Zion spreadeth forth her hands; there is none to comfort her; Jehovah hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him; Jerusalem is as an impurity among them.

I called for my lovers, they have deceived me; my priests and mine elders have expired in the city, while they sought them food to revive their soul.

See, Jehovah, for I am in distress, my bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled: without, the sword hath bereaved me, within, it is as death.

How hath the Lord in his anger covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud! He hath cast down from the heavens unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger.

The Lord hath swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob, and hath not spared; he hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah: he hath brought them down to the ground; he hath profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof.

He hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath withdrawn his right hand from before the enemy; and he burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, devouring round about.

He hath bent his bow like an enemy; he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and hath slain all that was pleasant to the eye: in the tent of the daughter of Zion, he hath poured out his fury like fire.

The Lord is become as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel; he hath swallowed up all her palaces; he hath destroyed his strongholds, and hath multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

And he hath violently cast down his enclosure as a garden; he hath destroyed his place of assembly: Jehovah hath caused set feast and sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger king and priest.

The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath rejected his sanctuary; he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: they have made a noise in the house of Jehovah, as on the day of a set feast.

Mine eyes are consumed with tears, my bowels are troubled; my liver is poured upon the earth, because of the ruin of the daughter of my people; because infant and suckling swoon in the streets of the city.

They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city; when they pour out their soul into their mothers' bosom.

Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches; pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, who faint from hunger at the top of all the streets.

See, Jehovah, and consider to whom thou hast done this! Shall the women eat their fruit, the infants that they nursed? Shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

The child and the old man lie on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, thou hast not spared.

Thou hast called up, as on the day of a set feast, my terrors on every side; and in the day of Jehovah's anger there was none that escaped or remained: those that I have nursed and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

He hath made me to dwell in dark places as those that have been long dead.

Even when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

He is unto me as a bear lying in wait, a lion in secret places.

He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate.

And I said, My strength is perished, and my hope in Jehovah.

My soul hath them constantly in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

It is good that one should both wait, and that in silence, for the salvation of Jehovah.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth:

he putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope;

to wrong a man in his cause, will not the Lord see it?

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

Thou hast made us the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

They have cut off my life in a pit, and cast a stone upon me.

Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.

pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.

Even the jackals offer the breast, they give suck to their young; the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

They that fed delicately are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dung-hills.

And the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the reward of the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were violently laid upon her.

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their figure was as sapphire.

Their visage is darker than blackness, they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is withered, it is become like a stick.

The hands of pitiful women have boiled their own children: they were their meat in the ruin of the daughter of my people.

Jehovah hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath consumed the foundations thereof.

It is for the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, who have shed the blood of the righteous in the midst of her.

They wandered about blind in the streets; they were polluted with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

They cried unto them, Depart! Unclean! Depart! depart, touch not! When they fled away, and wandered about, it was said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn there.

Our eyes still failed for our vain help; in our watching, we have watched for a nation that did not save.

They hunted our steps, that we could not go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they chased us hotly upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.

Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz: the cup shall pass also unto thee; thou shalt be drunken, and make thyself naked.

Our pursuers are on our necks: we are weary, we have no rest.

Our skin gloweth like an oven, because of the burning heat of the famine.

They have ravished the women in Zion, the maids in the cities of Judah.

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

On the fifth of the month, (it was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,)

the word of Jehovah came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of Jehovah was there upon him.

And every one had four faces, and every one of them had four wings.

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

their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.

And the likeness of their faces was the face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four had also the face of an eagle.

And their faces and their wings were parted above; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.

And they went every one straight forward: whither the Spirit was to go, they went; they turned not when they went.

And I looked at the living creatures, and behold, one wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, toward their four faces.

The appearance of the wheels and their work was as the look of a chrysolite; and they four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not when they went.

And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went, thither would their spirit go; and the wheels were lifted up along with them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

When those went, they went; and when those stood, they stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up along with them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

And there was the likeness of an expanse over the heads of the living creature, as the look of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

And under the expanse were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side their bodies.

And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, a tumultuous noise, as the noise of a host: when they stood, they let down their wings;

and there was a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads. When they stood, they let down their wings.

As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah. And when I saw, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.

And the Spirit entered into me when he spoke unto me, and set me upon my feet; and I heard him that spoke unto me.

And he spread it out before me; and it was written within and without; and there were written in it lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

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

As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead. Fear them not, neither be dismayed at them, for they are a rebellious house.

And he said unto me, Son of man, all my words which I shall speak unto thee, receive in thy heart, and hear with thine ears;

And the sound of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, And the sound of the wheels beside them, And the sound of a great rushing.

And the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of Jehovah was strong upon me.

When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt certainly die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, that he may live: the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand.

But if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

And when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and do what is wrong, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die; because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous acts which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thy hand.

And I arose, and went forth into the valley, and behold, the glory of Jehovah stood there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

And when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

And take thou unto thee an iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between thee and the city; and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it: this shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

And when thou hast accomplished them, thou shalt lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

And behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thyself from one side to the other, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

And thou, take unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou liest upon thy side: three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

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

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

because bread and water shall fail them, and they shall be astonied one with another, and waste away in their iniquity.

A third part shalt thou burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife; and a third part thou shalt scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.

And thou shalt take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts;

and thou shalt take of these again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire: from it shall a fire come forth against all the house of Israel.

Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: This is Jerusalem: I have set her in the midst of the nations, and the countries are round about her.

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

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have been turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept mine ordinances, nor even have done according to the ordinances of the nations that are round about you;

therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations;

and I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.

Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter to all the winds.

A third part of thee shall die by the pestilence, and shall be consumed by the famine in the midst of thee; and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.

And mine anger shall be accomplished, and I will satisfy my fury upon them, and I will comfort myself; and they shall know that I Jehovah have spoken in my jealousy, when I have accomplished my fury upon them.