Chronological

5 “You, son of man, take a sharp sword. You shall take it as a barber’s razor to yourself, and shall cause it to pass over your head and over your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. ² A third part you shall burn in the fire in the middle of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled. You shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it. A third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. ³ You shall take a small number of these and bind them in the folds of your robe. ⁴ Of these again you shall take, and cast them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From it a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

⁵ “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the middle of the nations, and countries are around her. ⁶ She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.’

⁷ “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have followed the ordinances of the nations that are around you; ⁸ therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ I will do in you that which I have not done, and which I will not do anything like it any more, because of all your abominations. ¹⁰ Therefore the fathers will eat the sons within you, and the sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you; and I will scatter the whole remnant of you to all the winds. ¹¹ Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity. ¹² A third part of you will die with the pestilence, and they will be consumed with famine within you. A third part will fall by the sword around you. A third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.

¹³ “‘Thus my anger will be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I will be comforted. They will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.

¹⁴ “‘Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by. ¹⁵ So it will be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes—I, Yahweh, have spoken it— ¹⁶ when I send on them the evil arrows of famine that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you. I will increase the famine on you and will break your staff of bread. ¹⁷ I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they will bereave you. Pestilence and blood will pass through you. I will bring the sword on you. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.’”

6 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them, ³ and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh! The Lord Yahweh says to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: “Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places. ⁴ Your altars will become desolate, and your incense altars will be broken. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. ⁵ I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ In all your dwelling places, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. ⁷ The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

⁸ “‘“Yet I will leave a remnant, in that you will have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. ⁹ Those of you that escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols. Then they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. ¹⁰ They will know that I am Yahweh. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”’

¹¹ “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, “Alas!”, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they will fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. ¹² He who is far off will die of the pestilence. He who is near will fall by the sword. He who remains and is besieged will die by the famine. Thus I will accomplish my wrath on them. ¹³ You will know that I am Yahweh when their slain men are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak—the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will stretch out my hand on them and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”

7 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ² “You, son of man, the Lord Yahweh says to the land of Israel, ‘An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land. ³ Now the end is on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways. I will bring on you all your abominations. ⁴ My eye will not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.’

⁵ “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘A disaster! A unique disaster! Behold, it comes. ⁶ An end has come. The end has come! It awakes against you. Behold, it comes. ⁷ Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land! The time has come! The day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting, on the mountains. ⁸ Now I will shortly pour out my wrath on you, and accomplish my anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways. I will bring on you all your abominations. ⁹ My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways. Your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, strike.

¹⁰ “‘Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has gone out. The rod has blossomed. Pride has budded. ¹¹ Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness. None of them will remain, nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth. There will be nothing of value among them. ¹² The time has come! The day draws near. Don’t let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude. ¹³ For the seller won’t return to that which is sold, although they are still alive; for the vision concerns the whole multitude of it. None will return. None will strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life. ¹⁴ They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but no one goes to the battle, for my wrath is on all its multitude.

¹⁵ “‘The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He who is in the field will die by the sword. He who is in the city will be devoured by famine and pestilence. ¹⁶ But of those who escape, they will escape and will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, everyone in his iniquity. ¹⁷ All hands will be feeble, and all knees will be weak as water. ¹⁸ They will also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror will cover them. Shame will be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. ¹⁹ They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing. Their silver and their gold won’t be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath. They won’t satisfy their souls or fill their bellies; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity. ²⁰ As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein. Therefore I have made it to them as an unclean thing. ²¹ I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a plunder; and they will profane it. ²² I will also turn my face from them, and they will profane my secret place. Robbers will enter into it, and profane it.

²³ “‘Make chains, for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. ²⁴ Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong to cease. Their holy places will be profaned. ²⁵ Destruction comes! They will seek peace, and there will be none. ²⁶ Mischief will come on mischief, and rumor will be on rumor. They will seek a vision of the prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed with desolation. The hands of the people of the land will be troubled. I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”

8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, the Lord Yahweh’s hand fell on me there. ² Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire—from the appearance of his waist and downward, fire, and from his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal. ³ He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north, where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. ⁴ Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.

⁵ Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north.”

So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and saw, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

⁶ He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you will again see yet other great abominations.”

⁷ He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig now in the wall.”

When I had dug in the wall, I saw a door.

⁹ He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.”

¹⁰ So I went in and looked, and saw every form of creeping things, abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall. ¹¹ Seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel stood before them. In the middle of them Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood, every man with his censer in his hand; and the smell of the cloud of incense went up.

¹² Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘Yahweh doesn’t see us. Yahweh has forsaken the land.’” ¹³ He said also to me, “You will again see more of the great abominations which they do.”

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s house which was toward the north; and I saw the women sit there weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? You will again see yet greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶ He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house; and I saw at the door of Yahweh’s temple, between the porch and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs toward Yahweh’s temple and their faces toward the east. They were worshiping the sun toward the east.

¹⁷ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose. ¹⁸ Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”