AB - Ezekiel

Chapter 1

1:1  Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, that I was in the midst of the captivity by the River Chebar; and the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

1:2  On the fifth day of the month; this was the fifth year of the captivity of King Jehoiachin.

1:3  And the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the River Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was upon me.

1:4  And I looked, and behold, a sweeping wind came from the north, and a great cloud on it, and there was brightness round about it, and gleaming fire, and in the midst of it as it were the appearance of amber in the midst of the fire, and brightness in it.

1:5  And in the midst as it were the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: the likeness of a man was upon them.

1:6  And each one had four faces, and each one had four wings.

1:7  And their legs were straight; and their feet were winged, and there were sparks, like gleaming brass, and their wings were light.

1:8  And the hand of a man was under their wings on their four sides.

1:9  And their faces turned not when they went; but each one went straight forward.

1:10  And the likeness of their faces was the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right of the four; and the face of a calf on the left of the four; and the face of an eagle to the four.

1:11  And the four had their wings spread out above; each one had two joined to one another, and two covered their bodies.

1:12  And each one went straight forward: wherever the spirit was going they went, and turned not back.

1:13  And in the midst of the living creatures there was an appearance as of burning coals of fire, as an appearance of lamps turning among the living creatures; and the brightness of fire, and out of the fire came forth lightning.

1:15  And I looked, and behold, the four each had one wheel on the ground near the living creatures.

1:16  And the appearance of the wheels was as the appearance of beryl: and the four had one likeness; and their work was as it were a wheel in a wheel.

1:17  They went on their four sides; they turned not as they went;

1:18  neither did their backs turn. And they were high. And I beheld them, and the backs of the four were full of eyes round about.

1:19  And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures lifted themselves off the earth, the wheels were lifted off.

1:20  Wherever the cloud happened to be, there was the spirit ready to go. The wheels went and were lifted up with them; because the spirit of life was in the wheels.

1:21  When those went, the wheels went; and when those stood, the wheels stood; and when those lifted themselves off the earth, they were lifted off with them, for the spirit of life was in the wheels.

1:22  And the likeness over the heads of the living creatures was as a firmament, as the appearance of crystal, spread out over their wings above.

1:23  And their wings were spread out under the firmament, reaching one to the other; two wings to each, covering their bodies.

1:24  And I heard the sound of their wings when they went, as the sound of much water: and when they stood, their wings were let down.

1:25  And lo! A voice from above the firmament

1:26  that was over their head, there was as the appearance of a sapphire stone, and the likeness of a throne upon it. And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as an appearance of a man above.

1:27  And I saw as it were the resemblance of amber from the appearance of the loins and upwards, and from the appearance of the loins and under I saw an appearance of fire, and the brightness thereof round about.

1:28  As the appearance of the rainbow when it is in the cloud in days of rain, so was the form of brightness round about.

Chapter 2

2:1  This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And I saw and fell upon my face, and heard the voice of One speaking. And He said to me, Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak to you.

2:2  And the Spirit came upon me, and took me up, and raised me, and set me on my feet. And I heard Him speaking to me.

2:3  And He said to me, Son of Man, I send you forth to the house of Israel, to them that provoke Me; who have provoked Me, they and their fathers to this day.

2:4  And you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord.

2:5  Whether then indeed they shall hear or fear (for they are a provoking house,) yet they shall know that you are a prophet in the midst of them.

2:6  And you, son of man, fear them not, nor be dismayed at their face (for they will madden and will rise up against you round about, and you dwell in the midst of scorpions), be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their countenance, for they are a provoking house.

2:7  And you shall speak My words to them, whether they will hear or fear; for they are a provoking house.

2:8  And you, son of man, hear Him that speaks to you; be not provoking, as the provoking house: open your mouth, and eat what I give you.

2:9  And I looked, and behold, a hand stretched out to me, and in it was a volume of a book.

2:10  And He unrolled it before me. And in it the front and the back were written upon. And there was written in it lamentations, and mournful songs, and woe.

Chapter 3

3:1  And He said to me, Son of Man, eat this volume, and go and speak to the children of Israel.

3:2  So He opened my mouth, and caused me to eat the volume. And He said to me, Son of man,

3:3  your mouth shall eat, and your belly shall be filled with this volume that is given to you. So I ate it; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

3:4  And He said to me, Son of man, go your way, and go in to the house of Israel, and speak My words to them.

3:5  For you are not sent to a people of hard speech, but to the house of Israel;

3:6  neither to many nations of other speech and other tongues, nor of harsh language, whose words you would not understand; although if I had sent you to such, they would have hearkened to you.

3:7  But the house of Israel will not be willing to hearken to you; for they will not hearken to Me; for all the house of Israel are stubborn and hard-hearted.

3:8  And behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and I will strengthen your power against their power.

3:9  And it shall be continually stronger than a rock-be not afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their faces, because they are a provoking house.

3:10  And He said to me, Son of man, receive into your heart all the words that I have spoken to you, and hear them with your ears.

3:11  And go your way, go in to the captivity, to the children of your people, and you shall speak to them, and say to them, Thus says the Lord; whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse.

3:12  Then the Spirit took me up, and I heard behind me the voice as of a great earthquake, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place.

3:13  And I perceived the sound of the wings of the living creatures clapping one to the other, and the sound of the wheels was near them, and the sound of the earthquake.

3:14  And the Spirit lifted me, and took me up, and I went in the impulse of my spirit; and the hand of the Lord was mighty upon me.

3:15  Then I passed through the air and came into the captivity, and went round to those that dwelt by the River Chebar who were there; and I sat there seven days, conversant in the midst of them.

3:16  And after the seven days the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man,

3:17  I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel; and you shall hear a word from My mouth, and shall threaten them from Me.

3:18  When I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; and you have not warned him, to give warning to the wicked, to turn from his ways, that he should live; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.

3:19  But if you warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, and from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, and you shall deliver your soul.

3:20  And when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits a trespass, and I shall bring punishment before him, he shall die, because you did not warn him: he shall even die in his sins, because his righteousness shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.

3:21  But if you warn the righteous not to sin, and he sin not, the righteous shall surely live, because you have warned him; and you shall deliver your own soul.

3:22  And the hand of the Lord came upon me; and He said to me, Arise, and go forth into the plain, and there shall you be spoken to.

3:23  And I arose, and went forth to the plain. And behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, according to the vision, and according to the glory of the Lord, which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face.

3:24  Then the Spirit came upon me, and set me on my feet, and spoke to me, and said to me, Go in, and shut yourself up in the midst of your house.

3:25  And you, son of man, behold, bonds are prepared for you, and they shall bind you with them, and you shall not come forth of the midst of them.

3:26  Also I will bind your tongue, and you shall be dumb, and shall not be to them a reprover; because they are a provoking house.

3:27  But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: He that hears, let him hear; and he that is disobedient, let him be disobedient; for they are a provoking house.

Chapter 4

4:1  And you, son of man, take a brick, and set it before your face, and portray on it the city, even Jerusalem.

4:2  And you shall besiege it, and build works against it, and throw up a mound round about it, and pitch camps against it, and set up engines round about.

4:3  And take to yourself an iron pan, and you shall set it for an iron wall between you and the city. And you shall set your face against it, and it shall be in a siege, and you shall besiege it. This is a sign to the children of Israel.

4:4  And you shall lie upon your left side, and lay the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the hundred and fifty days during which you shall lie upon it; and you shall bear their iniquities.

4:5  For I have appointed you their iniquities for a number of days, for a hundred and ninety days: so you shall bear the iniquities of the house of Israel.

4:6  And you shall accomplish this, and then you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquities of the house of Judah for forty days: I have appointed you a day for a year.

4:7  So you shall set your face to the siege of Jerusalem, and shall strengthen your arm, and shall prophesy against it.

4:8  And behold, I have prepared bonds for you, and you may not turn from your one side to the other, until the days of your siege shall be accomplished.

4:9  Take also wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and grain; and you shall cast them into one earthen vessel, and shall make them into loaves for yourself; and you shall eat them a hundred and ninety days, according to the number of the days which you sleep on your side.

4:10  And you shall eat your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shall you eat them.

4:11  And you shall drink water by measure, even from time to time you shall drink the sixth part of a hin.

4:12  And you shall eat them as a barley cake; you shall bake them before their eyes in man's dung.

4:13  And you shall say, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Thus shall the children of Israel eat unclean things among the Gentiles.

4:14  Then I said, By no means, Lord God of Israel! Surely my soul has not been defiled with uncleanness, nor have I eaten that which has died of itself, or was torn by beasts from my birth until now; neither has any corrupt flesh entered into my mouth.

4:15  And He said to me, Behold, I have given you dung of oxen instead of man's dung, and you shall prepare your loaves upon it.

4:16  And He said to me, Son of man, behold, I break the support of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight and in poverty, and shall drink water by measure, and in a state of ruin;

4:17  that they may want bread and water; and a man and his brother shall be brought to ruin, and they shall pine away in their iniquities.

Chapter 5

5:1  And you, son of man, take a sword sharper than a barber's razor; you shall procure it for yourself, and shall bring it upon your head, and upon your beard; and you shall take a pair of scales, and shall separate the hair.

5:2  A fourth part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, at the fulfillment of the days of the siege. And you shall take a fourth part, and burn it up in the midst of it. And a fourth part you shall cut with a sword round about it. And a fourth part you shall scatter to the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.

5:3  And you shall take a few of them, and wrap them in the fold of your garment.

5:4  And you shall take of these again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them up with fire. From there shall come forth fire, and you shall say to the whole house of Israel,

5:5  Thus says the Lord: This is Jerusalem: I have set her and the countries round about her in the midst of the nations.

5:6  And you shall declare My ordinances to the lawless one from out of the nations; and My statutes to the sinful one of the countries round about her, because they have rejected My ordinances, and have not walked in My statutes.

5:7  Therefore thus says the Lord: Because your occasion for sin has been taken from the nations round about you, and you have not walked in My statutes, nor kept My ordinances, no, you have not even done according to the ordinances of the nations round about you; therefore thus says the Lord:

5:8  Behold, I am against you, and I will execute judgment in the midst of you in the sight of the nations.

5:9  And I will do in you things which I have not done, and the like of which I will not do again, for all your abominations.

5:10  Therefore the fathers shall eat their children in the midst of you, and children shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in you, and I will scatter all that are left of you to the four winds.

5:11  Therefore, as I live, says the Lord; surely, because you have defiled My holy things with all your abominations, I also will reject you; My eye shall not spare, and I will have no mercy.

5:12  A fourth part of you shall be cut off by pestilence, and a fourth part of you shall be consumed in the midst of you with famine; and as for another fourth part of you, I will scatter them to all the winds; and a fourth part of you shall fall by the sword round about you, and I will draw out a sword after them.

5:13  And My wrath and My anger shall be accomplished upon them: and you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken in My jealousy, when I have accomplished My anger upon them.

5:14  And I will make you desolate, and your daughters round about you, in the sight of everyone that passes through.

5:15  And you shall be mourned over and miserable among the nations round about you, when I have executed judgments in you in the vengeance of My wrath. I, the Lord, have spoken.

5:16  And when I have sent against them shafts of famine, then they shall be consumed, and I will break the strength of your bread.

5:17  So I will send forth against you famine and evil beasts, and I will take vengeance upon you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through upon you; and I will bring a sword upon you round about. I, the Lord, have spoken.

Chapter 6

6:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

6:2  Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them;

6:3  and you shall say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord; Thus says the Lord to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the valleys, and to the forests: Behold, I bring a sword upon you, and your high places shall be utterly destroyed.

6:4  And your altars shall be broken to pieces, and your consecrated plats; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

6:5  And I will scatter your bones round about your altars,

6:6  and in all your habitations; the cities shall be made desolate, and the high places utterly laid waste, that your altars may be destroyed, and your idols be broken to pieces, and your consecrated plats be abolished.

6:7  And slain men shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

6:8  When there are some of you escaping from the sword among the Gentiles, and when you are scattered in the countries,

6:9  then those of you that escape among the nations where they were carried captive shall remember Me; (I have sworn an oath against their heart that goes a-whoring from Me, and their eyes that go a-whoring after their practices) and they shall mourn over themselves for all their abominations.

6:10  And they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken.

6:11  Thus says the Lord: Clap with your hand, and stamp with your foot and say, Aha, aha! For all the abominations of the house of Israel; they shall fall by the sword, and by pestilence, and by famine.

6:12  He that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that is far off shall die by the pestilence; and he that is in the siege shall be consumed with famine; and I will accomplish My anger upon them.

6:13  Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain are in the midst of your idols round about your altars, on every high hill, and under every shady tree, where they offered a sweet savor to all their idols.

6:14  And I will stretch out My hand against them, and I will make the land desolate and ruined from the wilderness of Diblah, in all their habitations; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 7

7:1  Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Also, you, son of man, say,

7:2  Thus says the Lord: An end has come to the land of Israel, the end has come on the four corners of the land.

7:3  Now the end has come upon you, and I will send judgment upon you: and I will take vengeance on your ways, and will recompense all your abominations upon you.

7:4  My eye shall not spare, nor will I have any mercy, for I will recompense your way upon you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

7:5  For thus says the Lord; Behold, the end has come.

7:6  The end has come on you,

7:7  the inhabitant of the land: the time has come, the day has drawn near, not with tumult, nor with pangs.

7:8  Now I will pour out My anger upon you near at hand, and I will accomplish My wrath on you: and I will judge you for your ways, and recompense all your abominations upon you.

7:9  My eye shall not spare, nor will I have any mercy: for I will recompense your ways upon you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the Lord that strikes you.

7:10  Behold, the day of the Lord! Although the rod has blossomed,

7:11  pride has sprung up, and will break the staff of the wicked one, and that not with tumult, nor with haste.

7:12  The time has come, behold the day: let not the buyer rejoice, and let not the seller mourn.

7:13  For the buyer shall never again return to the seller, neither shall a man cleave with the eye of hope to his life.

7:14  Sound the trumpet, and pass sentence on all together.

7:15  There shall be war with the sword without, and famine and pestilence within: he that is in the field shall die by the sword, and famine and pestilence shall destroy them that are in the city.

7:16  But they that escape among them shall be delivered, and shall be upon the mountains, and I will slay all the rest, everyone for his iniquities.

7:17  All hands shall be completely weakened, and all thighs shall be defiled with moisture.

7:18  And they shall gird themselves with sackcloth, and amazement shall cover them; and shame shall be upon them, even upon every face, and baldness upon every head.

7:19  Their silver shall be cast forth in the streets, and their gold shall be despised: their souls shall not be satisfied, and their bellies shall not be filled; for it was the punishment of their iniquities.

7:20  As for their choice ornaments, they employed them for pride, and they made of them images of their abominations; therefore have I made them uncleanness to them.

7:21  And I will deliver them into the hands of strangers to make them a prey, and to the pests of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane them.

7:22  And I will turn away My face from them, and they shall defile My secret place, and shall go in to them unguardedly, and profane them.

7:23  And they shall work uncleanness: because the land is full of strange nations, and the city is full of iniquity.

7:24  And I will turn back the boasting of their strength; and their holy things shall be defiled.

7:25  And though propitiation shall come, and one shall seek peace, yet there shall be none.

7:26  There shall be woe upon woe, and there shall be message upon message; and a vision shall be sought from a prophet, but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

7:27  The prince shall clothe himself with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be made feeble. I will do to them according to their ways, and according to their judgments will I punish them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 8

8:1  And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the fifth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in the house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me. And the hand of the Lord came upon me.

8:2  And I looked, and behold, the likeness of a man: from his loins and downwards there was fire, and from his loins upwards there was as the appearance of amber.

8:3  And He stretched forth the likeness of a hand, and took me by the crown of my head. And the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and sky, and brought me to Jerusalem in a vision of God, to the porch of the gate that looks to the north, where was the pillar of the Purchaser.

8:4  And behold, the glory of the Lord God of Israel was there, according to the vision which I saw in the plain.

8:5  And He said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, I looked from the north toward the eastern gate.

8:6  And He said to me, Son of man, have you seen what these people do? They commit great abominations here, so that I should keep away from My sanctuary; and you shall see even greater iniquities.

8:7  And He brought me to the porch of the court.

8:8  And He said to me, Son of man, dig. So I dug, and behold, there was a door.

8:9  And He said to me, Go in, and behold the iniquities which they practice here.

8:10  So I went in and looked, and I beheld vain abominations, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon them round about.

8:11  And seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and Jechoniah the son of Shaphan stood in their presence in the midst of them, and each one held his censer in his hand; and the smoke of the incense went up.

8:12  And He said to me, You have seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do, each one of them in their secret chamber; because they have said, The Lord does not see; the Lord has forsaken the earth.

8:13  And He said to me, You shall see even greater iniquities than these.

8:14  And He brought me in to the porch of the house of the Lord that looks to the north; and behold there were women sitting there lamenting for Tammuz.

8:15  And He said to me, Son of man, you have seen; but you shall yet see evil practices even greater then these.

8:16  And He brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty men, with their back parts toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces turned the opposite way; and these were worshipping the sun.

8:17  And He said to me, Son of man, you have seen this. Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to practice the iniquities which they have practiced here? For they have filled the land with iniquity; and behold, these are as scorners.

8:18  Therefore will I deal with them in wrath: My eye shall not spare, nor will I have any mercy.

Chapter 9

9:1  Then He called out in my ears with a loud voice, saying, The judgment of the city has drawn near. And each had the weapons of destruction in his hand.

9:2  And behold, six men came from the way of the high gate that looks toward the north, and each one's axe was in his hand; and there was one man in the midst of them clothed with a long robe down to his feet, and a sapphire belt was on his loins. And they came in and stood near the bronze altar.

9:3  And the glory of the God of Israel that was upon them went up from the cherubim to the porch of the house. And He called the man that was clothed with the long robe, who had the belt on his loins;

9:4  and said to him, Go through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that groan and that grieve for all the iniquities that are done in the midst of them.

9:5  And He said to the first in my hearing, Go after him into the city, and strike: and let not your eyes spare, neither have mercy.

9:6  Utterly slay old man and youth, and virgin and infants and women: but do not go near any on whom is the mark: begin at My sanctuary. So they began with the elder men who were within in the house.

9:7  And He said to them, Defile the house, and go out and fill the ways with dead bodies, and strike.

9:8  And it came to pass as they were striking, that I fell upon my face and cried out, and said, Alas, O Lord! Will You destroy the remnant of Israel, in pouring out Your wrath upon Jerusalem?

9:9  Then He said to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah has become exceedingly great: for the land is filled with many nations, and the city is filled with iniquity and uncleanness; because they have said, The Lord has forsaken the earth, The Lord looks not upon it.

9:10  Therefore My eye shall not spare, neither will I have any mercy: I have recompensed their ways upon their heads.

9:11  And behold, the man clothed with the long robe, and girded with the belt about his loins, answered and said, I have done as You have commanded me.

Chapter 10

10:1  Then I looked, and behold, over the firmament that was above the head of the cherubim there was a likeness of a throne over them, as a sapphire stone.

10:2  And He said to the man clothed with the long robe, Go in between the wheels that are under the cherubim, and fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. And he went in my sight.

10:3  And the cherubim stood on the right hand of the house, as the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court.

10:4  Then the glory of the Lord departed from the cherubim to the porch of the house; and the cloud filled the house, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord.

10:5  And the sound of the wings of the Cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, as the voice of Almighty God speaking.

10:6  And it came to pass, when He gave a charge to the man clothed with the sacred robe, saying, Take fire from between the wheels from between the cherubim, that he went in, and stood near the wheels.

10:7  And he stretched forth his hand into the midst of the fire that was between the cherubim, and took thereof, and put it into the hands of the man clothed with the sacred robe: and he took it, and went out.

10:8  And I saw the cherubim having the likeness of men's hands under their wings.

10:9  And I saw, and behold, four wheels stood by the cherubim, one wheel by each cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the appearance of a carbuncle stone.

10:10  And as for their appearance, there was one likeness to the four, as if there should be a wheel in the midst of a wheel.

10:11  When they went, they went on their four sides; they turned not when they went, for whichever way the first head looked, they went; and they turned not as they went.

10:12  And their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about the four wheels.

10:13  And these wheels were called Gelgel in my hearing.

10:15  And the cherubim were the same living creatures which I saw by the River Chebar.

10:16  And when the cherubim went, the wheels went, and they were close to them. And when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, their wheels turned not.

10:17  When they stood, the wheels stood; and when they mounted up, the wheels mounted up with them, because the spirit of life was in them.

10:18  Then the glory of the Lord departed from the house, and went up on the cherubim.

10:19  And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went forth, the wheels were also beside them, and they stood at the entrance of the front gate of the house of the Lord; and the glory of the God of Israel was upon them above.

10:20  This is the living creature which I saw under the God of Israel by the River Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim.

10:21  Each one had four faces, and each one had eight wings; and under their wings was the likeness of men's hands.

10:22  And as for the likeness of their faces, these are the same faces which I saw under the glory of the God of Israel by the River Chebar: and they went each straight forward.

Chapter 11

11:1  Moreover the Spirit took me up, and brought me to the front gate of the house of the Lord, that looks eastward. And behold, at the entrance of the gate were about twenty-five men; and I saw in the midst of them Jechoniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, the leaders of the people.

11:2  And the Lord said to me, Son of man, these are the men that devise vanities, and take evil counsel in this city;

11:3  who say, Have not the houses been newly built? This is the caldron, and we are the flesh.

11:4  Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, son of man.

11:5  And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said to me, say; Thus says the Lord: Thus have you said, O house of Israel: and I know the devices of your spirit.

11:6  You have multiplied your dead in this city, and you have filled your ways with slain men.

11:7  Therefore thus says the Lord: Your dead whom you have smitten in the midst of it, these are the flesh, and this city is the caldron; but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

11:8  You fear the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, says the Lord.

11:9  And I will bring you forth out of the midst of it, and will deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

11:10  You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you on the mountains of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

11:13  And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. And I fell upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Alas, alas, O Lord! Will you utterly destroy the remnant of Israel?

11:14  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

11:15  Son of man, your brethren, and the men of your captivity, and all the house of Israel have come to the full, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, Keep far away from the Lord: the land is given to us for an inheritance.

11:16  Therefore say, Thus says the Lord: I will cast them off among the nations, and will disperse them into every land, yet will I be to them for a little sanctuary in the countries which they shall enter.

11:17  Therefore say, Thus says the Lord: I will also take them from the heathen, and gather them out of the lands in which I have scattered them, and will give them the land of Israel.

11:18  And they shall enter in there, and shall remove all the abominations from it, and all its iniquities from it.

11:19  And I will give them another heart, and will put a new spirit within them; and will extract the heart of stone from their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh;

11:20  that they may walk in My commandments, and keep My ordinances, and do them: and they shall be to Me a people, and I will be to them a God.

11:21  And as for the heart set upon their abominations and their iniquities, as their heart went after them, I have recompensed their ways on their heads, says the Lord.

11:22  Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

11:23  And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain which was in front of the city.

11:24  And the Spirit took me up, and brought me to the land of the Chaldeans, to the captivity, in a vision by the Spirit of God: and I went up after the vision which I saw.

11:25  And I spoke to the captivity all the words of the Lord, which He had shown me.

Chapter 12

12:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

12:2  Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the iniquities of those who have eyes to see, and see not; and have ears to hear, and hear not; because they are a provoking house.

12:3  You therefore, son of man, prepare yourself baggage for going into captivity by day in their sight; and you shall be led into captivity from your place into another place in their sight; that they may see that they are a provoking house.

12:4  And you shall carry forth your baggage, baggage for captivity, by day before their eyes; and you shall go forth at evening, as a captive goes forth, in their sight.

12:5  Dig for yourself into the wall of the house, and you shall pass through it in their sight.

12:6  You shall be lifted up on men's shoulders, and shall go forth in secret; you shall cover your face, and shall not see the ground, because I have made you a sign to the house of Israel.

12:7  And I did thus according to all that He commanded me; and I carried forth my baggage for captivity by day, and in the evening I dug through the wall for myself, and I went out secretly; I was taken up on men's shoulders before them.

12:8  And the word of the Lord came to me in the morning, saying,

12:9  Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the provoking house, said to you, What are you doing?

12:10  Say to them, Thus says the Lord God, the Prince and the Ruler in Israel, even to all the house of Israel who are in the midst of them:

12:11  say, I am performing signs: as I have done, so shall it be to him; they shall go into banishment and captivity.

12:12  And the prince in the midst of them shall be borne upon shoulders, and shall go forth in secret through the wall, and shall dig, so that he may go forth thereby; he shall cover his face, so that he may not be seen by anyone, and he himself shall not see the ground.

12:13  And I will spread out My net upon him, and he shall be caught in My snare, and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; but he shall not see it, though he shall die there.

12:14  And I will scatter to every wind all his assistants round about him, and all that help him; and I will draw out a sword after them;

12:15  And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have scattered them among the nations; and I will disperse them into the countries.

12:16  And I will leave among them a few men in number spared from the sword, and from famine, and pestilence; that they may declare all their iniquities among the nations where they have gone; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

12:17  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

12:18  Son of man, eat your bread with sorrow, and drink your water with torment and affliction.

12:19  And you shall say to the people of the land, Thus says the Lord to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, on the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread in scarcity, and shall drink their water in desolation, that the land may be desolate with all that it contains, for all that dwell in it are ungodly.

12:20  And their inhabited cities shall be laid utterly waste, and the land shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

12:21  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

12:22  Son of man, what is your parable on the land of Israel, that you say, The days are long, and the vision has perished?

12:23  Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord: I will even set aside this parable, and the house of Israel shall by no means use this parable again; for you shall say to them, The days are at hand, and the fulfillment of every vision.

12:24  For there shall no more be any false vision, nor anyone prophesying flatteries in the midst of the children of Israel.

12:25  For I the Lord will speak My words; I will speak and perform them, and will delay no more, for in your days, O provoking house, I will speak the word, and will perform it, says the Lord.

12:26  Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

12:27  Son of man, behold, the provoking house of Israel boldly say, The vision which this man sees is for many days, and he prophesies for times afar off.

12:28  Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord: Henceforth none of My words shall linger, which I shall speak: I will speak and do, says the Lord.

Chapter 13

13:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

13:2  Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, and you shall prophesy, and shall say to them, Hear the word of the Lord:

13:3  Thus says the Lord: Woe to them that prophesy out of their own heart, and who see nothing at all.

13:4  Your prophets, O Israel, are like foxes in the deserts.

13:5  They have not continued steadfast, and they have gathered flocks against the house of Israel, they that say,

13:6  In the day of the Lord, have not stood, seeing false visions, prophesying vanities, who say, The Lord says, and the Lord has not sent them, and they began to try to confirm the word.

13:7  Have you not seen a false vision, and spoken vain prophecies?

13:8  And therefore say, Thus says the Lord: Because your words are false, and your prophecies are vain, therefore behold, I am against you, says the Lord.

13:9  And I will stretch forth My hand against the prophets that see false visions, and those that utter vanities. They shall not partake of the instruction of My people, neither shall they be written in the roll of the house of Israel, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

13:10  Because they have caused My people to err, saying, Peace; and there is no peace; and one builds a wall, and they plaster it-it shall fall.

13:11  Say to them that plaster it, It shall fall; and there shall be a flooding rain; and I will send great stones upon their joinings, and they shall fall; and there shall be a sweeping wind, and it shall be broken.

13:12  And lo! The wall has fallen; and will they not say to you, Where is your plaster with which you plastered it?

13:13  Therefore thus says the Lord: I will even cause to burst forth a sweeping blast with fury, and there shall be a flooding rain in My wrath; and in My fury I will bring on great hailstones for complete destruction.

13:14  And I will break down the wall which you have plastered, and it shall fall; and I will lay it on the ground, and its foundations shall be discovered, and it shall fall; and you shall be consumed with rebukes; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

13:15  And I will accomplish My wrath upon the wall, and upon them that plaster it; it shall fall: and I said to you, The wall is not, nor they that plaster it,

13:16  even the prophets of Israel, who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, says the Lord.

13:17  And you, son of man, set your face firmly against the daughters of your people, that prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy against them.

13:18  And you shall say, Thus says the Lord: Woe to the women that sew pillows under every elbow, and make handkerchiefs on the head of every stature to pervert souls! The souls of My people are perverted, and they have saved souls alive.

13:19  And they have dishonored Me before My people for a handful of barley, and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls which should not die, and to save alive the souls which should not live, while you speak to a people hearing vain speeches.

13:20  Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your pillows, whereby you there confound souls, and I will tear them away from your arms, and will set at liberty their souls which you pervert, to scatter them.

13:21  And I will tear your handkerchiefs, and will rescue My people out of your hands, and they shall no longer be in your hands to be confounded; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

13:22  Because you have perverted the heart of the righteous, whereas I perverted him not, and that in order to strengthen the hands of the wicked, that he should not at all turn from his evil way and live:

13:23  therefore you shall not see false visions, and you shall no more utter prophecies; but I will deliver My people out of your hand; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 14

14:1  And there came to me men of the people of Israel, of the elders, and sat before me.

14:2  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

14:3  Son of man, these men have conceived their devices in their hearts, and have set before their faces the punishment of their iniquities: shall I indeed answer them?

14:4  Therefore speak to them, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: Any man of the house of Israel, who shall conceive his devices in his heart, and shall set the punishment of his iniquity before his face, and shall come to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him according to the things in which his mind is entangled,

14:5  that he should turn aside the house of Israel, according to their hearts that are estranged from Me in their thoughts.

14:6  Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Be converted, and turn from your evil practices, and from all your sins, and turn your faces back again.

14:7  For any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, who shall separate himself from Me, and conceive his imaginations in his heart, and set before his face the punishment of his iniquity, and come to the prophet to inquire of him concerning Me; I the Lord will answer him, according to the things in which he is entangled.

14:8  And I will set My face against that man, and will make him desolate and ruined, and will cut him off from the midst of My people; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

14:9  And if a prophet should cause to err and should speak, I the Lord have caused that prophet to err, and I will stretch out My hand upon him, and will utterly destroy him from the midst of My people Israel.

14:10  And they shall bear their iniquity according to the trespass of him that asks; and it shall be in like manner to the prophet according to the trespass,

14:11  that the house of Israel may not go astray from Me, and that they may no more defile themselves with any of their transgressions; so shall they be My people, and I will be their God, says the Lord.

14:12  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

14:13  Son of man, if a land shall sin against Me by committing a trespass, then will I stretch out My hand upon it, and will break its staff of bread, and will send forth famine upon it, and cut off man and beast from it.

14:14  And though these three men should be in the midst of it, Noah, Daniel, and Job, they alone would be delivered by their righteousness, says the Lord.

14:15  If again I bring evil beasts upon the land, and take vengeance upon it, and it is ruined, and there be no one to pass through for fear of the wild beasts;

14:16  and if these three men should be in the midst of it, as I live, says the Lord, neither sons nor daughters shall be saved, but these only shall be saved, and the land shall be destroyed.

14:17  Or again if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Let the sword go through the land; and I cut off from them man and beast;

14:18  though these three men were in the midst of it, as I live, says the Lord, they shall not deliver sons or daughters, but they only shall be saved themselves.

14:19  Or if again I send pestilence upon that land, and pour out My wrath upon it in blood, to destroy from off it man and beast; and should Noah, Daniel, and Job be in the midst of it, as I live, says the Lord, there shall be left them neither sons nor daughters; only they by their righteousness shall deliver their souls.

14:21  Thus says the Lord: And if I even send upon Jerusalem My four severe judgments-the sword, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence, to destroy from out of it both man and beast;

14:22  yet behold, there shall be men left in it, those that escaped, who shall lead forth of it sons and daughters-behold, they shall go forth to you, and you shall see their ways and their thoughts, and you shall mourn over the evils which I have brought upon Jerusalem, even all the evils which I have brought upon it.

14:23  And they shall comfort you, because you shall see their ways and their thoughts; and you shall know that I have not done in vain all that I have done in it, says the Lord.

Chapter 15

15:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

15:2  And you, son of man-of all the wood, of the branches that are among the trees of the forest, what shall be made of the wood of the vine?

15:3  Will they take wood from it to make it fit for work? Will they take a peg from it to hang any vessel upon it?

15:4  It is only given to the fire to be consumed; the fire consumes that which is yearly ruined of it, and it is utterly gone. Will it be useful for any work?

15:5  Not even while it is yet whole will it be useful for any work; if the fire shall have utterly consumed it, will it still be fit for work?

15:6  Therefore say, Thus says the Lord: As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given up to the fire to be consumed, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15:7  And I will set My face against them; they shall go forth of the fire, and yet fire shall devour them; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have set My face against them.

15:8  And I will give up the land to ruin, because they have utterly transgressed, says the Lord.

Chapter 16

16:1  Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

16:2  Son of man, testify to Jerusalem of her iniquities;

16:3  and you shall say, Thus says the Lord to Jerusalem: Your root and your birth are of the land of Canaan: your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.

16:4  And as for your birth in the day in which you were born, you did not bind your breasts, and you were not washed in water, neither were you salted with salt, neither were you swathed in swaddling-bands.

16:5  Nor did My eye pity you, to do for you one of all these things, to feel at all for you; but you were cast out on the face of the field, because of the deformity of your person, in the day in which you were born.

16:6  And I passed by to you, and saw you polluted in your blood; and I said to you, Let there be life out of your blood;

16:7  increase; I have made you as the springing grass of the field. So you increased and grew, and entered into great cities: your breasts were set, and your hair grew, whereas you were naked and bare.

16:8  And I passed by you and saw you, and behold, it was your time and a time of resting; and I spread My wings over you, and covered your shame, and swore an oath to you; and I entered into covenant with you, says the Lord, and you became Mine.

16:9  And I washed you in water, and washed your blood from you, and anointed you with oil.

16:10  And I clothed you with embroidered garments, and clothed you beneath with purple, and girded you with fine linen, and clothed you with silk,

16:11  and decked you also with ornaments, and put bracelets on your hands, and a necklace on your neck.

16:12  And I put a pendant in your nose, and rings in your ears, and a crown of glory on your head.

16:13  So you were adorned with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work; you ate fine flour and oil and honey, and became extremely beautiful.

16:14  And your name went forth among the nations because of your beauty; because it was perfected with elegance, and in the comeliness which I put upon you, says the Lord.

16:15  But you trusted in your beauty, and went a-whoring because of your fame, and poured out your fornication on every passer by.

16:16  And you took of your garments, and made for yourself idols of needlework, and went a-whoring after them; therefore you shall never come in, nor shall the like take place.

16:17  And you took your fair ornaments of My gold and of My silver, of what I gave you, and you made for yourself male images, and you committed harlotry with them.

16:18  And you took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set before them My oil and My incense.

16:19  And you took My bread which I gave you, (yea, I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey) and set them before them for a sweet-smelling savor; yes, it was so, says the Lord.

16:20  And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore, and sacrificed these to them to be destroyed. You went a-whoring as if that were little,

16:21  and slain your children, and gave them up, in offering them up as a sacrifice.

16:22  This is beyond all your fornication, and you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and lived, though defiled in your blood.

16:23  And it came to pass after all your wickedness, says the Lord,

16:24  that you built yourself a house of fornication, and made a public place for yourself in every street;

16:25  and on the head of every road you set up your fornications, and defiled your beauty, and opened your feet to every passer by, and multiplied your fornication.

16:26  And you went a-whoring after the children of Egypt your neighbors, great of flesh; and went a-whoring, often to provoke Me to anger.

16:27  And if I stretch out My hand against you, then will I abolish your statutes, and deliver you up to the will of those that hate you, even to the daughters of the Philistines that turned you aside from the way in which you sinned.

16:28  And you went a-whoring to the daughters of Assyria, and not even then were you satisfied; yea, you went a-whoring, and were not satisfied.

16:29  And you multiplied your covenants with the land of the Chaldeans; and not even with these were you satisfied.

16:30  Why should I make a covenant with your daughter, says the Lord, while you do all these things, the works of a harlot? And you have gone a-whoring in a threefold degree with your daughters.

16:31  You have built a house of harlotry at the head of every road, and have set up your high place in every street; and you became as a harlot gathering payments.

16:32  An adulteress resembles you, taking rewards of her husband.

16:33  She has even given rewards to all that went a-whoring after her, and you have given rewards to all your lovers, yea, you loaded them with rewards, that they should come to you from every side for your fornication.

16:34  And there has happened in you perverseness in your fornication beyond other women, and they have committed fornication with you, in that you give payments over and above, and payments were not given to you; and thus perverseness happened in you.

16:35  Therefore, harlot, hear the word of the Lord:

16:36  Thus says the Lord: Because you have poured forth your money, therefore your shame shall be discovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with regard to all the imaginations of your iniquities, and for the blood of your children which you have given to them.

16:37  Therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you have consorted, and all whom you have loved, with all whom you hated; and I will gather them against you round about, and will expose your wickedness to them, and they shall see all your shame.

16:38  And I will be avenged on you with the vengeance of an adulteress, and I will bring upon you blood of fury and jealousy.

16:39  And I will deliver you into their hands, and they shall break down your house of harlotry, and destroy your high place; and they shall strip you of your garments, and shall take your proud ornaments, and leave you naked and bare.

16:40  And they shall bring multitudes upon you, and they shall stone you with stones, and pierce you with their swords.

16:41  And they shall burn your houses with fire, and shall execute vengeance on you in the sight of many women; and I will turn you back from harlotry, and I will no more give you rewards.

16:42  So will I slacken My fury against you, and My jealousy shall be removed from you, and I will rest, and be no more careful for you.

16:43  Because you did not remember the days of your youth, and you grieved Me in all these things; therefore, behold, I have recompensed your ways upon your head, says the Lord; for thus have you wrought ungodliness above all your other iniquities.

16:44  These are all the things they have spoken against you in a proverb, saying,

16:45  As is the mother, so is your mother's daughter: you are she that has rejected her husband and her children; and the sisters of your sisters have rejected their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

16:46  Your elder sister who dwells on your left hand is Samaria, she and her daughters: and your younger sister, that dwells on your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

16:47  Yet notwithstanding you have not walked in their ways, neither have you done according to their iniquities within a little, but you have exceeded them in all your ways.

16:48  As I live, says the Lord, this Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

16:49  Moreover this was the sin of your sister Sodom-pride. She and her daughters lived in pleasure, in fullness of bread and in abundance; this belonged to her and her daughters, and they helped not the hand of the poor and needy.

16:50  And they boasted, and worked iniquities before Me: so I cut them off as I saw fit.

16:51  Also Samaria has not sinned according to half of your sins; but you have multiplied your iniquities beyond them, and you have justified your sisters in all your iniquities which you have committed.

16:52  You therefore bear your punishment, for that you have corrupted your sisters by your sins which you have committed beyond them; and you have made them appear more righteous than yourself: you therefore be ashamed, and bear your dishonor, in that you have justified your sisters.

16:53  And I will turn their captivity, even the captivity of Sodom and her daughters; and I will turn the captivity of Samaria and her daughters; and I will turn your captivity in the midst of them;

16:54  that you may bear your punishment, and be dishonored for all that you have done in provoking Me to anger.

16:55  And your sister Sodom and her daughters shall be restored as they were at the beginning, and you and your daughters shall be restored as you were at the beginning.

16:56  And surely your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the days of your pride;

16:57  before your wickedness was discovered, even now you are the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all that are round about her, even of the daughters of the Philistines that compass you round about.

16:58  As for your ungodliness and your iniquities, you have borne them, says the Lord.

16:59  Thus says the Lord: I will even do to you as you have done, as you have dealt shamefully in these things to transgress My covenant.

16:60  And I will remember My covenant, made with you in the days of your infancy, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant.

16:61  Then you shall remember your way, and shall be utterly dishonored when you receive your elder sisters with your younger ones, and I will give them to you for building up, but not by your covenant.

16:62  And I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall know that I am the Lord,

16:63  that you may remember, and be ashamed, and may no more be able to open your mouth for your shame, when I am reconciled to you for all that you have done, says the Lord.

Chapter 17

17:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

17:2  Son of man, relate a tale, and speak a parable to the house of Israel:

17:3  and you shall say, Thus says the Lord: A great eagle with large wings, spreading them out very far, with many claws, which has the design of entering into Lebanon-and he took the choice branches of the cedar;

17:4  he cropped off the ends of the tender twigs, and brought them into the land of Canaan; he laid them up in a walled city.

17:5  And he took of the seed of the land, and sowed it in a field planted by much water; he set it in a conspicuous place.

17:6  And it sprang up, and became a weak and little vine, so that its branches appeared on it, and its roots were under it: and it became a vine, and put forth shoots, and sent forth its tendrils.

17:7  And there was another great eagle, with great wings and many claws. And behold, this vine bent itself round toward him, and its roots were turned towards him, and it sent forth its branches towards him, that he might water it together with the growth of its plantation.

17:8  It thrives in a fair field by much water, to produce shoots and bear fruit, that it might become a great vine.

17:9  Therefore say, Thus says the Lord: Shall it prosper? Shall not the roots of its tender stem and its fruit be blighted? Yea, all its early shoots shall be dried up, and that not by a mighty arm, nor by many people, to tear it up from its roots.

17:10  And behold, it thrives; shall it prosper? Shall it not wither as soon as the east wind touches it? It shall be withered together with the growth of its shoots.

17:11  Moreover the word of the Lord came to me saying,

17:12  Son of man, say now to the provoking house, Know you not what these things were? Say to them, Whenever the king of Babylon shall come against Jerusalem, then he shall take her king and her princes, and shall take them home to Babylon.

17:13  And he shall take of the royal seed, and shall make a covenant with him, and shall bind him with an oath; and he shall take the princes of the land,

17:14  that it may become a weak kingdom, so as never to lift itself up, that he may keep his covenant, and establish it.

17:15  And if he shall revolt from him, to send his messengers into Egypt, that they may give him horses and much people; shall he prosper? Shall he that acts as an adversary be preserved? And shall he that transgresses the covenant be preserved?

17:16  As I live, says the Lord, verily in the place where the king is that made him king, who dishonored My oath, and who broke My covenant, shall he die with him in the midst of Babylon.

17:17  And Pharaoh shall make war upon him not with a large force or great multitude, in throwing up a mound, and in building of forts, to cut off souls.

17:18  Whereas he has profaned the oath so as to break the covenant, when behold, I engage his hand, and he has done all these things to him, he shall not escape.

17:19  Therefore say, Thus says the Lord: As I live, surely My oath which he has profaned, and My covenant which he has transgressed, I will even recompense it upon his head.

17:20  And I will spread a net upon him, and he shall be caught in its snare.

17:21  In every battle of his they shall fall by the sword, and I will scatter his remnant to every wind, and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it.

17:22  For thus says the Lord: I will even take of the choice branches of the cedar from the top thereof, I will crop off their hearts, and I will plant it on a high mountain;

17:23  and I will hang it on a lofty mountain of Israel: yea, I will plant it, and it shall put forth shoots, and shall bear fruit, and it shall be a great cedar. And every bird shall rest beneath it, even every fowl shall rest under its shadow; its branches shall be restored.

17:24  And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord that bring low the high tree, and exalt the low tree, and wither the green tree, and cause the dry tree to flourish. I the Lord have spoken, and will do it.

Chapter 18

18:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

18:2  Son of man, what do you mean by this parable among the children of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth have been set on edge?

18:3  As I live, says the Lord, surely this parable shall no more be spoken in Israel.

18:4  For all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son, they are Mine: the soul that sins, it shall die.

18:5  But the righteous man, who executes judgment and righteousness,

18:6  who shall not eat upon the mountains, and shall not at all lift up his eyes to the devices of the house of Israel, and shall not defile his neighbor's wife, and shall not draw near to her that is removed,

18:7  and shall not oppress any man, but shall return the pledge of the debtor, and shall be guilty of no plunder, shall give his bread to the hungry, and clothe the naked;

18:8  and shall not lend his money upon usury, and shall not receive usurious increase, and shall turn back his hand from injustice, shall execute righteous judgment between a man and his neighbor,

18:9  and has walked in My commandments and kept My ordinances, to do them-the righteous man shall surely live, says the Lord.

18:10  And if he beget a mischievous son, shedding blood and committing sins,

18:11  who has not walked in the way of his righteous father, but has even eaten upon the mountains, and has defiled his neighbor's wife,

18:12  and has oppressed the poor and needy, and has committed robbery, and not restored a pledge, and has set his eyes upon idols, has worked iniquities,

18:13  has lent upon usury, and taken usurious increase; he shall by no means live: he has done all these iniquities; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.

18:14  And if he beget a son, and the son see all his father's sins which he has done, and fear, and not do according to them,

18:15  and if he has not eaten on the mountains, and has not set his eyes on the devices of the house of Israel, and has not defiled his neighbor's wife,

18:16  and has not oppressed a man, and has not retained the pledge, nor committed robbery, has given his bread to the hungry, and has clothed the naked,

18:17  and has turned back his hand from unrighteousness, has not received interest or usurious increase, has worked righteousness, and walked in My ordinances; he shall not die for the iniquities of his father, he shall surely live.

18:18  But if his father should grievously afflict or plunder, he has wrought enmity in the midst of My people, and shall die in his iniquity.

18:19  But you will say, Why has not the son borne the iniquity of the father? Because the son has wrought judgment and mercy, has kept all My statues, and done them, he shall surely live.

18:20  But the soul that sins shall die; and the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the iniquity of the transgressor shall be upon him.

18:21  And if the transgressor shall turn away from all his iniquities which he has committed, and keep all My commandments, and do justice and mercy, he shall surely live, and shall no means die.

18:22  None of his trespasses which he has committed shall be remembered; in his righteousness which he has done he shall live.

18:23  Shall I in any way desire the death of the sinner, says he Lord, as I desire that he should turn from his evil way, and live?

18:24  But when the righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, according to all the transgressions which the transgressor has done, none of his righteousness which he has wrought shall be at all remembered; in his trespass in which he has trespassed, and in his sins in which he has sinned, in them shall he die.

18:25  Yet you have said, The way of the Lord is not straight. Hear now, all the house of Israel: will not My way be straight? Is your way straight?

18:26  When the righteous turns away from his righteousness and commits a trespass, and dies in the trespass he has committed, he shall even die in it.

18:27  And when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and shall do judgment and justice, he has kept his soul,

18:28  and has turned away from all his ungodliness which he has committed: he shall surely live, he shall not die.

18:29  Yet the house of Israel says, The way of the Lord is not right. Is not My way right, O house of Israel? Is not your way wrong?

18:30  I will judge you, O house of Israel, says the Lord, each one according to his way: be converted, and turn from all your ungodliness, and it shall not become to you the punishment of iniquity.

18:31  Cast away from yourselves all your ungodliness in which you have sinned against Me; and make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit: for why should you die, O house of Israel?

18:32  For I desire not the death of him that dies, says the Lord.

Chapter 19

19:1  Moreover do you take up a lamentation for the prince of Israel,

19:2  and say, Why has your mother become a whelp in the midst of lions? In the midst of lions she has multiplied her whelps.

19:3  And one of her whelps sprang forth; he became a lion, and learned to take prey, he devoured men.

19:4  And the nations heard a report of him; he was caught in their pit, and they brought him into the land of Egypt in chains.

19:5  And she saw that he was driven away from her, and her hope for him perished, and she took another of her whelps; she made him a lion.

19:6  And he went up and down in the midst of lions, he became a lion, and learned to take prey, he devoured men.

19:7  And he prowled in his boldness and laid waste their cities, and made the land desolate, and the fullness of it, by the voice of his roaring.

19:8  Then the nations set upon him from the countries round about, and they spread their nets upon him; he was taken in their pit.

19:9  And they put him in chains and in a cage, and he came to the king of Babylon; and he cast him into prison, that his voice should not be heard on the mountains of Israel.

19:10  Your mother was as a vine and as a blossom on a pomegranate tree, planted by water; her fruit and her shoot abounded by reason of much water.

19:11  And she became a rod for a tribe of princes, and was elevated in her bulk in the midst of other trees, and she saw her bulk in the multitude of her branches.

19:12  But she was broken down in wrath, she was cast upon the ground, and the east wind dried up her choice branches; vengeance came upon them, and the rod of her strength was withered; fire consumed it.

19:13  And now they have planted her in the wilderness, in a dry land.

19:14  And fire has gone out of a rod of her choice boughs, and has devoured her; and there was no rod of strength in her. Her race has become a parable of lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.

Chapter 20

20:1  And it came to pass in the seventh year, on the fifteenth day of the month, there came men of the elders of the house of Israel to inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me.

20:2  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

20:3  Son of man, speak to the elders of the house of Israel, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live, I will not be inquired of by you, says the Lord.

20:4  Shall I utterly take vengeance on them, son of man? Testify to them of the iniquities of their fathers,

20:5  and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: From the day that I chose the house of Israel, and became known to the seed of the house of Jacob, and was known to them in the land of Egypt, and helped them with My hand, saying, I am the Lord your God;

20:6  in that day I helped them with My hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into the land which I prepared for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, it is abundant beyond every land.

20:7  And I said to them, Let everyone cast away the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the devices of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

20:8  But they revolted against Me, and would not hearken to Me: they cast not away the abominations of their eyes, and forsook not the devices of Egypt. Then I said that I would pour out My wrath upon them, to accomplish My wrath upon them in the midst of Egypt.

20:9  But I acted so that My name should not be at all profaned in the sight of the Gentiles, in the midst of whom they are, among whom I was made known to them in their sight, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

20:10  And I brought them into the wilderness.

20:11  And I gave them My commandments, and made known to them My ordinances, all which if a man shall do, he shall even live in them.

20:12  And I gave them My Sabbaths, that they should be for a sign between Me and them, that they should know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them.

20:13  And I said to the house of Israel in the wilderness, Walk in My commandments: but they walked not in them, and they rejected My ordinances, which if a man shall do, he shall even live in them; and they grievously profaned My Sabbaths. And I said that I would pour out My wrath upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

20:14  But I acted so that My name should not be at all profaned before the Gentiles, before whose eyes I brought them out.

20:15  But I lifted up My hand against them in the wilderness once for all, that I would not bring them into the land which I gave them, a land flowing with milk and honey, it is sweeter than all lands;

20:16  because they rejected My ordinances, and walked not in My commandments, but profaned My Sabbaths, and went after the imaginations of their hearts.

20:17  Yet My eyes spared them, so as not to destroy them utterly, and I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.

20:18  And I said to their children in the wilderness, Walk not in the customs of your fathers, and keep not their ordinances, and have no fellowship with their practices, nor defile yourselves with them.

20:19  I am the Lord your God; walk in My commandments, and keep My ordinances, and do them;

20:20  and hallow My Sabbaths, and let them be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

20:21  But they provoked Me, and their children walked not in My commandments, and they took no heed to My ordinances to do them, which if a man shall do, he shall even live in them, and they profaned My Sabbaths. Then I said that I would pour out My wrath upon them in the wilderness, to accomplish My anger upon them.

20:22  But I acted so that My name might not be at all profaned before the Gentiles; and I brought them out in their sight.

20:23  I lifted up My hand against them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the Gentiles, and disperse them in the countries;

20:24  because they kept not My ordinances, and rejected My commandments, and profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes went after the imaginations of their fathers.

20:25  So I gave them commandments that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live.

20:26  And I will defile them by their own decrees, when I pass through upon everyone that opens the womb, that I may destroy them.

20:27  Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: In this too have your fathers provoked Me in their trespasses in which they transgressed against Me.

20:28  Whereas I brought them into the land concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to them; and they looked upon every high hill, and every shady tree, and they sacrificed there to their gods, and offered there sweet-smelling savors, and there they poured out their drink offerings.

20:29  And I said to them, What is Bamah, that you go in there? And they called its name Bamah, until this day.

20:30  Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Do you pollute yourselves with the iniquities of your fathers, and do you go a-whoring after their abominations,

20:31  and do you pollute yourselves with the firstfruits of your gifts, in the offerings wherewith you pollute yourselves in all your imaginations, until this day; and shall I answer you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord, I will not answer you, neither shall this thing come upon your spirit.

20:32  And it shall not be as you say, We will be as the nations, and as the tribes of the earth, to worship stocks and stones.

20:33  Therefore, as I live, says the Lord, I will reign over you with a strong hand, and with a high arm, and with outpoured wrath.

20:34  I will bring you out from the nations, and will take you out of the lands in which you were dispersed, with a strong hand, and with a high arm, and with outpoured wrath.

20:35  And I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and will plead with you there face to face.

20:36  As I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I judge you, says the Lord.

20:37  And I will cause you to pass under My rod, and I will bring you in by number.

20:38  And I will separate from among you the ungodly and the revolters; for I will lead them forth out of their place of sojourning, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am the Lord, even the Lord.

20:39  And as for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord, even the Lord: Put away each one his evil practices, and hereafter if you hearken to Me, then shall you no more profane My holy name by your gifts and by devices.

20:40  For upon My holy mountain, on the high mountain, says the Lord, even the Lord, there shall all the house of Israel serve Me forever. And there will I accept you, and there will I have respect to your firstfruits, and the firstfruits of your offerings, in all your holy things.

20:41  I will accept you with a sweet-smelling savor, when I bring you out from the nations, and take you out of the countries in which you have been dispersed; and I will be sanctified among you in the sight of the nations.

20:42  And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have brought you into the land of Israel, into the land concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to your fathers.

20:43  And you shall there remember your ways, and your devices in which you defiled yourselves; and you shall bewail yourselves for all your wickedness.

20:44  And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have done thus to you, that My name may not be profaned in your evil ways, and in your corrupt devices, says the Lord.

20:45  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

20:46  Son of man, set your face against Thaman, and look toward Darom, and prophesy against the chief forest of Negev,

20:47  and you shall say to the forest of Negev, Hear the word of the Lord; thus says the Lord, even the Lord: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour in you every green tree, and every dry tree. The flame that is kindled shall not be quenched, and every face shall be scorched with it from the south to the north.

20:48  And all flesh shall know that I the Lord have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.

20:49  And I said, Not so, O Lord God! They say to me, Is not this that is spoken a parable?

Chapter 21

21:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

21:2  Therefore prophesy, son of man, set your face steadfastly toward Jerusalem, and look toward their holy places, and you shall prophesy against the land of Israel,

21:3  and you shall say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you, and I will draw forth My sword out of its sheath, and I will destroy out of you the transgressor and the unrighteous.

21:4  Because I will destroy out of you the unrighteous and the transgressor, therefore so shall My sword come forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north;

21:5  and all flesh shall know that I the Lord have drawn forth My sword out of its sheath: it shall not return anymore.

21:6  And you, son of man, groan with the breaking of your loins; you shall even groan heavily in their sight.

21:7  And it shall come to pass, if they shall say to you, Why do you groan? That you shall say, For the report; because it comes: and every heart shall break, and all hands shall become feeble, and all flesh and every spirit shall faint, and all thighs shall be defiled with moisture: behold, it comes, says the Lord.

21:8  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

21:9  Son of man, prophesy, and you shall say, Thus says the Lord: Say, Sword, sword, be sharpened and rage,

21:10  that you may slay victims; be sharpened, that you may be bright, ready for slaughter, slay, set at nought, despise every tree.

21:11  And He made it ready for His hand to hold. The sword is sharpened, it is ready to put into the hand of the slayer.

21:12  Cry out and howl, son of man: for this sword has come upon My people, this sword has come upon all the princes of Israel: they shall be as strangers: judgment with the sword has come upon My people; therefore clap your hands, for sentence has been passed;

21:13  and what if even the tribe be rejected? It shall not be, says the Lord God.

21:14  And you, son of man, prophesy, and clap your hands, and take a second sword: the third sword is the sword of the slain, the great sword of the slain; and you shall strike them with amazement, lest the heart should faint,

21:15  and the weak ones be multiplied at every gate-they are given up to the slaughter of the sword; it is well fitted for slaughter, it is well fitted for glittering.

21:16  And go on, sharpen yourself on the right and on the left, wherever your face may set itself.

21:17  And I also will clap My hands, and let loose My fury. The Lord has spoken it.

21:18  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

21:19  And you, son of man, appoint for yourself two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may enter in: the two shall go forth from one country; and there shall be a force at the top of the way of the city, you shall set it at the top of the road,

21:20  that the sword may enter in upon Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and upon Judea, and upon Jerusalem in the midst thereof.

21:21  For the king of Babylon shall stand on the old road, at the head of the two roads, to use divination, to make bright the arrow, and to inquire of the graven images, and to examine the victims.

21:22  On his right was the divination against Jerusalem, to cast a mound, to open the mouth in shouting, to lift up the voice with crying, to cast a mound against her gates, to cast up a heap, and to build forts.

21:23  And he was to them as one using divination before them, and he himself recounting his iniquities, that they might be borne in mind.

21:24  Therefore thus says the Lord: Because you have caused your iniquities to be remembered, in the discovery of your wickedness, so that your sins should be seen, in all your wickedness and in your evil practices; because you have caused remembrance of them, in these shall you be taken.

21:25  And you, O profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day, even and end, has come in a sea of iniquity, thus says the Lord:

21:26  You have taken off the turban and put on the crown, it shall not have such another after it: you have abased that which was high, and exalted that which was low.

21:27  Injustice, injustice, injustice, will I make it; woe to it. Such shall it be until he comes to whom it belongs; and I will deliver it to him.

21:28  And you, son of man, prophesy, and you shall say, Thus says the Lord, concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach: and you shall say, O sword, sword, drawn for slaughter, and drawn for destruction, awake, that you may gleam.

21:29  While you are seeing vain visions, and while you are prophesying falsehoods, to bring yourself upon the necks of ungodly transgressors, the day has come, even an end, in a season of iniquity.

21:30  Turn, rest not in this place in which you were born: in your own land will I judge you.

21:31  And I will pour out My wrath upon you, I will blow upon you with the fire of My wrath, and I will deliver you into the hands of barbarians skilled in working destruction.

21:32  You shall be fuel for fire; your blood shall be in the midst of your land; there shall be no remembrance at all of you: for I the Lord have spoken it.

Chapter 22

22:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

22:2  And you, son of man, will you judge the bloody city? Yea, declare to her all her iniquities.

22:3  And you shall say, Thus says the Lord God: O city that sheds blood in the midst of her, so that her time should come, and that forms devices against herself, to defile herself;

22:4  in their blood which you have shed, you have transgressed; and in your devices which you have formed, you have polluted yourself; and you have brought near your days, and have brought on the time of your years; therefore have I made you a reproach to the Gentiles, and a mockery to all the countries,

22:5  to those near you, and to those far away; and they shall mock you, you that are notoriously unclean, and abundant in iniquities.

22:6  Behold, the princes of the house of Israel have conspired in you each one with his kindred, that they might shed blood.

22:7  In you they have reviled father and mother; and in you they have behaved unjustly toward the stranger; they have oppressed the orphan and widow.

22:8  And they have set at nought My holy things, and in you they have profaned My Sabbaths.

22:9  There are robbers in you, to shed blood in you; and in you they have eaten upon the mountains; they have wrought ungodliness in the midst of you.

22:10  In you they have uncovered the father's shame; and in you they have humbled her that was set apart for uncleanness.

22:11  They have dealt unlawfully each one with his neighbor's wife; and each one in ungodliness has defiled his daughter-in-law: and in you they have humbled each one his sister, the daughter of his father.

22:12  In you they have received gifts to shed blood; they have received in you interest and usurious increase; and by oppression you have brought your wickedness to the full, and have forgotten Me, says the Lord.

22:13  And if I shall smite My hand at your iniquities which you have accomplished, which you have wrought, and at your blood that has been shed in the midst of you,

22:14  shall your heart endure? Shall your hands be strong in the days which I bring upon you? I the Lord have spoken, and will do it.

22:15  And I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you in the countries, and your uncleanness shall be removed out of you.

22:16  And I will give heritages in you in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

22:17  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

22:18  Son of man, behold, the house of Israel has become to Me as it were mixed with brass, and iron, and tin, and lead; they are mixed up in the midst of the silver.

22:19  Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God: Because you have become one mixture, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

22:20  As silver, brass, iron, tin, and lead are gathered into the midst of the furnace, to blow fire into it, that they may be melted: so will I take you in My wrath, and I will gather and melt you.

22:21  And I will blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof.

22:22  As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst thereof; and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out My wrath upon you.

22:23  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

22:24  Son of man, say to her: You are the land that is not rained upon, neither has rain come upon you in the day of wrath;

22:25  whose princes in the midst of her are as roaring lions seizing prey, devouring souls by oppression, and taking bribes; and your widows are multiplied in the midst of you.

22:26  Her priests also have set at nought My law, and profaned My holy things: they have not distinguished between the holy and profane, nor have they distinguished between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I was profaned in the midst of them.

22:27  Her princes in the midst of her are as wolves ravening to shed blood, that they may get dishonest gain.

22:28  And her prophets that daub them shall fall, that see vanities, that prophesy falsehoods, saying, Thus says the Lord, when the Lord has not spoken.

22:29  That sorely oppress the people of the land with injustice, and commit robbery; oppressing the poor and needy, and not dealing justly with the stranger.

22:30  And I sought from among them a man behaving uprightly, and standing before Me perfectly in the time of wrath, so that I should not utterly destroy her: but I found him not.

22:31  So I have poured out My wrath upon her in the fury of My anger, to accomplish it. I have recompensed their ways on their own heads, says the Lord God.

Chapter 23

23:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

23:2  Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother:

23:3  and they went a-whoring in Egypt in their youth. There their breasts fell, there they lost their virginity.

23:4  And their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they were Mine, and bore sons and daughters: and as for their names, Samaria was Oholah, and Jerusalem was Oholibah.

23:5  And Oholah went a-whoring from Me, and doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians that were her neighbors,

23:6  clothed with purple, princes and captains; they were young men and choice, all horsemen riding on horses.

23:7  And she bestowed her fornication upon them; all were choice sons of the Assyrians: and on whomsoever she doted herself, with them she defiled herself in all their devices.

23:8  And she forsook not her fornication with the Egyptians: for in her youth they committed fornication with her, and they deflowered her, and poured out their fornication upon her.

23:9  Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the children of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.

23:10  They uncovered her shame; they took her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword; and she became a byword among women; and they wrought vengeance in her for the sake of the daughters.

23:11  And her sister Oholibah saw it, and she indulged in her fondness more corruptly than she, and in her fornication more than the fornication of her sister.

23:12  She doted upon the sons of the Assyrian, princes and captains, her neighbors, clothed with fine linen, horsemen riding on horses; they were all choice young men.

23:13  And I saw that they were defiled, that the two had one way.

23:14  And she increased her fornication, and she saw men painted on the wall, likenesses of the Chaldeans painted with a pencil,

23:15  having variegated belts on their loins, having also richly dyed turbans upon their heads; all had a princely appearance, the likeness of the children of the Chaldeans, of their native land.

23:16  And she doted upon them as soon as she saw them, and sent forth messengers to them into the land of the Chaldeans.

23:17  And the sons of Babylon came to her, into the bed of rest, and they defiled her in her fornication, and she was defiled by them, and her soul was alienated from them.

23:18  And she exposed her fornication, and exposed her shame. And My soul was alienated from her, even as My soul was alienated from her sister.

23:19  And you multiplied your fornication, so as to call to remembrance the days of your youth, in which you committed harlotry in Egypt,

23:20  and you doted upon the Chaldeans, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and their members as the members of horses.

23:21  And you looked upon the iniquity of your youth, the things which you did in Egypt in your lodgings, where were the breasts of your youth.

23:22  Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will stir up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them upon you round about,

23:23  the children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the sons of the Assyrians with them; choice young men, governors and captains, all princes and renowned, riding on horses.

23:24  And they all shall come upon you from the north, chariots and wheels, with a multitude of nations, shields and targets; and the enemy shall set a watch against you round about;and I will set judgment before them, and they shall take vengeance on you with their judgements.

23:25  And I will bring upon you My jealousy, and they shall deal with you in great wrath. They shall take away your nose and your ears, and shall cast down your remnant with the sword. They shall take your sons and your daughters, and fire shall devour your remnant.

23:26  And they shall strip you of your clothing, and take away your ornaments.

23:27  So I will turn back your ungodliness from you, and your fornication from the land of Egypt; and you shall not lift up your eyes upon them, and shall no more remember Egypt.

23:28  Wherefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, from whom your soul is alienated.

23:29  And they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take all the fruits of your labors and your toils, and you shall be naked and bare; and the shame of your fornication shall be exposed. And your ungodliness and your fornication

23:30  has brought this upon you, in that you went a-whoring after the nations, and defiled yourself with their devices.

23:31  You walked in the way of your sister; and I will put her cup into your hands.

23:32  Thus says the Lord: Drink your sister's cup, deep and large and full, to cause complete drunkenness.

23:33  And you shall be thoroughly weakened; and the cup of destruction, the cup of your sister Samaria,

23:34  drink it, and I will take away her feasts and her new moons; for I have spoken it, says the Lord.

23:35  Therefore thus says the Lord: Because you have forgotten Me, and have cast Me behind your back, therefore receive the reward of your ungodliness and your fornication.

23:36  And the Lord said to me, Son of man, will you not judge Oholah and Oholibah, and declare to them their iniquities?

23:37  For they have committed adultery, and blood was in their hands, they committed adultery with their devices, and they passed through the fire to them their children which they bore to Me.

23:38  So long too as they did these things to Me, they defiled My sanctuary, and profaned My Sabbaths.

23:39  And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, they also went into My sanctuary to profane it; and whereas they did thus in the midst of My house,

23:40  and whereas they did thus to the men that came from afar, to whom they sent messengers, and as soon as they came, immediately you washed yourself, and painted your eyes and adorned yourself with ornaments,

23:41  and sat on a prepared bed, and before it there was a table set out, and as for My incense and My oil, they rejoiced in them,

23:42  and they raised a sound of music, and that with men coming from the wilderness out of a multitude of men, and they put bracelets on their hands, and a crown of glory on their heads.

23:43  Therefore I said, Do they not commit adultery with these? And has she also gone a-whoring after the manner of a harlot?

23:44  And they went in to her, as men go in to a harlot; so they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, to work iniquity.

23:45  And they are just men, and shall take vengeance on them with the judgment of an adulteress and the judgment of blood, for they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.

23:46  Thus says the Lord God: Bring up a multitude upon them, and send trouble and plunder into the midst of them.

23:47  And stone them with the stones of a multitude, and pierce them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and shall burn up their houses.

23:48  And I will remove ungodliness out of the land, and all the women shall be instructed, and shall not do according to their ungodliness.

23:49  And your ungodliness shall be recompensed upon you, and you shall bear the guilt of your devices, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 24

24:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, saying,

24:2  Son of man, write down the name of the day, this very day, on which the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem, even from this day.

24:3  And speak a parable to the provoking house, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: Set on the caldron, and pour water into it,

24:4  and put the pieces into it, every prime piece, the leg and shoulder taken off from the bones,

24:5  which are taken from choice cattle, and burn the bones under them; her bones are boiled and cooked in the midst of her.

24:6  Therefore thus says the Lord: O bloody city, the caldron in which there is scum, and the scum has not gone out of, she has brought it forth piece by piece, no lot has fallen upon it.

24:7  For her blood is in the midst of her; I have set it upon a smooth rock; I have not poured it out upon the earth, so that the earth should cover it;

24:8  that My wrath should come up for complete vengeance to be taken; I set her blood upon a smooth rock, so as not to cover it.

24:9  Therefore thus says the Lord: I will also make the firebrand great,

24:10  and I will multiply the wood, and kindle the fire, that the flesh may be consumed, and the liquor boiled away;

24:11  and that it may stand upon the coals, that her brass may be thoroughly heated, and be melted in the midst of her filthiness, and her scum may be consumed,

24:12  and her abundant scum may not come forth from her.

24:13  Her scum shall become shameful, because you defiled yourself; and what if you shall be purged no more until I have accomplished My wrath?

24:14  I the Lord have spoken; and it shall come, and I will do it; I will not delay, neither will I have any mercy: I will judge you, says the Lord, according to your ways, and according to your devices. Therefore will I judge you according to your bloodshed, and according to your devices will I judge you, you unclean, notorious, and abundantly provoking one.

24:15  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

24:16  Son of man, behold I take from you the desire of your eyes by violence. You shall not lament, neither shall you weep.

24:17  You shall groan for blood, and have mourning upon your loins; your hair shall not be braided upon you, and your sandals shall be on your feet; you shall by no means be comforted by their lips, and you shall not eat the bread of men.

24:18  And I spoke to the people in the morning, as He commanded me in the evening, and I did in the morning as it was commanded me.

24:19  And the people said to me, Will you not tell us what these things are that you do?

24:20  Then I said to them, The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

24:21  Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will profane My sanctuary, the boast of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and for which your souls are concerned; and your sons and your daughters, whom you have left, shall fall by the sword.

24:22  And you shall do as I have done: you shall not be comforted at their mouth, and you shall not eat the bread of men.

24:23  And your hair shall be upon your head, and your shoes on your feet; neither shall you at all lament or weep, but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and shall comfort everyone his brother.

24:24  And Ezekiel shall be for a sign to you: according to all that I have done shall you do, when these things shall come; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

24:25  And you, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take their strength from them, the pride of their boasting, the desires of their eyes, and the pride of their soul, their sons and their daughters,

24:26  that in that day he that escapes shall come to you, to tell it to you in your ears?

24:27  In that day your mouth shall be opened to him that escapes; you shall speak, and shall be no longer dumb; and you shall be for a sign to them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 25

25:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

25:2  Son of man, set your face steadfastly against the children of Ammon, and prophesy against them;

25:3  and you shall say to the children of Ammon: Hear the word of the Lord; thus says the Lord: Forasmuch as you have rejoiced against My sanctuary, because it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, because it was laid waste, and against the house of Judah, because they went into captivity;

25:4  therefore, behold, I will deliver you to the children of Kedem for an inheritance, and they shall lodge in you with their stuff, and they shall pitch their tents in you; they shall eat your fruits, and they shall drink your milk.

25:5  And I will give up the city of Ammon for camels' pastures, and the children of Ammon for a pasture of sheep; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

25:6  For thus says the Lord: Because you have clapped your hands, and stamped with your foot, and heartily rejoiced against the land of Israel;

25:7  therefore I will stretch out My hand against you, and I will make you a spoil to the nations; and I will utterly destroy you from among the peoples, and I will completely cut you off from out of the countries; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

25:8  Thus says the Lord; Because Moab has said, Behold, are not the houses of Israel and Judah like all the other nations?

25:9  Therefore, behold, I will weaken the shoulder of Moab from his frontier cities, even the choice land, the house of Beth Jeshimoth above the fountain of the city, by the seaside.

25:10  I have given him the children of Kedem in addition to the children of Ammon for an inheritance, that there may be no remembrance of the children of Ammon.

25:11  And I will execute vengeance on Moab; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

25:12  Thus says the Lord: Because of what the Edomites have done in taking vengeance on the house of Judah, and because they have remembered injuries, and have exacted full recompense;

25:13  therefore thus says the Lord: I will also stretch out My hand upon Edom, and will utterly destroy out of it both man and beast, and I will make it desolate; and they that are pursued out of Teman shall fall by the sword.

25:14  And I will execute My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel; and they shall deal in Edom according to My anger and according to My wrath, and they shall know My vengeance, says the Lord.

25:15  Therefore thus says the Lord: Because the Philistines have wrought revengefully, and raised up vengeance rejoicing from their heart to destroy the Israelites to a man;

25:16  therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will stretch out My hand upon the Philistines, and will utterly destroy the Cretans, and will cut off the remnant that dwell by the seacoast.

25:17  And I will execute great vengeance upon them, and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have brought My vengeance upon them.

Chapter 26

26:1  And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

26:2  Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is crushed-the nations are destroyed; she has turned to me; she that was full is made desolate.

26:3  Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea comes up with its waves.

26:4  And they shall cast down the walls of Tyre, and shall cast down your towers: and I will scrape her dust from off her, and make her a bare rock.

26:5  She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for repairing nets, for I have spoken it, says the Lord; and it shall be a spoil for the nations.

26:6  And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain with the sword, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

26:7  For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring up against you, O Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the north: he is a king of kings, with horses, and chariots, and horsemen, and a concourse of very many nations.

26:8  He shall slay your daughters that are in the field with the sword, and shall set a watch against you, and build forts around you, and carry a rampart round against you, and set up warlike works, and array his spears against you.

26:9  He shall cast down with his swords your walls and your towers.

26:10  By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover you, and by reason of the sound of his horsemen and the wheels of his chariots your walls shall be shaken, when he enters into your gates, as one entering into a city from the plain.

26:11  With the hoofs of his horses they shall trample all your streets. He shall slay your people with the sword, and shall bring down to the ground the support of your strength.

26:12  And he shall prey upon your power, and plunder your substance, and shall cast down your walls, and break down your pleasant houses; and he shall cast your stones and your timber and your dust into the midst of your sea.

26:13  And he shall destroy the multitude of your musicians, and the sound of your psalteries shall be heard no more.

26:14  And I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place to spread nets upon; you shall be built no more; for I the Lord have spoken it, says the Lord.

26:15  For thus says the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the isles shake at the sound of your fall, while the wounded are groaning, while they have drawn a sword in the midst of you?

26:16  And all the princes of the nations of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and shall take off their crowns from their heads, and shall take off their embroidered garments; they shall be utterly amazed; they shall sit upon the ground, and fear their own destruction, and shall groan over you.

26:17  And they shall take up a lamentation for you, and shall say to you, How are you destroyed from out of the sea, O renowned city, that brought her terror upon all her inhabitants!

26:18  And the isles shall be alarmed at the day of your fall.

26:19  For thus says the Lord God: When I shall make the city desolate, as the cities that shall not be inhabited, when I have brought the deep up upon you,

26:20  and great waters shall cover you, and I shall bring you down to them that go down to the pit, to the people of old time, and shall cause you to dwell in the depths of the earth, as in everlasting desolation, with them that go down to the pit, that you may not be inhabited, nor stand upon the land of life;

26:21  I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more forever, says the Lord God.

Chapter 27

27:1  And the word of the Lord came to me saying,

27:2  And you, son of man, take up a lamentation against Tyre;

27:3  and you shall say to Tyre that dwells at the entrance of the sea, to the merchant of the nations coming from many islands, Thus says the Lord to Tyre: You have said, I have clothed myself with my beauty.

27:4  In the heart of the sea your sons have put beauty upon you for Beelim.

27:5  Cedar in Senir was employed for you in building; boards of cypress timber were taken out of Lebanon, and wood to make your masts of fir.

27:6  They made your oars of wood out of the land of Bashan; your sacred utensils they made of ivory, your shady houses of wood from the isles of Kittim.

27:7  Fine linen with embroidery from Egypt supplied the couch, to put honor upon you, and to clothe you with blue and purple from the isles of Elishah; and they became your coverings.

27:8  And your princes were the dwellers in Sidon, and the Aradians were your rowers: your wise men, O Tyre, who were in you, these were your pilots.

27:9  The elders of the Biblians, and their wise men, who were in you, these helped your counsel; and all the ships of the sea and their rowers traded for you to the utmost west.

27:10  Persians and Lydians and Libyans were in your army. Your warriors hung in you shields and helmets; these gave you your glory.

27:11  The sons of the Aradians and your army were upon the walls; there were guards in your towers. They hung their quivers on your battlements round about; these completed your beauty.

27:12  The Carthaginians were your merchants because of the abundance of all your strength; they furnished your market with silver, gold, iron, tin and lead.

27:13  Greece, both the whole world, and the adjacent coasts, these traded with you in the persons of men, and they gave as your merchandise vessels of brass.

27:14  Out of the house of Togarmah horses and horsemen furnished the market.

27:15  The sons of the Dedan were your merchants; from the islands they multiplied your merchandise, even the elephants' tusks: and to them that came to you payed you back,

27:16  even men as your merchandise, from the multitude of your trading population, myrrh and embroidered works from Tarshish. Ramoth also and Chorchor furnished your market.

27:17  Judah and the children of Israel, these were your merchants; in the sale of grain and ointments and cassia; and they gave the best honey and oil and resin, to your trading population.

27:18  The people of Damascus were your merchants by reason of the abundance of all your power; wine out of Helbon, and wool from Miletus; and they brought wine into your market.

27:19  Out of Uzal came wrought iron, and there is the sound of wheels among your trading population.

27:20  The people of Dedan were your merchants, with choice cattle for chariots.

27:21  Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, these were your traders with you, bringing camels, lambs, and rams, in which they trade with you.

27:22  The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, these were your merchants, with choice spices, and precious stones; and they brought gold to your market.

27:23  Haran and Canneh, these were your merchants: Assyria and Chilmad, were your merchants;

27:24  bringing for merchandise blue, and choice stores bound with cords, and cypress wood.

27:25  Ships were your merchants, in abundance, with your trading population; and you were filled and very heavily loaded in the heart of the sea.

27:26  The rowers have brought you into great waters. The south wind has broken you in the heart of the sea.

27:27  Your forces and your gain, and that of your traders and your rowers, and your pilots and your counselors, and they that traffic with you, and all your warriors that are in you; and all your company in the midst of you shall perish in the heart of the sea, in the day of your fall.

27:28  At the cry of your voice your pilots shall be greatly terrified;

27:29  and all the rowers and the mariners shall come down from the ships, and the pilots of the sea shall stand on the land.

27:30  And they shall wail over you with their voice, and cry bitterly, and put earth on their heads, and spread ashes under them.

27:32  And their sons shall take up a lament for you, even a lamentation for Tyre, saying,

27:33  How large a reward have you gained from the sea? You have filled nations out of your abundance; and out of your mixed merchandise you have enriched all the kings of the earth.

27:34  Now are you broken in the sea, your traders are in the deep water, and all your company in the midst of you; all your rowers have fallen.

27:35  All the dwellers in the islands have mourned over you, and their kings have been utterly amazed, and their countenance has wept.

27:36  Merchants from the nations have hissed at you; you are utterly destroyed, and shall not be any more forever.

Chapter 28

28:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

28:2  And you, son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord: Because your heart has been exalted, and you have said, I am God, I have inhabited the dwelling of God in the heart of the sea; yet you are a man and not God, though you have set your heart as the heart of God.

28:3  Are you wiser than Daniel? Or have not the wise instructed you with their knowledge?

28:4  Have you gained power for yourself by your own knowledge or your own prudence, and gathered gold and silver in your treasures?

28:5  By your abundant knowledge and your traffic you have multiplied your power; your heart has been lifted up by your power.

28:6  Therefore thus says the Lord: Since you have set your heart as the heart of God;

28:7  because of this, behold, I will bring on you strange plagues from the nations; and they shall draw their swords against you, and against the beauty of your knowledge,

28:8  and they shall bring down your beauty to destruction. And they shall bring you down; and you shall die the death of the slain in the heart of the sea.

28:9  Will you indeed say, I am God, before them that slay you? Seeing you are man, and not God.

28:10  You shall perish by the hands of strangers among the multitude of the uncircumcised, for I have spoken it, says the Lord.

28:11  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

28:12  Son of man, take up a lamentation for the prince of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: You were a seal of resemblance, and a crown of beauty.

28:13  You were in the delight of the paradise of God; you were adorned with every precious stone-the sardius, topaz, emerald, carbuncle, sapphire, jasper, silver, gold, ligure, agate, amethyst, chrysolite, beryl and onyx; and you have filled your treasures and your stores in you with gold.

28:14  From the day that you were created you were with the cherub; I set you on the holy mount of God; you were in the midst of the stones of fire.

28:15  You were faultless in your days, from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you.

28:16  Of the abundance of your merchandise you have filled your storehouses with iniquity, and have sinned. Therefore you have been cast down wounded from the mount of God, and the cherub has brought you out of the midst of the stones of fire.

28:17  Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; your knowledge has been corrupted by your beauty: because of the multitude of your sins I have cast you to the ground, I have caused you to be put to open shame before kings.

28:18  Because of the multitude of your sins and the iniquities of your merchandise, I have profaned your sacred things; and I will bring fire out of the midst of you, this shall devour you; and I will make you to be ashes upon your land before all that see you.

28:19  And all that know you among the nations shall groan over you. You have gone to destruction, and you shall not exist any longer.

28:20  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

28:21  Son of man, set your face against Sidon, and prophesy against it,

28:22  and say, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you, O Sidon; and I will be glorified in you; and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought judgments in you, and I will be sanctified in you.

28:23  Blood and death shall be in your streets; and men wounded with swords shall fall in you and on every side of you; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

28:24  And there shall no more be in the house of Israel a thorn of bitterness and a pricking briar proceeding from them that are round about them, who dishonored them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

28:25  Thus says the Lord God: I will also gather Israel from the nations, among whom they have been scattered, and I will be sanctified among them, and before the peoples and nations; and they shall dwell upon their land, which I gave to My servant Jacob.

28:26  Yea, they shall dwell upon it safely, and they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and dwell securely, when I shall execute judgment on all that have dishonored them, even on those that are round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, and the God of their fathers.

Chapter 29

29:1  In the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

29:2  Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all of Egypt,

29:3  and say, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you O Pharaoh, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers, that says, The rivers are mine, and I made them.

29:4  And I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of your river to stick to your sides, and I will bring you up out of the midst of your river;

29:5  and I will quickly cast you down, and all the fish of your river. You shall fall on the face of the plain, and shall by no means be gathered, and shall not be brought together; I have given you for food to the wild beasts of the earth and to the fowls of the sky.

29:6  And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord, because you have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.

29:7  When they took hold of you with their hand, you broke them; and when every hand was clapped against them, and when they leaned on you, you utterly broke them, and crushed the loins of them all.

29:8  Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you man and beast;

29:9  and the land of Egypt shall be ruined and desolate; and they shall know that I am the Lord; because you say, The rivers are mine, and I made them.

29:10  Therefore, behold, I am against you, and against all your rivers, and I will give up the land of Egypt to desolation, and the sword, and destruction, from Migdol and Syene even to the borders of the Ethiopians.

29:11  No foot of man shall pass through it, and no foot of beast shall pass through it, and it shall not be inhabited for forty years.

29:12  And I will cause her land to be utterly destroyed in the midst of a land that is desolate, and her cities shall be desolate forty years in the midst of cities that are desolate; and I will disperse Egypt among the nations, and will utterly scatter them into the countries.

29:13  Thus says the Lord: After forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the nations among whom they have been scattered;

29:14  and I will turn the captivity of the Egyptians, and will cause them to dwell in the land of Pathros, in the land from where they were taken;

29:15  and it shall be a lowly kingdom beyond all other kingdoms; it shall not anymore be exalted over the nations; and I will make them few in number, that they may not be great among the nations.

29:16  And they shall no more be to the house of Israel a confidence bringing iniquity to remembrance, when they follow after them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

29:17  And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

29:18  Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre; every head was bald, and every shoulder peeled; yet there was no reward to him or to his army serving against Tyre, nor for the service which they served against it.

29:19  Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon the land of Egypt, and he shall take the plunder thereof, and seize the spoils thereof; and it shall be a reward for his army.

29:20  In return for his service in which he served against Tyre, I have given him the land of Egypt; thus says the Lord God:

29:21  In that day shall a horn spring forth for all the house of Israel, and I will give you an open mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 30

30:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

30:2  Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord: Woe, woe worth the day!

30:3  For the day of the Lord is near, a day of clouds; it shall be the end of the nations.

30:4  And the sword shall come upon the Egyptians, and there shall be tumult in Ethiopia, and in Egypt men shall fall down slain together, and her foundations shall fall.

30:5  Persians, Cretans, Lydians, Libyans and all the mixed multitude, and they of the children of My covenant, shall fall by the sword therein.

30:6  And the supports of Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her strength shall come down from Migdol to Syene; they shall fall by the sword in it, says the Lord.

30:7  And it shall be made desolate in the midst of desolate countries, and their cities shall be desolate in the midst of desolate cities;

30:8  and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall send fire upon Egypt, and when all that help her shall be broken.

30:9  In that day shall messengers go forth hasting to destroy Ethiopia utterly, and there shall be tumult among them in the day of Egypt; for behold, it comes.

30:10  Thus says the Lord God: I will also destroy the multitude of the Egyptians by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,

30:11  his hand and his people's; they are plagues sent forth from the nations to destroy the land; and they all shall unsheathe their swords against Egypt, and the land shall be filled with slain.

30:12  And I will make their rivers desolate, and will destroy the land and its fulness by the hands of strangers: I the Lord have spoken.

30:13  For thus says the Lord God: I will also destroy the nobles from Memphis, and the princes of Memphis out of the land of Egypt; and they shall be no more.

30:14  And I will destroy the land of Pathros, and will send fire upon Tanis, and will execute vengeance on Noph.

30:15  And I will pour out My wrath upon Sin, the strength of Egypt, and I will destroy the multitude of Memphis.

30:16  And I will send fire upon Egypt; and Syene shall be greatly troubled; and there shall be a breaking in Noph, and waters shall be poured out.

30:17  The youths of Heliopolis and Pi Beseth shall fall by the sword, and the women shall go into captivity.

30:18  And the day shall be darkened in Tahpanhes, when I have broken there the scepters of Egypt; and the pride of her strength shall perish there, and a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall be taken prisoners.

30:19  And I will execute judgment on Egypt; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

30:20  And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

30:21  Son of man, I have broken the arms of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been bound up to be healed, to have a plaster put upon it, or to be strengthened to lay hold of the sword.

30:22  Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and I will break his strong and outstretched arms, and I will strike down his sword from out of his hand.

30:23  And I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations, and will utterly scatter them among the countries.

30:24  And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put My sword into his hand, and he shall bring it upon Egypt, and shall take her plunder and seize her spoils.

30:25  Yea, I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fail; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have put My sword into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out over the land of Egypt.

30:26  And I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations, and utterly scatter them among the countries; and they all shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 31

31:1  And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

31:2  Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: To whom have you compared yourself in your haughtiness?

31:3  Behold, the Assyrian was a cypress in Lebanon, and was fair in shoots, and high in stature; his top reached to the midst of the clouds.

31:4  The water nourished him, the depth made him grow tall; she led her rivers round about his plants, and she sent forth her streams to all the trees of the field.

31:5  Therefore was his stature exalted above all the trees of the field, and his branches spread far by the help of much water.

31:6  All the birds of the sky made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches all the wild beasts of the field bred; the whole multitude of nations dwelt under his shadow.

31:7  And he was fair in his height by reason of the multitude of his branches, for his roots were amidst much water.

31:8  And such cypresses as these were in the paradise of God; and there were no pines like his shoots, and there were no firs like his branches; no tree in the paradise of God was like him in his beauty,

31:9  because of the multitude of his branches. And the trees of God's Paradise of Delight envied him.

31:10  Therefore thus says the Lord: Because you have grown great, and have set your top in the midst of the clouds, and I saw when he was exalted;

31:11  therefore I delivered him into the hands of the prince of the nations, and he wrought his destruction.

31:12  And ravaging strangers from the nations have destroyed him, and have cast him down upon the mountains. His branches fell in all the valleys, and his boughs were broken in every field of the land; and all the people of the nations have gone down from their shelter, and have laid him low.

31:13  All the birds of the sky have settled on his fallen trunk, and all the wild beasts of the field came upon his boughs,

31:14  in order that none of the trees by the water should exalt themselves by reason of their size; whereas they set their top in the midst of the clouds, yet they continued not in their high state in their place, all that drank water, all were consigned to death, to the depth of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

31:15  Thus says the Lord God: In the day in which he went down to Hades, the deep mourned for him; and I kept back her floods, and restrained her abundance of water; and Lebanon mourned for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

31:16  At the sound of his fall the nations quaked, when I brought him down to Hades with them that go down to the pit. And all the trees of Delight comforted him in the heart, and the choice plants of Lebanon, all that drink water.

31:17  For they went down to hell with him among the slain with the sword; and his seed, even those that dwelt under his shadow, perished in the midst of their life.

31:18  To whom are you compared? Descend, and be debased with the trees of paradise to the depth of the earth. You shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those that are slain by the sword. Thus shall Pharaoh be, and the multitude of his army, says the Lord God.

Chapter 32

32:1  And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

32:2  Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: You have become like a lion among the nations, and as a serpent that is in the sea; and you made assaults with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and trampled your rivers.

32:3  Thus says the Lord: I will also cast over you the nets of many nations, and will bring you up with My hook;

32:4  and I will stretch you upon the earth. The fields shall be covered with you, and I will cause all the birds of the sky to settle upon you, and I will fill with you all the wild beasts of the earth.

32:5  And I will cast your flesh upon the mountains, and will saturate them with your blood.

32:6  And the land shall be drenched with your dung, because of your multitude upon the mountains; I will fill the valleys with you.

32:7  And I will veil the heavens when you are extinguished, and will darken the stars thereof; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

32:8  All the bodies that give light in the sky shall be darkened over you, and I will bring darkness upon the earth, says the Lord God.

32:9  And I will provoke to anger the heart of many people, when I shall lead you captive among the nations, to a land which you have not known.

32:10  And many nations shall mourn over you, and their kings shall be utterly amazed, when My sword flies in their faces, as they wait for their own fall from the day of your fall.

32:11  For thus says the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you,

32:12  with the swords of mighty men; and I will cast down your strength; they are all destroying ones from the nations, and they shall destroy the pride of Egypt, and all her strength shall be crushed.

32:13  And I will destroy all her cattle from beside the great water; and the foot of man shall not trouble it anymore, and the step of cattle shall no more trample it.

32:14  Thus shall their waters then be at rest, and their rivers shall flow like oil, says the Lord,

32:15  when I shall give up Egypt to destruction, and the land shall be made desolate with the fullness thereof; when I shall scatter all that dwell in it, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

32:16  There is a lamentation, and you shall utter it; and the daughters of the nations shall utter it, even for Egypt, and they shall mourn for it over all the strength thereof, says the Lord God.

32:17  And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

32:18  Son of man, lament over the strength of Egypt, for the nations shall bring down her daughters dead to the depth of the earth, to them that go down to the pit.

32:20  They shall fall with him in the midst of them that are slain with the sword, and all his strength shall perish. The giants also shall say to you,

32:21  Go down to the depths of the pit; to whom are you superior? Yea, go down, and lie with the uncircumcised, in the midst of them that are slain with the sword.

32:22  There are Assyria and all his company; all his slain have been laid there,

32:23  and their graves are in the depth of the pit, and his company is set around about his tomb. All the slain that fell by the sword, who had caused the fear of them to be upon the land of the living.

32:24  There is Elam and all his multitude round about his tomb; all the slain that fell by the sword, and the uncircumcised that go down to the deep of the earth, who caused their fear to be upon the land of the living, and they have received their punishment with them that go down to the pit,

32:25  in the midst of the slain.

32:26  There were laid Meshech and Tubal, and all his strength round about his tomb. All his slain men, all the uncircumcised, slain with the sword, who caused their fear to be in the land of the living.

32:27  And they are laid with the giants that fell of old, who went down to Hades with their weapons of war: and they laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities were upon their bones, because they terrified all men during their life.

32:28  And you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that have been slain by the sword.

32:29  There are laid the princes of Assyria, who yielded their strength to a wound of the sword; these are laid with the slain, with them that go down to the pit.

32:30  There are the princes of the north, even all the captains of Assyria, who go down slain to the pit; they lie uncircumcised among the slain with the sword together with their terror and their strength, and they have received their punishment with them that go down to the pit.

32:31  King Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all their force, says the Lord God.

32:32  For I have caused his fear to be upon the land of the living, yet he shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh, and all his multitude with him, says the Lord God.

Chapter 33

33:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

33:2  Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and you shall say to them, On whatsoever land I shall bring a sword, and the people of the land take a man from their territory, and set him for their watchman,

33:3  and he shall see the sword coming upon the land, and blow the trumpet, and sound an alarm to the people;

33:4  and he that hears the sound of the trumpet shall hear, and yet not take heed, and the sword shall come upon him, and overtake him, his blood shall be upon his own head.

33:5  Because he heard the sound of the trumpet, and took no heed, his blood shall be upon him. But the other, because he took heed, has delivered his soul.

33:6  But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not sound the trumpet, and the people do not watch; and the sword comes, and takes a soul from among them, that soul is taken because of its iniquity; but the blood thereof will I require at the watchman' hand.

33:7  And you, son of man, I have set you as a watchman for the house of Israel, and you shall hear a word from My mouth.

33:8  When I say to the sinner, You shall surely die; if you speak not to warn the wicked from his way, the wicked himself shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.

33:9  But if you forewarn the wicked of his way, to turn from it, and he turn not from his way, he shall die in his ungodliness; but you have delivered your own soul.

33:10  And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus have you spoken, saying, Our errors, and our iniquities weigh upon us, and we pine away in them, and how then shall we live?

33:11  Say to them, Thus says the Lord: As I live, I desire not the death of the ungodly, as that the ungodly should turn from his way and live: turn heartily from your way; for why will you die, O house of Israel?

33:12  Say to the children of your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him, in the day in which he errs; and the iniquity of the ungodly shall not harm him, in the day in which he turns from his iniquity, but the righteous that errs shall not be able to deliver himself.

33:13  When I say to the righteous, You shall live; and he trusts in his righteousness, and shall commit iniquity, none of his righteousness shall be remembered; in his unrighteousness which he has wrought, in it shall he die.

33:14  And when I say to the ungodly, You shall surely die; and he shall turn from his sin, and do judgment and justice,

33:15  and return the pledge, and repay that which he has robbed, and walk in the ordinances of life, so as to do no wrong; he shall surely live, and shall not die.

33:16  None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered, because he has wrought judgment and righteousness; by them shall he live.

33:17  Yet the children of your people will say, The way of the Lord is not straight; whereas this their way is not straight.

33:18  When the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and shall commit iniquities, then shall he die in them.

33:19  And when the sinner turns from his iniquity, and shall do judgment and righteousness, he shall live by them.

33:20  And this is that which you said, The way of the Lord is not straight. I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone for his ways.

33:21  And it came to pass in the tenth year of our captivity, in the twelfth month, on the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped from Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city has been taken.

33:22  Now the hand of the Lord had come upon me in the evening, before he came; and He opened my mouth, when he came to me in the morning. And my mouth was open, it was no longer kept closed.

33:23  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

33:24  Son of man, those that inhabit the desolate places on the land of Israel say, Abraham was only one, and he possessed the land; and we are more numerous; to us the land is given for a possession.

33:27  Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely those that are in the desolate places shall fall by the sword, and those that are in the open plain shall be given for food to the wild beasts of the field, and those that are in the fortified cities and those that are in the caves I will slay with pestilence.

33:28  And I will make the land desolate, and the pride of her strength shall perish; and the mountains of Israel shall be made desolate by reason of no man passing through.

33:29  And they shall know that I am the Lord; and I will make their land desolate, and it shall be made desolate because of all their abominations which they have done.

33:30  And as for you, son of man, the children of your people are they that speak concerning you by the walls, and in the porches of the houses, and they talk one to another, saying, Let us come together, and let us hear the words that proceed from the Lord.

33:31  They approach you as a people that come together, and sit before you, and hear your words, but they will not do them; for there is falsehood in their mouth, and their heart goes after their pollutions.

33:32  And you are to them as a sound of a sweet, well-tuned psaltery, and they will hear your words, but they will not do them.

33:33  But whenever it shall come to pass, they will say, Behold, it is come; and they shall know that there was a prophet in the midst of them.

Chapter 34

34:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

34:2  Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: O shepherds of Israel, do shepherds feed themselves? Do not the shepherds feed the sheep?

34:3  Behold, you feed on the milk, and clothe yourselves with the wool, and slay the fat, but you feed not My sheep.

34:4  The weak one you have not strengthened, and the sick you have not cherished, and the bruised you have not bound up, and the stray one you have not turned back, and the lost you have not sought; and the strong you have wearied with labor.

34:5  And My sheep were scattered, because there were no shepherds: and they became meat to all the wild beasts of the field.

34:6  And My sheep were scattered on every mountain, and on every high hill; yea, they were scattered on the face of the earth, and there was none to seek them out, nor to bring them back.

34:7  Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

34:8  As I live, says the Lord God, surely because My sheep became a prey, and My sheep became meat to all the wild beasts of the field, because there were no shepherds, and the shepherds sought not out My sheep, and the shepherds fed themselves, but fed not My sheep,

34:9  for this cause, O shepherds,

34:10  thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My sheep at their hands, and will turn them back that they shall not feed My sheep, and the shepherds shall no longer feed them; and I will deliver My sheep out of their mouth, and they shall no longer be meat for them.

34:11  For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will seek out My sheep, and I will visit them.

34:12  As the shepherd seeks his flock, in the day when there is darkness and clouds, in the midst of the sheep that are separated, so will I seek out My sheep, and I will bring them back from every place where they were scattered in the day of clouds and darkness.

34:13  And I will bring them out from the Gentiles, and will gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land, and will feed them upon the mountains of Israel, and in the valleys, and in every inhabited place of the land.

34:14  I will feed them in a good pasture, on a high mountain of Israel; and their folds shall be there, and they shall lie down, and there shall they rest in perfect prosperity, and they shall feed in a fat pasture on the mountains of Israel.

34:15  I will feed My sheep, and I will cause them to rest; and they shall know that I am the Lord; thus says the Lord God.

34:16  I will seek that which is lost, and I will recover the stray one, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen the fainting, and will guard the strong, and will feed them with judgment.

34:17  And as for you, you sheep, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will distinguish between sheep and sheep, and between rams and goats.

34:18  And is it not enough for you that you fed on the good pasture, that you trampled with your feet the remnant of your pasture? And that you drank the standing water, and that you disturbed the residue with your feet?

34:19  So My sheep fed on that which you had trampled on with your feet; and they drank the water that had been disturbed by your feet.

34:20  Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will separate between the strong sheep and the weak sheep.

34:21  You thrusted with your sides and shoulders, and pushed with your horns, and you cruelly treated all the sick.

34:22  Therefore I will save My sheep, and they shall no longer be for a prey; and I will judge between ram and ram.

34:23  And I will raise up one shepherd over them, and he shall tend them, even My servant David, and he shall be their shepherd;

34:24  and I the Lord will be to them a God, and David a prince in the midst of them; I the Lord have spoken it.

34:25  And I will make with David a covenant of peace, and I will utterly destroy evil beasts from off the land; and they shall dwell in the wilderness, and sleep in the forests.

34:26  And I will settle them round about My mountain; and I will give you the rain, the rain of blessing.

34:27  And the trees that are in the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her strength, and they shall dwell in the confidence of peace on their land, and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken their yoke; and I will deliver them out of the hand of those that enslaved them.

34:28  And they shall no more be a spoil to the nations, and the wild beasts of the land shall no more at all devour them; and they shall dwell safely, and there shall be none to make them afraid.

34:29  And I will raise up for them a plant of peace, and they shall no more perish with hunger upon the land, and they shall no more bear the reproach off the nations.

34:30  And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, and they My people. O house of Israel, says the Lord God,

34:31  you are My sheep, even the sheep of My flock, and I am the Lord your God, says the Lord God.

Chapter 35

35:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

35:2  Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it,

35:3  and say to it, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Mount Seir, and I will stretch out My hand against you, and I will make you a waste, and you shall be made desolate.

35:4  And I will cause desolation in your cities, and you shall be desolate, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

35:5  Because you have been a perpetual enemy, and have lied in wait craftily for the house of Israel, with the hand of enemies with a sword, in the time of injustice, at the last:

35:6  Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, verily you have sinned even to blood, therefore blood shall pursue you.

35:7  And I will make Mount Seir a waste, and desolate, and I will destroy from off of it both men and cattle;

35:8  and I will fill your hills and your valleys with the slain, and in all your plains there shall fall in you men slain with the sword.

35:9  I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited anymore; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

35:10  Because you said, The two nations and the two countries shall be mine, and I shall inherit them; whereas the Lord is there.

35:11  Therefore, as I live, says the Lord, I will even deal with you according to your enmity, and I will be made known to you when I shall judge you;

35:12  and you shall know that I am the Lord. I have heard the voice of your blasphemies, whereas you have said, The desert mountains of Israel are given to us for food;

35:13  and you have spoken swelling words against Me with your mouth: I have heard them.

35:14  Thus says the Lord: When all the earth is rejoicing, I will make you desolate.

35:15  You shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, and all of Edom; and it shall be utterly consumed; and you shall know that I am the Lord their God.

Chapter 36

36:1  And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say to the mountains of Israel, Hear the word of the Lord:

36:2  Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy has said against you, Aha, the old waste places have become a possession for us;

36:3  therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God: Because you have been dishonored, and hated by those round about you, that you might be a possession to the remainder of the nations, and you became a byword, and a reproach to the nations.

36:4  Therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the streams, and to the valleys, and to the places that have been made desolate and destroyed, and to the cities that have been deserted, and have become a spoil and a trampling to the nations that were left round about;

36:5  therefore, thus says the Lord: Verily in the fire of My wrath have I spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, because they have appropriated My land to themselves for a possession with joy, disregarding the lives of its inhabitants, to destroy it by plunder.

36:6  Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the valleys, and to the forests, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and in My wrath, because you have borne the reproaches of the heathen;

36:7  therefore I will lift up My hand against the nations that are round about you; they shall bear their reproach.

36:8  But your grapes and your fruits, O mountains of Israel, shall My people eat; for they are hoping to come.

36:9  For behold, I am for you, and I will have respect to you, and you shall be tilled and sown;

36:10  and I will multiply men upon you, even all the house of Israel to the last; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the desolate land shall be built upon.

36:11  And I will multiply men and cattle upon you, and I will cause you to dwell as at the beginning, and I will treat you well, as in your former times; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

36:12  And I will increase men upon you, even My people Israel; and they shall inherit you, and you shall be to them for a possession; and you shall no more be bereaved of them.

36:13  Thus says the Lord God: Because they said to you, You devour men, and have been bereaved of your nation;

36:14  therefore you shall no more devour men, and you shall no more bereave your nation, says the Lord God.

36:15  And there shall no more be heard against you the reproach of the nations, and you shall no more bear the revilings of the peoples, says the Lord God.

36:16  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

36:17  Son of man, the house of Israel dwelt upon their land, and defiled it by their way, and with their idols, and with their uncleannesses; and their way was before Me like the uncleanness of a removed woman.

36:18  So I poured out My wrath upon them,

36:19  and I dispersed them among the nations, and utterly scattered them through the countries. I judged them according to their way and according to their sin.

36:20  And they went in among the nations, among which they went, and they profaned My holy name, while it was said of them, These are the people of the Lord, and they came forth out of His land.

36:21  but I spared them for the sake of My holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations, among whom they went.

36:22  Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord: I do not do this, O house of Israel, for your sakes, but because of My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, among whom you went.

36:23  And I will sanctify My great name, which was profaned among the nations, which you profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, when I am sanctified among you before their eyes.

36:24  And I will take you out from the nations, and will gather you out of all the lands, and will bring you into your own land;

36:25  and I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be purged from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, and I will cleanse you.

36:26  And I will give you a new heart, and will put a new spirit in you: and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.

36:27  And I will put My Spirit in you, and will cause you to walk in My ordinances, and to keep My judgments, and do them.

36:28  And you shall dwell upon the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be to Me a people, and I will be to you a God.

36:29  And I will save you from all your uncleannesses; and I will call for the grain, and multiply it, and will not bring famine upon you.

36:30  And I will multiply the fruit of the trees, and the produce of the field, that you may not bear the reproach of famine among the nations.

36:31  And you shall remember your evil ways and your practices that were not good, and you shall be hateful in your own sight for your transgressions and for your abominations.

36:32  Not for your sakes do I do this, says the Lord God, as it is known to you; be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.

36:33  Thus says the Lord God: In the day in which I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built upon;

36:34  and the desolate land shall be cultivated, whereas it was desolate in the eyes of everyone that passed by.

36:35  And they shall say, That desolate land has become like a garden of delight; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are inhabited.

36:36  And the nations, as many as shall have been left round about you, shall know that I the Lord have built the ruined cities and planted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken, and will do it.

36:37  Thus says the Lord God: Yet for this will I be sought by the house of Israel, to establish them; I will multiply them, even men as sheep;

36:38  as holy sheep, as the sheep of Jerusalem in her feasts; thus shall the desert cities be full of flocks of men. And they shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 37

37:1  And the hand of the Lord came upon me, and the Lord brought me forth by the Spirit, and set me in the midst of the plain, and it was full of human bones.

37:2  And He led me round about them every way. And behold, there were very many on the face of the plain, and very dry.

37:3  And He said to me, Son of man, will these bones live? And I said, O Lord God, only You know this!

37:4  And He said to me, Prophesy upon these bones, and you shall say to them, You dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

37:5  Thus says the Lord to these bones: Behold, I will bring upon you the breath of life;

37:6  and I will lay sinews upon you, and I will bring up flesh upon you, and spread skin upon you, and I will put My Spirit into you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

37:7  So I prophesied as the Lord commanded me. And it came to pass while I was prophesying, that behold, there was a rattling, and the bones approached each one to his joint.

37:8  And I looked, and behold, sinews and flesh grew upon them, and skin came upon them above. But there was not breath in them.

37:9  And He said to me, Prophesy to the wind; prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus says the Lord: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these dead, that they may live.

37:10  So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath entered into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, a very great congregation.

37:11  And the Lord spoke to me, saying, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: and they say, Our bones have become dry, our hope has perished, we are quite spent.

37:12  Therefore prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will open your tombs, and will bring you up out of your tombs, and I will bring you into the land of Israel.

37:13  And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, that I may bring up My people from their graves.

37:14  And I will put My Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you upon your own land; and you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and will do it, says the Lord.

37:15  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

37:16  Son of man, take for yourself a rod, and write upon it, Judah, and the children of Israel his adherents; and you shall take for yourself another rod, and you shall inscribe it for Joseph, the rod of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel that belong to him.

37:17  And you shall join them together for yourself, so as that they should bind themselves into one stick; and they shall be in your hand.

37:18  And it shall come to pass, when the children of your people shall say to you, Will you not tell us what you mean by these things?

37:19  Then shall you say to them, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will take the tribe of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel that belong to him, and I will add them to the tribe of Judah, and they shall become one rod in the hand of Judah.

37:20  And the rods on which you wrote shall be in your hand in their presence.

37:21  And you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the whole house of Israel out of the midst of the nations, among whom they have gone, and I will gather them from all that are round about them, and I will bring them into the land of Israel.

37:22  And I will make them a nation in My land, even on the mountains of Israel; and they shall have one prince; and they shall be two nations no longer, neither shall they be divided anymore into two kingdoms;

37:23  that they may no more defile themselves with their idols; and I will deliver them from all their transgressions whereby they have sinned, and I will cleanse them; and they shall be to Me a people, and I the Lord will be to them a God.

37:24  And My servant David shall be a prince in the midst of them. There shall be one shepherd of them all; for they shall walk in My ordinances, and keep My judgments, and do them.

37:25  And they shall dwell in their land, which I have given to My servant Jacob, where their fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell upon it; and David My servant shall be their prince forever.

37:26  And I will make with them a covenant of peace; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will establish My sanctuary in the midst of them forever.

37:27  And My tabernacle shall be among them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be My people.

37:28  And the nations shall know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them, when My sanctuary is in the midst of them forever.

Chapter 38

38:1  And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

38:2  Son of man, set your face against Gog, and the land of Magog, Rosh, prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

38:3  and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you O Gog, Rosh prince of Meshach and Tubal:

38:4  and I will gather you, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all wearing breastplates, with a great multitude, shields and helmets and swords;

38:5  Persians, Ethiopians, and Libyans; all with helmets and shields.

38:6  Gomer, and all belonging to him; the house of Togarmah, from the end of the north, and all belonging to him; and many nations with you.

38:7  Be prepared, prepare yourself, you, and all your multitude that is assembled with you, and you shall be to Me for a guard.

38:8  He shall be prepared after many days, and he shall come at the end of years, and shall come to a land that is brought back from the sword, when the people have been gathered from many nations against the land of Israel, which was entirely desolate; and he has come forth out of the nations, and they shall all dwell securely.

38:9  And you shall go up as rain, and shall arrive as a cloud to cover the land, and there shall be you, and all that are about you, and many nations with you.

38:10  Thus says the Lord God: It shall also come to pass in that day, that thoughts shall rise up into your heart, and you shall devise an evil plan.

38:11  And you shall say, I will go up to the rejected land; I will come upon them that are at ease in tranquility, and dwelling in peace, all inhabiting a land in which there is no wall, nor bars, nor have they doors;

38:12  to seize plunder, and to take their spoil; to turn my hands against the desolate land that is now inhabited, and against a nation that is gathered from many nations, that have acquired property, dwelling in the midst of the land.

38:13  Sheba, Dedan, and Carthaginian merchants, and all their villages shall say to you, You have come for plunder to take a prey, and to get spoils; you have gathered your multitude to take silver and gold, to carry off property, to take spoils.

38:14  Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord: Will you not arise in that day, when my people Israel are dwelling securely,

38:15  and come out of your place from the farthest north, and many nations with you? All of them mounted on horses, a great gathering, and a large force?

38:16  And you shall come up upon My people Israel as a cloud to cover the land; it shall come to pass in the last days, that I will bring you up upon My land, that all the nations may know Me, when I am sanctified in you before them.

38:17  Thus says the Lord God, to Gog: You are the one concerning whom I spoke in former times, by the hand of My servants the prophets of Israel, in those days and years, that I would bring you up against them.

38:18  And it shall come to pass in that day, in the day when Gog shall come against the Land of Israel, says the Lord God,

38:19  that My wrath and My jealousy shall arise, I have spoken in the fire of My anger, verily in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;

38:20  and the fish of the sea shall quake at the presence of the Lord, and the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the field, and all the reptiles that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are on the face of the earth; and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the valleys shall fall, and every wall on the land shall fall.

38:21  And I will summon against it even every fear, says the Lord; the sword of every man shall be against his brother.

38:22  And I will judge him with pestilence, and blood, and sweeping rain, and hailstones; and I will rain upon him fire and brimstone, and upon all that are with him, and upon many nations with him.

38:23  And I will be magnified, and sanctified, and glorified; and I will be known in the presence of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 39

39:1  And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, Rosh prince of Meshech and Tubal;

39:2  and I will assemble you, and guide you, and raise you up on the extremity of the north, and I will bring you up upon the mountains of Israel.

39:3  And I will destroy the bow out of your left hand, and your arrows out of your right hand, and I will cast you down on the mountains of Israel;

39:4  and you and all that belong to you shall fall, and the nations that are with you shall be given to multitudes of birds, even to every fowl, and I have given you to all the wild beasts of the field to be devoured.

39:5  You shall fall on the face of the field; for I have spoken it, says the Lord.

39:6  And I will send a fire upon Gog, and the islands shall be securely inhabited; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

39:7  And My holy name shall be known in the midst of My people Israel; and My holy name shall no more be profaned: and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

39:8  Behold it is come, and you shall know that it shall be, says the Lord God; this is the day concerning which I have spoken.

39:9  And they that inhabit the cities of Israel shall come forth, and make a fire with the arms, the shields and the spears, and bows and arrows, and javelins, and lances, and they shall keep the fire burning with them for seven years.

39:10  And they shall not take any wood out of the field, neither shall they cut any out of the forests, but they shall burn the weapons with fire, and they shall plunder those that plundered them, and spoil those that spoiled them, says the Lord.

39:11  And it shall come to pass that in that day I will give to Gog a place of renown, a tomb in Israel, the burial place of them that approach the sea. And they shall build round about the outlet of the valley, and there they shall bury Gog and all his multitude. And the place shall then be called the Valley of Haman Gog.

39:12  And the house of Israel shall bury them, that the land may be cleansed in the space of seven months.

39:13  Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a place of renown in the day in which it was glorified, says the Lord.

39:14  And they shall appoint men continually to go over the land, to bury them that have been left on the face of the earth, to cleanse it after the space of seven months, and they shall seek them out.

39:15  And everyone that goes through the land, and sees a man's bone, shall set up a marker by it, until the buriers shall have buried it in the valley, the burial place of Gog.

39:16  For the name of the city shall be Burial Place; so shall the land be cleansed.

39:17  And you, son of man, say, Thus says the Lord: Say to every winged bird, and to all the wild beasts of the field, Gather yourselves, and come; gather yourselves from all places round about to My sacrifice, which I have made for you, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh, and drink blood.

39:18  You shall eat the flesh of mighty men, and you shall drink the blood of princes of the earth, rams, and calves and goats, and they are all fatted calves.

39:19  And you shall eat fat till you are full, and shall drink wine till you are drunk, of My sacrifice which I have prepared for you.

39:20  And you shall be filled at My table, eating horse and rider, and mighty man, and every warrior, says the Lord.

39:21  And I will set My glory among you, and all the nations shall see My judgment which I have wrought, and My hand which I have brought upon them.

39:22  And the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from this day and forward.

39:23  And all the nations shall know that the house of Israel was led captive because of their sins, because they rebelled against Me, and I turned away My face from them, and delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword.

39:24  According to their uncleannesses and according to their transgressions did I deal with them, and I turned away My face from them.

39:25  Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now will I turn back captivity in Jacob, and will have mercy on the house of Israel, and will be jealous for the sake of My holy name.

39:26  And they shall bear their reproach, and the iniquity which they committed when they dwelt upon their land in peace. Yet there shall be none to terrify them

39:27  when I have brought them back from the nations, and gathered them out of the countries of the nations; and I will be sanctified among them in the presence of the nations.

39:28  And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, when I have been manifested to them among the nations.

39:29  And I will no more turn away My face from them, because I have poured out My wrath upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God.

Chapter 40

40:1  And it came to pass in the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the first month, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the taking of the city, in that day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me

40:2  in a vision of God into the land of Israel, and set me on a very high mountain, and upon it there was as it were the frame of a city before me.

40:3  And He brought me in there, and behold, there was a man, and the appearance of him was as the appearance of shining brass, and in his hand was a builder's line, and a measuring reed; and he stood at the gate.

40:4  And the man said to me, Look with your eyes at him whom you have seen, son of man, and hear with your ears, and lay up in your heart all things that I show you; for you have come in here that I might show you, and you shall show all things that you see to the house of Israel.

40:5  And behold, a wall round about the house outside, and in the man's hand was a reed, the measure of it was six cubits by the cubit, and a span. And he measured across the front wall; the breadth was equal to the reed, and the length of it equal to the reed.

40:6  And he entered by seven steps into the gate that looks eastward, and he measured across the porch of the gate equal to the reed.

40:7  And the chamber was equal in length to the reed, and equal in breadth to the reed; and the porch between the chambers was six cubits; and the second chamber equal in breadth to the reed, and equal in length to the reed, and the porch was five cubits.

40:8  And the third chamber equal in length to the reed, and equal in breadth to the reed.

40:9  And the porch of the gateway near the porch of the gate was eight cubits; and the posts there of two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward.

40:10  And the chambers of the gate of the chamber in front were three on one side and three on the other, and there was one measure to the three: there was one measure to the porches on this side and on that.

40:11  And he measured the breadth of the door of the gateway, ten cubits; and the breadth of the gateway was thirteen cubits.

40:12  And the space before the chambers was narrowed to a cubit in front of the chambers on this side and on that side; and the chamber was six cubits this way, and six cubits that way.

40:13  And he measured the gate from the wall of one chamber to the wall of the other chamber. The breadth was twenty-five cubits, the one gate over against the other gate.

40:14  And the open space of the porch of the gate outside was twenty cubits to the chambers round about the gate.

40:15  And the open space of the gate outside to the open space of the porch of the gate within was fifty cubits.

40:16  And there were secret windows to the chambers, and to the porches within the gate of the court round about, and in the same manner windows to the porches round about within. And on the porch there were palm trees on this side and on that side.

40:17  And he brought me into the inner court, and behold, there were chambers, and peristyles round about the court; thirty chambers within the ranges of columns.

40:18  And the porches were behind the gates; according to the length of the gates, was the lower peristyle.

40:19  And he measured the breadth of the court, from the open space of the outer gate inwards to the open space of the gate looking outwards: a hundred cubits was the distance to the place of the gate looking eastward. And he brought me to the north.

40:20  And behold, a gate looking northwards belonging to the outer court, and he measured it, both the length of it and the breadth;

40:21  and the chambers, three on this side and three on that; and the posts, and the porches, and the palm trees thereof: and they were according to the measures of the gate that looks eastward: the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof was twenty-five cubits.

40:22  And its windows, and its porches, and its palm-trees, were according to the dimensions of the gate looking eastward; and they went up to it by seven steps; and the porches were within.

40:23  And there was a gate to the inner court looking toward the north gate, after the manner of the gate looking toward the east; and he measured the court from gate to gate, a hundred cubits.

40:24  And he brought me to the south side, and behold, a gate looking southwards: and he measured it, and its chambers, and its posts, and its porches, according to these dimensions.

40:25  And its windows and its porches round about were according to the windows of the porch: the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof was twenty-five cubits.

40:26  And it had seven steps, and porches within. And it had palm trees on the posts, one on one side, and one on the other side.

40:27  And there was a gate opposite the gate of the inner court southward. And he measured the court from gate to gate, a hundred cubits in breadth southward.

40:28  And he brought me into the inner court of the south gate; and he measured the gate according to these measures;

40:29  and the chambers, and the posts, and the porches, according to these measures; and there were windows to it and to the porches round about: its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth was twenty-five cubits,

40:31  from the porch to the outer court: and there were palm trees to the post thereof, and eight steps.

40:32  And he brought me in at the gate that looks eastward, and he measured it according to these measures:

40:33  and the chambers, and the posts, and the porches according to these measures: and there were windows to it, and porches round about: the length of it was fifty cubits, and the breadth of it was twenty-five cubits.

40:34  And there were porches opening into the inner court, and palm trees on the posts on this side and on that side; and it had eight steps.

40:35  And he brought me in at the northern gate, and measured it according to these measures:

40:36  and the chambers, and the posts, and the porches; and it had windows round about, and it had its porches: the length of it was fifty cubits, and the breadth was twenty-five cubits.

40:37  And its porches were toward the inner court; and there were palm trees to the posts on this side and on that side; and it had eight steps.

40:38  Its chambers and its doorways, and its porches at the second gate served as a drain,

40:39  that they might slay in it the sin offerings and the trespass offerings.

40:40  And behind the drain for the whole burnt offerings at the north gate, two tables eastward behind the second gate; and behind the porch of the gate were two tables eastward.

40:41  Four on one side and four on the other side behind the gate; and upon them they kill the victims, in front of the eight tables of sacrifices.

40:42  And there were four tables of hewn stone for whole burnt offerings, the breadth of them was a cubit and a half, and the length of them two cubits and a half, and their height was a cubit: on them they shall place the instruments with which they slay there the whole burnt offerings and the victims.

40:43  And they shall have within a border of hewn stone round about of a span broad, and over the tables above were screens for covering them from the wet and from the heat.

40:44  And he brought me into the inner court, and behold, there were two chambers in the inner court, one behind the gate looking to the north, turning southward, and one behind the southern gate, but which looks to the north.

40:45  And he said to me, This chamber that looks to the south, is for the priests that keep the charge of the house.

40:46  And the chamber that looks to the north is for the priests that keep the charge of the altar; they are the sons of Zadok, those of the tribe of Levi who draw near to the Lord, to serve Him.

40:47  And he measured the court, its length was a hundred cubits, and the breadth a hundred cubits, on its four sides; and the altar in front of the house.

40:48  And he brought me into the porch of the house, and he measured the post of the porch, the breadth was five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other side; and the breadth of the door was fourteen cubits, and the sidepieces of the door of the porch were three cubits on one side, and three cubits on the other side.

40:49  And the length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth twelve cubits; and they went up to it by ten steps; and there were pillars to the porch, one on this side and one on that side.

Chapter 41

41:1  And he brought me into the temple, the porch of which he measured, six cubits the breadth on one side, and six cubits the breadth of the porch on the other side.

41:2  And the breadth of the gateway was ten cubits, and the sidepieces of the gateway were five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side. And he measured the length of it, forty cubits, and the breadth was twenty cubits.

41:3  And he went into the inner court, and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the sidepieces of the door, seven cubits on one side, and seven cubits on the other side.

41:4  And he measured the length of the doors, forty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, in front of the temple. And he said, This is the Holy of Holies.

41:5  And he measured the wall of the house, six cubits: and the breadth of each side was four cubits round about.

41:6  And the sides were twice ninety, side against side; and there was a space in the wall of the house at the sides round about, that they should be for those that take hold of them to see, that they should not at all touch the walls of the house.

41:7  And the breadth of the upper side was made according to the projection out of the wall, against the upper one round about the house, that it might be enlarged above, and that men might go up to the upper chambers from those below, and from the ground sills to the third story.

41:8  And as for the height of the house round about, each space between the sides was equal to a reed of six cubits;

41:9  and the breadth of the wall of each side without was five cubits; and the spaces that were left between the sides of the house,

41:10  and between the chambers, were a width of twenty cubits, the circumference of the house.

41:11  And the doors of the chambers were toward the space left by the one door that looked northward, and there was one door southward; and the breadth of the remaining open space was five cubits in extent round about.

41:12  And the partition wall in front of the remaining space, toward the west, was seventy cubits in breadth; the breadth of the partition wall was five cubits round about, and the length of it was ninety cubits.

41:13  And he measured in front of the house a length of a hundred cubits, and the remaining spaces and the partitions; and the walls thereof were in length a hundred cubits.

41:14  And the breadth in front of the house, and the remaining spaces before it were a hundred cubits.

41:15  And he measured the length of the partition in front of the space left by the back parts of that house; and the spaces left on this side and on that side were in length a hundred cubits: and the temple and the corners and the outer porch were ceiled.

41:16  And the windows were latticed, giving light round about to the three stories, so as to look through. And the house and the parts adjoining were planked round about, and so was the floor, and from the floor up to the windows, and the window shutters folded back in three parts for one to look through.

41:17  And almost all the way to the inner, and close to the outer side, and upon all the wall round about within and without,

41:18  were carved cherubim and palm trees between the cherubim, and each cherub had two faces.

41:19  The face of a man was toward one palm tree on this side and on that side, and the face of a lion toward another palm tree on this side and on that side; the house was carved all round.

41:20  From the floor to the ceiling were cherubim and palm trees carved.

41:21  And the holy place and the temple opened on four sides; in front of the holy places the appearance was as the look of

41:22  a wooden altar, the height of it three cubits, and the length two cubits, and the breadth two cubits; and it had horns, and the base of it and the sides of it were of wood. And he said to me, This is the table, which is before the face of the Lord.

41:23  And the temple had two doors, and the sanctuary had two doors, with two turning leaves each;

41:24  two leaves to the one, and two leaves to the other door.

41:25  And there was carved work upon them, and cherubim on the doors of the temple, and palm trees according to the carving of the sanctuary; and there were stout planks in front of the porch outside.

41:26  And there were secret windows; and he measured from side to side, to the roofing of the porch; and the sides of the house were closely planked.

Chapter 42

42:1  And he brought me into the inner court eastward, opposite the northern gate. And he brought me in, and behold, five chambers near the vacant space, and near the northern partition,

42:2  a hundred cubits in length toward the north, and in breadth fifty,

42:3  ornamented accordingly as the gates of the inner court, and arranged accordingly as the peristyles of the outer court, with three porches fronting one another.

42:4  And in front of the chambers was a walk ten cubits in breadth, the length reaching to a hundred cubits; and their doors were northward.

42:5  And the upper walks were in like manner: for the peristyle projected from it, even from the range of columns below, and there was a space between; so were there a peristyle and a space between, and so were there two porches.

42:6  For they were triple, and they had not pillars like the pillars of the outer ones; therefore they projected from the lower ones and the middle ones from the ground.

42:7  And there was light outside, corresponding to the chambers of the outer court looking toward the front of the northern chambers; the length of them was fifty cubits.

42:8  For the length of the chambers looking toward the inner court was fifty cubits, and these are the ones that front the others; the whole was a hundred cubits.

42:9  And there were doors of these chambers for an outlet toward the east, so that one should go through them out of the outer court,

42:10  by the opening of the walk at the corner; and the south parts were toward the south, toward the remaining space, and toward the partition, and so were the chambers.

42:11  And the walk was in front of them, according to the measures of the chambers toward the north, both according to the length of them, and according to the breadth of them, and according to all their openings, and according to all their turnings, and according to their lights, and according to their doors.

42:12  So were the measures of the chambers toward the south, and according to the doors at the entrance of the walk, as it were the distance of a reed for light, and eastward as one went in by them.

42:13  And he said to me, The chambers toward the north, and the chambers toward the south, in front of the empty spaces, these are the chambers of the sanctuary, in which the priests, the sons of Zadok, who draw near to the Lord, shall eat the most holy things: and there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat offering, and the sin offerings, and the trespass offerings; because the place is holy.

42:14  None shall go in there except the priests, and they shall not go forth into the holy place into the outer court, that they that draw near to Me may be continually holy, and may not touch their garments in which they minister, with defilement, for they are holy; and they shall put on other garments whenever they come in contact with the people.

42:15  So the measurement of the house within was accomplished. And he brought me forth by the way of the gate that looks eastward, and measured the plan of the house round about in order.

42:16  And he stood behind the gate looking eastward, and measured five hundred cubits with the measuring reed.

42:17  An he turned to the north and measured in front of the north side five hundred cubits with the measuring reed.

42:18  And he turned to the west, and measured in front of the west side, five hundred cubits with the measuring reed.

42:19  And he turned to the south, and measured in front of the south side, five hundred cubits by the measuring reed.

42:20  The four sides he measured by the same reed, and he marked out the house and the circumference of the parts round about, a space of five hundred cubits eastward, and a breadth of five hundred cubits, to make a division between the sanctuary and the outer wall, that belonged to the design of the house.

Chapter 43

43:1  Moreover he brought me to the gate looking eastward, and led me forth.

43:2  And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came by the eastern way; and there was a voice of an army, as the sound of many redoubling their shouts, and the earth shone like light from the glory round about.

43:3  And the vision which I saw was like the vision which I saw when I went in to anoint the city. And the vision of the chariot which I saw was like the vision which I saw at the River Chebar; and I fell upon my face.

43:4  And the glory of the Lord came into the house, by the way of the gate looking eastward.

43:5  And the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court. And behold, the house of the Lord was full of glory.

43:6  And I stood, and behold, there was a voice out of the house of one speaking to me, and a man stood near me,

43:7  and he said to me, Son of man, you have seen the place of My throne, and the place of the soles of My feet, in which My name shall dwell in the midst of the house of Israel forever; and the house of Israel shall no more profane My holy name, they and their princes, by their fornication, or by the murders of their princes in the midst of them;

43:8  when they set My doorway by their doorway, and My thresholds near to their thresholds; and they made My wall as it were joining Myself and them, and they profaned My holy name with their iniquities which they wrought; and I destroyed them in My wrath and with slaughter.

43:9  And now let them put away from Me their fornication, and the murders of their princes, and I will dwell in the midst of them forever.

43:10  And you, son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may cease from their sins; and show its aspect and the arrangement of it.

43:11  And they shall bear their punishment for all the things that they have done. And you shall describe the house, and its entrances, and the plan thereof, and all its ordinances, and you shall make known to them all the regulations of it, and describe them before them. And they shall keep all My commandments, and all My ordinances, and do them.

43:12  And you shall show the plan of the house on the top of the mountain: all its limits round about shall be most holy.

43:13  And these are the measures of the altar by the cubit of a cubit and a span, the cavity shall be a cubit deep, and a cubit shall be the breadth, and the border on the rim of it round about shall be a span: and this shall be the height of the altar

43:14  from the bottom at the commencement of the hollow part to this great mercy seat, from beneath was two cubits, and the breadth was a cubit; and from the little mercy seat to the great mercy seat there were four cubits, and the breadth was a cubit.

43:15  And the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and above the horns a cubit.

43:16  And the altar shall be of the length of twelve cubits, by twelve cubits in breadth, square upon its four sides.

43:17  And the mercy seat shall be fourteen cubits in length, by fourteen cubits in breadth on its four sides; and there shall be a border to it carried round about it of half a cubit; and the rim of it shall be a cubit round about; and the steps thereof looking eastward.

43:18  And He said to me, Son of man, thus says the Lord God of Israel: These are the ordinances of the altar in the day of its being made, to offer upon it whole burnt offerings, and to pour blood upon it.

43:19  And you shall appoint to the priests the Levites of the seed of Zadok, that draw near to Me, says the Lord God, to minister to Me, a calf of the heard for a sin offering.

43:20  And they shall take of its blood, and shall put it on the four horns of the altar, and upon the four corners of the propitiatory, and upon the base round about, and they shall make atonement for it.

43:21  And they shall take the calf of the sin offering, and it shall be consumed by fire in the separate place of the house, outside the sanctuary.

43:22  And on the second day they shall take two kids of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall make atonement for the altar, as they made atonement with the calf.

43:23  And after they have finished the atonement, they shall bring an unblemished calf of the herd, and an unblemished ram of the flock.

43:24  And you shall offer them before the Lord, and the priests shall sprinkle salt upon them, and shall offer them up as whole burnt offerings to the Lord.

43:25  Seven day shall you offer a kid daily for a sin offering, and a calf of the herd, and a ram out of the flock; they shall sacrifice them unblemished for seven days.

43:26  And they shall make atonement for the altar, and shall purge it; and they shall consecrate themselves.

43:27  And it shall come to pass from the eighth day and onward, that the priests shall offer your whole burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, says the Lord.

Chapter 44

44:1  Then he brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary that looks eastward; and it was shut.

44:2  And the Lord said to me, This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no one shall pass through it; for the Lord God of Israel shall enter by it, and it shall be shut.

44:3  For the prince, he shall sit in it, to eat bread before the Lord; he shall go in by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go forth by the way of the same.

44:4  And He brought me in by the way of the gate that looks northward, in front of the house: and I looked, and behold, the house was full of the glory of the Lord. And I fell upon my face.

44:5  And the Lord said to me, Son of man, attend with your heart, and see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say to you, according to all the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and all the regulations thereof; and you shall attend well to the entrance of the house, according to all its outlets, in all the holy things.

44:6  And you shall say to the provoking house, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Let it suffice you to have committed all your iniquities, O house of Israel!

44:7  That you have brought in aliens, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary, and to profane it, when you offered bread, flesh, and blood; and you transgressed My covenant by all your iniquities;

44:8  and you appointed others to keep the charges in My sanctuary.

44:9  Therefore thus says the Lord God: No alien, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary, of all the children of strangers that are in the midst of the house of Israel.

44:10  But as for the Levites who departed far from Me when Israel went astray from Me after their imaginations, they shall even bear their iniquity.

44:11  Yet they shall minister in My sanctuary, being porters at the gates of the house, and serving the house; they shall slay the victims and the whole burnt offerings for the people, and they shall stand before the people to minister to them.

44:12  Because they ministered to them before their idols, and it became to the house of Israel a punishment of iniquity; therefore have I lifted up My hand against them, says the Lord God.

44:13  And they shall not draw near to Me, to minister to Me in the priests' office, nor to approach the holy things of the children of Israel, nor to approach My Holy of Holies; but they shall bear their reproach for the error in which they erred.

44:14  They shall bring them to keep the charges of the house, for all the service of it, and for all that they shall do.

44:15  The priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charges of My sanctuary when the house of Israel when astray from Me, these shall draw near to Me to minister to Me, and shall stand before My face, to offer sacrifice to Me, the fat and the blood, says the Lord God.

44:16  These shall enter into My sanctuary, and these shall approach My table, to minister to Me, and they shall keep My commandments.

44:17  And it shall come to pass when they enter the gates of the inner court, that they shall put on linen robes; and they shall not put on woolen garments when they minister at the gate of the inner court.

44:18  And they shall have linen turbans upon their heads, and shall have linen drawers upon their loins; and they shall not tightly gird themselves.

44:19  And when they go out into the outer court to the people, they shall take off their robes, in which they minister; and they shall lay them up in the chambers of the sanctuary, and shall put on other robes, and they shall not sanctify the people with their robes.

44:20  And they shall not shave their heads, nor shall they pluck off their hair; they shall carefully cover their heads.

44:21  And no priest shall drink any wine, when they go into the inner court.

44:22  Neither shall they take to themselves a widow for a wife, or one that is put away, but a virgin of the seed of Israel. But if there should happen to be a priest's widow, they shall take her.

44:23  And they shall teach My people to distinguish between holy and profane, and they shall make known to them the difference between unclean and clean.

44:24  And these shall attend at a judgment of blood to decide it. They shall rightly observe My ordinances, and judge My judgments, and keep My statutes and My commandments in all My feasts; and they shall hallow My Sabbaths.

44:25  And they shall not go in to the dead body of a man to defile themselves. Only a priest may defile himself for a father, or for a mother, or for a son, or for a daughter, or for a brother, or for his sister, who has not been married.

44:26  And after he has been cleansed, let him number to himself seven days.

44:27  And on whatsoever day they shall enter into the inner court to minister in the holy place, they shall bring a propitiation, says the Lord God.

44:28  And it shall be to them for an inheritance. I am their inheritance: and no possession shall be given them among the children of Israel; for I am their possession.

44:29  And these shall eat the meat offerings, and the sin offerings, and the trespass offerings; and every special offering in Israel shall be theirs.

44:30  And the firstfruits of all things, and the firstborn of all animals and all offerings, of all your firstfruits there shall be a share for the priests; and you shall give your earliest produce to the priest, to bring your blessings upon your houses.

44:31  And the priests shall eat no bird or beast that dies of itself, or is taken of wild beasts.

Chapter 45

45:1  And when you measure you land for inheritance, you shall set apart the firstfruits to the Lord, a holy space of the land, in length twenty-five thousand reeds, and in breadth twenty thousand; it shall be holy in all its borders round about.

45:2  And there shall be a sanctuary out of this, five hundred reeds in length, by five hundred in breadth, a square round about; and there shall be a vacant space beyond this of fifty cubits round about.

45:3  And out of this measurement shall you measure the length, twenty-five thousand, and the breadth twenty thousand; and in it shall be the Holy of Holies.

45:4  Of the land shall be a portion for the priests that minister in the holy place, and it shall be for them that draw near to minister to the Lord: and it shall be to them a place for houses set apart for their sacred office;

45:5  the length shall be twenty-five thousand, and the breadth twenty thousand. And the Levites that attend the house, they shall have cities to dwell in for a possession.

45:6  And you shall appoint for the possession of the city five thousand in breadth, and in length twenty-five thousand; after the manner of the firstfruits of the holy portion, they shall be for all the house of Israel.

45:7  And the prince shall have a portion out of this, and out of this there shall be a portion for the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and for the possession of the city, in front of the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and in front of the possession of the city westward, and from the western parts eastward. And the length shall be equal to one of the parts of the western borders, and the length shall be to the eastern borders of the land.

45:8  And he shall have it for a possession in Israel. And the princes of Israel shall no more oppress My people; but the house of Israel shall inherit the land according to their tribes.

45:9  Thus says the Lord God: Let it suffice you, you princes of Israel; remove injustice and misery, execute judgment and justice; take away oppression from My people, says the Lord God.

45:10  You shall have a just balance, and a just measure, and a just bath for measure.

45:11  And in like manner there shall be one bath as a measure of capacity; the tenth of the homer shall be the bath, and the tenth of the homer shall be in fair proportion to the homer.

45:12  And the weights shall be twenty gerahs, your pound shall be five shekels, fifteen shekels and fifty shekels.

45:13  And these are the firstfruits which you shall offer; a sixth part of a homer of wheat, and the sixth part of it shall consist of an ephah of a homer of barley.

45:14  And you shall give as the appointed measure of oil one bath of oil out of ten baths; for ten baths are a homer.

45:15  And one sheep from the flock out of ten, as an oblation from all the tribes of Israel, for sacrifices, and for whole burnt offerings, and for peace offerings, to make atonement for you, says the Lord God.

45:16  And all the people shall give these firstfruits to the prince of Israel.

45:17  And through the prince shall be offered the whole burnt offerings and the meat offerings, and the drink offerings in the feasts, and at the new moons, and on the Sabbaths; and in all the feasts of the house of Israel; he shall offer the sin offerings, and the meat offerings, and the whole burnt offerings, and the peace offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.

45:18  Thus says the Lord God: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a calf without blemish out of the herd, to make atonement for the holy place.

45:19  And the priest shall take of the blood of the atonement, and put it on the thresholds of the house, and upon the four corners of the temple, and upon the altar, and upon the thresholds of the gate of the inner court.

45:20  And thus shall you do in the seventh month: on the first day of the month you shall take a rate from each one; and you shall make atonement for the house.

45:21  And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Feast of Passover; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread.

45:22  And the prince shall offer it that day a calf for a sin offering for himself, and the house, and for all the people of the land.

45:23  And for the seven days of the feast he shall offer as whole burnt offerings to the Lord seven calves and seven rams without blemish daily for the seven days; and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering, and a meat offering.

45:24  And you shall prepare a cake for the calf, and cakes for the ram, and a hin of oil for the cake.

45:25  And in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, you shall sacrifice in the feast in the same way seven days, as they sacrificed the sin offerings, and the whole burnt offerings, and the freewill offering, and the oil.

Chapter 46

46:1  Thus says the Lord God: The gate that is in the inner court, that looks eastward, shall be shut the six working days; but let it be opened on the Sabbath day, and it shall be opened on the day of the new moon.

46:2  And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of the inner gate, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his whole burnt offerings and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the entrance of the gate. Then shall he come forth; but the gate shall not be shut till evening.

46:3  And the people of the land shall worship at the entrance of that gate, both on the Sabbaths and at the new moons, before the Lord.

46:4  And the prince shall offer whole burnt offerings to the Lord on the Sabbath day, six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish;

46:5  and a freewill offering, a meat offering for the ram, and a meat offering for the lambs, the gift of his hand, and a hin of oil for the meat offering.

46:6  And on the day of the new moon a calf without blemish, and six lambs, and there shall be a ram without blemish;

46:7  and a meat offering for the ram, and there shall be a meat offering for the calf as a freewill offering, and for the lambs, according as his hand can furnish, and there shall be a hin of oil for the cake.

46:8  And when the prince goes in, he shall go in by the way of the porch of the gate, and he shall go forth by the way of the gate.

46:9  And whenever the people of the land shall go in before the Lord at the feasts, he that goes in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go forth by the way of the south gate; and he that goes in by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the gate by which he entered, but he shall go forth opposite it.

46:10  And the prince shall enter with them in the midst of them when they go in; and when they go forth, he shall go forth.

46:11  And in the feasts and in the general assemblies the freewill oblation shall be a meat offering for the calf, and a meat offering for the ram, and for the lambs, as his hand can furnish, and a hin of oil for the meat offering.

46:12  And if the prince should prepare as a thanksgiving a whole burnt peace offering to the Lord, and should open for himself the gate looking eastward, and offer his whole burnt offering, and his peace offerings, as he does on the Sabbath day; then shall he go out, and shall shut the doors after he has gone out.

46:13  And he shall prepare daily as a whole burnt offering to the Lord a lamb of a year old without blemish; in the morning shall he prepare it.

46:14  And he shall prepare a freewill offering for it in the morning, the sixth part of a measure of flour, and a third part of a hin of oil to mix with the fine flour, as a freewill offering to the Lord, a perpetual ordinance.

46:15  You shall prepare the lamb, and the freewill offering, and the oil in the morning, for a perpetual whole burnt sacrifice.

46:16  Thus says the Lord God: If the prince shall give a gift to one of his sons out of his inheritance, this shall be to his sons a possession as an inheritance.

46:17  But if he give a gift to one of his servants, then it shall belong to him until the year of release; and then he shall restore it to the prince; but of the inheritance of his sons the possession shall continue to them.

46:18  And the prince shall by no means take of the inheritance of the people, to oppress them: he shall give an inheritance to his sons out of his own possession; that My people be not scattered, everyone from his possession.

46:19  And he brought me into the entrance of the place behind the gate, into the chamber of the sanctuary belonging to the priests, that looks toward the north. And behold, there was a place set apart.

46:20  And he said to me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offerings and the sin offerings, and there shall they bake the meat offering always; so as not to carry them out into the outer court, to sanctify the people.

46:21  And he brought me into the outer court, and led me round upon the four sides of the court; and behold, there was a court on each of the sides of the court,

46:22  on every side a court, even a court for all the four sides, and each little court belonging to the court was in length forty cubits, and in breadth thirty cubits, there was one measure to the four.

46:23  And there were chambers in them round about, round about the four, and cooking-places formed under the chambers round about.

46:24  And he said to me, These are the cooks' houses, where they that serve the house shall boil the sacrifices of the people.

Chapter 47

47:1  And he brought me to the entrance of the house. and behold, water issued from under the porch eastward, for the front of the house looked eastward; and the water came down from the right side, from the south to the altar.

47:2  And he brought me out by the way of the northern gate, and he led me round by the way outside to the gate of the court that looks eastward. And behold, water came down from the right side,

47:3  in the direction in which a man went forth opposite; and there was a measuring line in his hand, and he measured a thousand cubits with the measure;

47:4  and he passed through the water; it was water of a fountain. And again he measured a thousand, and passed through the water; and the water was up to his thighs. And again he measured a thousand; and he passed through water up to the loins.

47:5  And again he measured a thousand; and he could not pass through, for the water rose as of a torrent which men cannot pass over.

47:6  And he said to me, Have you seen this, son of man? Then he brought me, and led me back to the brink of the river

47:7  as I returned. And behold, on the brink of the river there were very many trees on this side and on that side.

47:8  And he said to me, This is the water that goes forth to Galilee that lies eastward, and it is gone down to Arabia, and has reached as far as to the sea to the outlet of the water; and it shall heal the waters.

47:9  And it shall come to pass, that every animal of living and moving creatures, all on which the river shall come, shall live; and there shall be there very many fish; for this water shall go there, and it shall heal them, and they shall live: everything on which the river shall come shall live.

47:10  And fishermen shall stand there from En Gedi to En Eglaim; it shall be a place to spread out nets upon; it shall be distinct; and its fish shall be as the fish of the great sea, a very great multitude.

47:11  But at the outlet of the water, and the turn of it, and where it overflows its banks, they shall not heal at all; they are given to salt.

47:12  And every fruit tree shall grow by the river, even on the bank of it on this side and on that side. They shall not decay upon it, neither shall their fruit fail. They shall bring forth the firstfruit of their early crop, for these their waters come forth of the sanctuary; and their fruit shall be for meat, and their foliage for health.

47:13  Thus says the Lord God: You shall inherit these borders of the land; they are given by lot to the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.

47:14  And you shall inherit it, each according to his brother's portion, even the land concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to your fathers; and this land shall fall to you by lot.

47:15  And these are the borders of the land that lies northward, from the Great Sea that comes down, and divides the entrance of Emaseldam;

47:16  Hamath, Berothah, between the coasts of Damascus and the coasts of Emathi, the habitation of Saunan, which places are above the coasts of Auranitis.

47:17  These are the borders from the sea, from the habitations of Enan, the coasts of Damascus, and the northern coasts.

47:18  And the eastern coasts between Loranitis and Damascus, and the land of Gilead, and the land of Israel, the Jordan divides to the sea that is east of the city of palm trees. These are the eastern coasts.

47:19  And the southern and southwestern coasts are from Tamar and the city of palm trees, to the water of Meribah Kadesh, reaching forth to the Great Sea. This part is the south and southwest.

47:20  This part of the great sea forms a border, till one comes opposite the entrance of Hamath, even as far as the entrance thereof. These are the parts west of Hamath.

47:21  So you shall divide this land to them, even to the tribes of Israel.

47:22  You shall cast the lot upon it, for yourselves and the strangers that sojourn in the midst of you, who have begotten children in the midst of you; and they shall be to you as natives among the children of Israel; they shall eat with you in their inheritance in the midst of the tribes of Israel.

47:23  And they shall be in the tribe of proselytes among the proselytes that are with them. There shall you give them an inheritance, says the Lord God.

Chapter 48

48:1  And these are the names of the tribes from the northern corner, on the side of the decent that draws a line to the entrance of Hamath the palace of Elam, the border of Damascus northward on the side of Hamath the palace; and they shall have the eastern parts as far as the sea, for Dan, one portion.

48:2  And from the borders of Dan eastward as far as the west seacoast, for Asher, one.

48:3  And from the borders of Asher, from the eastern parts as far as the west coasts, for Naphtali, one.

48:4  And from the borders of Naphtali, from the east as far as the west coasts, for Manasseh, one.

48:5  And from the borders of Manasseh, from the eastern parts as far as the west coasts, for Ephraim, one.

48:6  And from the borders of Ephraim, from the eastern parts to the west coasts, for Reuben, one.

48:7  And from the borders of Reuben, from the eastern parts as far as the west coasts, for Judah, one.

48:8  And from the borders of Judah, from the eastern parts shall be the offering of firstfruits, in the breadth twenty-five thousand reeds, and in length as one of the portions measured from the east even to the western parts; and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of them.

48:9  As for the firstfruits which they shall offer to the Lord, it shall be in length twenty-five thousand, and in breadth twenty-five thousand.

48:10  Out of this shall be the firstfruits of the holy things to the priests, northward twenty-five thousand, and toward the west, ten thousand, and southward twenty-five thousand. And the mountain of the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it,

48:11  for the priests, for the consecrated sons of Zadok, who keep the charges of the house, who erred not in the error of the children of Israel, as the Levites erred.

48:12  And the firstfruits shall be given to them out of the firstfruits of the land, even a most holy portion from the borders of the Levites.

48:13  And the Levites shall have the part next to the borders of the priests, in length twenty-five thousand, and in breadth ten thousand: the whole length shall be twenty-five thousand, and the breadth twenty thousand.

48:14  No part of it shall be sold, nor measured as for sale, neither shall the firstfruits of the land be taken away; for they are holy to the Lord.

48:15  But concerning the five thousand that remain in the breadth in the twenty-five thousand, they shall be a suburb to the city for dwelling, and for a space before it; and the city shall be in the midst thereof.

48:16  And these shall be its dimensions: from the northern side four thousand and five hundred, and from the southern side four thousand and five hundred, and from the eastern side four thousand and five hundred, and from the western side they shall measure four thousand five hundred.

48:17  And there shall be a space to the city northward two hundred and fifty, and southward two hundred and fifty, and eastward two hundred and fifty, and westward two hundred and fifty.

48:18  And the remainder of the length that is next to the firstfruits of the holy portion shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward; and they shall be the firstfruits of the sanctuary; and the fruits thereof shall be for bread to them that labor for the city.

48:19  And they that labor for the city shall labor for it out of all the tribes of Israel.

48:20  The whole offering shall be a square of twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you shall separate again part of it, the firstfruits of the sanctuary, from the possession of the city.

48:21  And the prince shall have the remainder on this side and on that side from the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and there shall be a possession of the city, for twenty-five thousand cubits in length, to the eastern and western borders, for twenty-five thousand to the western borders, next to the portions of the prince; and the firstfruits of the holy things and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst of it.

48:22  And there shall be a portion taken from the Levites, from the possession of the city in the midst of the princes between the borders of Judah and the borders of Benjamin, and it shall be the portion of the princes.

48:23  And as for the rest of the tribes, from the eastern parts as far as the western, Benjamin shall have one portion.

48:24  And from the borders of Benjamin, from the eastern parts to the western, Simeon, one.

48:25  And from the borders of Simeon, from the eastern parts to the western, Issachar, one.

48:26  And from the borders of Issachar, from the eastern parts to the western, Zebulun, one.

48:27  And from the borders of Zebulun, from the east to the western parts, Gad, one.

48:28  And from the borders of Gad, from the eastern parts to the southwestern parts; his coasts shall even be from Tamar, and the water of Meribah Kadesh, for an inheritance, unto the Great Sea.

48:29  This is the land, which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel, and these are their portions, says the Lord God.

48:30  And these are the goings out of the city northward, four thousand and five hundred by measure.

48:31  And the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel: three gates northward; the gate of Reuben, one, and the gate of Judah, one, and the gate of Levi, one.

48:32  And eastward four thousand and five hundred: and three gates; the gate of Joseph, one, and the gate of Benjamin, one, and the gate of Dan, one.

48:33  And southward, four thousand and five hundred by measure; and three gates: the gate of Simeon, one, and the gate of Issachar, one, and the gate of Zebulun, one.

48:34  And westward, four thousand and five hundred by measure; and three gates: the gate of Gad, one, and the gate of Asher, one, and the gate of Naphtali, one.

48:35  The circumference, eighteen thousand measures. And the name of the city, from the day that it shall be finished, shall be THE LORD IS THERE.