and go to the prisoners of thy people. Speak unto them, and say on this manner, 'Thus the LORD God hath spoken: Whether ye hear, or hear not.'"

But when I speak unto thee, then open thy mouth, and say, 'Thus sayeth the LORD God: whoso heareth, let him hear; who so will not, let him leave.' For it is an obstinate household."

Then said I, "O LORD God: Behold, my soul was yet never stained, for from my youth up to this hour. I did never eat of a dead carcass, or that which was slain of wild beasts, neither came there ever any unclean flesh in my mouth."

O Thou son of man, take thee then a sharp knife, namely a razor. Take that, and shave the hair of thy head and beard: Then take the scales and weight, and divide the hair asunder.

Moreover, thus said the LORD God, "This same is Jerusalem. I set her in the midst of the Heathen and nations that are round about her:

but she hath despised my judgments more than the Gentiles themselves, and broken my commandments more than the nations that lie round about her. For they have cast out mine ordinances, and not walked in my laws.

and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD God, O ye mountains of Israel: Thus hath the LORD God spoken to the mountains, hills, rivers, valleys and dales. Behold, I will bring a sword over you, and destroy your high places.

The end is here: The end, I say, that waiteth for thee is come already.

The hour is come against thee that dwellest in the land. The time is at hand; the day of sedition is hard by: and no glad tidings upon the mountains.

Behold: the day is here, the day is come, the hour is run out, the rod flourisheth, willfulness waxeth green,

And he said unto me, "Hast thou seen this thou son of man? Thinketh the house of Israel that it is but a trifle to do these abominations here? Should they fill the land full of wickedness, and undertake to provoke me unto anger? Yea, and purposely to cast up their noses upon me?

Therefore will I also do something in my wrathful displeasure: so that mine eye shall not oversee them, neither will I spare them. Yea, and though they cry in mine ears with loud voice, yet will I not hear them."

He cried also with a loud voice in mine ears, saying, "Come here, ye rulers of the city; every man with his weaponed hand to the slaughter."

And to the other, he said that I might hear, "Go ye after him through the city: slay, oversee none, spare none,

"Thou son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a froward household: which have eyes to see, and yet see not; ears have they to hear, and yet hear they not. For they are an obstinate household.

"Thou son of man, speak prophecy against those prophets that preach in Israel: and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, 'Hear ye the word of the LORD.

So I planted thee, as the blossom of the field. Thou art grown up, and waxen great: thou hast gotten a marvelous pleasant beauty, thy breasts are come up, thy hair is goodly grown; whereas thou wast naked and bare afore.

Building thy stews at the head of every street, and thy brothel houses in all places? Thou hast not been as another whore, that maketh boast of her winning;

but as a wife that breaketh wedlock, and taketh other instead of her husband.

"'Therefore hear the word of the LORD, O thou harlot.

Thou art even thy mother's own daughter, that hath cast off her husband and her children. Yea, thou art the sister of thy sisters, which forsook their husbands and their children. Your mother is a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

Thine eldest sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell upon thy left hand. But thy youngest sister that dwelleth on thy righthand, is Sodom and her daughters.

As truly as I live, sayeth the LORD God, Sodom thy sister with her daughters hath not done so evil as thou and thy daughters.

Behold, the sins of thy sister Sodom, were these: Pride, fullness of meat, abundance and Idleness: these things had she and her daughters. Besides that, they reached not their hand to the poor and needy,

As for their captivity, namely the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters: I will bring them again. So will I also bring again thy captivity among them:

Thus thy sisters, namely Sodom and her daughters, Samaria and her daughters, with thyself and thy daughters, shall be brought again to your old estate.

and before thy wickedness came to light: thou wouldest not hear speak of thy sister Sodom, until the time that the Syrians with all their towns, and the Philistines, with all that lie round about them, brought thee to shame and confusion:

But you will say, 'The way of the Lord is not equal.' Here I pray you, ye house of Israel. Is not my way equal?

and say, "Wherefore lay thy mother, that lioness, among the lions, and nourished her young ones among the lion's whelps?

One of her whelps she brought up, and it became a lion: it learned to spoil, and to devour folk.

Now when the dame saw, that all her hope and comfort was away, she took another of her whelps, and made a lion of him.

"As for thy mother, she is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waterside: her fruits and branches are grown out of many waters,

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,

she was rooted out in displeasure, and cast down to the ground. The East wind dried up her fruit; her strong stalks were broken off, withered, and burnt in the fire.

And there is a fire gone out of her stalks, which hath burnt up her branches and her fruit: so that she hath no more strong stalks, to be staves for officers. This is a piteous and miserable thing."

Go now then, sayeth the LORD God: ye house of Israel, cast away, and destroy every man his Idols. Then shall ye hear me, and no more blaspheme my holy name with your offerings and Idols.

and say to the wood toward the south, 'Hear the word of the LORD, thus sayeth the LORD God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, that shall consume thee green trees with the dry. No man shall be able to quench his flame, but all that looketh from the south to the north shall be burnt therein.

"Thou son of man, tell her, 'Thou art an unclean land, which is not rained upon in the day of the cruel wrath:

The eldest of them was called Oholah and her youngest sister Oholibah. These two were mine, and bare sons and daughters. Their names were, Samaria, and that was Oholah: and Jerusalem, that was Oholibah.

As for Oholah, she began to go a whoring, when I had taken her to me. She was set on fire upon her lovers the Assyrians,

which had to do with her: even the princes and lords, that were decked in costly array: fair young men, lusty riders of horses.

Thus through her whoredom, she cleaved unto all the young men of Assyria: Yea she was mad upon them, and defiled herself with all their Idols.

Neither ceased she from the fornication, that she used with the Egyptians: for in her youth they lay with her, they bruised the breasts of her maidenhead, and poured their whoredom upon her.

Wherefore, I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, even the Assyrians, whom she so loved.

These discovered her shame, took her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword: An evil name gat she of all people, and they punished her.

"Her sister Oholibah saw this, and destroyed herself with inordinate love, more than she, and exceeded her sister in whoredom:

she loved the Assyrians, which also lay with her: namely, the princes and great lords, that were clothed with all manner of gorgeous apparel, all lusty horsemen and fair young persons.

Now when the Babylonians came to her, they lay with her, and defiled her with their whoredom, and so was she polluted with them. And when her lust was abated from them,

her whoredom and shame was discovered and seen: then my heart forsook her, like as my heart was gone from her sister also.

Nevertheless, she used her whoredom ever the longer, the more; and remembered the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister, therefore will I give thee her cup in thy hand.

Then was there great cheer with her: and the men that were sent from far countries over the desert, unto these they gave bracelets upon their hands, and set glorious crowns upon their heads.

And they went into her, as unto a common harlot: Even so went they also to Oholah and Oholibah those filthy women.

"O thou son of man, write up the name of this day; yea, even the hour of this present day when the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem.

And therefore have I letten her pour her blood upon a plain dry stony rock, because it should not be hid, and that I might bring my wrathful indignation and vengeance upon her.

and say unto the Ammonites, 'Hear the word of the LORD God. Thus sayeth the LORD God: Forsomuch as thou speakest over my Sanctuary, 'Aha,' I trow it be now suspended; and over the land of Israel, I trow it be now desolate; yea, and over the house of Judah, I trow they be now led away prisoners.

These shall break the walls of Tyre, and cast down her towers. I will scrape the ground from her, and make her a bare stone.

Yea, as the drying place, where the fishers hang up their nets by the seaside. Even I have spoken it, sayeth the LORD God. The Gentiles shall spoil her:

her daughters upon the field shall perish with the sword, that they may know how that I am the LORD.

and speak, 'Thus sayeth the LORD God Behold O Sidon, I will upon thee, and get me honour in thee: that it may be known how that I am the LORD, when I punish her, and get me honour in her.

For I will send pestilence and blood shedding into her streets, so that those which be slain with the sword shall lie round about in the midst of her: and they shall know, that I am the LORD.

She shall no more be a pricking thorn, and a hurting brier unto the house of Israel, nor unto them that lie round about her and hate her: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

I will make the land of Egypt to be desolate among other waste countries, and her cities to lie void forty years, among other void cities: And I will scatter the Egyptians among the Heathen and nations.

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, that he may take away all her substance, rob her robberies, and spoil her spoils, to pay his host their wages withal.

for the day is here, the day of the LORD is come: the dark day of the Heathen, the hour is at hand,

the sword cometh upon Egypt. When the wounded men fall down in Egypt, when her people are taken away, and when her foundations are destroyed,

Thus sayeth the LORD: The maintainers of the land of Egypt shall fall, the pride of her power shall come down: even unto the tower of Syene shall they be slain down with the sword, sayeth the LORD God.

And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I kindle a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers are destroyed.

At Tehaphnehes the day shall be dark, when I break there the scepter of the land of Egypt, and when the pomp of her power shall have an end. A cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall be led away into captivity.

Therefore was he higher than all the trees of the field, and through the multitude of waters that he sent from him, he obtained many and long branches.

When thou art put out, I will cover the heaven, and make his stars dim. I will spread a cloud over the Sun, and the moon shall not give her light.

Yea, I will make many people with their kings so afraid through thee, that their hair shall stand up, when I shake my sword at their faces. Suddenly shall they be astonished, every man in himself, at the day of thy fall.

with the swords of the worthies will I smite down thy people. All they that be mighty among the Gentiles, shall waste the proud pomp of Egypt, and bring down all her people.

This is the mourning that the daughters of the Heathen shall make: Yea and sorrow and lamentation shall they take up, upon Egypt and all her people, sayeth the LORD God.'"

There is the land of Edom with her kings and princes also, which with their strength are laid by them that were slain with the sword. Yea, among the uncircumcised, and them which are gone down in to the pit.

If a man now hear the noise of the trumpet and will not be warned, and the sword come and take him away: his blood shall be upon his own head.

For I will make the land desolate and waste, and the pomp of her strength shall come to an end. The mountains in Israel shall be so waste that no man shall travel thereby.

"And thou, son of man, the children of thy people that talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of their houses, saying one to another, 'Come, let us hear, what word is gone forth from the LORD' -

These come unto thee, after the manner of a great people: yea, my people sit down before thee, and hear thy words, but they do not thereafter: for in their mouths they show themselves, as though they were fervent, but their heart goeth after their own covetous lucre.

And as a ballad that hath a sweet tune, and is pleasant to sing, so shalt thou be unto them: thy words shall they hear, but they will not do thereafter.

Thus are they scattered here and there without a shepherd: yea, all the beasts of the field devour them, and they go astray.

"'Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD.

Therefore hear the word of the LORD, O ye shepherds.

that the trees in the wood may bring forth their fruits, and the ground her increase. They shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD: which have broken their yoke, and delivered them out of the hands of those that held them in subjection.

Thou son of man, prophesy upon the mountains of Israel, and speak, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O ye mountains of Israel:

Therefore, hear the word of the LORD God, O ye mountains of Israel. Thus sayeth the LORD God unto the mountains, and hills; valleys and dales; to the void wilderness and desolate cities, which are spoiled and had in derision on every side among the residue of the Heathen.

And I will not suffer thee, for to hear thine own confusion among the Gentiles from henceforth. Thou shalt not bear the reproof of the nations, nor cast out thine own people any more, sayeth the LORD God.'"

And he said unto me, "Prophesy thou upon these bones, and speak unto them, 'Ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

The side chambers were the higher the wider, and had steps through them round about the house. Thus was it wider above, that from the lowest men might go to the highest and mid chambers.

from the ground to the lower steps the length is two cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from the lower steps to the higher are four cubits, and the breadth but one cubit.

They shall not shave their heads, nor nourish the bush of their hair, but round their heads only.

They shall marry no widow, neither one that is put from her husband: but a maiden of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that hath had a priest before.