Look, LORD, and see to whom you have done like this. Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?

The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.

Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled with insults.

Who can speak a thing and have it come to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.

Those who ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.

Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; those who waste away, pierced through, for lack of the fruits of the field.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, "Under his shadow we can live among the nations."

The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me.

He said to me, "Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day.

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD': He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

He who is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he who is near shall fall by the sword; and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my wrath on them.

The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within: he who is in the field shall die with the sword: and he who is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

But those of those who escape shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity.

Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, "Cause those who are in charge of the city to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand."

The glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer's inkhorn by his side.

kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but do not come near any man on whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary." Then they began at the old men that were before the house.

Behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, "I have done as you have commanded me."

The cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took of it, and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen, who took it and went out.

He said to me, "Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city;

who say, 'The time is not near to build houses: this is the caldron, and we are the meat.'

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Your slain whom you have laid in its midst, they are the meat, and this is the caldron; but you shall be brought out of its midst.

"Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, 'Go far away from the LORD. This land has been given to us for a possession.'

"Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and do not see, who have ears to hear, and do not hear; for they are a rebellious house.

Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel among whom they are.'

"The prince who is among them shall bear on his shoulder in the dark, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, because he shall not see the land with his eyes.

I will scatter toward every wind all who are around him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.

and tell the people of the land, 'Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with fearfulness, and drink their water in dismay, that her land may be desolate, and all that is therein, because of the violence of all those who dwell therein.

"Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, 'Hear the word of the LORD:

Thus says the Lord GOD, "Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing.

They have seen falsehood and lying divination, who say, "The LORD says"; but the LORD has not sent them: and they have made men to hope that the word would be confirmed.

My hand shall be against the prophets who see false visions, and who divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

tell those who plaster it with whitewash, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and you, great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it.

Thus will I accomplish my wrath on the wall, and on those who have plastered it with whitewash; and I will tell you, 'The wall is no more, neither those who plastered it;

to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,'"' says the Lord GOD."

"You, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy against them,

and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Woe to the women who sew pillows on all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls. Will you hunt the souls of my people, and save souls alive for yourselves?

You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the souls who should not die, and to save the souls alive who should not live, by your lying to my people who listen to lies."

"'Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against your pillows, with which you there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms; and I will let the souls go, even the souls whom you hunt to make them fly.

Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive:

Therefore speak to them, and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols;

For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from me, and takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:

They shall bear their iniquity: the iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him who seeks him;

"'But you trusted in your beauty, and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by; his it was.

"'Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and you have sacrificed these to them to be devoured. Was your prostitution a small matter,

You have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your prostitution.

See therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your ordinary food, and delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way.

"'A wife who commits adultery. who takes strangers instead of her husband.

therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with all those who you have hated; I will even gather them against you on every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.

I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

"'Behold, everyone who uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, "As is the mother, so is her daughter."

You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who do despite to you all around.

"For thus says the Lord GOD: 'I will also deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Shall he prosper? Shall he escape who does such things? Shall he break the covenant, and yet escape?

"'As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.

All his fugitives in all his bands shall fall by the sword, and those who remain shall be scattered toward every wind: and you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it.'

Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins, he shall die.

he who has not given forth on interest, neither has taken any increase, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man,

"If he fathers a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, and who does any one of these things,

and who does not any of those duties, but even has eaten on the mountains, and defiled his neighbor's wife,

"Now, behold, if he fathers a son, who sees all his father's sins, which he has done, and fears, and does not such like;

who has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled his neighbor's wife,

who has withdrawn his hand from the poor, who has not received interest nor increase, has executed my ordinances, has walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.

The soul who sins, he shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.

For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,' says the Lord GOD: 'therefore turn yourselves, and live.'"

It had strong rods for the scepters of those who bore rule, and their stature was exalted among the thick boughs, and they were seen in their height with the multitude of their branches.

Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and those who disobey against me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am the LORD."

"You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one who is deadly wounded, which enters into their rooms.

It shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken.

while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day has come in the time of the iniquity of the end.

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

In you have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness; in you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity.

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

who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.

Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.

"Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: 'Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side:

"'For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated;

For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured.

"'Furthermore you have sent for men who come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you did wash yourself, paint your eyes, and decorate yourself with ornaments,

Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, 'Now will they play the prostitute with her, and she with them.'

Righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

'Speak to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind shall fall by the sword.

that in that day he who escapes shall come to you, to cause you to hear it with your ears?

In that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more mute: so you will be a sign to them; and they shall know that I am the LORD."

Her daughters who are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

They shall take up a lamentation over you, and tell you, "How you are destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, who was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who lived there.

then will I bring you down with those who descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make you to dwell in the lower parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit, that you be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living:

and tell Tyre, 'You who dwell at the entry of the sea, who are the merchant of the peoples to many islands, thus says the Lord GOD: "You, Tyre, have said, 'I am perfect in beauty.'

Your riches, and your wares, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your repairers of ship seams, and the dealers in your merchandise, and all your men of war, who are in you, with all your company which is in the midst of you, shall fall into the heart of the seas in the day of your ruin.

All who handled the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships; they shall stand on the land,

In their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for you, and lament over you, saying, 'Who is there like Tyre, like her who is brought to silence in the midst of the sea?'

They shall bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the death of those who are slain, in the heart of the seas.

Will you yet say before him who kills you, 'I am God?' But you are man, and not God, in the hand of him who wounds you.

You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, so that you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you.

All those who know you among the peoples shall be astonished at you: you have become a terror, and you shall nevermore have any being."'"

"Thus says the Lord GOD: 'When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob.