צ TsadeThe hearts of the people cry out to the Lord.
Wall of Daughter Zion,
let your tears run down like a river
day and night.
Give yourself no relief
and your eyes no rest.

Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Lain on the earth in out-places have young and old, My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword, Thou hast slain in a day of Thine anger, Thou hast slaughtered -- Thou hast not pitied.

Thou dost call as at a day of appointment, My fears from round about, And there hath not been in the day of the anger of Jehovah, An escaped and remaining one, They whom I stretched out and nourished, My enemy hath consumed!

Me, hath he driven out and brought into darkness, and not light;

Against me only he turneth his hand, and layeth it ever upon me.

He hath worn out my flesh and my skin. He hath broken my bones.

He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

He bent his bow, aiming at me with his arrow.

My soul has been cast far away from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.

{Zayin} O remember yet my misery and my trouble; the wormwood and the gall.

My mind keeps reflecting on it, and I become depressed.

Yet I call this to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

“The Lord is my portion and my inheritance,” says my soul;
“Therefore I have hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.”

The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

Let him put his mouth in the dust [in recognition of his unworthiness];
There may yet be hope.

But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

For he doth not plague, and cast out the children of men from his heart.

to wrong a man in his cause, will not the Lord see it?

Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

What -- sigh habitually doth a living man, A man for his sin?

נ NunLet us search out and examine our ways,
and turn back to the Lord.

All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.

Whole rivers of water gush out of mine eyes, for the great hurt of my people.

Mine eye is poured out, And doth not cease without intermission,

Until Yahweh out of the heavens shall look forth, and see,

My eyes [see things that] bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.

{Tsadi} Mine enemies hunted me out sharply, like a bird; yea, and that without a cause.

They silenced me in the pit
And placed a stone over me.

I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

You drew near when I called out to you. You said, "Stop being afraid"

Look at their sitting and their rising [their actions and secret counsels];
I am their mocking song [the subject of their ridicule].

Return to them what is deserved, O Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.

Persecute them, O LORD, with thine indignation, and root them out from under the heaven.

How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

The [noble and] precious sons of Zion,
[Once] worth their weight in fine gold,
How they are regarded [merely] as earthen jars,
The work of a potter’s hands!

Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

Those eating of dainties have been desolate in out-places, Those supported on scarlet have embraced dunghills.

The iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom; it was overthrown in a moment and no hands were laid on her.

Her consecrated ones were pure above snow, they were white above milk, they were red of body above pearls, their figure sapphire:

Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

[The] hands of compassionate women, have cooked their children; they became as something to eat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

To the kings of the earth and to all the people of the world it did not seem possible that the attackers and the haters would go into the doors of Jerusalem.

It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

They have wandered naked in out-places, They have been polluted with blood, Without any being able to touch their clothing,

They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

The face of Jehovah hath divided them, He doth not add to behold them, The face of priests they have not lifted up, Elders they have not favoured.

As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

צ TsadeOur steps were closely followed
so that we could not walk in our streets.
Our end drew near; our time ran out.
Our end had come!

Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

שׂ SinSo rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom,
you resident of the land of Uz!
Yet the cup will pass to you as well;
you will get drunk and expose yourself.

Completed is thy iniquity, daughter of Zion, He doth not add to remove thee, He hath inspected thy iniquity, O daughter of Edom, He hath removed thee because of thy sins!

Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

Our pursuers are at our necks;
We are worn out, there is no rest for us.

To Egypt, have we stretched out our hand, to Assyria, to be satisfied with bread.

Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.

Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.

Our skin is as it had been burnt in an oven, for very sore hunger.

They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

Elders are gone from the gate;
Young men from their music.

Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

Or is it that thou hast utterly rejected us? Wouldest thou be exceeding wroth against us?

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

On the fifth of the month, (it was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,)

the word of Yahweh {came} clearly to Ezekiel the son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of [the] Chaldeans at the {Kebar River}, and the hand of Yahweh was on him there.

And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

Their legs were straight; But their feet were like bullock's feet, and they glistered, as it had been fair scoured metal.

yet were the wings so, that one ever touched another. When they went, they turned them not about: but each one went straight forward.

Regarding the form and appearance of their faces: they [each] had the face of a man [in front], and each had the face of a lion on the right side, and the face of an ox on the left side; all four also had the face of an eagle [at the back of their heads].

Such were their faces. Their wings were stretched out upward; two [wings] of each one were touching another [the wings of the beings on either side of it], and [the remaining] two [wings of each being] were covering their bodies.

Every one, when it went, it went straight forward. Whereas the spirit led them, thither they went; and turned not about in their going.

As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

And the living beings went out and came back as quickly as a thunder-flame.

And I looked at the living creatures, and behold, one wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, toward their four faces.

The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

When they moved, they went toward their four sides; they did not {veer at all as they went}.

And at the going of the living creatures, the wheels next to them [also] went, and {when the creatures were lifted from the ground} the wheels [also] rose.

At their going, they go, and at their standing, they stood, and at their being lifted up from on the earth, the wheels rose, for the spirit of the living creatures [was] in the wheels.

And a likeness is over the heads of the living creatures of an expanse, as the colour of the fearful ice, stretched out over their heads from above.

Under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. Every living being had two wings which covered its body on one side and on the other side.

When they moved, I heard the sound of their wings -- it was like the sound of rushing waters, or the voice of the Almighty, or the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.

A sound came from above the canopy that was spread out over their heads. Whenever they stood still, they lowered their wings.

And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.

And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

It is the appearance of the likeness of the honour of Jehovah, and I see, and fall on my face, and I hear a voice speaking, and He saith unto me, 'Son of man, stand on thy feet, and I speak with thee.'