Ezekiel

21 And Jehovah’s word came to me 2* “So prophesy, man! face toward Jerusalem and preach against their sanctuary and prophesy against the soil of Israel, 3 and say to the soil of Israel ‘Says the Lord Jehovah, Have at you! I will take my sword out of its sheath and exterminate honest man and knave from you. 4 Since I have exterminated honest man and knave from you, therefore my sword will come out of its sheath against all mortals from south to north; 5 and all mortals shall know that I Jehovah have taken my sword out of its sheath and it will not go back again.’ 6 And moan, man; with breaking back and bitter taste moan before their eyes. 7* And when they say to you ‘What are you moaning for?’ say ‘For a piece of news, because it is coming, and every heart will melt down and all hands will be unstrung and every spirit will be benumbed and all knees will run water; here it comes and will be a fact, quoth the Lord Jehovah.’”

8 And Jehovah’s word came to me 9 “Man, prophesy and say ‘Says the Lord Jehovah, Say “A sword, a sword, sharpened, and polished too! 10** it is sharpened so that it may slaughter a drove, it is polished so that it may flash, it bites my son’s scepter, it despises every tree. 11*** And he gave it to a polisher for grasping with his fingers; sharpened it is as a sword, and polished it is to put it in the hand of a killer.’” 12 Cry out and howl, man, because it has come among my people, it is among all the princes of Israel; thrown to swords with my people they are—so hit your thigh. 13* For a test is made; and what if you despise even a scepter? it shall not be, quoth the Lord Jehovah.

14* “And do you, man, prophesy and strike hand against hand, to double a sword and triple it, a sword of carnage, a sword of great carnage, going around them; 15 in order that hearts may go up and down and there may be many obstructions in all their gates, I have given the menace of a sword—ah, made for flashing, bared for slaughter. 16** Get whetted, turn to the right, turn to the left, whatever way your face is consigned. 17 And I too will strike hand against hand and slake my ire; I Jehovah have spoken.”

18 And Jehovah’s word came to me 19* “And as for you, man, lay yourself out two roads for the king of Babylon’s sword to come, both of them starting from one country, and lay out a city at the terminus of each road, 20 for a sword to come: Rabbah of the Bene-ʽAmmon, and Judah fortified in Jerusalem. 21* For the king of Babylon stood at the fork of the road, at the terminus of the two roads, to try for good-luck signs: he jiggled the arrows, he asked the teraphim, he inspected the liver; 22* in his right hand was the sign ‘Jerusalem,’ to open mouths in a yell, to raise voices in a cheer, to place battering-rams against gates, to throw up a ramp, to build a wall of investment. 23* And it will seem to them like trying the signs for fun—they have oath-swearers; but he is drawing attention to guilt, to have them caught. 24 So the Lord Jehovah says, Since you draw attention to your guilt by openly displaying your crimes, letting your sins be seen in all your practices,—since you draw attention to them, by them you shall be caught. 25* And you, crime-stabbed man, prince of Israel, whose day has come at a time of final guilt, 26* the Lord Jehovah says ‘Away with the turban, off with the crown! this is not this! up with the low, down with the high! 27*** I will make it hurly-burly, hurly-burly, hurly-burly—this shall not be either—till he comes to whom the right belongs and I give it to him.’

28* “And as for you, man, prophesy and say ‘Says the Lord Jehovah to the Bene-ʽAmmon and to their taunts,’ and say ‘A sword, a sword, unsheathed for slaughtering, polished for beaming, so that it may flash, 29* in the seeing of futile visions for you, in the production of lying soothsaying for you, to put it to the necks of crime-stabbed men whose day has come at a time of final guilt 30 —back with it to its sheath! in the place you were created in, in the country of your origin, I will judge you. 31 And I will pour out my hostility over you, blow the fire of my wrath against you, and give you into the hands of brutish men, artisans of wreck. 32 You shall be food for fire; your blood shall be in the middle of the country; you shall not be remembered; for I Jehovah have spoken.’”