Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou wast likened unto a young lion of the nations: yet art thou as a monster in the seas; and thou didst break forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.

And I have left thee in the land, On the face of the field I do cast thee out, And have caused to dwell upon thee every fowl of the heavens, And have satisfied out of thee the beasts of the whole earth.

And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

As for all the light-bearers in the heavens, I will obscure them over thee - And will stretch out darkness over thy land, Declareth My Lord Yahweh.

"And I will disturb [the] hearts of many peoples at my bringing [about] your captivity among the nations, to countries that you do not know.

Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall.

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "The sword of the king of Babylon, it will come to you.

By the swords of the mighty I will cause thy multitude to fall. They are all the terrible of the nations. And they shall bring to nothing the pride of Egypt, and all the multitude of it shall be destroyed.

When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD.

It is a lamentation, and thus they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall say it in lamenting; they shall say it in lamenting over Egypt and over all her multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Son of man, Wail for the multitude of Egypt, And cause it to go down, It -- and the daughters of honourable nations, Unto the earth -- the lower parts, With those going down to the pit.

Than whom, art thou more precious? Descend and be aid low with the uncircumcised:

They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword. The sword hath been given: draw her out, and all her multitudes.

The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

Assyria [is] there and all of its assembly; all around it [are] its graves, all of them killed, those fallen by the sword,

There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.

They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that be slain.

There, are Meshech-Tuba and all her multitude, Round about it, are her graves, - All of them I uncircumcised Who were thrust through with the sword, For that they made themselves a terror in the land of the living;

Indeed, I terrified him in the land of the living, yet he will lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those killed by the sword, Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the sovereign Lord."

Son of man, speak unto the sons of thy people, and thou hast said unto them: A land -- when I bring in against it a sword, And the people of the land have taken one man out of their borders, And made him to them for a watchman.

and {anyone who listens} hears the sound of the horn and {he does not take warning} and [the] sword comes and it takes him, his blood will be on his [own] head.

But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

"And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'This is what you have said: "Our rebellious acts and our sins have caught up with us, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?"'

Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the evil-doer; it is more pleasing to me if he is turned from his way and has life: be turned, be turned from your evil ways; why are you looking for death, O children of Israel?

And thou, son of man, say unto the sons of thy people: The righteousness of the righteous doth not deliver him in the day of his transgression, And the wickedness of the wicked, He doth not stumble for it in the day of his turning from his wickedness, And the righteous is not able to live in it in the day of his sinning.

When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

“So when I tell the wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but he repents of his sin and does what is just and right—

if a wicked man returns [what he took as] a pledge, pays back what he had taken by robbery, walks in the statutes which ensure life, without committing injustice, he will certainly live; he will not die.

None of the sins he committed will be held against him. He has done what is just and right; he will certainly live.

Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.

When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and doeth what is wrong, then he shall die therein.

But when a wicked man turns back from his wickedness and practices what is just (fair) and right, he will live because of it.

Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.

And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.

Now the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening, before the refugees came. And He opened my mouth at the time they came to me in the morning; so my mouth was opened and I was no longer speechless.

“Son of man, those who live in the ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one person, yet he received possession of the land. But we are many; the land has been given to us as a possession.’

Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall ye possess the land?

You rely on your sword, you do a detestable thing, and {each man defiles} the wife of his neighbor, and [yet] you want to take possession of the land?" '

"Thus you must say to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "{As I live}, {surely} whoever [is] in the ruins, by the sword they will fall, and whoever [is] on the surface of the open field, I will give him to the animals to eat him, and whoever [is] in the stronghold and in the cave, they will die by the plague.

Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD.

Then they come to you as a group, sit down right in front of you as if they were my people, hear your words and then they don't do what you say because they're seeking only their own desires, they pursue ill-gotten profits, and they keep following their own self-interests.

And lo! thou art to them - As a bewitching song, Of one with a beautiful voice. And skilfully touching the strings, - So will they hear thy words, And yet be going to do none of them.

And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.

A message came from the LORD for me, and it had this to say:

“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them: This is what the Lord God says to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed their flock?

Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

The weak have ye not strengthened, nor have ye healed the sick, and ye have not bound up what was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought for that which was lost; but with harshness and with rigour have ye ruled over them.

And my sheep went out of the way, wandering through all the mountains and on every high hill: my sheep went here and there over all the face of the earth; and no one was troubled about them or went in search of them.

"Therefore listen to what the LORD says, you shepherds:

"Therefore, you shepherds, listen to what the LORD says:

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.

For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

The lost I seek, and the driven away bring back, And the broken I bind up, and the sick I strengthen, And the fat and the strong I destroy, I feed it with judgment.

"Now as for you, my flock, this is what the Lord GOD says: "Watch out! I'm going to judge between one sheep and another, and between the rams and the goats.

Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet?

And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto them: Behold, it is I, and I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

Because with side and with shoulder ye thrust away, And with your horns push all the diseased, Till ye have scattered them to the out-place,

And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.

And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

And I will make them and [the area] all around my hill a blessing, and I will let the rain go down {at its appointed time}; they will be rains of blessing.

And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.

And they will not be [any] longer plunder to the nations, and the animals of the land will not eat them, and they will dwell {in safety}, and [there will] not [be anyone] frightening [them].

A message came to me from the LORD and it went like this:

Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,

And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.

Because you [descendants of Esau] have had an everlasting hatred [for Jacob (Israel)] and you handed over the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their tragedy, at the time of their final punishment [the Babylonian conquest],

Therefore {as I live}," {declares} the Lord Yahweh, "Certainly to blood [guilt] I will prepare you and blood will pursue; {since} {you did not hate blood}, it will pursue you.

Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.

Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:

Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.

That's how you'll know that I, the LORD, have heard every loathsome, reviling thing that you've had to say against the mountains of Israel, such as, "They're desolate, and we'll eat them for dinner!'

And ye have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard it.

“This is what the Lord God says: While the whole world rejoices, I will make you a desolation.

As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

This is what the Lord God says: Because the enemy has said about you, ‘Good! The ancient heights have become our possession,’

therefore, prophesy and say: This is what the Lord God says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you from every side, so that you became a possession for the rest of the nations and an object of people’s gossip and slander,

therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become plunder and a mockery to the rest of the nations all around.

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.

Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: This is what the Lord God says: Look, I speak in My burning zeal because you have endured the insults of the nations.

Therefore this is what the Lord God says: I swear that the nations all around you will endure their own insults.

But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.

And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:

And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

And I have caused man to walk over you, -- My people Israel, And they possess thee, and thou hast been to them for an inheritance, And thou dost add no more to bereave them.

“This is what the Lord God says: Because people are saying to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of children,’

therefore you will no longer devour people, and no longer bereave your nation of children,’ says the Lord God.

And I will not suffer thee, for to hear thine own confusion among the Gentiles from henceforth. Thou shalt not bear the reproof of the nations, nor cast out thine own people any more, sayeth the LORD God.'"

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:

And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.

“Therefore, say to the house of Israel: This is what the Lord God says: It is not for your sake that I will act, house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations where you went.

I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord,” says the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.