“What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel,

‘The fathers eat sour grapes [they sin],
But the children’s teeth are set on edge’?

(though the father did not do any of these things), that is, the son even eats [the food set before idols] at the mountain shrines, and defiles his neighbor’s wife,

He does not eat [food set before idols] at the mountain shrines or raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor’s wife,

‘Then the nations set against him (the king)
On every side from the provinces,
And they spread their net over him;
He was captured in their pit.

In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month [after the beginning of the exile in Babylon], certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and sat down before me.

Then I said to them, ‘Let every man throw away the detestable things on which he feasts his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’

But I acted for My Name’s sake, that it would not be profaned in the sight of the [pagan] nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

But I acted for My Name’s sake, that it would not be profaned in the sight of the [pagan] nations in whose sight I had brought them out [of slavery].

“But I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers nor observe their ordinances nor defile yourselves with their idols.

Yet I withdrew My hand and acted for My Name’s sake, that it would not be profaned in the sight of the [pagan] nations in whose sight I had brought them out [of slavery].

because they had not observed My ordinances, but had [dishonored and] rejected My statutes and had profaned My Sabbaths, and set their eyes on the [man-made] idols of their fathers.

For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, they saw every high hill and every dark and leafy tree [as a place for idol worship], and there they offered their sacrifices and there they presented their offering that provoked My anger; there also they made their sweet-smelling aroma and there poured out their drink offerings.

Then I said to them, ‘What is the high place to which you go?’ So the name of it is called Bamah (High Place) to this day.”’

I will accept you [graciously] as a pleasant and soothing aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands in which you have been scattered; and I will prove Myself holy and manifest My holiness among you in the sight of the nations.

There you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight because of all your evil deeds which you have done.

“Son of man, set your face toward Teman, and speak out against the south and prophesy against the forest land of the Negev (the South),

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! They are saying of me, ‘Is he not [just] speaking in parables and making allegories?’”

“Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and direct your [prophetic] word against the sanctuaries; prophesy against the land of Israel

so that hearts may melt, and many will fall at their gates. I have given the glittering sword. Ah! It is made [to flash] like lightning; it is pointed and sharpened for slaughter.

I will also strike My hands together, and I will cause My wrath to rest. I the Lord have spoken.”

In his right hand is the lot marked for Jerusalem: to set battering rams, to open the mouth calling for destruction, to lift up the voice with a war cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to put up assault ramps, and to build siege walls.

You will defile yourself in the sight of the [Gentile] nations, and you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.”’”

“Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will stir up your lovers (allies) against you, from whom you turned away in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side:

I will set My jealous indignation against you [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine], and they will deal with you in fury. They will remove your nose and your ears, and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and the survivors will be devoured by the fire.

Moreover, the Lord said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah (Samaria, capital of Israel) and Oholibah (Jerusalem, capital of Judah)? Then inform them of their atrocities [the detestable and vile things they do].

and you sat on a splendid couch with a table arranged before it on which you had set My incense and My oil.

“Then I said concerning the one (Oholah) worn out by adulteries, ‘Will they now commit adultery with her when she is like this?’

“Son of man, record the name of the day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day.

“Then set the empty pot (Jerusalem) back on the coals
So that it may be hot
And its bronze may glow
And its filthiness may be melted
And its rust (scum) may be consumed.

The people said to me, “These things that you are doing—tell us, what do they mean for us?”

“Son of man, set your face toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

And say to the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the Lord God, for thus says the Lord God, “Because you said, ‘Aha!’ against My sanctuary when it was profaned and against the land of Israel when it was made desolate and against the house of Judah when they went into exile,

therefore, behold, I am going to give you to the people of the East as a possession, and they will set their encampments among you and make their dwellings among you; they will eat your fruit and drink your milk.

“Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gateway of the people is broken; she is open to me. I will be filled, now that she is a desolate waste,’

He will direct the [shocking] blow of his battering rams against your walls, and he will tear down your towers with his crowbars.

Also they will take your riches as spoil and plunder your merchandise, and tear down your walls and your pleasant houses, and throw your stones and your timber and the debris [from your city] out in the water.

Then all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones and remove their robes and take off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble again and again, and be appalled at you.

and say to Tyre, who lives at the entrance to the sea, merchant of the peoples to many coastlands, ‘Thus says the Lord God,

“O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’

“Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord God,

“Because your heart is lifted up
And you have said and thought, ‘I am a god,
I sit in the seat of the gods
In the heart of the seas’;
Yet you are [only] a man [weak, feeble, made of earth] and not God,
Though you [imagine yourself to be more than mortal and] think your mind is as [wise as] the mind of God—

“You were the anointed cherub who covers and protects,
And I placed you there.
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked in the midst of the stones of fire [sparkling jewels].

“You profaned your sanctuaries
By the great quantity of your sins and the enormity of your guilt,
By the unrighteousness of your trade.
Therefore I have brought forth a fire from your midst;
It has consumed you,
And I have reduced you to ashes on the earth
In the sight of all who look at you.

“Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against her

and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God,

“Behold, I am against you, O Sidon,
And I will show My glory and be glorified in your midst.
Then they will know [by personal experience] that I am the Lord when I bring judgment and punishment on her,
And I will manifest My holiness in her.

“For I will send virulent disease to her
And blood into her streets,
And the wounded will fall in her midst
By the sword upon her from every side,
And they shall know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

‘Thus says the Lord God, “When I gather the house of Israel from the nations among whom they are scattered, and I manifest my Holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they will live in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob.

“Son of man, set your face toward Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.

and the land of Egypt will be a desolation and a wasteland. And they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

“Because you said, ‘The Nile is mine and I have made it,’

“And they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord,
When I have set a fire in Egypt
And all her helpers are shattered and destroyed.

“I will make Pathros desolate,
Set fire to Zoan
And execute judgments and punishments on Thebes.

“I will set fire to Egypt;
Pelusium will writhe in [great] anguish,
Thebes shall be torn open
And Memphis shall be in daily distress.

‘Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Because it is high in stature and has set its top among the thick boughs and the clouds, and its heart is proud of its height,

“All the bright lights in the heavens
I will darken over you
And I will place darkness on your land,”
Says the Lord God.

whose graves are set in the remotest parts of the pit and her army is all around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.

They have made a bed for her among the slain with all her hordes. Her graves are around it; they are all uncircumcised (barbaric, boorish, crude), slain by the sword (for their terror had been spread in the land of the living), and they bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit; they were laid among the slain.

“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus you have said, “Truly our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we are rotting away because of them; how then can we live?”’

But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will certainly die,’ and he turns from his sin and practices that which is just (fair) and right—

They come to you as people come, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not practice them; for with their mouth they express loving devotion, but their heart goes after their (unlawful) gain.

Because you push with side and shoulder, and gore with your horns all those that have become weak and sick until you have scattered them away,

“Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir (Edom), and prophesy against it

“Because you [descendants of Esau] have said, ‘These two nations [Israel and Judah] and these two lands shall be mine, and we will take possession of them,’ although the Lord was there,

Thus says the Lord God, “Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha!’ and, ‘The ancient heights have become our property,’

therefore prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “For good reason they have made you a desolation, and they crushed you from every side so that you would become a possession of the rest of the nations and you have become the talk and the whispering of the people.”’”

When they came to the nations wherever they went, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord; yet they have come out of His land.’

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.

Then you will remember [clearly] your [own] evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your sins and for your outrageous atrocities.

The desolate land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passes by.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.

And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’

Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’”

Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are completely cut off.’

Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am going to take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;

I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will put My sanctuary in their midst forever.

Then the nations will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord who sets apart and sanctifies Israel [for holy use], when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”’”

“Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the chief ruler of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

In My zeal and in My blazing rage I declare that on that day there will most certainly be a great earthquake in the land of Israel,

And [when you, Gog, no longer exist] those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both the [large] shields and the bucklers (small shields), the bows and the arrows, the war clubs and the spears; and for seven years they will burn them.

“And on that day I will give Gog a place for burial there in Israel, the valley of those who pass through east of the sea, and it will block the way of those who would pass through. So they will bury Gog there with all his hordes, and they will call it the Valley of Hamon-gog (the multitude of Gog).

“They will elect men who will constantly go through the land, [men commissioned] to bury those who were passing through, those bodies that lie unburied on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will do a search.

As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it, until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog.

“As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Say to every kind of bird and to every animal of the field, “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice that I am slaughtering for you, as a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you will eat flesh and drink blood.

When I bring them back from the nations and gather them out of their enemies’ lands, then I shall show Myself holy [and My justice and holiness will be vindicated] through them in the sight of many nations.

In the visions of God He brought me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain, on the south side of which there was what seemed to be a structure of a city.

The man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and set your heart on all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here that I may show it to you. Declare to the house of Israel all that you see.”

There were three guardrooms on each side of the gate toward the east; the three were the same size, and the side pillars on each side measured the same.

On each side a border (barrier wall) one cubit wide stood in front of the guardrooms on each side; and the guardrooms were six cubits square on each side.

The pavement (that is, the lower pavement) was by the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates.

Its guardrooms, three on each side, and its side pillars and its porches had the same measurement as the first gate. Its length was fifty cubits and the width was twenty-five cubits.

Its windows and its porches and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as the gate that faced toward the east. It was reached by going up seven steps, and its porch was in front of them.

There were seven steps going up to the gate, and its porches were in front of them; and it had palm tree decorations [carved] on its side pillars, one on each side.

Its porches faced the outer courtyard; and palm tree decorations were [carved] on either side of its side pillars, and its stairway had eight steps.

Its side pillars faced the outer courtyard, and palm tree decorations were [carved] on them on either side. And its stairway had eight steps.

In the porch (portico) of the gate were two tables on each side, on which to slaughter the burnt offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering.

On the outer side, as one went up to the gateway toward the north, were two tables; and on the other side of the porch of the gate were two tables.

Four tables were on each side next to the gate; [a total of] eight tables on which they slaughter sacrifices.

He [who was guiding me] said to me, “This is the chamber which faces toward the south; it is for the priests who have the responsibility and take care of the temple;

Then he brought me to the porch of the temple, and he measured each side pillar of the porch, five cubits on each side; and the width of the gate was three cubits on each side.

The length of the porch was twenty cubits and the width eleven cubits; and at the stairway by which it was ascended, there were [two] columns beside the side pillars, one on each side [of the entrance].

Then he (the angel) brought me to the nave (outer sanctuary) and measured the side pillars; six cubits wide on each side was the width of the side pillar.

The width of the entrance was ten cubits and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on each side; and he measured its length, forty cubits, and its width, twenty cubits.