bright to shine, girded to slaying.

¹⁶ Be thou made sharp, go thou to the right side, either to the left side, whither ever the desire of thy face is (wherever the desire of thy face is/wherever thou desireth).

¹⁷ Certainly and I shall smite with hand to hand (Truly I shall clap my hands), and I shall [ful]fill mine indignation; I the Lord spake.

¹⁸ And the word of the Lord was made to me, and he said,

¹⁹ And thou, son of man, set to thee two ways, (so) that the sword of the king of Babylon (may) come; both shall go out of one land, and by the hand he shall take conjecturing; he shall conjecture in the head of the way of the city (and so carve a signpost, and then place it at the head of the ways to two cities),

²⁰ setting a way, that the sword come to Rabbath of the sons of Ammon, and to Judah into Jerusalem most strong. (pointing the way, so that the sword come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah into the fortified Jerusalem.)

²¹ For the king of Babylon stood in the meeting of two ways, in the head of two ways, and sought divining, and meddled arrows; he asked idols, and took counsel at entrails. (For the king of Babylon stood at the meeting of two ways, at the head of two ways, and sought divining, and mixed, or mingled, the arrows; he asked idols, and received counsel, or advice, from entrails.)

²² Divining was made to his right side on Jerusalem, that he set engines, that he open [the] mouth in slaying, that he raise [the] voice in yelling, that he set engines against the gates, that he bear together [an heap of] earth, that he build strongholds. (Divining was made at his right hand for Jerusalem, that he set up battering-rams, and that he open his mouth in killing, and that he raise up his voice in yelling, yea, that he set up battering-rams against the gates, and that he bear together heaps of earth, and that he build strongholds.)

²³ And he shall be as counselling in (a) vain god’s answer before the eyes of them, and serving (on) the rest of sabbaths; but he shall have mind on (their) wickedness, to take (them). (And he shall be like the counselling in an idol’s answer before their eyes, and serving on the rest of the sabbaths; but he shall remember their wickedness, to take them captive.)

²⁴ Therefore the Lord God saith these things, For that that ye had mind on your wickednesses, and showed your trespassings, and your sins appeared in all your thoughts, forsooth for that that ye had mind, ye shall be taken by the (enemies’) hand.

²⁵ But thou, cursed wicked duke of Israel, whose day before-determined is come in the time of wickedness, (But thou, cursed wicked prince of Israel, whose predetermined day hath come in the time of wickedness,)

²⁶ the Lord God saith these things, Do away the mitre, take away the crown; whether it is not this that raised the meek man, and made low the high man?

²⁷ Wickedness, wickedness, wickedness, I shall put it; and this shall not be done till he come, whose the doom (it) is, and I shall betake (it) to him. (Ruin, ruin, ruin, so I shall make it; but this shall not be done until he come, who shall render the judgement, and I shall deliver it to him.)

²⁸ And thou, son of man, prophesy, and say, The Lord God saith these things to the sons of Ammon, and to the shame of them; and thou shalt say, A! thou sword, A! thou sword, drawn out to slay, made bright, that thou slay and shine, (And thou, son of man, prophesy, and say, The Lord God saith these things to the Ammonites, yea, for their shame; and thou shalt say, O! thou sword, O! thou sword, drawn out to kill, made bright, that thou shine and kill,)

²⁹ when vain things were seen to thee, and leasings were divined, that thou shouldest be given on the necks of wicked men wounded, the day of which before-determined shall come in the time of wickedness, (when false things were seen by thee, and lies were divined, so that thou shouldest be brought down upon the necks of the wicked who be killed, the which predetermined day hath come in the time of wickedness,)

³⁰ turn thou again into thy sheath, into the place in which thou were made. I shall deem thee in the land of thy birth, (turn thou again into thy sheath. And in the place where thou were made, I shall judge thee, yea, in the land of thy birth,)

³¹ and I shall shed out mine indignation on thee; in the fire of my strong vengeance I shall blow in thee, and I shall give thee into the hands of unwise men, and making death. (and I shall pour out my indignation upon thee; I shall blow against thee, with the fire of my strong vengeance, and I shall give thee into the hands of the unwise, and those making, or bringing in, death.)

³² Thou shalt be meat to fire, thy blood shall be in the midst of earth; thou shalt be given to forgetting, for I the Lord spake. (Thou shalt be food for the fire, thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; and thou shalt be forgotten, for I the Lord have spoken.)

22 And the word of the Lord was made to me, and he said,

² And thou, son of man, whether thou deemest not the city of bloods? And thou shalt show to it all his abominations, (And thou, son of man, judgest thou not this city of bloodshed, or this city of murder? And thou shalt show it all of its abominations,)

³ and thou shalt say, The Lord God saith these things, This is a city shedding out blood in the midst of itself, that the time thereof come; and which made idols against itself, that it should be defouled. (and thou shalt say, The Lord God saith these things, This is a city shedding out blood in the midst of itself, and its time hath come; yea, it made idols for itself to worship, so that it would be defiled.)

⁴ In thy blood which is shed out of thee, thou trespassedest, and thou art defouled in thine idols which thou madest; and thou madest thy days to nigh, and thou broughtest the time of thy years. Therefore I gave thee to be (a) shame to heathen men, and (a) scorning to all lands (In the blood which thou hast shed out, thou hast trespassed, and thou art defiled with thy idols which thou hast made; and thou madest thy days to come, and thou broughtest the time of thy years. And so I gave thee to be a shame to the heathen, and a mocking to all lands)

⁵ that be nigh thee, and that be far from thee; thou foul city, noble, great in perishing, they shall have victory of thee (they shall have the victory over thee).

⁶ Lo! [the] princes of Israel, all in their arm, were in thee, to shed out blood. (Lo! the leaders of Israel, all in their power, were in thee, to shed out blood.)

⁷ They punished with wrongs [the] father and (the) mother in thee, they challenged falsely a comeling in the midst of thee, they made sorry a fatherless child, and a widow at thee. (They treated wrongfully the father and the mother there with thee, they oppressed a newcomer in the midst of thee, they made sorrowful a fatherless child, and a widow there with thee.)

⁸ Ye despised my saintuaries, and ye defouled my sabbaths. (Ye despised my sanctuaries, and ye defiled my sabbaths.)

⁹ Men backbiters were in thee, to shed out blood, and eat on hills in thee (and to eat on thy hills); they wrought great trespass in the midst of thee.

¹⁰ They uncovered the shamefuller things of the father[s] in thee, they made low in thee the uncleanness of a woman in unclean blood.

¹¹ And each man wrought abomination against the wife of his neighbour, and the father of the husband defouled his son’s wife unleavefully; a brother oppressed in thee his sister, the daughter of his father. (And each man did abomination with his neighbour’s wife, and the father of the husband lewdly defiled his son’s wife; a brother in thee oppressed his sister, his father’s daughter.)

¹² They took gifts of thee, to shed out blood; thou tookest usury and overabundance, and thou challengedest greedily thy neighbours, and thou hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God. (They took gifts, or bribes, in thee to shed out blood; thou hast taken usury and overabundance, and thou hast oppressed thy neighbours for greed, and thou hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.)

¹³ Lo! I have smitten together mine hands on thine avarice, [or greediness,] which thou didest, and on the blood which is shed out in the midst of thee. (Lo! I have struck my fist into my hand over thy greediness, and over the blood which is shed out in thy midst.)

¹⁴ Whether thine heart shall sustain, either thine hands shall have power, in the days which I shall make to thee? For I the Lord spake, and I shall do. (Shall thy heart be able to sustain thee, or shall thy hands have any power left, in the days when I shall deal with thee? For I the Lord spoke, and I shall do it.)

¹⁵ And I shall scatter thee into (the) nations, and I shall winnow, [or blow,] thee into (other) lands; and I shall make thine uncleanness to fail from thee,

¹⁶ and I shall wield thee in the sight of heathen men (and I shall be in possession of thee before the heathen); and thou shalt know, that I am the Lord.

¹⁷ And the word of the Lord was made to me, and he said,

¹⁸ Thou, son of man, the house of Israel is turned to me into dross, either filth of iron (Thou, son of man, to me the house of Israel is turned into dross, or slag, that is, the filth of iron); all these be brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they (even) be made the dross of silver.

¹⁹ Therefore the Lord God saith these things, For that all ye be turned into dross (Because ye all be turned into dross, or slag), lo! I shall gather you together in the midst of Jerusalem,

²⁰ by the gathering together of silver (like the gathering together of silver), and of latten, and of iron, and of tin, and of lead, in the midst of a furnace; and I shall kindle therein a fire, to well together; so I shall gather you together in my strong vengeance, and in my wrath, and (then) I shall rest. And I shall well you together,

²¹ and I shall gather you together, and I shall set you afire in the fire of my strong vengeance, and ye shall be welled together in the midst thereof.

²² As silver is welled together in the midst of a furnace, so ye shall be in the midst thereof; and ye shall know, that I am the Lord, when I have shed out mine indignation [up]on you. (Like silver is welled together in the midst of a furnace, so ye shall be in its midst; and ye shall know, that I am the Lord, when I have poured out my indignation upon you.)

²³ And the word of the Lord was made to me, and he said,

²⁴ Son of man, say thou to it, Thou art a land unclean (Thou art an unclean land), and not berained in the day of strong vengeance.

²⁵ Swearing together, either conspiring, of prophets is in the midst thereof; as a lion roaring and taking prey (like a lion roaring and taking prey), they devoured men, they took riches, and price; they multiplied widows thereof in the midst thereof.

²⁶ [The] Priests thereof despised my law, and defouled my saintuaries (Its priests despised my Law, and defiled my sanctuaries); they had not difference betwixt holy thing and unholy, they understood not betwixt defouled thing and clean thing; and they turned away their eyes from my sabbaths, and I was defouled in the midst of them.

²⁷ The princes thereof in the midst thereof were as wolves ravishing prey, to shed out blood, and to lose men, and in following lucres greedily. (Its princes in its midst were like wolves tearing apart their prey, who shed out blood, and destroy people, to greedily acquire filthy lucre.)

²⁸ Forsooth the prophets thereof pargeted them without tempering, and saw vain things, and divined leasings to them, and said, The Lord God saith these things, when the Lord spake not. (And its prophets mortared them without tempering, and saw empty and futile things, and divined lies for them, and said, The Lord God saith these things, when the Lord did not speak.)

²⁹ The peoples of the land challenged false challenge, and ravished by violence; they tormented a needy man and (a) poor (man), and oppressed a comeling by false challenge, without doom. (The peoples of the land oppressed, and robbed with violence; they tormented the needy and the poor, and oppressed newcomers, without justification.)

³⁰ And I sought of them a man, that should set an hedge betwixt, and stand set against me for the land, that I should not destroy it, and I found not. (And I sought someone among them, who would make a hedge between, and would stand against me for the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.)

³¹ And I shed out on them mine indignation, and I wasted them in the fire of my wrath; and I yielded the way of them on the head of them, saith the Lord God. (And so I poured out my indignation upon them, and I destroyed them in the fire of my anger; and I gave back their ways onto their own heads, saith the Lord God.)