the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel the son of Buzi, at the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. The hand of the Lord came on him there).

joined to each other, were their wings, - they turned not when they went, each one straight before him, did they go;

and each one straight before him, did they go, - whithersoever the spirit was minded to go, they went, they turned not when they went.

Now upward, from that which appeared to be His waist, I saw something like glowing metal that looked like it was filled with fire all around it; and downward, from that which appeared to be His waist, I saw something like fire; and there was a brightness and a remarkable radiance [like a halo] around Him.

Like the bow in the cloud on a day of rain, so was the light shining round him. And this is what the glory of the Lord was like. And when I saw it I went down on my face, and the voice of one talking came to my ears.

Then as He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me.

When I say to the wicked, "You will certainly die," and you do not warn him -- you do not speak out to warn the wicked to turn from his wicked deed and wicked lifestyle so that he may live -- that wicked person will die for his iniquity, but I will hold you accountable for his death.

But if you give the evil-doer word of his danger, and he is not turned from his sin or from his evil way, death will overtake him in his evil-doing; but your life will be safe.

"When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I set an obstacle before him, he will die. If you have not warned him, he will die for his sin. The righteous deeds he performed will not be considered, but I will hold you accountable for his death.

And thou, because thou hast warned him -- the righteous -- that the righteous sin not, and he hath not sinned, he surely liveth, because he hath been warned; and thou thy soul hast delivered.'

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses [to hear], let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

The time has come, the day is near: let not him who gives a price for goods be glad, or him who gets the price have sorrow:

The sword is outside and virulent disease and famine are within. He who is in the field will die by the sword, and famine and disease will devour those in the city.

Then came there six men out of the street of the upper port toward the north, and every man a weapon in his hand to the slaughter. There was one amongst them, that had on him a linen raiment, and a writer's inkhorn by his side. These went in, and stood beside the brazen altar:

for the glory of God was gone away from the Cherub, and was come down to the threshold of the house. And he called the man that had the linen raiment upon him, and the writer's inkhorn by his side,

The Lord said to him, "Go through the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the people who moan and groan over all the abominations practiced in it."

While I listened, he said to the others, "Go through the city after him and strike people down; do no let your eye pity nor spare anyone!

Give up to destruction old men and young men and virgins, little children and women: but do not come near any man who has the mark on him: and make a start at my holy place. So they made a start with the old men who were before the house.

And behold, the man that had the linen raiment upon him, and the writer's inkhorn by his side, told all the matter how it happened, and said, "LORD, as thou hast commanded me, so have I done."

Then said he that sat therein, to him that had the linen raiment upon him, "Creep in between the wheels that are under the Cherubims, and take thine hand full of hot coals out from between the Cherubims, and cast them over the city. And he crept in, that I might see."

And the cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim unto the fire that was between the cherubim, and took thereof , and put it into the hands of him that was clothed in linen, who took it and went out.

{When they went} to the four of their directions [that] they went, they did not change direction {when they went}, for the place [to] which the head turned, they went behind him; they did not change direction at their going.

And I heard him call the wheels Gilgal.

And as for the likeness of their faces, They were the faces which I saw by the river Chebar, their appearances and themselves - every one straight before him, did they go.

The chiefest that is among you, shall lade his shoulders in the dark, and get him away. He shall break down the wall, to carry stuff therethrough: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.

But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans (but he will not see it), and there he will die.

I will scatter to every wind all who are around him, his helpers and all his troops; and I will draw out a sword after them.

This is because you have disheartened the righteous person with lies (although I have not grieved him), and because you have encouraged the wicked person not to turn from his evil conduct and preserve his life.

Therefore speak to them and say to them, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: When any one from the house of Israel erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally according to the enormity of his idolatry.

For when anyone from the house of Israel, or the foreigner who lives in Israel, separates himself from me and erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet to seek something from me, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally.

I will set my face against that person and will make him an object lesson and a byword and will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

"'As for the prophet, if he is made a fool by being deceived into speaking a prophetic word -- I, the Lord, have made a fool of that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel.

And the punishment of their sin will be on them: the sin of the prophet will be the same as the sin of him who goes to him for directions;

And thou dost trust in thy beauty, And goest a-whoring because of thy renown, And dost pour out thy whoredoms On every passer by -- to him it is.

You took some of your clothing and made for yourself decorated high places; you engaged in prostitution on them. You went to him to become his.

And say, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: The great eagle great of wings, long of the wing-feather, full of feathers, which to him variegation, came to Lebanon, and he will take the foliage of the cedar.

It sprouted and became a vine, spreading low to the ground; its branches turning toward him, its roots were under itself. So it became a vine; it produced shoots and sent out branches.

"'There was another great eagle with broad wings and thick plumage. Now this vine twisted its roots toward him and sent its branches toward him to be watered from the soil where it was planted.

“Say now to the rebellious house, ‘Do you not know (realize) what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Hear this, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took its king [Jehoiachin] and its princes and brought them with him to Babylon.

He took one from the royal family, made a treaty with him, and put him under oath. He then took the leaders of the land

so it would be a lowly kingdom which could not rise on its own but must keep its treaty with him in order to stand.

But Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar by sending his ambassadors to Egypt so that they might give him horses and many troops. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Can he indeed break the covenant [with Babylon] and [still] escape?

"'As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, surely in the city of the king who crowned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke -- in the middle of Babylon he will die!

Pharaoh with his great army and mighty horde will not help him in battle, when siege ramps are erected and siege-walls are built to kill many people.

"'Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, I will certainly repay him for despising my oath and breaking my covenant!

I will throw my net over him and he will be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylon and judge him there because of the unfaithfulness he committed against me.

As for those that flee from him out of the host, they shall be slain with the sword. The residue shall be scattered toward all the winds: and ye shall know, that I the LORD have spoken it.

And has done no wrong to any, but has given back to the debtor what is his, and has taken no one's goods by force, and has given food to him who was in need of it, and clothing to him who was without it;

Has done wrong to the poor and to him who is in need, and taken property by force, and has not given back to one in his debt what is his, and has given worship to images and has done disgusting things,

and charges interest and takes [a percentage of] increase on what he has loaned; will he then live? He will not live! He has done all these disgusting things, he shall surely be put to death; his blood will be on his own head.

And, lo, if he fathers a son who sees all his father's sins which he has done, and fears, and does not do like him;

Or done wrong to any, or taken anything from one in his debt, or taken goods by force, but has given food to him who was in need of it, and clothing to him who was without it;

As for his father, because he was cruel, took goods by force, and did what is not good among his people, truly, death will overtake him in his evil-doing.

The person who sins [is the one that] will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the sin of the father, nor will the father bear the punishment for the sin of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be on himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on himself.

None of the sins he has committed will be held against him; because of the righteousness he has done, he will live.

But when the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, like all the disgusting things which the evil man does, will he have life? Not one of his upright acts will be kept in memory: in the wrong which he has done and in his sin death will overtake him.

When the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him; in the evil which he has done death will overtake him.

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore, repent and live!”

The nations heard about him; he was trapped in their pit. They brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

"'When she realized that she waited in vain, her hope was lost. She took another of her cubs and made him a young lion.

The nations -- the surrounding regions -- attacked him. They threw their net over him; he was caught in their pit.

They put him in a collar with hooks; they brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him to prison so that his voice would not be heard any longer on the mountains of Israel.

Then said I unto them, 'Cast away every man the abominations that he hath before him, and defile not yourselves with the Idols of Egypt, for I am the LORD your God.'

And I gave them my rules and made clear to them my orders, which, if a man keeps them, will be life to him.

But the children of Israel would not be controlled by me in the waste land: they were not guided by my rules, and they were turned away from my orders, which, if a man does them, will be life to him; and they had no respect for my Sabbaths: then I said that I would let loose my passion on them in the waste land, and put an end to them.

But the children would not be controlled by me; they were not guided by my rules, and they did not keep and do my orders, which, if a man does them, will be life to him; and they had no respect for my Sabbaths: then I said I would let loose my passion on them to give full effect to my wrath against them in the waste land.

And I have given it to the polisher so that it may be taken in the hand: he has made the sword sharp, he has had it polished, to put it into the hand of him who gives death.

"Thou son of man, make thee two streets, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come. Both these streets shall go out of one land. He shall set him up a place; at the head of the street shall he choose him out a corner.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.

A ruin, a ruin, I will make it a ruin! It shall no longer exist until He comes whose right it is [to reign], and I will give it to Him.’

In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Through my people of Israel will I avenge me again upon Edom: they shall handle him, according to my wrath and indignation, so that they shall know my vengeance, sayeth the LORD God.

And a battering-ram before him he placeth against thy walls, And thy towers he breaketh by his weapons.

Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:

Speak, and tell him, 'Thus sayeth the LORD God: Behold, O Pharaoh thou king of Egypt, I will upon thee, thou great dragon that liest in the waters; thou that sayest, 'The water is mine; I have made it myself.'

"O thou son of man, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon hath made his host, with great travail and labour to come before Tyre: that every head may be bald, and every shoulder bare. Yet hath Tyre given neither him nor his host any reward, for the great travail that he hath taken there.

I have given him the land of Egypt as his compensation for attacking Tyre, because they did it for me, declares the sovereign Lord.

He and his people with him, the most terrifying of the nations, will be brought there to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with corpses.

"I'm coming to attack Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and I'm going to break both of his arms, the strong one and the wounded one. That will make him drop his sword. I'm going to scatter Egypt throughout the surrounding nations and disperse them throughout the world.

And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and will put my sword in his hand: but Pharaoh's arms will be broken, and he will give cries of pain before him like the cries of a man wounded to death.

The waters made him great, and the deep set him up on high. Round about the roots of him ran there floods of water; he sent out his little rivers unto all the trees of the field.

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.

no Cedar tree might hide him. In the pleasant garden of God, there was no fir tree like his branches, the plain trees were not like the boughs of him. All the trees in the garden of God might not be compared unto him in his beauty:

So fair and goodly had I made him with the multitude of his branches: Insomuch that all the trees in the pleasant garden of God, had envy at him.

I have given him up into the hands of a strong one of the nations; he will certainly give him the reward of his sin, driving him out.

And men from strange lands, who are to be feared among the nations, after cutting him off, have let him be: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches have come down; his arms are broken by all the waterways of the land; all the peoples of the earth have gone from his shade, and have let him be.

When he is fallen, all the fowls of the air shall sit upon him, and all wild beasts of the field shall go about among his branches:

This is what the Lord has said: The day when he goes down to the underworld, I will make the deep full of grief for him; I will keep back her streams and the great waters will be stopped: I will make Lebanon dark for him, and all the trees of the field will be feeble because of him.

I will send shaking on the nations at the sound of his fall, when I send him down to the underworld with those who go down into the deep: and on earth they will be comforting themselves, all the trees of Eden, the best of Lebanon, even all the watered ones.

And they will go down with him to the underworld, to those who have been put to the sword; even those who were his helpers, living under his shade among the nations

"Son of man, sing a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: "'You were like a lion among the nations, but you are a monster in the seas; you thrash about in your streams, stir up the water with your feet, and muddy your streams.

The bravest of the warriors will speak to him from the midst of Sheol along with his allies, saying: 'The uncircumcised have come down; they lie still, killed by the sword.'

There, is Assyria with all her gathered host, Round about him, are his graves, All of them thrust through, The fallen by the sword:

whose graves lie beside him in the low pit. His commons are buried round about his grave: all together wounded and slain with the sword, which men afore time brought fear in to the land of the living.

They have set him a bed in the midst of the slain, with all his multitude: their graves are round about him, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though their terror was caused in the land of the living; and they have borne their confusion with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that are slain.

There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude, Round about him are her graves, All of them uncircumcised, pierced of the sword, For they gave their terror in the land of the living,

Indeed, I terrified him in the land of the living, yet he will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those killed by the sword, Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the sovereign Lord."

"Son of man, speak to your people, and say to them, 'Suppose I bring a sword against the land, and the people of the land take one man from their borders and make him their watchman.