You are to lay siege against it, build a rampart around it, set a bulwark against it, encircle it with a berm, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it.

Then you are to take a flat, iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. "Next, you are to turn toward it, oppose it, and place it under siege, because you are to lay siege to it. All of this will serve as a sign to the house of Israel.

"The house of Israel and Judah is guilty and theirs is a stubborn guilt, at that!" he replied to me. "The land is filled with blood, and the city overflows with injustice, because they keep saying, "The LORD has abandoned the land,' and "The LORD isn't watching.'

They keep saying, "The right time to build families hasn't yet arrived. The city is the pot and we are the meat.'

You didn't go up to repair the breaches in the walls and you didn't build the walls so Israel's house would be able to endure battle on the Day of the LORD.

"""When I passed by you, I saw you kicking around, covered in your own blood. That's when I told you, "Live!' while you were wallowing in your blood. I commanded you to live, even as you lay there in your own blood.

I bathed you with water, rinsed your own blood from you, and anointed you with oil.

Throughout all of your detestable practices and immorality, you never did remember your earlier life when you were bare, naked, and wallowing in your own blood."

"You built raised mounds and high places for yourself on every plaza.

When you built your mound on every street corner and constructed your high place at every plaza, you weren't like a common prostitute, in that you've insulted the wages of a prostitute

This is what the Lord GOD says: "Because your lust has been poured out and your nakedness has been uncovered by your acts of fornication with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols and the blood of your sons, whom you offered to them,

I'll judge you with the same standards by which I issue verdicts against a woman who commits adultery and murder. I'll avenge the blood you've shed with impassioned wrath.

Pharaoh, with his massive army and large battalions won't protect him when mounds and siege walls are built to destroy many people.

You'll be fuel for the conflagration. Your blood will be spilled throughout the land. You won't be remembered anymore, now that I, the LORD, have spoken."

"Now, Son of Man, will you truly judge that blood-stained city? Then make her aware of all of her detestable practices.

"You are to say, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "The city keeps on shedding blood within her, hastening her time to be judged. She crafts idols that defile her.

"""You're guilty because of the blood that you've shed. You were defiled by the idols that you've made. You've caused your judgment day to draw near and have even come to the end of your life. Therefore, I've made you an object of derision among the nations and to other lands.

"""Watch out! Each of the princes of Israel has misused his authority to shed blood.

Slanderous men live among you, intent on shedding blood. They've eaten at the top of mountain shrines. They've crafted plans to do evil things among you.

They take bribes among you to shed blood. You've taken usury and exacted interest. You've gained control over your neighbor through extortion. And you've forgotten me," declares the Lord GOD.

"Watch out! I'm vehemently angry about the unjust gains that you've earned, and about the blood that has been shed among you.

""I'm constantly being profaned among them. Her princes within her are like wolves tearing their prey apart. They shed blood, destroying souls, and make unjust gain.

I sought for a man among them to build the wall and stand in the breach in my presence on behalf of the land so that it won't be destroyed, but I found no one,

because they've committed adultery, and blood covers their hands. They've also committed adultery with their idols, making their sons born to me to pass through the fire as an offering to them.

Righteous men will judge them with punishments fit for adulterers and for those who shed blood, because they're adulterers with blood on their hands."

"This is what the Lord GOD says: "How terrible it is for that blood-filled city, to the pot whose rust remains in it, whose rust won't come off. Empty it one piece at a time. Don't let a lot fall on it.

Her blood was in it. She poured it out onto bare rock. She didn't pour it out on the ground, intending to cover it with dirt.

In order to stir up my anger and in order to take vengeance, I set the blood on a bare rock so that it cannot be covered.'

"Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "How terrible it is for that blood-filled city I'm also going to add to my pile of kindling.

He'll execute your citizens who live on the mainland with swords. He'll build siege engines to attack you. Then he'll construct siege ramps against you and build huge shields to protect themselves against you.

I'll turn you into bare rock, and your city will become a place to spread nets. You will never be built again, because I the LORD have decreed this,' declares the Lord GOD."

They'll sing this mourning song for you: "How lost you are, you inhabited city, that was built in the middle of the sea! How famous you were! How strong on the sea! She and her inhabitants inflicted terror to everyone who lived within her."

They'll shave their heads bald because of you. They'll dress themselves in sackcloth and weep for you with deep bitterness of heart, with the most pitiful of mourning.

I'm going to send disease into that city and blood into her streets. People will drop dead in her midst from the violence done to her from every side. Then they'll learn that I am the Lord GOD."

I'll drench the land with your blood, right up to the mountains, and the ravines will overflow with blood that comes from you!

then if anyone who hears the sound of the alarm does not heed the warning, when the sword arrives and destroys him, his shed blood will remain his own responsibility.

After all, he heard the alarm sounding, but did not heed the warning, so his shed blood will remain his own responsibility. If he had heeded the warning, he would have saved himself.

If that sentinel notices that violence is approaching, but does not sound an alarm, then because the nation does not take warning and the sword arrives and destroys their lives because of their guilt, I'll seek retribution for their shed blood from the one who was acting as sentinel.'"

So tell them, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "You keep eating flesh along with its blood, you keep looking to your idols, and you keep shedding blood, and you're going to take possession of the land?

therefore as I'm alive and living," declares the Lord GOD, "I'm turning you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will certainly overtake you, since you never have hated shedding blood. That's why bloodshed will certainly pursue you.

"Now as for you, Son of Man, this is what the Lord GOD has to say: "Tell all of the birds and wild beasts, "Come! Gather together and participate in the sacrifice that I'm going to make for you. This great sacrifice will take place on the mountains of Israel, where you'll be eating flesh and drinking blood.

You'll eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the world's princes, drinking the blood of these rams, lambs, goats, bulls, all of them fattened as if they're from Bashan, fit for slaughter!

You'll eat until you're fat and satiated. You'll drink blood until you're drunk from the sacrifice that I'm going to make for all of you.

There were chambers built into the thick part of the wall of the court facing the east; that is, facing the separate area toward the front of the building,

Then he told me, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "These are the regulations for the altar, starting the day that it is constructed for presenting burnt offerings and sprinkling blood.

You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of its ledge, and on the border that surrounds it, thus cleansing it and making an atonement for it.

You kept on bringing in foreigners, those who were uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to profane my sanctuary by being inside my Temple, and by doing so you've emptied my covenant, all the while offering my food the fat and the blood in addition to all of the other loathsome things you've done.

"The descendants of Zadok, Levitical priests who took care of my sanctuary when the Israelis wandered away from me, are to come near me to minister to me. They are to stand before me to offer the fat and the blood to me," declares the Lord GOD.

The priest is to place some of the blood from the sin offering on the door posts of the Temple, on the four corners of the ledge around the altar, and on the posts of the gate leading to the inner court.

A low wall built of masonry surrounded each courtyard, with boiling places set in rows in the wall.