A Sword Against Jerusalem

5 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, aand pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. 2 bYou shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of cthe city, when dthe days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after ethem. 3 fYou shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. 4 Then take some of them again and gthrow them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

5 “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. 6 She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’ 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have 1multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes hnor kept My judgments, 2nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’—8 therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9 iAnd I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. 10 Therefore fathers jshall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will kscatter to all the winds.

11 ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have ldefiled My sanctuary with all your mdetestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; nMy eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. 12 oOne-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and pI will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after qthem.

13 ‘Thus shall My anger rbe spent, and I will scause My fury to rest upon them, tand I will be avenged; uand they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. 14 Moreover vI will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

15 ‘So 3it shall be a wreproach, a taunt, a xlesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in yfurious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. 16 When I zsend against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your asupply of bread. 17 So I will send against you famine and bwild beasts, and they will bereave you. cPestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

Judgment on Idolatrous Israel

6 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 “Son of man, aset your face toward the bmountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, 3 and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: “Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and cI will destroy your 1high places. 4 Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and dI will cast down your slain men before your idols. 5 And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars. 6 In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the 2high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. 7 The slain shall fall in your midst, and eyou shall know that I am the Lord.

8 f“Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are gscattered through the countries. 9 Then those of you who escape will hremember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because iI was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and jby their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; kthey will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. 10 And they shall know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

11 ‘Thus says the Lord God: l“Pound 3your fists and stamp your feet, and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! mFor they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12 He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. nThus will I spend My fury upon them. 13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, oon every high hill, pon all the mountaintops, qunder every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols. 14 So I will rstretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward sDiblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” ’ ”

Judgment on Israel is Near

7 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel:

a‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.

3 Now the end has come upon you,

And I will send My anger against you;

I will judge you baccording to your ways,

And I will repay you for all your abominations.

4 cMy eye will not spare you,

Nor will I have pity;

But I will repay your ways,

And your abominations will be in your midst;

dThen you shall know that I am the Lord!’

5 “Thus says the Lord God:

‘A disaster, a singular edisaster;

Behold, it has come!

6 An end has come,

The end has come;

It has dawned for you;

Behold, it has come!

7 fDoom has come to you, you who dwell in the land;

gThe time has come,

A day of trouble is near,

And not of rejoicing in the mountains.

8 Now upon you I will soon hpour out My fury,

And spend My anger upon you;

I will judge you according to your ways,

And I will repay you for all your abominations.

9 ‘My eye will not spare,

Nor will I have pity;

I will 1repay you according to your ways,

And your abominations will be in your midst.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord who strikes.

10 ‘Behold, the day!

Behold, it has come!

iDoom has gone out;

The rod has blossomed,

Pride has budded.

11 jViolence has risen up into a rod of wickedness;

None of them shall remain,

None of their multitude,

None of 2them;

kNor shall there be wailing for them.

12 The time has come,

The day draws near.

‘Let not the buyer lrejoice,

Nor the seller mmourn,

For wrath is on their whole multitude.

13 For the seller shall not return to what has been sold,

Though he may still be alive;

For the vision concerns the whole multitude,

And it shall not turn back;

No one will strengthen himself

Who lives in iniquity.

14 ‘They have blown the trumpet and made everyone ready,

But no one goes to battle;

For My wrath is on all their multitude.

15 nThe sword is outside,

And the pestilence and famine within.

Whoever is in the field

Will die by the sword;

And whoever is in the city,

Famine and pestilence will devour him.

16 ‘Those who osurvive will escape and be on the mountains

Like doves of the valleys,

All of them mourning,

Each for his iniquity.

17 Every phand will be feeble,

And every knee will be as weak as water.

18 They will also qbe girded with sackcloth;

Horror will cover them;

Shame will be on every face,

Baldness on all their heads.

19 ‘They will throw their silver into the streets,

And their gold will be like refuse;

Their rsilver and their gold will not be able to deliver them

In the day of the wrath of the Lord;

They will not satisfy their souls,

Nor fill their stomachs,

Because it became their stumbling block of iniquity.

20 ‘As for the beauty of his ornaments,

He set it in majesty;

sBut they made from it

The images of their abominations—

Their detestable things;

Therefore I have made it

Like refuse to them.

21 I will give it as tplunder

Into the hands of strangers,

And to the wicked of the earth as spoil;

And they shall defile it.

22 I will turn My face from them,

And they will defile My secret place;

For robbers shall enter it and defile it.

23 ‘Make a chain,

For uthe land is filled with crimes of blood,

And the city is full of violence.

24 Therefore I will bring the vworst of the Gentiles,

And they will possess their houses;

I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease,

And their holy places shall be wdefiled.

25 3Destruction comes;

They will seek peace, but there shall be none.

26 xDisaster will come upon disaster,

And rumor will be upon rumor.

yThen they will seek a vision from a prophet;

But the law will perish from the priest,

And counsel from the elders.

27 ‘The king will mourn,

The prince will be clothed with desolation,

And the hands of the common people will tremble.

I will do to them according to their way,

And according to what they deserve I will judge them;

Then they shall know that I am the Lord!’ ”

Abominations in the Temple

8 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with athe elders of Judah sitting before me, that bthe hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. 2 cThen I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire—from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, dlike the color of amber. 3 He estretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of