O Lord, You strove for the causes of my soul; You redeemed my life.

For the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, shedding the blood of the just in her midst,

While we are, our eyes fail, for our help is vain; in our watching we have watched for a nation; it does not save.

They hunted our steps from going in our streets; our end was near, our days were fulfilled, for our end has come.

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they pursued us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.

We have drunk our water for silver; our wood comes for a price.

The crown has fallen from our head. Woe now to us! For we have sinned.

Our heart is faint for this; our eyes are dim for these things.

Wherever the spirit was to go, there they went; there the spirit was to go, and the wheels were lifted up along with them. For the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

In their going, these went; and in their standing still, these stood still. And in their lifting up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up along with them. For the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear; for they are a rebellious house. Yea, they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

And you shall speak My Words to them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, for they are rebellious.

And He said to me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your belly with this roll that I give you. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was like honey for sweetness.

For you are not sent to a people of a deep lip and of a difficult language, but to the house of Israel;

But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are strong of forehead and hard of heart.

And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be dumb and shall not be one who warns them. For they are a rebellious house.

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, So says the Lord Jehovah: He who hears, let him hear; and he who stops his ears, let him stop; for they are a rebellious house.

And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mound against it. Also set the camp against it, and set battering rams against it all around.

And take an iron griddle to yourself, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city. And set your face against it, and it shall be under attack. And you shall set a battle against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

And when you have fulfilled them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days; a day for a year; a day for a year, I have set for you.

Take also to yourself wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. According to the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat of it.

Then I said, Ah Lord Jehovah! Behold, my soul has not been defiled. For from my youth up, even till now, I have not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither did there come any unclean flesh into my mouth.

Then He said to me, Lo, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread with it.

Then take of them again, and throw them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for a fire shall come forth from them into all the house of Israel.

And she has changed My judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and defiled My Laws more than the countries that are all around her; for they have rejected My judgments and My Laws; they have not walked in them.

When I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their ruin, which I will send to destroy you; even I will increase the famine on you, and break your staff of bread;

And those of you who escape shall remember Me among the nations where they shall be exiled, because I was broken by their whoring heart which has departed from Me, and with their whoring eyes which go after their idols. And they shall despise themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

So says the Lord Jehovah: Strike with your hand and stamp with your foot, and say, Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, and by the famine, and by the plague.

And I will soon pour out My fury on you, and fulfill My anger on you. And I will judge you according to your ways, and will repay you for all your abominations.

Violence has risen up for a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of their riches; nor shall there be wailing for them.

The time has come; the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all her multitude.

For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they are still alive; for the vision to all her multitude shall not return, and a man shall not hold his life strong in iniquity.

They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goes to the battle, for My wrath is on all her multitude.

But if their fugitives shall escape, then they shall be like doves of the valleys on the mountains, all of them mourning, each one for his iniquity.

They shall throw their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be an impure thing. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Jehovah. They shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because their iniquity has become a stumbling-block for them.

And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prize, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall defile it.

Make a chain; for the land is full of bloody judgments, and the city is full of violence.

And He put out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head. And the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heavens, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the opening of the inner gate facing north, where there was a seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.

And He said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in his image room? For they are saying, Jehovah does not see us; Jehovah has forsaken the earth.

And He brought me to the opening of the gate of Jehovah's house, toward the north. And behold, women were sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.

And He said to me, Have you seen, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they do the hateful things which they do here? For they have filled the land with violence and have turned to provoke Me to anger. And lo, they put the branch to their nose.

And He said to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is great, and the land is full of blood, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, Jehovah has forsaken the land; and, Jehovah does not see.

And I looked, and behold! In the expanse over the head of the cherubs was seen the appearance of the form of a throne, like a sapphire stone, above them.

And the form of a man's hand was seen under the wings of the cherubs.

When they went, they went on their four sides. They did not turn as they went, for to the place where the head faces, after it they went. They did not turn as they went.

As for the wheels, it was cried to them in my hearing, Whirling wheel!

When they stood still, these stood still, and when they rose up, these lifted up. For the spirit of the living creature was in them.

Four, even four faces are to each; and four wings to each. And the form of a man's hands was under their wings.

And the form of their faces, they are the faces that I saw by the river Chebar, their appearances even theirs. They each went straight forward.

And the Spirit of Jehovah fell on me, and said to me, Speak: So says Jehovah: So you have said, O house of Israel, for I Myself know the elevations of your spirit.

and you shall know that I am Jehovah. For you have not walked in My statutes, nor have you done My judgments, but have done after the customs of the nations all around you.

Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your kindred, and all the house of Israel, all that have heard the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying to all of them, Go far away from Jehovah; this land is given to us for a possession.

Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see and see not. They have ears to hear and hear not, for they are a rebellious house.

Therefore, son of man, prepare for yourself vessels for exile, and go into exile by day before their eyes. And you shall be exiled from your place to another place before their eyes. It may be they will consider, though they are a rebellious house.

And you shall bring out your vessels, as vessels for exile, by day before their eyes. And you shall go out at evening before their eyes, as those going into exile.

Before their eyes you shall carry it on your shoulders, carry it out in the dark. You shall cover your face so that you do not see the ground, for I have set you as a sign to the house of Israel.

And I did as I was commanded. By day I brought out my vessel as a vessel for exile. And in the evening I dug by hand through the wall. I brought it out in the dark, and I carried it on my shoulder before their eyes.

For there shall never again be any vain vision nor slippery divination within the house of Israel.

For I, Jehovah, will speak, and the Word that I shall speak shall be done. It shall no more be delayed; for in your days, O rebellious house, I will say the Word and will do it, says the Lord Jehovah.

Son of man, behold, the house of Israel says, The vision that he sees is for many days to come, and he prophesies of the times that are far off.

You have not gone up into the breaks, nor built the wall for the house of Israel, that it might stand in the battle in the day of Jehovah.

the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, says Jehovah.

and say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Woe to those sewing bands to all joints of my hands, and make long veils for the head of every man of stature, to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of My people, and will you save alive the souls for yourselves?

And will you profane Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the souls that should not die; and to save alive the souls that should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to lies.

For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger who lives in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to a prophet to ask of him concerning Me; I Jehovah will answer him Myself.

And I will set My face against that man, and I will make him desolate for a sign and for proverbs. And I will cut him off from the midst of My people; and you shall know that I am Jehovah.

So that the house of Israel may never again go astray from Me, nor be defiled again with all their transgressions, but they are to Me My people, and I will be to them for God, says the Lord Jehovah.

For so says the Lord Jehovah: How much more when I send My four evil judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the destroying beast, and the plague, to cut off man and beast from it.

Yet, behold, there shall be left a remnant in it that shall be brought out, sons and daughters. Behold, they shall come out to you, and you shall see their way and their doings. And you shall be comforted concerning the evil that I brought on Jerusalem, for all that I have brought on it.

Shall wood be taken from it to do work? Or will men take from it for a peg to hang any vessel on it?

Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devours both its ends, and its middle is charred. Is it fit for any work?

Behold, when it was whole, it was not made for work. How much less when the fire has devoured it, and it is charred? Shall it yet be made to work?

Therefore so says the Lord Jehovah, As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give the people of Jerusalem.

And as for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you. And you were not salted, nor swaddled at all.

And your name went out among the nations, because of your beauty; for it was perfect in My beauty, which I had put on you, says the Lord Jehovah.

Also My food which I gave you, fine flour and oil and honey with which I fed you, you have given it to their face for a soothing aroma. And it happened, says the Lord Jehovah.

And you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to Me, and you gave these to them for food. Are your fornications small?

You have slaughtered My sons and gave them to cause these to pass through the fire for them.

Woe, woe to you says the Lord Jehovah! For it happened after all your evil,

They give a gift to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them to come to you from all around, for your fornication.

You also, who have judged your sisters, bear your own shame for your sins which you have committed more abominable than they. They are more righteous than you! Yes, blush and bear your shame, since you have justified your sisters.

For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,

For so says the Lord Jehovah: I will even deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

And you shall remember your ways and be ashamed, when you shall receive your sisters, your older and your younger. And I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant.

so that you may remember and be ashamed; and it will not be possible to open your mouth any more because of your shame; in that I am propitiated for all that you have done, says the Lord Jehovah.

Nor shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company work for him in the war, by pouring out siege mounds and building forts, to cut off many persons.

has withdrawn his hand from the poor; has not received usury nor increase; has done My judgments; has walked in My statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father; he shall surely live.

When a righteous one turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and dies in them; for his iniquity that he has done, he shall die.

Cast away from you all your sins by which you have sinned; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will you die, O house of Israel?

For I have no delight in the death of him who dies, says the Lord Jehovah. Therefore turn and live.

And take up a weeping for the rulers of Israel,

And she had strong rods for the scepters of those who bore rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches; and it was seen in her height, with the multitude of her branches.

And fire has gone out from a rod of her branches, which has licked up her fruit so that there is no strong rod in her to be a scepter to rule. This is a mourning and shall be for a mourning.

in the day that I lifted up My hand to them, to bring them out from the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;

But I worked for My name's sake, that it should not be profaned before the nations among whom they were, for I made Myself known to them in their eyes, by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

But I worked for My name's sake, so that it should not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I brought them out.

because they despised My judgments and walked not in My sabbaths; and they profaned My sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.

But I withdrew My hand and worked for My name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations, from whom I brought them out in their eyes.

When I had brought them into the land for which I lifted up My hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered their sacrifices there. And there they offered their provoking gifts. There also they made their sweet aroma, and poured out their drink offerings there.