For they are impudent children and stubborn. I do send you unto them; and you shall say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD.

And they, whether they will hear, or whether they refuse, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

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

And you shall speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they refuse: for they are most rebellious.

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

But the house of Israel will not hearken unto you; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.

Like adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be dumb, and shall not be to them one who reproves: for they are a rebellious house.

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; He that hears, let him hear; and he that refuses, let him refuse: for they are a rebellious house.

You shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and you shall take a third part, and strike about it with a sword: and a third part you shall scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.

Thus says the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.

And she has changed my ordinances into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my ordinances and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have done according to the ordinances of the nations that are round about you;

Moreover I will make you a waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about you, in the sight of all that pass by.

So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it.

And my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense you according to your ways and your abominations that are in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the LORD that strikes.

And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in its midst.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise iniquity, and give wicked counsel in this city:

Who say, It is not near for us to build houses: this city is the caldron, and we are the flesh.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.

And you shall know that I am the LORD: for you have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the nations that are round about you.

Son of man, your brethren, even your brethren, the men of your kindred, and all the house of Israel entirely, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the LORD: unto us is this land given in possession.

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

Therefore, you son of man, prepare you belongings for moving, and move by day in their sight; and you shall move from your place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they are a rebellious house.

Say you unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel that are among them.

And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his troops; and I will draw out the sword after them.

And say unto the people of the land, Thus says the Lord GOD of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with anxiety, and drink their water with dismay, that their land may be emptied from all who are in it, because of the violence of all them that dwell in it.

And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am the LORD.

Son of man, what is that proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision fails?

Tell them therefore, Thus says the Lord GOD; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the fulfillment of every vision.

Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he sees is for many days from now, and he prophesies of the times that are far off.

O Israel, your prophets are like the foxes in the deserts.

That I may seize the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.

And say, Thus says the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.

I have caused you to multiply as the bud of the field, and you have increased and become great, and you are come to excellent beauty: your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.

Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your allowance of food, and delivered you unto the will of them that hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way.

And you are different from other women in your harlotries, therefore none follows you to commit harlotries: and in that you give a reward, and no reward is given unto you, therefore you are different.

And I will judge you, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy.

You are your mother's daughter, that loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

You also, who have judged your sisters, bear your own shame for your sins that you have committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than you: yea, be disgraced also, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters.

That you may bear your own shame, and may be disgraced in all that you have done, in that you are a comfort unto them.

Before your wickedness was discovered, as at the time of your reproach of the daughters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which despise you round about.

What mean you, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?

Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins, it shall die.

Yet you 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?

Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?

Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD; Are you defiled after the manner of your fathers? and commit you harlotry after their abominations?

And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out.

You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together, and let the sword strike twice, even the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which enters into their private chambers.

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

While they see false visions for you, while they divine a lie unto you, to bring you upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day has come, when their iniquity shall have an end.

Those that are near, and those that are far from you, shall mock you, who are infamous and full of tumult.

In you are men that slander to shed blood: and in you they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of you they commit lewdness.

Son of man, the house of Israel has to me become dross: all they are bronze, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.

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

Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

I will do these things unto you, because you have played the harlot after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols.

And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.

And the people said unto me, Will you not tell us what these things are to us, that you so do?

Therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from its cities which are on its frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim,

And her daughters who are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

And they shall take up a lamentation for you, and say to you, How are you destroyed, that were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, which was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who cause their terror to be on all that inhabit it!

Now shall the coastlands tremble in the day of your fall; yea, the coastlands that are by the sea shall be troubled at your departure.

For thus says the Lord GOD; When I shall make you a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon you, and great waters shall cover you;

I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more: though you are sought for, yet shall you never be found again, says the Lord GOD.

And say unto Tyre, O you that are situated at the entrance of the sea, which are a merchant of the people for many coastlands, Thus says the Lord GOD; O Tyre, you have said, I am of perfect beauty.

Your borders are in the midst of the seas, your builders have perfected your beauty.

Your riches, and your wares, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your caulkers, and the traders of your merchandise, and all your men of war, that are in you, and in all your company which is in the midst of you, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of your ruin.

Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD; Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet you are a man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God:

Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from you:

They shall bring you down to the pit, and you shall die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.

You are the anointed cherub that covers; and I have set you so: you were upon the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Thus says the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.

And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all the mixed people, and Cub, and the men of the land that are in league, shall fall with them by the sword.

And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.

Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom are you like in your greatness?

And strangers, the most terrible of the nations, have cut it off, and have left it: upon the mountains and in all the valleys its branches are fallen, and its boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth have gone down from its shadow, and have left it.

So that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their tops among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

They also went down into sheol with it with them that are slain with the sword; and they that were its arm, that dwelt under its shadow in the midst of the nations.

To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shall you be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the lower parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord GOD.

Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, You are like a young lion of the nations, and you are as a monster in the seas: and you came forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.

They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.

The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of sheol with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

Asshur is there and all her company: their graves are about her: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:

Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living.

There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.

They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about her: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: they are put in the midst of them that are slain.

There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitudes: their graves are round about them: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.

And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, who have gone down to sheol with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

Yea, you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shall lie with them that are slain with the sword.

There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, who with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.

There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.

For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord GOD.

But if the watchman sees the sword come, and blows not the trumpet, and the people are not warned; if the sword comes, and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

Son of man, they that inhabit those waste places of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for an inheritance.

Say you thus unto them, Thus says the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.

Also, you son of man, the children of your people still are talking against you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that comes forth from the LORD.

And, lo, you are unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear your words, but they do them not.