For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

In a man's crushing under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

My voice, thou hast heard, - do not close thine ear to my respite, to mine outcry;

The lips of mine assailants, and their mutterings, are against me, all the day;

The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

Her ranking men were purer than snow. They were whiter than milk. They were more ruddy in body than rubies. Their polishing was as of sapphire.

They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

Depart ye, they cried unto them, Unclean! depart, depart, touch not! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn here .

The face of the Lord has sent them in all directions; he will no longer take care of them: they had no respect for the priests, they gave no honour to the old men.

Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.

We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

Servants have the rule of us, and no man delivereth us out of their hands.

Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.

They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.

As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

And when they went forth I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as it had been the voice of the great God, and a rushing together as it were of a host of men. And when they stood still, they let down their wings.

And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.

And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.

And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.

And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.

And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.

Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Whereas when thou hast warned a lawless man, and he hath not turned from his lawlessness and from his lawless way he in his iniquity shall die, but Thou hast delivered thine own soul.

Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them:

And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silenced, and you will not be a reproving man for them, for they {are a rebellious house}.

Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:

how it is besieged, how bulwarks and strong ditches are graven on every side of it. Describe also the tents, and a host of men round about it.

And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight.

Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

So that they shall want bread and water, and they were astonished, a man and his brother, and they were melted in their iniquity.

And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's rasor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

And she hath rebelled against mine ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for they have rejected mine ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you;

Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.

Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.

so that when I punish thee in my wrath, in mine anger, and with the plague of my hot displeasure, thou shalt be a very abomination, shame, a gasping and wondering stock among the Heathen that lie about thee. Even I, the LORD, have spoken it: and it shall come to pass.

Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

Your slain men shall lie among you, that ye may learn to know, how that I am the LORD.

He that is far off by pestilence, shall die and He that is near by the sword, shall fall, and He that is left and is besieged by the famine, shall die; Thus will I make an end of mine indignation against them.

Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.

I will stretch mine hand out upon them, and will make the land waste: So that it shall lie desolate and void from the wilderness of Diblath forth, through all their habitations: to learn them for to know, that I am the LORD.'"

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, 'And thou, son of man, Thus said the Lord Jehovah to the ground of Israel:

Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.

And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.

And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth.

For the seller will not return to the merchandise {while they are still alive}, for the vision [is] about all of its multitude; it will not change, and a man because of his guilt will not be able to hold onto his life.

They have blown the trumpet, even to make All ready, Yet is there none going to the battle; For mine indignation is against all her multitude.

Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys; all of them will moan -- each one for his iniquity.

And I will give it into the hands of men from strange lands who will take it by force, and to the evil-doers of the earth to have for themselves; and they will make it unholy.

I will turn My face from the wicked
as they profane My treasured place.
Violent men will enter it and profane it.

And ruin upon ruin shall come, and report shall be to report; and they sought a vision from the prophet; and law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the old men.

And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.

Then I looked, and behold, a likeness [of a man] with the appearance of fire; from His loins downward He was like fire, and from His loins upward He had the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal (bronze).

And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.

Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.

And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.

And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side;

And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:

Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.

And they begin among the aged men who are before the house, and He saith unto them, 'Defile the house, and fill the courts with the wounded, go forth.' And they have gone forth and have smitten in the city.

And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.

And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.

And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight.

Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court.

And it came to pass, that when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubims; then he went in, and stood beside the wheels.

Then a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between [the four of] them, and took some [of it] and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and departed.

And there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man's hand under their wings.

To the wheels -- to them is one calling in mine ears, 'O wheel!'