The Daily Audio Bible

This is what the Lord says. Hear this! I am against you, and I will draw my sword out of its scabbard, and I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. ⁴ Because I have resolved to cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, therefore my sword will come out of its scabbard against everyone from south to north. ⁵ Then all flesh will know that I, the Lord, have drawn my sword from its scabbard. It will not return to its sheath again. ⁶ Now you, son of man, groan as though you were doubled up in pain. Groan in front of them as though in bitter anguish. ⁷ When they ask you, “Why are you groaning?” say, “Because of the news that is coming.” Then every heart will melt, all hands will hang limp, and all knees will run with water.^[b] It is coming, and it will take place, declares the Lord God.

So shall we rejoice in the scepter of my son?

The sword despises every such stick of wood.^[c]

¹⁹ Now you, son of man, draw a map with two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to follow. Both of them should start from the same country. Make a signpost. Place it at the fork of the road to the city. ²⁰ Draw a road for the sword to come either to Rabbah of the Ammonites or to Judah, to fortified Jerusalem, ²¹ because the king of Babylon will stand at the fork of the road, where the two roads branch off, in order to read the omens. He will shake the arrows, consult his family gods,^[k] and examine animal livers for omens. ²² In his right hand he will receive the omen for Jerusalem—to set up battering rams, to shout the command to slaughter, to sound the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to throw up a ramp, to build a siege wall. ²³ But to the people of Jerusalem it will seem like a false omen. They swore solemn oaths to him, so he will remind them of their guilt, and they will be captured. ²⁴ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says. Because you brought your guilt into the open by displaying your rebellious acts, so that your sins are revealed by all your deeds—because you have brought your guilt out into the open, you will be taken in hand.

²⁵ You corpse, you wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come for the time of final punishment, ²⁶ this is what the Lord God says. Remove the turban. Take off the crown. Everything will be changed. Raise what is low. Bring down the high. ²⁷ Ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This ruin will not end^[l] until the one comes to whom judgment belongs, the one to whom I will give it.

²⁸ Now you, son of man, prophesy and say that this is what the Lord God says concerning the Ammonites and their taunts. Say this:

Sword, O sword, unsheathed for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning! ²⁹ Though empty visions were seen about you,^[m] though omens made deceptive forecasts about you, you will be applied to the necks of the corpses of wicked men, whose day has come for the time of final punishment.

³⁰ Return, sword, to your scabbard. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you. ³¹ I will pour out my wrath on you. I will blow the fire of my fury upon you. I will deliver you into the hands of brutal men, expert destroyers. ³² You will be fuel for the fire. Your blood will flow all over the land, and you will no longer be remembered, for I, the Lord, have spoken.

² You, son of man, will you put them on trial,^[n] will you put the bloody city on trial? Then list for her all her abominations. ³ Say that this is what the Lord God says.

O city, you shed blood in your midst, and you bring on your time of judgment. You manufacture idols throughout the city, and so you defile yourself. ⁴ Because of the blood you have shed, you have become guilty, and because of the filthy idols you have made, you have become defiled. You have brought near your final days. You have arrived at the end of your years. Therefore, I have made you a disgrace to the nations and subjected you to ridicule among all the countries. ⁵ Those nearby and those far away from you will ridicule you, who are notorious for impurity and full of turmoil.

⁶ Look at the rulers of Israel. Each one among you uses his power to shed blood. ⁷ In your midst, people have dishonored their fathers and mothers. They have exploited the alien in your midst. They have mistreated the fatherless children and the widows among you. ⁸ You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. ⁹ Slanderers are present among you to shed blood. In you there are people who eat on the mountains and commit obscene acts in your midst. ¹⁰ In your midst, a man uncovers the nakedness of his mother, who is reserved for his father, and men force themselves on a woman who is unclean during her period. ¹¹ In your midst, a man commits an abomination with a neighbor’s wife. Another man obscenely defiles a daughter-in-law. Another forces himself on his sister, his father’s daughter. ¹² In your midst, they take bribes to shed blood. You deduct a fee from the money you lend to people, and you demand that they repay more than you lent them. In this way you exploit your neighbor by extortion. And you have forgotten me, declares the Lord God.

¹³ Therefore, I clap my hands^[o] against the dishonest profit you have made and over the bloodshed in your midst. ¹⁴ Will your courage endure? Will your hands remain strong in the days when I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will accomplish it. ¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations. I will disperse you throughout the countries and remove your uncleanness from you. ¹⁶ After you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁸ Son of man, the house of Israel has become slag to me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside a furnace. They have become the slag from silver. ¹⁹ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says. Because you have all become slag, I am about to gather you inside Jerusalem. ²⁰ As silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are placed inside a furnace to blast them with fire and to melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and my wrath. I will throw you into the furnace and melt you. ²¹ I will gather you and blast you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted in the midst of it. ²² As silver is melted inside a furnace, in the same way you will be melted inside the city. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my wrath upon you.

²⁴ Son of man, say to her, “You are a land not cleansed, a land that receives no rain in the day of rage.”

²⁵ Jerusalem’s princes^[p] within her are like a roaring lion, tearing its prey. They devour people’s lives. They seize treasures and valuables. They make many women widows within her.

²⁶ Her priests do violence to my law by profaning what is holy to me, by not distinguishing between the holy and the common, and by not teaching the difference between the unclean and the clean. They disregard my Sabbaths, with the result that I am profaned among them.

²⁷ Her officials inside her are like wolves, tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives in order to make dishonest profits.

²⁸ Her prophets daub whitewash for them, seeing empty visions and forecasting false omens for them. They say, “This is what the Lord God says,” when the Lord has not spoken at all.

²⁹ The ordinary citizens practice extortion and commit robbery. They oppress the poor and the needy. They unjustly deprive the alien of his due. ³⁰ I looked for someone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy her, but I found no one. ³¹ Therefore, I will pour out my rage upon them. In the fire of my fury, I will make an end of them. I will bring down their conduct on their own heads, declares the Lord God.