Yea, I will send thee unto a people that have rough visages and stiff stomachs: unto whom thou shalt say on this manner, 'This the LORD God himself hath spoken,'

that whether they be obedient or no - for it is a froward household - they may know yet that there hath been a Prophet among them.

For I send thee not to a people that hath a strange, unknown, or hard speech, but unto the house of Israel;

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.'"

Nevertheless, if thou exhortest the righteous, that he sin not, and so the righteous do not sin - then shall he live, because he hath received thy warning, and thou hast discharged thy soul."

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.

This similitude stretched out a hand, and took me by the hairy locks of my head, and the spirit lift me up betwixt heaven and earth: And God brought me in a vision to Jerusalem, into the court of the inward port that lieth toward the north. There stood an image, with whom he that hath all things in his power was very wroth.

Tell them therefore, 'Thus sayeth the LORD God: I will make that byword to cease, so that it shall no more be commonly used in Israel.' But say this unto them, 'The days are at hand, that everything which hath been prophesied, shall be fulfilled.

"Behold, thou son of man: The house of Israel say in this manner, 'Tush, as for the vision that he hath seen, it will be many a day or it come to pass: It is far off yet, the thing that he prophesieth.'

Vain things they see, and tell lies to maintain their preachings withal. 'The LORD,' say they, 'hath spoken it' - when in very deed the LORD hath not sent them.

Vain visions have ye seen, and spoken false prophesies, when ye say, 'The LORD hath spoken it,' whereas I never said it.

Seeing then, that it was mete for no work, being whole: much less may there anything be made of it, when the fire hath consumed and burnt it.

It is come to pass with thee in thy whoredoms, contrary to the use of other women: yea, there hath no such fornication been committed after thee, seeing that thou profferest gifts unto other, and no regard is given thee. This is a contrary thing.

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.

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.

Neither hath Samaria done half of thy sins. Yea, thou hast exceeded them in wickedness: Insomuch that in comparison of all the abominations which thou hast done, thou hast made thy sisters good women.

As truly as I live, sayeth the LORD God, he shall die at Babylon: in the place where the king dwelleth, that made him king, whose oath he hath despised, and whose covenant he hath broken.

For seeing he hath despised the oath, and broken the covenant - whereas he yet gave his hand thereupon - and done all these things, he shall not escape.

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD God: As truly as I live, I will bring mine oath that he hath despised, and my covenant that he hath broken, upon his own head.

he lendeth upon usury, and taketh moreover. Shall this man live? He shall not live. Seeing he hath done all these abominations, he shall die: his blood shall be upon him.

Now if this man get a son also, that seeth all his father's sins, which he hath done, and feareth, neither doth such like:

And yet say ye, 'Wherefore then should not this son bear his father's sin?' Therefore, because the son hath done equity and right, hath kept all my commandments and done them: therefore shall he live indeed.

None of the sins that he hath done shall be reckoned unto him: In the righteousness that he hath done, he shall live.

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."

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.'

He hath put his sword to the dighting, that good hold may be taken of it. This sword is sharpened and dight, that it may be given into the hand of the manslayer.'

Every man hath dealt shamefully with his neighbour's wife, and abominably defiled his daughter-in-law. In thee hath every man forced his own sister, even his father's daughter.

Behold, I have smitten my hands upon thy covetousness, that thou hast used, and upon the blood which hath been shed in thee.

As for thy Prophets, they daub with untempered clay, they see vanities, and prophesy lies unto thee, saying, 'The LORD God sayeth so,' where as the LORD hath not spoken.

for the blood is yet in it. Upon a plain dry stone hath she poured it, and not upon the ground, that it might be covered with dust.

Thus Ezekiel is your show token. For look, as he hath done, so, when this cometh, ye shall do also: that ye may learn to know that I am the LORD God.'"

Moreover, thus sayeth the LORD God: Because that Edom hath avenged and eased himself upon the house of Judah,

"Thou son of man, because that Tyre hath spoken upon Jerusalem, 'Aha, now I trow the ports of the people be broken, and she turned unto me, for I have destroyed my belly full.'

"Thus hath the LORD God spoken concerning Tyre: The isles shall be moved at the noise of thy fall, and at the cry of the slain that shall be murdered in thee.

Then will I cast thee down unto them, that descend into the pit, unto a people that hath been long dead, and set thee in a land that is beneath, like the old wilderness, with them which go down to their graves, so that no man shall dwell more in thee. And I will make thee to be no more in honor, in the land of the living.

and heavy lamentation; yea, their children also shall weep for thee. Alas, what city hath so been destroyed in the sea, as Tyre is?

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.

"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.

"'Therefore, thus sayeth the LORD God: Forsomuch as he hath lift up himself so high, and stretched his top into the clouds, and seeing his heart is proud in his highness:

so that from henceforth, no tree in the water shall attain to his highness, nor reach his top unto the clouds, neither shall any tree of the water stand so high, as he hath done. For unto death shall they all be delivered under the earth, and go down to the grave, like other men.

If I say unto the righteous, that he shall surely live, and so he trust to his own righteousness, and do sin: then shall his righteousnesses be no more thought upon, but in the wickedness that he hath done he shall die.

Yea the sins that he hath done, shall never be thought upon: For insomuch as he doth now the thing that is lawful and right, he shall live.

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.

When this cometh to pass - for lo, it cometh indeed - then shall they know that there hath been a prophet among them."

Thus sayeth the LORD God: Because your enemy hath said upon you, 'Aha, the high everlasting places are now become ours':

After many days thou shalt be visited, and in the latter years thou shalt come into the land, that hath been destroyed with the sword, and now is replenished again with divers people upon the mountains of Israel, which have long lain waste. Yea, they be brought out of the nations, and dwell all safe.

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.

They shall come at no dead person, to defile themselves; except it be father or mother, son or daughter, brother or sister that hath had yet no husband: in such they may be defiled.