Beginning
5 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass over your head and over your beard. Then take a scale to weigh and divide the hair.
2 “You shall burn a third of it with fire, in the center of the city, after the days of the siege are completed. And you shall take a third and strike around it with the sword. And you shall scatter a third to the wind. And I will draw a sword afterward.
3 “You shall also take a few of them in number and bind them in your clothes.
4 “Then take them again 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. I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries all around her.
6 ‘And she has changed My Judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my Statutes more than the countries that are all around her. For they have refused My Judgments, and My Statutes. They have not walked in them.’
7 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because your multitude is greater than the nations that are all around you, and you have not walked in My Statutes, nor have you kept My Judgments —you have not even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you —
8 “therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I, even I come against you, and will execute judgment in the midst of you in the sight of the nations.
9 ‘And I will do in you that which I have never done before, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.
10 ‘For in the midst of you the fathers shall eat their sons, and the sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgment in you. And I will scatter the whole remnant of you into all the winds.
11 ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘surely, because you have defiled My Sanctuary with all your filthiness, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also destroy you. Nor shall My Eye spare. Nor will I have any pity.
12 ‘A third of you shall die from pestilence and shall be consumed with famine in the midst of you. A third shall fall by the sword all around you. And I will scatter a third of you into all winds. And I will draw a sword afterward.
13 ‘Thus shall My anger be ended. And I will cause My wrath to cease in them. And I will be comforted. And they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have ended My wrath upon them.
14 ‘Moreover, I will make you desolate and abhorred among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.
15 ‘So you shall be a reproach and shame, a chastisement and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I shall execute judgments in you, in anger and in wrath and in sharp rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken it.
16 ‘When I shall send upon them the miserable arrows of famine, which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and will break your staff of bread.
17 ‘So I will send upon you famine and calamitous beasts. And they shall plunder you. And pestilence and blood shall pass through you. And I will bring the sword upon you.’ I, the LORD, have spoken it.”
6 Again, the Word of the LORD came to me, saying:
2 “Son of man, set your face towards 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 to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you. And I will destroy your high places.
4 “And your altars shall be desolate, and your images of the Sun shall be broken. And I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
5 “And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.
6 “In all your dwelling places, the cities shall be desolate and the high places shall be laid waste, so that your altars shall be made waste, and desolate, and your idols shall be broken, and cease, and your images of the Sun shall be cut in pieces and your works shall be abolished.
7 “And the slain shall fall in the midst of you. And you shall know that I am the LORD.
8 “Yet, I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who shall escape the sword among the nations when you shall be scattered through the countries.
9 “And those of you who escape shall remember Me among the nations where they shall be in captivity, because I am grieved for their whorish hearts which have departed from Me, and for their eyes which have gone a whoring after their idols. And they shall be displeased in themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
10 “And they shall know that I am the LORD, that I have not said in vain that I would bring this misery upon them.”
11 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Strike with your hand, and stretch forth with your foot, and say, ‘Alas,’ for all the wicked abominations of the House of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.
12 “He who is far away shall die of pestilence. And he who is near shall fall by the sword. And he who remains and is besieged shall die by famine. Thus will I accomplish My wrath upon them.
13 “Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols, all around altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak (the place where they offered sweet savor to all their idols).
14 “So will I stretch My Hand upon them and make the land waste and desolate, from the wilderness to Diblath, in all their habitations. And they shall know that I am the LORD.”’”
7 Moreover the Word of the LORD came to me, saying:
2 “Also, you son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: ‘An end has come to the land of Israel. The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
3 ‘Now has the end come upon you. And I will send My wrath upon you, and will judge you according to your ways, and will lay all your abominations upon you.
4 ‘My Eye shall not spare you, nor will I have pity. But I will lay your ways upon you. And your abomination shall be in the midst of you. And you shall know that I am the LORD.’
5 “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, a disaster! A singular disaster has come!
6 ‘An end has come! The end has come! It watched for you. Behold, it has come.
7 ‘Doom has come to you who dwell in the land! The time has come, the day of trouble is near, and not the joyful shout of the mountains.
8 ‘Now I will shortly pour out My wrath upon you and fulfill My anger upon you. I will judge you according to your ways and will lay all your abominations upon you.
9 ‘My Eye shall not spare you, nor will I have pity. But I will lay upon you according to your ways. And your abominations shall be in the midst of you. And you shall know that I, the LORD, strike.
10 ‘Behold the day. Behold, it has come. Doom has gone forth. The rod flourishes. Pride has budded.
11 ‘Cruelty has risen up into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor their riches, nor any of them, nor shall there be lamentation for them.
12 ‘The time has come. The day draws near. Do not let the buyer rejoice or let him who sells mourn. For the wrath is upon their whole multitude.
13 ‘For he who sells shall not return to that which is sold, although they were still alive. For the vision was for their whole multitude, and they did not return. Nor does anyone encourage himself in the iniquity of his life.
14 ‘They have blown the trumpet and prepared everyone. But no one goes to the battle. For My wrath is upon their whole multitude.
15 ‘The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He who is in the field shall die with the sword. And he who is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16 ‘But those who flee away from them shall escape, and shall be in the mountains, like the doves of the valleys. All of them shall mourn, every one, for his iniquity.
17 ‘All hands shall be weak, and all knees shall fall away as water.
18 ‘They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth. And fear shall cover them, and shame upon all faces, and baldness upon their heads.
19 ‘They shall fling their silver into the streets, and their gold shall be far away. Their silver and their gold cannot deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. They shall neither satisfy their souls nor fill their stomachs. For this ruin is for their iniquity.
20 ‘He had also set the beauty of His ornaments in majesty. But they made images of their abominations and of their idols in them. Therefore, I have set it far away from them.
21 ‘And I will give it into the hands of the strangers, to be plundered, and to the wicked of the Earth, to be robbed. And they shall pollute it.
22 ‘I will also turn My Face from them, and they shall pollute My secret place. For the destroyers shall enter it and defile it.
23 ‘Make a chain, for the land is full of the judgment of blood. And the city is full of cruelty.
24 ‘Therefore, I will bring the most wicked of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses. I will also make the pomp of the mighty cease. And their holy places shall be defiled.
25 ‘When destruction comes, they shall seek peace, and shall not have it.
26 ‘Calamity shall come upon calamity, and rumor shall be upon rumor. Then they shall seek a vision from the Prophet. But the Law shall perish from the Priest, and counsel from the Ancient.
27 ‘The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people in the land shall be troubled. I will do to them according to their ways. And I will judge them according to their judgments. And they shall know that I am the LORD.’”
8 And in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the Hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there.
2 Then, I looked. And lo, there was a likeness, as the appearance of fire from His loins downward, and from His loins upward as the appearance of brightness, and like amber.
3 And He stretched out the likeness of a Hand and took me by a hairy lock of my head. And the Spirit lifted me up between the Earth and Heaven and brought me (in this vision) to Jerusalem, into the entry of the inner gate that lies toward the North, where there remained the idol of jealousy, which provoked jealousy.
4 And behold, the Glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the field.
5 Then He said to me: “Son of man, lift up your eyes toward the North now.” So, I lifted up my eyes toward the North. And behold, Northward, at the gate of the Altar, was this idol of jealousy in the entry.
6 Furthermore, He said to me: “Son of man, do you not see what they do—the great abominations that the House of Israel commits here, to cause Me to depart from My Sanctuary? But turn again. You shall yet see greater abominations.”
7 And He caused me to enter at the gate of the court. And when I looked, behold, a hole was in the wall.
8 Then He said to me: “Son of man, dig in the wall now.” And when I had dug in the wall, behold, a door.
9 And He said to me: “Go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.”
10 So I went in and looked. And behold, there was every likeness of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the House of Israel, painted upon the wall, all around.
11 And seventy ancients of the House of Israel stood before them. And Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, stood in the midst of them, each man with his censor in his hand; and the vapor of the incense went up like a cloud.
12 Then He said to me: “Son of man, have you seen what the ancients of the House of Israel do in the dark, each one in the chamber of his idols? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us. The LORD has forsaken the Earth.’”
13 Again, He said also to me, “Turn again, and you shall see greater abominations that they do.”
14 And He caused me to enter into the entry of the gate of the LORD’s House which was toward the North. And behold, women sat there, mourning for Tammuz.
15 Then He said to me: “Have you seen, O son of man? Turn again, and you shall see greater abominations than these.”
16 And He caused me to enter into the inner court of the LORD’s House. And behold, at the door of the Temple of the LORD, between the porch and the Altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the Temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the East. And they worshipped the Sun, toward the East.
17 Then He said to me: “Have you seen, O son of man? Is it a small thing to the House of Judah to commit these abominations which they do here? For they have filled the land with cruelty, and have returned to provoke Me. And lo, they have put the branch before their noses.
18 “Therefore, I will also execute wrath. My Eye shall not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in My Ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”
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