therefore you'd better watch out! I'm raising a clenched fist in your direction! I'm about to feed you to the surrounding nations as war plunder. I'm going to eliminate you as a nation and kill off those of you who survive to live in other countries. I'm going to destroy you, and that's how you'll learn that I am the LORD.'"

Then he told me, "Son of Man, look up toward the north." So I looked off toward the north. Suddenly, off toward the north, facing the gate that led to the altar, the image that provoked God's jealousy was standing near the entrance.

"When someone builds a wall, they coat it with whitewash. Tell those who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. It will be washed off by the rain. Great hailstones will fall and a stormy wind will strip it off.

Foreign dictators have trimmed it down to size and abandoned it. Its branches have fallen off on mountains and in all the valleys. Its boughs have broken off in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth have moved out of its shade and abandoned it.

I made the nations tremble when they heard that Assyria was falling, descending into Sheol to join those who go down into the Pit. Then all of the trees of Eden in the world below were comforted, including the choicest and best of Lebanon, all of whom were well-watered.