Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, the wall of Babylon -- The broad one -- is utterly made bare, And her high gates with fire are burnt, And peoples labour in vain, And nations in fire, and have been weary!

So Jeremiah wrote all the calamity which was to come unto Babylon in one scroll; even all these words which have been written against Babylon.

and said, Thus sink doth Babylon, and it doth not arise, because of the evil that I am bringing in against it, and they have been weary.' Hitherto are words of Jeremiah.

for, because of the anger of Jehovah, it hath been in Jerusalem and Judah till He hath cast them from before His face, and Zedekiah doth rebel against the king of Babylon.

In the fourth month, in the ninth of the month, when the famine is severe in the city, and there hath been no bread for the people of the land,

And the forces of the Chaldeans pursue after the king, and overtake Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his forces have been scattered from him,

and out of the city he hath taken a certain eunuch, who hath been inspector over the men of war, and seven men of those seeing the king's face, who have been found in the city, and the head scribe of the host, who mustereth the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land, who are found in the midst of the city;

And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year after he became king, took Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison.

And his allowance -- a continual allowance -- hath been given to him by the king of Babylon, the matter of a day in its day, till the day of his death -- all days of his life.

How hath she sat alone, The city abounding with people! She hath been as a widow, The mighty among nations! Princes among provinces, She hath become tributary!

She weepeth sore in the night, And her tear is on her cheeks, There is no comforter for her out of all her lovers, All her friends dealt treacherously by her, They have been to her for enemies.

Judah has been taken away as a prisoner because of trouble and hard work; her living-place is among the nations, there is no rest for her: all her attackers have overtaken her in a narrow place.

Her adversaries have become chief, Her enemies have been at ease, For Jehovah hath afflicted her, For the abundance of her transgressions, Her infants have gone captive before the adversary.

And go out from the daughter of Zion doth all her honour, Her princes have been as harts -- They have not found pasture, And they go powerless before a pursuer.

Jerusalem hath remembered in the days of her humiliation and her fleeings - all her precious things, which have existed from the days of old, - Now that her people have been falling into the hand of the adversary, with none to help her, the adversaries have seen her, have mocked over her sabbath-keepings.

Jerusalem sinned greatly;
Therefore she has become an unclean thing [and has been removed].
All who honored her [now] despise her
Because they have seen her nakedness;
Even she herself groans and turns [her face] away.

Her uncleanness [was] in her skirts; she did not remember her future, she has descended beyond understanding, there is no comforter for her. See, O Yahweh, my persecution! [My] enemy has been made great!

All her people are sighing -- seeking bread, They have given their desirable things For food to refresh the body; See, O Jehovah, and behold attentively, For I have been lightly esteemed.

Bound hath been the yoke of my transgressions by His hand, They are wrapped together, They have gone up on my neck, He hath caused my power to stumble, The Lord hath given me into hands, I am not able to rise.

The Lord has made sport of all my men of war in me, he has got men together against me to send destruction on my young men: the virgin daughter of Judah has been crushed like grapes under the feet of the Lord.

For these I am weeping, My eye, my eye, is running down with waters, For, far from me hath been a comforter, Refreshing my soul, My sons have been desolate, For mighty hath been an enemy.

See, O Jehovah, for distress is to me, My bowels have been troubled, Turned hath been my heart in my midst, For I have greatly provoked, From without bereaved hath the sword, In the house it is as death.

How has the daughter of Zion been covered with a cloud by the Lord in his wrath! he has sent down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and has not kept in memory the resting-place of his feet in the day of his wrath.

In his burning wrath every horn of Israel has been cut off; his right hand has been turned back before the attacker: he has put a fire in Jacob, causing destruction round about.

His bow has been bent for the attack, he has taken his place with his hand ready, in his hate he has put to death all who were pleasing to the eye: on the tent of the daughter of Zion he has let loose his passion like fire.

The Lord hath been as an enemy, He hath swallowed up Israel, He hath swallowed up all her palaces, He hath destroyed His fortresses, And He multiplieth in the daughter of Judah Mourning and moaning.

The Lord has given up his altar and has been turned in hate from his holy place; he has given up into the hands of the attacker the walls of her great houses: their voices have been loud in the house of the Lord as in the day of a holy meeting.

Devised hath Jehovah to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion, He hath stretched out a line, He hath not turned His hand from destroying, And He causeth bulwark and wall to mourn, Together -- they have been weak.

Consumed by tears have been my eyes, Troubled have been my bowels, Poured out to the earth hath been my liver, For the breach of the daughter of my people; In infant and suckling being feeble, In the broad places of the city,

{Lamed} Even when they spake to their mothers, "Where is meat and drink?" For while they so said, they fell down in the streets of the city, like as they had been wounded, and some died in their mothers' bosom.

Your prophets look on your behalf; they see false and deceptive visions. They did not expose your sins in order to restore what had been captured. Instead, they crafted oracles for you that are false and misleading.

All your haters are opening their mouths wide against you; making hisses and whistling through their teeth, they say, We have made a meal of her: certainly this is the day we have been looking for; it has come, we have seen it.

The young men and the old are stretched on the earth in the streets; my virgins and my young men have been put to the sword: you have sent death on them in the day of your wrath, causing death without pity.

Thou dost call as at a day of appointment, My fears from round about, And there hath not been in the day of the anger of Jehovah, An escaped and remaining one, They whom I stretched out and nourished, My enemy hath consumed!

By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is no light.

Truly against me his hand has been turned again and again all the day.

My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken.

He hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.

By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have been pulled in bits; he has made me waste.

I have been a derision to all my people, Their song all the day.

By him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones, and I am bent low in the dust.

My life has been removed from peace, I have forgotten goodness.

The kindnesses of Jehovah! For we have not been consumed, For not ended have His mercies.

Who is able to say a thing, and give effect to it, if it has not been ordered by the Lord?

We have been dissemblers, and have offended; will thou therefore not be intreated?

Fear and a snare hath been for us, Desolation and destruction.

Without cause my enemies
Hunted me down like a bird;

Flowed have waters over my head, I have said, I have been cut off.

LORD, you observed how I have been wronged; now make your ruling in my case.

How tarnished the gold has become, the finest gold debased! Sacred stones have been scattered at every street corner.

The precious sons of Zion, Who are comparable with fine gold, How have they been reckoned earthen bottles, Work of the hands of a potter.

Those eating of dainties have been desolate in out-places, Those supported on scarlet have embraced dunghills.

For the [punishment of the] wickedness of the daughter of my people [Jerusalem]
Is greater than the [punishment for the] sin of Sodom,
Which was overthrown in a moment,
And no hands were turned toward her [to offer help].

Darker than blackness hath been their visage, They have not been known in out-places, Cleaved hath their skin unto their bone, It hath withered -- it hath been as wood.

Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.

The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children, They have been for food to them, In the destruction of the daughter of my people.

It is because of the sins of her prophets and the evil-doing of her priests, by whom the blood of the upright has been drained out in her.

They have wandered naked in out-places, They have been polluted with blood, Without any being able to touch their clothing,

Our eyes are still wasting away in looking for our false help: we have been watching for a nation unable to give salvation.

They have hunted our steps from going in our broad-places, Near hath been our end, fulfilled our days, For come hath our end.

Swifter have been our pursuers, Than the eagles of the heavens, On the mountains they have burned after us, In the wilderness they have laid wait for us.

The breath of our nostrils -- the anointed of Jehovah, Hath been captured in their pits, of whom we said: 'In his shadow we do live among nations.'

The punishment of your iniquity has been completed, O daughter of Zion;
He will exile you no longer.
But He will punish your iniquity, O daughter of Edom;
He will expose your sins!

Remember, O Jehovah, what has been to us; look down and see our shame.

Our inheritance hath been turned to strangers, Our houses to foreigners.

Orphans we have been -- without a father, our mothers are as widows.

For our neck we have been pursued, We have laboured -- there hath been no rest for us.

Our skin as an oven hath been burning, Because of the raging of the famine.

Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders have not been honoured.

Ceased hath the joy of our heart, Turned to mourning hath been our dancing.

The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.

For this hath our heart been sick, For these have our eyes been dim.

Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?

For hast Thou utterly rejected us? Thou hast been wroth against us -- exceedingly?

And it cometh to pass, in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth of the month, and I am in the midst of the Removed by the river Chebar, the heavens have been opened, and I see visions of God.

On the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year after King Jehoiachin had been made a prisoner,

hath the word of Jehovah certainly been unto Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar, and there is on him there a hand of Jehovah.

I was amazed to see a wind storm blow in from the north, consisting of a massive cloud and fire that was flashing back and forth, surrounded by bright light. From deep within the cloud, something was shining that appeared to have a color like bronze that had been placed in fire until it glowed.

Their legs were straight; But their feet were like bullock's feet, and they glistered, as it had been fair scoured metal.

Their wheels and their construction details looked like gold-colored beryl. Each wheel was identical in form to the others, and they appeared to have been constructed and designed as if one wheel were within another.

Above over the heads of the beasts there was a firmament, which was fashioned as it had been of the most pure Crystal, and that was spread out above upon their heads:

And when they went forth I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as it had been the voice of the great God, and a rushing together as it were of a host of men. And when they stood still, they let down their wings.

Above the firmament that was over their heads, there was the fashion of a seat, as it had been made of Sapphire. Upon the seat there sat one like a man.

I beheld him, and he was like a clear light, as it had been all of fire within from his loins upward. And beneath when I looked upon him under the loins, methought he was like a shining fire, that giveth light on every side.

Even while he was speaking to me, the Spirit entered me, set me on my feet, and I listened to the voice that had been speaking to me.

And he said to me, Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to an uncontrolled nation which has gone against me: they and their fathers have been sinners against me even to this very day.

And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.

And go now to those who have been taken away as prisoners, to the children of your people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said; if they give ear or if they do not.

Then I came to those who had been taken away as prisoners, who were at Telabib by the river Chebar, and I was seated among them full of wonder for seven days.

And thou, because thou hast warned him -- the righteous -- that the righteous sin not, and he hath not sinned, he surely liveth, because he hath been warned; and thou thy soul hast delivered.'

and thy tongue I cause to cleave unto thy palate, and thou hast been dumb, and art not to them for a reprover, for a rebellious house are they.

And thou, take to thee an iron pan, and thou hast made it a wall of iron between thee and the city; and thou hast prepared thy face against it, and it hath been in a siege, yea, thou hast laid siege against it. A sign it is to the house of Israel.

I've assigned you to sleep this way for 390 days, representing the years they've been sinning, as you bear symbolically the punishment of the house of Israel.

Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

so that they lack bread and water, and have been astonished one with another, and been consumed in their iniquity.

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have been turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, nor even have done according to the ordinances of the nations that are round about you;

And completed hath been Mine anger, And I have caused My fury to rest on them, And I have been comforted, And they have known that I, Jehovah, have spoken in My zeal, In My completing My fury on them.

And it hath been a reproach and a reviling, An instruction and an astonishment, To nations that are round about thee, In My doing in thee judgments, In anger and fury, and in furious reproofs, I, Jehovah, have spoken.

In My sending the evil arrows of famine among them, That have been for destruction, That I send to destroy you, And famine I am adding upon you, And I have broken to you the staff of bread.

And desolated have been your altars, And broken your images, And I have caused your wounded to fall before your idols,