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¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel

³and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am against you and will draw my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked.

⁴Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from south to north.

⁵And all flesh shall know that I am the LORD. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again.

⁶“As for you, son of man, groan; with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan before their eyes.

⁷And when they say to you, ‘Why do you groan?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that it is coming. Every heart will melt, and all hands will be feeble; every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming, and it will be fulfilled,’” declares the Lord GOD.

⁸And the word of the LORD came to me:

⁹“Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord, say: “A sword, a sword is sharpened and also polished,

¹⁰sharpened for slaughter, polished to flash like lightning! (Or shall we rejoice? You have despised the rod, my son, with everything of wood.)

¹¹So the sword is given to be polished, that it may be grasped in the hand. It is sharpened and polished to be given into the hand of the slayer.

¹²Cry out and wail, son of man, for it is against my people. It is against all the princes of Israel. They are delivered over to the sword with my people. Strike therefore upon your thigh.

¹³For it will not be a testing — what could it do if you despise the rod?” declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁴“As for you, son of man, prophesy. Clap your hands and let the sword come down twice, yes, three times, the sword for those to be slain. It is the sword for the great slaughter, which surrounds them,

¹⁵that their hearts may melt, and many stumble. At all their gates I have given the glittering sword. Ah, it is made like lightning; it is taken up for slaughter.

¹⁶Cut sharply to the right; set yourself to the left, wherever your face is directed.

¹⁷I also will clap my hands, and I will satisfy my fury; I the LORD have spoken.”

¹⁸The word of the LORD came to me again:

¹⁹“As for you, son of man, mark two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them shall come from the same land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to a city.

²⁰Mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites and to Judah, into Jerusalem the fortified.

²¹For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows; he consults the teraphim; he looks at the liver.

²²Into his right hand comes the divination for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth with murder, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build siege towers.

²³But to them it will seem like a false divination. They have sworn solemn oaths, but he brings their guilt to remembrance, that they may be taken.

²⁴“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have made your guilt to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins appear — because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.

²⁵And you, O profane wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time of your final punishment,

²⁶thus says the Lord GOD: Remove the turban and take off the crown. Things shall not remain as they are. Exalt that which is low, and bring low that which is exalted.

²⁷A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This also shall not be, until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him.

²⁸“And you, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach; say, A sword, a sword is drawn for the slaughter. It is polished to consume and to flash like lightning —

²⁹while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for you — to place you on the necks of the profane wicked, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment.

³⁰Return it to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.

³¹And I will pour out my indignation upon you; I will blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and I will deliver you into the hands of brutish men, skillful to destroy.

³²You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall be no more remembered, for I the LORD have spoken.”

¹And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to her all her abominations.

³You shall say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself!

⁴You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries.

⁵Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; your name is defiled; you are full of tumult.

⁶“Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood.

⁷Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you.

⁸You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.

⁹There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst.

¹⁰In you men uncover their fathers' nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity.

¹¹One commits abomination with his neighbor's wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father's daughter.

¹²In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.

¹³“Behold, I strike my hand at the dishonest gain that you have made, and at the blood that has been in your midst.

¹⁴Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.

¹⁵I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you.

¹⁶And you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”

¹⁷And the word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁸“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are dross of silver.

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

²⁰As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you.

²¹I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it.

²²As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the LORD; I have poured out my wrath upon you.”

²³And the word of the LORD came to me:

²⁴“Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation.

²⁵The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.

²⁶Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

²⁷Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.

²⁸And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken.

²⁹The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice.

³⁰And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.

³¹Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD.”