21 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, aset thy face toward Jerusalem, and adrop thy word toward the holy places, and aprophesy against the land of Israel, 3 And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of bhis sheath, and cwill cut off from thee dthe righteous and the wicked. 4 Seeing then that cI will cut off from thee dthe righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of bhis sheath against all flesh efrom the south to the north: 5 That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn forth my sword out of bhis sheath: fit shall not return any more. 6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh ffbefore their eyes. 7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and gevery heart shall melt, and hall hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and hall knees †shall be weak as water: hhbehold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God.

8 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord; Say, iA sword, a sword jis sharpened, and also kfurbished: 10 jIt is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; kit is furbished that it may ilglitter: should mwe then make mirth? ||it contemneth nthe rod of nomy son, as every tree. 11 And he hath given it kto be furbished, that it may be handled: jthis sword is sharpened, and kit is furbished, to give it into the hand of pthe slayer. 12 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: qsmite therefore upon thy thigh. 13 ||Because it is a trial, and rwhat if the sword contemn even the rod? it sshall be no more, saith the Lord God. 14 Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and qtsmite thine †hands together, and let the sword be doubled uthe third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, vwhich entereth into their privy chambers. 15 I have set the ||point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their wruins be multiplied: ah! it is made lbright, it is ||wrapped up for the slaughter. 16 xGo thee one way or other, either on the right hand, †or on the left, ywhithersoever thy face is set. 17 I will also qtsmite mine hands together, and zI will cause my fury to rest: zzI the Lord have said it.

18 The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, 19 Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of athe king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and bchoose thou ca place, bchoose it dat the head of the way to the city. 20 Appoint a way, that ethe sword may come to efRabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced. 21 For the king of Babylon stood at gthe †parting of the way, dat the head of the two ways, hto use divination: he imade his ||arrows bright, he consulted with †images, he looked in the liver. 22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint ||†captains, to open the mouth lin the slaughter, mto lift up the voice with shouting, kto appoint battering rams against the gates, kto cast a mount, and kto build a fort. 23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, ||nto them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, othat they may be taken. 24 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, oye shall be taken with the hand.

25 And thou, pprofane qwicked prince of Israel, rwhose day is come, rrwhen iniquity shall have an end, 26 Thus saith the Lord God; Remove sthe diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: texalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. 27 †I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and uit shall be no more, vuntil he come whose right it is; and wI will give it him.

28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God xconcerning the Ammonites, and xconcerning their reproach; even say thou, yThe sword, the sword is yydrawn: for the slaughter it is yfurbished, to consume because of the yglittering: 29 Whiles zthey see vanity unto thee, whiles zthey divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, rwhose day is come, rrwhen their iniquity shall have an end. 30 ||Shall I cause it to return into ahis sheath? bI will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of cthy nativity. 31 And dI will pour out mine indignation upon thee, eI will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of ||fbrutish men, and skilful to destroy. 32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; gthou shalt be no more remembered: zzfor I the Lord have spoken it.

22 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Now, thou son of man, awilt thou ||judge, wilt thou judge the †bbloody city? yea, thou shalt †bbshew her all her abominations. 3 Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord God, cThe city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that dher time may come, and maketh idols against herself eto defile herself. 4 fThou art become guilty cin thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and dthou hast caused thy days to draw near, and gart come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee ha reproach unto the heathen, and ia mocking to all countries. 5 Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art †infamous and much vexed. 6 Behold, lthe princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their †mpower cto shed blood. 7 In thee nhave they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they odealt by ||poppression with the stranger: in thee pphave they qvexed the fatherless and the widow. 8 rThou hast despised mine holy things, and shast profaned my sabbaths. 9 In thee are †tmen that carry tales cto shed blood: and in thee uthey eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee vthey commit lewdness. 10 In thee whave they discovered their fathers’ nakedness: in thee have they humbled xher that was jset apart for pollution. 11 And ||one yhath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and ||another zhath ||lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and ||another in thee ahath humbled his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 In thee bhave they taken gifts bbto shed blood; cthou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by dextortion, and ehast forgotten me, saith the Lord God. 13 Behold, therefore fI have smitten mine hand at gthy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at bbthy blood which hath been in the midst of thee. 14 hCan thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? iI the Lord have spoken it, and will do it. 15 And klI will scatter thee among the heathen, and kmdisperse thee in the countries, and nwill consume thy filthiness out of thee. 16 And thou ||shalt otake thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, pand thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

17 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become qdross: all they are rbrass, and stin, and riron, and lead, tin the midst of the furnace; they are even uthe †dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye are all become qdross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 †As they gather silver, and rbrass, and riron, and lead, and stin, tinto the midst of the furnace, vto blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you win mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. 21 Yea, I will gather you, and vblow upon you xin the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. 22 As silver is melted tin the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord yhave poured out my fury upon you.

23 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 24 Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor zrained upon in the day of indignation. 25 There is a aconspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, blike a roaring lion cravening the prey; dthey have devoured souls; ethey have taken fthe treasure and gprecious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. 26 hHer priests ihave †violated my law, and ihave kprofaned mine holy things: lthey have put no difference between the holy and profane, lneither have they mshewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and nhave hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and kI am profaned among them. 27 oHer princes in the midst thereof are like pwolves cravening the prey, oto shed blood, and to destroy souls, oqto get dishonest gain. 28 And rher prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, sseeing vanity, and sdivining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used ||oppression, and uexercised robbery, and uhave vexed the poor and needy: yea, tthey have oppressed the stranger †wrongfully. 30 And vI sought for a man among them, that should wxmake up the hedge, and wstand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. 31 Therefore yhave I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them zwith the fire of my wrath: atheir own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.