"Then I make the land of Egypt desolation, so that the land will be stripped from its fullness when I strike all of [those] dwelling in it, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh.

{This is} a lament, and they will chant it as a lament; the daughters [of] the nations will chant it as a lament over Egypt, and over all of its hordes they will chant it as a lament," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

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.

[The] chiefs of [the] warriors will speak to him from the middle of Sheol; with his helpers they have gone down; the uncircumcised lie [still], {those slain by the sword}.

Elam [is] there and all of its hordes, all around its grave, all of them dead who fell by the sword, [those] who went down uncircumcised to [the] depths of [the] underworld, [those] who spread their terror to [the] land of [the] living, and [now] they bear their disgrace with [the people] going down [to the] grave.

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.

Meshech [and] Tubal [are] there and all of its hordes, all around him its graves, all of them uncircumcised [and] killed by [the] sword, for they gave their terror in [the] land of [the] living.

And they do not lie with warriors fallen from long ago, who went down [to] Sheol with their weapons of war, and they placed their sword under their heads, and their shields were on their bones, for [the] terror of [the] warriors [was] in [the] land of the living.

There [is] Edom, its kings and all of its leaders who are laid [along] with their might with [those] killed by [the] sword; they will lie with [the] uncircumcised and with [the people] going down to the grave.

There are [also] the princes of [the] north, all of them, all of [the] Sidonians who have gone down, being ashamed [to lie] with [the] slain because of their terror [that they caused] from their might, and they lie uncircumcised with [those killed] by [the] sword, and they bear their disgrace [along with] [the people] going down to [the] grave.

"Son of man, speak to {your people}, and you must say to them, 'A land, if I bring over it a sword and the people of the land take a man, one from their number, and they appoint him for them as a watchman,

All of his {sins that he committed}, they will not be remembered against him, and he did justice and righteousness; certainly he will live.

"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.

And they will know that I [am] Yahweh when I make my land desolation and wasteland, because of all of their detestable things that they have done.

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}.

So {when it comes}, look! It is coming! And [then] they will know that a prophet was in the midst of them."

And they were scattered {without} a shepherd, and they were as food for all the animals of the field [when] they were scattered.

"{As I live}," {declares} the Lord Yahweh, "{Surely} because my flock have become as plunder, and my flock became as food to all the animals of the field, since there was not a shepherd, [since] my shepherds [have] not sought my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and they fed not my flock,'"

'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] against the shepherds, and I will seek my flock from their hand, and I will put an end to them from shepherding flocks, and the shepherds will {no longer} feed themselves, and I will deliver my flocks from their mouth, so that they will not be as food for them."

[just] like [the] caring of a shepherd [for] his herd on the day when he is in the midst of his scattered flock. Thus I will look after my flock, and I will deliver them from all the places {to which they were scattered} on [the] day {of storm and stress}.

I will feed them in good pasture, and their pasture will be on the mountains of the heights of Israel; there they will lie down in good pasture, and [on] lush pasture they will feed on the mountains of Israel.

And [so] I will save my flock, and {they will no longer be} for plunder, and I will judge between {one sheep and another}.

And I will make them a covenant of peace, and I will put an end to wild animals from the land, and they will dwell in the desert {safely}, and they will sleep in the forest.

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 will give its fruit, and the land will give its produce, and they will be on their land {safely}, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh when I break their yoke, and I will deliver them from the hand of the ones enslaving 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].

And I will raise for them a garden plot of renown, and they will {no longer} be victims of famine in the land, and they will not bear any more the insult of the nations.

And they will know that I, Yahweh their God, [am] with them and they [are] my people, the house of Israel," {declares} the Lord Yahweh,

[I do this] because of your saying, 'The two nations and the two lands, they will be {mine}, and we will take possession of it,' and [yet] Yahweh was there.

And you will know that I, Yahweh, I have heard all of your contemptible words that you said against the mountains of Israel, {saying}, 'They will be desolate; they are given to us as food.'

{Like your rejoicing over the inheritance of the house of Israel} {because} it was desolate, I will do to you; you will be desolation, mountain of Seir and all of Edom, indeed all of it; and they will know that I [am] Yahweh.'" '

Therefore prophesy, and you must say, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "{Because indeed} {when you were desolate}, then they crushed you from all around, so that you became a possession to the remainder of the nations, and you became {a byword and object of slander for the people}."

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "{I swear} {certainly} [that] the nations {that are all around you}, they indeed will endure their disgrace.

" '"But you, mountains of Israel, your branch you will shoot, and your fruit you will carry for my people Israel, for they [are] soon to come.

And I will cause {your population} to increase for you, and domestic animals, [even] they will be numerous, and they will be fruitful, and I will cause you to be inhabited like your {ancient times}, and I will do good [things] more than [in] your former times, and you will know that I [am] Yahweh.

And I will send over you my people Israel, and they will take possession of you, and you will be for them as an inheritance, and {you will no longer bereave them of their children}."

" 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh, because [they are] saying to you, "You [are] [an] eater of humans, and you are {one who makes childless} your people."

"Son of man, the house of Israel, [they] were dwelling on their soil, and they defiled it with their way and with their deeds; like the uncleanness of menstruation was their way {before me}.

And I poured out my rage on them for the blood that they poured on the land and for their idols [with which] they defiled it.

And they came into the nations {to which they went}, and they profaned {my holy name} when they said to them, 'These [are] the people of Yahweh, and from his land they went out.'

And I was concerned for {my holy name}, which, the house [of] Israel defiled among the nations {to which they went}.

And they will say, "{This desolate land} has become like the garden of Eden, and the wasted and desolate and destroyed cities, [now] being refortified, are inhabited."

Like [the] flock of [the] sanctuary, like the flock of Jerusalem at its festival, so the desolate cities will be filled with flocks of people; and they will know that I [am] Yahweh.'"

And I prophesied {just as} I had been commanded, and [there] was a sound at my prophesying, and look! A rattling, and they came together--[the] bones! Bone to its bone!

And he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and you must say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh {from the four winds}, "Come, O spirit and breath, on these dead ones, so that they may live!" '"

And I prophesied {as} he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they became alive, and they stood on their feet, a very, very large group.

And he said to me, "Son of man, these bones [are] all of the house of Israel; look! [they are] saying, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is destroyed; {we are cut off as far as we are concerned}.'

And join them one to [the] other with respect to you [as] one [piece of] wood, so that they may become one in your hand.

[Then] speak to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] taking [the piece of] wood for Joseph that [is] in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel its associates, and I will put them on it, [the piece of] wood of Judah, and I will make them into one [piece of] wood, so that they be one in my hand.'"

And speak to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] taking the {Israelites} from among {the nations to which they went}, and I will gather them from {everywhere}, and I will bring them to their [own] soil.

And I will make them into one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and {they will all have one king as their king}, and they will not again be two nations and will not again divide into two kingdoms again.

And they will not defile themselves again with their idols and with vile idols and with all of their transgressions, and I will save them from all of their apostasy {by which they sinned}, and I will cleanse them and they will be for me as a people and I, I will be for them as God.

" '"And my servant David [will be] king over them, and one shepherd will be for all of them, and in my regulations they will go, and my statutes they will observe, and they will do them.

And they will dwell on the land that I gave to my servant, to Jacob, {in which your ancestors dwelled}, and they will dwell on it, they and their children and the children of their children {forever}, and my servant David [will be] a leader for them {forever}.

And my tabernacle will be with them, and I will be for them as God, and they will be to me as a nation.

After many days you will be mustered; {in the last years} you will come to a restored land from [the] sword, gathered from many peoples on the mountains of Israel which were as {permanent ruins} [but] from peoples it was brought out, and they will dwell {in safety}, all of them.

Sheba and Dedan and traders of Tarshish and all its strong lions, they [will] ask you, 'To loot loot are you coming? To plunder plunder [have] you summoned your assembly, to take away silver and gold, to take livestock and goods, to loot great amounts of loot?" '

And [so] I will exalt myself, and I will show myself holy, and I will make myself known before [the] eyes of many nations, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh.'"

"And I will send fire against Magog and among [the people] inhabiting the coastlands {in safety}, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh.

"?"And the inhabitants of the towns of Israel will go out, and they will set ablaze, and they will kindle a fire with a weapon and a small shield and a shield, [with] a bow and with arrows, and with {hand clubs} and with spears, and [so] they will light a fire with them, {a fire lasting seven years}.

And they will not carry trees from the field, and they will not chop wood from the forests, for with the weapons they will light a fire; and they will plunder [those] plundering them, and they will plunder [those] plundering them," ' {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

" '"{And then} on that day I will give to Gog {a grave there} in Israel, The Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea, and it {will block} the travelers and Gog and all of his hordes they will bury there, and they will call [it] the Valley of {Hamon-Gog}.

?"And they will set apart {men to continually} go through the land burying the travelers, the ones left over on [the] surface of the land to cleanse it; {for the whole of} seven months they will explore [it].

And the ones going through, they will go through within the land, and if [anyone] sees [the] bones of person, [then] he will build beside it a sign [to remain] until the buriers have buried him in the Valley of Hamon-Gog.

And furthermore [the] name of [the] city [there] [is] Hamonah, and [thus] they will cleanse the land." '

and the nations will know that because of their guilt the house of Israel went into exile, {because} they acted unfaithfully against me, and I hid my face from them, and I gave them into the hand of their foes, and they fell by the sword, all of them.

And they will forget their disgrace and all of their infidelity that they displayed against me when they dwelt on their soil {in safety} {with nobody making them afraid}.

And they will know that I [am] Yahweh their God, [because of] when I deported them into the nations, and I reassembled them to their soil, and {I will not let any of them remain there any longer}.

And [then] he took me {toward the south}, and look, a gate {toward the south}, and he measured its pilasters and its porticos; [they had] measurements [just] {like the others}.

And a chamber with its doorway [was] in the pilasters at the gates, and there they rinsed off the burnt offering.

{On each side of the gate were four tables}, eight tables [in all], [and] on them they slaughtered [sacrifices].

And four tables [were] for the burnt offering, [and made of] dressed stones, one cubit and a half long and one cubit and a half wide and one cubit high {was their measurements}, and they placed the objects [with] which they slaughtered the burnt offering on them and the sacrifice.

And the chamber {with its face to the north} [is] for the priests [who are] taking care of the responsibility of the altar. They [are] the descendants of Zadok, the [ones who] approach [from among] the descendants of Levi to Yahweh to serve him."

The length of the portico [was] twenty cubits and its width eleven cubits, and with ten steps they went up to it, and the {pilasters had pillars}, {one on each side}.

And the side rooms [were] {side by side} [in] three [stories] and [a total of] thirty {rooms}, and [there were] offsets in the wall, which [was] for the temple for the side rooms, {all the way around} to be supports, and [so] they were not supports [extending] into the wall of the temple.

the thresholds and the framed windows and the galleries around the three of them. Before the threshold [was] a covering of wood all around, and [from] the ground up to the windows, and [all around] the windows, [they were] covered.

And the upper chambers narrowed, for [the] galleries took away [space] from them more than [they took] from the lower [levels] and more than [they took] from the middle [level] [in the] building.

For they [were] three stories and {they had no pillars} like the pillars of the courtyards; therefore they were smaller than the lower [stories] and than the middle [stories] from the ground [up].

And a walkway [was] {before them} like the appearance of the chambers which [were on] {the north}, [just] like [them in] their length, [and] so [was] their width and all their exits, and [they were built] like their arrangements and like their doorways,

And he said to me, "The chambers of the north [and] the chambers of the south which [are] {before} the courtyard, they {are the holy chambers} in which the priests, who [are] near to Yahweh, will eat the {most holy objects}. There they shall put the {most holy objects}, and the grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering, for the place [is] holy.

{When the priests enter}, then they shall not go out from the sanctuary to the outer courtyard; and there they must put their garments in which they serve because they [are] holy. They must put on other garments and [then] they may approach [the area] that [is] for the people.

And he said to me, "Son of man, [this is] the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet {where I will dwell} in the midst of the {Israelites} to eternity, and they, the house of Israel, they and their kings, will not again defile {my holy name} with their fornication and with their offerings for the dead of their kings [on] their high places.

{When they placed their threshold} with my threshold, their doorframe beside my doorframe and the wall [was] between me and between them, then they defiled {my holy name}, with their detestable things that they did, and [so] I consumed them in my anger.

And if they are ashamed of all that they did, [then] the plan of the temple and its arrangement and its exits and its entrances and all of its plans and all of its statutes. And all of its plans and all of its laws make known [to] them and write [them] before their eyes, so that they may remember all of its plans and all of its statutes, so that they do them!

And on the second day you must offer a he-goat without defect as sin offering, and they must purify the altar {like} they purified with the bull.

And you must bring them near {before} Yahweh, and the priests must throw salt on them, and they must offer them [as] a burnt offering to Yahweh.

Seven days they must purify the altar and they must cleanse it and [so] {they will consecrate it}.

And they will finish the days, {and then} on the eighth day and beyond [that] the priests will offer on the altar your burnt offerings and your fellowship offerings, and [then] I will be pleased with you," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

{But} the Levites who removed themselves from me {at the going astray of Israel}, who went astray from me [and went] after their idols, as a result they will bear their guilt.

Then they will be in my sanctuary, [those] serving [in] my sanctuary, [as] sentries at the gates of the temple and [as] [those] serving the temple; they will slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they will stand {before them} to serve them,

{because} they used to serve them {before} their idols and they were for the house of Israel [like] a stumbling block of iniquity. Therefore {I swore} concerning them," {declares} the Lord Yahweh, "[that] they will bear their iniquity.

And they shall not approach me to serve as priest for me and to come near to all of my holy objects, {to the most holy objects}, and they will bear their disgrace and [the results of] their detestable things they have done.

But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok, who cared for the responsibility of my sanctuary {when the Israelites went astray} from me, they will approach me to serve me, and they will stand {before me} to offer to me fat and blood," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

"They shall come to my sanctuary, and they shall approach my table to serve me, and they will observe my requirement.

{And then} {when they come} to the gates of the inner courtyards, they shall put on their inner linen garments and not wear wool [garments] {when they serve} in the gates of the inner courtyard and {inside} the temple.

Linen turbans shall be on their head and linen undergarments shall be on their waists; they shall not gird themselves with [material causing] perspiration.

When they go out to the outer courtyard to the people, they must take off their garment in which they [were] serving, and they must place them {in the holy chambers}, and they must put on other [garments], so that they will not make the people holy with their garments.

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

And no priest shall drink wine when they come into the inner courtyard.