Ezekiel 21; Ezekiel 22

1 The 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

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

4 Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north;

5 and all flesh shall know that I the LORD have drawn my sword out of its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again.

6 Sigh therefore, son of man; sigh with breaking heart and bitter grief before their eyes.

7 And when they say to you, 'Why do you sigh?' you shall say, 'Because of the tidings. When it comes, every heart will melt and all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes and it will be fulfilled,'" says the Lord GOD.

8 And 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,

10 sharpened for slaughter, polished to flash like lightning! Or do we make mirth? You have despised the rod, my son, with everything of wood.

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

12 Cry 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. Smite therefore upon your thigh.

13 For it will not be a testing--what could it do if you despise the rod?" says the Lord GOD.

14 "Prophesy therefore, son of man; clap your hands and let the sword come down twice, yea thrice, the sword for those to be slain; it is the sword for the great slaughter, which encompasses them,

15 that their hearts may melt, and many fall at all their gates. I have given the glittering sword; ah! it is made like lightning, it is polished for slaughter.

16 Cut sharply to right and left where your edge is directed.

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

18 The word of the LORD came to me again:

19 "Son of man, mark two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them shall come forth from the same land. And make a signpost, make it at the head of the way to a city;

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

21 For 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.

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

23 But 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 captured.

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 doings your sins appear--because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in them.

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

26 thus 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 abase that which is high.

27 A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it; there shall not be even a trace of it until he comes whose right it is; and to him I will give it.

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 glitter and to flash like lightning--

29 while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for you--to be laid on the necks of the unhallowed wicked, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment.

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

31 And 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 brutal men, skilful to destroy.

32 You 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."

1 Moreover 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 abominable deeds.

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

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

5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

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

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

8 You have despised my holy things, and profaned my sabbaths.

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

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

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

12 In you men take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and increase and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD.

13 "Behold, therefore, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain which you have made, and at the blood which has been in the midst of you.

14 Can 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.

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

16 And I shall be profaned through you in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am the LORD."

17 And the word of the LORD came to me:

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

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

20 As men gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire upon 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.

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

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

23 And 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.

25 Her princes in the midst of her are 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 the midst of her.

26 Her 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.

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

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

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

30 And 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.

31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; their way have I requited upon their heads, says the Lord GOD."