Chronological Plan

¹In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, take up a song of mourning over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him, ‘You compared yourself to a young lion of the nations, Yet you are like the monster in the seas; And you burst forth in your rivers And muddied the waters with your feet And fouled their rivers.’ ”

³This is what the Lord GOD says: “Now I will spread My net over you With a contingent of many peoples, And they will lift you up in My net.

⁴I will leave you on the land; I will hurl you on the open field. And I will cause all the birds of the sky to nest on you, And I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth with you.

⁵I will lay your flesh on the mountains And fill the valleys with your refuse.

⁶I will also make the land drink the discharge of your blood As far as the mountains, And the ravines will be full of you.

⁷And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud And the moon will not give its light.

⁸All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you And will set darkness on your land,” Declares the Lord GOD.

⁹“I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples when I bring your destruction among the nations, into lands which you have not known.

¹⁰And I will make many peoples appalled at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and they will tremble again and again, every person for his own life, on the day of your fall.”

¹¹For the Lord GOD says this: “The sword of the king of Babylon will attack you.

¹²By the swords of the warriors I will make your multitude fall; all of them are tyrants of the nations, And they will devastate the pride of Egypt, And all its multitude will be destroyed.

¹³I will also eliminate all its cattle from beside many waters; And a human foot will not muddy them anymore, And the hoofs of animals will not muddy them.

¹⁴Then I will make their waters settle, And make their rivers run like oil,” Declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁵“When I make the land of Egypt a desolation, And the land is destitute of that which filled it, When I strike all those who live in it, Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

¹⁶This is a song of mourning, and they shall sing it. The daughters of the nations shall sing it. Over Egypt and over all her hordes they shall sing it,” declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁷In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

¹⁸“Son of man, lament for the hordes of Egypt and bring it down, her and the daughters of the mighty nations, to the netherworld, with those who go down to the pit;

¹⁹‘Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and make your bed with the uncircumcised.’

²⁰They shall fall in the midst of those who are killed by the sword. She is turned over to the sword; they have dragged her and all her hordes away.

²¹The strong among the mighty ones shall speak of him and his helpers from the midst of Sheol: ‘They have gone down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, killed by the sword.’

²²“Assyria is there and all her company; her graves are all around her. All of them killed, fallen by the sword,

²³whose graves are set in the remotest parts of the pit, and her company is all around her grave. All of them killed, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.

²⁴“Elam is there and all her hordes around her grave; all of them killed, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, who inflicted their terror on the land of the living, and bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit.

²⁵They have made a bed for her among the slain with all her hordes. Her graves are around it, they are all uncircumcised, killed by the sword (although their terror was inflicted on the land of the living), and they bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit; they were put in the midst of the slain.

²⁶“Meshech, Tubal, and all their hordes are there; their graves surround them. All of them were killed by the sword uncircumcised, though they inflicted their terror on the land of the living.

²⁷Nor do they lie beside the fallen heroes of the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war and whose swords were placed under their heads; but the punishment for their wrongdoing rested on their bones, though the terror of these heroes was once in the land of the living.

²⁸But in the midst of the uncircumcised you will be broken and lie with those killed by the sword.

²⁹“There also is Edom, its kings and all its princes, who despite all their might are laid with those killed by the sword; they will lie with the uncircumcised and with those who go down to the pit.

³⁰“There also are the chiefs of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who in spite of the terror resulting from their might, in shame went down with the slain. So they lay down uncircumcised with those killed by the sword and bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit.

³¹“These Pharaoh will see, and he will find consolation regarding all his hordes killed by the sword, Pharaoh and all his army,” declares the Lord GOD.

³²“Though I inflicted the terror of him on the land of the living, yet he will be laid to rest among the uncircumcised along with those killed by the sword, Pharaoh and all his hordes,” declares the Lord GOD.

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

²“Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman,

³and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the horn and warns the people,

⁴then someone who hears the sound of the horn but does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.

⁵He heard the sound of the horn but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have saved his life.

⁶But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the horn and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away for his wrongdoing; but I will require his blood from the watchman’s hand.’

⁷“Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them a warning from Me.

⁸When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will certainly die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked about his way, that wicked person shall die for his wrongdoing, but I will require his blood from your hand.

⁹But if you on your part warn a wicked person to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die for his wrongdoing, but you have saved your life.

¹⁰“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you have said: “Surely our offenses and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?” ’

¹¹Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then should you die, house of Israel?’

¹²And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens, ‘The righteousness of a righteous one will not save him on the day of his offense, and as for the wickedness of a wicked one, he will not stumble because of it on the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous one will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.’

¹³When I say to the righteous that he will certainly live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits injustice, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but for that same injustice of his which he has committed he will die.

¹⁴But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will certainly die,’ and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness,

¹⁵if a wicked person returns a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing injustice, he shall certainly live; he shall not die.

¹⁶None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall certainly live.

¹⁷“Yet your fellow citizens say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right,’ when it is their own way that is not right.

¹⁸When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, then he shall die in it.

¹⁹But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them.

²⁰Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ I will judge each of you according to his ways, house of Israel.”

²¹Now in the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth of the tenth month, the survivor from Jerusalem came to me, saying, “The city has been taken.”

²²Now the hand of the LORD had been upon me in the evening, before the survivors came. And He opened my mouth at the time they came to me in the morning; so my mouth was opened and I was no longer speechless.

²³Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²⁴“Son of man, they who live in these ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one, yet he possessed the land; so to us who are many the land has been given as a possession.’

²⁵Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “You eat meat with the blood in it, raise your eyes to your idols as you shed blood. Should you then possess the land?

²⁶You rely on your sword, you commit abominations, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?” ’

²⁷You shall say this to them: ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “As I live, those who are in the places of ruins certainly will fall by the sword, and whoever is in the open field I will give to the animals to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves will die of plague.

²⁸And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and the pride of her power will be brought to an end; and the mountains of Israel will be deserted so that no one will pass through.

²⁹Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I make the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations which they have committed.” ’

³⁰“But as for you, son of man, your fellow citizens who talk with one another about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak one with another, each with his brother, saying, ‘Come now and hear what the message is that comes from the LORD.’

³¹And they come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them; for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart follows their unlawful gain.

³²And behold, you are to them like a love song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them.

³³So when it comes—as it certainly will—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

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

²“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should the shepherds not feed the flock?

³You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock.

⁴Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you searched for the lost; but with force and with violence you have dominated them.

⁵They scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every animal of the field and scattered.

⁶My flock strayed through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them.” ’ ”

⁷Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

⁸“As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “certainly, because My flock has become plunder, and My flock has become food for all the animals of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock,

⁹therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

¹⁰‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them stop tending sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will save My sheep from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.” ’ ”

¹¹For the Lord GOD says this: “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and look after them.

¹²As a shepherd cares for his flock on a day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.

¹³I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land.

¹⁴I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing place will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down in a good grazing place and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵I Myself will feed My flock and I Myself will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁶“I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will eliminate. I will feed them with judgment.

¹⁷“As for you, My flock, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I am going to judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats.

¹⁸Is it too little a thing for you to feed in the good pasture, that you must trample with your feet the rest of your pastures? Or too little for you to drink the clear waters, that you must muddy the rest with your feet?

¹⁹But as for My flock, they must eat what you trample with your feet, and drink what you muddy with your feet!’ ”

²⁰Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says to them: “Behold, I, I Myself will also judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

²¹Since you push away with your side and shoulder, and gore all the weak with your horns until you have scattered them abroad,

²²therefore, I will save My flock, and they will no longer be plunder; and I will judge between one sheep and another.

²³“Then I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd.

²⁴And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the LORD have spoken.

²⁵“And I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate harmful animals from the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.

²⁶I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. And I will make showers fall in their season; they will be showers of blessing.

²⁷Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its produce, and they will be secure on their land. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have saved them from the hand of those who enslaved them.

²⁸They will no longer be plunder to the nations, and the animals of the earth will not devour them; but they will live securely, and no one will make them afraid.

²⁹I will establish for them a renowned planting place, and they will not again be victims of famine in the land, and they will not endure the insults of the nations anymore.

³⁰Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are My people,” declares the Lord GOD.

³¹“As for you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, you are mankind, and I am your God,” declares the Lord GOD.