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1 In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, I was with the exiles at the Chebar River when the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.

2 (It happened on the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year after King Jehoiachin's deportation.

3 The LORD's word burst in on the priest Ezekiel, Buzi's son, in the land of Babylon at the Chebar River. There the LORD's power overcame him.)

4 As I watched, suddenly a driving storm came out of the north, a great cloud flashing fire, with brightness all around. At its center, in the middle of the fire, there was something like gleaming amber.

5 And inside that were forms of four living creatures. This was what they looked like: Each had the form of a human being,

6 though each had four faces and four wings.

7 Their feet looked like proper feet, but the soles of their feet were like calves' hooves, and they shone like burnished bronze.

8 Human hands were under their wings on all four sides. All four creatures had faces and wings, and

9 their wings touched each other's wings. When they moved, they each went straight ahead without turning.

10 As for the form of their faces: each of the four had a human face, with a lion's face on the right and a bull's face on the left, and also an eagle's face.

11 The pairs of wings that stretched out overhead touched each other, while the other pairs covered their bodies.

12 Each moved straight ahead wherever the wind propelled them; they moved without turning.

13 Regarding the creatures' forms: they looked like blazing coals, like torches. Fire darted about between the creatures and illuminated them, and lightning flashed from the fire.

14 The creatures looked like lightning streaking back and forth.

15 As I looked at the creatures, suddenly there was a wheel on the earth corresponding to all four faces of the creatures.

16 The appearance and composition of the wheels were like sparkling topaz. There was one shape for all four of them, as if one wheel were inside another.

17 When they moved in any of the four directions, they moved without swerving.

18 Their rims were tall and terrifying, because all four of them were filled with eyes all around.

19 When the creatures moved, the wheels moved next to them. Whenever the creatures rose above the earth, the wheels also rose up.

20 Wherever the wind would appear to go, the wind would make them go there too. The wheels rose up beside them, because the spirit of the creatures was in the wheels.

21 When they moved, the wheels moved; when they stood still, the wheels stood still; and when they rose above the earth, the wheels rose up along with them, because the spirit of the creatures was in the wheels.

22 The shape above the heads of the creatures was a dome; it was like glittering ice stretched out over their heads.

23 Just below the dome, their outstretched wings touched each other. They each also had two wings to cover their bodies.

24 Then I heard the sound of their wings when they moved forward. It was like the sound of mighty waters, like the sound of the Almighty, like the sound of tumult or the sound of an army camp. When they stood still, their wings came to rest.

25 Then there was a sound from above the dome over their heads. They stood still, and their wings came to rest.

26 Above the dome over their heads, there appeared something like lapis lazuli in the form of a throne. Above the form of the throne there was a form that looked like a human being.

27 Above what looked like his waist, I saw something like gleaming amber, something like fire enclosing it all around. Below what looked like his waist, I saw something that appeared to be fire. Its brightness shone all around.

28 Just as a rainbow lights up a cloud on a rainy day, so its brightness shone all around. This was how the form of the LORD's glory appeared. When I saw it, I fell on my face. I heard the sound of someone speaking.

1 The voice said to me: Human one, stand on your feet, and I'll speak to you.

2 As he spoke to me, a wind came to me and stood me on my feet, and I heard someone addressing me.

3 He said to me: Human one, I'm sending you to the Israelites, a traitorous and rebellious people. They and their ancestors have been rebelling against me to this very day.

4 I'm sending you to their hardheaded and hard-hearted descendants, and you will say to them: The LORD God proclaims.

5 Whether they listen or whether they refuse, since they are a household of rebels, they will know that a prophet has been among them.

6 And as for you, human one, don't be afraid of them or their words. Don't be afraid! You possess thistles and thorns that subdue scorpions. Don't be afraid of their words or shrink from their presence, because they are a household of rebels.

7 You'll speak my words to them whether they listen or whether they refuse. They are just a household of rebels!

8 As for you, human one, listen to what I say to you. Don't become rebellious like that household of rebels. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.

9 Then I looked, and there in a hand stretched out to me was a scroll.

10 He spread it open in front of me, and it was filled with writing on both sides, songs of mourning, lamentation, and doom.

1 Then he said to me: Human one, eat this thing that you've found. Eat this scroll and go, speak to the house of Israel.

2 So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll.

3 He said to me: Human one, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you. So I ate it, and in my mouth it became as sweet as honey.

4 Then he said to me: Human one, go! Go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them.

5 You aren't being sent to a people whose language and speech are difficult and obscure but to the house of Israel.

6 No, not to many peoples who speak difficult and obscure languages, whose words you wouldn't understand. If I did send you to them, they would listen to you.

7 But the house of Israel—they will refuse to listen to you because they refuse to listen to me. The whole house of Israel is hardheaded and hard-hearted too.

8 I've now hardened your face so that you can meet them head-on.

9 I've made your forehead like a diamond, harder than stone. Don't be afraid of them or shrink away from them, because they are a household of rebels.

10 He said to me: Human one, listen closely, and take to heart every word I say to you.

11 Then go to the exiles, to your people's children. Whether they listen or not, speak to them and say: The LORD God proclaims!

12 Then a wind lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great quaking sound from his place. Blessed is the LORD's glory!

13 The sound was the creatures' wings beating against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them; it was a great rumbling noise.

14 Then the wind picked me up and took me away. With the LORD's power pressing down against me I went away, bitter and deeply angry,

15 and I came to the exiles who lived beside the Chebar River at Tel-abib. I stayed there among them for seven desolate days.

16 At the end of the seven days, the LORD's word came to me:

17 Human one, I've made you a lookout for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from me, deliver my warning.

18 If I declare that the wicked will die but you don't warn them, if you say nothing to warn them from their wicked ways so that they might live, they will die because of their guilt, but I will hold you accountable for their deaths.

19 If you do warn the wicked and they don't turn from their wickedness or their wicked ways, they will die because of their guilt, but you will save your life.

20 Or suppose righteous people turn away from doing the right thing. If they act dishonestly, and I make them stumble because of it, they will die because you didn't warn them of their sin. Their righteous deeds won't be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their deaths.

21 But if you do warn the righteous not to sin, and they don't sin, they will be declared righteous. Their lives will be preserved because they heeded the warning, and you will save your life.

22 The LORD's power overcame me, and he said to me: Get up! Go out to the valley, and I'll speak to you there.

23 So I got up and went out to the valley. Suddenly, the LORD's glory stood there, like the glory that I had seen at the Chebar River, and I fell on my face.

24 When a wind came to me and stood me on my feet, he spoke to me and said: Go, shut yourself up inside your house.

25 Look at you, human one! They've now put cords on you and bound you up so that you can't go out among them.

26 I'll make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth and take away your ability to speak. You won't be able to correct them, because they are a household of rebels.

27 But whenever I speak to you, I'll open your mouth, and you will say to them: The LORD God proclaims. Those who hear will understand, but those who refuse will not. They are just a household of rebels.

1 You, human one, take a brick. Put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it.

2 Prepare the siege: Build a wall, construct ramps, set up army camps, and place battering rams all around.

3 Take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Face it directly. When it is under siege like this, press hard against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

4 Now, lie on your left side, and set the guilt of the house of Israel on it. For the length of time that you lie on your side, you will bear their punishment.

5 I appoint to you three hundred ninety days, one day for each year of their guilt. So you will bear the punishment of the house of Israel.

6 When you have completed these days, lie on your right side to bear the guilt of the house of Judah. I appoint forty days to you, one day for each year.

7 With your arm stretched out, face the siege of Jerusalem directly and prophesy against it.

8 I've now bound you with cords so that you can't turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

9 You, gather some wheat and barley, beans and lentils, and millet and spelt. Put them in a bowl and make your bread from them. Eat it during the three hundred ninety days that you lie on your side.

10 At fixed times you will eat your food by weight, fourteen ounces a day.

11 You will also ration your water by measure, drinking a sixth of a hin at fixed times each day.

12 Eat it like barley bread, and bake it on human excrement while they watch.

13 The LORD says: In this same way the Israelites will eat their unclean bread among the nations where I am scattering them.

14 And I said: "Ah, LORD God! I've never been unclean! From my childhood until now I've never eaten anything that wasn't properly slaughtered, and no unclean meat has ever entered my mouth!"

15 He answered me: "Then I'll let you use cow dung instead of human excrement. You can make your bread over that."

16 Then he said to me: Human one, I'm destroying the food supply in Jerusalem. They will anxiously ration and eat their food, and in dismay they will dole out and drink their water.

17 When their food and water dwindles away, everyone will be horrified, and they will waste away because of their guilt.

1 You, human one, take a sharp sword. Use it like a razor and shave your head and beard. Then use scales to divide the hair.

2 At the end of the siege, burn one-third of it in the city. Strike another third with the sword left and right. Then scatter one-third to the wind and let loose the sword after it.

3 From that third, take a few strands and hide them in your garment.

4 From that hair, take yet another batch and throw it into the fire and burn it up. From there, fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

5 The LORD God proclaims: This is Jerusalem! I have set her in the middle of the nations and surrounding countries.

6 But she rebelled against my case laws and my regulations with greater treachery than these nations and surrounding countries, who also rejected my case laws and didn't follow my regulations.

7 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: You have become more turbulent than these nations around you because you haven't obeyed my regulations or followed my case laws. You haven't even followed the case laws of the nations around you!

8 So now the LORD God proclaims: I myself am now against you! I will impose the case law penalties on you in the sight of the nations.

9 Because of you, I will do what I've never done before and will never do again—all because of your detestable practices.

10 Therefore, parents among you will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will impose penalties from case laws on you and scatter all that is left of you to the winds.

11 Therefore, as surely as I live, this is what the LORD God says: Because you made my sanctuary unclean with all your disgusting practices and detestable things, I myself will shave you. I will not shed a tear. You will have no compassion, even from me.

12 One-third of you will die of plague and waste away by famine among you. One-third will fall by the sword all around you. And one-third I will scatter to all the winds, letting loose a sword to pursue them.

13 My anger will be complete. I will exhaust my wrath against them and take my revenge. Then they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken against them in my zeal and consumed them in my wrath.

14 I will turn you into a desolation to the ridicule of the nations all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

15 You will become an object of ridicule, a mockery, and a horrifying lesson to the nations all around you, when I impose penalties from case laws against you in anger, wrath, and overflowing fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

16 When I launch my deadly arrows of famine against you, I have released them for your destruction! I will add to your famine and completely cut off your food supply.

17 I will send famine and wild animals against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will come to you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face Israel's mountains, and prophesy to them.

3 Say: Hear the LORD God's word, mountains of Israel! The LORD God proclaims to the mountains and hills, to the valleys and their deepest ravines: I'm about to bring a sword against you and destroy your shrines.

4 Your altars will be destroyed, your incense altars broken. And I'll make your slain fall in front of your idols.

5 I'll throw the Israelites' corpses in front of their idols, and I'll scatter your bones all around your altars.

6 Wherever you live, cities will be in ruins, shrines made desolate, turned into utter ruin. Your altars will be punished and then broken down. Your idols will be demolished, your incense altars shattered, and all your works wiped out.

7 The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

8 But I will spare a few. Some of you will escape the nations' swords when you are scattered throughout the lands.

9 Your fugitives will remember me in the nations to which they've been banished, how I was crushed when their roving hearts turned away from me, and their roving eyes went after their idols. They will loathe themselves for their treacherous acts and detestable practices,

10 and they will know that I am the LORD. Not in vain have I threatened to bring this evil against them.

11 The LORD God proclaims: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry "Horror" over all the detestable practices of the house of Israel. They will fall by the sword, famine, and plague.

12 Whoever is far off will die of plague, whoever is nearby will fall to the sword, and whoever finds refuge will die of famine. I'll satisfy my wrath against them!

13 They will know that I am the LORD when their slain appear among their idols and around their altars, wherever they offered up pleasing aromas for all their idols, on every high hill and mountaintop, and under every lofty tree and leafy oak.

14 Wherever they live, I will direct my power against them. I will turn the land into a greater wasteland than the Riblah desert. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 You, human one, this is what the LORD God proclaims to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come to the four corners of the earth!

3 Even now the end is upon you! I'll send my anger against you, I'll judge you according to your ways, and I'll turn all your detestable practices against you.

4 I won't shed a tear for you or show any pity. Instead, I'll turn your ways against you, and your detestable practices will stay with you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

5 The LORD God proclaims: Disaster! A singular disaster! Look, it comes!

6 The end has come! Oh, yes, it has come! It has come to you! Look, it's here!

7 You who live on the earth, you are finally caught in your own trap! The time has come; the day draws near. On the hills panic, not glory.

8 And now it's near! Against you I will pour out my wrath, and my anger will be satisfied. I'll judge you according to your ways, and turn all your detestable practices against you.

9 I won't shed a tear or show any pity when I turn your ways against you, and your detestable practices stay with you. Then you will know that I, the LORD, am the one who strikes you!

10 Look, the day! Look, it comes! Doom has arrived! The staff blossoms, and pride springs up!

11 Violence rises up as a wicked master. It isn't from others or their armies or their violence. It hasn't loomed up because of them.

12 The time is coming! The day draws near! No buyer should rejoice, and no seller should mourn, because wrath overcomes the whole crowd.

13 The seller will never get back what was sold, even if both of them survive. The vision concerns the whole crowd. It won't be revoked. And the guilty ones— they won't even be able to hang on to their lives.

14 They have blown the horn, and everything is ready, but no one goes to battle, because my wrath overcomes the whole crowd.

15 Outside, the sword! Inside, plague and famine! Whoever is out in the field will die by the sword. Whoever is in the city, plague and famine will consume them.

16 And those who flee? They will turn up on the hills like valley doves, all of them moaning, those guilty ones.

17 Every hand will hang limp; urine will run down every leg.

18 They will put on mourning clothes, and horror will cover them. On every face, shame; on all their heads, baldness.

19 They will hurl their silver into the street, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and their gold won't deliver them on the day of the LORD's anger. They won't satisfy their appetites or fill their bellies. Their guilt will bring them down.

20 From their beautiful ornament, in which they took pride, they have made horrible and detestable images! Therefore, I've declared it an unclean thing for them.

21 I'll hand it over to foreigners as loot taken in war, to the earth's wicked ones as plunder—they will defile it!

22 When I hide my face from my people, foreigners will defile my treasured place. Violent intruders will invade it; they will defile it!

23 Make a chain! The earth is full of perverted justice, the city full of violence.

24 I'll bring up the cruelest nations, and they will seize their houses. I'll break their proud strength, and their sanctuaries will be defiled.

25 Disaster! It has come! They seek peace, but there is none.

26 One disaster comes after another, and rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet. Instruction disappears from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

27 The king will go into mourning, the prince will clothe himself in despair, and the hands of the land's people will tremble. When I do to them as they have done and judge them by their own justice, they will know that I am the LORD.

1 In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and Judah's elders were sitting with me, when the LORD God's power overcame me.

2 I looked, and there was a form that looked like fire. Below what looked like his waist was fire, but above his waist it looked like gold, like gleaming amber.

3 He stretched out the form of a hand and picked me up by the hair of my head. A wind lifted me up between earth and heaven, and in a divine vision it brought me to Jerusalem, to the north-facing entrance of the gate to the inner court. That was where the pedestal was for the outrageous image that incites outrage.

4 There I saw the glory of Israel's God, exactly like what I had seen in the valley.

5 He said to me: Human one, look toward the north. So I looked north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this outrageous image in the entrance.

6 He said to me: Human one, do you see what they are doing, the terribly detestable practices that the house of Israel is doing here that drive me far from my sanctuary? Yet you will see even more detestable practices than these.

7 Then he brought me to the court entrance. When I looked, I saw a hole in the wall.

8 He said to me: Human one, dig through the wall. So I dug through the wall, and I discovered a doorway.

9 And he said to me: Go in and see what wicked and detestable things they are doing in there.

10 So I went in and looked, and I saw every form of loathsome beasts and creeping things and all the idols of the house of Israel engraved on the walls all around.

11 The seventy elders of the house of Israel were standing in front of them, and all of them were holding censers in their hands. Jaazaniah, Shaphan's son, was standing right there with them, and the scent of the incense cloud rose up.

12 He said to me: Human one, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, every one of them in their rooms full of sculptured images? They say, "The LORD doesn't see us; the LORD has abandoned the land."

13 He said to me: You will see them performing even more detestable practices.

14 He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the temple, where women were sitting and performing the Tammuz lament.

15 He said to me: Human one, do you see? Yet you will see even more detestable practices than these.

16 He brought me to the inner court of the LORD's temple. There, at the entrance to the LORD's temple, between the porch and the altar, were twenty-five men facing toward the east with their backs to the LORD's temple. They were bowing to the sun in the east.

17 He said to me: Do you see, human one? Isn't it enough that the house of Judah has observed here all these detestable things? They have filled the land with violence, and they continue to provoke my fury. Look at them! They even put the branch to their noses!

18 I will certainly respond with wrath. I won't spare or pity anyone. Even though they call out loudly to me in my hearing, I won't listen to them.

1 Then in my hearing he called out loudly: Draw near, you guardians of the city, and bring your weapons of destruction!

2 Suddenly, six men came from the Upper Gate that faces north. All of them were holding weapons of destruction. Among them was another man who was dressed in linen and had a writing case at his side. When they came in and stood beside the bronze altar,

3 the glory of Israel's God rose from above the winged creatures where he had been and moved toward the temple's threshold. The LORD called to the man who was dressed in linen with the writing case at his side:

4 Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and mark the foreheads of those who sigh and groan because of all the detestable practices that have been conducted in it.

5 To the others he said in my hearing: Go through the city after him, and attack. Spare no one! Be merciless!

6 Kill them all, old men, young men and women, babies and mothers. Only don't touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the men, the elders in front of the temple.

7 He said to them: Make the temple unclean! Fill the courts with the slain! Go! And they went out and attacked the city.

8 While they were attacking, I was left alone. I fell on my face, and I cried out, "Oh, LORD God! When you pour out your wrath on Jerusalem, will you destroy all that is left of Israel?"

9 He said to me: “Judah and the house of Israel are very, very guilty. The land is filled with blood, and the city is full of injustice. They have said, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD sees nothing.'

10 I most definitely won't spare or pity anyone! I will hold them accountable for their ways.”

11 Just then the man who was dressed in linen with the writing case at his side returned and said, "I've done just as you commanded."

1 At that moment I saw a form of a throne in the dome above the heads of the winged creatures. It appeared above them, and it looked like lapis lazuli.

2 He said to the man clothed in linen: Go in between the wheels under the winged creatures. Fill your hands with fiery coals from between the winged creatures, and scatter them over the city. As I watched, he went in.

3 Now the winged creatures were standing to the right of the temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner courtyard.

4 Then the LORD's glory rose from above the winged creatures and moved toward the temple's threshold. The temple was filled with the cloud, and the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the LORD's glory.

5 The sound of the winged creatures' wings could be heard as far as the outer courtyard. It was like the sound of God Almighty when he speaks.

6 When he instructed the man clothed in linen to take fire from between the winged creatures and their wheels, the man went and stood next to the wheel.

7 Then one of the winged creatures stretched a hand between the winged creatures into the fire that was between them, and he drew out some of it and set it in the palm of the one clothed in linen. He took it and went out.

8 It appeared that the winged creatures had the form of a human hand under their wings.

9 Suddenly, I saw four wheels next to the winged creatures. There was a wheel next to each winged creature, and the appearance of the wheels was like sparkling topaz.

10 It appeared that there was one shape for all four of them, as if one wheel were inside another.

11 When they moved in any of the four directions, they moved without swerving. Whichever way the leading one faced, they moved in that direction without swerving.

12 Their whole body—backs, hands, and wings—as well as their wheels, all four of them, were covered with eyes all around.

13 It was these wheels that were called "the wheels" in my hearing.

14 Each winged creature had four faces. The first face was that of a winged creature, the second face was that of a human being, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.

15 The winged creatures rose up, the same creatures that I had seen at the Chebar River.

16 When the winged creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them. When the winged creatures lifted their wings to ascend above the earth, the wheels remained beside them without swerving.

17 When they stood still, the wheels stood still; when they rose up, they rose up with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

18 Then the LORD's glory went out from above the temple's threshold and it stood over the winged creatures.

19 While I watched, the winged creatures raised their wings and rose from the ground to leave, with their wheels beside them. They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the temple, and the glory of Israel's God was up above them.

20 These were the same living creatures that I saw underneath Israel's God at the Chebar River, and I realized that they were winged creatures.

21 Each had four faces and four wings, with the form of a human hand under their wings.

22 The forms of their faces were the same faces that I saw at the Chebar River. Their appearance was also the same. All four of them moved straight ahead.

1 A wind lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the LORD's temple. There at the entrance to the gate were twenty-five men, and I saw that two officials of the people, Jaazaniah, Azzur's son, and Pelatiah, Benaiah's son, were with them.

2 He said to me: Human one, these men devise evil plans and give wicked advice in this city.

3 They are the ones who say, "The nearest relatives aren't building houses. The city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat."

4 Therefore, prophesy against them, human one, prophesy!

5 The LORD's spirit took hold of me, and he said to me: Say, This is what the LORD God proclaims: So you have said, house of Israel! But I know what you really mean.

6 You continue to commit murder in this city, and you fill its streets with the slain.

7 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: The city is the cooking pot, and the ones you have slain in it are the meat. But you will be taken out of it.

8 You fear the sword, so I will bring the sword against you. This is what the LORD God says!

9 I will lead you out of the city, hand you over to foreigners, and execute judgments against you.

10 You will fall by the sword! At Israel's borders I will judge you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

11 The city won't be your cooking pot, and you won't be the meat in it. At Israel's borders, I will judge you.

12 You will know that I am the LORD, whose regulations you didn't observe and whose case laws you didn't follow. Instead, you followed the case laws of the nations around you.

13 While I was prophesying, Benaiah's son Pelatiah dropped dead. I fell on my face, and I wailed and said, "Oh, LORD God! Are you finishing off even the Israelites who are left?"

14 The LORD's word came to me:

15 Human one, when the people living in Jerusalem said, "They've gone far from the LORD, and we've been given the land as an inheritance," they were talking about your family, your nearest relatives, the whole house of Israel, all of it.

16 Therefore, say, The LORD God proclaims: Even though I made them go far away among the nations and caused them to scatter throughout the earth, I've provided some sanctuary for them in the countries to which they've gone.

17 Therefore, say, The LORD God proclaims: I will gather you from the nations, assemble you from the countries where you were scattered, and I will give you Israel's fertile land.

18 They will enter the land, and they will remove from it all its disgusting and detestable things.

19 I will give them a single heart, and I will put a new spirit in them. I will remove the stony hearts from their bodies and give them hearts of flesh

20 so that they may follow my regulations and carefully observe my case laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

21 As for those whose hearts continue to go after their disgusting and detestable things, I will hold them accountable for their ways. This is what the LORD God says!

22 Then the winged creatures raised their wings. The wheels were next to them, and the glory of Israel's God was above them.

23 The LORD's glory ascended from the middle of the city, and it stopped at the mountain east of the city.

24 And a wind lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Chaldea, through a vision with a divine wind. When the vision I had seen left me,

25 I spoke to the exiles about everything the LORD had shown to me.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, you live in a household of rebels. They have eyes to see but they don't see, ears to hear but they don't hear, because they are a household of rebels.

3 But you, human one, prepare a backpack for going into exile. In the daytime while they watch, go into exile; while they watch, go out from your place to another. Even though they are a household of rebels, perhaps they will understand.

4 In the daytime while they watch, carry your backpack as if for exile. At twilight while they watch, go out like those who are led out to exile.

5 While they watch, dig a hole through the wall and take your backpack out through it.

6 While they watch, shoulder your backpack and carry it out in the dark. Cover your face so that you can't see the land, because I'm making you a sign for the house of Israel.

7 So I did as I was commanded. I carried out my backpack like an exile's backpack in the daytime. At night I dug a hole through the wall with my hands. In the darkness, I shouldered my backpack and carried it out while they watched.

8 In the morning, the LORD's word came to me:

9 Human one, has the house of Israel, that household of rebels, asked you, "What are you doing?"

10 Say to them, The LORD God proclaims: This concerns the prince in Jerusalem, along with the entire house of Israel in it.

11 Say: I'm your sign. Just as I have done, so it will be done to them. They will go into captivity in exile.

12 Their prince will shoulder his backpack at night and go out. They will dig through the wall to lead him out through it, and he will cover his face so that his eyes won't see the land.

13 But I will spread my net over him, catch him in my trap, and bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans. He won't see it, but he will die there.

14 As for all those who are in league with him, I will scatter his helpers and all his troops to the winds and let the sword loose after them.

15 They will know that I am the LORD when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

16 But I will preserve a few of their number from the sword, famine, and plague, so that they may confess all their detestable practices among the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

17 The LORD's word came to me:

18 Human one, eat your bread in trembling, and drink your water in anxious agitation.

19 Say to the land's people, The LORD God proclaims to those living in Jerusalem regarding Israel's fertile land: As they anxiously eat up their bread and drink up their water in dismay, the land will be emptied of everything in it because of the violence of all who live there.

20 The inhabited cities will be laid waste, the land left desolate, and you will know that I am the LORD.

21 The LORD's word came to me:

22 Human one, what is this proverb of your people concerning Israel's fertile land? They say, "The days go by, and every vision vanishes."

23 Therefore, say to them, The LORD God proclaims: I'll put an end to this proverb! It will never again be uttered in Israel. Tell them instead: The days are coming soon for the fulfillment of every vision.

24 Never again will there be any worthless vision or deceptive divination in the house of Israel.

25 I am the LORD! The word that I speak is the word that I will speak! It will happen and be delayed no longer. In your own days, household of rebels, I speak a word and make it happen. This is what the LORD God says!

26 The LORD's word came to me:

27 Human one, the house of Israel is now saying, "The vision that he sees is for distant days; he prophesies about future times."

28 Therefore, say to them, The LORD God proclaims: It will be delayed no longer. Every word of mine that I've spoken is certain, and it will happen. This is what the LORD God says.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, prophesy to Israel's prophets who prophesy from their own imaginations. Say, Hear the LORD's word!

3 The LORD God proclaims: Doom to the foolish prophets who follow their own whims but see nothing.

4 Israel, your prophets have been like jackals among ruins.

5 You haven't gone up into the breach or reinforced the wall of the house of Israel, so that it might withstand the battle on the day of the LORD.

6 They saw worthless visions and performed deceptive divinations. Even though the LORD didn't send them, they said, "This is what the LORD says" and expected their word to stand.

7 Didn't you see worthless visions? And didn't you report deceptive divinations and say, "This is what the LORD says," even though I didn't speak?

8 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: Because you spoke worthless things and had false visions, I'm against you. This is what the LORD God says!

9 I'll wield my power against the prophets, those seers of nothingness and diviners of lies. They won't be included in my people's council, or recorded in the house of Israel's official records, or enter Israel's fertile land. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

10 Without a doubt, they led my people astray, saying "Peace" when there was no peace, and "He is building a wall" when they were the ones who laid on the plaster.

11 Say to those who laid on the plaster that it will fall. When the flooding rains appear and I send hailstones, it will collapse, and the storm winds will break it apart.

12 The wall will certainly fall. Won't it be said about you, "Where is your plaster now?"

13 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: In my fury I will make a storm wind break out, and in my anger there will be flooding rains and hailstones in consuming wrath.

14 I will tear down the wall on which you laid plaster. I will raze it to the ground and expose its foundation. When it falls, you will be destroyed with it, and you will know that I am the LORD.

15 I will exhaust my fury on the wall and on those who laid plaster on it. Then I will say to you, "Where is the wall?" and "Where are those who plastered it,

16 those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and envisioned peace when there was no peace?" This is what the LORD God says!

17 You, human one, face the daughters of your people, those women who prophesy from their imaginations. Prophesy against them

18 and say, The LORD God proclaims: Doom to the women who sew bands on every wrist and make veils for heads of all sizes to entrap human lives. Will you ensnare my people's lives but preserve your own?

19 When you degrade me to my people for handfuls of barley and bread crumbs, you mislead my gullible people, and you bring about the death of those who shouldn't die and keep alive those who shouldn't live.

20 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: I'm against the bands that you use to trap human lives. I will tear them from your arms, and I will set free the lives that you've trapped like birds.

21 I will tear off your veils and snatch my people out of your clutches. They will be prey in your clutches no longer. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

22 You hurt the righteous with slander—I didn't wound them!—and you strengthened the hands of the wicked so that they survived without changing their evil ways!

23 Therefore, you will no longer see empty visions or perform divinations. I will rescue my people from your clutches, and you will know that I am the LORD.

1 When some of the elders of the house of Israel came to sit in my presence,

2 the LORD's word came to me:

3 Human one, these men decide on their own to set up their idols, so the cause of their downfall is right in front of them. Why should I allow them to ask me anything?

4 Therefore, speak to them and tell them, The LORD God proclaims: If anyone from the house of Israel decides on his own to set up his idols and puts the cause of his downfall right in front him, but then comes to the prophet, I, the LORD, will require an answer from him through his many idols.

5 So I'll seize the hearts of the house of Israel, whose idols have made them all strangers to me.

6 Therefore, say to the house of Israel, The LORD God proclaims: Come back! Turn away from your idols and from all your detestable practices. Turn away!

7 Or anyone of the house of Israel or any immigrant in Israel who becomes estranged from me by deciding on their own to set up their idols and puts the cause of their downfall right in front of them, but then comes to the prophet to ask me something through him, I, the LORD, will require an answer.

8 I will confront that one. I will set them up as a sign and an object lesson, and I will cut them off from my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

9 As for the prophet who was seduced into speaking a word, even though it was I, the LORD, who seduced that prophet, I will use my power against him and cut him off completely from my people Israel.

10 The prophet and the inquirer alike will bear their guilt,

11 so that the house of Israel won't stray away from me again or make themselves impure with any of their sins. They will be my people, and I will be their God. This is what the LORD God says!

12 The LORD's word came to me:

13 Human one, suppose a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, so that I use my power against it, break off its food supply, let famine run rampant, and eliminate both humans and animals.

14 If these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, lived there, their lives alone would be saved because they were righteous. This is what the LORD God says.

15 Or suppose I allow wild animals to roam through the land, and it becomes so wild that no one can live there or even travel through it on account of the wild animals.

16 If these three men lived there, as surely as I live, proclaims the LORD God, they wouldn't be able to rescue even their sons or daughters. They alone would be rescued, but the land would become a ruin.

17 Or suppose I bring a sword against that land and command the sword to pass through and eliminate both humans and animals.

18 If these three men lived there, as surely as I live, proclaims the LORD God, they wouldn't be able to rescue even their sons or daughters. They alone would be rescued.

19 Or suppose I send a plague against that land and pour out my fury on it. With great bloodshed I would eliminate both humans and animals.

20 If Noah, Daniel, and Job lived there, as surely as I live, proclaims the LORD God, they wouldn't be able to rescue either sons or daughters. But they would save their lives because they were righteous.

21 The LORD God proclaims: How much more if I send all four of these terrible acts of judgment—sword, famine, wild animals, and plague—against Jerusalem, to eliminate both humans and animals?

22 Yet a few survivors will be left. Sons and daughters will be brought out to you. When you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the evil that I inflicted on Jerusalem, for all that I brought against it.

23 Seeing their ways and their deeds will bring you some consolation, because then you will understand what I've done, and that I didn't do any of these things without cause. This is what the LORD God says.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, how is the vine's wood better than the wood of all the trees in the forest?

3 Can you make anything useful from its wood? Can you make a peg from it and hang objects on it?

4 If not, can it be used as firewood? Fire would consume its two ends, but its middle part would only get charred. So is it useful for anything?

5 Look, even when it was whole, it was worthless. Now that the fire has consumed it, and it is charred, it's even more useless.

6 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: Of all the trees in the forest, I have decreed that the vine's wood is destined to be consumed by fire. So also have I decreed for those who live in Jerusalem,

7 and I have confronted them. They may try to go out from the fire, but the fire will consume them. You will know that I am the LORD, because I confronted them.

8 I will turn the land into a ruin because they acted faithlessly, proclaims the LORD God.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, show Jerusalem her detestable practices.

3 Say, The LORD God proclaims to Jerusalem: By origin and birth you are from the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite, your mother a Hittite.

4 This is how you were treated on the day you were born: Your umbilical cord wasn't cut, you weren't washed clean with water or rubbed with salt, and you weren't wrapped in blankets.

5 No one took pity or cared enough to do any of these things for you. You were despised on the day of your birth and thrown out on the open field.

6 When I happened to come by, I saw you flailing about in your blood. I said to you while you were still bloody, "Live!"

7 I helped you to flourish like a young plant in the field, and you grew tall and became wonderfully endowed. Your breasts were firm, your hair beautifully thick. And you were completely naked.

8 When I passed by you, I realized that you were ready for love. So I spread my cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I made a solemn promise and entered into a covenant with you, and you became mine. This is what the LORD God says.

9 Then I washed you with water, rinsed off your blood, and poured oil on you.

10 I clothed you with colorful garments, put fine sandals on you, wrapped your head in linen, and covered you with jewels.

11 I adorned you with fine jewelry, and put bracelets on your wrists and a necklace around your neck.

12 I put a ring in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.

13 I adorned you with gold and silver, and your garments were made of the finest linen and brocade. You ate the finest flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful, fit for royalty.

14 Among the nations you were famous for your beauty. It was perfect because of the splendor that I had given you. This is what the LORD God says.

15 But you trusted in your beauty and traded on your fame. At every opportunity, you seduced all who came by.

16 You took some of your clothing to make colorful shrines and prostituted yourself in them.

17 You took the beautiful gold and silver jewelry that I had given to you, and you made male images for yourself and prostituted yourself with them.

18 You took your fine garments and clothed them. You set my oil and incense before them.

19 You set my food that I had given you to eat—fine wheat, oil, and honey—before them as a pleasing aroma. This is what the LORD God says.

20 You took your sons and daughters, which you had borne to me, and you sacrificed these to them so they could consume them. Was this promiscuity of yours a small thing?

21 You slaughtered my sons and placed them in the fire for them!

22 In all your detestable practices and promiscuities, you didn't remember the days of your infancy when you lay completely naked, flailing about in your blood.

23 After all your wickedness—doom, doom to you, proclaims the LORD God—

24 you built a pavilion for yourself and set up platforms in every square.

25 At every crossroad you built your platform and degraded your beauty by spreading your legs to all comers. And so you encouraged even more promiscuity.

26 You prostituted yourself with the Egyptians, your neighbors with the large sexual organs, and as you added to your seductions, you provoked me to anger.

27 So I used my power against you, cut off your allowance, and gave you up to the passions of the Philistine women who had been confounded by your infamous ways and had rejected you.

28 Still not satisfied, you prostituted yourself to the Assyrians, but they weren't enough for you either.

29 So you prostituted yourself with the Babylonians, the land of traders, but again you weren't satisfied.

30 How sick was your heart—the LORD God proclaims—that you could do all these things, the deeds of a hardened prostitute.

31 But you weren't like an ordinary prostitute! When you built your pavilion at the head of every street and made your platform in every square, you refused to be paid.

32 You are like an adulterous wife: you take in strangers instead of your husband.

33 Ordinary prostitutes are given gifts, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers. From every direction you even bribed them to come to you for your sexual favors.

34 As a prostitute, you were more perverse than other women. No one approached you for sexual favors, but you yourself gave gifts instead of receiving them. You are perversion itself!

35 Therefore, you prostitute, hear the LORD's word!

36 The LORD God proclaims: You were in a constant state of arousal and exposed yourself when you acted like a prostitute with your lovers and with the idols to which you gave your children's blood.

37 Therefore, I will now gather all of your lovers whom you pleased, the ones you loved and the ones you rejected. I will gather them against you from all around, and I will expose you to them. They will see it all.

38 I will convict you of adultery and murder, and I will hand you over in bloody fury and zeal.

39 I will hand you over to them, and they will tear down your pavilion and destroy your platforms. They will strip you of your garments, take your beautiful jewels, and they will leave you completely naked.

40 They will bring an army against you, pelt you with stones, and slaughter you with their swords.

41 They will burn down your houses and execute judgments against you in the sight of many women. I will bring an end to your prostitution; indeed, you will never again give payment.

42 When I've satisfied my anger, and my rage has turned away from you, I will be calm and no longer angry.

43 Because you didn't remember your youthful days, and infuriated me with all these things, I will hold you accountable for what you've done. This is what the LORD God says. Have you not added bad reputation to all your detestable acts?

44 Now everyone who speaks in proverbs will say this about you: "Like mother, like daughter."

45 You are your mother's daughter! She loathed her husband and also her children. You are just like your sisters too! They also loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father was an Amorite.

46 Your older sister is Samaria, who lives with her daughters in the north. Your younger sister is Sodom, who lives with her daughters in the south.

47 You didn't follow in their ways or engage in their detestable practices in any small way. You were far more destructive.

48 As surely as I live, says the LORD God, not even your sister Sodom and her daughters did what you and your daughters have done!

49 This is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were proud, had plenty to eat, and enjoyed peace and prosperity; but she didn't help the poor and the needy.

50 They became haughty and did detestable things in front of me, and I turned away from them as soon as I saw it.

51 Samaria didn't sin even half as much as you did. You've so outstripped her in multiplying your detestable practices, with all the detestable things you've done, that you've even made your sisters seem innocent.

52 Bear your disgrace, which has actually improved your sisters' position. Because your sins and detestable acts were greater than theirs, they are now more righteous than you. Be ashamed, and bear the disgrace of making your sisters righteous!

53 I will improve the circumstances of Sodom and her daughters and the circumstances of Samaria and her daughters. And what's left of your fortune will go to them,

54 so that you will bear your disgrace and be humiliated by all that you've done to make them feel better.

55 Then your sister Sodom and her daughters will return to their former state, and your sister Samaria and her daughters will return to their former state. You and your daughters will return to your former state,

56 but you will no longer talk about your sister Sodom as in your haughty days

57 before your wickedness was exposed. You are now the reproach of all the daughters of Edom and all those around her, including the daughters of the Philistines. They mock you on every side.

58 You alone must bear your bad reputation and your detestable ways. This is what the LORD says.

59 The LORD God proclaims: I will do to you just as you have done, despising solemn pledges and breaking covenants.

60 Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

61 And you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when in spite of your covenant I take your big sisters and little sisters from you and give them back to you as daughters.

62 I myself will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

63 Then you will remember and be ashamed, and you won't even open your mouth because of your shame, after I've forgiven you for all that you've done. This is what the LORD God says.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, compose a riddle and a parable about the house of Israel.

3 Say, The LORD God proclaims: The great eagle with great wings, long feathers, and full, colorful plumage came to Lebanon and took the top branch of the cedar.

4 He plucked a twig from the cedar's crown, brought it to the land of traders, and set it down in a city of merchants.

5 He took a native seed and planted it in a prepared field, placing it like a willow beside plentiful water.

6 It grew and became a low-spreading vine. Its foliage turned toward him, and its roots developed under him. And so it became a vine, and it produced branches and sent out its shoots.

7 Now there was another great eagle with great wings and much plumage. This vine bent its roots and turned its branches toward him so that it might draw more water from him than from its own bed,

8 a good field with plentiful water where it was planted to grow branches, bear fruit, and become a splendid vine.

9 Say, The LORD God proclaims: Will it thrive? Won't he tear out its roots, strip its fruit, and cause all the leaves of its branches to wither? It will dry up, and no one will need a strong arm or a mighty army to uproot it.

10 Though it is planted, will it thrive? When the east wind touches it, won't it completely wither? On the bed in which it was planted, it will wither away.

11 The LORD's word came to me:

12 Say now to the rebellious household: Don't you know what these things mean? Say: The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and carried its king and its officers away with him to Babylon.

13 Then he took a prince from the royal line, made an agreement with him, and made him take a solemn pledge of loyalty. He also took away the land's officials.

14 Thus it would be a lowly kingdom, not asserting its own interests but observing the agreement so that it would survive.

15 But the prince rebelled against him and sent messengers to Egypt to supply him with horses and a great army. Can such a person succeed? Can one who does these things escape? Can he overturn the agreement and escape capture?

16 As surely as I live, says the LORD God, he will die in Babylon, in the place of the king who gave him the authority to rule, whose solemn pledge he scorned and whose agreement he overturned.

17 Pharaoh won't help him. There will be no strong force or mighty army in battle when siege ramps are set up and towers are built to eliminate many lives.

18 He scorned the solemn pledge and overturned the agreement! Even though he made a promise, he did all these things, and he won't escape capture.

19 So now the LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, it was my solemn pledge that he scorned and my agreement that he overturned, and I will hold him accountable.

20 I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my trap. I will bring him to Babylon, and I myself will enter into judgment with him there for rebelling against me.

21 All his elite fighters along with all his troops will fall by the sword, and those who are left will be scattered to the winds. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken.

22 The LORD God proclaims: I myself will take one of the top branches from the tall cedar. I will pluck a tender shoot from its crown, and I myself will plant it on a very high and lofty mountain.

23 On Israel's mountainous highlands I will plant it, and it will send out branches and bear fruit. It will grow into a mighty cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it and find shelter in the shade of its boughs.

24 Then all the trees in the countryside will know that I, the LORD, bring down the tall tree and raise up the lowly tree, and make the green tree wither and the dry tree bloom. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 What do you mean by this proverb of yours about the land of Israel: "When parents eat unripe grapes, the children's teeth suffer"?

3 As surely as I live, says the LORD God, no longer will you use this proverb in Israel!

4 All lives are mine; the life of the parent and the life of the child belong to me. Only the one who sins will die.

5 People are declared innocent when they act justly and responsibly.

6 They don't eat on the hills or give their attention to the idols of the house of Israel. They don't defile the wives of their neighbors or approach menstruating women.

7 They don't cheat anyone, but fulfill their obligations. They don't rob others, but give food to the hungry and clothes to the naked.

8 They don't impose interest or take profit. They refrain from evil and settle cases between people fairly.

9 They follow my regulations, keep my case laws, and act faithfully. Such people are innocent, and they will live, proclaims the LORD God.

10 But suppose one of them has a violent child who sheds blood or does any one of these things,

11 even though his parents didn't do any of them. He eats on the mountains, defiles his neighbor's wife,

12 oppresses the poor and needy, robs others and doesn't fulfill his obligations, pays attention to the idols and does detestable things,

13 and takes interest and profit. Should he live? He should not. He engaged in all these detestable practices. He will surely die, and his blood will be on him.

14 But suppose he has a child who sees all the sins that his father committed. He becomes alarmed and doesn't do them.

15 He doesn't eat on the mountains or pay attention to the idols of the house of Israel. He doesn't defile his neighbor's wife.

16 He doesn't cheat anyone, either by seizing collateral for loans or committing robbery. He gives his food to the hungry and clothes to the naked.

17 He refrains from oppressing the poor by taking neither interest nor profit. He observes my case laws and follows my regulations. He won't die because of his father's guilt. He will surely live.

18 As for his father: If he exploited the weak or committed robbery, or did anything else that wasn't good for the people, he will die because of his own guilt.

19 You will say, "Why doesn't the child bear his parent's guilt?" The child has acted justly and responsibly. The child kept all my regulations and observed them. The child will surely live.

20 Only the one who sins will die. A child won't bear a parent's guilt, and a parent won't bear a child's guilt. Those who do right will be declared innocent, and the wicked will be declared guilty.

21 But if the wicked turn away from all the sins that they have committed, keep all my regulations, and act justly and responsibly, they will surely live and not die.

22 None of the sins that they committed will be held against them, but they will live because they do the right things.

23 Do I take pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the LORD God. Certainly not! If they change their ways, they will live.

24 If those who do the right thing turn from righteousness and engage in the same detestable practices that the wicked committed, can they do these things and live? None of their righteous deeds will be remembered. They will die because of their treacheries and sins.

25 But you say, "My Lord's way doesn't measure up." Listen, house of Israel, is it my ways that don't measure up? Isn't it your ways that don't measure up?

26 When those who do the right thing turn from their responsible ways and act maliciously, they will die because of it. For their malicious acts they will die.

27 And when the wicked turn from their wicked deeds and act justly and responsibly, they will preserve their lives.

28 When they become alarmed and turn away from all their sins, they will surely live; they won't die.

29 Yet the house of Israel says, "My Lord's way doesn't measure up." Is it my ways that don't measure up? Isn't it your ways that don't measure up, house of Israel?

30 Therefore, I will judge each of you according to your ways, house of Israel. This is what the LORD God says. Turn, turn away from all your sins. Don't let them be sinful obstacles for you.

31 Abandon all of your repeated sins. Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, house of Israel?

32 I most certainly don't want anyone to die! This is what the LORD God says. Change your ways, and live!

1 You, raise a lament for Israel's princes.

2 Say: What a lioness among lionesses was your mother! She bedded down among the strong young lions and reared her cubs.

3 She singled out one of her cubs and he became a strong young lion; he learned to tear flesh and devour humans.

4 When the nations heard about him, they caught him in their trap and carried him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

5 When she realized that she waited in vain, her hope faded. So she took another of her cubs and set him up as a strong young lion.

6 He went on the prowl with the other lions and became a strong young lion. He learned to tear flesh and devour humans;

7 he ravaged their widows and laid waste to their cities. When the earth and everything in it became horrified by the sound of his raging,

8 the nations from the surrounding regions allied against him. They cast their nets over him and caught him in their trap.

9 They put a collar on him and brought him with hooks. They brought him with nets to the king of Babylon so that his voice would no longer be heard on the mountains of Israel.

10 Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard planted beside the waters;

11 she bore lush fruit and foliage because of the plentiful water, and she produced mighty branches, fit for rulers' scepters. She grew tall, and her crown went up between the clouds. Because of her height and thick growth, she became conspicuous.

12 So she was struck down in anger, thrown down to the ground. The east wind dried her out and destroyed her fruit; it sapped the branch of its strength, and fire consumed it.

13 So now she is planted in the desert, in a parched and thirsty land,

14 and fire has gone out from her branch and consumed her foliage and fruit, leaving her no strong branch or ruler's scepter. This is a lamentation, and it will serve as a lamentation.

1 In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of Israel's elders came to inquire of the LORD. As they were sitting with me,

2 the LORD's word came to me:

3 Human one, speak to Israel's elders and say to them, The LORD God proclaims: Have you come to petition me? As surely as I live, I reject your petitions. This is what the LORD God says!

4 Will you judge them, human one, will you judge them? Then expose to them the detestable practices of their ancestors.

5 Say to them, The LORD God proclaims: On the day I chose Israel, I swore a solemn pledge to the descendants of Jacob's household. When I made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I swore a solemn pledge: I am the LORD your God.

6 On that day I swore that I would lead them out of the land of Egypt to a land that I would show them, a land full of milk and honey, the most splendid of all lands.

7 And I said to them, Every one of you must cast away your disgusting things. Don't let yourselves be defiled by Egypt's idols. I am the LORD your God.

8 But they rebelled against me and refused to listen to me. No one cast off their disgusting things or abandoned their Egyptian idols. So I declared that I would pour out my wrath on them and satisfy my anger against them in the land of Egypt.

9 But I acted for my name's sake, so that it wouldn't be degraded in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, and in whose sight I made it known that I would lead them out of the land of Egypt.

10 So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the desert.

11 I gave them my regulations and made known to them my case laws, which bring life to all who observe them.

12 I also gave them my sabbaths as a sign between us that I, the LORD, have set them apart for my purpose.

13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the desert. They didn't follow my regulations and rejected my case laws, which bring life to all who observe them. They completely degraded my sabbaths. So I declared that I would pour out my anger against them and destroy them in the desert.

14 But instead, I acted for the sake of my name so that it wouldn't be degraded in the sight of the nations who saw me lead them out of Egypt.

15 So in the desert I swore another solemn pledge, that I wouldn't bring them to the land that I had given to them, a land full of milk and honey, a land more splendid than any other,

16 because they rejected my case laws, didn't follow my regulations, and degraded my sabbaths. They had their hearts set on their idols.

17 But I had too much compassion to destroy them, so I didn't put an end to them in the desert.

18 In the desert, I said to their children, Don't follow your parents' regulations or observe their case laws or become defiled by their idols.

19 I am the LORD your God! Follow my regulations! Observe my case laws and do them!

20 Make my sabbaths holy, and let them be a sign between us that I am the LORD your God.

21 But the children rebelled against me. They didn't follow my regulations or observe my case laws, which bring life to all who observe them. They also degraded my sabbaths. So I declared that I would pour out my wrath on them and satisfy my anger against them in the desert.

22 But I restrained myself and acted for the sake of my name so that it wouldn't be diminished in the sight of the nations who saw me lead them out of Egypt.

23 And I swore yet another solemn pledge in the desert, that I would disperse them among the nations and scatter them throughout the earth,

24 because they didn't observe my case laws, they rejected my regulations, and they degraded my sabbaths while they kept looking to their parents' idols.

25 I also issued regulations that were not good and case laws by which they could not live.

26 I defiled them with their very gifts when they offered up all their oldest children. They were supposed to be so horrified that they would acknowledge that I am the LORD.

27 Therefore, human one, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, The LORD God proclaims: Yet again your ancestors defamed me by rebelling against me!

28 I brought them into the land that I swore to give to them. But when they saw all the high hills and lofty trees, there they made their sacrifices: irksome offerings here, pleasing aromas there, and drink offerings elsewhere!

29 I said to them, What shrine are you going to now? So it's called Shrine to this very day.

30 So now say to the house of Israel, The LORD God proclaims: Will you defile yourselves as your ancestors did, and will you prostitute yourself after their disgusting things?

31 When you offer up your gifts and make your children pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Should I let you seek me out, house of Israel? This is what the LORD God says: As surely as I live, I won't let you seek me.

32 What is in your minds will never happen! You've been saying, "Let's be like the nations and the clans of the lands in the service of wood and stone."

33 This is what the LORD God says: As surely as I live, with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be your king!

34 I will lead you out from the peoples and gather you from the countries where you've been scattered—yes, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out!

35 I will march you out to the wilderness nations, and there I will judge you face-to-face.

36 Just as I judged your ancestors in the desert of the land of Egypt, so will I judge you. This is what the LORD God says.

37 I will make you walk under the rod, and I will bring you into the covenant bond.

38 I will remove from among you those who rebel and transgress against me. I will lead them out from the land where they lived as immigrants, but they won't enter Israel's fertile land. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

39 But to you, house of Israel, the LORD God proclaims: Go ahead and serve your idols, all of you! But afterward, if any of you are left to listen to me, you will no longer make my holy name impure with your gifts or your idols!

40 On my holy mountain, on the high mountain in Israel, the whole house of Israel will serve me there—every one of them in the land! This is what the LORD God says. There I will accept them, and there I will ask for their offerings, their finest gifts, and all their holy things.

41 When I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries where you are scattered, I will accept you as a pleasing aroma. Through you I will be made holy in the sight of the nations.

42 Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I bring you to Israel's fertile land, to the land that I swore to give to your ancestors.

43 There you will remember how your ways and all your wicked deeds defiled you, and you will loathe yourselves for all the wicked things that you've done.

44 Then, house of Israel, you will know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for the sake of my name and not according to your wicked ways and ruinous deeds. This is what the LORD God says.

45 The LORD's word came to me:

46 Human one, face Teman, preach against the south, and prophesy against the thicket in the arid southern plain.

47 Say to the thicket in the arid southern plain: Hear the LORD God's word. This is what the LORD God says: I'm about to set a fire in you, and it will consume every green and every dry tree in you. Its blazing flame won't be put out, and everything from south to north will be scorched.

48 Everyone will see that I, the LORD, have set it on fire. It won't be quenched.

49 Then I said, "Oh, LORD God! They say about me, ‘Isn't he one for making metaphors?'"

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face Jerusalem, preach against their sanctuary, and prophesy against Israel's fertile land.

3 Say to Israel's fertile land, The LORD proclaims: I'm now against you! I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off both the righteous and the wicked from you.

4 In order to cut off the righteous and wicked from you, my sword will go out from its sheath against everyone from south to north.

5 And everyone will know that I, the LORD, have taken my sword out of its sheath. It won't be put away again.

6 You, human one, groan in their sight; groan bitterly with trembling knees.

7 If they ask you why you're groaning, say to them, "Because of the news." When it comes, every heart will despair, every hand will hang lifeless, every spirit will be listless, and urine will run down every leg. It's coming! It will happen! This is what the LORD God says.

8 The LORD's word came to me:

9 Human one, prophesy! Say, The Lord proclaims! Say: A sword! A sharp and polished sword!

10 For utter slaughter it is sharpened, polished to flash like lightning. Let's not rejoice, because no one will escape the purge.

11 He appoints it for polishing, to seize in the hand. The sword is sharpened, it is polished; it is ready for the destroyer's hand.

12 Human one, cry aloud, and wail, for it comes against my people, against all of Israel's princes, handed over to the sword along with my people. Therefore, strike your thigh.

13 He's testing. When even the rod rejects, will it not certainly happen? This is what the LORD God says.

14 And you, human one, prophesy! Strike hand to hand. Let the sword strike twice, three times! It's a deadly sword, a great deadly sword. It whirls around them

15 to make hearts shudder, to make many stumble and fall. I've set the slaughtering sword against all their gates. Oh! It's crafted to flash like lightning, polished for slaughter!

16 Stab again and again! Plunge right, plunge left, wherever your edge goes.

17 It is I who strike hand to hand! I'll satisfy my wrath! I, the LORD, have spoken.

18 The LORD's word came to me:

19 You, human one, mark two roads for the coming of the sword of the king of Babylon. They should diverge from a single country. Where the road to the city begins, set up a sign,

20 and point out the way for the sword to come: "To Rabbah of the Ammonites" or "To Judah in its stronghold Jerusalem."

21 The king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road where the two roads begin and performs his divinations. He shakes the arrows, consults the divine images, and inspects the liver.

22 On his right side appeared the omen for Jerusalem: to put battering rams in place, to proclaim war and raise the alarm, to place battering rams against the gates, and to set up siege ramps and build towers.

23 It seems to them like a lying divination, because solemn pledges had been sworn to them. But he will remind them of their guilt, and they will be captured.

24 So the LORD God proclaims: Now that you have remembered your guilt and your treacheries are exposed, your sins can be seen in everything you do. Because you have brought your guilt to light, you will be captured!

25 But you vile, wicked prince of Israel whose day has come, the time of final punishment,

26 this is what the LORD God says: Remove the turban, take off the crown! Nothing will be as it was. Bring down the exalted, and exalt the lowly.

27 A ruin, ruin, ruin, I'll make it! Such a thing has never happened! Even before the rightful judge comes, I've handed it over to him.

28 You, human one, prophesy and say, The LORD God proclaims to the Ammonites concerning their disgrace. Say, Sword! Sword unsheathed for slaughter, burnished, battle-ready, flashing like lightning:

29 False visions and lying divinations set you against the necks of vile, wicked men whose day had come, the time of 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 I will pour out my wrath against you. With a raging fire I will blow against you, and I will hand you over to those who burn and forge destruction.

32 Fire will consume you, your blood will sink into the earth, and you will no longer be remembered. I, the LORD, have spoken.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 You, human one, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.

3 Say, The LORD God proclaims: City, self-destructive blood-letter, self-defiling idol maker:

4 All the blood that you've shed is your punishment, and all the idols that you've made are your defilement. This is how you've shortened your days and hastened the end of your years! For this reason I've given you over to the ridicule of nations and the derision of every land.

5 Those from near and far will mock your infamous name and great chaos.

6 Look, Israel's princes, every one of them, have joined forces to shed blood in you.

7 In you they treat father and mother with contempt. In you they oppress immigrants and deny the rights of orphans and widows.

8 You despise my holy things and degrade my sabbaths.

9 In you slanderers show up to shed blood. In you they eat on the mountains. In you they do obscene things.

10 In you a father's nakedness is uncovered. In you menstruating women are violated.

11 Every man engages in detestable practices with his neighbor's wife, every man defiles his daughter-in-law with obscene acts, and every man violates his sister, his own father's daughter.

12 In you they take bribes to shed blood. You collect interest and fees, you profit by extorting your neighbor, and you neglect even me! This is what the LORD God says.

13 I now strike my hands over your ill-gotten gain and blood that's been shed in you.

14 Will your strength and courage endure when I deal with you? I am the LORD: I speak, and I act!

15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you throughout the lands, and so I will remove your uncleanness from you.

16 When you are degraded like this in the sight of the nations, then you will know that I am the LORD.

17 The LORD's word came to me:

18 Human one, the house of Israel has become a waste product for me. They are all copper, tin, iron, and lead. In the furnace, they've become the waste product of silver.

19 So this is what the LORD God says: Because you've all become a waste product, I'm now gathering you into the middle of Jerusalem.

20 Just as silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are collected and placed in a furnace to fan the flames under them and melt them down, so in my anger and rage I will collect you, put you in, and melt you down.

21 I will gather you, fan the flames of my wrath under you, and melt you down in the middle of it.

22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in it. You will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my rage on you.

23 The LORD's word came to me:

24 Human one, say to her, You are an unclean land without rain on the day of reckoning.

25 The conspiracy of princes in her is like a roaring lion ripping up prey. They've piled up wealth and precious goods and made many widows in her.

26 Her priests have done violence to my instructions and made my holy things impure. They have not clearly separated the holy from the ordinary, and they have not taught the difference between unclean and clean things. They've disregarded my sabbaths. So I've been degraded among them.

27 The officials in her are like wolves ripping up prey. They shed blood and destroy lives for unjust riches.

28 Her prophets have whitewashed everything for them, seeing false visions and making wrong predictions for them, saying, "This is what the LORD God says," when the LORD hasn't spoken.

29 The important people of the land have practiced extortion and have committed robbery. They've oppressed the poor and mistreated the immigrant. They've oppressed and denied justice.

30 I looked for anyone to repair the wall and stand in the gap for me on behalf of the land, so I wouldn't have to destroy it. But I couldn't find anyone.

31 So I've poured out my anger on them. With my furious fire I've finished them off. I've held them accountable. This is what the LORD God proclaims.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, there were two women, daughters of one woman.

3 When they were girls in Egypt, they began to prostitute themselves by allowing their young and nubile breasts to be touched and fondled.

4 The older sister was named Oholah, and the younger sister was named Oholibah. They became mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Now Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

5 But Oholah became unfaithful to me and lusted after her lovers the Assyrians:

6 warriors dressed in fine blue cloth, governors and officers, charioteers and horsemen, all of them the most handsome of men.

7 She sought them out to seduce them, all of them men of the highest rank of Assyria. She defiled herself by everyone she lusted after and also by all their idols.

8 But she never gave up her promiscuities with the Egyptians, who had slept with her in her girlhood and fondled her nubile breasts, and who continued to seduce her.

9 Therefore, I handed her over to her lovers, to the Assyrians for whom she lusted.

10 They stripped her naked, took her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. And she became notorious among women for the punishments they enacted against her.

11 Her sister Oholibah saw it, and she proceeded to outdo her sister in her lust and in her seductions.

12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officers, warriors richly clothed, charioteers and horsemen, all of them the most handsome of men.

13 I saw that she too defiled herself. Both had the same tendencies,

14 but she was even more promiscuous. She saw men carved in wall reliefs, images of Chaldeans outlined in vermilion,

15 wearing only loincloths around their hips and flowing headbands on their heads. All of them had the appearance of warriors of the third rank, the likeness of Babylonians whose native land is Chaldea.

16 Aroused just by looking at them, she sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

17 The Babylonians came to her to lie down and make love with her, defiling her with their seductions. But once she had defiled herself with them, she recoiled from them in disgust.

18 When her seductions became known and her nakedness exposed, I recoiled from her just as I had recoiled from her sister.

19 But she added to her promiscuities, bringing to mind her youthful days when she was a prostitute in the land of Egypt.

20 She lusted after their male consorts, whose sexual organs were like those of donkeys, and whose ejaculation was like that of horses.

21 She relived the wicked days of her youth, when the Egyptians touched and fondled her young and nubile breasts.

22 So Oholibah, the LORD God proclaims: I'm now inciting your lovers against you, all those from whom you recoiled, and I will bring them against you from all around—

23 Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the Assyrians with them, the most handsome young men, all of them governors and officers, career officers and conscripts, all of them on horseback.

24 They will come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a great army, with shield, buckler, and helmet; and they will surround you. I will hand your punishment over to them, and they will judge you according to their laws.

25 I will direct my passion against you, and they will deal with you in wrath. They will cut off your nose and ears, and those who are left will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and daughters, and those who are left will be burned with fire.

26 They will strip your clothing from you and remove your beautiful crown.

27 That's how I will put an end to your lewdness and your Egyptian-styled promiscuity. Never again will you stare at them, and you won't remember Egypt anymore.

28 The LORD God proclaims: I'm now handing you over to those whom you hate and from whom you recoil.

29 They will deal hatefully with you: They will seize your pay and leave you completely naked. Your promiscuity, betrayal, and seductions will be exposed.

30 This will be done to you because you sold yourself to the nations and became defiled by their idols.

31 You followed in your sister's path, so I have put her cup into your hand.

32 The LORD God proclaims: Deep and wide is your sister's cup. Drink! Appointed for abuse and scorn, it overflows.

33 You will be filled with drunken sadness. A cup of devastation and dismay is the cup of your sister Samaria.

34 Drink it, drain it dry, break it into pieces, and tear off your breasts, for I have spoken. This is what the LORD God says.

35 So now the LORD God proclaims: Because you forgot me and turned your back on me, you alone will bear the consequences of your betrayal and promiscuities.

36 Then the LORD said to me, Human one, judge Oholah and Oholibah, and make known their detestable practices to them.

37 They committed adultery, so now blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols, and they even took their children whom they had borne to me and offered them up to be consumed for them.

38 They also did this to me: On the same day, they made my sanctuary unclean and made my sabbaths impure.

39 When they slaughtered their children for their idols, they came into my sanctuary and made it impure on that very same day. They actually did this inside my temple.

40 They even sent for men who came from a great distance. No sooner than a messenger was sent, they arrived! For these men you bathed, you painted your eyes, and you put on your jewelry.

41 You took your place on a splendid couch with a richly set table in front of it, and you set my incense and my oil on it.

42 The sound of a noisy crowd was around her. Men from the common multitude, drinkers of wine, were brought from the desert. They put bracelets on their wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads.

43 Then I thought, For a foolish woman they become adulterers! Incited by her seduction, they prostitute themselves—for her!

44 They come as if coming to a prostitute, first to Oholah, and then to Oholibah, those traitorous women.

45 But men who do the right thing will judge them, and they will be punished as adulterers and murderers, because they are in fact adulterers, and blood is on their hands.

46 The LORD God proclaims: Bring up an assembly against them, and decree terror and plunder for them.

47 Let the assembly stone them! Let them carve them up with their swords, slay their sons and daughters, and burn their houses with fire!

48 So I will put an end to betrayal in the land. Taking warning, no woman will betray as you have done.

49 You will be held accountable for your betrayals, and you will bear the sins of your idols. Then you will know that I am the LORD God.

1 In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, write down today's date, because today the king of Babylon has set up camp at Jerusalem—today!

3 Compose a parable for the rebels' household and say to them, The LORD God proclaims: Put on the pot, set it on, and fill it with water.

4 Add meat to it, every good piece. With shoulder and thigh, the meatiest bones, fill it up.

5 Take the flock's best animal; arrange the wood beneath it. Bring it to a rolling boil, and cook its bones in it.

6 The LORD God proclaims: Horror! You bloody city, you corroded pot; pot whose corrosion can't be removed! Empty it piece by piece. She is rejected

7 because her blood is still with her. She didn't pour it out on the ground so that it could be covered with dirt, but she spread it out on a bare rock.

8 In order to arouse wrath, to guarantee vengeance, I will spread her blood on a bare rock, never to be covered.

9 So now the LORD God proclaims: Horror! You bloody city! I myself will add fuel to the fire!

10 Pile on the wood, light the fire, and cook the meat. Season it well and let the bones be charred.

11 Let the pot stand empty on its coals until it's so hot that its copper glows, its impurities melt in it, and its corrosion is consumed.

12 It's a worthless task. Even by fire its great corrosion isn't removed.

13 How your betrayals defile you! I cleansed you, but you didn't come clean from your impurities. You won't be clean again until I have exhausted my anger against you.

14 I, the LORD, have spoken! It's coming, and I'll do it. I won't relent or have any pity or compassion. Your punishments will fit your ways and your deeds! This is what the LORD God says.

15 The LORD's word came to me:

16 Human one, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you in a single stroke. Don't mourn or weep. Don't even let your tears well up.

17 Sigh inwardly; be deathly still. Don't perform mourning rites, but bind on your turban and put your shoes on your feet. And don't cover your upper lip or eat in human company.

18 I spoke with the people in the morning, and by evening my wife was dead. The next morning I did as I was commanded.

19 The people asked, "Won't you tell us what your actions mean for us?"

20 So I said to them, The LORD's word came to me:

21 Say to the house of Israel, the LORD God proclaims: I'm about to make my sanctuary impure, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes. Your heart's desire, the sons and daughters you left behind, will fall by the sword.

22 You will do as I have done. You will neither cover your upper lip nor eat in human company.

23 Your turbans will be on your heads, your sandals on your feet. You won't mourn or weep. You will waste away in your guilt, all of you groaning to each other.

24 Ezekiel is your sign. You will do everything that he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the LORD God.

25 And you, human one: On the day that I take from them their proud stronghold—their crowning joy, the delight of their eyes—and their sons and daughters, whose fate weighs on them,

26 on that day, a refugee will come to you so that you yourself will hear the news.

27 On that day your mouth will be opened to the refugee, and you will speak and no longer be silent. You will be their sign, and they will know that I am the LORD.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

3 Say to the Ammonites: Hear the LORD God's word! The LORD God proclaims: You laughed when my sanctuary was degraded, when Israel's fertile land was laid waste, and when the house of Judah went into exile;

4 therefore, I'm handing you over to people in the east for them to take possession. They will set up their encampments against you, establish residence, devour your fruit, and drink your milk.

5 I'll make Rabbah into pastureland for camels and Ammon a resting place for flocks. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

6 The LORD God proclaims: Because you clapped your hands and stamped your feet when you rejoiced with utter contempt for Israel's fertile land,

7 I'm about to overpower you. Nations will plunder you. I will cut you off from the peoples, remove you from the lands, and utterly destroy you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

8 The LORD God proclaims: Because Moab and Seir say, "Aha! The house of Judah has become like all the nations,"

9 I'll open up the flank of Moab from the cities at its border, the land's splendid cities, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim.

10 I'll hand it over, along with the Ammonites, to people in the east for them to take possession. And so Ammon will no longer be remembered among the nations.

11 I'll execute judgments in Moab, and they will know that I am the LORD.

12 The LORD God proclaims: Edom acted with excessive force against the house of Judah. The Judeans were guilty, but Edom's vengeance was excessive.

13 So the LORD God now proclaims: I'll overpower Edom, eliminate all living creatures, and make it a wasteland from Teman to Dedan. They will fall by the sword.

14 I will execute my vengeance in Edom through my people Israel's power. They will act in Edom according to my anger and fury, and they will know my vengeance. This is what the LORD God says.

15 The LORD God proclaims: When the Philistines set out to right the wrongs done to them, they enacted revenge with utter contempt and old hatreds.

16 So now the LORD God proclaims: I will overpower the Philistines, eliminate the Cherethites, and obliterate all who are left along the coastline.

17 I will act against them with great vengeance and with wrathful punishments. When I execute my vengeance against them, they will know that I am the LORD.

1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, because Tyre laughed at Jerusalem: "The gate of the peoples is broken, she lies open before me, she is destroyed, but I will succeed!"

3 The LORD God now proclaims: Tyre, I'm now against you! Just as the sea hurls up its waves, I will bring many nations up against you.

4 When they destroy the walls of Tyre and throw down its towers, I will scrape off all its dirt and make it into a bare rock,

5 a place for drying nets in the middle of the sea. I have spoken! This is what the LORD God says. It will become prey for the nations,

6 and its towns around it will be put to the sword. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

7 The LORD God proclaims: I'm bringing Nebuchadrezzar against Tyre, the king of Babylon from the north, the greatest of all kings, with horses, chariots, and charioteers, an assembly, a great army. Then he will build towers against you, erect siege ramps against you, and set up shields.

8 The towns around you he will destroy with the sword.

9 He will pound his battering ram against your walls; with crowbars he will tear down your towers.

10 The dust from all his horses will cover you when he enters your gates as one who enters a breached city. Your walls will quake at the thundering of the charioteers and chariot wheels.

11 His horses' hooves will trample all your courtyards; he will cut down your people with the sword, and the monuments to your strength he will bring down to the ground.

12 They will destroy your wealth, plunder your goods, tear down your walls, and raze your fine houses. Your stone, lumber, and rubble they will dump into the sea.

13 I will bring an end to your cacophonous songs; the sound of your lyres will never be heard again.

14 I will make you into a bare rock, a place for drying nets, and you will never be rebuilt. I, the LORD, have spoken. This is what the LORD God says.

15 The LORD God proclaims to Tyre: Won't the coastlands quake at the news of your downfall, when the wounded groan, and when the slaughter in your midst goes on and on?

16 All the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, remove their royal robes, and strip off their fine garments. They will be clothed only in terror as they sit on the ground. They will be so terrified, they won't stop shuddering because of you.

17 They will sing a lament for you, and they will say: How you have perished, queen of the sea, city once praised, who once dominated the sea, she and her rulers, who spread their terror abroad, every one of them.

18 Now the wastelands tremble on the day of your fall. Your expulsion horrifies the islands of the sea.

19 The LORD God proclaims: When I turn you into ruins like uninhabitable cities, when the deep sea washes over you and the raging seas cover you,

20 I will lead you down into the pit, to the everlasting people. I will install you in the world below, in the everlasting ruins, with those who go down to the pit. And so you will neither rule nor radiate splendor in the land of the living.

21 I will terrify you, and you will disappear. You will be sought but never found again. This is what the LORD God says.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 You, human one, sing a lament for Tyre.

3 Say this about Tyre, who sits enthroned at the entrance to the sea, the people's agent for trade throughout the coastlands. The LORD God proclaims: Tyre, you say, "I'm perfectly beautiful!"

4 But your territory is in the depths of the sea, and it's your builders who made you beautiful.

5 For you they made your deck of cypress from Senir. To make your mast, they took cedar from Lebanon.

6 For your oars, they used the oaks of Bashan. They made your hull, inlaid with ivory, of boxwood from the coasts of Cyprus.

7 Fine embroidered linen from Egypt was your sail; it became your emblem. Your awning was made of blue and purple cloth from the coasts of Elishah.

8 The princes of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen. Your own wise men were in you as your helmsmen.

9 The elders and wise men of Gebal were in you, patching up your leaks. Every seagoing ship and its sailors came to do business with you.

10 Paras, Lud, and Put were the warriors in your army. By hanging their shields and helmets on you, they made you radiant.

11 The men of Arvad and Helech were stationed on your walls all around; the men of Gamad were in your towers. They hung their weapons on your walls all around. They were the ones who completed your beauty.

12 Tarshish was your procurer of great wealth. For your wares, they exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead.

13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your agents in human trafficking. They gave you bronze vessels for these wares of yours.

14 Beth-togarmah traded horses, warhorses, and mules for your wares.

15 Islanders from Rhodes were your agents. By contract they procured ebony and ivory for you from many coastlands.

16 Aram was your agent for many products. They traded turquoise, purple cloth, colorful brocades, linen, coral, and rubies for your wares.

17 Judah and the land of Israel were your agents, trading the finest wheat, millet, honey, oil, and balm for your wares.

18 For many of your finished products, Damascus traded out of its great wealth the wine of Helbon and white wool.

19 Vedan and Javan from the region of Uzal traded with you. They exchanged wrought iron, cinnamon, and spices for your wares.

20 Dedan was your agent for saddle blankets.

21 Arabia and all the princes of Kedar traded for you. They procured lambs, rams, and goats for you.

22 They were your agents in Sheba and Raamah. For your wares they exchanged the finest spices, every kind of precious stone, and gold.

23 Haran, Canneh, and Eden were your agents, and also Assyria and Chilmad.

24 They procured fine finished goods for you, garments of purple and brocade, and plush carpets rolled up and securely tied with ropes, among your acquisitions.

25 The ships of Tarshish carried your goods. You were filled to capacity and heavily laden in the middle of the sea.

26 Your oarsmen brought you out onto the high seas; an east wind sank you into the sea's depths.

27 Your goods, your wares, your wealth, your sailors, your helmsmen, those patching your leaks, your merchants, all your warriors in you, and all the company that is with you— they also sank into the sea's depth on the day of your demise.

28 At your helmsmen's cries for help, the troubled waters seethe.

29 Those entrusted with the oars desert their posts. All sailors and helmsmen seek footing on the shore.

30 Loudly they cry, bitterly they wail, and they put dust on their heads and cover themselves with ashes.

31 They cut off all their hair and put on mourning clothes. In despair they weep for you, and bitterly perform the mourning rites.

32 In their lamentation they raise a lament for you; they sing lamentions over you: "Who was like Tyre, silenced in the middle of the sea?"

33 When your wares came out from the seas, you satisfied many people. Your abundant wealth and merchandise enriched the kings of the earth.

34 Now you are shattered by the seas; your cargoes, as well as everyone in your company, are sunk into the water's depths.

35 Now the inhabitants of the coastlands shudder on account of you. And as for their kings, their hair stands on end; their faces betray their horror.

36 The merchants for the peoples hiss because of you. You have become a terror; from now on you are nothing.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, say to the prince of Tyre, The LORD God proclaims: In your arrogance, you say, "I am God, and as God I rule the seas!" Though you claim to have the mind of a god, you are mortal, not divine.

3 You are certainly wiser than Daniel; no secrets are hidden from you.

4 By your wisdom and discernment, you made yourself rich, and you filled your storehouses with silver and gold.

5 Through your shrewd trading you multiplied your riches. But then you became proud of your riches.

6 So now the LORD God proclaims: Because you claim to have the mind of a god,

7 I'll bring foreigners, the most ruthless nations, against you. They will let loose their swords against your fine wisdom, and they will degrade your splendor.

8 They will hurl you to destruction, and you will die, murdered, on the high seas.

9 When you face your murderers, will you still say, "I'm God"? In your killers' hands, you are mortal, not divine.

10 You will die as the uncircumcised do, at the hands of foreigners. I have spoken. This is what the LORD God has said.

11 The LORD's word came to me:

12 Human one, sing a lament for the king of Tyre. Say to him, The LORD God proclaims: You were full of wisdom and beauty, the image of perfection.

13 You were in Eden, God's garden. You were covered with gold and every precious stone: carnelian, topaz, and moonstone; beryl, onyx, and jasper; lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald. On the day that you were created, finely crafted pendants and engravings were prepared.

14 You, a winged creature, were installed as a guardian. I placed you in God's holy mountain where you walked among the stones of fire.

15 From the day you were created until injustice was found in you, your ways were assured.

16 But because of your trade, your oppressive business practices piled up, and you became impure. So I expelled you from God's mountain. I removed you, winged creature, guardian, from among the stones of fire.

17 You exalted yourself because of your beauty and corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I will cast you down to the earth in the sight of kings, and I will make a spectacle of you.

18 Because of your corrupt trade, which surpassed your many other sins, you made your sanctuaries impure. Therefore, I will bring fire from your midst. When it has consumed you, I will turn you into dust on the earth in the sight of all who see you.

19 Everyone among the peoples who knows you will be appalled because of you. You will become a terror. From that time on, you will be nothing.

20 The LORD's word came to me:

21 Human one, face Sidon, prophesy against it,

22 and say, The LORD God proclaims: I'm against you, Sidon, and I will manifest my glory in you. When I've executed judgment against it and through it have manifested my holiness, they will know that I am the LORD.

23 I will hurl plague against it, and blood will run in its streets. When the sword comes against it from all sides, the slain will fall within it. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

24 The house of Israel will no longer suffer from the pricking thorn or painful briar of any of its neighbors who hold it in contempt. And they will know that I am the LORD God.

25 The LORD God proclaims: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they've scattered, and I demonstrate my holiness through them in the sight of the nations, they will live on their fertile land, which I gave to my servant Jacob.

26 They will live on it in safety. They will build houses, plant vineyards, and live in safety. When I execute judgments against all who hold them in contempt on every side, they will know that I, the LORD, am their God.

1 In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, the LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face Pharaoh, Egypt's king, and prophesy against him and against all of Egypt.

3 Speak and say, The LORD God proclaims: I'm against you, Pharaoh, Egypt's king, great crocodile lurking in the Nile's canals, who says, "The Nile is all mine; I made it for myself!"

4 I will set hooks in your jaws; I will make the fish from the Nile's canals cling to your scales. I will drag you out of the Nile's canals, and also all the fish from the Nile's canals clinging to your scales.

5 I will fling you out into the desert, and also all the fish from the Nile's canals. You will fall on the open ground, and won't be gathered or retrieved. I've given you to the beasts of the earth and the birds in the sky for food.

6 Everyone living in Egypt will know that I am the LORD. Because they were a flimsy crutch for the house of Israel—

7 when they took you in hand, you would splinter and make their shoulders sore; when they leaned on you, you would break, bringing them to their knees—

8 now the LORD God proclaims: I'm bringing a sword against you, and I will cut off from you human and beast.

9 The land of Egypt will be turned into a wasteland and ruins. Then they will know that I am the LORD. Because you said, "The Nile is mine; I made it,"

10 I'm against you and against the Nile's canals. I will make the land of Egypt into an utter ruin, a wasteland, from Migdol to Syene and as far as its boundary with Cush.

11 No foot, animal or human, will walk across it, and it won't be inhabited for forty years.

12 I will make the land of Egypt the most desolate of wastelands and its cities the most devastated of ruined cities. It will be a wasteland for forty years, and the Egyptians will be scattered among the nations and dispersed throughout the lands.

13 The LORD God proclaims: At the end of forty years, I will gather the Egyptians from among the nations where they are scattered.

14 I will improve their circumstances and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin. Egypt will be a lowly kingdom there.

15 Out of all the kingdoms, it will be the lowliest. It will never again exalt itself over the nations, and I will make it small to keep it from ruling the nations.

16 The house of Israel will never again bring guilt on itself by faithlessly turning to Egypt for help, for they will know that I am the LORD God.

17 In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, the LORD's word came to me:

18 Human one, Babylon's King Nebuchadrezzar made his army labor very hard against Tyre. Every head was scraped bald, and every shoulder was rubbed raw, yet he got nothing from Tyre for himself or for his army for any of his efforts against it.

19 So now the LORD God proclaims: I'm going to give the land of Egypt to Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar. He will carry off its wealth, he will plunder and loot it, and it will be the wages for his army.

20 I will give him the land of Egypt as payment for his laboring for me. This is what the LORD God says.

21 On that day I will give new strength to the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth among them. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, prophesy and say, The LORD God proclaims: Howl! Horror for the day!

3 The day is coming, the day of the LORD comes, a day of clouds: the nations' time has come.

4 A sword will come into Egypt, and trembling will overcome Cush, when the slain fall in Egypt, its wealth carried away, and its foundations razed.

5 Cush, Put, and Lud, all Arabia and Cub, and the people from the allied country with them will fall by the sword.

6 The LORD proclaims: When Egypt's helpers fall, its proud strength will decline. From Migdol to Syene they will fall by the sword. This is what the LORD God says.

7 Of all the lands laid waste, it will be the most desolate; of all cities, the most ruined.

8 They will know that I am the LORD. On the day that I set fire to Egypt and all its helpers are broken,

9 messengers in ships will go out from me to startle the complacent Cushites. Anguish will overcome them on Egypt's day. It's certainly coming.

10 The LORD God proclaims: I will bring an end to the hordes of Egypt through the power of Babylon's King Nebuchadrezzar.

11 He and his people with him, the most terrible of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.

12 I will dry up the Nile canals; I will sell the land to evildoers. With the help of foreigners I will lay waste to the land and everything in it. I, the LORD, have spoken.

13 The LORD God proclaims: I will destroy the idols and bring an end to the images in Memphis. Never again will there be a prince from the land of Egypt; so I will kindle fear in the land of Egypt.

14 I will turn Pathros into a desolation, set fire to Zoan, and execute judgments in Thebes.

15 I will pour out my anger on Pelusium, the stronghold of Egypt, and I will cut down pompous Thebes.

16 I will set Egypt on fire; Pelusium will writhe in travail, Thebes will be split open, Memphis assaulted in broad daylight.

17 The elite troops of On and Pi-beseth will fall by the sword, and the cities themselves will go into captivity.

18 At Tehaphnehes the day will go dark when I break Egypt's yoke and bring an end to its proud strength. A cloud will cover it, and the towns around it will go into captivity.

19 I will execute judgments in Egypt, and they will know that I am the LORD.

20 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the seventh month, the LORD's word came to me:

21 Human one, I've broken the arm of Pharaoh, Egypt's king, and it hasn't been set so that it might heal, nor has it been braced or wrapped up so that it might be strong enough to grasp a sword.

22 So now the LORD God proclaims: I'm against Pharaoh, and I will break his arms, both the sound one and the broken one, and I'll make the sword fall out of his hand.

23 I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the earth.

24 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and I will put my sword into his hand. When I break the arms of Pharaoh, he will groan like a dying man in his presence.

25 I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall. They will know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he uses it against the land of Egypt.

26 When I scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the earth, they will know that I am the LORD.

1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, say to Pharaoh, Egypt's king, and his troops: With whom do you compare in your greatness?

3 Consider Assyria, a cedar of Lebanon: beautiful branches, dense shade, towering height; indeed, its top went up between the clouds.

4 Waters nourished it; the deep raised it up, because its streams flowed around the place where it was planted. From there, water trickled down to all the other trees of the field.

5 And so it became higher than all the trees of the field. Its branches became abundant; its boughs grew long. Because of the plentiful water, it grew freely.

6 All the birds in the sky made nests in its branches; all the beasts of the field gave birth under its boughs, and in its shade, every great nation lived.

7 It became beautiful in its greatness and in its lush foliage, because it took root in plentiful water.

8 No cedar was its equal in God's garden. The fir trees didn't have anything like its branches, and the plane trees had nothing like its boughs. None of the trees in God's garden could compare to it in its beauty.

9 As for its beauty—I made it so, with its abundant foliage. All the trees of Eden envied it, all that were in God's garden.

10 So now the LORD God proclaims: Consider the fate of those who tower high! When it allowed its branches to reach up among the clouds, it became arrogant.

11 So I handed it over to the most powerful nation, who continually acted treacherously against it. I banished it!

12 Foreigners, the worst of the nations, cut it down and left it to lie among the hills. All its branches fell among the valleys, and its boughs were broken off in the earth's deep ravines. All the earth's peoples departed from its shade and abandoned it.

13 On its trunk roost all the birds in the sky, and on its boughs lie all the beasts of the field.

14 All this has happened so that no other well-watered tree would tower high or allow its branches to reach among the clouds. Nor would their leaders achieve the towering stature of such well-watered trees. Certainly, all of them are consigned to death, to the world below, among human beings who go down to the pit.

15 The LORD God proclaims: On the day that it went down to the underworld, I caused mourning. I blocked off the deep sea against it. I dried up its rivers and restrained the mighty waters. I made Lebanon go into mourning for it, and all the trees of the field languished on its account.

16 When it was felled, the nations quaked at the sound. When I cast it down into the underworld, with those who go down to the pit, all the trees of Eden were comforted in the world below, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all the trees that depended on water.

17 His allies, those among the nations who lived under his shade, these also went down with him to the underworld, to those who are slain by the sword.

18 Are you like any of these in glory or greatness among Eden's trees? Then you too will go down with Eden's trees to the world below. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and his entire horde. This is what the LORD God says.

1 In the twelfth year, on the first day of the twelfth month, the LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, sing a lament for Pharaoh, Egypt's king. Say to him: You consider yourself a young lion among the nations, but you are like the sea monster! You thrash about in your rivers, you roil the waters with your feet, and you muddy your rivers.

3 The LORD God proclaims: In the company of many peoples I will spread my net over you, and I will haul you up in my dragnet.

4 I will cast you out on the earth and throw you on the open ground. I will cause all the birds in the sky to settle on you, and all the beasts of the earth to devour you.

5 Your flesh I will set upon the mountains, and I will fill the valleys with your gore.

6 With your blood I will soak your irrigated land, and the streambeds will be filled with you.

7 When you are snuffed out, I will cover the sky, and I will darken the stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon won't radiate its light.

8 As for the shining lights of the heavens, I will make them dark over you, and set darkness over your land. This is what the LORD God says.

9 I will trouble the hearts of many peoples when I bring about your destruction with nations from lands you didn't know.

10 I will make many peoples appalled because of you. Their kings will shudder violently on your account when I brandish my sword before them. They will tremble for their lives again and again on the day of your downfall.

11 The LORD God proclaims: The sword of the king of Babylon is coming against you!

12 I will make your hordes fall by the swords of mighty men, the most terrifying of the nations, all of them. They will bring an end to Egypt's pride, and all of its hordes will be destroyed.

13 I will remove all its livestock from beside the plentiful waters so that neither human foot nor livestock's hoof will trouble it again.

14 At that time, I will allow the waters to run clear, and make its rivers flow like oil. This is what the LORD God says.

15 When I turn the land of Egypt into a wasteland and the land is deprived of all that fills it, and when I strike down those who live there, then they will know that I am the LORD.

16 This is a lament, and it will be sung as a lament. The daughters of the nations will lament for Egypt, and they will also lament for Egypt's hordes. This is what the LORD God says.

17 In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the LORD's word came to me:

18 Human one, mourn for Egypt's hordes. Send Egypt down with the mighty nations subject to it, to the world below, among those who go down to the pit.

19 Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and take your bed with the uncircumcised,

20 among those who fall slain by the sword. A sword is appointed, and all his hordes will carry him off.

21 The mighty chieftains, those who once came to his aid, will speak to him from the middle of the underworld, for the uncircumcised have gone down and have lain down, slain by the sword.

22 Assyria is there, and all its assembly round about his grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword,

23 who were assigned graves in the deepest region of the pit. His assembly surrounded his grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.

24 Elam is there, her entire horde round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised to the world below, who caused terror in the land of the living. They bore their shame like those who go down to the pit.

25 Among the slain they made a bed for her, with all her hordes round about her grave, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, for they caused terror in the land of the living. They bore their shame like those who go down to the pit; in the midst of the slain she was placed.

26 Meshech and Tubal are there, and all their hordes around their graves, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, for they caused terror in the land of the living.

27 They don't lie with the mighty men fallen among the uncircumcised. When they went down to the underworld with their weapons of war, they put their swords under their heads and their shields over their bones. The terror of the mighty men is in the land of the living.

28 But you, you will be broken among the uncircumcised, and you will lie with those who are slain by the sword.

29 Edom is there, its kings and all its princes, who, though strong, were put with those slain by the sword. They lie with the uncircumcised, like those who go down to the pit.

30 All the princes of the north are there, and all the Sidonians who went down with the slain; in spite of the terror of their strength, they were disgraced. They lie uncircumcised with those slain by the sword. They bore their shame like those who go down to the pit.

31 When Pharaoh sees them, he will be sorry for all his hordes who are slain by the sword— Pharaoh and all his army. This is what the LORD God says,

32 Though it was I who put his terror in the land of the living, he will be laid out among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his horde. This is what the LORD God says.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, speak to your people and say to them: Suppose I bring a sword against a country, and the people of the land take a certain person from their assembly and make him their lookout.

3 When he sees the sword coming against the land, he blows the trumpet and warns the people.

4 If they hear the sound of the trumpet but don't heed the warning, when the sword comes and they are taken away, they are responsible for their blood.

5 They heard the sound of the trumpet but didn't heed the warning, so their blood is on them. If they had paid attention to the warning, they would have saved their lives.

6 If the lookout sees the sword coming but doesn't blow the trumpet to warn the people, when the sword comes and takes away any of them, they are taken away in their sin, but I'll hold the lookout responsible for their blood.

7 You, human one, I've made you a lookout for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear me speaking, you must give them warning from me.

8 If I pronounce a death sentence on wicked people, and you don't warn them to turn from their way, they will die in their guilt, but I will hold you responsible for their blood.

9 But suppose you do warn the wicked of their ways so that they might turn from them. If they don't turn from their ways, they will die in their guilt, but you will save your life.

10 You, human one, say to the house of Israel: This is what all of you are saying: "How our transgressions and our sins weigh on us! We waste away because of them. How can we live?"

11 Say to them, This is what the LORD God says: As surely as I live, do I take pleasure in the death of the wicked? If the wicked turn from their ways, they will live. Turn, completely turn from your wicked ways! Why should you die, house of Israel?

12 You, human one, say to your people: The righteousness of the righteous doesn't rescue them when they begin to sin. Nor does the wickedness of the wicked make them stumble if they turn from their wickedness. If the righteous sin, their righteousness won't protect them.

13 Even if I've told the righteous they will live, none of their righteous deeds will be remembered if they trust in their righteousness and do wrong. They will die because of their evil deeds.

14 And even if I have pronounced a death sentence on the wicked, if they turn from sin and do what is just and right—

15 if they return pledges, make restitution for robbery, and walk in life-giving regulations in order not to sin—they will live and not die.

16 None of the sins they've committed will be remembered against them. They've done what is just and right, and they will live.

17 Yet your people say, "My Lord's way doesn't measure up." Isn't it their ways that don't measure up?

18 When the righteous turn from their righteousness to do wrong, they will die because of it.

19 And when the wicked turn from their wickedness to do what is just and right, it is for that reason they will live.

20 Yet you say, "My Lord's way doesn't measure up." I judge each one of you according to your ways, house of Israel!

21 In the twelfth year, on the fifth day of the tenth month of our exile, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me and reported, "The city has fallen!"

22 The LORD's power was with me in the evening before the survivor arrived, and just before he arrived in the morning, God opened my mouth. So my mouth was opened, and I was no longer speechless.

23 The LORD's word came to me:

24 Human one, those who live among those ruins in Israel's fertile land are saying, "Abraham was just one man, and he inherited the land. We are many, so certainly the land has been given to us as an inheritance."

25 So say to them, The LORD God proclaims: You eat with the blood, you lift your eyes to the idols, and you shed blood. Should you inherit the land?

26 You live by the sword, you observe detestable practices, and every one of you commits adultery. Should you inherit the land?

27 Say to them, The LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, those in the ruins will fall by the sword, those in the countryside I will give to the wild beasts to consume, and those in the strongholds and caves will die of plague.

28 I will make the land an uninhabitable waste. Its proud strength will come to an end, and Israel's highlands will become so deserted that no one will cross through them.

29 They will know that I am the LORD when I make the land an uninhabitable waste because of all their detestable practices.

30 As for you, human one, your people talk about you beside the walls and in their doorways. One by one, they say to each other, "Let's go hear what sort of message has come from the LORD."

31 So they come to you as people do, and they sit before you as my people. They listen to your words, but they refuse to do them. Though they speak of their longing for me, they act out of their own interests and opinions.

32 To them you are like a singer of love songs with a lovely voice and skilled technique. They listen to your words, but no one does them.

33 When this comes—and it is certainly coming—they will know that a prophet has been among them.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, prophesy against Israel's shepherds. Prophesy and say to them, The LORD God proclaims to the shepherds: Doom to Israel's shepherds who tended themselves! Shouldn't shepherds tend the flock?

3 You drink the milk, you wear the wool, and you slaughter the fat animals, but you don't tend the flock.

4 You don't strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, bring back the strays, or seek out the lost; but instead you use force to rule them with injustice.

5 Without a shepherd, my flock was scattered; and when it was scattered, it became food for all the wild animals.

6 My flock strayed on all the mountains and on every high hill throughout all the earth. My flock was scattered, and there was no one to look for them or find them.

7 So now shepherds, hear the LORD's word!

8 This is what the LORD God says: As surely as I live, without a shepherd, my flock became prey. My flock became food for all the wild animals. My shepherds didn't seek out my flock. They tended themselves, but they didn't tend my flock.

9 So, shepherds, hear the LORD's word!

10 The LORD God proclaims: I'm against the shepherds! I will hold them accountable for my flock, and I will put an end to their tending the flock. The shepherds will no longer tend them, because I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and they will no longer be their food.

11 The LORD God proclaims: I myself will search for my flock and seek them out.

12 As a shepherd seeks out the flock when some in the flock have been scattered, so will I seek out my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered during the time of clouds and thick darkness.

13 I will gather and lead them out from the countries and peoples, and I will bring them to their own fertile land. I will feed them on Israel's highlands, along the riverbeds, and in all the inhabited places.

14 I will feed them in good pasture, and their sheepfold will be there, on Israel's lofty highlands. On Israel's highlands, they will lie down in a secure fold and feed on green pastures.

15 I myself will feed my flock and make them lie down. This is what the LORD God says.

16 I will seek out the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the wounded, and strengthen the weak. But the fat and the strong I will destroy, because I will tend my sheep with justice.

17 As for you, my flock, the LORD God proclaims: I will judge between the rams and the bucks among the sheep and the goats.

18 Is feeding in good pasture or drinking clear water such a trivial thing that you should trample and muddy what is left with your feet?

19 But now my flock must feed on what your feet have trampled and drink water that your feet have muddied.

20 So the LORD God proclaims to them: I will judge between the fat and the lean sheep.

21 You shove with shoulder and flank, and with your horns you ram all the weak sheep until you've scattered them outside.

22 But I will rescue my flock so that they will never again be prey. I will even judge between the sheep!

23 I will appoint for them a single shepherd, and he will feed them. My servant David will feed them. He will be their shepherd.

24 I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David will be their prince. I, the LORD, have spoken.

25 I will make a covenant of peace for them, and I will banish the wild animals from the land. Then they will safely live in the desert and sleep in the forest.

26 I will give them and those around my hill a blessing by sending the rain in its season. They will be rains of blessing.

27 The trees in the field will bear fruit, and the earth will yield its harvest. They will be safe on their fertile land, and they will know that I am the LORD when I break the bars of their yoke and deliver them from those who enslaved them.

28 The nations will no longer prey on them, and wild animals will no longer devour them. They will live in safety, with no one to trouble them.

29 I will establish for them a place famous for what it grows. No longer will they experience famine in the land, nor will they bear the disgrace of the nations.

30 They will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are my people. This is what the LORD God says.

31 You are my flock, the flock of my pasture. You are human, and I am your God. This is what the LORD God says.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face Mount Seir, and prophesy against it.

3 Say to it, The LORD God proclaims: I'm against you, Mount Seir! I will use my power against you. I will make you into a desolate wasteland,

4 I will turn your cities into ruins, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

5 Because you nursed an ancient grudge, you handed the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their distress, during their final punishment.

6 So now the LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Because you don't hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.

7 I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate wasteland, when I cut off from it both passerby and homecomer.

8 I will fill its highlands—your hills and your valleys, and all your ravines—with its slain. Those who are slain by the sword will fall on them.

9 I will turn you into an eternal desolation. Your cities won't be inhabited, and you will know that I am the LORD.

10 You said, "These two nations and these two territories are mine. We will take possession of them even if the LORD is there."

11 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, I will act according to the anger and zeal you displayed when you dealt with them so hatefully. When I judge you, I will make myself known to them,

12 and you will know that I am the LORD. I've heard the lies and libels that you uttered against Israel's highlands when you said, "They are laid waste. They've been given to us to consume."

13 With your mouths you exalted yourselves against me and spoke your words against me. I myself heard it!

14 The LORD God proclaims: As the whole world rejoices, I will turn you into a desolation.

15 Just as you rejoiced over the house of Israel's inheritance because it became desolate, so I will deal with you. Mount Seir, you will become a desolation, with all of Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

1 You, human one, prophesy to Israel's mountains and say, Hear the LORD's word, mountains of Israel!

2 The LORD God proclaims: The enemy mocked you and said, "The ancient heights belong to us."

3 Therefore, prophesy and say, The LORD God proclaims: When the surviving nations pressed in and ravaged you from all around to lay claim to you, you became an object of the people's slander and derision.

4 Hear the LORD God's word, mountains of Israel! The LORD God proclaims to the mountains and the hills, the watercourses and the valleys, the desolate ruins and the abandoned cities that were contemptuously looted by the surviving nations all around you.

5 So now, says the LORD God, I will speak in my fiery passion against the surviving nations and against Edom, all those who gleefully and spitefully took my land for themselves as a possession only for plunder.

6 Prophesy concerning Israel's fertile land, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, The LORD God proclaims: Because you endured the ridicule of the nations, my passion and fury lead me to speak.

7 So now the LORD God proclaims: I myself swear that the nations round about you will themselves suffer ridicule.

8 But you, mountains of Israel, will extend your branches and bear your fruit for my people Israel, because they will come home very soon.

9 Look, I'm here for you, and I will turn toward you, and you will be farmed and sown.

10 I will populate you with human beings, the whole house of Israel, all of them. The cities will be inhabited, the ruins rebuilt.

11 When I make people and animals increase on you, they will multiply and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before. I will do more good for you than in the beginning, and you will know that I am the LORD.

12 I will let people walk through you, my people Israel! They will lay claim to you, you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them of anything.

13 The LORD God proclaims: Because people say, "You are a devourer of human beings" and "You are depriving your nation,"

14 therefore, you will no longer devour human beings or deprive your nation of anything. This is what the LORD God says.

15 You won't have to listen anymore to the taunts of the nations or endure the scorn of the peoples. And you will no longer deprive your nation of anything. This is what the LORD God says.

16 The LORD's word came to me:

17 Human one, when the house of Israel lived on their fertile land, they polluted it with their ways and deeds. Their ways before me were polluted like the blood of menstruation,

18 and so I poured out my fury on them for all the blood they had poured out on the land and for all the defilement of their idols.

19 When I scattered them to the nations and dispersed them into other lands, I judged them according to their ways and deeds.

20 But then when they entered the other nations, they degraded my holy name because it was said of them, "These are the LORD's people, yet they had to leave his land."

21 So I had compassion on my holy name, which the house of Israel degraded among the nations where they had gone.

22 Therefore, say to the house of Israel, The LORD God proclaims: House of Israel, I'm not acting for your sake but for the sake of my holy name, which you degraded among the nations where you have gone.

23 I will make my great name holy, which was degraded among the nations when you dishonored it among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD. This is what the LORD God says. When I make myself holy among you in their sight,

24 I will take you from the nations, I will gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you to your own fertile land.

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be cleansed of all your pollution. I will cleanse you of all your idols.

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stony heart from your body and replace it with a living one,

27 and I will give you my spirit so that you may walk according to my regulations and carefully observe my case laws.

28 Then you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, you will be my people, and I will be your God.

29 I will save you from all your uncleanness, and I will summon the grain and make it grow abundantly so that you won't endure famine.

30 I will make abundant the orchards' fruit and the fields' produce so that you will never again endure the shame of famine among the nations.

31 Then you will remember your evil ways and no-good deeds, and you will feel disgust for yourselves because of your sinful and detestable practices.

32 Not for your sake do I act. This is what the LORD God proclaims. Let that be known to you! Be ashamed and be humiliated because of all your ways, house of Israel.

33 The LORD God proclaims: On the day that I cleanse you of all your guilt, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the ruins will be rebuilt.

34 The desolate land will be farmed, and it won't be like it was when it seemed a wasteland to all who passed by.

35 They will say, "This land, which was a desolation, has become like the garden of Eden." And the cities that were ruined, ravaged, and razed are now fortified and inhabited.

36 The surviving nations around you will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt what was torn down and have planted what was made desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it.

37 The LORD God proclaims: I will also allow the house of Israel to ask me to do this for them: that I increase them like a human flock.

38 Like the holy flock, like the flock of Jerusalem at its festivals, the ruined cities will be filled with a human flock. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

1 The LORD's power overcame me, and while I was in the LORD's spirit, he led me out and set me down in the middle of a certain valley. It was full of bones.

2 He led me through them all around, and I saw that there were a great many of them on the valley floor, and they were very dry.

3 He asked me, "Human one, can these bones live again?" I said, "LORD God, only you know."

4 He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, Dry bones, hear the LORD's word!

5 The LORD God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again.

6 I will put sinews on you, place flesh on you, and cover you with skin. When I put breath in you, and you come to life, you will know that I am the LORD."

7 I prophesied just as I was commanded. There was a great noise as I was prophesying, then a great quaking, and the bones came together, bone by bone.

8 When I looked, suddenly there were sinews on them. The flesh appeared, and then they were covered over with skin. But there was still no breath in them.

9 He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, human one! Say to the breath, The LORD God proclaims: Come from the four winds, breath! Breathe into these dead bodies and let them live."

10 I prophesied just as he commanded me. When the breath entered them, they came to life and stood on their feet, an extraordinarily large company.

11 He said to me, "Human one, these bones are the entire house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are completely finished.'

12 So now, prophesy and say to them, The LORD God proclaims: I'm opening your graves! I will raise you up from your graves, my people, and I will bring you to Israel's fertile land.

13 You will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, my people.

14 I will put my breath in you, and you will live. I will plant you on your fertile land, and you will know that I am the LORD. I've spoken, and I will do it. This is what the LORD says."

15 The LORD's word came to me:

16 You, human one, take a stick, and write on it, "Belonging to Judah and to the Israelites associated with him." Take another stick and write on it, "Stick of Ephraim belonging to Joseph and everyone of the house of Israel associated with him."

17 Join them to each other to make a single stick so that they become one stick in your hand.

18 When your people ask you, "Why won't you tell us what these sticks mean to you?"

19 say to them, The LORD God proclaims: I'm taking Joseph's stick, which has been in Ephraim's hand, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I'm putting it with Judah's stick, and I'm making them into a single stick so that they will be one stick in my hand.

20 When the two sticks that you've written on are in your hand in their sight,

21 speak to them, This is what the LORD God says: I will take the Israelites from among the nations where they've gone, I will gather them from all around, and I will bring them to their fertile land.

22 I will make them into a single nation in the land on Israel's highlands. There will be just one king for all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms.

23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or their worthless things or with any of their rebellions. I will deliver them from all the places where they sinned, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

24 My servant David will be king over them. There will be just one shepherd for all of them. They will follow my case laws and carefully observe my regulations.

25 They will live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where their ancestors lived. They will live on it, they and their children and their grandchildren, forever. My servant David will be their prince forever.

26 I will make a covenant of peace for them. It will be their covenant forever. I will grant it to them and allow them to increase. I will set my sanctuary among them forever.

27 My dwelling will be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.

28 The nations will know that I, the LORD, make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face Gog in the land of Magog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy concerning him

3 and say, The LORD God proclaims: I challenge you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal!

4 I will turn you about, set hooks in your jaws, and lead you out, you and all your army, horses and riders, handsomely dressed, all of them, a great assembly, with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords.

5 Persia, Cush, and Put are with you, all of them equipped with shield and helmet.

6 Gomer and all his troops, Beth-togarmah from the far north and all his troops; many peoples are with you.

7 Stand ready and be prepared, you and all your assembly. You will watch out for those who gather against you.

8 After many days you will be called out. In future years you will enter a country that has been freed from the sword, a gathering from many peoples on the mountains of Israel, which had become a perpetual ruin. This country was brought out from the peoples, and all of them live securely.

9 You will invade like a sudden storm. You and all your troops, and the many peoples with you, will be like clouds covering the earth.

10 The LORD God proclaims: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan.

11 You will say, "I will go up against the open country and come against a quiet people who all live securely without walls, bars, or doors

12 to take plunder and seize loot, to use my power against the resettled waste places, against a people gathered from the nations, who are acquiring goods and cattle, and who live at the center of the earth."

13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants and officials of Tarshish will say to you, "Have you come to take plunder and seize loot? Have you assembled your army to take silver and gold, to take goods and cattle, to engage in great looting?"

14 So now, prophesy, human one, and say to Gog, The LORD God proclaims: Isn't that what you will decide to do on that day, when my people Israel live securely?

15 You will come up from your place from the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding horses, a great assembly, a mighty army.

16 You will go up against my people Israel like a cloud covering the earth. But when this happens in future days, I will be the one who brings you up against my land, so that the nations may know me, Gog, when through you I show my holiness in their sight!

17 The LORD God proclaims: Are you the one about whom I spoke in former times through my servants, Israel's prophets, the ones who prophesied for years in those days to bring you against them?

18 On that day, the day when Gog comes against Israel's fertile land, my wrath will be aroused. This is what the LORD God says.

19 In my jealousy and blazing anger I declare: On that day, a great quaking will come over Israel's fertile land.

20 The fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, all the creatures crawling on the ground, and every living human being will quake in my presence. Mountains will be thrown down and cliffs will crumble; every wall will fall to the ground.

21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains. This is what the LORD God says! The swords of the warriors will be against each other,

22 and I will enter into judgment with him, with plague and blood. I will pour out flooding rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him, on all his troops, and on the many peoples with him.

23 So I will display my greatness, show my holiness, and make myself known in the sight of many nations. And they will know that I am the LORD.

1 You, human one, prophesy about Gog and say, The LORD God proclaims: I challenge you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal!

2 I will turn you about, drag you out, and bring you out of the far north, and I will bring you to Israel's mountains.

3 I will strike your bow from your left hand, and make your arrows fall from your right.

4 You will fall on Israel's mountains, you, all your troops, and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the birds of prey, to every kind of bird and wild animal as food.

5 You will fall on the open field, for I have spoken! This is what the LORD God says!

6 I will send fire on Magog and on those who live securely in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the LORD.

7 I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. They will never again degrade my holy name, and the nations will know that I, the LORD, am holy in Israel.

8 Look, it has come! It has happened! This is what the LORD God says. This is the day that I spoke about.

9 Those who live in Israel's cities will go out and kindle a fire with the weapons—shield and buckler, bow and arrow, spear and lance. They will burn them with fire for seven years.

10 They won't gather wood from the field or chop down trees from the forest, because they will be able to keep the fire burning with the weapons. So they will take plunder and seize loot. This is what the LORD says.

11 On that day, I will assign Gog a place for burial in Israel in the Travelers' Valley east of the sea. It will block the travelers' way, because Gog and all of his horde will be buried there. It will be called Hamon-gog Valley.

12 For seven months, the house of Israel will bury them in order to cleanse the land.

13 All the people of the land will take part in the burial, so they will make a name for themselves on the day that I glorify myself. This is what the LORD God says.

14 They will appoint people who will continually cross through the land and bury the human remains that are left on the surface of the ground in order to purify it. They will begin their search at the end of seven months.

15 As the travelers cross through the land, when they see a human bone, they will set up a marker next to it until the gravediggers bury it in Hamon-gog Valley

16 (the name of the city is Hamonah). So they will purify the land.

17 And you, human one, the LORD God proclaims: Say to the birds of prey, to every kind of bird and every wild animal: Assemble and come! Come together from all around for the sacrifice that I make for you, a great sacrifice on Israel's mountains! You will eat flesh and drink blood.

18 You will eat the flesh of warriors and drink the blood of the princes of the earth: rams, lambs, goats, bulls, all fattened animals from Bashan.

19 Gorge yourselves on their fat, and get drunk on their blood, from the sacrifice that I have made for you.

20 Satisfy yourselves at my table with horses and riders, mighty men and every warrior. This is what the LORD God says!

21 When I glorify myself among the nations, all the nations will understand the judgments that I executed and the power that I used among them.

22 And the house of Israel will know that I, the LORD, am their God, from that day on.

23 The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile because of their guilt. Because they rebelled against me, I hid my face from them. When I handed them over to their enemies, all of them fell by the sword.

24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions and hid my face from them.

25 So the LORD God proclaims: Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob. I will have compassion on the whole house of Israel and defend my holy name.

26 They will forget their humiliation and all their rebellions against me when they live securely on their fertile land with no one to frighten them.

27 When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, I will be made holy through them in the sight of the many nations.

28 They will know that I am the LORD their God when, after I made them go into exile among the nations, I gathered them to their land. I won't leave any of them behind.

29 When I pour my Spirit upon the house of Israel, I won't hide my face from them again. This is what the LORD God says.

1 In the beginning of the twenty-fifth year of our exile, on the tenth day of the month, exactly fourteen years after the city was struck down, on that very day, the LORD's power was on me, and he took me there.

2 In God's visions, he brought me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain, where there was a city structure to the south.

3 When he brought me there, I saw a man standing in the gate. He appeared to be bronze, and he had a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand.

4 The man spoke to me, "Human one, look and listen well, and take seriously everything I show you, because you were brought here so that these things could be revealed to you. Describe everything you see to the house of Israel."

5 Now there was an outer wall that went all the way around the temple compound. The measuring rod in the man's hand was ten and a half feet (based on a standard eighteen inches plus three inches). When he measured the wall's height and width it was ten and a half feet high and ten and a half feet wide.

6 He entered the gate facing east. He went up its steps, and he measured the plaza at the gate. It was ten and a half feet wide: the plaza was ten and a half feet wide.

7 The rooms were ten and a half feet long and ten and a half feet wide, with a space of seven and a half feet between them. The plaza next to the porch at the gate opposite the temple was ten and a half feet.

8 He measured the porch of the gate opposite the temple: it was ten and a half feet.

9 Then he measured the porch of the gate: it was twelve feet, and its arches were three feet. The porch of the gate was opposite the temple.

10 Inside the east gate, there were three rooms on each side. Each was the same size, and the arches on each side were the same size also.

11 Then he measured the width of the gate opening, which was fifteen feet, and the gate's length, which was nineteen and a half feet.

12 A border running along the front of the rooms on each side was eighteen inches wide, and each of the rooms was nine feet square.

13 He measured the gate through the room openings that faced each other. From the outer ceiling edge of one room to the outer ceiling edge of the other, the gate was thirty-seven and a half feet wide.

14 Next he made out the perimeter of the hallway, defined by the arches inside the gate: it was ninety feet.

15 It was seventy-five feet from the front of the outer gate to the front of the inner porch of the gate.

16 Inside the gate, all of the rooms and their arches had closed windows; there were also niches inside the porch all the way around. The arches were decorated with palm trees.

17 Then he brought me to the outer courtyard, which consisted of chambers and a pavement all the way around. Thirty chambers came up to the pavement,

18 and the pavement came up to the facades of the gates along their entire length. That was the lower pavement.

19 When he measured the width from the inside of the lower gate to the outer edge of the inner courtyard, it was one hundred fifty feet. After he measured the east gate, he measured the north gate,

20 the one facing north at the outer courtyard. He measured its length and width,

21 its three inner rooms on each side, its arches, and its porch. Its measurements were the same as the first gate: seventy-five feet long and thirty-seven and a half feet wide.

22 The windows, porch, and palm decorations had the same measurements as those of the east gate. Seven steps led up to the entrance, and the porch was at the other end.

23 There were also gates to the inner courtyard opposite the north and east gates. When he measured from gate to gate, it was one hundred fifty feet.

24 Then he had me walk toward the south, where there was a gate facing south. He measured its arches and porch using the same measurements.

25 Its windows and its porch all around were like the others, and the gate also was seventy-five feet long and thirty-seven and a half feet wide.

26 Its stairway had seven steps, and its porch was at the other end. On its arches, one on either side, were palm decorations.

27 There was a gate to the inner courtyard on the south. When he measured from gate to gate on the south side, it was one hundred fifty feet.

28 When he brought me to the inner courtyard by way of the south gate, he took the same measurements of the south gate.

29 Its rooms, arches, and porch, as well as its windows and porch all the way around, measured the same as the others. It was seventy-five feet long and thirty-seven and a half feet wide.

30 There were porches all around, thirty-seven and a half feet long and seven and a half feet wide.

31 Its porch faced the outer courtyard. Palms decorated its arches, and its stairway had eight steps.

32 Then he brought me to the inner courtyard on the east side, and again he took the same measurements of the gate.

33 Its rooms, arches, and porch measured the same as the others, as well as its windows and porch all the way around. It was seventy-five feet long and thirty-seven and a half feet wide.

34 Its porch faced the outer courtyard. Palm trees decorated its arches on both sides, and its stairway had eight steps.

35 Then he brought me to the north gate and took the same measurements of the

36 rooms, arches, and porch, and also its windows all around. It was seventy-five feet long and thirty-seven and a half feet wide.

37 Its porch faced the outer courtyard. Palm trees decorated its arches on both sides, and its stairway had eight steps.

38 At that gate, there was a room with an entrance in the arches for washing the entirely burned offering,

39 and inside the porch on each side of the gate were two tables where the entirely burned offerings, the purification offerings, and the compensation offerings were slaughtered.

40 Outside, two pairs of tables flanked the entrance of the north gate at both ends, at the steps on one end and the porch on the other.

41 There were four tables on each side of the gate, eight tables in all, for preparing the animal offerings.

42 The four tables that were used for the entirely burned offering as well as for the communal sacrifices were made of hewn stone. Each was twenty-seven inches square and eighteen inches high. Equipment used in the ritual slaughter was set on them.

43 Hooks, three inches wide, were securely fixed all the way around. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings.

44 Outside the inner gate there were two chambers in the inner courtyard. The one beside the north gate faced south, and the one beside the east gate faced north.

45 He spoke to me: "The chamber facing south is for the priests who keep watch over the temple,

46 and the chamber facing north is for the priests who keep watch over the altar. Of all the Levites, only the Zadokites may draw near to serve the LORD."

47 Then he measured the courtyard. It was square, one hundred fifty feet long and one hundred fifty feet wide. The altar was in front of the temple.

48 Then he brought me to the porch of the temple and measured its arches. They were seven and a half feet on each side, and the width of the gate was four and a half feet on each side.

49 The porch was thirty feet long and eighteen feet wide. Steps led up into the porch, and there were columns for the arches, one on each side.

1 He brought me to the main hall, and he measured the arches. They were nine feet deep on both sides, so that was also the depth of the tent.

2 The entrance was fifteen feet wide, and the facades on either side of the entrance were seven and a half feet. When he measured its length, it was sixty feet, and its width was thirty feet.

3 Then he went into the inner room, and he measured the arches on both sides of the entrance; they were each three feet. The entrance was nine feet wide, and its depth was ten and a half feet.

4 When he measured the length of the inner room, it was thirty feet, and the width of the side adjoining the main hall was also thirty feet. He said to me, "This is the most holy place."

5 When he measured the wall of the temple, it was nine feet, and the side chambers that went all the way around the temple were six feet.

6 Now these side chambers adjoined each other, thirty chambers in three stories. The side chambers had a ledge in the temple wall all the way around to serve as supports, but these supports were not inserted into the temple wall itself.

7 A wide ramp ascended stage by stage to the side chambers all the way around the temple. In this way, the ascent stage by stage all around the temple added to the temple's width. One ascended from the foundation to the top by way of the middle story.

8 Then I looked at the temple: Its roof all around rested on the side chambers. Each raised section was ten and a half feet, and the indentations between them were nine feet.

9 The width of the outer wall of the side chambers was seven and a half feet. The space left free between the temple's side chambers and

10 the other chambers was thirty feet wide all the way around the temple.

11 There were two entrances from the side chambers to the free space, one facing north, the other facing south. And the width of the place that was left free was seven and a half feet all the way around.

12 The structure facing the yard on the west was one hundred five feet wide. The structure's wall was seven and a half feet wide all the way around, and its length was one hundred thirty-five feet.

13 Then he measured the temple. It was one hundred fifty feet long. The yard, the structure, and its walls were also one hundred fifty feet.

14 The area in front of the house and the yard to the east was one hundred fifty feet also.

15 Then he measured the length of the structure along the side of the yard, including its promenades on both sides: one hundred fifty feet. Now the interior of the main hall as well as the porches in the courtyard

16 were paneled all around, including the ceilings, closed windows, and its three courses of promenades adjoined the ceiling. From the ground up to the windows was covered.

17 Above the entrance, from the interior to the exterior of the temple, and on every interior and exterior wall,

18 there were carved winged creatures and palm trees. The palm trees were positioned between the winged creatures, and each winged creature had two faces.

19 A human face turned toward one palm tree, and the face of a lion turned toward another. They were carved on the temple all the way around.

20 From the ground to above the entrance, the walls of the main hall were carved with winged creatures and palm trees.

21 In the main hall itself, there were square doorposts in front of the holy place, where there was the appearance of

22 the altar. It was four and a half feet high and three feet wide. It was made of wood, and its corners, base, and sides were also wood. He said to me, "This is the table that stands before the LORD."

23 The main hall and the holy place each had two doors,

24 and each door had two turning panels, two for one door and two for the other.

25 Like the walls, the doors of the main hall were carved with winged creatures and palm trees. A single luxuriant tree stood outside, in front of the porch,

26 while closed windows and palm trees decorated both sides of the facade of the porch, the temple's side chambers, and the beams.

1 Then he led me north to the outer courtyard and brought me into the set of chambers opposite the yard and the structure to the north.

2 The length of the facade at the north entrance was one hundred fifty feet, its depth seventy-five feet.

3 It was next to the twenty chambers that belonged to the inner courtyard and next to the pavement of the outer courtyard, and it had three courses of promenades.

4 In front of the chambers there was a passage fifteen feet wide, and to the inside, a passage eighteen inches wide. The entrance to the chambers was on the north.

5 The upper chambers were smaller, because the promenades took up more space from them than from the first and second stories.

6 This was because the promenades were arranged in three levels, but they didn't have columns like those in the courtyards. For this reason, the top story was narrower than the first and second stories.

7 A stone wall ran parallel to the chambers facing the outer courtyard. It was seventy-five feet long,

8 the same length, seventy-five feet, as the chambers facing the outer courtyard. Those facing the temple were one hundred fifty feet.

9 -

10 These chambers were entered from the outer courtyard at the end of the courtyard wall, because the entrance was at the end of the chambers at the east. South of the yard and the building, there were more chambers with a passage

11 in front of them. The design of the chambers resembled the ones to the north in length and width, as well as in all their exits. The arrangement of the entrances

12 to the chambers on the south side was identical as well. One entered from the east at the beginning of the corresponding wall.

13 Then he said to me, "The north and south chambers that face the building and the yard are the holy chambers where the priests eat the offerings that have been brought to the LORD. They are most holy. Here they will place the most holy things, the grain offering, the purification offering, and the compensation offering. The place is holy.

14 When the priests enter, they won't go out of the sanctuary to the outer courtyard. There they will place the priestly vests that they wore when they were ministering, because these garments are also holy. They will put on other garments when they go out to the people's area."

15 When he finished making the interior measurements of the temple, he led me out toward the east gate, and he measured all the way around.

16 He used the same measuring rod on all four sides. He measured the east side, seven hundred fifty feet;

17 the north side, seven hundred fifty feet; and

18 the south side, seven hundred fifty feet.

19 He turned to the west side, seven hundred fifty feet.

20 On all four sides he measured the wall all the way around. Its length was seven hundred fifty feet, and its width seven hundred fifty feet. So he made a division between the holy and the ordinary.

1 Then he led me to the east gate,

2 where the glory of Israel's God was coming in from the east. Its sound was like the sound of a mighty flood, and the earth was lit up with his glory.

3 What appeared when I looked was like what I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and also like what I saw at the Chebar River, and I fell on my face.

4 Then the LORD's glory came into the temple by way of the east gate.

5 A wind picked me up and brought me to the inner courtyard, and there the LORD's glory filled the temple.

6 A man was standing next to me, but the voice that I heard came from inside the temple.

7 He said to me, Human one, this is the place for my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings, with their disloyalties and with their kings' corpses at the shrines.

8 When they set their plazas with mine and their doorposts next to mine, the wall was between us. They defiled my holy name with their detestable practices, so I consumed them in my anger.

9 Now let them remove their disloyalties and their kings' corpses from me, and I will dwell among them forever.

10 You, human one, describe the temple to the house of Israel. Let them be humiliated because of their guilt when they think about its design.

11 When they feel humiliated by all that they have done, make known to them the shape of the temple and its adornment, its exits and its entrances, its entire plan and all of its regulations. Write them down in their sight so that they may observe all of its entire plan and all its regulations and perform them.

12 These are the instructions for the temple: the top of the mountain, as well as its boundaries all around, are most holy. These are the instructions for the temple.

13 These are the dimensions of the altar, according to a twenty-one-inch unit of measure. The base is twenty-one inches high and twenty-one inches wide, with an outer curb measuring one and a half inches all around. This is the altar's height.

14 From the base at ground level to the lower ledge is forty-two inches; the lower ledge is twenty-one inches wide. The distance from the lower to the upper ledge is seven feet; the upper ledge is twenty-one inches wide.

15 The hearth is seven feet high, with four horns projecting upward from the hearth.

16 The hearth is twenty-one feet square; each side is equal to the others.

17 The ledge around the hearth is twenty-four and a half feet long by twenty-four and a half feet wide, a square. Its outer rim is ten and a half inches, and its base all around is twenty-one inches. Its ramp faces east.

18 He said to me, Human one, the LORD God proclaims: These are the regulations established for the altar on the day when it is prepared for making entirely burned offerings and dashing blood on it.

19 You will provide a young bull as a purification offering to the levitical priests who are descendants of Zadok, the ones who may draw near to minster to me. This is what the LORD God says.

20 You will take some of its blood and set it on the four horns of the altar and on the four sides of the ledge and on the curb all around. So you will purify it and purge it.

21 Then you will take the bull selected as the purification offering, and the priests will burn it in a designated place of the temple outside of the sanctuary.

22 On the second day, you will present a flawless male goat as a purification offering. The priests will purify the altar just as they purified the altar with the bull.

23 When you have completed the purification, you will present a flawless bull from the herd and a flawless ram from the flock.

24 You will present them to the LORD. The priests will throw salt on them and offer them as entirely burned offerings to the LORD.

25 Daily, for seven days, you will present a male goat for a purification offering. You will also present a bull from the herd and a ram from the flock, both flawless.

26 For seven days the priests will purge the altar in order to purify it and to dedicate it.

27 When the seven days are completed, the priests will offer your entirely burned offerings and your well-being sacrifices on the altar from the eighth day on, and I will accept you with pleasure. This is what the LORD God says.

1 He brought me back to the outer sanctuary gate that faces east. It was closed.

2 The LORD said to me, This gate remains closed. It shouldn't be opened. No one should come in through it because the LORD, Israel's God, has entered through it. It will remain closed.

3 As for the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread in the LORD's presence. He may come in and go out by way of the gate's porch.

4 Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked, and suddenly the LORD's glory filled the LORD's temple, and I fell on my face.

5 Then the LORD said to me: Human one, pay close attention! Use your eyes and ears and listen to all that I say to you concerning the regulations of the LORD's temple and all its instructions. Pay close attention to the access to the temple through all the sanctuary portals.

6 Speak to the rebels, to the house of Israel, The LORD God proclaims: Enough of your detestable practices, house of Israel!

7 You made my temple unclean because you brought into my sanctuary foreigners who were physically and spiritually uncircumcised. When you offered my food of fat and blood to me, you broke my covenant with all your detestable practices.

8 You didn't keep charge of my holy things. On the contrary, you appointed them to keep charge in my sanctuary for you.

9 The LORD God proclaims: Foreigners who are spiritually and physically uncircumcised must not enter my sanctuary; that is, all foreigners among the Israelites.

10 But the Levites, who went far from me when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, will bear their guilt.

11 They will keep charge in my sanctuary, and they will oversee the temple gates and keep charge of the temple. They will slaughter the entirely burned offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them.

12 Because they ministered to them before their idols, they brought about the downfall of the house of Israel. For that reason I made a solemn pledge against them—this is what the LORD God says—and they will bear their guilt.

13 They won't approach me to officiate for me as priests or approach any of my holy things or the most holy place. Though they will bear their humiliation and the consequences of their detestable practices,

14 I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, all its work, and all that is done in it.

15 As for the priests of the levitical family of Zadok who did keep charge of my sanctuary when the Israelites strayed away from me, they will draw near to me to serve me. They will stand in my presence to present fat and blood to me. This is what the LORD God says.

16 They will come into my sanctuary, and they will approach my table to minister to me. They will keep my charge.

17 When they come through the gates to the inner courtyard, they will wear linen garments. They won't wear any wool when they minister at the gates of the inner courtyard or in the temple.

18 They will have linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They won't wear anything that makes them sweat.

19 When they go out to the outer courtyard to the people, they will remove the garments in which they were ministering. They will lay them aside in the holy chambers and wear other clothing. They must not transfer holiness to the people through their clothing.

20 They must neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long, but they will trim the hair on their heads.

21 None of the priests should drink wine when they come into the inner courtyard.

22 They must not marry widows or divorced women, but only Israelite virgins. Priests may, however, marry the widows of other priests.

23 They must teach my people the difference between the holy and the ordinary, and show them the difference between clean and unclean.

24 They must execute judgments according to my case laws in cases of civil conflict. They must observe my instructions and my regulations regarding all my festivals. They must keep my sabbaths holy.

25 In order to avoid uncleanness, they must not approach the dead. They may, however, become unclean for their father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister.

26 Once the priest is clean again, he must count off seven days.

27 On the day that he comes into the holy place, the inner courtyard, to minister in the holy place, he will present his purification offering. This is what the LORD God says.

28 As for their inheritance, I am their inheritance. They won't be given family property in Israel; I am their family property.

29 They will eat the grain offerings, the purification offerings, and the compensation offerings. Every dedicated thing in Israel belongs to them.

30 The best of the early produce of every kind, and every contribution, all of them, belong to the priests. You will give the best of your bread dough to the priest so that a blessing may come to rest on your household.

31 The priests must not eat any bird or animal that dies naturally or is torn apart by prey.

1 When you distribute the land as an inheritance, you will set aside a holy portion of land for the LORD. It will be 7.1 miles long and 5.68 miles wide. It will be holy throughout the entire area.

2 Out of this portion, an area seven hundred fifty feet by seven hundred fifty feet square will be for the sanctuary. All around it will be an open space seventy-five feet wide.

3 Beginning with this measurement, you will measure out an area 7.1 miles long and 2.84 miles wide. The sanctuary, the most holy place, will lie on it.

4 It is holy, set apart from the land, and it belongs to the priests who draw near to minister in the LORD's sanctuary. It will be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the sanctuary.

5 The area 7.1 miles long and 2.84 miles wide will be for the Levites who minister in the temple. Twenty chambers are theirs as their property.

6 As the property for the city, you will set aside an area 1.42 miles wide and 7.1 miles long next to the holy portion. It will be for the whole house of Israel.

7 The territory for the prince will be on both sides of the holy portion and the city property, alongside the holy portion and alongside the city property, from their western boundaries westward and from their eastern boundaries eastward. Its length will equal one tribal portion, from the western border to the eastern border.

8 The land will be his property in Israel, and my princes will no longer oppress my people. They will give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

9 The LORD God proclaims: Enough, princes of Israel! Turn aside from violence and oppression. Establish justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people! This is what the LORD God says:

10 You must use fair scales, a fair ephah, and a fair bath.

11 The ephah and the bath must be the same size. Both should be calibrated to the homer: each will contain one-tenth of a homer.

12 The shekel must weigh twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels will equal one maneh for you.

13 These are your prescribed contributions: one-sixth of an ephah for each homer of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah for each homer of barley;

14 a regular amount of oil, one-tenth of a bath for each kor (each kor contains ten baths);

15 and one sheep from the flock for every two hundred from Israel's pastureland, for grain offerings, for entirely burned offerings, and for well-being sacrifices to make reconciliation for them. This is what the LORD God says.

16 All the people will make this contribution on behalf of the prince in Israel.

17 The prince will be responsible for the entirely burned offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for the festivals, new moons, and sabbaths, all the appointed festivals of the house of Israel. He will offer the purification offering, the grain offering, the entirely burned offering, and the well-being sacrifice to make reconciliation on behalf of the house of Israel.

18 The LORD God proclaims: On the first day of the first month, you will take a flawless young bull from the herd, and you will purify the sanctuary.

19 The priest will take some of the blood from the purification offering, and he will set it on the doorposts of the temple and on the four corners of the ledge of the altar and on the doorposts of the gate to the inner courtyard.

20 You will do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins through inadvertence or ignorance. So you will purge the temple.

21 Your Passover will be on the fourteenth day of the first month. Unleavened bread will be eaten during the seven days of the festival.

22 On that day, the prince will provide a young bull as the purification offering for himself and for the people of the land.

23 For the seven days of the festival, he will provide seven flawless bulls and seven flawless rams, one for each day of the festival, as the entirely burned offering for the LORD, and, for the purification offering, one male goat for each day.

24 He will also provide the grain offerings, one ephah for each bull, and one ephah for each ram, with one hin of oil for each ephah.

25 For the festival that begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he will make the same provisions for the purification offerings, entirely burned offerings, grain offerings, and oil, for all seven days of the festival.

1 The LORD God proclaims: The east-facing gate of the inner courtyard will remain closed for the six days of the workweek. But on the Sabbath and on the day of the new moon it will be opened,

2 and the prince will come in from outside by way of the porch of the gate and stand at the gate's doorposts. The priests will present the prince's entirely burned offerings and well-being sacrifices, and then he will bow down on the threshold of the gate and go out. The gate won't be closed until evening

3 so that the people of the land may bow in the presence of the LORD on sabbaths and new moons at the opening of that gate.

4 On the Sabbath day, the prince will offer to the LORD an entirely burned offering of six flawless lambs and a flawless ram,

5 a grain offering of one ephah for the ram, and a grain offering at his discretion for the lambs, with one hin of oil for each ephah.

6 For the day of the new moon, the offering will be a flawless young bull from the herd, six lambs, and a flawless ram,

7 and he will provide a grain offering of one ephah each for the bull and the ram, and for the lambs as much as he likes, with one hin of oil for each ephah.

8 When the prince enters, he comes in by way of the porch of the gate and goes out in the same direction.

9 When the people of the land come into the LORD's presence for the festivals, those who enter through the north gate to worship should go out through the south, and those who come in through the south gate should go out through the north gate. They shouldn't turn around and go out the same way they came in. Instead, they should go out the opposite gate.

10 The prince should accompany them: when they come in, he comes in, and when they go out, he goes out.

11 At the festivals and appointed gatherings, the grain offering is one ephah for each bull, one ephah for each ram, and whatever one is able to give for each lamb, with one hin of oil for each ephah.

12 Whenever the prince makes a spontaneous gift to the LORD, whether it is an entirely burned offering or a well-being sacrifice, the gate facing east will be opened for him, and he will present his entirely burned offering and well-being sacrifices, just as he does on the Sabbath day. When he leaves, the gate will be closed after he has gone out.

13 As a daily entirely burned offering for the LORD, you will provide a flawless year-old lamb. You will make the offering every morning.

14 You will provide a grain offering along with it every morning, one-sixth of an ephah along with one-third of a hin of oil to moisten the choice flour. This is a permanent and perpetual regulation for the grain offering to the LORD.

15 So the lamb, the grain offering, and the oil are provided every morning as a perpetual entirely burned offering.

16 The LORD God proclaims: When the prince gives a gift to each of his sons, it becomes their inheritance. It becomes their family property as an inheritance.

17 And if he gives one of his servants a gift from his inheritance, it will belong to the servant only until the year of release, and then it will revert to the prince. It is his children's inheritance; it belongs to them.

18 The prince won't take the people's inheritance by evicting them from their family property. He will bequeath only his own property to his sons, lest any of my people be deprived of their rightful property.

19 Then he brought me through the passage beside the gate next to the priests' quarters, the holy chambers facing north. There was a place hidden away on the western side.

20 He said to me, "Rather than taking these offerings out into the outer courtyard and transferring holiness to the people, this is the place where the priests will boil the compensation offerings and the purification offerings, and where they will bake the grain offerings."

21 Then he took me to the outer courtyard, and he had me pass through its four corners, and I saw that there were additional courtyards in each of the corners.

22 In all four corners of the courtyard, these courtyards were constructed to handle smoke. All four were the same size, sixty feet long by forty-five feet wide.

23 All four had stone masonry all the way around, and hearths were built under this masonry all the way around.

24 He said to me, "These are the kitchens where those who minister in the temple cook the people's sacrifices."

1 When he brought me back to the temple's entrance, I noticed that water was flowing toward the east from under the temple's threshold (the temple faced east). The water was going out from under the temple's facade toward the south, south of the altar.

2 He led me out through the north gate and around the outside to the outer east gate, where the water flowed out under the facade on the south side.

3 With the line in his hand, the man went out toward the east. When he measured off fifteen hundred feet, he made me cross the water; it was ankle-deep.

4 He measured off another fifteen hundred feet and made me cross the water; it was knee-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet and made me cross the water, and it was waist-high.

5 When he measured off another fifteen hundred feet, it had become a river that I couldn't cross. The water was high, deep enough for swimming but too high to cross.

6 He said to me, "Human one, do you see?" Then he led me back to the edge of the river.

7 When I went back, I saw very many trees on both banks of the river.

8 He said to me, "These waters go out to the eastern region, flow down the steep slopes, and go into the Dead Sea. When the flowing waters enter the sea, its water becomes fresh.

9 Wherever the river flows, every living thing that moves will thrive. There will be great schools of fish, because when these waters enter the sea, it will be fresh. Wherever the river flows, everything will live.

10 People will stand fishing beside it, from En-gedi to En-eglayim, and it will become a place for spreading nets. It will be like the Mediterranean Sea, having all kinds of fish in it.

11 Its marshes and swamps won't be made fresh (they are left for salt),

12 but on both banks of the river will grow up all kinds of fruit-bearing trees. Their leaves won't wither, and their fruitfulness won't wane. They will produce fruit in every month, because their water comes from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for eating, their leaves for healing."

13 The LORD God proclaims: These are the boundaries of the portions of land that will be distributed as an inheritance to the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph will receive two portions.

14 What I swore to give to your ancestors, you will distribute as an inheritance equally. This land is given to you as an inheritance.

15 This is the boundary of the land. The northern limit begins at the Mediterranean Sea and goes in the direction of Hethlon toward Lebo-hamath, Zedad,

16 Berothah, Sibraim (which is between the boundary of Damascus and the boundary of Hamath), and Hazer-hatticon (that is on the boundary of Hauran).

17 So the boundary from the Mediterranean Sea to Hazar-enon will run north of the boundary of Damascus, with the boundary of Hamath to the north. This is the northern limit.

18 For the eastern limit, you will measure continuously between Hauran and Damascus and between Gilead and the land of Israel, along the Jordan River as far as the Dead Sea. This is the eastern limit.

19 The southern limit runs from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh and from there along the border of Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. This is the southern limit.

20 For the western limit, the Mediterranean Sea is the boundary up to Lebo-hamath. This is the western limit.

21 You will apportion this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel.

22 When you distribute the land as an inheritance, the immigrants who reside with you and raise families among you are considered full citizens along with the Israelites. They will receive an inheritance along with you among the tribes of Israel.

23 You will assign the immigrants' inheritance with the tribe with whom they reside. This is what the LORD God says.

1 These are the tribes' names: Beginning at the north, along the Hethlon road from Lebo-hamath to Hazar-enon, the boundary of Damascus with Hamath to the north, from the eastern border to the western border: Dan, one portion.

2 Along the boundary of Dan from the eastern border to the western border: Asher, one portion.

3 Along the boundary of Asher from the eastern border to the western border: Naphtali, one portion.

4 Along the boundary of Naphtali from the eastern border to the western border: Manasseh, one portion.

5 Along the boundary of Manasseh from the eastern border to the western border: Ephraim, one portion.

6 Along the boundary of Ephraim from the eastern border to the western border: Reuben, one portion.

7 Along the boundary of Reuben from the eastern border to the western border: Judah, one portion.

8 Along the boundary of Judah from the eastern border to the western border will be the portion that you will set aside, 7.1 miles wide and the length of a tribal portion from the eastern border to the western border. The sanctuary is in its center.

9 The portion that you will set aside for the LORD will be 7.1 miles long and 5.68 miles wide.

10 These measurements define the holy portion for the priests: along the north, a length of 7.1 miles; along the west, a width of 2.84 miles; along the east, a width of 2.84 miles; and along the south, a length of 7.1 miles. The LORD's sanctuary is in its center.

11 This holy area is for the Zadokite priests who kept my charge and didn't stray as the Levites did when the house of Israel strayed away from me.

12 It belongs to them as a most special portion of the land, a most holy place, up to the border of the Levites.

13 The Levites' allotment is next to the boundary of the priests, a length of 7.1 miles and a width of 2.84 miles. The entire length is 7.1 miles and the width 2.84 miles.

14 None of it will be sold, exchanged, or transferred. It is the choicest land, because it is holy to the LORD.

15 The remaining area, 1.42 miles wide and 7.1 miles long, is for ordinary use for the city, for residences, and for pastures. The city will be in the middle of it.

16 It measures 1.28 miles on its northern border, 1.28 miles on its southern border, 1.28 miles on its eastern border, and 1.28 miles on its western border.

17 There will be pastures for the city, three hundred seventy-five feet on the north side, three hundred seventy-five feet on the south side, three hundred seventy-five feet on the east side, and three hundred seventy-five feet on the west side.

18 The remaining area alongside the holy portion is 2.84 miles on the east and 2.84 miles on the west. These areas that adjoin the holy portion will produce the food for the city's workers.

19 The city's workers from every tribe of Israel will farm it.

20 The entire portion that you will set aside is 7.1 miles by 7.1 miles, a square; it includes the holy portion in addition to the city property.

21 What is left on both sides of the holy portion and the city property belongs to the prince. The land from the edge of the portion of 7.1 miles, to the eastern boundary, and on the western edge of the 7.1 miles to the western boundary, belongs to the prince. It corresponds to one tribal portion. The holy portion and the temple sanctuary are in the middle of it,

22 but what belongs to the prince is separate from both the levitical property and the city property. The prince's territory will be between the boundary of Judah and the boundary of Benjamin.

23 Now for the rest of the tribes: From the eastern border to the western border: Benjamin, one portion.

24 Along the boundary of Benjamin from the eastern border to the western border: Simeon, one portion.

25 Along the boundary of Simeon from the eastern border to the western border: Issachar, one portion.

26 Along the boundary of Issachar from the eastern border to the western border: Zebulun, one portion.

27 Along the boundary of Zebulun from the eastern border to the western border: Gad, one portion.

28 Along the boundary of Gad to the southern border, the boundary will run from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh and from there to the border of Egypt and to the Mediterranean Sea.

29 This is the land that you will distribute as an inheritance for the tribes of Israel. These are their portions. This is what the LORD God says.

30 These are the city exits. The north side is measured at 1.28 miles.

31 The gates of the city go by the names of the tribes of Israel. There are three gates on the north side: one gate for Reuben, one gate for Judah, and one gate for Levi.

32 There are three gates on the east side along its 1.28 miles: one gate for Joseph, one gate for Benjamin, and one gate for Dan.

33 There are three gates on the south side measuring 1.28 miles: one gate for Simeon, one gate for Issachar, and one gate for Zebulun.

34 There are three gates on the west side along its 1.28 miles: one gate for Gad, one gate for Asher, and one gate for Naphtali.

35 The circumference of the city is 5.1 miles. As of today, the name of the city is The LORD Is There.

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