3“Take also a few [hairs] from there and tie them up in your skirts. 4And take some more of them and cast them into the fire, and burn them in the fire. From this a fire shall go out upon the whole House of Israel.”
5Thus said the Lord GOD: I set this Jerusalem in the midst of nations, with countries round about her. 6But she rebelled against My rules and My laws, acting more wickedly than the nations and the countries round about her; shed rejected My rules and disobeyed My laws. 7Assuredly, thus said the Lord GOD: Because you have outdone the nations that are round about you—you have not obeyed My laws or followed My rules, nor have you observed the rules of the nations round about you—8assuredly, thus said the Lord GOD: I, in turn, am going to deal with you, and I will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9On account of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again.
10Assuredly, parents shall eat their children in your midst, and children shall eat their parents, I will execute judgments against you, and I will scatter all your survivors in every direction.
11Assuredly, as I live—said the Lord GOD—because you defiled My Sanctuary with all your detestable things and all your abominations, I in turn will shear [you] awaye and show no pity. I in turn will show no compassion: 12One-third of you shall die of pestilence or perish in your midst by famine, one-third shall fall by the sword around you, and I will scatter one-third in every direction and will unsheathe the sword after them. 13I will vent all My anger and satisfy My fury upon them; and when I vent all My fury upon them, they shall know that I the LORD have spoken in My passion. 14I will make you a ruin and a mockery among the nations roundabout you, in the sight of every passerby. 15And when I execute judgment upon you in anger and rage and furious chastisement, youf shall be a mockery and a derision, a warning and a horror, to the nations roundabout you: I the LORD have spoken. 16When I loose the deadly arrows of famine against those doomed to destruction, when I loose them against you to destroy you, I will heap more famine upon you and break your staff of bread. 17I will let loose against you famine and wild beasts and they shall bereave you; pestilence and bloodshed shall sweep through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I the LORD have spoken.
6 The word of the LORD came to me: 2O mortal, turn your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy to them 3and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. Thus said the Lord GOD to the mountains and the hills, to the streams and the valleys: See, I will bring a sword against you and destroy your shrines. 4Your altars shall be wrecked and your incense stands smashed, and I will hurl down your slain in front of your fetishes. 5I will cast the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their fetishes, and scatter your bones around your altars 6in all your settlements. The towns shall be laid waste and the shrines shall be devastated. Thus your altars shall be laid waste and a-bear their punishment;-a your fetishes shall be smashed and annihilated, your incense stands cut down, and your handiwork wiped out; 7and the slain shall fall in your midst. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. 8Yet I will leave a remnant, in that some of you shall escape the sword among the nations and be scattered through the lands. 9And those of you that escape will remember Me among the nations where they have been taken captive, b-how I was brokenhearted through-b their faithless hearts which turned away from Me, and through their eyes which lusted after their fetishes. And they shall loathe themselves for all the evil they committed and for all their abominable deeds. 10Then they shall realize it was not without cause that I the LORD resolved to bring this evil upon them.
11Thus said the Lord GOD: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry: Aha! over all the vile abominations of the House of Israel who shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12He who is far away shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who survives and is protected shall die of famine. Thus I will spend My fury upon them. 13And you shall know that I am the LORD, when your slain lie among the fetishes round about their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak—wherever they presented pleasing odors to all their fetishes.
14I will stretch out My hand against them, and lay the land waste and desolate in all their settlements, from the wilderness as far as Diblah;c then they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 The word of the LORD came to me: 2You, O mortal, [say:] Thus said the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: Doom! Doom is coming upon the four corners of the land. 3Now doom is upon you! I will let loose My anger against you and judge you according to your ways; I will requite you for all your abominations. 4I will show you no pity and no compassion; but I will requite you for your ways and for the abominations in your midst. And you shall know that I am the LORD.
5Thus said the Lord GOD: a-A singular disaster; a disaster-a is coming. 6Doom is coming! The hour of doom is coming! It stirs against you; there it comes! 7b-The cycle has come around for you, O inhabitants of the land; the time has come; the day is near. There is panic on the mountains, not joy.-b 8Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and spend My anger on you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will requite you for all your abominations. 9I will show you no pity and no compassion; but I will requite you for your ways, and for the abominations in your midst. And you shall know it was I the LORD who punished.
10Here is the day! See, the b-cycle has come round; it has appeared. The rod has blossomed; arrogance has budded, 11lawlessness has grown into a rod of wickedness. Nothing comes of them, nor of their abundance, nor of their wealth; nor is there preeminence among them.-b 12The time has come, the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn—for divine wrath shall overtake all her multitude. 13For the seller shall not return to what he sold so long as they remain among the living. For the vision concerns all her multitude, it shall not be revoked. And because of his guilt, no man shall hold fast to his life.
14They have sounded the horn, and all is prepared; but no one goes to battle, for My wrath is directed against all her multitude. 15The sword is outside and pestilence and famine are inside; he who is in the open shall die by the sword, he who is in the town shall be devoured by famine and pestilence. 16And if any survive, they shall take to the mountains; they shall be c-like doves of the valley, moaning together-c—every one for his iniquity. 17All hands shall grow weak, and all knees shall turn to water. 18They shall gird on sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; every face shall betray shame, and every head shall be made bald.
19They shall throw their silver into the streets, and their gold shall be treated as something unclean. Their silver and gold shall not avail to save them in the day of the LORD’s wrath—to satisfy their hunger or to fill their stomachs. Because they made them stumble into guilt—20for out of their beautiful adornments, in which they took pride, they made their images and their detestable abominations—therefore I will make themd an unclean thing to them. 21I will give them as spoil to strangers, and as plunder to the wicked of the earth; and they shall defile them. 22I will turn My face from them, and My treasures shall be defiled; ruffians shall invade it and defile it.
23b-Forge the chain,-b for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of lawlessness. 24I will bring in the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses; so shall I turn to naught the pride of the powerful, and their sanctuaries shall be defiled.
25Horrorb comes, and they shall seek safety, but there shall be none. 26Calamity shall follow calamity, and rumor follow rumor. Then they shall seek vision from the prophet in vain; instruction shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders. 27The king shall mourn, the prince
