Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Like the wood of the grapevine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the people of Jerusalem;

I will make the land desolate (ruined, deserted), because they have acted unfaithfully [through their idolatry],’ says the Lord God.”

And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

And I do pass over by thee, And I see thee trodden down in thy blood, And I say to thee in thy blood, Live, And I say to thee in thy blood, Live.

“Then I passed by you [again] and looked on you; behold, you were maturing and at the time for love, and I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore [an oath] to you and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord God, “and you became Mine.”

Then your fame went out among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My majesty and splendor which I bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.

Also My bread which I gave you, [made from the] fine flour and oil and honey with which I fed you, you even offered it before idols [no better than cow dung] as a sweet and soothing aroma; so it happened,” says the Lord God.

“Then it came about after all your wickedness (‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord God),

“How weakened by longing and lust is your heart (mind),” says the Lord God, “while you do all these things, the actions of a bold and brazen prostitute.

Thus says the Lord God, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your obscene immoralities with your lovers (pagan allies), and with all your [repulsive] idols, and because of the blood of your sons that you gave to them,

Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me with all these things, therefore, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head,” says the Lord God, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other repulsive acts.

“Look, everyone who uses proverbs will say this proverb about you:

Like mother, like daughter.

As I live,” says the Lord God, “Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

Therefore thou which didst condemn thy sister: bear thine own shame, for thine own offences that thou hast committed - more abominable than they did, which indeed are more righteous than thou art. Be thou, I say, ashamed; and bear thy shameful rebuke, seeing that thou has proven thy sisters in comparison of the righteous.

You have borne [the penalty of] your lewdness and your repulsive acts,” says the Lord.

Yes, thus says the Lord God, “I will also deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

so that you may remember [in detail] and be ashamed and never open your mouth again because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,” says the Lord God.

And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:

Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.

Say now to the rebellious house, Know ye not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and hath taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon;

As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely in the country of the king (Nebuchadnezzar) who made Zedekiah [the vassal] king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, in Babylon Zedekiah shall die.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “As I live, I will bring down on his own head My oath [made on My behalf by Nebuchadnezzar] which Zedekiah dishonored and My covenant which he broke.

Thus says the Lord God, “I Myself will take a twig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out; I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.

As I live,” says the Lord God, “you are certainly not going to use this proverb [as an excuse] in Israel anymore.

if he walks in My statutes and [keeps] My ordinances so as to act with integrity; [then] he is [truly] righteous and shall certainly live,” says the Lord God.

Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” says the Lord God, “rather than that he should turn [away] from his [malevolent] acts and live?

Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?

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?

“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each one in accordance with his conduct,” says the Lord God. “Repent (change your way of thinking) and turn away from all your transgressions, so that sin may not become a stumbling block to you.

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore, repent and live!”

Take up now a song of grief for the ruler of Israel, and say,

And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye come to inquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you.

And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the LORD your God;

And I say unto them, Let each cast away the detestable things of his eyes, And with the idols of Egypt be not defiled, I am Jehovah your God.

And -- they rebel against Me, And have not been willing to hearken to Me, Each, the detestable things of their eyes, They have not cast away, And the idols of Egypt have not forsaken, And I say -- to pour out My fury on them, To complete Mine anger against them, In the midst of the land of Egypt.

And -- rebel against me do the house of Israel in the wilderness, In My statutes they have not walked, And My judgments they have despised, Which the man who doth -- liveth by them. And My sabbaths they have greatly polluted, And I say to pour out My fury on them in the wilderness, to consume them.

And I say to their sons in the wilderness: In the statutes of your fathers ye walk not, And their judgments ye do not observe, And with their idols ye are not defiled.

And -- the sons rebel against Me, In My statutes they have not walked, And My judgments they have not observed -- to do them, Which the man who doth -- liveth by them. My sabbaths they have polluted, And I say to pour out My fury upon them, To complete Mine anger against them in the wilderness.

Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.

And I say unto them: What is the high place whither ye are going in? And its name is called 'high place' to this day.

Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations?

When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, you are defiling yourselves with all your idols to this day. And shall I be asked by you [for an oracle], O house of Israel? As I live,” says the Lord God, “I will not be inquired of by you.

And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

“As I live,” says the Lord God, “most certainly with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be King over you.

As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment and contend with you,” says the Lord God.

“As for you, O house of Israel,” thus says the Lord God, “Go, let everyone serve his idols; but later you shall most certainly listen to Me, and you shall no longer profane My holy name with your gifts and with your idols.

For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel (Zion),” says the Lord God, “there the whole house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me. There I will [graciously] accept them, and there I will seek (require) your offerings and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy and sacred things.

And you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord when I have dealt with you for My Name’s sake, not in accordance with your evil ways nor with your corrupt conduct, O house of Israel,” says the Lord God.’”

And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?

"Thou son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, speak against the Sanctuary, and prophesy against the land of Israel, say to the land of Israel,

And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.

And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.

Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:

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.

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.

thus says the Lord God, ‘Remove the turban and take off the crown; things shall not remain as they have been. Exalt that which is low and abase the high.

And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:

Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.

In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death; in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in your streets they have put evil designs into effect.

In you they have accepted bribes to shed blood; you have taken [forbidden] interest and [a percentage of] profits, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by oppression and extortion, and you have forgotten Me,” says the Lord God.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you [O Israel] into the midst of Jerusalem.

Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God’—when the Lord has not spoken.

Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; I have repaid their way [by bringing it] upon their own heads,” says the Lord God.

“Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will stir up your lovers (allies) against you, from whom you turned away in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side:

For thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will place you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned away in disgust.

Thus says the Lord God,

‘You will drink your sister’s cup,
Which is deep and wide [and filled to the brim].
You shall be laughed at and derided;
It contains much [too much to endure].

‘You will drink it and drain it,
Then you will gnaw its fragments
And tear your breasts;

for I have spoken,’ says the Lord God.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, therefore bear now [the consequences of] your lewdness and prostitution.’”

And Jehovah will say to me, Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah, and announce to them their abominations?

And I say of the worn-out one in adulteries, Now they commit her whoredoms -- she also!

“For thus says the Lord God, ‘Bring up a horde (mob) against them and hand them over to terror and plunder.

And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it:

‘Therefore, thus says the Lord God,
“Woe (judgment is coming) to the bloody city,
To the pot in which there is rust
And whose rust has not gone out of it!
Take out of it piece by piece,
Without making any choice.

‘Therefore, thus says the Lord God,
“Woe to the bloody city!
I will also make the pile [of wood] high.

I the Lord have spoken; it is coming and I will act. I will not relent, and I will not have compassion and I will not be sorry; in accordance with your ways and in accordance with your deeds I will judge and punish you,” says the Lord God.’”

And the people say unto me, 'Dost thou not declare to us what these are to us, that thou art doing?'

And I say unto them, 'A word of Jehovah hath been unto me, saying:

Say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and your soul's longing; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left behind shall fall by the sword.

In that day your mouth will be open to him who has got away safe, and you will say words to him and your lips will no longer be shut: so you will be a sign to them and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

And say unto the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity;

For thus says the Lord God, “Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the contempt, and malice, and spite of your soul against the land of Israel,

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen;

‘Thus says the Lord God, “Because Edom has acted against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended and has incurred grievous guilt by taking revenge on them,”

therefore thus says the Lord God, “I will also stretch out My hand against Edom and I will cut off and destroy man and beast. I will make it desolate; from Teman even to Dedan they will fall by the sword.

I will take My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel. Therefore, they will act in Edom in accordance with My anger and My wrath, and they will know and experience My vengeance,” says the Lord God.

‘Thus says the Lord God, “Because the Philistines have acted revengefully and have taken vengeance [contemptuously] with malice in their hearts to destroy with everlasting hostility and hatred,”

therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will stretch out My hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast.

therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and I will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea makes its waves crest.

Her island in the midst of the sea will become a dry place to spread nets, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord God, ‘and she will become a prey and a spoil for the nations.

For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots and with horsemen and a great army.

I will make you [Tyre] a bare rock; you will be a dry place on which to spread nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken,” says the Lord God.

Thus says the Lord God to Tyre, “Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your fall when the wounded groan, when the slaughter occurs in your midst?

And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited of seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, which cause their terror to be on all that haunt it!

For thus says the Lord God, “When I make you a desolate city, like the cities which are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and great waters cover you,

I will bring terrors on you and you will be no more. Though you will be sought, yet you will never be found again,” says the Lord God.

And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.