But I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold (hear me), I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died on its own or was torn by beasts, nor has any unclean meat ever entered my mouth.”

Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women; but do not touch or go near anyone on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple [who did not have the Lord’s mark on their foreheads].

When they moved, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went; but they followed in the direction which they faced, without turning as they went.

Now when the cherubim moved, the wheels would go beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the earth, the wheels would remain beside them.

I did as I had been commanded. I brought out my provisions and supplies during the day, like the provisions and supplies of an exile, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my hands. I brought out my provisions and supplies in the dark, carrying it on my shoulder as they watched.

You also took your beautiful jewels and beautiful vessels made of My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men so that you could prostitute yourself with them;

Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me with all these things, therefore, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head,” says the Lord God, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other repulsive acts.

Behold, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters (outlying cities) had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.

As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did that which is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his sin.

But they rebelled against Me and were not willing to listen to Me; they did not throw away the detestable things on which they feasted their eyes, nor did they give up the idols of Egypt.

“Then I decided to pour out My wrath on them and finish My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

Yet My eye [looked on them with compassion and] spared them instead of destroying them, and I did not annihilate them in the wilderness.

“For her blood [that she has shed] remains in her midst;
She put it on the bare rock;
She did not pour it on the ground
To cover it with dust.

So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And the next morning I did as I was commanded.

I have given him the land of Egypt for the hard work which he did [against Tyre], because they did it for Me,” says the Lord God.

‘The cedars in the garden of God could not hide or rival it;
The cypress trees did not have boughs like it,
And the plane trees did not have branches like it.
No tree in the garden of God was like it in its beauty.

He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood shall be on himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life.

“As I live,” says the Lord God, “certainly because My flock has become prey, My flock has even become food for every predator of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock;

Then he led me toward the south, and behold, there was a gate toward the south; and he measured its side pillars and its porches, and they measured the same as the others.

Its guardrooms also, its side pillars and its porches measured the same as the others. And the gate and its porches had windows all around; the length was fifty cubits and the width was twenty-five cubits.

Its guardrooms also, its side pillars and its porches measured the same as the others. The gate and its porches had windows all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

The side chambers were three stories [high], one above another, and thirty chambers in each story; and the side chambers extended to the wall which stood on their inward side all around, so that they would be attached, but not attached to the wall of the temple itself.

for they were in three stories and did not have pillars like the pillars of the [outer] courtyards; therefore the upper chambers were set back from the ground more than the lower and the middle ones.

‘Thus says the Lord God, “Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness. Stop your forceful seizure of property from My people,” says the Lord God.

It shall be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept My charge, and who did not go astray when the children (descendants) of Israel went astray as the [other] Levites did.