All the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord. I make the high tree low; I raise up the low tree. I make the green tree wither, and I make the dry tree sprout. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it!'"

“What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel,

‘The fathers eat sour grapes [they sin],
But the children’s teeth are set on edge’?

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

does not eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains or pray to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor's wife, does not have sexual relations with a woman during her period,

“Then he may have a violent son who sheds blood and who does any of these things to a brother

But lo, if he have begotten a son that seeth all his father's sins which he hath done, and considereth, and doeth not such like:

And ye have said, Wherefore hath not the son, Borne of the iniquity of the father? And -- the son judgment and righteousness hath done, All My statutes he hath kept, And he doeth them, he surely liveth.

Not one of the sins which he has done will be kept in memory against him: in the righteousness which he has done he will have life.

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?

But when the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, like all the disgusting things which the evil man does, will he have life? Not one of his upright acts will be kept in memory: in the wrong which he has done and in his sin death will overtake him.

And ye have said, Not pondered is the way of the Lord. Hear, I pray you, O house of Israel, My way -- is it not pondered? Are not your ways unpondered?

Again, when the evil-doer, turning away from the evil he has done, does what is ordered and right, he will have life for his soul.

And the house of Israel have said, Not pondered is the way of the Lord, My ways -- are they not pondered? O house of Israel -- are not your ways unpondered?

Throw away all your sins you have committed and fashion yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why should you die, O house of Israel?

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

her stalks were so strong that men might have made staves thereof for officers, she grew so high in her stalks. So when men saw that she exceeded the height and multitude of her branches,

And it cometh to pass, in the seventh year, in the fifth month, in the tenth of the month, come in have certain of the elders of Israel to seek Jehovah, and they sit before me;

“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live,” says the Lord God, “I will not be inquired of by you.”’

even in the day that I lift up mine hand over them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt, into a land that I have provided for them, which floweth with milk and honey, and it is a pleasant land among all others:

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 also My sabbaths I have given to them, To be for a sign between Me and them, To know that I am Jehovah their sanctifier.

And yet the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They would not walk in my commandments; they have cast away my laws, which whoso keepeth should live in them; and my Sabbath days have they greatly unhallowed. Then I made me to pour out my indignation upon them, and to consume them in the wilderness.

And also, I, I have lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness, Not to bring them in to the land that I had given, Flowing with milk and honey, A beauty it is to all the lands,

Because against My judgments they did kick, And in My statutes they have not walked, And My sabbaths they have polluted, For after their idols their heart is going.

And Mine eye hath pity on them -- against destroying them, And I have not made of them an end in the wilderness.

And My sabbaths sanctify, And they have been for a sign between Me and you, To know that I, Jehovah, am your God.

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.

And I have turned back My hand, And I do it for My name's sake, Not to pollute it before the eyes of the nations, Before whose eyes I brought them out.

I also, I have lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness, To scatter them among nations, And to spread them through lands.

Because My judgments they have not done, And My statutes they have despised, And My sabbaths they have polluted, And after idols of their fathers have their eyes been.

[Therefore] I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live;

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

“When you say, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the peoples of other countries, worshiping wood and stone,’ what you have in mind will never happen.

And I will bring you forth from among the peoples, And gather you together out of the lands, throughout which ye have been dispersed, With t strong hand and With an outstretched arm, and With outpoured indignation;

And I have brought you in unto the wilderness of the peoples, And have been judged with you there face to face.

And I have caused you to pass under the rod, And brought you into the bond of the covenant,

I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt against me. I will bring them out from the land where they have been residing, but they will not come to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

I will accept you [graciously] as a pleasant and soothing aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands in which you have been scattered; and I will prove Myself holy and manifest My holiness among you in the sight of the nations.

And that ye may know, that I am the LORD, which have brought you into the land of Israel. Yea, into the same land that I swore to give unto your forefathers.

And there you will remember your conduct and all your deeds by which you defiled yourselves. You will despise yourselves because of all the evil deeds you have done.

And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have dealt with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.

And say to the woodland of the South, Give ear to the words of the Lord: this is what the Lord has said: See, I will have a fire lighted in you, for the destruction of every green tree in you and every dry tree: the flaming flame will not be put out, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it.

And everyone will see that I, the Lord, have burned it; it will not be extinguished.'"

and thou hast said unto the ground of Israel: Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am against thee, And have brought out My sword from its scabbard, And have cut off from thee righteous and wicked.

Because I am going to have the upright and the evil cut off from you, for this cause my sword will go out from its cover against all flesh from the south to the north:

and all living will know [without any doubt] that I the Lord have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it will not be sheathed again.”’

So as to slaughter a slaughter it is sharpened. So as to have brightness it is polished, Desire hath rejoiced the sceptre of my son, It is despising every tree.

And I have given it to the polisher so that it may be taken in the hand: he has made the sword sharp, he has had it polished, to put it into the hand of him who gives death.

Cry and howl, son of man, For it hath been among My people, It is among all the princes of Israel, Cast unto the sword have been My people. Therefore strike on thy thigh,

So hearts melt with fear and many stumble. At all their gates I have stationed the sword for slaughter. Ah! It is made to flash, it is drawn for slaughter!

I too will clap my hands together, I will exhaust my rage; I the Lord have spoken."

And you, son of man, have two ways marked out, so that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; let the two of them come out of one land: and let there be a pillar at the top of the road:

But those in Jerusalem will view it as a false omen. They have sworn solemn oaths, but the king of Babylon will accuse them of violations in order to seize them.

"Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: 'Because you have brought up your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force.

O thou shameful wicked guide of Israel whose day is come, even the time that wickedness shall have an end:

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.

A total ruin I will make it! It will come to an end when the one arrives to whom I have assigned judgment.'

Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.

And I have poured on thee Mine indignation, With fire of My wrath I blow against thee, And have given thee into the hand of brutish men -- artificers of destruction.

You will become fuel for the fire -- your blood will stain the middle of the land; you will no longer be remembered, for I, the Lord, have spoken.'"

you are guilty because of the blood you shed and defiled by the idols you made. You have hastened the day of your doom; the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations, an object to be mocked by all lands.

“Behold, the princes of Israel, every one according to his power, have been intending to shed blood in you.

They have treated father and mother with contempt within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow within you.

You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths!

In you are men who slander for the purpose of shedding blood, and in your presence they have eaten [food offered to idols] at the mountain shrines; in your midst they have committed acts of lewdness.

They have sex with their father's wife within you; they violate women during their menstrual period within you.

They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, declares the sovereign Lord.

"'See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed they have done among you.

Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong when I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it!

And I have scattered thee among nations, And have spread thee out among lands, And consumed thy uncleanness out of thee.

Yea, and I will have thee in possession in the sight of the Heathen, that thou mayest know that I am the LORD.'"

Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste.

Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: 'Because all of you have become slag, look out! -- I am about to gather you in the middle of Jerusalem.

A gathering of silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, Unto the midst of a furnace -- to blow on it fire, to melt it, So do I gather in Mine anger and in My fury, And I have let rest, and have melted you.

And I have heaped you up, And blown on you in the fire of My wrath, And ye have been melted in its midst.

As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in it, and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my anger on you.'"

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Her rulers within her have been like wolves, rending prey,- In shedding blood In destroying lives, For the sake of getting dishonest gain.

And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.

The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

And I seek of them a man making a fence, And standing in the breach before Me, In behalf of the land -- not to destroy it, And I have not found.

Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

And they go a-whoring in Egypt, In their youth they have gone a-whoring, There they have bruised their breasts, And there they have dealt with the loves of their virginity.

Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

They have uncovered her nakedness, Her sons and her daughters they have taken, And her by sword they have slain, And she is a name for women, And judgments they have done with her.

Therefore, O Aholibah, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am stirring up thy lovers against thee, From whom thy soul hath been alienated, And have brought them in against thee from round about.

And they have come in against thee, With arms, rider, and wheel, And with an assembly of peoples; Target, and shield, and helmet, They do set against thee round about, And I have set before them judgment, They have judged thee in their Judgments.

And I have set My jealousy against thee, And they have dealt with thee in fury, Thy nose and thine ears they turn aside, And thy posterity by sword falleth, They, thy sons and thy daughters do take away, And thy posterity is devoured by fire.

And they have stripped thee of thy garments, And have taken thy beauteous jewels.

So I will put an end to your obscene conduct and your prostitution which you have practiced in the land of Egypt. You will not seek their help or remember Egypt anymore.

They will treat you with hatred, take away all you have labored for, and leave you naked and bare. Your nakedness will be exposed, just as when you engaged in prostitution and obscene conduct.

These things will be done to you because you have prostituted yourself with the [Gentile] nations, because you have defiled yourself with their idols.

You have followed the ways of your sister, so I will place her cup of judgment in your hand.

Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

"Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have forgotten me and completely disregarded me, you must bear now the punishment for your obscene conduct and prostitution."

That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.

Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house.

And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments,