 1 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop a Word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel. 3 Say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you and I will draw out my sword out of its sheath and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. 4 Since I will cut off the righteous and the wicked from you, therefore my sword will be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north. 5 Then all flesh will know that I the Lord have drawn out my sword from its sheath and it will not return any more. 6 Therefore, son of man, groan+ with the breaking of your body+ and groan+ with bitterness before their eyes. 7 When they say to you, Why do you groan? You shall answer, Because of the news that it is coming. Every heart will melt and all hands will be feeble and every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak. Behold, it will come and it will be, says the Lord God. 8 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 9 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord. Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened and also polished. 10 It is sharpened in order to slaughter. It is polished so that there may be a flash to it. Or shall we rejoice? You are despising the rod of my son, as if it were every tree. 11 He has given it to be polished, to be taken by the hand. The sword, it is sharpened, and it it polished, to give it into the hand of the slayer. 12 Cry and howl, son of man. For it shall be on my people. It shall be on all the rulers of Israel. They are thrown to the sword with my people; Therefore slap your thigh. 13 Because it is a trial, and what if even the despising rod shall not be? says the Lord God. 14 You, son of man, prophesy and strike your hands together. And let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain. It is the sword of the slain, the great one that surrounds them; 15 so that their heart may melt, and many stumble at all their gates. I have given the threatening sword. Ah. It is made like lightning. It is wrapped for a slaughter. 16 Sharpen yourself on the right. Set yourself on the left, wherever your face is set. 17 Also I, I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest. I the Lord have spoken. 18 The Word of the Lord came to me again saying, 19 You, son of man, set for yourself two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come. Both of them shall come out of one land. And create a hand at the head of the way to the city. Create it. 20 You shall set a way that the sword may enter into Rabbah of the Ammonites and into Judah, into fortified Jerusalem. 21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two highways. He uses divination by shaking arrows from the quiver, consulting with idols+ and looks at the animal livers. 22 At his right will be the divination for Jerusalem to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to build up a ramp+ and to build a fort. 23 It will be a false divination in their sight to those who have sworn oaths. But He will call to remembrance the iniquity so that they may be taken. 24 So the Lord God says: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, in that your sins are revealed in all your deeds. Because you have been remembered, you will be taken with the hand. 25 You, O slain, wicked king of Israel, of whom has come his day in the time of iniquity of the end. 26 Thus says the Lord God: Remove the diadem, and take off the crown. This shall not be as it was. Lift up the low one, and put down the high one. 27 Ruin, ruin, ruin, I will appoint it. Also this shall not be until the coming of Him whose is the right. And I will give it to Him. 28 You, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their shame. Even say: The sword is drawn and polished for slaughter to make an end so that it may be like lightning. 29 While they see false visions for you, while they divine a lie to you, to put you on the necks of the slain of the wicked whose day has come in the day of iniquity, it shall have an end. 30 Return it to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you. 31 I will pour out my disgust on you. With the fire of my wrath I will blow against you and give you into the hands of burning men who are able to destroy. 32 You will be for food to the fire. Your blood will be in the midst of the land. You will no longer be remembered. For I the Lord have spoken.
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