While they are watching, raise your baggage onto your shoulder and carry it out in the dark. You must cover your face so that you cannot see the ground because I have made you an object lesson to the house of Israel."

And I do so, as I have been commanded; my vessels I have brought forth as vessels of removal by day, and at even I have dug for me through the wall with the hand; in the darkness I have brought forth, on the shoulder I have borne away, before their eyes.

Son of man, Have not the house of Israel the perverse house, said unto thee, - What art thou doing?

Say, 'I am an object lesson for you. Just as I have done, it will be done to them; they will go into exile and captivity.'

And the ruler who is among them will take his goods on his back in the dark and go out: he will make a hole in the wall through which to go out: he will have his face covered so that he may not be seen.

And I have spread My net for him, and he hath been caught in My snare, and I have brought him in to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, and it he doth not see -- and there doth he die.

So when I have scattered them among the Heathen, and strawed them in the lands, they shall know that I am the LORD.

Yet will I leave remaining of them, men easy counted, from the sword from a the famine and from the pestilence, - that they may recount all their abominations among the nations whither they have come, So shall they know that, I, am Yahweh.

And the cities that are inhabited are laid waste, and the land is a desolation, and ye have known that I am Jehovah.'

"Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel, 'The days pass slowly, and every vision fails'?

For this cause say to them, This is what the Lord has said: I have made this saying come to an end, and it will no longer be used as a common saying in Israel; but say to them, The days are near, and the effect of every vision.

For I am Jehovah, I speak, The word that I speak -- it is done, It is not prolonged any more, For, in your days, O rebellious house, I speak a word, and I have done it, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “None of My words will be delayed any longer. Whatever word I speak will be fulfilled completely,”’” says the Lord God.

This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit but have seen nothing!

Your prophets have become like jackals among the ruins, O Israel.

You have not gone up in the breaks in the wall, nor repaired a wall for the house of Israel that it would stand strong in the battle on the day of the Lord.

They have seen falsehood and lying divination, saying, ‘The Lord says,’ but the Lord has not sent them. Yet they hope and make men to hope for the confirmation of their word.

Have you not seen a false vision and announced a lying omen when you say, "the Lord declares," although I myself never spoke?

"'Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have spoken false words and forecast delusion, look, I am against you, declares the sovereign Lord.

“So My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will have no place in the council of My people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel, that you may know that I am the Lord God.

"'This is because they have led my people astray saying, "All is well," when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, they coat it with whitewash.

Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?

For this reason, the Lord has said: I will have it broken in two by a storm-wind in my passion; and there will be an overflowing shower in my wrath, and you, O ice-drops, will come raining angrily down.

So I will tear down the wall which you have plastered with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundations will be exposed; when it falls, you will perish in its midst. And you shall know and understand fully that I am the Lord.

Thus I will expend My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it with whitewash and I will say to you, ‘The wall is gone and its plasterers are gone,

and say, 'Thus sayeth the LORD God: Woe be unto you, that sew pillows under all armholes, and bolsters under the heads both of young and old, to catch souls withal. For when ye have gotten the souls of my people in your captivity, ye promise them life,

You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. You have put to death people who should not die and kept alive those who should not live by your lies to my people, who listen to lies!

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am against your pillows, With which ye are hunting there the souls of the flourishing, And I have rent them from off your arms, And have sent away the souls that ye are hunting, The souls of the flourishing.

And I will have your veils violently parted in two, and will make my people free from your hands, and they will no longer be in your power for you to go after them; and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

This is because you have disheartened the righteous person with lies (although I have not grieved him), and because you have encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil conduct and preserve his life.

Therefore - of falsehood:, shall ye have no vision, And a divination:, shall ye not divine any more, - So will I deliver my people out of your hand, And ye shall know that, I, am Yahweh.

"Son of man, these men have erected their idols in their hearts and placed the obstacle leading to their iniquity right before their faces. Should I really allow them to seek me?

Therefore speak unto them and say unto them, Thus, saith My Lord, Yahweh, Any man whatsoever of the house of Israel Who shall bring up his manufactured gods upon his heart, And set his stumbling, block of iniquity, straight before his face, And then some in unto the prophet. Yahweh, have myself answered him thereby. By the multitude of his manufactured gods:

I will do this in order to capture the hearts of the house of Israel, who have alienated themselves from me on account of all their idols.'

for every one of the house of Israel, and of the sojourners who doth sojourn in Israel, who is separated from after Me, and doth cause his idols to go up unto his heart, and the stumbling-block of his iniquity setteth over-against his face, and hath come in unto the prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I, Jehovah, have answered him for Myself;

and I have set My face against that man, and made him for a sign, and for similes, and I have cut him off from the midst of My people, and ye have known that I am Jehovah.

"'As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word -- I, the Lord, have made a fool of that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.

And they have borne their iniquity: as the iniquity of the inquirer, so is the iniquity of the prophet;

so that the house of Israel do not wander any more from after Me, nor are defiled any more with all their transgressions, and they have been to Me for a people, and I am to them for God -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'

Son of man, the land -- when it sinneth against Me to commit a trespass, and I have stretched out My hand against it, and broken for it the staff of bread, and sent into it famine, and cut off from it man and beast --

and these three men have been in its midst, Noah, Daniel, and Job -- they by their righteousness deliver their own soul -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

Or -- a sword I bring in against that land, and I have said: Sword, thou dost pass over through the land, and I have cut off from it man and beast --

Or -- pestilence I send unto that land, and I have poured out My fury against it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast --

For thus, saith My Lord Yahweh, How much less should they avail when my four calamitous judgments, sword and famine and mischievous wild beast and pestilence I have sent against Jerusalem, - to cut off therefrom man and beast?

Yet some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their behavior and their deeds, you will be consoled about the catastrophe I have brought on Jerusalem -- for everything I brought on it.

They will console you when you see their behavior and their deeds, because you will know that it was not without reason that I have done everything which I have done in it, declares the sovereign Lord."

"Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Like the wood of the vine is among the trees of the forest which I have provided as fuel for the fire -- so I will provide the residents of Jerusalem as fuel.

I will set my face against them -- although they have escaped from the fire, the fire will still consume them! Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them.

I will make the land desolate because they have acted unfaithfully, declares the sovereign Lord."

No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out in the open field, for you were loathed on the day that you were born.

And when I went past you and saw you stretched out in your blood, I said to you, Though you are stretched out in your blood, have life;

I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

And go forth doth thy name among nations, Because of thy beauty -- for it is complete, In My honour that I have set upon thee, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

Yea thou didst take of thy raiment and madest thee high places of hangings, And didst commit unchastity thereon,- Which ought not to have befallen And not to have come to pass.

You have also taken your fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made to yourself images of men, and did commit harlotry with them,

And took your embroidered garments, and covered them: and you have set my oil and my incense before them.

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.

“Moreover, you took your sons and your daughters whom you had borne to Me, and you destroyed them as sacrifices [to your man-made gods]. Were your gross immoralities so small a matter?

You slaughtered My children and offered them up to [worthless] idols, forcing them to pass through the [hideousness of the] fire.

And in all your repulsive acts and prostitutions (idolatrous immoralities) you did not [pause to] remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, squirming in your [newborn] blood.

that you built yourself an altar for prostitution and made yourself a high place [for ritual prostitution] in every square [of Jerusalem].

At the beginning of every street you built your high place and made your beauty repulsive; and you offered your body to every passer-by and multiplied your obscene immorality.

You also prostituted yourself with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors [by embracing their pagan rituals], and you multiplied your obscene immorality to provoke Me to anger.

So see here, I have stretched out my hand against you and cut off your rations. I have delivered you into the power of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed by your obscene conduct.

You have played the harlot also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yea, you have played the harlot with them, and yet could not be satisfied.

You have moreover multiplied your harlotry with trading in the land of Chaldea; and yet you were not satisfied with this.

How weak was thy heart! Exclaimeth My Lord Yahweh, - That thou couldst have done all these things, The doing of a lewd woman without shame:

For you have made your arched room at the top of every street, and your high place in every open place; though you were not like a loose woman in getting together your payment.

This is what the sovereign Lord says: Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness was uncovered in your prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children you have given to them,

therefore, listen, I will gather all your lovers (pagan allies) with whom you took pleasure, and all those whom you loved with all those whom you hated; I will even gather them against you from every direction and will expose your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness [making you, Israel, an object of loathing and of mockery, a spectacle among the nations].

And you will be judged by me as women are judged who have been untrue to their husbands and have taken life; and I will let loose against you passion and bitter feeling.

I will give you into their hands, and your arched room will be overturned and your high places broken down; they will take your clothing off you and take away your fair jewels: and when they have done, you will be uncovered and shamed.

And have caused an assembly to come up against thee, And stoned thee with stones, And thrust thee through with their swords,

And they will have you burned with fire, sending punishments on you before the eyes of great numbers of women; and I will put an end to your loose ways, and you will no longer give payment.

And the heat of my wrath against you will have an end, and my bitter feeling will be turned away from you, and I will be quiet and will be angry no longer.

"'Because you did not remember the days of your youth and have enraged me with all these deeds, I hereby repay you for what you have done, declares the sovereign Lord. Have you not engaged in prostitution on top of all your other abominable practices?

Have you not copied their behavior and practiced their abominable deeds? In a short time you became even more depraved in all your conduct than they were!

As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never behaved as wickedly as you and your daughters have behaved.

Lo, this hath been the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, Arrogancy, fulness of bread, and quiet ease, Have been to her and to her daughters, And the hand of the afflicted and needy She hath not strengthened.

They were full of pride and did what was disgusting to me: and so I took them away as you have seen.

Samaria has not committed half the sins you have; you have done more abominable deeds than they did. You have made your sisters appear righteous with all the abominable things you have done.

So now, bear your disgrace, because you have given your sisters reason to justify their behavior. Because the sins you have committed were more abominable than those of your sisters; they have become more righteous than you. So now, be ashamed and bear the disgrace of making your sisters appear righteous.

And I have turned back to their captivity, The captivity of Sodom and her daughters, And the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, And the captivity of thy captives in their midst,

so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done in consoling them.

before your evil was exposed? Now you have become an object of scorn to the daughters of Aram and all those around her and to the daughters of the Philistines -- those all around you who despise you.

You have borne the penalty of your lewdness and abominations,” the Lord declares.

"'For this is what the sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you according to what you have done when you despised your oath by breaking your covenant.

And I -- I have remembered My covenant with thee, In the days of thy youth, And I have established for thee a covenant age-during.

And thou hast remembered thy ways, And thou hast been ashamed, In thy receiving thy sisters -- Thine elder with thy younger, And I have given them to thee for daughters, And not by thy covenant.

And I -- I have established My covenant with thee, And thou hast known that I am Jehovah.

Then you will remember, be ashamed, and remain silent when I make atonement for all you have done, declares the sovereign Lord.'"

He had it planted in a good field by great waters so that it might put out branches and have fruit and be a strong vine.

Say, This is what the Lord has said: Will it do well? will he not have its roots pulled up and its branches cut off, so that all its young leaves may become dry and it may be pulled up by its roots?

Say, I pray thee, to the rebellious house, Have ye not known what these are? Say, Lo, come hath the king of Babylon to Jerusalem, And he taketh its king, and its princes, And bringeth them to himself to Babylon.

But he fell from him, and sent his Ambassadors into Egypt that he might have horses and much people. Should that prosper? Should he be kept safe, that doth such things? Or should he escape, that breaketh his covenant?

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: I live -- Mine oath that he hath despised, And My covenant that he hath broken, Have I not put it on his head?

And I have spread out for him My snare, And he hath been caught in My net, And I have brought him in to Babylon, And pleaded with him there his trespass, That he hath trespassed against Me.

All the choice men among his troops will die by the sword and the survivors will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken!

This is what the Lord has said: Further, I will take the highest top of the cedar and put it in the earth; cutting off from the highest of his young branches a soft one, I will have it planted on a high and great mountain;

It will be planted on the high mountain of Israel: it will put out branches and have fruit and be a fair cedar: under it all birds of every sort will make their living-place, resting in the shade of its branches.