"Son of Man, I'm sending you to that rebellious people, the Israelis, who have rebelled against me the same way their ancestors did. And they're still rebels to this very day!

They're stubborn and strong willed. I'm sending you to them to tell them what the LORD says.

because you're not going to a people whose speech you cannot understand or whose language is difficult to speak. Instead, you're going to the house of Israel.

I'm making you harder than flint like diamond! So you are not to fear them or be intimidated by how they look at you, since they're a rebellious group."

"So when I say to a wicked person, "You're about to die,' if you don't warn or instruct that wicked person that his behavior is wicked so he can live, that wicked person will die in his sin, but I'll hold you responsible for his death.

Now pay attention! They're going to bind you with ropes, tying you up right in their midst, so you won't be able to circulate freely among them.

Meanwhile, I'll make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you'll be mute and unable to reprove them, since they're a rebellious group.

But when I speak with you, I'll open your mouth so you can say to them, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "As for those who will listen, "Let them listen,' but as for those who refuse, "Let them refuse,' since they're a rebellious group."'"

"Now as for you, you are to sleep on your left side, symbolically bearing the punishment of the house of Israel while you're counting the days you'll be sleeping on your left side to bear symbolically the punishment for their sin.

Look! I'll tie you up so that you're unable to turn from one side to the other until you've completed your siege."

"Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Because you're more disrespectful than the nations that surround you, you didn't follow my statutes or follow my ordinances. You didn't even follow the ordinances of the surrounding nations!'

Then the Spirit told me, "Son of Man, don't you see what they're doing? The house of Israel practices awful, detestable things here, so I'm going far away from my sanctuary. But you're about to see things even more detestable than these."

Then he told me, "Go on through that entrance, so you may see the wicked, detestable things that they're committing here."

Then the Spirit told me, "You're about to see even more detestable practices that they're doing!"

Then he asked me, "Do you see this, Son of Man? You're about to see even more detestable practices than these."

"Do you see this, Son of Man?" he asked me. "Is it an insignificant thing for Judah's house to commit the detestable things that they're doing here? They've filled the land with violence and turned away from me, causing me to become angry again. Look how they're sniffing with their noses!

You're going to die violently, and I'll judge you as far as the borders of Israel. Then you'll learn that I am the LORD.

"Son of Man, you live in a rebellious house that has eyes to see, but they can't see, and ears to hear, but they can't hear, since they're a rebellious house.

"So now, Son of Man, you are to prepare your luggage for a trip into exile, and then you are to leave during the daytime so they see you leaving. Leave from your place to another while they're watching. Then perhaps they'll realize that they're a rebellious house.

"Bring out your luggage, like you're packing to go into exile, and do this during the daytime while they're watching you. Later that evening, leave while they're watching you like someone heading into exile.

"While they're watching, carry your luggage on your shoulder and go out in total darkness. Cover your face so that you won't see the land, because I'm using you as a sign to Israel's house."

You've profaned me among my people for a handful of barley and a morsel of bread. You're causing people to die who shouldn't have to die, and you're causing people to live who shouldn't survive, when you deceive my people who tend to listen to lies."

And clothed thee with an embroidered dress, And sandalled thee in red leather, And wrapped thee about with fine linen, And put over thee a mantle of silk.

You're different from other women when you commit immorality no one can match you in that! After all, you pay fees, but no fee is given to you. You're certainly different!"

You're the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You're the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children.

So I asked them, "What is the high place to which you're going?' That's why the name of the place has been called Bamah to this day."'

The thing that you're imagining is never going to happen, since you're thinking, "We'll be like the nations, like the clans of other lands who serve gods made from wood and stone."'"

Then I said, "O Lord GOD! They're saying about me, "Isn't he one to propound parables?'"

"And now, Son of Man, you are to start groaning until you're sick to your stomach. You are to groan bitterly right in front of them.

When they see empty visions about you while they're divining lies for you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked, who are fatally wounded, whose days have come, their time for punishment.

"""You're guilty because of the blood that you've shed. You were defiled by the idols that you've made. You've caused your judgment day to draw near and have even come to the end of your life. Therefore, I've made you an object of derision among the nations and to other lands.

"Son of Man, tell her, "You're a land that hasn't been purified, one that hasn't been rained on in the day of indignation.

And she doth add unto her whoredoms, And she seeth graved men on the wall, Pictures of Chaldeans, graved with red lead,

the Babylonians, all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all of the Assyrians with them. They're all desirable young men, governors, commanders, chariot officers, and famous men, all of them mounted on horses.

Righteous men will judge them with punishments fit for adulterers and for those who shed blood, because they're adulterers with blood on their hands."

Make the pot stand empty on the coals until its bronze glows red, its rust can be scoured off, and its dross completely removed.

Then the people told me, "Are you going to explain what these things that you're doing should mean to us?"

Aram thy merchant from the multitude of thy works: they gave in thy markets with the gem, reddish purple, and variegation, and byssus, and red corals, and ruby.

Your wealth, your products, your merchandise your sailors, your pilots, your tailors, your salesmen, all your mercenaries with you your entire company with you will fall into the midst of the sea on the day when you're overthrown!

"Son of Man, tell Tyre's Commander-in-Chief, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "Because your heart is arrogant, and because you keep saying, "I have taken my seat, I am a god, seated in God's seat right in the middle of the sea,' and because you're a man, and not a god, even though you pretend that you have a god-like heart"

Look! You're wiser than Daniel, aren't you? No secret is too mysterious for you!

Is that when you'll say, "I'm God' to the face of those who will be killing you? After all, you're a man, and have never been a god, especially when you're under the control of those who will defile you!

"Son of Man, start singing this lamentation about Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Tell him, "You may have called yourself a lion among nations, but you're a monster at sea. You thrash about in your rivers, muddy the water with your feet, and relieve yourself in the rivers.'

If I should say to a certain wicked person, "You wicked man, you're certainly about to die,' but you don't warn him to turn from his wicked behavior, he'll die in his guilt, but I'll seek retribution for his bloodshed from you.

""Now, Son of Man, tell this to the house of Israel: "You keep saying, "Our crimes and sins burden us so much that we're rotting away, so how can we keep on living?"'

"And now, Son of Man, say this to your people: "The righteousness of the righteous won't save them when they keep on committing crimes against me, the wickedness of the wicked won't keep them from remaining away when they're turning from their wickedness, and no righteous person will keep on living by their righteousness when they sin.'

"Son of Man, those who are living among these ruins of the land of Israel keep saying, "Abraham was only one man, but he was able to possess the land! As for us, we're a multitude, and the land has been given to us as an inheritance.'

So tell them, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "You keep eating flesh along with its blood, you keep looking to your idols, and you keep shedding blood, and you're going to take possession of the land?

You keep trusting in your weapons, you continue to commit loathsome deeds, men keep defiling their neighbors' wives, and you're going to take possession of the land?'

Then they come to you as a group, sit down right in front of you as if they were my people, hear your words and then they don't do what you say because they're seeking only their own desires, they pursue ill-gotten profits, and they keep following their own self-interests.

"Woe to you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves and not the sheep. Shouldn't shepherds feed the sheep? You're eating the best parts, clothing yourselves with the wool, and slaughtering the home-grown sheep without having fed the sheep!

Is it such an insignificant thing to you that you're feeding in good pastures but trampling down the other pastures with your feet? Or that as you're drinking from the clear streams you're muddying the rest with your feet?

My flock is grazing on what you've been treading down with your feet and they're drinking what you've been making muddy with your feet!'

since you've been bumping aside all the weaker sheep with your backsides and shoulders, butting them with your horns until they're scattered around outside.

That's how you'll know that I, the LORD, have heard every loathsome, reviling thing that you've had to say against the mountains of Israel, such as, "They're desolate, and we'll eat them for dinner!'

This is what the Lord GOD says to you dry bones! "Pay attention! I'm bringing my Spirit into you right now, and you're going to live!

"This is what the Lord GOD says: "Surely you're the one about whom I spoke years ago in the writings of my servants, Israel's prophets, aren't you? They predicted back then that I would bring you up after many years, didn't they?

You'll eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the world's princes, drinking the blood of these rams, lambs, goats, bulls, all of them fattened as if they're from Bashan, fit for slaughter!

You'll eat until you're fat and satiated. You'll drink blood until you're drunk from the sacrifice that I'm going to make for all of you.

This is what the man told me: "Son of Man, watch carefully, listen closely, and remember everything I'm going to be showing you, because you've been brought here to be shown what you're about to see. Be sure that you tell the house of Israel everything that you observe."

And, behold, a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and a handbreadth each. So he measured the thickness of the building, one reed, and the height, one ree

"You're to use an honest scale, an honest dry measure, and an honest liquid measure!

And upon the bound of Ephraim to the side east, even to the side of the Rea, Reuben, one.