“But you say, ‘The Lord’s way isn’t fair.’ Now listen, house of Israel: Is it My way that is unfair? Instead, isn’t it your ways that are unfair?

But if a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life.

But the house of Israel say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? Is it not your ways that are unequal?

But mourn thou for the princes of Israel,

But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.

But now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.

But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.

But I swore unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land, which I gave them: a land that floweth with milk and honey, and is a pleasure of all lands.

Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.

But mine eye spared them so as not to destroy them, neither did I make a full end of them in the wilderness.

But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols:

for I am the LORD your God. But walk in my statutes; keep my laws and do them;

But the children rebelled against me; they walked not in my statutes, neither kept mine ordinances to do them, which if a man do, he shall live in them; they profaned my sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.

But I withdrew my hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.

Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.

I brought them to the land that I had promised to give them. But whenever they saw any high hill and or any leafy tree, they slaughtered their sacrifices there and presented their offerings that provoked my anger. There they presented their pleasing aromas and poured out their drink offering.

and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.

But upon my holy hill, even upon the high hill of Israel shall all the house of Israel and all that is in the land worship me: and in the same place will I favour them, and there will I require your heave offerings, and the firstlings of your oblations, with all your holy things.

and say to the wood toward the south, 'Hear the word of the LORD, thus sayeth the LORD God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, that shall consume thee green trees with the dry. No man shall be able to quench his flame, but all that looketh from the south to the north shall be burnt therein.

Then said I, "O LORD, they will say of me, 'Tush, they are but fables that he telleth.'"

“But you, son of man, groan! Groan bitterly with a broken heart right before their eyes.

‘It is sharpened to make a slaughter,
Polished to flash and glimmer like lightning!’

Shall we then rejoice [when such a disaster approaches]? But it rejects and views with contempt the scepter of My son [Judah].

For this sword has been tested [on others]; and what if it views with contempt the scepter [of Judah]? The scepter shall be no more [but shall be swept away],” says the Lord God.

But the soothsaying shall point to the right side upon Jerusalem, that he may set men of war, to smite it with a great noise, to cry out Alarum, to set battle rams against the gates, to grave up ditches, and to make bulwarks.

And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.

A ruin! A ruin! I'm bringing about ruin!' But this also will not happen until he who has authority over it arrives, because I'll give it to him."

And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, but they slew her with the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgments on her.

“Now her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was even more depraved in her lust than Oholah, and made her promiscuous acts worse than those of her sister.

But Oholibah carried her depravity further, for she saw men pictured on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans (Babylonians) sketched and portrayed in vermilion (bright red pigment),

Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. But after she was defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust.

But still she went on the more with her loose behaviour, keeping in mind the early days when she had been a loose woman in the land of Egypt

I'll expend my jealousy on you so they'll deal with you in anger. They'll cut off your noses and your ears. Your survivors will die violently. They'll take your sons and daughters away from you, but your survivors will be incinerated.

but you'll drink from it and drain it completely. As for the vessel, you'll break it to pieces and you'll tear at your breasts, for I've spoken,' declares the Lord GOD.

But they went in to her as they would go in to a harlot. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.

But righteous men, they will judge them [with] [the] judgment of committing adultery, and [with] [the] judgment of shedding blood; for they were committing adultery, and blood [was] on their hands."

The pot wearies me, but its thick rust won't come off, even with fire.

In your uncleanness [is] obscene conduct, because I cleansed you, but you were not clean from your uncleanness; you will not be clean again until {I fully vent my rage} on you.

Even I the LORD have so devised: Yea, it is come thereto already, that I will do it. I will not go back, I will not spare, I will not be intreated: but according to thy ways and imaginations, thou shalt be punished, sayeth the LORD God.'"

"Son of man, look! I [am] taking from you what is pleasing to your eyes with a plague, but you shall not mourn, and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not run down.

Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind thy headtire upon thee, and put thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.

And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.

"But behold, O thou son of man: In the day when I take from them their power, their joy and honour, the lust of their eyes, the burden of their bodies - namely, their sons and daughters -

"'Thus sayeth the LORD God: Forsomuch as Moab and Seir do say, 'As for the house of Judah, it is but like as all other Gentiles be,'

Thy daughters that are in the land shall he slay with the sword: but against thee, he shall make bulwarks and grave up ditches about thee, and lift up his shield against thee.

And I will make of thee the glaring face of a cliff. A place for the spreading of nets, shalt thou become, Thou shalt not be but any more, For I. Yahweh have spoken it, Declareth My Lord Yahweh.

then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lower parts of the earth, like the ancient waste places, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set glory in the land of the living.

I will make you an object of horror, and you will no longer exist. You will be sought but will never be found again.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

With fir-trees from Senir, but they for thee all the two-decked vessels, - Cedar from Lebanon, fetched they, to make masts for thee:

" 'Into many waters the rowers brought you; [but] {the east wind} wrecked you in [the] heart of [the] seas.

"But now it's your time to be wrecked at the bottom of the sea! Your products and your workers have sunk, and so have you!

"Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because your heart was haughty, and you said, 'I [am] a god; I sit [in the] seat of [the] gods, I sit in [the] heart of [the] seas!' But you are a human, not a god, and you gave your heart to be like [the] heart of a god.

By your great skill in trading
you have increased your wealth,
but your heart has become proud
because of your wealth.”

Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.

But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.

I will cast thee out upon the dry land with the fish of thy waters, so that thou shalt lie upon the field. Thou shalt not be gathered nor taken up: but shall be meat for the beasts of the field, and for the fowls of the air:

But thus said the Lord Jehovah: At the end of forty years I gather the Egyptians Out of the peoples whither they have been scattered,

And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

"Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, he made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was rubbed bare, and every shoulder [was] rubbed raw, but a wage was not [paid] for him and for his army from Tyre for the labor that he did against it."

Therefore, thus sayeth the LORD God: Behold, I will upon Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and bruise his strong arm - yet is it but a broken one - and will smite the sword out of his hand.

And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh's arms, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man.

But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt.

“Son of man, take up a dirge (funeral poem to be sung) over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him,

‘You have compared yourself to a young lion among the nations,
But you are like a monster in the seas;
You burst into your rivers
And disturbed and muddied the waters with your feet
And fouled their rivers [the source of their prosperity].’”

And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

But thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain by the sword.

For I have given my fear in the land of the living. But Pharaoh and all his people shall lie among the uncircumcised, and among them that be slain with the sword, sayeth the LORD God."

Then, if anyone hears the sound of the trumpet but ignores the warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.

He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

And when I say to the wicked, 'Certainly you will die,' but he returns from his sin and he does justice and righteousness--

Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.

But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

"And yet you keep saying, "Living life the Lord's way isn't right,' But I will judge every one of you according to the way you live, you house of Israel!"

Now the hand of the Lord had been on me the evening before the refugee reached me, but the Lord opened my mouth by the time the refugee arrived in the morning; he opened my mouth and I was no longer unable to speak.

Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.

"But as for you, son of man, your people (who are talking about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses) say to one another, 'Come hear the word that comes from the Lord.'

And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.

And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.

But when it cometh Lo! it is coming, Then shall they know that a prophet hath been in their midst.

Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;

Thus, saith My Lord. Yahweh, Behold me! against the shepherds So then I will require my flock at their hand And will cause them to cease tending the fleck, Neither shall the shepherds any longer tend themselves, But I will deliver my flock out of their mouth, that they may not be their food.

I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?

Therefore will I bring salvation to my flock, and they shall be no longer a prey, - but I will judge between one sheep and another,

And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.

But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.

And I will multiply, upon you - men, All the house of Israel All of it, Then shall the cities be inhabited, And the waste places, shall be but,

Son of man The house of Israel were dwelling upon their own so, But they defiled it by their way, and by their doings. Like the defilement of her that is removed, became their way before me.

But when they entered among the nations where they did enter, then profaned they my holy Name, - in that it was said of them The people of Yahweh, these! Yet from his land, have they come forth!

But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.