You, son of man, do not be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do dwell among scorpions: do not be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you."

For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;

not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.

As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house."

"Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.

Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul."

But you, son of man, behold, they shall lay bands on you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:

and I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious house.

Behold, I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn you from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.

Then I said, "Ah Lord GOD. Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth."

She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.'

"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you are turbulent more than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you';

I will do in you that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations.

They shall know that I am the LORD: I have not said in vain that I would bring this disaster on them."'"

My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the LORD.'"

Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land: the time has come, the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting, on the mountains.

My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will bring on you according to your ways; and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I, the LORD, do strike.

The time has come, the day draws near: do not let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude.

For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they be yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude of it, none shall return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.

therefore I will also deal in wrath; my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them."

To the others he said in my hearing, "Go through the city after him, and strike: do not let your eye spare, neither have pity;

kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but do not come near any man on whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary." Then they began at the old men that were before the house.

As for me also, my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head."

who say, 'The time is not near to build houses: this is the caldron, and we are the meat.'

This shall not be your caldron, neither shall you be the meat in its midst; I will judge you in the border of Israel;

and you shall know that I am the LORD: for you have not walked in my statutes, neither have you executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.'"

"Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and do not see, who have ears to hear, and do not hear; for they are a rebellious house.

In their sight you shall bear it on your shoulder, and carry it forth in the dark; you shall cover your face, so that you do not see the land: for I have set you for a sign to the house of Israel."

"Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, 'What are you doing?'

"The prince who is among them shall bear on his shoulder in the dark, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, because he shall not see the land with his eyes.

My net also will I spread on him, and he shall be taken in my snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.

You have not gone up into the gaps, neither built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD."

They have seen falsehood and lying divination, who say, "The LORD says"; but the LORD has not sent them: and they have made men to hope that the word would be confirmed.

"Haven't you seen a false vision, and haven't you spoken a lying divination, in that you say, "The LORD says"; but I have not spoken?

My hand shall be against the prophets who see false visions, and who divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Behold, when the wall has fallen, shall it not be said to you, 'Where is the plaster with which you have plastered it?'

You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the souls who should not die, and to save the souls alive who should not live, by your lying to my people who listen to lies."

Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive:

though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, they could not save either son nor daughter; they would save only their own souls by their righteousness.

They shall comfort you, when you see their way and their doings; and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it,' says the Lord GOD."

As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you weren't salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

You took of your garments, and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and were wallowing in your blood.

in that you build your vaulted place at the head of every way, and make your lofty place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn pay.

"'Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head,' says the Lord GOD: 'and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.

Yet have you not walked in their ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as if that were a very little thing, you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.

As I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.

For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,

Then you shall remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you shall receive your sisters, your elder sisters and your younger; and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant.

"Say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Shall it prosper? Shall he not pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? And not by a strong arm or many people can it be raised from its roots.

Yes, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind touches it? It shall wither in the beds where it grew."'"

"Say now to the rebellious house, 'Do you not know what these things mean?' Tell them, 'Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king, and its princes, and brought them to him to Babylon:

that the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand.

For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things; he shall not escape.'

I will spread my net on him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.

As I live, says the Lord GOD, you shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.

and has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither has defiled his neighbor's wife, neither has come near to a woman in her impurity,

and has not wronged any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;

he who has not given forth on interest, neither has taken any increase, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man,

and who does not any of those duties, but even has eaten on the mountains, and defiled his neighbor's wife,

has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination,

has given forth on interest, and has taken increase; shall he then live? He shall not live: he has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be on him.

"Now, behold, if he fathers a son, who sees all his father's sins, which he has done, and fears, and does not such like;

who has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled his neighbor's wife,

neither has wronged any, has not taken anything to pledge, neither has taken by robbery, but has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;

who has withdrawn his hand from the poor, who has not received interest nor increase, has executed my ordinances, has walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.

As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother, and did that which is not good among his people, behold, he shall die in his iniquity.

The soul who sins, he shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.

"But if the wicked turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?" says the Lord GOD; "and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?

"'Yet you say, "The way of the Lord is not equal." Hear now, house of Israel: "Is my way not equal? Aren't your ways unequal?"

Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Yet the house of Israel says, "The way of the Lord is not fair." "House of Israel, aren't my ways fair? Aren't your ways unfair?"

"'Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,' says the Lord GOD. 'Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.

"Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Is it to inquire of me that you have come? As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you."'

I said to them, 'Cast away every man the abominations of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.'

But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me; they each didn't throw away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.

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

"'"Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;

"'"I said to their children in the wilderness, 'Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with their idols.

Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them forth.

because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.

Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live;

And when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons to pass through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols to this day? And shall I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you;

and that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, in that you say, 'We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.'

and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and those who disobey against me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am the LORD."

"'As for you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: "Go, serve everyone his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts, and with your idols.

You shall know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you house of Israel," says the Lord GOD.'"

and tell the forest of the South, 'Hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt thereby.

All flesh shall see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched."'"

and all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more."'

"Son of man, tell her, 'You are a land that is not cleansed, nor rained on in the day of indignation.'

Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' when the LORD has not spoken.

"I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.

Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from you, and your prostitution brought from the land of Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.