And I will send into it a plague, and blood will [be] in its streets. And [the] dead will fall in the midst of her by [the] sword [that is] against it from all around; and they will know that I [am] Yahweh.

And I will destroy all her domestic livestock {beside} many waters. [The] feet of humans will not make them turbid again, and [the] hooves of domestic livestock will not make them turbid.

"Son of man, mourn over the hordes of Egypt, and make her go down, [and] with her [the] daughters of mighty nations, {down to the deep underworld} with [the people] going down to [the] grave.

In the midst of [the] people slain by [the] sword it is given they will fall [to] a sword; they carried her off and all of her hordes.

In the midst of [the] slain they made a bed for her with all of her hordes all around its graves, all of them uncircumcised, slain by [the] sword, for their terror was spread in [the] land of [the] living, and they [now] bear their disgrace with [the people] going down to [the] grave; in the midst of [the] slain it was placed.

"And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; if you hear a word from my mouth, then you must warn them from me.

"And you, son of man, {your people}, the ones talking together concerning you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, each one with his brother {saying}, 'Please come and hear what [is] the word {that is going out from Yahweh}.'

And they come to you {as people do}, and they sit {before you}, and my people hear your words, and they do not do them, for they [are] showing passion in their mouth, but their heart [is] going after ill-gotten gain.

Now, look! You [are] to them like {a sensual song}, beautiful of voice and {played well on an instrument}, and they hear your words, {but they are not doing them}.

Therefore, hear, shepherds, the word of Yahweh:

therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh,

"I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the scattered, and I will bind [up] the one hurt, and I will strengthen the sick; and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed her with justice."

"And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel; and [so] you must say, 'Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh;

Therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh; thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the river channels and to the valleys and to the ruins that [are] desolate and to the cities that [are] abandoned [and] that have become as plunder and as scorn for the remainder of the nations that [are] from all around.

"And I will not let you hear [any] longer the insult of the nations, and [the] disgrace of [the] peoples you will not bear [any] longer; you [yourself] will not cause your nation to stumble," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.'"

And he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and you must say to them, [to] the dry bones, 'Hear the word of Yahweh!

And the man spoke to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and listen with your ears and apply your heart to all that I [am] showing you, for you were brought here in order to show you [this]; tell all that you [are] seeing to the house of Israel."

And a wall {was before} the alcoves; {one cubit on either side} [was the] wall from here. And the alcove {was six cubits on each side}.

And Yahweh said, "Son of man, set your heart and look with your eyes and with your ears hear {everything} I [am] saying [to] you concerning all the statutes of the temple of Yahweh and concerning all its laws, and you must listen [with] your heart concerning the entrance of the temple with all of [the] exits of the sanctuary.

And their head they shall not shave, or long hair they shall not let grow; short they shall clip their heads.

[that] at the time that you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, [the] lyre, [the] trigon, [the] harp, [the] drum and all kinds of music, you must fall down and you must worship the statue of gold that Nebuchadnezzar the king [has] set up.

Now if you are ready so that {when} you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the lyre, [the] trigon, [the] harp and [the] drum and all kinds of music, you fall down and you worship the statue that I have made, [that will be good]. But if you do not worship it, {immediately} you will be thrown into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire, and {who is the god} who will rescue you from my hands?"

Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire, [and] he called out, saying, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, {servants} of the Most High God, come out and come here!"

And the satraps, the prefects, the governors and the advisors of the king [were] assembling, [and] they saw these men, that the fire had no power over their bodies, and the hair of their heads was not singed, and their garments were not harmed, and the smell of fire did not come from them.

{Immediately} the word was fulfilled {concerning} Nebuchadnezzar, and he was expelled from {human society} and he ate grass like oxen, and his body was bathed with the dew of heaven until his hair [was] like [the hair of] an eagle and his nails grew like bird's [claws].

And [now] you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his temple you have brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have been drinking wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone that [do] not see and [do] not hear and [do] not know, but the God {who holds your life in his hand} and all of your ways {come from him}, you have not honored.

"{I continued watching} until thrones were placed and an Ancient of Days sat; his clothing [was] like white snow and the hair of his head [was] like pure wool and his throne [was] a flame of fire and its wheels [were] burning fire.

And I have come to instruct you about what will happen to your people {in the future}, for [there is] a further vision [here] {for the future}.

And at [the] end of [some] years they will make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south will come to the king of the north to make a peace treaty, but {she will not retain her position of power}, and his offspring will not endure, and she will be given up, she and her attendants and her child supporting her, in those times.

And a branch from her roots will rise up [in] his place, and he will come against the army and he will enter the stronghold of the king of the north and he will take action against them and he will prevail.

And she conceived again and bore a daughter, and he said to him, "{Name her} Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or {forgive them}.

Plead with your mother, plead-- because she [is] not my wife, and I [am] not her husband. Let her put away her whoring {from before her}, and her adultery from between her breasts.

Lest I strip her naked and expose her like the day when she was born; I will make her like the desert and turn her into parched land; I will kill her with thirst.

And I will not have pity on her children, because [they are] children of whoredom.

Therefore, Look! I [am] going to hedge her path {with thorns}, and I will build a stone wall, a stone wall [against] her, and she will not find her paths.

Then she will pursue {her lovers}, but she will not overtake them; she will seek them and not find [them]; and she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband because [it was] better for me then than now."

But she did not know that [it was] I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and who gave her silver in abundance, and gold which they made into a Baal.

Therefore I will take again my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; and I will take away my wool and my flax, [which were] to cover her nakedness.

And now I will uncover her nakedness before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.

And I will put an end to all her mirth, her festivals, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals;

and I will lay waste to her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, "They [are] my payment for prostitution, which my lovers gave to me." I will make them a forest, and the wild animals of the field will devour them.

{I will punish her} [for] the days of the Baals, to whom she burns incense, and she decked herself [with] her ornamental ring and jewelry, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me --a declaration of Yahweh.

Therefore, Look! I [am] going to allure her and bring her [into] the desert, and {I will speak tenderly to her}.

From there I will give her her vineyards, and the Valley of Achor as a doorway of hope. And there she will respond, as [in] the days of her youth, just as [in] the day of her coming out of the land of Egypt.

I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by their name.

I will sow her for myself in the land; I will have pity on Lo-ruhama; I will say to Lo-ammi, "You are my people," and he himself will say, "[you are] my God."

So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer of barely and a measure of wine.

And I said to her, "{You must remain as mine} for many days, and you will not play the whore; {you will not belong} to a man, and I [will] belong to you."

Hear the word of Yahweh, children of Israel, for Yahweh has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or loyalty, there is no knowledge of God in the land.

Hear this, priests! Give heed, house of Israel! Listen, house of the king! Because the judgment [applies] to you; because you have been a snare for Mizpah, and a net spread out on Tabor;

Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send fire on his cities and it will devour her strongholds.

Threshing floor and wine vat will not feed them, and new wine will fail her.

Samaria will be destroyed; her king [is] like a chip on the surface of the water.

Ephraim [was] a trained heifer, that loved to thresh [grain], and I myself {spared} the fairness of her neck; I will make Ephraim break the ground, Judah will plow, Jacob must till for himself.

I will attack them like a bear robbed of her offspring, and I will tear open the covering of their heart; there I will devour them like a lion, like an animal of the field would mutilate them.

Samaria will be guilty, because she has rebelled against her God; they will fall by [the] sword, their children will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.

Hear this, O elders, and give ear, all the inhabitants of the land. Has this happened in your days? Or the days of your ancestors?

Lament like a virgin girded in sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

gather [the] people, consecrate [the] assembly; assemble [the] elders, gather [the] children, even those [who are] breast-feeding; let [the] bridegroom come out from his private room, and [the] bride from her canopy.

Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole clan that I brought up from the land of Egypt:

Proclaim to the citadel fortresses in Ashdod and the citadel fortresses in the land of Egypt and say: "Gather on the mountains of Samaria and see the great panic in her midst and the oppression in her midst!"

Hear this word, [you] cows of Bashan who [live] on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the powerless, who crush the poor, who say to their husbands, "Bring [something] so that we may drink!"

And you shall leave through breaches [in the wall], each one in front of her. You will be dragged off toward Harmon," {declares} Yahweh.

Yes, here is the one who forms [the] mountains, and the one who creates the wind, and the one who reveals to humans what his thoughts [are], and the one who treads on the heights of the earth; Yahweh, the God of hosts, [is] his name!"

Hear this word that I [am] going to intone over you [as] a lament, O house of Israel!

Virgin Israel has fallen and will not rise again. She is deserted on her land; there is no one to raise her up.

Remove from me the noise of your songs, and I do not want to hear the melody of your harps!

And so then, hear the word of Yahweh! You are saying, 'You must not prophesy against Israel and you must not preach against the house of Isaac!'

Hear this, those who trample on [the] poor and who annihilate the afflicted of [the] land,

"Get up! Go to the great city Nineveh and cry out against her, because their evil has come up {before me}."

But Jonah set out to flee toward Tarshish from {the presence of} Yahweh. And he went down [to] Joppa and found a merchant ship going [to] Tarshish, and paid her fare, and went on board her to go with them toward Tarshish from {the presence of} Yahweh.

Hear, all you peoples; give heed, O earth and its fullness. And let the Lord Yahweh be against you as a witness, the Lord from {his holy temple}.

So I will make Samaria as a heap of rubble in the field, a place for planting a vineyard. And I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.

Then all her idols will be broken in pieces, and all her prostitution wages will be burned in the fire, and all her idols I will make a desolation, For from the wage of a prostitute she gathered [them], and to the wage of a prostitute they will return.

For her wounds [are] incurable, because it has come to Judah. It has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.

Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair for the children of your pleasure. Expand your baldness as the eagle, for they will go into exile away from you.

Hear this, O rulers of the house of Jacob and leaders of the house of Israel, those detesting justice and perverting all that [is] right,

And now, many nations are gathered against you who are saying, 'Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.'

Hear now what Yahweh says: "Arise! Plead [your case] with the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice."

Hear, O mountains, the indictment of Yahweh, and you eternal foundations of the earth, for Yahweh has an indictment against his people, and against Israel he contends.

The voice of Yahweh calls to the city ([it is] sound judgment to fear your name): "Hear, staff! Now who has appointed it?

Because her rich are full of violence, and her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue [is] deceitful in their mouth.

For a son treats a father with contempt; a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; [the] enemies of a man [are] the men of his own house.

But [as for] me, I will look to Yahweh; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, "Where [is] Yahweh your God?" My eyes will look upon her; now she will become a trampling place, like mud in the streets.

Mountains quake before him; the hills shake apart. The earth heaves before him-- the world and all her inhabitants.

He calls his officers; they stumble as they march; they rush to her wall; they set the covering in place.

{Her goddess is taken out and taken into exile}; her maidservants moan like doves; they beat on their breasts.

"Look! I am against you!" {declares} Yahweh of hosts. "I will burn her chariots {with fire}; the sword will devour fierce lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth; the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard."

Woe to the city [that has shed] {much blood}! {She is a deceiver}, She is filled [with] plunder, {She has hoarded her spoils of war}.

"Because of the many idolatries of [the] prostitute, the beautiful charm [of] a mistress of witchcraft, she who enslaves nations by her harlotries, and peoples by her sorceries,

"And it will be that everyone who sees you will flee from you, And {they} will say, 'Nineveh is destroyed!' Who will mourn for her? From whence shall I seek comforters for you?"

Are you better than Thebes? She who sits at the Nile, surrounded by her waters, her rampart [was the] sea and water [was] her wall.

Cush [was] her strength, Egypt without end; Put and Libya were among {your allies}.

Yet she went into captivity as an exile; her children were dashed to pieces at the head of [the] streets; they cast lots for all of her nobles; all of her dignitaries were bound with chains.

There is no healing for your wound; your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you will clap [their] hands [for joy] concerning you, {For who has not suffered at the hands of your endless cruelty}?

I hear and my stomach shakes; my lips quiver at the sound; infection enters my bones; that which [is] beneath me trembles; I wait quietly for the day of trouble to come upon the people attacking us.

For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon as a desolation. [As for] Ashdod, at noon they will drive her away, and Ekron shall be uprooted.

Herds shall lie down in her midst, every wild animal of a nation; even the desert owl and the screech owl shall lodge on her capitals. A voice shall hoot in the window; rubble on the threshold; for the cedar [is] laid bare.

This [is] the city of rejoicing that lived securely; the one saying in her heart, "{I am, and there is none besides me}." How she has become a desolation, a lair for wild animals! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.