Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in
the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the
captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and
I saw visions of God.
In the fifth day of the month, which was the
fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,
The word of the LORD came expressly unto
Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans
by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon
him.
And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came
out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a
brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour
of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
Also out of the midst thereof came the
likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance;
they had the likeness of a man.
And every one had four faces, and every one
had four wings.
And their feet were straight feet; and the
sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they
sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.
And they had the hands of a man under their
wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their
wings.
Their wings were joined one to another; they
turned not when they went; they went every one straight
forward.
As for the likeness of their faces, they
four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right
side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they
four also had the face of an eagle.
Thus were their faces: and their wings were
stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to
another, and two covered their bodies.
And they went every one straight forward:
whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when
they went.
As for the likeness of the living creatures,
their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the
appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living
creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth
lightning.
And the living creatures ran and returned as
the appearance of a flash of lightning.
Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold
one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four
faces.
The appearance of the wheels and their work
was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one
likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a
wheel in the middle of a wheel.
When they went, they went upon their four
sides: and they turned not when they went.
As for their rings, they were so high that
they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about
them four.
And when the living creatures went, the
wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up
from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they
went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up
over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the
wheels.
When those went, these went; and when those
stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth,
the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the
living creature was in the wheels.
And the likeness of the firmament upon the
heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible
crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
And under the firmament were their wings
straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which
covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that
side, their bodies.
And when they went, I heard the noise of
their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the
Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they
stood, they let down their wings.
And there was a voice from the firmament
that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their
wings.
And above the firmament that was over their
heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire
stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the
appearance of a man above upon it.
And I saw as the colour of amber, as the
appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of
his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even
downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had
brightness round about.
As the appearance of the bow that is in the
cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness
round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory
of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a
voice of one that spake.
And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon
thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
And the spirit entered into me when he spake
unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto
me.
And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee
to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath
rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed
against me, even unto this very day.
For they are impudent children and
stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.
And they, whether they will hear, or whether
they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall
know that there hath been a prophet among them.
And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them,
neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with
thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their
words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious
house.
And thou shalt speak my words unto them,
whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are
most rebellious.
But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto
thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy
mouth, and eat that I give thee.
And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent
unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;
And he spread it before me; and it was
written within and without: and there was written therein
lamentations, and mourning, and woe.
Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat
that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of
Israel.
So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat
that roll.
And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy
belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee.
Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for
sweetness.
And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee
unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.
For thou art not sent to a people of a
strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of
Israel;
Not to many people of a strange speech and of
an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely,
had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.
But the house of Israel will not hearken unto
thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of
Israel are impudent and hardhearted.
Behold, I have made thy face strong against
their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
As an adamant harder than flint have I made
thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks,
though they be a rebellious house.
Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my
words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear
with thine ears.
And go, get thee to them of the captivity,
unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell
them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; whether they will hear, or whether
they will forbear.
Then the spirit took me up, and I heard
behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory
of the LORD from his place.
I heard also the noise of the wings of the
living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the
wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.
So the spirit lifted me up, and took me
away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the
hand of the LORD was strong upon me.
Then I came to them of the captivity at
Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they
sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.
And it came to pass at the end of seven
days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto
the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give
them warning from me.
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt
surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn
the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked
man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at
thine hand.
Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not
from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his
iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
Again, When a righteous man doth turn from
his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block
before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning,
he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done
shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine
hand.
Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man,
that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely
live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.
And the hand of the LORD was there upon me;
and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will
there talk with thee.
Then I arose, and went forth into the plain:
and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which
I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.
Then the spirit entered into me, and set me
upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself
within thine house.
But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall
put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt
not go out among them:
And I will make thy tongue cleave to the
roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to
them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.
But when I speak with thee, I will open thy
mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He
that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him
forbear: for they are a rebellious house.
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and
lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even
Jerusalem:
And lay siege against it, and build a fort
against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against
it, and set battering rams against it round about.
Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan, and
set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy
face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege
against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the
iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of
the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their
iniquity.
For I have laid upon thee the years of their
iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and
ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of
Israel.
And when thou hast accomplished them, lie
again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the
house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a
year.
Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the
siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou
shalt prophesy against it.
And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and
thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast
ended the days of thy siege.
Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley,
and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in
one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of
the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and
ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be
by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat
it.
Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the
sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink.
And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and
thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their
sight.
And the LORD said, Even thus shall the
children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles,
whither I will drive them.
Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul
hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I
not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces;
neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee
cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread
therewith.
Moreover he said unto me, Son of man,
behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they
shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink
water by measure, and with astonishment:
That they may want bread and water, and be
astonied one with another, and consume away for their
iniquity.
And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp
knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine
head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and
divide the hair.
Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the
midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and
thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife: and
a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a
sword after them.
Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number,
and bind them in thy skirts.
Then take of them again, and cast them into
the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall
a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I
have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are
round about her.
And she hath changed my judgments into
wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the
countries that are round about her: for they have refused my
judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye
multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have
not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither
have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round
about you;
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I,
even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of
thee in the sight of the nations.
And I will do in thee that which I have not
done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all
thine abominations.
Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in
the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will
execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I
scatter into all the winds.
Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD;
Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy
detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will
I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I
have any pity.
A third part of thee shall die with the
pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of
thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee;
and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw
out a sword after them.
Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I
will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and
they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I
have accomplished my fury in them.
Moreover I will make thee waste, and a
reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight
of all that pass by.
So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an
instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round
about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in
fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.
When I shall send upon them the evil arrows
of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will
send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and
will break your staff of bread:
So will I send upon you famine and evil
beasts, and they shall bereave thee: and pestilence and blood shall
pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD
have spoken it.
Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains
of Israel, and prophesy against them,
And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the
word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith 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.
And your altars shall be desolate, and your
images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before
your idols.
And I will lay the dead carcases of the
children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your
bones round about your altars.
In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall
be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your
altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be
broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works
may be abolished.
And the slain shall fall in the midst of you,
and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have
some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall
be scattered through the countries.
And they that escape of you shall remember me
among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I
am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me,
and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they
shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in
all their abominations.
And they shall know that I am the LORD, and
that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto
them.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine
hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil
abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the
sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
He that is far off shall die of the
pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he
that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I
accomplish my fury upon them.
Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when
their slain men shall be among their idols round about their
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 did offer sweet savour to all their idols.
So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and
make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness
toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that
I am the LORD.
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord
GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four
corners of the land.
Now is the end come upon thee, and I will
send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy
ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.
And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither
will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and
thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know
that I am the LORD.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only
evil, behold, is come.
An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth
for thee; behold, it is come.
The morning is come unto thee, O thou that
dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near,
and not the sounding again of the mountains.
Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon
thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee
according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine
abominations.
And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I
have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine
abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that
I am the LORD that smiteth.
Behold the day, behold, it is come: the
morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath
budded.
Violence is risen up into a rod of
wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor
of any of their's: neither shall there be wailing for them.
The time is come, the day draweth near: let
not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all
the multitude thereof.
For the seller shall not return to that
which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is
touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return;
neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his
life.
They have blown the trumpet, even to make
all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all
the multitude thereof.
The sword is without, and the pestilence and
the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the
sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall
devour him.
But they that escape of them shall escape,
and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of
them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
All hands shall be feeble, and all knees
shall be weak as water.
They shall also gird themselves with
sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all
faces, and baldness upon all their heads.
They shall cast their silver in the streets,
and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall
not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD:
they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels:
because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it
in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of
their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from
them.
And I will give it into the hands of the
strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil;
and they shall pollute it.
My face will I turn also from them, and they
shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it,
and defile it.
Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody
crimes, and the city is full of violence.
Wherefore I will bring the worst of the
heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the
pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be
defiled.
Destruction cometh; and they shall seek
peace, and there shall be none.
Mischief shall come upon mischief, and
rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the
prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from
the ancients.
The king shall mourn, and the prince shall
be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land
shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and
according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know
that I am the LORD.
And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the
sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house,
and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord
GOD fell there upon me.
Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the
appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward,
fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of
brightness, as the colour of amber.
And he put forth the form of an hand, and
took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between
the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to
Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the
north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh
to jealousy.
And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel
was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up
thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes
the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the
altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
He said furthermore unto me, Son of man,
seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house
of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my
sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater
abominations.
And he brought me to the door of the court;
and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in
the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the
wicked abominations that they do here.
So I went in and saw; and behold every form
of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the
house of Israel, pourtrayed upon the wall round about.
And there stood before them seventy men of
the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood
Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his
hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou
seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every
man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, the LORD seeth us
not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.
He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again,
and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.
Then he brought me to the door of the gate
of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there
sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O
son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater
abominations than these.
And he brought me 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 five and twenty
men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their
faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the
east.
Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O
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 returned to provoke me to
anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye
shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in
mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice,
saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near,
even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
And, behold, six men came from the way of the
higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a
slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed
with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in,
and stood beside the brasen altar.
And the glory of the God of Israel was gone
up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the
house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the
writer's inkhorn by his side;
And the LORD said unto him, Go through the
midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark
upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the
abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go
ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare,
neither have ye pity:
Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and
little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is
the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient
men which were before the house.
And he said unto them, Defile the house, and
fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth,
and slew in the city.
And it came to pass, while they were slaying
them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and
said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in
thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the
house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full
of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD
hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
And as for me also, mine eye shall not
spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way
upon their head.
And, behold, the man clothed with linen,
which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I
have done as thou hast commanded me.
Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament
that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them
as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a
throne.
And he spake unto the man clothed with
linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub,
and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims,
and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight.
Now the cherubims stood on the right side of
the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner
court.
Then the glory of the LORD went up from the
cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house
was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness
of the LORD's glory.
And the sound of the cherubims' wings was
heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God
when he speaketh.
And it came to pass, that when he had
commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from
between the wheels, from between the cherubims; then he went in,
and stood beside the wheels.
And one cherub stretched forth his hand from
between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the cherubims,
and took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed
with linen: who took it, and went out.
And there appeared in the cherubims the form
of a man's hand under their wings.
And when I looked, behold the four wheels by
the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by
another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour
of a beryl stone.
And as for their appearances, they four had
one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.
When they went, they went upon their four
sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place whither the
head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went.
And their whole body, and their backs, and
their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes
round about, even the wheels that they four had.
As for the wheels, it was cried unto them
in my hearing, O wheel.
And every one had four faces: the first
face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of
a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of
an eagle.
And the cherubims were lifted up. This is
the living creature that I saw by the river of Chebar.
And when the cherubims went, the wheels
went by them: and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount
up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside
them.
When they stood, these stood; and when they
were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also: for the spirit of
the living creature was in them.
Then the glory of the LORD departed from
off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims.
And the cherubims lifted up their wings,
and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the
wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of
the east gate of the LORD's house; and the glory of the God of
Israel was over them above.
This is the living creature that I saw
under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that
they were the cherubims.
Every one had four faces apiece, and every
one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under
their wings.
And the likeness of their faces was the
same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their appearances
and themselves: they went every one straight forward.
Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and
brought me unto the east gate of the LORD's house, which looketh
eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men;
among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of
Benaiah, princes of the people.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are
the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this
city:
Which say, It is not near; let us build
houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.
Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O
son of man.
And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and
said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O
house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind,
every one of them.
Ye have multiplied your slain in this city,
and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your
slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and
this city is the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the
midst of it.
Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring a
sword upon you, saith the Lord GOD.
And I will bring you out of the midst
thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will
execute judgments among you.
Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge
you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the
LORD.
This city shall not be your caldron,
neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will
judge you in the border of Israel:
And ye shall know that I am the LORD: for
ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments,
but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about
you.
And it came to pass, when I prophesied,
that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my
face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou
make a full end of the remnant of Israel?
Again the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, thy brethren, even thy
brethren, the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel
wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said,
Get you far from the LORD: unto us is this land given in
possession.
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I
have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a
little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I
will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the
countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the
land of Israel.
And they shall come thither, and they shall
take away all the detestable things thereof and all the
abominations thereof from thence.
And I will give them one heart, and I will
put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of
their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
That they may walk in my statutes, and keep
mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I
will be their God.
But as for them whose heart walketh after
the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will
recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD.
Then did the cherubims lift up their wings,
and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was
over them above.
And the glory of the LORD went up from the
midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east
side of the city.
Afterwards the spirit took me up, and
brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them
of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from
me.
Then I spake unto them of the captivity all
the things that the LORD had shewed me.
Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a
rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have
ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.
Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee
stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou
shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may
be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house.
Then shalt thou bring forth thy stuff by day
in their sight, as stuff for removing: and thou shalt go forth at
even in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity.
Dig thou through the wall in their sight,
and carry out thereby.
In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy
shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy
face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign
unto the house of Israel.
And I did so as I was commanded: I brought
forth my stuff by day, as stuff for captivity, and in the even I
digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the
twilight, and I bare it upon my shoulder in their sight.
And in the morning came the word of the LORD
unto me, saying,
Son of man, hath not the house of Israel,
the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou?
Say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord
GOD; This burden concerneth the prince in Jerusalem, and all the
house of Israel that are among them.
Say, I am your sign: like as I have done,
so shall it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into
captivity.
And the prince that is among them shall
bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they
shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his
face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.
My net also will I spread upon him, and he
shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the
land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die
there.
And I will scatter toward every wind all
that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw
out the sword after them.
And they shall know that I am the LORD,
when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in
the countries.
But I will leave a few men of them from the
sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may
declare all their abominations among the heathen whither they come;
and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me,
saying,
Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and
drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness;
And say unto the people of the land, Thus
saith the Lord GOD of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land
of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink
their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from
all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell
therein.
And the cities that are inhabited shall be
laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that
I am the LORD.
And the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, what is that proverb that ye
have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and
every vision faileth?
Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord
GOD; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use
it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand,
and the effect of every vision.
For there shall be no more any vain vision
nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.
For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the
word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more
prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the
word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD.
Again the word of the LORD came to me,
saying.
Son of man, behold, they of the house of
Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and
he prophesieth of the times that are far off.
Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but
the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord
GOD.
Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of
Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of
their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD;
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the
foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen
nothing!
O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in
the deserts.
Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither
made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in
the day of the LORD.
They have seen vanity and lying divination,
saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them: and they
have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.
Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye
not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith it;
albeit I have not spoken?
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because
ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am
against you, saith the Lord GOD.
And mine hand shall be upon the prophets
that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the
assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing
of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of
Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Because, even because they have seduced my
people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a
wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter:
Say unto them which daub it with untempered
morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower;
and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall
rend it.
Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not
be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed
it?
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will
even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an
overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury
to consume it.
So will I break down the wall that ye have
daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so
that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall,
and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know
that I am the LORD.
Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the
wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered morter, and
will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed
it;
To wit, the prophets of Israel which
prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for
her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord GOD.
Likewise, thou son of man, set thy face
against the daughters of thy people, which prophesy out of their
own heart; and prophesy thou against them,
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to
the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon
the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of
my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto
you?
And will ye pollute me among my people for
handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that
should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live,
by your lying to my people that hear your lies?
Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold,
I am against your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls to
make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let
the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.
Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and
deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in
your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Because with lies ye have made the heart of
the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the
hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way,
by promising him life:
Therefore ye shall see no more vanity, nor
divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand:
and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Then came certain of the elders of Israel
unto me, and sat before me.
And the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, these men have set up their
idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity
before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Therefore speak unto them, and say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel
that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the
stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the
prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the
multitude of his idols;
That I may take the house of Israel in their
own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their
idols.
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols;
and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
For every one of the house of Israel, or of
the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself
from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the
stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a
prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him
by myself:
And I will set my face against that man, and
will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the
midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
And if the prophet be deceived when he hath
spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will
stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst
of my people Israel.
And they shall bear the punishment of their
iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the
punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
That the house of Israel may go no more
astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their
transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their
God, saith the Lord GOD.
The word of the LORD came again to me,
saying,
Son of man, when the land sinneth against
me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand
upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will
send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it:
Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and
Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their
righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.
If I cause noisome beasts to pass through
the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man
may pass through because of the beasts:
Though these three men were in it, as I
live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor
daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be
desolate.
Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and
say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast
from it:
Though these three men were in it, as I
live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor
daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.
Or if I send a pestilence into that land,
and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and
beast:
Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as
I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor
daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their
righteousness.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more
when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and
the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off
from it man and beast?
Yet, behold, therein shall be left a
remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters:
behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way
and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil
that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have
brought upon it.
And they shall comfort you, when ye see
their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done
without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD.
Son of man, what is the vine tree more than
any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the
forest?
Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work?
or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?
Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel;
the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is
burned. Is it meet for any work?
Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for
no work: how much less shall it be meet yet for any work, when the
fire hath devoured it, and it is burned?
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As the
vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the
fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And I will set my face against them; they
shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and
ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against
them.
And I will make the land desolate, because
they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.
Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her
abominations,
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto
Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy
father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou
wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water
to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at
all.
None eye pitied thee, to do any of these
unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in
the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou
wast born.
And when I passed by thee, and saw thee
polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy
blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood,
Live.
I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of
the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art
come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine
hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.
Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon
thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt
over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and
entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou
becamest mine.
Then washed I thee with water; yea, I
throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with
oil.
I clothed thee also with broidered work,
and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine
linen, and I covered thee with silk.
I decked thee also with ornaments, and I
put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and
earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver;
and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work;
thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast
exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
And thy renown went forth among the heathen
for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I
had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
But thou didst trust in thine own beauty,
and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy
fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
And of thy garments thou didst take, and
deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the
harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it
be so.
Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my
gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to
thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
And tookest thy broidered garments, and
coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before
them.
My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour,
and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it
before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord
GOD.
Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy
daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou
sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a
small matter,
That thou hast slain my children, and
delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for
them?
And in all thine abominations and thy
whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou
wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.
And it came to pass after all thy
wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the LORD GOD;)
That thou hast also built unto thee an
eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every
street.
Thou hast built thy high place at every
head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast
opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy
whoredoms.
Thou hast also committed fornication with
the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased
thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.
Behold, therefore I have stretched out my
hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and
delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters
of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.
Thou hast played the whore also with the
Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the
harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
Thou hast moreover multiplied thy
fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast
not satisfied therewith.
How weak is thine heart, saith the LORD
GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious
whorish woman;
In that thou buildest thine eminent place
in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every
street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest
hire;
But as a wife that committeth adultery,
which taketh strangers instead of her husband!
They give gifts to all whores: but thou
givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may
come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.
And the contrary is in thee from other
women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit
whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given
unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.
Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the
LORD:
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy
filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy
whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy
abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst
give unto them;
Behold, therefore I will gather all thy
lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou
hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather
them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto
them, that they may see all thy nakedness.
And I will judge thee, as women that break
wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in
fury and jealousy.
And I will also give thee into their hand,
and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down
thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and
shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.
They shall also bring up a company against
thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee
through with their swords.
And they shall burn thine houses with fire,
and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I
will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also
shalt give no hire any more.
So will I make my fury toward thee to rest,
and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and
will be no more angry.
Because thou hast not remembered the days
of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold,
therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the
Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine
abominations.
Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall
use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her
daughter.
Thou art thy mother's daughter, that
lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of
thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your
mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and
her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister,
that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
Yet hast thou not walked after their ways,
nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very
little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy
ways.
As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy
sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done,
thou and thy daughters.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister
Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in
her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of
the poor and needy.
And they were haughty, and committed
abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw
good.
Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy
sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they,
and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou
hast done.
Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters,
bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more
abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be
thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast
justified thy sisters.
When I shall bring again their captivity,
the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of
Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of
thy captives in the midst of them:
That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and
mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a
comfort unto them.
When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters,
shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters
shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters
shall return to your former estate.
For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by
thy mouth in the day of thy pride,
Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at
the time of thy reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that
are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which
despise thee round about.
Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine
abominations, saith the LORD.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even
deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in
breaking the covenant.
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant
with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee
an everlasting covenant.
Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be
ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy
younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by
thy covenant.
And I will establish my covenant with thee;
and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:
That thou mayest remember, and be
confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame,
when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith
the Lord GOD.
Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a
parable unto the house of Israel;
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great
eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had
divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of
the cedar:
He cropped off the top of his young twigs,
and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of
merchants.
He took also of the seed of the land, and
planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and
set it as a willow tree.
And it grew, and became a spreading vine of
low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots
thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth
branches, and shot forth sprigs.
There was also another great eagle with
great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her
roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he
might water it by the furrows of her plantation.
It was planted in a good soil by great
waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear
fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.
Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it
prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the
fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of
her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up
by the roots thereof.
Yea, behold, being planted, shall it
prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth
it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye
not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon
is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof, and the
princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon;
And hath taken of the king's seed, and made
a covenant with him, and hath taken an oath of him: he hath also
taken the mighty of the land:
That the kingdom might be base, that it
might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it
might stand.
But he rebelled against him in sending his
ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much
people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things?
or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?
As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely in
the place where the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he
despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst
of Babylon he shall die.
Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army
and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts,
and building forts, to cut off many persons:
Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the
covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these
things, he shall not escape.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As I
live, surely mine oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that
he hath broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head.
And I will spread my net upon him, and he
shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and
will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed
against me.
And all his fugitives with all his bands
shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered
toward all winds: and ye shall know that I the LORD have spoken
it.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also take
of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will
crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will
plant it upon an high mountain and eminent:
In the mountain of the height of Israel
will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit,
and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every
wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.
And all the trees of the field shall know
that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the
low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree
to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.
What mean ye, that ye use this proverb
concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour
grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not
have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of
the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that
sinneth, it shall die.
But if a man be just, and do that which is
lawful and right,
And hath not eaten upon the mountains,
neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of
Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath
come near to a menstruous woman,
And hath not oppressed any, but hath
restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence,
hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with
a garment;
He that hath not given forth upon usury,
neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from
iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man,
Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my
judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith
the Lord GOD.
If he beget a son that is a robber, a
shedder of blood, and that doeth the like to any one of these
things,
And that doeth not any of those duties, but
even hath eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his neighbour's
wife,
Hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath
spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted
up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination,
Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken
increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all
these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon
him.
Now, lo, if he beget a son, that seeth all
his father's sins which he hath done, and considereth, and doeth
not such like,
That hath not eaten upon the mountains,
neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of
Israel, hath not defiled his neighbour's wife,
Neither hath oppressed any, hath not
withholden the pledge, neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath
given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a
garment,
That hath taken off his hand from the poor,
that hath not received usury nor increase, hath executed my
judgments, hath walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the
iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.
As for his father, because he cruelly
oppressed, spoiled his brother by violence, and did that which is
not good among his people, lo, even he shall die in his
iniquity.
Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the
iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful
and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he
shall surely live.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The
son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the
father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall
be upon him.
But if the wicked will turn from all his
sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that
which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not
die.
All his transgressions that he hath
committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his
righteousness that he hath done he shall live.
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked
should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from
his ways, and live?
But when the righteous turneth away from
his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to
all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All
his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his
trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath
sinned, in them shall he die.
Yet ye say, The way of the LORD is not
equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not
your ways unequal?
When a righteous man turneth away from his
righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his
iniquity that he hath done shall he die.
Again, when the wicked man turneth away
from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is
lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.
Because he considereth, and turneth away
from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely
live, he shall not die.
Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of
the LORD is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal?
are not your ways unequal?
Therefore I will judge you, O house of
Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD.
Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so
iniquity shall not be your ruin.
Cast away from you all your transgressions,
whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new
spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
For I have no pleasure in the death of him
that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live
ye.
Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the
princes of Israel,
And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she
lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young
lions.
And she brought up one of her whelps: it
became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured
men.
The nations also heard of him; he was taken
in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of
Egypt.
Now when she saw that she had waited, and
her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made
him a young lion.
And he went up and down among the lions, he
became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured
men.
And he knew their desolate palaces, and he
laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness
thereof, by the noise of his roaring.
Then the nations set against him on every
side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was
taken in their pit.
And they put him in ward in chains, and
brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds,
that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of
Israel.
Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood,
planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by
reason of many waters.
And she had strong rods for the sceptres of
them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick
branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her
branches.
But she was plucked up in fury, she was
cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her
strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.
And now she is planted in the wilderness,
in a dry and thirsty ground.
And fire is gone out of a rod of her
branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong
rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be
for a lamentation.
And it came to pass in the seventh year, in
the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the
elders of Israel came to enquire of the LORD, and sat before
me.
Then came the word of the LORD unto me,
saying,
Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel,
and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye come to enquire
of me? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by
you.
Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou
judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their
fathers:
And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the
seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the
land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am
the LORD your God;
In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto
them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I
had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the
glory of all lands:
Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every
man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with
the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
But they rebelled against me, and would not
hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations
of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I
said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger
against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
But I wrought for my name's sake, that it
should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in
whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth
out of the land of Egypt.
Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of
the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.
And I gave them my statutes, and shewed
them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in
them.
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to
be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the
LORD that sanctify them.
But the house of Israel rebelled against me
in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they
despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in
them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would
pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.
But I wrought for my name's sake, that it
should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought
them out.
Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in
the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I
had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of
all lands;
Because they despised my judgments, and
walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their
heart went after their idols.
Nevertheless mine eye spared them from
destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the
wilderness.
But I said unto their children in the
wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither
observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their
idols:
I am the LORD your God; walk in my
statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them;
And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a
sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your
God.
Notwithstanding the children rebelled
against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my
judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in
them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my
fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the
wilderness.
Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and
wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the
sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.
I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the
wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and
disperse them through the countries;
Because they had not executed my judgments,
but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and
their eyes were after their fathers' idols.
Wherefore I gave them also statutes that
were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;
And I polluted them in their own gifts, in
that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the
womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might
know that I am the LORD.
Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house
of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this
your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a
trespass against me.
For when I had brought them into the land,
for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they
saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered
there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of
their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured
out there their drink offerings.
Then I said unto them, What is the high
place whereunto ye go? And the name whereof is called Bamah unto
this day.
Wherefore say unto the house of Israel,
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye polluted after the manner of your
fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?
For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make
your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all
your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you,
O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be
enquired of by you.
And that which cometh into your mind shall
not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the
families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.
As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with
a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured
out, will I rule over you:
And I will bring you out from the people,
and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered,
with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury
poured out.
And I will bring you into the wilderness of
the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the
wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith
the Lord GOD.
And I will cause you to pass under the rod,
and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:
And I will purge out from among you the
rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them
forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not
enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the
LORD.
As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith
the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter
also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name
no more with your gifts, and with your idols.
For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain
of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the
house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I
accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the
firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things.
I will accept you with your sweet savour,
when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the
countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified
in you before the heathen.
And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when
I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the
which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers.
And there shall ye remember your ways, and
all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe
yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have
committed.
And ye shall know that I am the LORD when I
have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your
wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of
Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, set thy face toward the south,
and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest
of the south field;
And say to the forest of the south, Hear
the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will
kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in
thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched,
and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned
therein.
And all flesh shall see that I the LORD
have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.
Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me,
Doth he not speak parables?
Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem,
and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the
land of Israel,
And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith
the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword
out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the
wicked.
Seeing then that I will cut off from thee
the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out
of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
That all flesh may know that I the LORD have
drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any
more.
Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the
breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their
eyes.
And it shall be, when they say unto thee,
Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings;
because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall
be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be
weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass,
saith the Lord GOD.
Again the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith
the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also
furbished:
It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter;
it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it
contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.
And he hath given it to be furbished, that
it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to
give it into the hand of the slayer.
Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be
upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors
by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore
upon thy thigh.
Because it is a trial, and what if the
sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord
GOD.
Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and
smite thine hands together. and let the sword be doubled the third
time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that
are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.
I have set the point of the sword against
all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be
multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the
slaughter.
Go thee one way or other, either on the
right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.
I will also smite mine hands together, and
I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it.
The word of the LORD came unto me again,
saying,
Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two
ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain
shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose
it at the head of the way to the city.
Appoint a way, that the sword may come to
Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the
defenced.
For the king of Babylon stood at the
parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination:
he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in
the liver.
At his right hand was the divination for
Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter,
to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams
against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.
And it shall be unto them as a false
divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he
will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because
ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your
transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins
do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye
shall be taken with the hand.
And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel,
whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem,
and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that
is low, and abase him that is high.
I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it:
and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I
will give it him.
And thou, son of man, prophesy and say,
Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning
their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for
the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the
glittering:
Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles
they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them
that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their
iniquity shall have an end.
Shall I cause it to return into his sheath?
I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land
of thy nativity.
And I will pour out mine indignation upon
thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver
thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.
Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy
blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more
remembered: for I the LORD have spoken it.
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt
thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her
abominations.
Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The
city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and
maketh idols against herself to defile herself.
Thou art become guilty in thy blood that
thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou
hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come
even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the
heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
Those that be near, and those that be far
from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed.
Behold, the princes of Israel, every one
were in thee to their power to shed blood.
In thee have they set light by father and
mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the
stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the
widow.
Thou hast despised mine holy things, and
hast profaned my sabbaths.
In thee are men that carry tales to shed
blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of
thee they commit lewdness.
In thee have they discovered their fathers'
nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for
pollution.
And one hath committed abomination with his
neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in
law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's
daughter.
In thee have they taken gifts to shed
blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily
gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith
the Lord GOD.
Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand
at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which
hath been in the midst of thee.
Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands
be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have
spoken it, and will do it.
And I will scatter thee among the heathen,
and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness
out of thee.
And thou shalt take thine inheritance in
thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am
the LORD.
And the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, the house of Israel is to me
become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in
the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because
ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into
the midst of Jerusalem.
As they gather silver, and brass, and iron,
and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire
upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my
fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.
Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you
in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst
therof.
As silver is melted in the midst of the
furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall
know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.
And the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land
that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of
indignation.
There is a conspiracy of her prophets in
the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have
devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things;
they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
Her priests have violated my law, and have
profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the
holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the
unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths,
and I am profaned among them.
Her princes in the midst thereof are like
wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to
get dishonest gain.
And her prophets have daubed them with
untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them,
saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not
spoken.
The people of the land have used
oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and
needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
And I sought for a man among them, that
should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the
land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
Therefore have I poured out mine
indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my
wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the
Lord GOD.
Son of man, there were two women, the
daughters of one mother:
And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they
committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts
pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
And the names of them were Aholah the elder,
and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and
daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem
Aholibah.
And Aholah played the harlot when she was
mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her
neighbours,
Which were clothed with blue, captains and
rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon
horses.
Thus she committed her whoredoms with them,
with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on
whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
Neither left she her whoredoms brought from
Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the
breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand
of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she
doted.
These discovered her nakedness: they took
her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she
became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon
her.
And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she
was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her
whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.
She doted upon the Assyrians her
neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen
riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
Then I saw that she was defiled, that they
took both one way,
And that she increased her whoredoms: for
when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the
Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,
Girded with girdles upon their loins,
exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to
look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land
of their nativity:
And as soon as she saw them with her eyes,
she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into
Chaldea.
And the Babylonians came to her into the
bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was
polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.
So she discovered her whoredoms, and
discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like
as my mind was alienated from her sister.
Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in
calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had
played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
For she doted upon their paramours, whose
flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue
of horses.
Thus thou calledst to remembrance the
lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for
the paps of thy youth.
Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord
GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy
mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every
side;
The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans,
Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of
them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and
renowned, all of them riding upon horses.
And they shall come against thee with
chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which
shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about:
and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee
according to their judgments.
And I will set my jealousy against thee,
and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy
nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they
shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be
devoured by the fire.
They shall also strip thee out of thy
clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.
Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from
thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou
shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any
more.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will
deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand
of them from whom thy mind is alienated:
And they shall deal with thee hatefully,
and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and
bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both
thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.
I will do these things unto thee, because
thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art
polluted with their idols.
Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister;
therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink
of thy sister's cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn
and had in derision; it containeth much.
Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and
sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup
of thy sister Samaria.
Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out,
and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own
breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because
thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear
thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.
The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man,
wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their
abominations;
That they have committed adultery, and
blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed
adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me,
to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.
Moreover this they have done unto me: they
have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my
sabbaths.
For when they had slain their children to
their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to
profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine
house.
And furthermore, that ye have sent for men
to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they
came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and
deckedst thyself with ornaments,
And satest upon a stately bed, and a table
prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine
oil.
And a voice of a multitude being at ease
was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought
Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands,
and beautiful crowns upon their heads.
Then said I unto her that was old in
adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with
them?
Yet they went in unto her, as they go in
unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah
and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.
And the righteous men, they shall judge
them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of
women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is
in their hands.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring
up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and
spoiled.
And the company shall stone them with
stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their
sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.
Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of
the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your
lewdness.
And they shall recompense your lewdness
upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall
know that I am the Lord GOD.
Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month,
in the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, write thee the name of the day,
even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against
Jerusalem this same day.
And utter a parable unto the rebellious
house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Set on a pot,
set it on, and also pour water into it:
Gather the pieces thereof into it, even
every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the
choice bones.
Take the choice of the flock, and burn also
the bones under it, and make it boil well, and let them seethe the
bones of it therein.
Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to
the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum
is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall
upon it.
For her blood is in the midst of her; she
set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground,
to cover it with dust;
That it might cause fury to come up to take
vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it
should not be covered.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to
the bloody city! I will even make the pile for fire great.
Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the
flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned.
Then set it empty upon the coals thereof,
that the brass of it may be hot, and may burn, and that the
filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be
consumed.
She hath wearied herself with lies, and her
great scum went not forth out of her: her scum shall be in the
fire.
In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I
have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be
purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to
rest upon thee.
I the LORD have spoken it: it shall come to
pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare,
neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy
doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord GOD.
Also the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, behold, I take away from thee
the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou
mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.
Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the
dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes
upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of
men.
So I spake unto the people in the morning:
and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was
commanded.
And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not
tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?
Then I answered them, The word of the LORD
came unto me, saying,
Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith
the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency
of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul
pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall
fall by the sword.
And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall
not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
And your tires shall be upon your heads,
and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye
shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward
another.
Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according
to all that he hath done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye
shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in
the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their
glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their
minds, their sons and their daughters,
That he that escapeth in that day shall
come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with thine ears?
In that day shall thy mouth be opened to
him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb:
and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am
the LORD.
Son of man, set thy face against the
Ammonites, and prophesy against them;
And say unto the Ammonites, Hear the word of
the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou saidst, Aha,
against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of
Israel, when it was desolate; and against the house of Judah, when
they went into captivity;
Behold, therefore I will deliver thee to the
men of the east for a possession, and they shall set their palaces
in thee, and make their dwellings in thee: they shall eat thy
fruit, and they shall drink thy milk.
And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels,
and the Ammonites a couching place for flocks: and ye shall know
that I am the LORD.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou
hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced
in heart with all thy despite against the land of Israel;
Behold, therefore I will stretch out mine
hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen;
and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to
perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt
know that I am the LORD.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Moab
and Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the
heathen;
Therefore, behold, I will open the side of
Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers,
the glory of the country, Bethjeshimoth, Baalmeon, and
Kiriathaim,
Unto the men of the east with the
Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may
not be remembered among the nations.
And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and
they shall know that I am the LORD.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Edom
hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath
greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will
also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and
beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of
Dedan shall fall by the sword.
And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by
the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according
to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my
vengeance, saith the Lord GOD.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the
Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a
despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred;
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold,
I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut
off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.
And I will execute great vengeance upon
them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD,
when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.
And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in
the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said
against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the
people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is
laid waste:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I
am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up
against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus,
and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her,
and make her like the top of a rock.
It shall be a place for the spreading of
nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord
GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.
And her daughters which are in the field
shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the
LORD.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will
bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings,
from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen,
and companies, and much people.
He shall slay with the sword thy daughters
in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a
mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee.
And he shall set engines of war against thy
walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.
By reason of the abundance of his horses
their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of
the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall
enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a
breach.
With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread
down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and
thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground.
And they shall make a spoil of thy riches,
and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy
walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy
stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.
And I will cause the noise of thy songs to
cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
And I will make thee like the top of a
rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be
built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord
GOD.
Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not
the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry,
when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?
Then all the princes of the sea shall come
down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off
their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with
trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at
every moment, and be astonished at thee.
And they shall take up a lamentation for
thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited
of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea,
she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that
haunt it!
Now shall the isles tremble in the day of
thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at
thy departure.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall
make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited;
when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall
cover thee;
When I shall bring thee down with them that
descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set
thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with
them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I
shall set glory in the land of the living;
I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt
be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be
found again, saith the Lord GOD.
Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation
for Tyrus;
And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate
at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for
many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am
of perfect beauty.
Thy borders are in the midst of the seas,
thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
They have made all thy ship boards of fir
trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts
for thee.
Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine
oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory,
brought out of the isles of Chittim.
Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt
was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple
from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.
The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy
mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy
pilots.
The ancients of Gebal and the wise men
thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with
their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.
They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were
in thine army, thy men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in
thee; they set forth thy comeliness.
The men of Arvad with thine army were upon
thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they
hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy
beauty perfect.
Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the
multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead,
they traded in thy fairs.
Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy
merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in
thy market.
They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy
fairs with horses and horsemen and mules.
The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many
isles were the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee for a
present horns of ivory and ebony.
Syria was thy merchant by reason of the
multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs
with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and
coral, and agate.
Judah, and the land of Israel, they were
thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and
Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude
of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the
wine of Helbon, and white wool.
Dan also and Javan going to and fro
occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in
thy market.
Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes
for chariots.
Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they
occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were
they thy merchants.
The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they
were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all
spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants
of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.
These were thy merchants in all sorts of
things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich
apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy
merchandise.
The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in
thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in
the midst of the seas.
Thy rowers have brought thee into great
waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the
seas.
Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise,
thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy
merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all
thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the
midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.
The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the
cry of thy pilots.
And all that handle the oar, the mariners,
and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships,
they shall stand upon the land;
And shall cause their voice to be heard
against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon
their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
And they shall make themselves utterly bald
for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for
thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
And in their wailing they shall take up a
lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is
like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?
When thy wares went forth out of the seas,
thou filledst many people; thou didst enrich the kings of the earth
with the multitude of thy riches and of thy merchandise.
In the time when thou shalt be broken by
the seas in the depths of the waters thy merchandise and all thy
company in the midst of thee shall fall.
All the inhabitants of the isles shall be
astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they
shall be troubled in their countenance.
The merchants among the people shall hiss
at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus,
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou
hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of
the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine
heart as the heart of God:
Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is
no secret that they can hide from thee:
With thy wisdom and with thine understanding
thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into
thy treasures:
By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast
thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of
thy riches:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because
thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;
Behold, therefore I will bring strangers
upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their
swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy
brightness.
They shall bring thee down to the pit, and
thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of
the seas.
Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth
thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of
him that slayeth thee.
Thou shalt die the deaths of the
uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith
the Lord GOD.
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the
king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou
sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;
every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the
diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy
tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou
wast created.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth;
and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God;
thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of
fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day
that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
By the multitude of thy merchandise they
have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned:
therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God:
and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the
stones of fire.
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy
beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness:
I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that
they may behold thee.
Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the
multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick;
therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it
shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in
the sight of all them that behold thee.
All they that know thee among the people
shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never
shalt thou be any more.
Again the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and
prophesy against it,
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I
am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of
thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have
executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
For I will send into her pestilence, and
blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the
midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall
know that I am the LORD.
And there shall be no more a pricking brier
unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are
round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am
the Lord GOD.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have
gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are
scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the
heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to
my servant Jacob.
And they shall dwell safely therein, and
shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with
confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that
despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the
LORD their God.
In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in
the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh
king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all
Egypt:
Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon
that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is
mine own, and I have made it for myself.
But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will
cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will
bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of
thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
And I will leave thee thrown into the
wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall
upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor
gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and
to the fowls of the heaven.
And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know
that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the
house of Israel.
When they took hold of thee by thy hand,
thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned
upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a
stand.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I
will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of
thee.
And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and
waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath
said, The river is mine, and I have made it.
Behold, therefore I am against thee, and
against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste
and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of
Ethiopia.
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor
foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited
forty years.
And I will make the land of Egypt desolate
in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities
among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years:
and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will
disperse them through the countries.
Yet thus saith the Lord GOD; At the end of
forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people whither
they were scattered:
And I will bring again the captivity of
Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into
the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base
kingdom.
It shall be the basest of the kingdoms;
neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I
will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the
nations.
And it shall be no more the confidence of
the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance,
when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the
Lord GOD.
And it came to pass in the seven and
twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month,
the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon
caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head
was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages,
nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against
it:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold,
I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;
and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her
prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.
I have given him the land of Egypt for his
labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me,
saith the Lord GOD.
In that day will I cause the horn of the
house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give thee the opening of
the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the
LORD.
Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!
For the day is near, even the day of the
LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the
heathen.
And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and
great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in
Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations
shall be broken down.
Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the
mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in
league, shall fall with them by the sword.
Thus saith the LORD; They also that uphold
Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from
the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the
Lord GOD.
And they shall be desolate in the midst of
the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the
midst of the cities that are wasted.
And they shall know that I am the LORD, when
I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be
destroyed.
In that day shall messengers go forth from
me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain
shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it
cometh.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also make
the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon.
He and his people with him, the terrible of
the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall
draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the
slain.
And I will make the rivers dry, and sell
the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land
waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the
LORD have spoken it.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also
destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of
Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and
I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
And I will make Pathros desolate, and will
set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No.
And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the
strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.
And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall
have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have
distresses daily.
The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall
fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity.
At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be
darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp
of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover
her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.
Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt: and
they shall know that I am the LORD.
And it came to pass in the eleventh year,
in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word
of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, I have broken the arm of
Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be
healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the
sword.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold,
I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the
strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to
fall out of his hand.
And I will scatter the Egyptians among the
nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
And I will strengthen the arms of the king
of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break
Pharaoh's arms, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of
a deadly wounded man.
But I will strengthen the arms of the king
of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall
know that I am the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of
the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of
Egypt.
And I will scatter the Egyptians among the
nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know
that I am the LORD.
And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in
the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of
the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of
Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy
greatness?
Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon
with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high
stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
The waters made him great, the deep set him
up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent
her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
Therefore his height was exalted above all
the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his
branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he
shot forth.
All the fowls of heaven made their nests in
his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field
bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great
nations.
Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the
length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.
The cedars in the garden of God could not
hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut
trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God
was like unto him in his beauty.
I have made him fair by the multitude of his
branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of
God, envied him.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because
thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top
among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his
height;
I have therefore delivered him into the
hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with
him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.
And strangers, the terrible of the nations,
have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all
the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by
all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are
gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the
heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his
branches:
To the end that none of all the trees by
the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up
their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in
their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto
death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the
children of men, with them that go down to the pit.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he
went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for
him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were
stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of
the field fainted for him.
I made the nations to shake at the sound of
his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into
the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon,
all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the
earth.
They also went down into hell with him unto
them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that
dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
To whom art thou thus like in glory and in
greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down
with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou
shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain
by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord
GOD.
And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in
the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of
the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, take up a lamentation for
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion
of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou
camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy
feet, and fouledst their rivers.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will therefore
spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they
shall bring thee up in my net.
Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will
cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls
of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of
the whole earth with thee.
And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains,
and fill the valleys with thy height.
I will also water with thy blood the land
wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall
be full of thee.
And when I shall put thee out, I will cover
the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun
with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.
All the bright lights of heaven will I make
dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord
GOD.
I will also vex the hearts of many people,
when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the
countries which thou hast not known.
Yea, I will make many people amazed at
thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I
shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at
every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy
fall.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; The sword of
the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.
By the swords of the mighty will I cause
thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them:
and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude
thereof shall be destroyed.
I will destroy also all the beasts thereof
from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble
them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.
Then will I make their waters deep, and
cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD.
When I shall make the land of Egypt
desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was
full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall
they know that I am the LORD.
This is the lamentation wherewith they
shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her:
they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her
multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
It came to pass also in the twelfth year,
in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came
unto me, saying,
Son of man, wail for the multitude of
Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the
famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that
go down into the pit.
Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and
be thou laid with the uncircumcised.
They shall fall in the midst of them that
are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and
all her multitudes.
The strong among the mighty shall speak to
him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone
down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
Asshur is there and all her company: his
graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:
Whose graves are set in the sides of the
pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain,
fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the
living.
There is Elam and all her multitude round
about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are
gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which
caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne
their shame with them that go down to the pit.
They have set her a bed in the midst of the
slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all
of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was
caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame
with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them
that be slain.
There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her
multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them
uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror
in the land of the living.
And they shall not lie with the mighty that
are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with
their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their
heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they
were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of
the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the
sword.
There is Edom, her kings, and all her
princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by
the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them
that go down to the pit.
There be the princes of the north, all of
them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain;
with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie
uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword, and bear their
shame with them that go down to the pit.
Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be
comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army
slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.
For I have caused my terror in the land of
the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised
with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his
multitude, saith the Lord GOD.
Son of man, speak to the children of thy
people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if
the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for
their watchman:
If when he seeth the sword come upon the
land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Then whosoever heareth the sound of the
trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him
away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took
not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh
warning shall deliver his soul.
But if the watchman see the sword come, and
blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword
come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his
iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a
watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the
word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man,
thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked
from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his
blood will I require at thine hand.
Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his
way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die
in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto
the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions
and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we
then live?
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord
GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the
children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall
not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the
wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that
he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able
to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
When I shall say to the righteous, that he
shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit
iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for
his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.
Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou
shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is
lawful and right;
If the wicked restore the pledge, give
again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without
committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
None of his sins that he hath committed
shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and
right; he shall surely live.
Yet the children of thy people say, The way
of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not
equal.
When the righteous turneth from his
righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die
thereby.
But if the wicked turn from his wickedness,
and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not
equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his
ways.
And it came to pass in the twelfth year of
our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month,
that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying,
The city is smitten.
Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the
evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth,
until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I
was no more dumb.
Then the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes
of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he
inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for
inheritance.
Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your
idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?
Ye stand upon your sword, ye work
abomination, and ye defile every one his neighbour's wife: and
shall ye possess the land?
Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall
by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the
beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the
caves shall die of the pestilence.
For I will lay the land most desolate, and
the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel
shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.
Then shall they know that I am the LORD,
when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their
abominations which they have committed.
Also, thou son of man, the children of thy
people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors
of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother,
saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh
forth from the LORD.
And they come unto thee as the people
cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy
words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew
much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
And, lo, thou art unto them as a very
lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on
an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will
come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among
them.
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds
of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD
unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed
themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the
wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
The diseased have ye not strengthened,
neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound
up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which
was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but
with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.
And they were scattered, because there is no
shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when
they were scattered.
My sheep wandered through all the mountains,
and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the
face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of
the LORD;
As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely
because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every
beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my
shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves,
and fed not my flock;
Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of
the LORD;
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am
against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand,
and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the
shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock
from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I,
even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the
day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek
out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they
have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
And I will bring them out from the people,
and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their
own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers,
and in all the inhabited places of the country.
I will feed them in a good pasture, and
upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall
they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon
the mountains of Israel.
I will feed my flock, and I will cause them
to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.
I will seek that which was lost, and bring
again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was
broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy
the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.
And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the
Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the
rams and the he goats.
Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have
eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet
the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters,
but ye must foul the residue with your feet?
And as for my flock, they eat that which ye
have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have
fouled with your feet.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto
them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and
between the lean cattle.
Because ye have thrust with side and with
shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have
scattered them abroad;
Therefore will I save my flock, and they
shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and
cattle.
And I will set up one shepherd over them,
and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them,
and he shall be their shepherd.
And I the LORD will be their God, and my
servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.
And I will make with them a covenant of
peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and
they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the
woods.
And I will make them and the places round
about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down
in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.
And the tree of the field shall yield her
fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be
safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have
broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand
of those that served themselves of them.
And they shall no more be a prey to the
heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they
shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.
And I will raise up for them a plant of
renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land,
neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.
Thus shall they know that I the LORD their
God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my
people, saith the Lord GOD.
And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture,
are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir,
and prophesy against it,
And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out
mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.
I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt
be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred,
and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of
the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their
iniquity had an end:
Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I
will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith
thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate,
and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that
returneth.
And I will fill his mountains with his slain
men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall
they fall that are slain with the sword.
I will make thee perpetual desolations, and
thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the
LORD.
Because thou hast said, These two nations
and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it;
whereas the LORD was there:
Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I
will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy
which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will
make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.
And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and
that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken
against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate,
they are given us to consume.
Thus with your mouth ye have boasted
against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard
them.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole
earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.
As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of
the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto
thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even
all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Also, thou son of man, prophesy unto the
mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word
of the LORD:
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy
hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours
in possession:
Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up
on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of
the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an
infamy of the people:
Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the
word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and
to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate
wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey
and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round
about;
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in
the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the
heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into
their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful
minds, to cast it out for a prey.
Prophesy therefore concerning the land of
Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the
rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have
spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the
shame of the heathen:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I have
lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they
shall bear their shame.
But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall
shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of
Israel; for they are at hand to come.
For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn
unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:
And I will multiply men upon you, all the
house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited,
and the wastes shall be builded:
And I will multiply upon you man and beast;
and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you
after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your
beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you,
even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt
be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave
them of men.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say
unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy
nations:
Therefore thou shalt devour men no more,
neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD.
Neither will I cause men to hear in thee
the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the
reproach of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause thy
nations to fall any more, saith the Lord GOD.
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt
in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their
doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed
woman.
Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for
the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols
wherewith they had polluted it:
And I scattered them among the heathen, and
they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way
and according to their doings I judged them.
And when they entered unto the heathen,
whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to
them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of
his land.
But I had pity for mine holy name, which
the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they
went.
Therefore say unto the house of Israel,
thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of
Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among
the heathen, whither ye went.
And I will sanctify my great name, which
was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst
of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the
Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
For I will take you from among the heathen,
and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your
own land.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,
and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your
idols, will I cleanse you.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments,
and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave
to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your
God.
I will also save you from all your
uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it,
and lay no famine upon you.
And I will multiply the fruit of the tree,
and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more
reproach of famine among the heathen.
Then shall ye remember your own evil ways,
and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in
your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
Not for your sakes do I this, saith the
Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your
own ways, O house of Israel.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I
shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause
you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.
And the desolate land shall be tilled,
whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
And they shall say, This land that was
desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and
desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are
inhabited.
Then the heathen that are left round about
you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant
that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do
it.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for
this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I
will increase them with men like a flock.
As the holy flock, as the flock of
Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled
with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and
carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the
midst of the valley which was full of bones,
And caused me to pass by them round about:
and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they
were very dry.
And he said unto me, Son of man, can these
bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.
Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these
bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the
LORD.
Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones;
Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall
live:
And I will lay sinews upon you, and will
bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in
you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I
prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones
came together, bone to his bone.
And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the
flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there
was no breath in them.
Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the
wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon
these slain, that they may live.
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their
feet, an exceeding great army.
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these
bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones
are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves,
and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the
land of Israel.
And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when
I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of
your graves,
And shall put my spirit in you, and ye
shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye
know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the
LORD.
The word of the LORD came again unto me,
saying,
Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one
stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel
his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For
Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his
companions:
And join them one to another into one
stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.
And when the children of thy people shall
speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by
these?
Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of
Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them
with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick,
and they shall be one in mine hand.
And the sticks whereon thou writest shall
be in thine hand before their eyes.
And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen,
whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring
them into their own land:
And I will make them one nation in the land
upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them
all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be
divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
Neither shall they defile themselves any
more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with
any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their
dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so
shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
And David my servant shall be king over
them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in
my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
And they shall dwell in the land that I
have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt;
and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and
their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be
their prince for ever.
Moreover I will make a covenant of peace
with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I
will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in
the midst of them for evermore.
My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea,
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And the heathen shall know that I the LORD
do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them
for evermore.
Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the
land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy
against him,
And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I
am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
And I will turn thee back, and put hooks
into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army,
horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour,
even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them
handling swords:
Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all
of them with shield and helmet:
Gomer, and all his bands; the house of
Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people
with thee.
Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself,
thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou
a guard unto them.
After many days thou shalt be visited: in
the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back
from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the
mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is
brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all
of them.
Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm,
thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy
bands, and many people with thee.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come
to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and
thou shalt think an evil thought:
And thou shalt say, I will go up to the
land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that
dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having
neither bars nor gates,
To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to
turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited,
and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which
have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the
land.
Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of
Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee,
Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to
take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and
goods, to take a great spoil?
Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say
unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of
Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
And thou shalt come from thy place out of
the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them
riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
And thou shalt come up against my people of
Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter
days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may
know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their
eyes.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of
whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of
Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would
bring thee against them?
And it shall come to pass at the same time
when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD,
that my fury shall come up in my face.
For in my jealousy and in the fire of my
wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great
shaking in the land of Israel;
So that the fishes of the sea, and the
fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping
things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the
face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains
shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every
wall shall fall to the ground.
And I will call for a sword against him
throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword
shall be against his brother.
And I will plead against him with
pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his
bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing
rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify
myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they
shall know that I am the LORD.
Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against
Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O
Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
And I will turn thee back, and leave but the
sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north
parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
And I will smite thy bow out of thy left
hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right
hand.
Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of
Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee:
I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the
beasts of the field to be devoured.
Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I
have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
And I will send a fire on Magog, and among
them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I
am the LORD.
So will I make my holy name known in the
midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy
name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the
Holy One in Israel.
Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith
the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
And they that dwell in the cities of Israel
shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both
the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the
handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire
seven years:
So that they shall take no wood out of the
field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn
the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled
them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that
I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley
of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the
noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his
multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.
And seven months shall the house of Israel
be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
Yea, all the people of the land shall bury
them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be
glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
And they shall sever out men of continual
employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers
those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after
the end of seven months shall they search.
And the passengers that pass through the
land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by
it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.
And also the name of the city shall be
Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord
GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the
field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every
side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great
sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and
drink blood.
Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and
drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and
of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and
drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have
sacrificed for you.
Thus ye shall be filled at my table with
horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war,
saith the Lord GOD.
And I will set my glory among the heathen,
and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and
my hand that I have laid upon them.
So the house of Israel shall know that I am
the LORD their God from that day and forward.
And the heathen shall know that the house
of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they
trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave
them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the
sword.
According to their uncleanness and
according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my
face from them.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will
I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole
house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;
After that they have borne their shame, and
all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when
they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.
When I have brought them again from the
people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am
sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;
Then shall they know that I am the LORD
their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the
heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have
left none of them any more there.
Neither will I hide my face any more from
them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel,
saith the Lord GOD.
In the five and twentieth year of our
captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the
month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in
the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me
thither.
In the visions of God brought he me into the
land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was
as the frame of a city on the south.
And he brought me thither, and, behold,
there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass,
with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood
in the gate.
And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold
with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon
all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew
them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest
to the house of Israel.
And behold a wall on the outside of the
house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six
cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the
breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.
Then came he unto the gate which looketh
toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the
threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other
threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad.
And every little chamber was one reed long,
and one reed broad; and between the little chambers were five
cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate
within was one reed.
He measured also the porch of the gate
within, one reed.
Then measured he the porch of the gate,
eight cubits; and the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of
the gate was inward.
And the little chambers of the gate
eastward were three on this side, and three on that side; they
three were of one measure: and the posts had one measure on this
side and on that side.
And he measured the breadth of the entry of
the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen
cubits.
The space also before the little chambers
was one cubit on this side, and the space was one cubit on that
side: and the little chambers were six cubits on this side, and six
cubits on that side.
He measured then the gate from the roof of
one little chamber to the roof of another: the breadth was five and
twenty cubits, door against door.
He made also posts of threescore cubits,
even unto the post of the court round about the gate.
And from the face of the gate of the
entrance unto the face of the porch of the inner gate were fifty
cubits.
And there were narrow windows to the little
chambers, and to their posts within the gate round about, and
likewise to the arches: and windows were round about inward: and
upon each post were palm trees.
Then brought he me into the outward court,
and, lo, there were chambers, and a pavement made for the court
round about: thirty chambers were upon the pavement.
And the pavement by the side of the gates
over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement.
Then he measured the breadth from the
forefront of the lower gate unto the forefront of the inner court
without, an hundred cubits eastward and northward.
And the gate of the outward court that
looked toward the north, he measured the length thereof, and the
breadth thereof.
And the little chambers thereof were three
on this side and three on that side; and the posts thereof and the
arches thereof were after the measure of the first gate: the length
thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty
cubits.
And their windows, and their arches, and
their palm trees, were after the measure of the gate that looketh
toward the east; and they went up unto it by seven steps; and the
arches thereof were before them.
And the gate of the inner court was over
against the gate toward the north, and toward the east; and he
measured from gate to gate an hundred cubits.
After that he brought me toward the south,
and behold a gate toward the south: and he measured the posts
thereof and the arches thereof according to these measures.
And there were windows in it and in the
arches thereof round about, like those windows: the length was
fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits.
And there were seven steps to go up to it,
and the arches thereof were before them: and it had palm trees, one
on this side, and another on that side, upon the posts
thereof.
And there was a gate in the inner court
toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the
south an hundred cubits.
And he brought me to the inner court by the
south gate: and he measured the south gate according to these
measures;
And the little chambers thereof, and the
posts thereof, and the arches thereof, according to these measures:
and there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about:
it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.
And the arches round about were five and
twenty cubits long, and five cubits broad.
And the arches thereof were toward the
utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof: and the
going up to it had eight steps.
And he brought me into the inner court
toward the east: and he measured the gate according to these
measures.
And the little chambers thereof, and the
posts thereof, and the arches thereof, were according to these
measures: and there were windows therein and in the arches thereof
round about: it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits
broad.
And the arches thereof were toward the
outward court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this
side, and on that side: and the going up to it had eight
steps.
And he brought me to the north gate, and
measured it according to these measures;
The little chambers thereof, the posts
thereof, and the arches thereof, and the windows to it round about:
the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty
cubits.
And the posts thereof were toward the utter
court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side,
and on that side: and the going up to it had eight steps.
And the chambers and the entries thereof
were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt
offering.
And in the porch of the gate were two
tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to slay thereon
the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass
offering.
And at the side without, as one goeth up to
the entry of the north gate, were two tables; and on the other
side, which was at the porch of the gate, were two tables.
Four tables were on this side, and four
tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight tables,
whereupon they slew their sacrifices.
And the four tables were of hewn stone for
the burnt offering, of a cubit and an half long, and a cubit and an
half broad, and one cubit high: whereupon also they laid the
instruments wherewith they slew the burnt offering and the
sacrifice.
And within were hooks, an hand broad,
fastened round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the
offering.
And without the inner gate were the
chambers of the singers in the inner court, which was at the side
of the north gate; and their prospect was toward the south: one at
the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the
north.
And he said unto me, This chamber, whose
prospect is toward the south, is for the priests, the keepers of
the charge of the house.
And the chamber whose prospect is toward
the north is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the
altar: these are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi, which
come near to the LORD to minister unto him.
So he measured the court, an hundred cubits
long, and an hundred cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar that
was before the house.
And he brought me to the porch of the
house, and measured each post of the porch, five cubits on this
side, and five cubits on that side: and the breadth of the gate was
three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side.
The length of the porch was twenty cubits,
and the breadth eleven cubits, and he brought me by the steps
whereby they went up to it: and there were pillars by the posts,
one on this side, and another on that side.
Afterward he brought me to the temple, and
measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six
cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the
tabernacle.
And the breadth of the door was ten cubits;
and the sides of the door were five cubits on the one side, and
five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length thereof,
forty cubits: and the breadth, twenty cubits.
Then went he inward, and measured the post
of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth
of the door, seven cubits.
So he measured the length thereof, twenty
cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he
said unto me, This is the most holy place.
After he measured the wall of the house, six
cubits; and the breadth of every side chamber, four cubits, round
about the house on every side.
And the side chambers were three, one over
another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which
was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might
have hold, but they had not hold in the wall of the house.
And there was an enlarging, and a winding
about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of
the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the
breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the
lowest chamber to the highest by the midst.
I saw also the height of the house round
about: the foundations of the side chambers were a full reed of six
great cubits.
The thickness of the wall, which was for the
side chamber without, was five cubits: and that which was left was
the place of the side chambers that were within.
And between the chambers was the wideness
of twenty cubits round about the house on every side.
And the doors of the side chambers were
toward the place that was left, one door toward the north, and
another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that
was left was five cubits round about.
Now the building that was before the
separate place at the end toward the west was seventy cubits broad;
and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and
the length thereof ninety cubits.
So he measured the house, an hundred cubits
long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls
thereof, an hundred cubits long;
Also the breadth of the face of the house,
and of the separate place toward the east, an hundred cubits.
And he measured the length of the building
over against the separate place which was behind it, and the
galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side, an hundred
cubits, with the inner temple, and the porches of the court;
The door posts, and the narrow windows, and
the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the
door, cieled with wood round about, and from the ground up to the
windows, and the windows were covered;
To that above the door, even unto the inner
house, and without, and by all the wall round about within and
without, by measure.
And it was made with cherubims and palm
trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and
every cherub had two faces;
So that the face of a man was toward the
palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the
palm tree on the other side: it was made through all the house
round about.
From the ground unto above the door were
cherubims and palm trees made, and on the wall of the temple.
The posts of the temple were squared, and
the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the
appearance of the other.
The altar of wood was three cubits high,
and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the
length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said
unto me, This is the table that is before the LORD.
And the temple and the sanctuary had two
doors.
And the doors had two leaves apiece, two
turning leaves; two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the
other door.
And there were made on them, on the doors
of the temple, cherubims and palm trees, like as were made upon the
walls; and there were thick planks upon the face of the porch
without.
And there were narrow windows and palm
trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the
porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick
planks.
Then he brought me forth into the utter
court, the way toward the north: and he brought me into the chamber
that was over against the separate place, and which was before the
building toward the north.
Before the length of an hundred cubits was
the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits.
Over against the twenty cubits which were
for the inner court, and over against the pavement which was for
the utter court, was gallery against gallery in three stories.
And before the chambers was a walk to ten
cubits breadth inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors toward
the north.
Now the upper chambers were shorter: for the
galleries were higher than these, than the lower, and than the
middlemost of the building.
For they were in three stories, but had not
pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore the building was
straitened more than the lowest and the middlemost from the
ground.
And the wall that was without over against
the chambers, toward the utter court on the forepart of the
chambers, the length thereof was fifty cubits.
For the length of the chambers that were in
the utter court was fifty cubits: and, lo, before the temple were
an hundred cubits.
And from under these chambers was the entry
on the east side, as one goeth into them from the utter court.
The chambers were in the thickness of the
wall of the court toward the east, over against the separate place,
and over against the building.
And the way before them was like the
appearance of the chambers which were toward the north, as long as
they, and as broad as they: and all their goings out were both
according to their fashions, and according to their doors.
And according to the doors of the chambers
that were toward the south was a door in the head of the way, even
the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one entereth
into them.
Then said he unto me, The north chambers
and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they
be holy chambers, where the priests that approach unto the LORD
shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy
things, and the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the
trespass offering; for the place is holy.
When the priests enter therein, then shall
they not go out of the holy place into the utter court, but there
they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are
holy; and shall put on other garments, and shall approach to those
things which are for the people.
Now when he had made an end of measuring
the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect
is toward the east, and measured it round about.
He measured the east side with the
measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round
about.
He measured the north side, five hundred
reeds, with the measuring reed round about.
He measured the south side, five hundred
reeds, with the measuring reed.
He turned about to the west side, and
measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
He measured it by the four sides: it had a
wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad,
to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane
place.
Afterward he brought me to the gate, even
the gate that looketh toward the east:
And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel
came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of
many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.
And it was according to the appearance of
the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw
when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the
vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my
face.
And the glory of the LORD came into the
house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the
east.
So the spirit took me up, and brought me
into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the
house.
And I heard him speaking unto me out of the
house; and the man stood by me.
And he said unto me, Son of man, the place
of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will
dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy
name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor
their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings
in their high places.
In their setting of their threshold by my
thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and
them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations
that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine
anger.
Now let them put away their whoredom, and
the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the
midst of them for ever.
Thou son of man, shew the house to the
house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and
let them measure the pattern.
And if they be ashamed of all that they
have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion
thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof,
and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all
the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their
sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the
ordinances thereof, and do them.
This is the law of the house; Upon the top
of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most
holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
And these are the measures of the altar
after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and an hand breadth; even
the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and the
border thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span: and
this shall be the higher place of the altar.
And from the bottom upon the ground even to
the lower settle shall be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit;
and from the lesser settle even to the greater settle shall be four
cubits, and the breadth one cubit.
So the altar shall be four cubits; and from
the altar and upward shall be four horns.
And the altar shall be twelve cubits long,
twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof.
And the settle shall be fourteen cubits
long and fourteen broad in the four squares thereof; and the border
about it shall be half a cubit; and the bottom thereof shall be a
cubit about; and his stairs shall look toward the east.
And he said unto me, Son of man, thus saith
the Lord GOD; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when
they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to
sprinkle blood thereon.
And thou shalt give to the priests the
Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to
minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD, a young bullock for a sin
offering.
And thou shalt take of the blood thereof,
and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the
settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt thou cleanse
and purge it.
Thou shalt take the bullock also of the sin
offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house,
without the sanctuary.
And on the second day thou shalt offer a
kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall
cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bullock.
When thou hast made an end of cleansing it,
thou shalt offer a young bullock without blemish, and a ram out of
the flock without blemish.
And thou shalt offer them before the LORD,
and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer
them up for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a
goat for a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bullock,
and a ram out of the flock, without blemish.
Seven days shall they purge the altar and
purify it; and they shall consecrate themselves.
And when these days are expired, it shall
be, that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall
make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings;
and I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD.
Then he brought me back the way of the gate
of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was
shut.
Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall
be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it;
because the LORD, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it,
therefore it shall be shut.
It is for the prince; the prince, he shall
sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way
of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the
same.
Then brought he me the way of the north gate
before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD
filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face.
And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark
well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that
I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the
LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of
the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.
And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even
to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O ye house of
Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,
In that ye have brought into my sanctuary
strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to
be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my
bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant
because of all your abominations.
And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy
things: but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for
yourselves.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger,
uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter
into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of
Israel.
And the Levites that are gone away far from
me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after
their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.
Yet they shall be ministers in my
sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering
to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice
for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto
them.
Because they ministered unto them before
their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity;
therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, saith the Lord
GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity.
And they shall not come near unto me, to do
the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy
things, in the most holy place: but they shall bear their shame,
and their abominations which they have committed.
But I will make them keepers of the charge
of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall
be done therein.
But the priests the Levites, the sons of
Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of
Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister
unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat
and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:
They shall enter into my sanctuary, and
they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they
shall keep my charge.
And it shall come to pass, that when they
enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed
with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they
minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.
They shall have linen bonnets upon their
heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall
not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.
And when they go forth into the utter
court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off
their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy
chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not
sanctify the people with their garments.
Neither shall they shave their heads, nor
suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their
heads.
Neither shall any priest drink wine, when
they enter into the inner court.
Neither shall they take for their wives a
widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the
seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest
before.
And they shall teach my people the
difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern
between the unclean and the clean.
And in controversy they shall stand in
judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and
they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and
they shall hallow my sabbaths.
And they shall come at no dead person to
defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or
for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband,
they may defile themselves.
And after he is cleansed, they shall reckon
unto him seven days.
And in the day that he goeth into the
sanctuary, unto the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he
shall offer his sin offering, saith the Lord GOD.
And it shall be unto them for an
inheritance: I am their inheritance: and ye shall give them no
possession in Israel: I am their possession.
They shall eat the meat offering, and the
sin offering, and the trespass offering: and every dedicated thing
in Israel shall be theirs.
And the first of all the firstfruits of all
things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations,
shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first
of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine
house.
The priests shall not eat of any thing that
is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.
Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot the
land for inheritance, ye shall offer an oblation unto the LORD, an
holy portion of the land: the length shall be the length of five
and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand.
This shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about.
Of this there shall be for the sanctuary
five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round
about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.
And of this measure shalt thou measure the
length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten
thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy
place.
The holy portion of the land shall be for
the priests the ministers of the sanctuary, which shall come near
to minister unto the LORD: and it shall be a place for their
houses, and an holy place for the sanctuary.
And the five and twenty thousand of length,
and the ten thousand of breadth shall also the Levites, the
ministers of the house, have for themselves, for a possession for
twenty chambers.
And ye shall appoint the possession of the
city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, over
against the oblation of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole
house of Israel.
And a portion shall be for the prince on the
one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion,
and of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy
portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side
westward, and from the east side eastward: and the length shall be
over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the
east border.
In the land shall be his possession in
Israel: and my princes shall no more oppress my people; and the
rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according
to their tribes.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you,
O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute
judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people,
saith the Lord GOD.
Ye shall have just balances, and a just
ephah, and a just bath.
The ephah and the bath shall be of one
measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and
the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be
after the homer.
And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs:
twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be
your maneh.
This is the oblation that ye shall offer;
the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give
the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley:
Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath
of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor,
which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer:
And one lamb out of the flock, out of two
hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat offering,
and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make
reconciliation for them, saith the Lord GOD.
All the people of the land shall give this
oblation for the prince in Israel.
And it shall be the prince's part to give
burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the
feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all
solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin
offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the
peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of
Israel.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the first
month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young
bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:
And the priest shall take of the blood of
the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon
the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of
the gate of the inner court.
And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the
month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so
shall ye reconcile the house.
In the first month, in the fourteenth day
of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days;
unleavened bread shall be eaten.
And upon that day shall the prince prepare
for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin
offering.
And seven days of the feast he shall
prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams
without blemish daily the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily
for a sin offering.
And he shall prepare a meat offering of an
ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and an hin of oil for
an ephah.
In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day
of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days,
according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and
according to the meat offering, and according to the oil.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the
inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six
working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day
of the new moon it shall be opened.
And the prince shall enter by the way of the
porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the
gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his
peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate:
then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the
evening.
Likewise the people of the land shall
worship at the door of this gate before the LORD in the sabbaths
and in the new moons.
And the burnt offering that the prince shall
offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without
blemish, and a ram without blemish.
And the meat offering shall be an ephah for
a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he shall be able to
give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
And in the day of the new moon it shall be a
young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall
be without blemish.
And he shall prepare a meat offering, an
ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs
according as his hand shall attain unto, and an hin of oil to an
ephah.
And when the prince shall enter, he shall go
in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by
the way thereof.
But when the people of the land shall come
before the LORD in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the
way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the
south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall
go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the
way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against
it.
And the prince in the midst of them, when
they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go
forth.
And in the feasts and in the solemnities
the meat offering shall be an ephah to a bullock, and an ephah to a
ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and an hin of oil to
an ephah.
Now when the prince shall prepare a
voluntary burnt offering or peace offerings voluntarily unto the
LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looketh toward the
east, and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace
offerings, as he did on the sabbath day: then he shall go forth;
and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.
Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering
unto the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish: thou
shalt prepare it every morning.
And thou shalt prepare a meat offering for
it every morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of
an hin of oil, to temper with the fine flour; a meat offering
continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD.
Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the
meat offering, and the oil, every morning for a continual burnt
offering.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; If the prince give
a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his
sons'; it shall be their possession by inheritance.
But if he give a gift of his inheritance to
one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty;
after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be
his sons' for them.
Moreover the prince shall not take of the
people's inheritance by oppression, to thrust them out of their
possession; but he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own
possession: that my people be not scattered every man from his
possession.
After he brought me through the entry,
which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the
priests, which looked toward the north: and, behold, there was a
place on the two sides westward.
Then said he unto me, This is the place
where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin
offering, where they shall bake the meat offering; that they bear
them not out into the utter court, to sanctify the people.
Then he brought me forth into the utter
court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and,
behold, in every corner of the court there was a court.
In the four corners of the court there were
courts joined of forty cubits long and thirty broad: these four
corners were of one measure.
And there was a row of building round about
in them, round about them four, and it was made with boiling places
under the rows round about.
Then said he unto me, These are the places
of them that boil, where the ministers of the house shall boil the
sacrifice of the people.
Afterward he brought me again unto the door
of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the
threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house
stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the
right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.
Then brought he me out of the way of the
gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter
gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out
waters on the right side.
And when the man that had the line in his
hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he
brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.
Again he measured a thousand, and brought me
through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured
a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the
loins.
Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was
a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen,
waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.
And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou
seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink
of the river.
Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank
of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the
other.
Then said he unto me, These waters issue out
toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into
the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall
be healed.
And it shall come to pass, that every thing
that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come,
shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish,
because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed;
and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.
And it shall come to pass, that the fishers
shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a
place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their
kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.
But the miry places thereof and the
marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to
salt.
And by the river upon the bank thereof, on
this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose
leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed:
it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because
their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit
thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; This shall be the
border, whereby ye shall inherit the land according to the twelve
tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two portions.
And ye shall inherit it, one as well as
another: concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto
your fathers: and this land shall fall unto you for
inheritance.
And this shall be the border of the land
toward the north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as
men go to Zedad;
Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between
the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazarhatticon,
which is by the coast of Hauran.
And the border from the sea shall be
Hazarenan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the
border of Hamath. And this is the north side.
And the east side ye shall measure from
Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of
Israel by Jordan, from the border unto the east sea. And this is
the east side.
And the south side southward, from Tamar
even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea.
And this is the south side southward.
The west side also shall be the great sea
from the border, till a man come over against Hamath. This is the
west side.
So shall ye divide this land unto you
according to the tribes of Israel.
And it shall come to pass, that ye shall
divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers
that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you: and
they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of
Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of
Israel.
And it shall come to pass, that in what
tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his
inheritance, saith the Lord GOD.
Now these are the names of the tribes. From
the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to
Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast
of Hamath; for these are his sides east and west; a portion for
Dan.
And by the border of Dan, from the east side
unto the west side, a portion for Asher.
And by the border of Asher, from the east
side even unto the west side, a portion for Naphtali.
And by the border of Naphtali, from the east
side unto the west side, a portion for Manasseh.
And by the border of Manasseh, from the east
side unto the west side, a portion for Ephraim.
And by the border of Ephraim, from the east
side even unto the west side, a portion for Reuben.
And by the border of Reuben, from the east
side unto the west side, a portion for Judah.
And by the border of Judah, from the east
side unto the west side, shall be the offering which ye shall offer
of five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one
of the other parts, from the east side unto the west side: and the
sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.
The oblation that ye shall offer unto the
LORD shall be of five and twenty thousand in length, and of ten
thousand in breadth.
And for them, even for the priests, shall
be this holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in
length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the
east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty
thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the
midst thereof.
It shall be for the priests that are
sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my charge, which
went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the
Levites went astray.
And this oblation of the land that is
offered shall be unto them a thing most holy by the border of the
Levites.
And over against the border of the priests
the Levites shall have five and twenty thousand in length, and ten
thousand in breadth: all the length shall be five and twenty
thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.
And they shall not sell of it, neither
exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land: for it is holy
unto the LORD.
And the five thousand, that are left in the
breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a
profane place for the city, for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the
city shall be in the midst thereof.
And these shall be the measures thereof;
the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side
four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand
and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five
hundred.
And the suburbs of the city shall be toward
the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred
and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward
the west two hundred and fifty.
And the residue in length over against the
oblation of the holy portion shall be ten thousand eastward, and
ten thousand westward: and it shall be over against the oblation of
the holy portion; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto
them that serve the city.
And they that serve the city shall serve it
out of all the tribes of Israel.
All the oblation shall be five and twenty
thousand by five and twenty thousand: ye shall offer the holy
oblation foursquare, with the possession of the city.
And the residue shall be for the prince, on
the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the
possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand
of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against
the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against
the portions for the prince: and it shall be the holy oblation; and
the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof.
Moreover from the possession of the
Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of
that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the
border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince.
As for the rest of the tribes, from the
east side unto the west side, Benjamin shall have a portion.
And by the border of Benjamin, from the
east side unto the west side, Simeon shall have a portion.
And by the border of Simeon, from the east
side unto the west side, Issachar a portion.
And by the border of Issachar, from the
east side unto the west side, Zebulun a portion.
And by the border of Zebulun, from the east
side unto the west side, Gad a portion.
And by the border of Gad, at the south side
southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the waters of
strife in Kadesh, and to the river toward the great sea.
This is the land which ye shall divide by
lot unto the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their
portions, saith the Lord GOD.
And these are the goings out of the city on
the north side, four thousand and five hundred measures.
And the gates of the city shall be after
the names of the tribes of Israel: three gates northward; one gate
of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi.
And at the east side four thousand and five
hundred: and three gates; and one gate of Joseph, one gate of
Benjamin, one gate of Dan.
And at the south side four thousand and
five hundred measures: and three gates; one gate of Simeon, one
gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun.
At the west side four thousand and five
hundred, with their three gates; one gate of Gad, one gate of
Asher, one gate of Naphtali.
It was round about eighteen thousand
measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD
is there.