Beginning

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

² Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and direct your [prophetic] word against the holy places; prophesy against the land of Israel

³ And say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you and will draw forth My sword out of its sheath and will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.

⁴ Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north,

⁵ And all living shall know, understand, and realize that I the Lord have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not be sheathed any more.

⁶ Sigh therefore, son of man! With breaking heart and with bitterness shall you sigh before their eyes.

⁷ And it shall be that when they say to you, Why do you sigh? that you shall answer, Because of the tidings. When it comes, every heart will melt and all hands will be feeble, and every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes and it shall be fulfilled, says the Lord God.

⁸ Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁹ Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord: Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened and also polished;

¹⁰ It [the sword of Babylon] is sharpened that it may make a slaughter, polished that it may flash and glitter like lightning! Shall we then rejoice and make mirth [when such a calamity is impending]? But the rod or scepter of My son [Judah] rejects and views with contempt every tree [that is, since God’s promise long ago to Judah is certain, he believes Judah’s scepter must remain no matter what power arises against it]!^(A)

¹¹ And the sword [of Babylon] is given to be polished that it may be put to use; the sword is sharpened and polished to be given into the hand of the slayer.

¹² Cry and wail, son of man, for it is against My people; it is against all the princes of Israel; they are thrown to the sword along with My people, and terrors by reason of the sword are upon My people. Therefore smite your thigh [in dismay].

¹³ For this sword has been tested and proved [on others], and what if the rejecting and despising rod or scepter of Judah shall be no more but completely swept away? says the Lord God.

¹⁴ Therefore, son of man, prophesy and smite your hands together and let the sword be doubled, yes, trebled in intensity—the sword for those to be overthrown and pierced through; it is the sword of great slaughter which encompasses them [so that none can escape, even by entering into their inner chambers].

¹⁵ I have set the threatening and glittering sword against all their gates, that their hearts may melt and their stumblings be multiplied. Ah! It is made [to flash] like lightning; it is pointed and sharpened for slaughter.

¹⁶ Turn [O sword] and cut right or cut left, whichever way your lust for blood and your edge direct you.

¹⁷ I will also clap My hands, and I will cause My wrath to rest. I the Lord have said it.

¹⁸ The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

¹⁹ Also, son of man, mark out two ways by which the sword of the king of Babylon may come; both shall come forth from the same land. And make a signpost (a hand); make it at the head of the way to a city.

²⁰ You shall point out a way for the [Babylonian] sword to come to Rabbah [the capital] of the sons of Ammon and to Judah with Jerusalem, the fortified and inaccessible.

²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the fork of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows to and fro, he consults the teraphim (household gods), he looks at the liver.

²² In his right hand is the lot marked for Jerusalem: to set battering rams, to open the mouth calling for slaughter, to lift up the voice with a war cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up siege mounds, and to build siege towers.

²³ And it shall seem like a lying divination to them who have sworn oaths [of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar]. [Will he now fight against their homeland?] But he will remind them of their guilt and iniquity [in violating those oaths], that they may be caught.^(B)

²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have made your guilt and iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear—because, I say, you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken with the [enemy’s] hand.

²⁵ And you, O dishonored and wicked one [Zedekiah], the prince of Israel, whose day will come at the time of your final reckoning and punishment,

²⁶ Thus says the Lord God: Remove the [high priest’s] miter or headband and take off the [king’s] crown; things shall not remain as they have been; the low is to be exalted and the high is to be brought low.

²⁷ I will overthrow, overthrow, overthrow it; this also shall be no more until He comes Whose right it is [to reign in judgment and in righteousness], and I will give it to Him.^(C)

²⁸ And you, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God concerning the sons of Ammon and concerning their reproach: Say, A sword, a sword is drawn for the slaughter; it is polished to cause it to devour to the uttermost and to flash like lightning,

²⁹ While they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for you to lay you [of Ammon] upon the headless trunks of those who are slain, of the wicked whose day is coming at the time of the final reckoning and punishment.

³⁰ Return [the sword] to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin and of your birth, I will judge you.

³¹ And I will pour out My indignation upon you [O sons of Ammon]; I will blow upon you with the fire of My wrath and will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.

³² You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be no more remembered, for I the Lord have spoken it.^(D)

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

² And you son of man [Ezekiel], will you judge, will you judge the bloodshedding city? Then cause her to know all her abominations,

³ And say, Thus says the Lord God: A city that sheds blood in the midst of her so that her time [of doom] will come, and makes idols [over those who worship them] to defile her!

⁴ In your blood which you have shed you have become guilty, and you are defiled by the idols which you have made, and you have caused your time [of judgment and punishment] to draw near and have arrived at the full measure of your years. Therefore have I made you a reproach to the [heathen] nations and a mocking to all countries.

⁵ Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

⁶ Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been intending to shed blood.

⁷ In you have they treated father and mother lightly; in the midst of you they have dealt unjustly and by oppression in relation to the stranger; in you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.

⁸ You have despised and scorned My sacred things and have profaned My Sabbaths.

⁹ In you are slanderous men who arouse suspicions to shed blood, and in you are they who have eaten [food offered to idols] upon the mountains; in the midst of you they have committed lewdness.

¹⁰ In you men have uncovered their fathers’ nakedness [the nakedness of mother or stepmother]; in you they have humbled women who are [ceremonially] unclean [during their periods or because of childbirth].

¹¹ And one has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.

¹² In you they have accepted bribes to shed blood; you have taken [forbidden] interest and [percentage of] increase, and you have greedily gained from your neighbors by oppression and extortion and have forgotten Me, says the Lord God.

¹³ Behold therefore, I have struck My hands together at your dishonest gain which you have made and at the blood which has been in the midst of you.

¹⁴ Can your heart and courage endure or can your hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.

¹⁵ And I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your filthiness out of you.

¹⁶ And you shall be dishonored and profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.

¹⁷ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁸ Son of man, the house of Israel has become to Me scum and waste matter. All of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.

¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become scum and waste matter, behold therefore, I will gather you [O Israel] into the midst of Jerusalem.

²⁰ As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it in order to melt it, so will I gather you in My anger and in My wrath, and I will put you in and melt you.

²¹ Yes, I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it.

²² As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know, understand, and realize that I the Lord have poured out My wrath upon you [O Israel].

²³ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²⁴ Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

²⁵ There is a conspiracy of [Israel’s false] prophets in the midst of her, like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken [in their greed] treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst of her.

²⁶ Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things. They have made no distinction between the sacred and the secular, neither have they taught people the difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷ Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves rending and devouring the prey, shedding blood and destroying lives to get dishonest gain.

²⁸ And her prophets have daubed them over with whitewash, seeing false visions and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the Lord God—when the Lord has not spoken.

²⁹ The people of the land have used oppression and extortion and have committed robbery; yes, they have wronged and vexed the poor and needy; yes, they have oppressed the stranger and temporary resident wrongfully.

³⁰ And I sought a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.

³¹ Therefore have I poured out My indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their own way have I repaid [by bringing it] upon their own heads, says the Lord God.