Beginning
A Vision of the Avenging Sword of Yahweh
21 And the word of Yahweh came[a] to me, saying,[b] 2 “Son of man,[c] set your face toward Jerusalem, and preach to the sanctuaries, and prophesy to the land of Israel. 3 And you must say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus says Yahweh: “Look! I am against you, and I will draw out my sword from its sheath, and I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. 4 Because[d] I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword will go out from its sheath to[e] all creatures[f] from south to north. 5 And they will know, all creatures, that I, Yahweh, I will bring out my sword from its sheath; it will not return again!”’ 6 And you, son of man,[g] groan with shaking hips,[h] and you must groan with bitterness before their eyes. 7 And then[i] when they say to you, ‘On account of what are you groaning?’ then you must say, ‘On account of the report, for it is coming, and every heart will be weak and all hands will hang limp and every spirit will be disheartened, and all knees will go like water.’ Look! It is coming, and it will happen!” declares[j] the Lord Yahweh.
8 And the word of Yahweh came[k] to me, saying,[l] 9 “Son of man,[m] prophesy, and you must say, ‘Thus says the Lord,’ say, ‘A sword, a sword is sharpened and is also polished. 10 It is sharpened to slaughter a slaughter, polished to flash like lightning![n] Or will we rejoice?[o] A rod, my son, is despising every tree.[p] 11 And he gives it to be polished, to be seized by the hand.[q] It is sharpened—a sword—and it is polished to give it into the hand of the killer. 12 Cry and wail, son of man,[r] for it is against my people; it is against all of the princes of Israel. They are thrown to the sword with my people; therefore strike your thigh.[s] 13 For examine![t] And what if also the rod will not be despising?’ declares[u] the Lord Yahweh. 14 And you, son of man,[v] prophesy and clap your hands.[w] And the sword will strike twice;[x] let it happen a third time. It is a sword of the dead, the sword of the great dead that is surrounding them, 15 so that a heart melts, and the fallen multiply[y] at all of their gates. I gave a sword for slaughter, and alas! It is made for flashing, it is grasped[z] for slaughtering. 16 Gather together, strike to the right; cause to go to the left, where your edge[aa] is directed. 17 And also I myself[ab] will clap my hands,[ac] and I will satisfy my rage! I, Yahweh, I have spoken.”
18 And the word of Yahweh came[ad] to me, saying,[ae] 19 “And you, son of man,[af] mark out for yourself[ag] two roads for the coming of the sword of the king of Babylon; they must both[ah] go out from the same land. And hew out a signpost;[ai] hew it at the head of the road of the city. 20 You must mark a road for the coming of the sword to Rabbah of the Ammonites[aj] and to Judah, in Jerusalem the fortified. 21 For the king of Babylon stands at the fork of the road at the head of the two roads to practice divination. He shakes the arrows,[ak] he inquires with the teraphim, he examines[al] the liver. 22 In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem, to put up battering rams, to open a mouth for slaughter,[am] to raise the battle cry,[an] to put up battering rams against gates, to build a siege ramp, to build siege works.[ao] 23 And it will be to them like practicing divination falsely[ap] in their eyes; they have sworn oaths for themselves.[aq] But[ar] he will bring their guilt to remembrance so as to seize them.
24 “Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt by the uncovering of your transgressions, so that your sins in all of your deeds appear—because of your being remembered, you will be captured in the hand.’ 25 And as for you, profane one, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come with the time of the punishment of the end, 26 thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Remove the turban and lift off the crown; things are no longer the same. Exalt the low and bring low the high. 27 A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I will make it! Also[as] this has not ever happened;[at] it will remain until the coming of the one to whom the judgment belongs and I have given it to him.’ 28 And you, son of man,[au] prophesy, and you must say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the Ammonites[av] and concerning their disgrace,’ and you must say, ‘A sword, a sword is drawn for slaughtering; it is polished for holding, for flashing like lightning,[aw] 29 when seeing a false vision for you in vain, when practicing divination for you falsely, to give[ax] you on the neck of the profane ones of the wicked, whose day has come,[ay] the time of final punishment.[az] 30 Return it to its sheath in the place where you were created. In the land of your origin I will judge you! 31 And I will pour out my anger on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and I will give you into the hand of brutal men, skilled craftsmen of destruction. 32 You will be as fuel for the fire; your blood will be in the midst of the earth. You will not be remembered, for I, Yahweh, I have spoken.’”
Highlighting the Sins and the Judgments of Israel
22 And the word of Yahweh came[ba] to me, saying,[bb] 2 “And you, son of man,[bc] will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city?[bd] Then you must make known to her all of her detestable things! 3 And you must say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “A city pouring out blood in the midst of her; its time has come,[be] and it made idols for itself, becoming unclean. 4 By your blood that you poured out you have become guilty, and by your idols that you made you have become unclean, and you have brought your days near, and your appointed years have come.[bf] Therefore I have made you a disgrace for the nations and a laughingstock to all of the countries. 5 The people near and the people far from you will make fun of you, the unclean and the terrified.[bg] 6 Look! The princes of Israel, each one according to his strength,[bh] they are in you for the shedding of blood.[bi] 7 They have treated father and mother with contempt in you; they violated[bj] the alien with[bk] extortion; in the midst of you they mistreated the orphan and widow. 8 You despised my holy objects; my Sabbaths you profaned. 9 Slanderous men are among you[bl] to shed blood, and they, among you,[bm] eat upon the mountains; they do wickedness in the midst of you. 10 They uncover the nakedness of a father among[bn] you; they violate a woman unclean of menstruation among[bo] you. 11 And a man does a detestable thing with the wife of his neighbor, and a man defiles his daughter-in-law in wickedness, and a man sexually violates among[bp] you his sister, the daughter of his father. 12 They take a bribe among[bq] you in order to shed blood; and you take usury, and you make gain from your neighbors by extortion, and so you have forgotten me, declares[br] the Lord Yahweh. 13 And look! I strike my hand for your ill-gotten gain that you have made and at your blood that was in the midst of you. 14 Can your heart endure,[bs] or can your hands be strong at the days in which I am dealing with you? I, Yahweh, I have spoken, and I will act! 15 I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your uncleanness from you. 16 And I will be profaned by you before the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am Yahweh.”’”
17 And the word of Yahweh came[bt] to me, saying,[bu] 18 “Son of man,[bv] the house of Israel has become as silver dross to me; all of them are as bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace, even as silver dross, silver dross they became! 19 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Because all of you have become as silver dross, therefore look! I am gathering you to the midst of Jerusalem, 20 like the gathering of silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin to the middle of a furnace to blow fire on it for melting. Thus I will gather in my anger and in my rage, and I will deposit[bw] you, and I will melt you. 21 And I will gather you, and I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and so I will melt you in the midst of her. 22 Thus you will be melted like the melting of silver in the midst of a furnace, and you will know that I, Yahweh, I have poured out my rage on you.’” 23 And the word of Yahweh came[bx] to me, saying,[by] 24 “Son of man,[bz] say to her, ‘You are a land not cleansed; it is not rained upon in the day of indignation.’ 25 The conspiracy of its prophets in the midst of her is like a roaring lion that is tearing prey. They devour people, and they take wealth and treasure; they make its widows numerous in the midst of her. 26 Its priests treat my law violently, and they profane my holy objects; they do not distinguish between a holy object and what is unholy, or between the clean and the unclean. They do not teach the difference, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and so I am profaned in the midst of them. 27 Its officials are like wolves tearing prey in its midst, to pour out blood, to destroy people, to make dishonest gain. 28 And for them its prophets plaster whitewash; they are seeing falseness and are practicing divination for them by lying, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh,’ and Yahweh has not spoken. 29 They severely oppress the people of the land, and they committed robbery,[ca] and they mistreated the needy and the poor, and they oppressed the alien without[cb] justice. 30 And so I sought for them somebody, one repairing the wall and standing in the breach before me[cc] on behalf of the land not to destroy it, but I did not find anyone, 31 and so I poured out my indignation on them. With the fire of my wrath I destroyed them; I returned their way upon their head,” declares[cd] the Lord Yahweh.
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