I will accept you as {a fragrant incense offering} when I bring you out from the peoples and I gather you from the lands [to] which you were scattered, and I will show myself holy among you before the eyes of the nations.

And you must say to the forest of the Negev, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I am kindling against you a fire, and it will devour in you every fresh tree and every dry tree; [the] blaze of [the] flame will not be quenched, and all the surfaces from [the] south [to] [the] north will be scorched by it.

And you must say to the land of Israel, 'Thus says Yahweh: "Look! I [am] against you, and I will draw out my sword from its sheath, and I will cut [off] from you [the] righteous and [the] wicked.

Because I will cut [off] from you [both] righteous and wicked, therefore my sword will go out from its sheath to all creatures from south [to] north.

And they will know, all creatures, that I, Yahweh, I will bring out my sword from its sheath; it will not return again!" '

"And you, son of man, mark [out] for yourself two roads for the coming of the sword of the king of Babylon; they must {both} go out from the same land. And hew [out] a {signpost}; hew [it] at [the] head of [the] road of [the] city.

The [people] near and the [people] far from you will make fun of you, {the unclean and the terrified}.

They take a bribe among you in order to shed blood; and you take usury, and you make gain [from] your neighbors by extortion, and [so] you have forgotten me, {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your uncleanness from you.

Its priests treat my law violently, and they profane my holy objects; they do not distinguish between holy object and what is unholy, or between the clean and the unclean. They do not teach the difference, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and [so] I am profaned in the midst of them.

And her whorings from [the time of] Egypt she [did] not abandon, for they slept with her in her childhood, and they caressed the bosoms of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication on her.

And so the {Babylonians} came to her [for the] bed of lovemaking; and they defiled her with their fornication, and she was defiled by them, and she turned from them.

And she revealed her whorings, and she revealed her nakedness, and so I turned from her {just as} I turned from her sister.

"Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I [am] stirring up your lovers against you [concerning] whom you turned away, and I will bring them against you from all around:

And they will come against you [with] an army chariot and wagon and with a crowd of peoples; they will set [themselves] against you [from] all around [with] large shield and small shield and helmet. And I will give {before them} judgment, and they will judge you with their judgments.

And I will put an end to your obscene conduct [coming] from you and your fornication from the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them; and you will not remember Egypt again.'

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I [am] giving you into the hand of those you hated, into the hand of those from whom you turned away.

{What is worse}, they sent for men {who come} from a distant place, [to] whom a messenger [was] sent to them, and look! They came! [Men] for whom you bathed and painted your eyes, and you adorned yourself [with] an ornament.

And a sound of a carefree crowd [was] with it, and in addition to [these] men, {a crowd of drunken men was brought in} from [the] desert, and they put bracelets on their arms and a crown of splendor on their heads.

And {I will cause obscene conduct to cease from the land}, and all of the women will be warned, and they will not do according to your wickedness.

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Woe [to] the city of bloodguilt! A pot that [has] its rust in it; {its rust did not go out from it}. Bring it out {piece by piece}; {one is as good as another}.

In your uncleanness [is] obscene conduct, because I cleansed you, but you were not clean from your uncleanness; you will not be clean again until {I fully vent my rage} on you.

"Son of man, look! I [am] taking from you what is pleasing to your eyes with a plague, but you shall not mourn, and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not run down.

"And you, son of man, [will it] not [be that] on the day {when I take from them} their stronghold, the joy of their glory, the delight of their eyes, and the longing of their inner self, their sons and daughters--

therefore look! I stretched out my hand against you, and I will give you as plunder to the nations, and I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will destroy you from the countries, and I will wipe you out, and you will know that I [am] Yahweh."

therefore, look! I [am] opening the side of Moab from the cities on its frontier, [the] glory of [the] land: Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim.

therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "so I will stretch out my hand against Edom and I will cut off from it [both] human and animal, and I will make it a ruin from Teman and Dedan; they will fall by the sword.

And I will destroy the walls of Tyre, and they will demolish its towers, and I will scrape away its earthen dirt from it, and I will make it into {a bare rock}.

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] bringing to Tyre Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, from [the] north, [the] king of kings, with horse and with chariot and with horsemen and [his] assembly and many people.

From the abundance of his horses he will cover you [with] their fine dust; at [the] sound of horseman and wheel and chariot your walls will shake, at his coming into your gates like the entrance of a city [that is] being broken through.

Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Tyre, "Will not the coastlands shake from the sound of your downfall, at [the] groaning of the wounded, {at people being killed} in the midst of you?

And all the princes of the sea will go down from their thrones, and they will remove their robes, and their {beautiful garments} [of] finished cloth they will take off. With terror they will be clothed, and on the ground they will sit, and they will tremble {continually}, and they will be appalled over you.

And they will raise a lament over you, and they will say to you, 'How you have been lost [who was] inhabited from [the] seas; the city that was praised, that was strong. It [is] [located] on the sea, and its inhabitants imposed their terror {on all of its inhabitants}.

And I will bring you down with [those who are] going down to the grave, {an ancient people}, and I will cause you to dwell in the world of [the] depths, in the ruins from of old with [those who are] going down to [the] grave, so that you will not be inhabited and {have a place} in [the] land of [the] living.

They built [with] pine trees from Senir all of your boards for you; they took cedars from Lebanon to make a sailing mast {for you}.

They made your oars [with] oaks from Bashan; your deck they made [with] inlaid ivory, with cypress trees from the coastlands of Cyprus.

Your sail was fine linen with colorful weaving from Egypt {to serve as a banner for you}; blue and purple cloth from the coastlands of Cyprus was your awning.

The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvan were your rowers; your {skilled men}, O Tyre, were {from your own people}, [and] they [were] your seamen.

" 'Tarshish [was] your trader; from [the] abundance of all of [their] wealth, with silver, iron, tin, and lead they exchanged for your merchandise.

From Beth Togarmah they exchanged horses and war horses and mules for your wares.

Judah and the land of Israel [were] trading [with] you with wheat from Minnith and millet and honey and olive oil and balm; [all these] they gave [for] your wares.

Vedan and Javan from Uzal, they exchanged wrought iron, cinnamon, and reed spice for your merchandise; [all this] was for your wares.

And they will go down from their ships, all of [those] holding an oar, mariners, all of the seamen of the sea will stand on the land,

When your merchandise went out from [the] seas, you satisfied many peoples with the abundance of your wealth, and [by] your wares you made rich [the] kings of [the] world.

Look, are you wiser than Daniel, [so that] {no secret} is hidden [from] you?

You [were] blameless in your ways from the day {when you were created}, until wickedness was found in you.

In the abundance of your trading, they filled the midst of you [with] violence, and you sinned; and I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I expelled you, [the] guardian cherub, from the midst of [the] stones of fire.

From the abundance of your iniquities in the dishonesty of your trading, I profaned your sanctuaries and I brought fire from your midst; it consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth {before the eyes of everyone who sees you}.

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 {there will not be any longer} painful thorn and a sharp thornbush for the house of Israel from {anywhere around them} [from those] {who are despising them}, and they will know that I [am] the Lord Yahweh." '"

Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples to which they were scattered [about] in them, and I show myself holy in them before the eyes of the nations, then they will live on their soil, which I gave to my servant Jacob.

And they will live on it in safety, and they will build houses, and they will plant vineyards, and they will live in safety when I execute my judgments on all {those who despise them from all around them}, and [then] they will know that I [am] Yahweh their God."

And so I will put hooks in your jawbones, and I will make the fish of your Nile streams stick to your scales, and I will bring you up from the midst of your Nile streams, and all of the fish of your Nile streams [which] cling to your scales.

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] bringing on you sword, and I will cut off from you human and animal.

Therefore look! I [am] against you and against your Nile streams, and I will make the land of Egypt into ruins, pile of rubble, desolation from Migdol [to] Syene and up to the boundary of Cush.

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "At the end of forty years I will gather Egypt from the peoples [among] whom they were scattered.

"Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, he made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was rubbed bare, and every shoulder [was] rubbed raw, but a wage was not [paid] for him and for his army from Tyre for the labor that he did against it."

Thus says Yahweh: "And the supporters of Egypt will fall, and the majesty of its strength will go down from Migdol [to] Syene; by the sword they will fall in it," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

On that day messengers will go down from {before me} in the ships to terrify unsuspecting Cush, and anguish will be in them on the day of Egypt; for look, [it is] coming!"

Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "And I will destroy [the] idols, and I will put an end to [the] worthless idols from Memphis. And there will {no longer be} a prince from the land of Egypt, and I will put fear in the land of Egypt.

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and I will break his strong arm and the broken [arm], and I will let the sword fall from his hand.

Therefore it became tall, [with] its height more than all of the trees of the field, and its branches became numerous, and its branches became long {from its sending its shoots from abundant water}.

And strangers cut it off, [the most] ruthless of nations, and they abandoned it. On the mountains and in all [of the] valleys its branches fell, and its branches were broken in all the river channels of the land, and all the peoples of the world went out from its shadow, and they abandoned it.

From the sound of its downfall I caused nations to shake when I made it go down to Sheol, with [the people] going down to [the] grave, and [so] in [the] world below all of the trees of Eden, [the] choice and the best of Lebanon, {all the well-watered trees} were comforted!

And I will throw you on the ground; on the surface of the open field I will hurl you, and I will cause every bird of the heaven to dwell on you, and I will satisfy the animals of all of the world from you.

And I will water [the] land [with] your discharge from your blood on the mountains, and valleys will be filled from you.

"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.

[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}.

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 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,

And [as for] the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and {he does not blow} the horn, and the people [are] not warned, and [the] sword comes and it takes {their lives}, he will be taken through his guilt, but his blood from the hand of the watchman I will seek.'

"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.

{When I say} to the wicked, 'Wicked [one], you will certainly die,' and you {did not speak} to warn [the] wicked from his way, he, [the] wicked, will die by his guilt, but his blood I will seek from your hand.

But, you, if you warn [the] wicked from his way, to turn from it, and {he does not turn} from his way, he will die by his guilt, and you will have saved your life.

Say to them, '{As I live},' {declares} the Lord Yahweh, '{Surely I have no delight} in the death of the wicked, {except} in [the] wicked returning from his way, and he lives. Turn back! Turn back from your ways, O evil [ones], for why should you die, house of Israel?'

"So you, son of man, say to {your people} [that] the righteousness of the righteous shall not save him in the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked {will not cause him to stumble} on the day of his returning from his wickedness; and [the] righteous will not be able to live by it on the day when he returns to his sin.

And when I say to the wicked, 'Certainly you will die,' but he returns from his sin and he does justice and righteousness--

When [the] righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, then he will die {because of it}.

And when the wicked turns from his wickedness, and he does justice and righteousness, because of it {he will certainly live}!

{And then} it was in {the twelfth} year, in the tenth [month], on the fifth [day] of the month of our exile, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me, {saying}, "The city was destroyed!"

"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}.'

'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}.

And I will bring them out from the peoples, and I will gather them from the countries, and I will bring them to their soil, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys, and in all of the settlements of the land.

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 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 I will make the mountain of Seir into desolation and ruin, and I will cut off from it [both] [he who is] crossing over and [he who is] returning.

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, 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 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 will take you from the nations, and I will gather you from all of the lands, and I will bring you to your land.

And I will sprinkle on you pure water, and you will be clean from all of your uncleanness, and I will cleanse you from all of your idols.

And I will give a new heart to you, and a new spirit I will give into your inner parts, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give to you a heart of flesh.

And I will save you from all of your uncleanness, and I will call to the grain, and I will cause it to increase, and I will not bring famine upon you.

"Thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'On the day when I cleanse you from all of your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the ruins will be rebuilt.

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!" '"

Therefore prophesy, and you must say to them, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I [am] opening your graves, and I will bring you up from your graves, my people, and I will bring you to the land of Israel!

And you will know that I [am] Yahweh when I open your graves when I bring you up from your graves, my people!

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.