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Ezekiel
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Now it happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month,
in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the
captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and
I saw visions of God.
In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year
of king Jehoiachin’s captivity,
the word of Yahweh came expressly to Ezekiel
the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the
river Chebar; and the hand of Yahweh was there on him.
I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a
great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around
it, and out of its midst as it were glowing metal, out of the
midst of the fire.
Out of its midst came the likeness of four living creatures.
This was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man.
Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings.
Their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was
like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished
brass.
They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four
sides; and the four of them had their faces and their wings
thus:
their wings were joined one to another; they didn’t turn when
they went; each one went straight forward.
As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man;
and the four of them had the face of a lion on the right side;
and the four of them had the face of an ox on the left side; the
four of them also had the face of an eagle.
Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Two
wings of each one touched another, and two covered their bodies.
Each one went straight forward: where the spirit was to go, they
went; they didn’t turn when they went.
As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance
was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches: the fire went up and down among the living creatures; and
the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a
flash of lightning.
Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, one wheel on the
earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of
it.
The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl:
and the four of them had one likeness; and their appearance and
their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.
When they went, they went in their four directions: they didn’t
turn when they went.
As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and the four of
them had their rims full of eyes all around.
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.
Wherever the spirit was to go, they went; there was the spirit
to go: and the wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit
of the living creature was in the wheels.
When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood;
and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were
lifted up beside them: for the spirit of the living creature was
in the wheels.
Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of
an expanse, like the awesome crystal to look on, stretched forth
over their heads above.
Under the expanse were their wings straight, the one toward the
other: each one had two which covered on this side, and every
one had two which covered on that side, their bodies.
When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise
of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of
tumult like the noise of an army: when they stood, they let down
their wings.
There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads:
when they stood, they let down their wings.
Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of
a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire
stone; and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the
appearance of a man on it above.
I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within
it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward; and
from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were
the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.
As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day
of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh.
When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one
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1:1 The Hebrew word rendered
“God” is “Elohim.”
1:3 “Yahweh” is God’s proper
Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other
translations.
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Ezekiel 2 |
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He said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak
with you.
The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my
feet; and I heard him who spoke to me.
He said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel,
to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and
their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very
day.
The children are impudent and stiff-hearted: I am sending you to
them; and you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh.
They, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for
they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there has been
a prophet among them.
You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of
their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do
dwell among scorpions: don’t be afraid of their words, nor be
dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or
whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious.
But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; don’t be rebellious
like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which
I give you.
When I looked, behold, a hand was put forth to me; and, behold,
a scroll of a book was therein;
He spread it before me: and it was written within and without;
and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and
woe.
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2:4 The word translated “Lord”
is “Adonai.”
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Ezekiel 3 |
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He said to me, Son of man, eat that which you find. Eat this
scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.
So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.
He said to me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill
your bowels with this scroll that I give you. Then I ate it; and
it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
He said to me, Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak
my words to them.
For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a
hard language, but to the house of Israel;
not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language,
whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to
them, they would listen to you.
But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will
not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are
obstinate and hard-hearted.
Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your
forehead hard against their foreheads.
As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: don’t
be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though
they are a rebellious house.
Moreover he said to me, Son of man, all my words that I shall
speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.
Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and
speak to them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh; whether
they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of
a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of Yahweh
from his place.
I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as
they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside
them, even the noise of a great rushing.
So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in
bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Yahweh was
strong on me.
Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Aviv, that lived by
the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there
overwhelmed among them seven days.
It happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh
came to me, saying,
Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel:
therefore hear the word from my mouth, and give them warning
from me.
When I tell the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him
no warning, nor speak 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 your hand.
Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn’t turn from his
wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his
iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness,
and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he
shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die
in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not
be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.
Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous
not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he
took warning; and you have delivered your soul.
The hand of Yahweh was there on me; and he said to me, Arise, go
forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you.
Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and behold, the
glory of Yahweh stood there, as the glory which I saw by the
river Chebar; and I fell on my face.
Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he
spoke with me, and said to me, Go, shut yourself inside your
house.
But you, son of man, behold, they shall lay bands on you, and
shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:
and I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth,
that you shall be mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for
they are a rebellious house.
But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall
tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: He who hears, let him
hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear: for they are a
rebellious house. |
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3:7 Literally, have a hard
forehead
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Ezekiel 4 |
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You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself,
and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem:
and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast
up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant
battering rams against it all around.
Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron
between you and the city: and set your face toward it, and it
shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This
shall be a sign to the house of Israel.
Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the
house of Israel on it; according to the number of the
days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.
For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a
number of days, even three hundred ninety days: so you shall
bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your
right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah:
forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it to you.
You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your
arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.
Behold, I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn you from one
side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your
siege.
Take for yourself also wheat, and barley, and beans, and
lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and
make bread of it; according to the number of the days
that you shall lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days,
you shall eat of it.
Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels
a day: from time to time you shall eat it.
You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from
time to time you shall drink.
You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their
sight with dung that comes out of man.
Yahweh said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their
bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.
Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, my soul has not been
polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten
of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither
came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
Then he said to me, Behold, I have given you cow’s dung for
man’s dung, and you shall prepare your bread thereon.
Moreover he said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the
staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight,
and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and
in dismay:
that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with
another, and pine away in their iniquity. |
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Ezekiel 5 |
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You, son of man, take a sharp sword; You shall take it as a
barber’s razor to you, and shall cause it to pass on your head
and on your beard: then take balances to weigh, and divide the
hair.
A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the
city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall
take a third part, and strike with the sword around it; and a
third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a
sword after them.
You shall take of it a few in number, and bind them in your
skirts.
Of these again you shall take, and cast them into the midst of
the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it shall a fire come
forth into all the house of Israel.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in
the midst of the nations, and countries are around her.
She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more
than the nations, and against my statutes more than the
countries that are around her; for they have rejected my
ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in
them.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you are turbulent
more than the nations that are around you, and have not walked
in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have
done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you;
therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I, even I, am
against you; and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in
the sight of the nations.
I will do in you that which I have not done, and whereunto I
will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations.
Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of you,
and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute
judgments on you; and the whole remnant of you will I scatter to
all the winds.
Therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely, because you
have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and
with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish
you; neither shall my eye spare, and I also will have no
pity.
A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with
famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you; and a third
part shall fall by the sword around you; and a third part I will
scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.
Thus shall my anger be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath
toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted; and they shall
know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have
accomplished my wrath on them.
Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the
nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by.
So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an
astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I shall
execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful
rebukes; (I, Yahweh, have spoken it;)
when I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine, that are
for destruction, which I will send to destroy you: and I will
increase the famine on you, and will break your staff of bread;
and I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they shall
bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you;
and I will bring the sword on you: I, Yahweh, have spoken it. |
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Ezekiel 6 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and
prophesy to them,
and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord
Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the
hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: Behold, I, even
I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high
places.
Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall
be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your
idols.
I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before
their idols; and I will scatter your bones around your altars.
In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and
the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid
waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease,
and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be
abolished.
The slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know
that I am Yahweh.
Yet will I leave a remnant, in that you shall have some that
escape the sword among the nations, when you shall be scattered
through the countries.
Those of you that escape shall remember me among the nations
where they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken
with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with
their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols: and
they shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils
which they have committed in all their abominations.
They shall know that I am Yahweh: I have not said in vain that I
would do this evil to them.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Strike with your hand, and stamp with
your foot, and say, Alas! because of all the evil abominations
of the house of Israel; for they shall fall by the sword, by the
famine, and by the pestilence.
He who is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he who is
near shall fall by the sword; and he who remains and is besieged
shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my wrath on
them.
You shall know that I am Yahweh, when their slain men shall be
among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on
all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and
under every thick oak, the places where they offered pleasant
aroma to all their idols.
I will stretch out my hand on them, and make the land desolate
and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all
their habitations: and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 7 |
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Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of
Israel, An end: the end is come on the four corners of the land.
Now is the end on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will
judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all
your abominations.
My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will
bring your ways on you, and your abominations shall be in the
midst of you: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: An evil, an only evil; behold, it
comes.
An end has come, the end has come; it awakes against you;
behold, it comes.
Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land: the time has
come, the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of
joyful shouting, on the mountains.
Now will I shortly pour out my wrath on you, and accomplish my
anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways;
and I will bring on you all your abominations.
My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will bring
on you according to your ways; and your abominations shall be in
the midst of you; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, do strike.
Behold, the day, behold, it comes: your doom is gone forth; the
rod has blossomed, pride has budded.
Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them
shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth:
neither shall there be eminency among them.
The time is come, the day draws near: don’t let the buyer
rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its
multitude.
For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although
they be yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole
multitude of it, none shall return; neither shall any strengthen
himself in the iniquity of his life.
They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but none
goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all its multitude.
The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within:
he who is in the field shall die with the sword: and he who is
in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
But those of those who escape shall escape, and shall be on the
mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every
one in his iniquity.
All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
They shall also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror
shall cover them; and shame shall be on all faces, and baldness
on all their heads.
They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold
shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold shall
not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Yahweh:
they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels;
because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.
As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but
they made the images of their abominations and their
detestable things therein: therefore have I made it to them as
an unclean thing.
I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and
to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane
it.
My face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane my
secret place; and robbers shall enter into it, and
profane it.
Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the
city is full of violence.
Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall
possess their houses: I will also make the pride of the strong
to cease; and their holy places shall be profaned.
Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be
none.
Mischief shall come on mischief, and rumor shall be on rumor;
and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall
perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.
The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with
desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be
troubled: I will do to them after their way, and according to
their own judgments will I judge them; and they shall know that
I am Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 8 |
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It happened in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the
fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the
elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord Yahweh
fell there on me.
Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire;
from the appearance of his waist and downward, fire; and from
his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it
were glowing metal.
He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my
head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and
brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of
the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north;
where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which
provokes to jealousy.
Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to
the appearance that I saw in the plain.
Then he said to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way
toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the
north, and see, northward of the gate of the altar this image of
jealousy in the entry.
He said to me, Son of man, do you see what they do? even the
great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that
I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you shall again see
yet other great abominations.
He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked,
behold, a hole in the wall.
Then he said to me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I
had dug in the wall, behold, a door.
He said to me, Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they
do here.
So I went in and saw; and see, every form of creeping things,
and abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of
Israel, portrayed around on the wall.
There stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house
of Israel; and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of
Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand; and the odor of
the cloud of incense went up.
Then he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of
the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of
imagery? for they say, Yahweh doesn’t see us; Yahweh has
forsaken the land.
He said also to me, You shall again see yet other great
abominations which they do.
Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s house
which was toward the north; and see, there sat the women weeping
for Tammuz.
Then he said to me, Have you seen this, son of man? You
shall again see yet greater abominations than these.
He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh’s house; and see,
at the door of the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the
altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward the
temple of Yahweh, and their faces toward the east; and they were
worshipping the sun toward the east.
Then he said to me, Have you seen this, 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 turned again to provoke me to
anger: and behold, they put the branch to their nose.
Therefore will I also deal in wrath; my eye shall not spare,
neither will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a
loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
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Ezekiel 9 |
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Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause those
who are in charge of the city to draw near, every man with his
destroying weapon in his hand.
Behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lies
toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his
hand; and one man in the midst of them clothed in linen, with a
writer’s inkhorn by his side. They went in, and stood beside the
bronze altar.
The glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub,
whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called
to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his
side.
Yahweh said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through
the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the
men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are
done in its midst.
To the others he said in my hearing, Go through the city after
him, and strike: don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity;
kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and
little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom
is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the
old men that were before the house.
He said to them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the
slain. Go forth! They went forth, and struck in the city.
It happened, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I
fell on my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord Yahweh! will you
destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your
wrath on Jerusalem?
Then he said to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and
Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and
the city full of perversion: for they say, Yahweh has forsaken
the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.
As for me also, my eye shall not spare, neither will I have
pity, but I will bring their way on their head.
Behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his
side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as you have
commanded me.
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Ezekiel 10 |
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Then I looked, and see, in the expanse that was over the head of
the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the
likeness of a throne.
He spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said, Go in between
the whirling wheels, even under the cherub, and fill both
your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and
scatter them over the city. He went in as I watched.
Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when the
man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court.
The glory of Yahweh mounted up from the cherub, and stood
over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with
the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of Yahweh’s
glory.
The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the
outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.
It came to pass, when he commanded the man clothed in linen,
saying, Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between
the cherubim, that he went in, and stood beside a wheel.
The cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to
the fire that was between the cherubim, and took of it,
and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen, who
took it and went out.
There appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under
their wings.
I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel
beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub; and
the appearance of the wheels was like a beryl stone.
As for their appearance, the four of them had one likeness, like
a wheel within a wheel.
When they went, they went in their four directions: they didn’t
turn as they went, but to the place where the head looked they
followed it; they didn’t turn as they went.
Their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their
wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes all around, even
the wheels that the four of them had.
As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, the whirling wheels.
Every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the
cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third
face the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
The cherubim mounted up: this is the living creature that I saw
by the river Chebar.
When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when
the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth,
the wheels also didn’t turn from beside them.
When they stood, these stood; and when they mounted up, these
mounted up with them: for the spirit of the living creature was
in them.
The glory of Yahweh went forth from over the threshold of the
house, and stood over the cherubim.
The cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the
earth in my sight when they went forth, and the wheels beside
them: and they stood at the door of the east gate of Yahweh’s
house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel
by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim.
Every one had four faces, and every one four wings; and the
likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings.
As for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I
saw by the river Chebar, their appearances and themselves; they
went every one straight forward.
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Ezekiel
11 |
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Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me to the east
gate of Yahweh’s house, which looks eastward: and see, at the
door of the gate twenty-five men; and I saw in the midst of them
Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah,
princes of the people.
He said to me, Son of man, these are the men who devise
iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city;
who say, The time is not near to build houses: this
city is the caldron, and we are the flesh.
Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, son of man.
The Spirit of Yahweh fell on me, and he said to me, Speak, Thus
says Yahweh: Thus you have said, house of Israel; for I know the
things that come into your mind.
You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled
its streets with the slain.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Your slain whom you have
laid in its midst, they are the flesh, and this city is
the caldron; but you shall be brought forth out of its midst.
You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you,
says the Lord Yahweh.
I will bring you forth out of its midst, and deliver you into
the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.
You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of
Israel; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall you be
the flesh in its midst; I will judge you in the border of
Israel;
and you shall know that I am Yahweh: for you have not walked in
my statutes, neither have you executed my ordinances, but have
done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.
It happened, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah
died. Then fell I down on my face, and cried with a loud voice,
and said, Ah Lord Yahweh! will you make a full end of the
remnant of Israel?
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your
relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are they
to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Go far away from
Yahweh. This land has been given to us for a possession.
Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Whereas I have removed
them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered
them among the countries, yet will I be to them a sanctuary for
a little while in the countries where they are come.
Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will gather you from
the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you
have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
They shall come there, and they shall take away all the
detestable things of it and all its abominations from there.
I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within
you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and
will give them a heart of flesh;
that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and
do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their
detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way
on their own heads, says the Lord Yahweh.
Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels were
beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them
above.
The glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city, and
stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city.
The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the
Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the
vision that I had seen went up from me.
Then I spoke to them of the captivity all the things that Yahweh
had shown me.
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Ezekiel 12 |
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The word of Yahweh also came to me, saying,
Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the rebellious house, who
have eyes to see, and don’t see, who have ears to hear, and
don’t hear; for they are a rebellious house.
Therefore, you son of man, prepare your stuff for moving, and
move by day in their sight; and you shall move from your place
to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider,
though they are a rebellious house.
You shall bring forth your stuff by day in their sight, as stuff
for moving; and you shall go forth yourself at even in their
sight, as when men go forth into exile.
Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry your stuff out
that way.
In their sight you shall bear it on your shoulder, and carry it
forth in the dark; you shall cover your face, so that you don’t
see the land: for I have set you for a sign to the house of
Israel.
I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as
stuff for removing, and in the even I dug through the wall with
my hand; I brought it forth in the dark, and bore it on my
shoulder in their sight.
In the morning came the word of Yahweh to me, saying,
Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house,
said to you, What are you doing?
Say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This burden concerns
the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel among whom
they are.
Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done to
them; they shall go into exile, into captivity.
The prince who is among them shall bear on his shoulder in the
dark, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to
carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, because he shall not
see the land with his eyes.
My net also will I spread on him, and he shall be taken in my
snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the
Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.
I will scatter toward every wind all who are around him to help
him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after
them.
They shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall disperse them
among the nations, and scatter them through the countries.
But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the
famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their
abominations among the nations where they come; and they shall
know that I am Yahweh.
Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water
with trembling and with fearfulness;
and tell the people of the land, Thus says the Lord Yahweh
concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel:
They shall eat their bread with fearfulness, and drink their
water in dismay, that her land may be desolate, and despoiled
of all that is therein, because of the violence of all those who
dwell therein.
The cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land
shall be a desolation; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of
Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision fails?
Tell them therefore, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will make this
proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in
Israel; but tell them, The days are at hand, and the fulfillment
of every vision.
For there shall be no more any false vision nor flattering
divination within the house of Israel.
For I am Yahweh; I will speak, and the word that I shall speak
shall be performed; it shall be no more deferred: for in your
days, rebellious house, will I speak the word, and will perform
it, says the Lord Yahweh.
Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision
that he sees is for many day to come, and he prophesies of times
that are far off.
Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: None of my words
shall be deferred any more, but the word which I shall speak
shall be performed, says the Lord Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 13 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who
prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart,
Hear the word of Yahweh:
Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Woe to the foolish prophets, who
follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places.
You have not gone up into the gaps, neither built up the wall
for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of
Yahweh.
They have seen falsehood and lying divination, who say, Yahweh
says; but Yahweh has not sent them: and they have made men to
hope that the word would be confirmed.
Haven’t you seen a false vision, and haven’t you spoken a lying
divination, in that you say, Yahweh says; but I have not spoken?
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have spoken
falsehood, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you,
says the Lord Yahweh.
My hand shall be against the prophets who see false visions, and
who divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people,
neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of
Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and
you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.
Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying,
Peace; and there is no peace; and when one builds up a wall,
behold, they plaster it with whitewash:
tell those who plaster it with whitewash, that it shall fall:
there shall be an overflowing shower; and you, great hailstones,
shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it.
Behold, when the wall has fallen, shall it not be said to you,
Where is the plaster with which you have plastered it?
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will even tear it with a
stormy wind in my wrath; and there shall be an overflowing
shower in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it.
So will I break down the wall that you have plastered with
whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its
foundation shall be uncovered; and it shall fall, and you shall
be consumed in its midst: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Thus will I accomplish my wrath on the wall, and on those who
have plastered it with whitewash; and I will tell you, The wall
is no more, neither those who plastered it;
to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning
Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no
peace, says the Lord Yahweh.
You, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your
people, who prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy
against them,
and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the women who sew
pillows on all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of
persons of every stature to hunt souls! Will you hunt the
souls of my people, and save souls alive for yourselves?
You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and
for pieces of bread, to kill the souls who should not die, and
to save the souls alive who should not live, by your lying to my
people who listen to lies.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against your
pillows, with which you there hunt the souls to make them
fly, and I will tear them from your arms; and I will let the
souls go, even the souls whom you hunt to make them fly.
Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of
your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted;
and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous,
whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the
wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be
saved alive:
Therefore you shall no more see false visions, nor practice
divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand; and you
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Ezekiel 14
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Then came certain of the elders of Israel to me, and sat
before me.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart,
and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face:
should I be inquired of at all by them?
Therefore speak to them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh: Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols
into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity
before his face, and comes to the prophet; I Yahweh will answer
him therein according to the multitude of his idols;
that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because
they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Return, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your
faces from all your abominations.
For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who
live in Israel, who separates himself from me, and takes his
idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his
iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire
for himself of me; I Yahweh will answer him by myself:
and I will set my face against that man, and will make him an
astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off
from the midst of my people; and you shall know that I am
Yahweh.
If the prophet is deceived and speak a word, I, Yahweh, have
deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him,
and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
They shall bear their iniquity: the iniquity of the prophet
shall be even as the iniquity of him who seeks to him;
that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither
defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but
that they may be my people, and I may be their God, says the
Lord Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, when a land sins against me by committing a
trespass, and I stretch out my hand on it, and break the staff
of its bread, and send famine on it, and cut off from it man and
animal;
though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they
should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, says
the Lord Yahweh.
If I cause evil animals to pass through the land, and they
ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no man may pass
through because of the animals;
though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord
Yahweh, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they
only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate.
Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, Sword, go through
the land; so that I cut off from it man and animal;
though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord
Yahweh, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they
only should be delivered themselves.
Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my wrath
on it in blood, to cut off from it man and animal;
though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, says the
Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither son nor daughter; they
should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: How much more when I send my four
severe judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and
the evil animals, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and
animal!
Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be
carried forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come
forth to you, and you shall see their way and their doings; and
you shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought
on Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought on it.
They shall comfort you, when you see their way and their doings;
and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I
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Ezekiel 15 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, the
vine-branch which is among the trees of the forest?
Shall wood be taken of it to make any work? or will men take a
pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?
Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured
both its ends, and its midst is burned: is it profitable for any
work?
Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much
less, when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned, shall it
yet be meet for any work!
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: As the vine tree among the
trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so
will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
I will set my face against them; they shall go forth from the
fire, but the fire shall devour them; and you shall know that I
am Yahweh, when I set my face against them.
I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a
trespass, says the Lord Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 16 |
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Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations;
and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem: Your birth and
your birth is of the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was your
father, and your mother was a Hittite.
As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not
cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you
weren’t salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have
compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, for
that your person was abhorred, in the day that you were born.
When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I
said to you, Though you are in your blood, live; yes, I
said to you, Though you are in your blood, live.
I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and
you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent
ornament; your breasts were fashioned, and your hair was grown;
yet you were naked and bare.
Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time
was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and
covered your nakedness: yes, I swore to you, and entered into a
covenant with you, says the Lord Yahweh, and you became mine.
Then washed I you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your
blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.
I clothed you also with embroidered work, and shod you with
sealskin, and I dressed you about with fine linen, and covered
you with silk.
I decked you with ornaments, and I put bracelets on your hands,
and a chain on your neck.
I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a
beautiful crown on your head.
Thus you were decked with gold and silver; and your clothing was
of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work; you ate fine
flour, and honey, and oil; and you were exceeding beautiful, and
you prospered to royal estate.
Your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty; for it
was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you, says the
Lord Yahweh.
But you trusted in your beauty, and played the prostitute
because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on
everyone who passed by; his it was.
You took of your garments, and made for yourselves high places
decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver,
which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and
played the prostitute with them;
and you took your embroidered garments, and covered them, and
did set my oil and my incense before them.
My bread also which I gave you, fine flour, and oil, and honey,
with which I fed you, you even set it before them for a pleasant
aroma; and thus it was, says the Lord Yahweh.
Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you
have borne to me, and you have sacrificed these to them to be
devoured. Was your prostitution a small matter,
that you have slain my children, and delivered them up, in
causing them to pass through the fire to them?
In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not
remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare,
and were wallowing in your blood.
It has happened after all your wickedness, (woe, woe to you!
says the Lord Yahweh),
that you have built for yourselves a vaulted place, and have
made yourselves a lofty place in every street.
You have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and
have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet
to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your prostitution.
You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians,
your neighbors, great of flesh; and have multiplied your
prostitution, to provoke me to anger.
See therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you, and have
diminished your ordinary food, and delivered you to the
will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines,
who are ashamed of your lewd way.
You have played the prostitute also with the Assyrians, because
you were insatiable; yes, you have played the prostitute with
them, and yet you weren’t satisfied.
You have moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land of
merchants, to Chaldea; and yet you weren’t satisfied with this.
How weak is your heart, says the Lord Yahweh, since you do all
these things, the work of an impudent prostitute;
in that you build your vaulted place at the head of every way,
and make your lofty place in every street, and have not been as
a prostitute, in that you scorn pay.
A wife who commits adultery! who takes strangers instead of her
husband!
They give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to
all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on
every side for your prostitution.
You are different from other women in your prostitution,
in that no one follows you to play the prostitute; and whereas
you give hire, and no hire is given to you, therefore you are
different.
Therefore, prostitute, hear the word of Yahweh:
Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Because your filthiness was poured
out, and your nakedness uncovered through your prostitution with
your lovers; and because of all the idols of your abominations,
and for the blood of your children, that you gave to them;
therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have
taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with all those
who you have hated; I will even gather them against you on every
side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see
all your nakedness.
I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are
judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.
I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down
your vaulted place, and break down your lofty places; and they
shall strip you of your clothes, and take your beautiful jewels;
and they shall leave you naked and bare.
They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall
stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords.
They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on
you in the sight of many women; and I will cause you to cease
from playing the prostitute, and you shall also give no hire any
more.
So will I cause my wrath toward you to rest, and my jealousy
shall depart from you, and I will be quiet, and will be no more
angry.
Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have
raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also
will bring your way on your head, says the Lord Yahweh: and you
shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.
Behold, everyone who uses proverbs shall use this proverb
against you, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and
her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who
loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was a
Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she
and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your
right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.
Yet have you not walked in their ways, nor done after their
abominations; but, as if that were a very little thing,
you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.
As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done,
she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.
Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride,
fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her
daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and
needy.
They were haughty, and committed abomination before me:
therefore I took them away as I saw good.
Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins; but you have
multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified
your sisters by all your abominations which you have done.
You also, bear you your own shame, in that you have given
judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have
committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous
that you: yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that
you have justified your sisters.
I will turn again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and
her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters,
and the captivity of your captives in the midst of them;
that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of
all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them.
Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their
former estate; and Samaria and her daughters shall return to
their former estate; and you and your daughters shall return to
your former estate.
For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day
of your pride,
before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the
reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are around
her, the daughters of the Philistines, who do despite to you all
around.
You have borne your lewdness and your abominations, says Yahweh.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also deal with you as you
have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of
your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant.
Then you shall remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you
shall receive your sisters, your elder sisters and your
younger; and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by
your covenant.
I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall know that I
am Yahweh;
that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your
mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you
all that you have done, says the Lord Yahweh. |
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Ezekiel 17 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the house
of Israel;
and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A great eagle with great
wings and long feathers, full of feathers, which had various
colors, came to Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar:
he cropped off the topmost of the young twigs of it, and carried
it to a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.
He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a
fruitful soil; he placed it beside many waters; he set it as a
willow tree.
It grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose
branches turned toward him, and its roots were under him: so it
became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth
sprigs.
There was also another great eagle with great wings and many
feathers: and behold, this vine did bend its roots toward him,
and shot forth its branches toward him, from the beds of its
plantation, that he might water it.
It was planted in a good soil by many waters, that it might
bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it
might be a goodly vine.
Say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Shall it prosper? shall he not
pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither;
that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? and not by a
strong arm or many people can it be raised from its roots.
Yes, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not
utterly wither, when the east wind touches it? it shall wither
in the beds where it grew.
Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Say now to the rebellious house, Don’t you know what these
things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to
Jerusalem, and took its king, and its princes, and brought them
to him to Babylon:
and he took of the seed royal, and made a covenant with him; he
also brought him under an oath, and took away the mighty of the
land;
that the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself
up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand.
But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into
Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Shall he
prosper? shall he escape who does such things? shall he break
the covenant, and yet escape?
As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely in the place where the
king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose
covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon he
shall die.
Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company
help him in the war, when they cast up mounds and build forts,
to cut off many persons.
For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and
behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these
things; he shall not escape.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely my oath
that he has despised, and my covenant that he has broken, I will
even bring it on his own head.
I will spread my net on him, and he shall be taken in my snare,
and I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment
with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against
me.
All his fugitives in all his bands shall fall by the sword, and
those who remain shall be scattered toward every wind: and you
shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also take of the lofty top of
the cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the topmost of
its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it on a high and
lofty mountain:
in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it
shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar:
and under it shall dwell all birds of every wing; in the shade
of its branches shall they dwell.
All the trees of the field shall know that I, Yahweh, have
brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have
dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish;
I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it. |
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Ezekiel 18 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,
What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land
of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the
children’s teeth are set on edge?
As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, you shall not have occasion
any more to use this proverb in Israel.
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also
the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins, he shall die.
But if a man is just, and does that which is lawful and right,
and has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his
eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither has defiled
his neighbor’s wife, neither has come near to a woman in her
impurity,
and has not wronged any, but has restored to the debtor his
pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the
hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;
he who has not given forth on interest, neither has taken any
increase, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed
true justice between man and man,
has walked in my statutes, and has kept my ordinances, to deal
truly; he is just, he shall surely live, says the Lord Yahweh.
If he fathers a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, and who
does any one of these things,
and who does not any of those duties, but even has eaten
on the mountains, and defiled his neighbor’s wife,
has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not
restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols,
has committed abomination,
has given forth on interest, and has taken increase; shall he
then live? he shall not live: he has done all these
abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be on him.
Now, behold, if he fathers a son, who sees all his father’s
sins, which he has done, and fears, and does not such like;
who has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his
eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled his
neighbor’s wife,
neither has wronged any, has not taken anything to pledge,
neither has taken by robbery, but has given his bread to the
hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;
who has withdrawn his hand from the poor, who has not received
interest nor increase, has executed my ordinances, has walked in
my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he
shall surely live.
As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his
brother, and did that which is not good among his people,
behold, he shall die in his iniquity.
Yet you say, Why doesn’t the son bear the iniquity of the
father? When the son has done that which is lawful and right,
and has kept all my statutes, and has done them, he shall surely
live.
The soul who sins, he shall die: the son shall not bear the
iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the
iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be
on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.
But if the wicked turn from all his sins that he has committed,
and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.
None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be
remembered against him: in his righteousness that he has done he
shall live.
Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord
Yahweh; and not rather that he should return from his way, and
live?
But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and
commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations
that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous
deeds that he has done shall be remembered: in his trespass that
he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them
shall he die.
Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, house
of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren’t your ways unequal?
When the righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and
commits iniquity, and dies therein; in his iniquity that he has
done shall he die.
Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that
he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he
shall save his soul alive.
Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions
that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal.
house of Israel, are not my ways equal? Aren’t your ways
unequal?
Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according
to his ways, says the Lord Yahweh. Return, and turn yourselves
from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your
ruin.
Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have
transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit:
for why will you die, house of Israel?
For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the
Lord Yahweh: therefore turn yourselves, and live. |
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Ezekiel 19 |
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Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
and say, What was your mother? A lioness: she couched among
lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her cubs.
She brought up one of her cubs: he became a young lion, and he
learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.
The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit; and
they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.
Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost,
then she took another of her cubs, and made him a young lion.
He went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and
he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.
He knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land
was desolate, and its fullness, because of the noise of his
roaring.
Then the nations set against him on every side from the
provinces; and they spread their net over him; he was taken in
their pit.
They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king
of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, that his voice
should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.
Your mother was like a vine, in your blood, planted by the
waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many
waters.
It had strong rods for the scepters of those who bore rule, and
their stature was exalted among the thick boughs, and they were
seen in their height with the multitude of their branches.
But it was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground,
and the east wind dried up its fruit: its strong rods were
broken off and withered; the fire consumed them.
Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.
Fire is gone out of the rods of its branches, it has devoured
its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a scepter
to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.
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Ezekiel 20 |
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It happened in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the
tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of
Israel came to inquire of Yahweh, and sat before me.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them, Thus
says the Lord Yahweh: Is it to inquire of me that you have come?
As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by
you.
Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Cause them
to know the abominations of their fathers;
and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when I
chose Israel, and swore to the seed of the house of Jacob, and
made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to
them, saying, I am Yahweh your God;
in that day I swore to them, to bring them forth out of the land
of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing
with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.
I said to them, Cast away every man the abominations of his
eyes, and don’t defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am
Yahweh your God.
But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me; they
did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes,
neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would
pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them
in the midst of the land of Egypt.
But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned
in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose
sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them forth out of
the land of Egypt.
So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and
brought them into the wilderness.
I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances, which if
a man does, he shall live in them.
Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me
and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies
them.
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness:
they didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my
ordinances, which if a man keep, he shall live in them; and my
Sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my
wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them.
But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned
in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.
Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would
not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing
with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;
because they rejected my ordinances, and didn’t walk in my
statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths: for their heart went after
their idols.
Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I didn’t destroy them,
neither did I make a full end of them in the wilderness.
I said to their children in the wilderness, Don’t walk in the
statutes of your fathers, neither observe their ordinances, nor
defile yourselves with their idols.
I am Yahweh your God: walk in my statutes, and keep my
ordinances, and do them;
and make my Sabbaths holy; and they shall be a sign between me
and you, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.
But the children rebelled against me; they didn’t walk in my
statutes, neither kept my ordinances to do them, which if a man
do, he shall live in them; they profaned my Sabbaths. Then I
said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger
against them in the wilderness.
Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name’s sake,
that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in
whose sight I brought them forth.
Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would scatter
them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries;
because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my
statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were
after their fathers’ idols.
Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and
ordinances in which they should not live;
and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to
pass through the fire all that opens the womb, that I
might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I
am Yahweh.
Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and tell
them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In this moreover have your
fathers blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass
against me.
For when I had brought them into the land, which I swore to give
to them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree,
and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they
presented the provocation of their offering; there also they
made their pleasant aroma, and they poured out there their drink
offerings.
Then I said to them, What does the high place where you go mean?
So its name is called Bamah to this day.
Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Do you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? and do you
play the prostitute after their abominations?
and when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons to pass
through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols
to this day? and shall I be inquired of by you, house of Israel?
As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by
you;
and that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, in that
you say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the
countries, to serve wood and stone.
As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely with a mighty hand, and
with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, will I be
king over you:
and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you
out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty
hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out;
and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and
there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.
Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the
wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment
with you, says the Lord Yahweh.
I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you
into the bond of the covenant;
and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and those who
disobey against me; I will bring them forth out of the land
where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of
Israel: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
As for you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Go,
serve everyone his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not
listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with
your gifts, and with your idols.
For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of
Israel, says the Lord Yahweh, there shall all the house of
Israel, all of them, serve me in the land: there will I accept
them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first
fruits of your offerings, with all your holy things.
As a pleasant aroma will I accept you, when I bring you out from
the peoples, and gather you out of the countries in which you
have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you in the
sight of the nations.
You shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall bring you into the
land of Israel, into the country which I swore to give to your
fathers.
There you shall remember your ways, and all your doings, in
which you have polluted yourselves; and you shall loathe
yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have
committed.
You shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have dealt with you for
my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according
to your corrupt doings, you house of Israel, says the Lord
Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, set your face toward the south, and drop your
word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of
the field in the South;
and tell the forest of the South, Hear the word of Yahweh: Thus
says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and
it shall devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree: the
flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the
south to the north shall be burnt thereby.
All flesh shall see that I, Yahweh, have kindled it; it shall
not be quenched.
Then I said, Ah Lord Yahweh! they say of me, Isn’t he a speaker
of parables? |
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Ezekiel 21 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop your
word toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land
of Israel;
and tell the land of Israel, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am
against you, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and
will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.
Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the
wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath
against all flesh from the south to the north:
and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my
sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.
Sigh therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your thighs
and with bitterness you will sigh before their eyes.
It shall be, when they tell you, Why do you sigh? that you shall
say, Because of the news, for it comes; and every heart shall
melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall
faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes,
and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: Say, A sword, a
sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished;
it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished
that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod
of my son, it condemns every tree.
It is given to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword,
it is sharpened, yes, it is furbished, to give it into the hand
of the killer.
Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all
the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with
my people; strike therefore on your thigh.
For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that condemns
shall be no more? says the Lord Yahweh.
You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands
together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword
of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one who is
deadly wounded, which enters into their rooms.
I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that
their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it
is made as lightning, it is pointed for slaughter.
Gather yourselves together, go to the right, set yourselves in
array, go to the left, wherever your face is set.
I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath
to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,
Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the
king of Babylon may come; they both shall come forth out of one
land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way
to the city.
You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the
children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.
For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the
head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows
back and forth, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the
liver.
In his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to
set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift
up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the
gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.
It shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, who
have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that
they may be taken.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have made your
iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are
uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because
you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand.
You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day
is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,
thus says the Lord Yahweh: Remove the turban, and take off the
crown; this shall be no more the same; exalt that which
is low, and abase that which is high.
I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no
more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
You, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh
concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach;
and say, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is
furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;
while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to
you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly
wounded, whose day is come in the time of the iniquity of the
end.
Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were
created, in the land of your birth, will I judge you.
I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with
the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of
brutish men, skillful to destroy.
You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the
midst of the land; you shall be remembered no more: for I,
Yahweh, have spoken it. |
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Ezekiel 22 |
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Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
You, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city?
then cause her to know all her abominations.
You shall say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A city that sheds
blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that
makes idols against herself to defile her!
You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are
defiled in your idols which you have made; and you have caused
your days to draw near, and are come even to your years:
therefore have I made you a reproach to the nations, and a
mocking to all the countries.
Those who are near, and those who are far from you, shall mock
you, you infamous one and full of tumult.
Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power,
have been in you to shed blood.
In you have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of
you have they dealt by oppression with the foreigner; in you
have they wronged the fatherless and the widow.
You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths.
Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood; and in you they
have eaten on the mountains: in the midst of you they have
committed lewdness.
In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness; in you have
they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity.
One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and
another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in
you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.
In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken
interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your
neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Lord
Yahweh.
Behold, therefore, I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain
which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the
midst of you.
Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days
that I shall deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will
do it.
I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through
the countries; and I will consume your filthiness out of you.
You shall be profaned in yourself, in the sight of the nations;
and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross to me: all of
them are brass and tin and iron and lead, in the midst of the
furnace; they are the dross of silver.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have all become
dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of
Jerusalem.
As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into
the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it; so
will I gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay
you there, and melt you.
Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my
wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst.
As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so you will be
melted in its midst; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have
poured out my wrath on you.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, tell her, You are a land that is not cleansed, nor
rained on in the day of indignation.
There is a conspiracy of her prophets in its midst, like a
roaring lion ravening the prey: they have devoured souls; they
take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows
many in its midst.
Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my
holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and
the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the
unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my
Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
Her princes in its midst are like wolves ravening the prey, to
shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get
dishonest gain.
Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing
false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the
Lord Yahweh, when Yahweh has not spoken.
The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised
robbery; yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have
oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.
I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall, and
stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not
destroy it; but I found none.
Therefore have I poured out my indignation on them; I have
consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I
brought on their heads, says the Lord Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 23 |
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The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,
Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
and they played the prostitute in Egypt; they played the
prostitute in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and
there was handled the bosom of their virginity.
The names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her
sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters.
As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.
Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine; and she doted on
her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,
who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them
desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.
She bestowed her prostitution on them, the choicest men of
Assyria all of them; and on whoever she doted, with all their
idols she defiled herself.
Neither has she left her prostitution since the days of
Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the
bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution
on her.
Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the
hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.
These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her
daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a
byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.
Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her
doting than she, and in her prostitution which were more than
the prostitution of her sister.
She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her
neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses,
all of them desirable young men.
I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.
She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the
wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
dressed with girdles on their waists, with flowing turbans on
their heads, all of them princes to look on, after the likeness
of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.
As soon as she saw them she doted on them, and sent messengers
to them into Chaldea.
The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they
defiled her with their prostitution, and she was polluted with
them, and her soul was alienated from them.
So she uncovered her prostitution, and uncovered her nakedness:
then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was
alienated from her sister.
Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her
youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of
Egypt.
She doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of
donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the
handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your
youth.
Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will
raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is
alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side:
the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men,
governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all
of them riding on horses.
They shall come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons,
and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against
you with buckler and shield and helmet all around; and I will
commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according
to their judgments.
I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you
in fury; they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your
residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take your sons and
your daughters; and your residue shall be devoured by the fire.
They shall also strip you of your clothes, and take away your
beautiful jewels.
Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from you, and your
prostitution brought from the land of Egypt; so that you
shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any
more.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will deliver you into
the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom
your soul is alienated;
and they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take away all
your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare; and the
nakedness of your prostitution shall be uncovered, both your
lewdness and your prostitution.
These things shall be done to you, because you have played the
prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with
their idols.
You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give
her cup into your hand.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You will drink of your sister’s cup,
which is deep and large; you will be ridiculed and held in
derision; it contains much.
You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of
astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister
Samaria.
You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw the
broken pieces of it, and shall tear your breasts; for I have
spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have forgotten
me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your
lewdness and your prostitution.
Yahweh said moreover to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah
and Oholibah? then declare to them their abominations.
For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands;
and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have
also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through
the fire to them to be devoured.
Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my
sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.
For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they
came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold,
thus have they done in the midst of my house.
Furthermore you have sent for men who come from far, to whom a
messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you did wash
yourself, paint your eyes, and decorate yourself with ornaments,
and sit on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it,
whereupon you set my incense and my oil.
The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with
men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the
wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of them twain,
and beautiful crowns on their heads.
Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, Now will they play
the prostitute with her, and she with them.
They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute: so went they
in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.
Righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of
adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who shed blood;
because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will bring up a company against
them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed.
The company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with
their swords; they shall kill their sons and their daughters,
and burn up their houses with fire.
Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all
women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
They shall recompense your lewdness on you, and you shall bear
the sins of your idols; and you shall know that I am the Lord
Yahweh. |
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Ezekiel 24 |
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Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth
day of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, write the name of the day, even of this same
day: the king of Babylon drew close to Jerusalem this same day.
Utter a parable to the rebellious house, and tell them, Thus
says the Lord Yahweh, Set on the caldron, set it on, and also
pour water into it:
gather its pieces into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and
the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones.
Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile of wood for
the bones under the caldron; make it boil well; yes, let
its bones be boiled in its midst.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city, to
the caldron whose rust is therein, and whose rust is not gone
out of it! take out of it piece after piece; No lot is fallen on
it.
For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it on the bare
rock; she didn’t pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust.
That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set
her blood on the bare rock, that it should not be covered.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city! I
also will make the pile great.
Heap on the wood, make the fire hot, boil well the flesh, and
make thick the broth, and let the bones be burned.
Then set it empty on its coals, that it may be hot, and its
brass may burn, and that its filthiness may be molten in it,
that its rust may be consumed.
She has wearied herself with toil; yet her great rust
doesn’t go forth out of her; her rust doesn’t go forth by
fire.
In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed you and
you weren’t cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your
filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to
rest.
I, Yahweh, have spoken it: it shall happen, and I will do it: I
will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent;
according to your ways, and according to your doings, shall they
judge you, says the Lord Yahweh.
Also the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, behold, I will take away from you the desire of your
eyes with a stroke: yet you shall neither mourn nor weep,
neither shall your tears run down.
Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind your
headdress on you, and put your shoes on your feet, and don’t
cover your lips, and don’t eat men’s bread.
So I spoke to the people in the morning; and at even my wife
died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.
The people said to me, Won’t you tell us what these things are
to us, that you do so?
Then I said to them, The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Speak to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold,
I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire
of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and
your daughters whom you have left behind shall fall by the
sword.
You shall do as I have done: you shall not cover your lips, nor
eat the bread of men.
Your tires shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet:
you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your
iniquities, and moan one toward another.
Thus Ezekiel shall be a sign to you; according to all that he
has done, you will do. When this comes, then you will know that
I am the Lord Yahweh.
You, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from
them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their
eyes, and that whereupon they set their heart, their sons and
their daughters,
that in that day he who escapes shall come to you, to cause you
to hear it with your ears?
In that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped,
and you shall speak, and be no more mute: so you will be a sign
to them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 25 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, set your face toward the children of Ammon, and
prophesy against them:
and tell the children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord
Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Because you said, Aha,
against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land
of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of
Judah, when they went into captivity:
therefore, behold, I will deliver you to the children of the
east for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in
you, and make their dwellings in you; they shall eat your fruit,
and they shall drink your milk.
I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the children of
Ammon a resting place for flocks: and you shall know that I am
Yahweh.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have clapped your
hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the
despite of your soul against the land of Israel;
therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand on you, and will
deliver you for a spoil to the nations; and I will cut you off
from the peoples, and I will cause you to perish out of the
countries: I will destroy you; and you shall know that I am
Yahweh.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because Moab and Seir say, Behold,
the house of Judah is like all the nations;
therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities,
from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the
country, Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim,
to the children of the east, to go against the children
of Ammon; and I will give them for a possession, that the
children of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations.
and I will execute judgments on Moab; and they shall know that I
am Yahweh.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because Edom has dealt against the
house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended,
and revenged himself on them;
therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, I will stretch out my hand
on Edom, and will cut off man and animal from it; and I will
make it desolate from Teman; even to Dedan shall they fall by
the sword.
I will lay my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel;
and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to
my wrath; and they shall know my vengeance, says the Lord
Yahweh.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because the Philistines have dealt by
revenge, and have taken vengeance with despite of soul to
destroy with perpetual enmity;
therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will stretch out
my hand on the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites,
and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.
I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes;
and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall lay my
vengeance on them.
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Ezekiel 26 |
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It happened in the eleventh year, in the first day of
the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is
broken: the gate of the peoples; she is turned to me; I shall be
replenished, now that she is laid waste:
therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I am against you,
Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the
sea causes its waves to come up.
They shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers:
I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.
She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of
the sea; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh; and she
shall become a spoil to the nations.
Her daughters who are in the field shall be slain with the
sword: and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will bring on Tyre
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north,
with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and a
company, and many people.
He shall kill your daughters in the field with the sword; and he
shall make forts against you, and cast up a mound against you,
and raise up the buckler against you.
He shall set his battering engines against your walls, and with
his axes he shall break down your towers.
By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover
you: your walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of
the wagons, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into your
gates, as men enter into a city in which is made a breach.
With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all your
streets; he shall kill your people with the sword; and the
pillars of your strength shall go down to the ground.
They shall make a spoil of your riches, and make a prey of your
merchandise; and they shall break down your walls, and destroy
your pleasant houses; and they shall lay your stones and your
timber and your dust in the midst of the waters.
I will cause the noise of your songs to cease; and the sound of
your harps shall be no more heard.
I will make you a bare rock; you shall be a place for the
spreading of nets; you shall be built no more: for I Yahweh have
spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Tyre: shall not the islands shake
at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when the
slaughter is made in the midst of you?
Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their
thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their
embroidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with
trembling; they shall sit on the ground, and shall tremble every
moment, and be astonished at you.
They shall take up a lamentation over you, and tell you, How you
are destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned
city, who was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who
caused their terror to be on all who lived there!
Now shall the islands tremble in the day of your fall; yes, the
islands that are in the sea shall be dismayed at your departure.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall make you a desolate
city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring
up the deep on you, and the great waters shall cover you;
then will I bring you down with those who descend into the pit,
to the people of old time, and will make you to dwell in the
lower parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of
old, with those who go down to the pit, that you be not
inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living:
I will make you a terror, and you shall no more have any being;
though you are sought for, yet you will never be found again,
says the Lord Yahweh. |
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Ezekiel 27 |
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The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,
You, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre;
and tell Tyre, you who dwell at the entry of the sea, who are
the merchant of the peoples to many islands, thus says the Lord
Yahweh: You, Tyre, have said, I am perfect in beauty.
Your borders are in the heart of the seas; your builders have
perfected your beauty.
They have made all your planks of fir trees from Senir; they
have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.
Of the oaks of Bashan have they made your oars; they have made
your benches of ivory inlaid in boxwood, from the islands of
Kittim.
Of fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was your sail,
that it might be to you for a banner; blue and purple from the
islands of Elishah was your awning.
The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your rowers: your wise
men, Tyre, were in you, they were your pilots.
The old men of Gebal and the wise men of it were in you your
repairers of ship seams: all the ships of the sea with their
mariners were in you to deal in your merchandise.
Persia and Lud and Put were in your army, your men of war: they
hanged the shield and helmet in you; they set forth your
comeliness.
The men of Arvad with your army were on your walls all around,
and valorous men were in your towers; they hanged their shields
on your walls all around; they have perfected your beauty.
Tarshish was your merchant by reason of the multitude of all
kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded
for your wares.
Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your traffickers; they
traded the persons of men and vessels of brass for your
merchandise.
They of the house of Togarmah traded for your wares with horses
and war horses and mules.
The men of Dedan were your traffickers; many islands were the
market of your hand: they brought you in exchange horns of ivory
and ebony.
Syria was your merchant by reason of the multitude of your
handiworks: they traded for your wares with emeralds, purple,
and embroidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and rubies.
Judah, and the land of Israel, they were your traffickers: they
traded for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, and confections,
and honey, and oil, and balm.
Damascus was your merchant for the multitude of your handiworks,
by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches, with the wine
of Helbon, and white wool.
Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for your wares: bright iron,
cassia, and calamus, were among your merchandise.
Dedan was your trafficker in precious cloths for riding.
Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of
your hand; in lambs, and rams, and goats, in these were they
your merchants.
The traffickers of Sheba and Raamah, they were your traffickers;
they traded for your wares with the chief of all spices, and
with all precious stones, and gold.
Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, Asshur
and Chilmad, were your traffickers.
These were your traffickers in choice wares, in wrappings of
blue and embroidered work, and in chests of rich clothing, bound
with cords and made of cedar, among your merchandise.
The ships of Tarshish were your caravans for your merchandise:
and you were replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of
the seas.
Your rowers have brought you into great waters: the east wind
has broken you in the heart of the seas.
Your riches, and your wares, your merchandise, your mariners,
and your pilots, your repairers of ship seams, and the dealers
in your merchandise, and all your men of war, who are in you,
with all your company which is in the midst of you, shall fall
into the heart of the seas in the day of your ruin.
At the sound of the cry of your pilots the suburbs shall shake.
All who handled the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots
of the sea, shall come down from their ships; they shall stand
on the land,
and shall cause their voice to be heard over you, and shall cry
bitterly, and shall cast up dust on their heads, they shall
wallow themselves in the ashes:
and they shall make themselves bald for you, and clothe them
with sackcloth, and they shall weep for you in bitterness of
soul with bitter mourning.
In their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for you, and
lament over you, saying, Who is there like Tyre, like her
who is brought to silence in the midst of the sea?
When your wares went forth out of the seas, you filled many
peoples; you did enrich the kings of the earth with the
multitude of your riches and of your merchandise.
In the time that you were broken by the seas in the depths of
the waters, your merchandise and all your company did fall in
the midst of you.
All the inhabitants of the islands are astonished at you, and
their kings are horribly afraid; they are troubled in their
face.
The merchants among the peoples hiss at you; you are become a
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Ezekiel 28
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The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,
Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god,
I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet you are
man, and not God, though you did set your heart as the heart of
God—
behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is
hidden from you;
by your wisdom and by your understanding you have gotten
yourself riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your
treasures;
by your great wisdom and by your traffic you have
increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of
your riches—
therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have set your
heart as the heart of God,
therefore, behold, I will bring strangers on you, the terrible
of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the
beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness.
They shall bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the
death of those who are slain, in the heart of the seas.
Will you yet say before him who kills you, I am God? but you are
man, and not God, in the hand of him who wounds you.
You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of
strangers: for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and
tell him, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You seal up the sum, full
of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone
adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of
tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were
created they were prepared.
You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, so
that you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked
up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were
created, until unrighteousness was found in you.
By the abundance of your traffic they filled the midst of you
with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as
profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you,
covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have
corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast
you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may
see you.
By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of
your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore have
I brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has devoured
you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of
all those who see you.
All those who know you among the peoples shall be astonished at
you: you have become a terror, and you shall nevermore have any
being.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it,
and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you,
Sidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of you; and they
shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall have executed
judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets;
and the wounded shall fall in the midst of her, with the sword
on her on every side; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
There shall be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel,
nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them, that did
despite to them; and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall have gathered the house
of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and
shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then
shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant
Jacob.
They shall dwell securely therein; yes, they shall build houses,
and plant vineyards, and shall dwell securely, when I have
executed judgments on all those who do them despite all around
them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh their God. |
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Ezekiel 29 |
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In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the
month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
“Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and
prophesy against him and against all Egypt.
Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I am against
you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the
midst of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river is my own, and I
have made it for myself.’
I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your
rivers stick to your scales; and I will bring you up out of the
midst of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which
stick to your scales.
I’ll cast you forth into the wilderness, you and all the fish of
your rivers. You’ll fall on the open field. You won’t be brought
together, nor gathered. I have given you for food to the animals
of the earth and to the birds of the sky.
All the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, because
they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke, and tore all
their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke, and
paralyzed all of their thighs.”
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I will bring a
sword on you, and will cut off man and animal from you.
The land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they
shall know that I am Yahweh. Because he has said, ‘The river is
mine, and I have made it;’
therefore, behold, I am against you, and against your rivers,
and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation,
from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia.
No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of animal shall
pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the
countries that are desolate; and her cities among the cities
that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years; and I
will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse
them through the countries.”
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “At the end of forty years will I
gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered;
and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will cause
them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their
birth; and they shall be there a base kingdom.
It shall be the base of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more
lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that
they shall no more rule over the nations.
It shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel,
bringing iniquity to memory, when they turn to look after them:
and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.”’”
It came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first
month, in the first day of the month, the word of
Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to
serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald,
and every shoulder was worn; yet had he no wages, nor his army,
from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will give the
land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall
carry off her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey;
and it shall be the wages for his army.
I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which
he served, because they worked for me, says the Lord Yahweh.
In that day will I cause a horn to bud forth to the house of
Israel, and I will give you the opening of the mouth in the
midst of them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 30 |
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The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,
Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Wail, Alas
for the day!
For the day is near, even the day of Yahweh is near; it shall be a
day of clouds, a time of the nations.
A sword shall come on Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when
the slain shall fall in Egypt; and they shall take away her
multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.
Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all the mixed people, and Cub, and
the children of the land that is allied with them, shall fall with
them by the sword.
Thus says Yahweh: They also who uphold Egypt shall fall; and the
pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Seveneh shall
they fall in it by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh.
They shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are
desolate; and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that
are wasted.
They shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have set a fire in Egypt,
and all her helpers are destroyed.
In that day shall messengers go forth from before me in ships to
make the careless Ethiopians afraid; and there shall be anguish on
them, as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it comes.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also make the multitude of Egypt
to cease, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be
brought in to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords
against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.
I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of
evil men; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is
therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also destroy the idols, and I will
cause the images to cease from Memphis; and there shall be no more a
prince from the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of
Egypt.
I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will
execute judgments on No.
I will pour my wrath on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut
off the multitude of No.
I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin shall be in great anguish, and No
shall be broken up; and Memphis shall have adversaries in the
daytime.
The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and
these cities shall go into captivity.
At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, when I shall
break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall
cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters
shall go into captivity.
Thus will I execute judgments on Egypt; and they shall know that I
am Yahweh.
It happened in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the
seventh day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me,
saying,
Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and
behold, it has not been bound up, to apply healing medicines,
to put a bandage to bind it, that it be strong to hold the sword.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against Pharaoh
king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong arm, and
that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his
hand.
I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse
them through the countries.
I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword
in his hand: but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he shall
groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man.
I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon; and the arms of
Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when
I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he
shall stretch it out on the land of Egypt.
I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them
through the countries; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. |
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Ezekiel 31 |
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It happened in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the
first day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me,
saying,
Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom
are you like in your greatness?
Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches,
and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was
among the thick boughs.
The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: its rivers ran
all around its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the
trees of the field.
Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field;
and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by
reason of many waters, when it shot them forth.
All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under
its branches did all the animals of the field bring forth their
young; and under its shadow lived all great nations.
Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its
branches; for its root was by many waters.
The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees
were not like its boughs, and the plane trees were not as its
branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its
beauty.
I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all
the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.
Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in
stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his
heart is lifted up in his height;
I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the
nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for
his wickedness.
Strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have
left him: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are
fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the
land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his
shadow, and have left him.
On his ruin all the birds of the sky shall dwell, and all the
animals of the field shall be on his branches;
to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves
in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor
that their mighty ones stand up on their height, even all who
drink water: for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts
of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go
down to the pit.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when he went down to
Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for
him, and I restrained its rivers; and the great waters were stayed;
and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the
field fainted for him.
I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast
him down to Sheol with those who descend into the
pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all
that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.
They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by
the sword; yes, those who were his arm, that lived under his
shadow in the midst of the nations.
To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees
of Eden? yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the
lower parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the
uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is
Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh. |
31:15 Sheol is the place of
the dead.
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Ezekiel 32 |
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It happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the
first day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to
me, saying,
Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt,
and tell him, You were likened to a young lion of the nations:
yet you are as a monster in the seas; and you did break forth
with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and
fouled their rivers.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will spread out my net on you with
a company of many peoples; and they shall bring you up in my
net.
I will leave you on the land, I will cast you forth on the open
field, and will cause all the birds of the sky to settle on you,
and I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth with you.
I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys
with your height.
I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim,
even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of
you.
When I shall extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and make
its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon
shall not give its light.
All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and
set darkness on your land, says the Lord Yahweh.
I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I shall
bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries
which you have not known.
Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings
shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword
before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man
for his own life, in the day of your fall.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The sword of the king of Babylon
shall come on you.
By the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall;
the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall bring
to nothing the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude shall be
destroyed.
I will destroy also all its animals from beside many waters;
neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the
hoofs of animals trouble them.
Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to
run like oil, says the Lord Yahweh.
When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land
destitute of that of which it was full, when I shall strike all
those who dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Yahweh.
This is the lamentation with which they shall lament; the
daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and
over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, says the
Lord Yahweh.
It happened also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day
of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down,
even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower
parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit.
Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the
uncircumcised.
They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the
sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her away and all her
multitudes.
The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst
of Sheol with those who help him: they are
gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the
sword.
Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are all around
her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword;
whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her
company is around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the
sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.
There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of
them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised
into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in
the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those
who go down to the pit.
They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her
multitude; her graves are around her; all of them uncircumcised,
slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of
the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go
down to the pit: he is put in the midst of those who are slain.
There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude; their graves
are around them; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword;
for they caused their terror in the land of the living.
They shall not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the
uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of
war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their
iniquities are on their bones; for they were the terror
of the mighty in the land of the living.
But you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and
shall lie with those who are slain by the sword.
There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might
are laid with those who are slain by the sword: they shall lie
with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit.
There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the
Sidonians, who are gone down with the slain; in the terror which
they caused by their might they are put to shame; and they lie
uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear
their shame with those who go down to the pit.
Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his
multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword,
says the Lord Yahweh.
For I have put his terror in the land of the living; and he
shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who
are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says
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the dead.
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Ezekiel 33 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and tell them,
When I bring the sword on a land, and the people of the land
take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;
if, when he sees the sword come on the land, he blow the
trumpet, and warn the people;
then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn’t take
warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall
be on his own head.
He heard the sound of the trumpet, and didn’t take warning; his
blood shall be on him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would
have delivered his soul.
But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn’t blow the
trumpet, and the people aren’t warned, and the sword comes, and
take any person from among them; he is taken away in his
iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
So you, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of
Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them
warning from me.
When I tell the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and
you don’t speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man
shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your
hand.
Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it,
and he doesn’t turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity,
but you have delivered your soul.
You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: Thus you speak,
saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine
away in them; how then can we live?
Tell them, As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his
way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you
die, house of Israel?
You, son of man, tell the children of your people, The
righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day
of his disobedience; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he
shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his
wickedness; neither shall he who is righteous be able to live
thereby in the day that he sins.
When I tell the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he
trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his
righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he
has committed, therein shall he die.
Again, when I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; if he
turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had
taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no
iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
None of his sins that he has committed shall be remembered
against him: he has done that which is lawful and right; he
shall surely live.
Yet the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not
equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits
iniquity, he shall even die therein.
When the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which
is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. House of Israel,
I will judge every one of you after his ways.
It happened in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth
month, in the fifth day of the month, that one who had escaped
out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city has been struck.
Now the hand of Yahweh had been on me in the evening, before he
who was escaped came; and he had opened my mouth, until he came
to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more
mute.
The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, they who inhabit those waste places in the land of
Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the
land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.
Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the
blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and
shall you possess the land?
You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and every one of
you defiles his neighbor’s wife: and shall you possess the land?
You shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live,
surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the
sword; and him who is in the open field will I give to the
animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and
in the caves shall die of the pestilence.
I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the
pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel
shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.
Then shall they know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land
a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their
abominations which they have committed.
As for you, son of man, the children of your people talk of you
by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to
another, everyone to his brother, saying, Please come and hear
what is the word that comes forth from Yahweh.
They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as
my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with
their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after
their gain.
Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a
pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they
hear your words, but they don’t do them.
When this comes to pass, (behold, it comes), then shall they
know that a prophet has been among them.
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Ezekiel 34 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy,
and tell them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn’t
the shepherds feed the sheep?
You eat the fat, and you clothe yourself with the wool, you kill
the fatlings; but you don’t feed the sheep.
You haven’t strengthened the diseased, neither have you healed
that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was
broken, neither have you brought back that which was driven
away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with
force and with rigor you have ruled over them.
They were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they
became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.
My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high
hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the
earth; and there was none who searched or sought.
Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh:
As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became
a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the
field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds
search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and
didn’t feed my sheep;
therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh:
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against the shepherds;
and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to
cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed
themselves any more; and I will deliver my sheep from their
mouth, that they may not be food for them.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I myself, even I, will
search for my sheep, and will seek them out.
As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among
his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my
sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places where they have
been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the
countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will
feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and
in all the inhabited places of the country.
I will feed them with good pasture; and on the mountains of the
height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down
in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed on the
mountains of Israel.
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them
to lie down, says the Lord Yahweh.
I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which
was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and
will strengthen that which was sick: but the fat and the strong
I will destroy; I will feed them in justice.
As for you, O my flock, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I
judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats.
Does it seem a small thing to you to have fed on the good
pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of
your pasture? and to have drunk of the clear waters, but you
must foul the residue with your feet?
As for my sheep, they eat that which you have trodden with your
feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh to them: Behold, I, even I,
will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.
Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the
diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad;
therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a
prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them,
even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their
shepherd.
I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among
them; I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil
animals to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell securely
in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing; and I
will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be
showers of blessing.
The tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall
yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land; and
they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have broken the bars of
their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those who
made slaves of them.
They shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the
animals of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell securely,
and none shall make them afraid.
I will raise up to them a plantation for renown, and they shall
be no more consumed with famine in the land, neither bear the
shame of the nations any more.
They shall know that I, Yahweh, their God am with them, and that
they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord Yahweh.
You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your
God, says the Lord Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 35 |
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Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy
against it,
and tell it, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against
you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and
I will make you a desolation and an astonishment.
I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you
shall know that I am Yahweh.
Because you have had a perpetual enmity, and have given over the
children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of
their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end;
therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you
for blood, and blood shall pursue you: since you have not hated
blood, therefore blood shall pursue you.
Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation;
and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who
returns.
I will fill its mountains with its slain: in your hills and in
your valleys and in all your watercourses shall they fall who
are slain with the sword.
I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall
not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries
shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Yahweh was there:
therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will do according
to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown
out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known
among them, when I shall judge you.
You shall know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which
you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They
are laid desolate, they have been given us to devour.
You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and
have multiplied your words against me: I have heard it.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When the whole earth rejoices, I will
make you desolate.
As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel,
because it was desolate, so will I do to you: you shall be
desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they
shall know that I am Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 36 |
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You, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say,
You mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because the enemy has said against
you, Aha! and, The ancient high places are ours in possession;
therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because,
even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up
on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of
the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and
the evil report of the people;
therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord
Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the
hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the desolate
wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a
prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are all
around;
therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Surely in the fire of my
jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the nations, and
against all Edom, that have appointed my land to themselves for
a possession with the joy of all their heart, with despite of
soul, to cast it out for a prey.
Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and tell the
mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the
valleys, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I have spoken in my
jealousy and in my wrath, because you have borne the shame of
the nations:
therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: I have sworn, saying,
Surely the nations that are around you, they shall bear their
shame.
But you, mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your
branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are
at hand to come.
For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn into you, and you
shall be tilled and sown;
and I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, even
all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste
places shall be built;
and I will multiply on you man and animal; and they shall
increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited
after your former estate, and will do better to you than at your
beginnings: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Israel; and
they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and
you shall no more henceforth bereave them of children.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because they say to you, You are a
devourer of men, and have been a bereaver of your nation;
therefore you shall devour men no more, neither bereave your
nation any more, says the Lord Yahweh;
neither will I let you hear any more the shame of the nations,
neither shall you bear the reproach of the peoples any more,
neither shall you cause your nation to stumble any more, says
the Lord Yahweh.
Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land,
they defiled it by their way and by their doings: their way
before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.
Therefore I poured out my wrath on them for the blood which they
had poured out on the land, and because they had defiled it with
their idols;
and I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed
through the countries: according to their way and according to
their doings I judged them.
When they came to the nations, where they went, they profaned my
holy name; in that men said of them, These are the people of
Yahweh, and are gone forth out of his land.
But I had respect for my holy name, which the house of Israel
had profaned among the nations, where they went.
Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I
don’t do this for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy
name, which you have profaned among the nations, where you went.
I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the
nations, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the
nations shall know that I am Yahweh, says the Lord Yahweh, when
I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out
of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from
all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse
you.
I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit
within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.
You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you
shall be my people, and I will be your God.
I will save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for
the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you.
I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the
field, that you may receive no more the reproach of famine among
the nations.
Then you shall remember your evil ways, and your doings that
were not good; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight
for your iniquities and for your abominations.
Nor for your sake do I this, says the Lord Yahweh, be it known
to you: be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of
Israel.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day that I cleanse you from
all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited,
and the waste places shall be built.
The land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a
desolation in the sight of all who passed by.
They shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the
garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are
fortified and inhabited.
Then the nations that are left around you shall know that I,
Yahweh, have built the ruined places, and planted that which was
desolate: I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and I will do it.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: For this, moreover, will I be
inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will
increase them with men like a flock.
As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her
appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with
flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 37 |
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The hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me out in the
Spirit of Yahweh, and set me down in the midst of the valley;
and it was full of bones.
He caused me to pass by them all around: and behold, there were
very many in the open valley; and behold, they were very dry.
He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I answered,
Lord Yahweh, you know.
Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them,
you dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh to these bones: Behold, I will cause
breath to enter into you, and you shall live.
I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and
cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live;
and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there
was a noise, and behold, an earthquake; and the bones came
together, bone to its bone.
I saw, and, behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh came
up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in
them.
Then he said to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man,
and tell the wind, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Come from the four
winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into
them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly
great army.
Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house
of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our
hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
Therefore prophesy, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of
your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of
Israel.
You shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have opened your graves,
and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people.
I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will
place you in your own land: and you shall know that I, Yahweh,
have spoken it and performed it, says Yahweh.
The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,
You, son of man, take one stick, and write on it, For Judah, and
for the children of Israel his companions: then take another
stick, and write on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and
for all the house of Israel his companions:
and join them for you one to another into one stick, that they
may become one in your hand.
When the children of your people shall speak to you, saying,
Will you not show us what you mean by these?
tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will take the
stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes
of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, even with
the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be
one in my hand.
The sticks whereon you write shall be in your hand before their
eyes.
Say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will take the
children of Israel from among the nations, where they are gone,
and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their
own land:
and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of
Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall
be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two
kingdoms any more at all;
neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols,
nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their
transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling
places, in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so
shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
My servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall
have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my ordinances, and
observe my statutes, and do them.
They shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my
servant, in which your fathers lived; and they shall dwell
therein, they, and their children, and their children’s
children, forever: and David my servant shall be their prince
for ever.
Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be
an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and
multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them
forevermore.
My tent also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and
they shall be my people.
The nations shall know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies Israel,
when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore.
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Ezekiel 38 |
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The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the
prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you,
Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:
and I will turn you around, and put hooks into your jaws, and I
will bring you forth, with all your army, horses and horsemen,
all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler
and shield, all of them handling swords;
Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and
helmet;
Gomer, and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the
uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes; even many
peoples with you.
Be prepared, yes, prepare yourself, you, and all your companies
who are assembled to you, and be a guard to them.
After many days you shall be visited: in the latter years you
shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword,
that is gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of
Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought
forth out of the peoples, and they shall dwell securely, all of
them.
You shall ascend, you shall come like a storm, you shall be like
a cloud to cover the land, you, and all your hordes, and many
peoples with you.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: It shall happen in that day, that
things shall come into your mind, and you shall devise an evil
device:
and you shall say, I will go up to the land of unwalled
villages; I will go to those who are at rest, who dwell
securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither
bars nor gates;
to take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn your hand
against the waste places that are now inhabited, and against the
people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten
livestock and goods, who dwell in the middle of the earth.
Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the
young lions of it, shall tell you, Have you come to take the
spoil? have you assembled your company to take the prey? to
carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to
take great spoil?
Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and tell Gog, Thus says the
Lord Yahweh: In that day when my people Israel dwells securely,
shall you not know it?
You shall come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the
north, you, and many peoples with you, all of them riding on
horses, a great company and a mighty army;
and you shall come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to
cover the land: it shall happen in the latter days, that I will
bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when I
shall be sanctified in you, Gog, before their eyes.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Are you he of whom I spoke in old
time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in
those days for many years that I would bring you against them?
It shall happen in that day, when Gog shall come against the
land of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh, that my wrath shall come
up into my nostrils.
For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken,
Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of
Israel;
so that the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky, and the
animals of the field, and all creeping things who creep on the
earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth,
shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown
down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall
to the ground.
I will call for a sword against him to all my mountains, says
the Lord Yahweh: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with
him; and I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many
peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, and great
hailstones, fire, and sulfur.
I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make
myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know
that I am Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 39 |
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You, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the
Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh,
Meshech, and Tubal:
and I will turn you around, and will lead you on, and will cause
you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north; and I will
bring you on the mountains of Israel;
and I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause
your arrows to fall out of your right hand.
You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your
hordes, and the peoples who are with you: I will give you to the
ravenous birds of every sort, and to the animals of the field to
be devoured.
You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken it, says the
Lord Yahweh.
I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who dwell securely in
the islands; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
My holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel;
neither will I allow my holy name to be profaned any more: and
the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, the Holy One in Israel.
Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh;
this is the day about which I have spoken.
Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and
shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields
and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs,
and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years;
so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut
down any out of the forests; for they shall make fires of the
weapons; and they shall plunder those who plundered them, and
rob those who robbed them, says the Lord Yahweh.
It shall happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for
burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the
east of the sea; and it shall stop those who pass through: and
there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude; and they shall
call it The valley of Hamon Gog.
Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that
they may cleanse the land.
Yes, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be
to them a renown in the day that I shall be glorified, says the
Lord Yahweh.
They shall set apart men of continual employment, who shall pass
through the land, and, with those who pass through, those who
bury those who remain on the surface of the land, to cleanse it:
after the end of seven months shall they search.
Those who pass through the land shall pass through; and when any
sees a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, until the
undertakers have buried it in the valley of Hamon Gog.
Hamonah shall also be the name of a city. Thus shall they
cleanse the land.
You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Speak to the birds
of every sort, and to every animal of the field, Assemble
yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my
sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on
the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood.
You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of
the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of
bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
You shall eat fat until you be full, and drink blood until you
are drunk, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with
mighty men, and with all men of war, says the Lord Yahweh.
I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall
see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have
laid on them.
So the house of Israel shall know that I am Yahweh their God,
from that day and forward.
The nations shall know that the house of Israel went into
captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against
me, and I hid my face from them: so I gave them into the hand of
their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword.
According to their uncleanness and according to their
transgressions did I to them; and I hid my face from them.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Now will I bring back the
captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel;
and I will be jealous for my holy name.
They shall bear their shame, and all their trespasses by which
they have trespassed against me, when they shall dwell securely
in their land, and none shall make them afraid;
when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered
them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in
the sight of many nations.
They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, in that I caused
them to go into captivity among the nations, and have gathered
them to their own land; and I will leave none of them any more
there;
neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have
poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord
Yahweh.
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Ezekiel 40 |
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In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the
beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the
fourteenth year after that the city was struck, in the same day,
the hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me there.
In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and
set me down on a very high mountain, whereon was as it were the
frame of a city on the south.
He brought me there; and, behold, there was a man, whose
appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax
in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.
The man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear
with your ears, and set your heart on all that I shall show you;
for, to the intent that I may show them to you, you are brought
here: declare all that you see to the house of Israel.
Behold, a wall on the outside of the house all around, and in
the man’s hand a measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and
a handbreadth each: so he measured the thickness of the
building, one reed; and the height, one reed.
Then came he to the gate which looks toward the east, and went
up its steps: and he measured the threshold of the gate, one
reed broad; and the other threshold, one reed broad.
Every lodge was one reed long, and one reed broad; and the space
between the lodges was five cubits; and the threshold of the
gate by the porch of the gate toward the house was one reed.
He measured also the porch of the gate toward the house, one
reed.
Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and its
posts, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was toward the
house.
The lodges of the gate eastward were three on this side, and
three on that side; they three were of one measure: and the
posts had one measure on this side and on that side.
He measured the breadth of the opening of the gate, ten cubits;
and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits;
and a border before the lodges, one cubit on this side, and a
border, one cubit on that side; and the lodges, six cubits on
this side, and six cubits on that side.
He measured the gate from the roof of the one lodge to the roof
of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; door against
door.
He made also posts, sixty cubits; and the court reached to the
posts, around the gate.
From the forefront of the gate at the entrance to the forefront
of the inner porch of the gate were fifty cubits.
There were closed windows to the lodges, and to their posts
within the gate all around, and likewise to the arches; and
windows were around inward; and on each post were palm trees.
Then brought he me into the outer court; and behold, there were
rooms and a pavement, made for the court all around: thirty
rooms were on the pavement.
The pavement was by the side of the gates, answerable to the
length of the gates, even the lower pavement.
Then he measured the breadth from the forefront of the lower
gate to the forefront of the inner court outside, one hundred
cubits, both on the east and on the north.
The gate of the outer court whose prospect is toward the north,
he measured its length and its breadth.
The lodges of it were three on this side and three on that side;
and its posts and its arches were after the measure of the first
gate: its length was fifty cubits, and the breadth twenty-five
cubits.
The windows of it, and its arches, and the palm trees of it,
were after the measure of the gate whose prospect is toward the
east; and they went up to it by seven steps; and its arches were
before them.
There was a gate to the inner court over against the other gate,
both on the north and on the east; and he measured from gate to
gate one hundred cubits.
He led me toward the south; and behold, a gate toward the south:
and he measured its posts and its arches according to these
measures.
There were windows in it and in its arches all around, like
those windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth
twenty-five cubits.
There were seven steps to go up to it, and its arches were
before them; and it had palm trees, one on this side, and
another on that side, on its posts.
There was a gate to the inner court toward the south: and he
measured from gate to gate toward the south a hundred cubits.
Then he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he
measured the south gate according to these measures;
and its lodges, and its posts, and its arches, according to
these measures: and there were windows in it and in its arches
all around; it was fifty cubits long, and twenty-five cubits
broad.
There were arches all around, twenty-five cubits long, and five
cubits broad.
The arches of it were toward the outer court; and palm trees
were on its posts: and the ascent to it had eight steps.
He brought me into the inner court toward the east: and he
measured the gate according to these measures;
and its lodges, and its posts, and its arches, according to
these measures: and there were windows therein and in its arches
all around; it was fifty cubits long, and twenty-five cubits
broad.
The arches of it were toward the outer court; and palm trees
were on its posts, on this side, and on that side: and the
ascent to it had eight steps.
He brought me to the north gate: and he measured it according to
these measures;
its lodges, its posts, and its arches: and there were windows
therein all around; the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth
twenty-five cubits.
The posts of it were toward the outer court; and palm trees were
on its posts, on this side, and on that side: and the ascent to
it had eight steps.
A room with its door was by the posts at the gates; there they
washed the burnt offering.
In the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two
tables on that side, to kill thereon the burnt offering and the
sin offering and the trespass offering.
On the one side outside, as one goes up to the entry of the gate
toward the north, were two tables; and on the other side, which
belonged to the porch of the gate, were two tables.
Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side, by
the side of the gate; eight tables, whereupon they killed the
sacrifices.
There were four tables for the burnt offering, of cut stone, a
cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one
cubit high; whereupon they laid the instruments with which they
killed the burnt offering and the sacrifice.
The hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened within all around:
and on the tables was the flesh of the offering.
Outside of the inner gate were rooms for the singers in the
inner court, which was at the side of the north gate; and their
prospect was toward the south; one at the side of the east gate
having the prospect toward the north.
He said to me, This room, whose prospect is toward the south, is
for the priests, the keepers of the duty of the house;
and the room whose prospect is toward the north is for the
priests, the keepers of the duty of the altar: these are the
sons of Zadok, who from among the sons of Levi come near to
Yahweh to minister to him.
He measured the court, one hundred cubits long, and a hundred
cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar was before the house.
Then he brought me to the porch of the house, and measured each
post of the porch, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on
that side: and the breadth of the gate was three cubits on this
side, and three cubits on that side.
The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth
eleven cubits; even by the steps by which they went up to it:
and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side, and
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Ezekiel 41 |
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He brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six
cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other
side, which was the breadth of the tent.
The breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the
entrance were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on
the other side: and he measured its length, forty cubits, and
the breadth, twenty cubits.
Then went he inward, and measured each post of the entrance, two
cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the breadth of the
entrance, seven cubits.
He measured its length, twenty cubits, and the breadth, twenty
cubits, before the temple: and he said to me, This is the most
holy place.
Then he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the
breadth of every side room, four cubits, all around the house on
every side.
The side rooms were in three stories, one over another, and
thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which belonged
to the house for the side rooms all around, that they might have
hold therein, and not have hold in the wall of the house.
The side rooms were broader as they encompassed the house higher
and higher; for the encompassing of the house went higher and
higher around the house: therefore the breadth of the house
continued upward; and so one went up from the lowest room to the
highest by the middle room.
I saw also that the house had a raised base all around: the
foundations of the side rooms were a full reed of six great
cubits.
The thickness of the wall, which was for the side rooms, on the
outside, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place
of the side rooms that belonged to the house.
Between the rooms was a breadth of twenty cubits around the
house on every side.
The doors of the side rooms were toward the place that was left,
one door toward the north, and another door toward the south:
and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits all
around.
The building that was before the separate place at the side
toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the
building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety
cubits.
So he measured the house, one hundred cubits long; and the
separate place, and the building, with its walls, one hundred
cubits long;
also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate
place toward the east, one hundred cubits.
He measured the length of the building before the separate place
which was at its back, and its galleries on the one side and on
the other side, one hundred cubits; and the inner temple, and
the porches of the court;
the thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries around
on their three stories, over against the threshold, with wood
ceilings all around, and from the ground up to the windows, (now
the windows were covered),
to the space above the door, even to the inner house, and
outside, and by all the wall all around inside and outside, by
measure.
It was made with cherubim and palm trees; and a palm tree was
between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces;
so that there was the face of a man toward the palm tree on the
one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on
the other side. thus was it made through all the house all
around:
from the ground to above the door were cherubim and palm trees
made: thus was the wall of the temple.
As for the temple, the door posts were squared; and as for the
face of the sanctuary, the appearance of it was as the
appearance of the temple.
The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two
cubits; and its corners, and its length, and its walls, were of
wood: and he said to me, This is the table that is before
Yahweh.
The temple and the sanctuary had two doors.
The doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves: two leaves
for the one door, and two leaves for the other.
There were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubim
and palm trees, like as were made on the walls; and there was a
threshold of wood on the face of the porch outside.
There were closed windows and palm trees on the one side and on
the other side, on the sides of the porch: thus were the side
rooms of the house, and the thresholds. |
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Ezekiel 42 |
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Then he brought me forth into the outer court, the way toward
the north: and he brought me into the room that was over against
the separate place, and which was over against the building
toward the north.
Before the length of one hundred cubits was the north door, and
the breadth was fifty cubits.
Over against the twenty cubits which belonged to the inner
court, and over against the pavement which belonged to the outer
court, was gallery against gallery in the third story.
Before the rooms was a walk of ten cubits’ breadth inward, a way
of one cubit; and their doors were toward the north.
Now the upper rooms were shorter; for the galleries took away
from these, more than from the lower and the middle, in the
building.
For they were in three stories, and they didn’t have pillars as
the pillars of the courts: therefore the uppermost was
straitened more than the lowest and the middle from the ground.
The wall that was outside by the side of the rooms, toward the
outer court before the rooms, its length was fifty cubits.
For the length of the rooms that were in the outer court was
fifty cubits: and behold, before the temple were one hundred
cubits.
From under these rooms was the entry on the east side, as one
goes into them from the outer court.
In the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east,
before the separate place, and before the building, there were
rooms.
The way before them was like the appearance of the way of the
rooms which were toward the north; according to their length so
was their breadth: and all their exits were both according to
their fashions, and according to their doors.
According to the doors of the rooms that were toward the south
was a door at the head of the way, even the way directly before
the wall toward the east, as one enters into them.
Then he said to me, The north rooms and the south rooms, which
are before the separate place, they are the holy rooms, where
the priests who are near to Yahweh shall eat the most holy
things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meal
offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for
the place is holy.
When the priests enter in, then shall they not go out of the
holy place into the outer court, but there they shall lay their
garments in which they minister; for they are holy: and they
shall put on other garments, and shall approach to that which
pertains to the people.
Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he
brought me forth by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward
the east, and measured it all around.
He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five
hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around.
He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the
measuring reed all around.
He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the
measuring reed.
He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred
reeds with the measuring reed.
He measured it on the four sides: it had a wall around it, the
length five hundred, and the breadth five hundred, to make a
separation between that which was holy and that which was
common. |
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Ezekiel 43 |
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Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks
toward the east.
Behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the
east: and his voice was like the sound of many waters; and the
earth shined with his glory.
It was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw,
even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy
the city; and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the
river Chebar; and I fell on my face.
The glory of Yahweh came into the house by the way of the gate
whose prospect is toward the east.
The Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and
behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house.
I heard one speaking to me out of the house; and a man stood by
me.
He said to me, Son of man, this is the place of my throne, and
the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the
midst of the children of Israel forever. The house of Israel
shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their
kings, by their prostitution, and by the dead bodies of their
kings in their high places;
in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their
doorpost beside my doorpost, and there was but the wall between
me and them; and they have defiled my holy name by their
abominations which they have committed: therefore I have
consumed them in my anger.
Now let them put away their prostitution, and the dead bodies of
their kings, far from me; and I will dwell in the midst of them
forever.
You, son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that
they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure
the pattern.
If they be ashamed of all that they have done, make known to
them the form of the house, and its fashion, and its exits, and
its entrances, and all its forms, and all its ordinances, and
all its forms, and all its laws; and write it in their sight;
that they may keep the whole form of it, and all its ordinances,
and do them.
This is the law of the house: on the top of the mountain the
whole limit around it shall be most holy. Behold, this is the
law of the house.
These are the measures of the altar by cubits (the cubit is a
cubit and a handbreadth): the bottom shall be a cubit, and the
breadth a cubit, and its border around its edge a span; and this
shall be the base of the altar.
From the bottom on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two
cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser ledge to
the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the breadth a cubit.
The upper altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar hearth
and upward there shall be four horns.
The altar hearth shall be twelve cubits long by twelve broad,
square in the four sides of it.
The ledge shall be fourteen cubits long by fourteen broad in the
four sides of it; and the border about it shall be half a cubit;
and its bottom shall be a cubit around; and its steps shall look
toward the east.
He said to me, Son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: These are
the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it,
to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.
You shall give to the priests the Levites who are of the seed of
Zadok, who are near to me, to minister to me, says the Lord
Yahweh, a young bull for a sin offering.
You shall take of its blood, and put it on the four horns of it,
and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all
around: thus you shall cleanse it and make atonement for it.
You shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and it shall
be burnt in the appointed place of the house, outside of the
sanctuary.
On the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish
for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they
did cleanse it with the bull.
When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young
bull without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without
blemish.
You shall bring them near to Yahweh, and the priests shall cast
salt on them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering
to Yahweh.
Seven days you shall prepare every day a goat for a sin
offering: they shall also prepare a young bull, and a ram out of
the flock, without blemish.
Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and purify
it; so shall they consecrate it.
When they have accomplished the days, it shall be that on the
eighth day, and forward, the priests shall make your burnt
offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will
accept you, says the Lord Yahweh. |
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Ezekiel 44 |
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Then he brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the
sanctuary, which looks toward the east; and it was shut.
Yahweh said to me, This gate shall be shut; it shall not be
opened, neither shall any man enter in by it; for Yahweh, the
God of Israel, has entered in by it; therefore it shall be shut.
As for the prince, he shall sit therein as prince to eat bread
before Yahweh; he shall enter by the way of the porch of the
gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.
Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the
house; and I looked, and behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the
house of Yahweh: and I fell on my face.
Yahweh said to me, Son of man, mark well, and see with your
eyes, and hear with your ears all that I tell you concerning all
the ordinances of the house of Yahweh, and all its laws; and
mark well the entrance of the house, with every exit of the
sanctuary.
You shall tell the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus
says the Lord Yahweh: you house of Israel, let it suffice you of
all your abominations,
in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart
and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane
it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the
blood, and they have broken my covenant, to add to all your
abominations.
You have not performed the duty of my holy things; but you have
set performers of my duty in my sanctuary for yourselves.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh, No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart
and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of
any foreigners who are among the children of Israel.
But the Levites who went far from me, when Israel went astray,
who went astray from me after their idols, they shall bear their
iniquity.
Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at
the gates of the house, and ministering in the house: they shall
kill the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and
they shall stand before them to minister to them.
Because they ministered to them before their idols, and became a
stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel; therefore
have I lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord Yahweh, and
they shall bear their iniquity.
They shall not come near to me, to execute the office of priest
to me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, to the things
that are most holy; but they shall bear their shame, and their
abominations which they have committed.
Yet will I make them performers of the duty of the house, for
all its service, and for all that shall be done therein.
But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who performed
the duty of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray
from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me; and they
shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, says
the Lord Yahweh:
they shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to
my table, to minister to me, and they shall keep my instruction.
It shall be that, when they enter in at the gates of the inner
court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool
shall come on them, while they minister in the gates of the
inner court, and within.
They shall have linen tires on their heads, and shall have linen
breeches on their waists; they shall not clothe themselves with
anything that causes sweat.
When they go forth into the outer court, even into the outer
court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which
they minister, and lay them in the holy rooms; and they shall
put on other garments, that they not sanctify the people with
their garments.
Neither shall they shave their heads, nor allow their locks to
grow long; they shall only cut off the hair of their heads.
Neither shall any of the priests drink wine, when they enter
into the inner court.
Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her who is
put away; but they shall take virgins of the seed of the house
of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.
They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and
the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and
the clean.
In a controversy they shall stand to judge; according to my
ordinances shall they judge it: and they shall keep my laws and
my statutes in all my appointed feasts; and they shall make my
Sabbaths holy.
They shall go in to no dead person to defile themselves; but for
father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother,
or for sister who has had no husband, they may defile
themselves.
After he is cleansed, they shall reckon to him seven days.
In the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner
court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin
offering, says the Lord Yahweh.
They shall have an inheritance: I am their inheritance; and you
shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession.
They shall eat the meal offering, and the sin offering, and the
trespass offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be
theirs.
The first of all the first fruits of every thing, and every
offering of everything, of all your offerings, shall be for the
priest: you shall also give to the priests the first of your
dough, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.
The priests shall not eat of anything that dies of itself, or is
torn, whether it be bird or animal. |
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Ezekiel 45 |
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Moreover, when you shall divide by lot the land for
inheritance, you shall offer an offering to Yahweh, a holy
portion of the land; the length shall be the length of
twenty-five thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten
thousand: it shall be holy in all its border all around.
Of this there shall be for the holy place five hundred in length
by five hundred in breadth, square all around; and fifty cubits
for its suburbs all around.
Of this measure you shall measure a length of twenty-five
thousand, and a breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the
sanctuary, which is most holy.
It is a holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests,
the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to
Yahweh; and it shall be a place for their houses, and a holy
place for the sanctuary.
Twenty-five thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth,
shall be to the Levites, the ministers of the house, for a
possession to themselves, for twenty rooms.
You shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand
broad, and twenty-five thousand long, side by side with the
offering of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of
Israel.
Whatever is for the prince shall be on the one side and on the
other side of the holy offering and of the possession of the
city, in front of the holy offering and in front of the
possession of the city, on the west side westward, and on the
east side eastward; and in length answerable to one of the
portions, from the west border to the east border.
In the land it shall be to him for a possession in Israel: and
my princes shall no more oppress my people; but they shall give
the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Let it suffice you, princes of
Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute justice and
righteousness; dispossessing my people, says the Lord Yahweh.
You shall have just balances, and a just ephah,
and a just bath.
The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath
may contain the tenth part of a homer, and
the ephah the tenth part of a homer: its measure shall be after
the homer.
The shekel shall be twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus
twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels shall be your mina.
This is the offering that you shall offer: the sixth part of an
ephah from a homer of wheat; and you shall give the sixth part
of an ephah from a homer of barley;
and the set portion of oil, of the bath of oil, the tenth part
of a bath out of the cor, which is ten baths, even a homer; (for
ten baths are a homer;)
and one lamb of the flock, out of two hundred, from the
well-watered pastures of Israel—for a meal offering, and for a
burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make atonement for
them, says the Lord Yahweh.
All the people of the land shall give to this offering for the
prince in Israel.
It shall be the prince’s part to give the burnt offerings, and
the meal offerings, and the drink offerings, in the feasts, and
on the new moons, and on the Sabbaths, in all the appointed
feasts of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin
offering, and the meal offering, and the burnt offering, and the
peace offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the first month, in the first day
of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish; and
you shall cleanse the sanctuary.
The priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put
it on the door posts of the house, and on the four corners of
the ledge of the altar, and on the posts of the gate of the
inner court.
So you shall do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who
errs, and for him who is simple: so you shall make atonement for
the house.
In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, you
shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread
shall be eaten.
On that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the
people of the land a bull for a sin offering.
The seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to
Yahweh, seven bulls and seven rams without blemish daily the
seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering.
He shall prepare a meal offering, an ephah for a bull, and an
ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil to an ephah.
In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, in the
feast, shall he do the like the seven days; according to the sin
offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the
meal offering, and according to the oil. |
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45:10 1 ephah is about 22
litres or about 2/3 of a bushel
45:11 1 homer is about
220 litres or 6 bushels
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Ezekiel 46 |
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Thus says the Lord Yahweh: The gate of the inner court that
looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on
the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new
moon it shall be opened.
The prince shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate
outside, and shall stand by the post of the gate; and the
priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace
offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate:
then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the
evening.
The people of the land shall worship at the door of that gate
before Yahweh on the Sabbaths and on the new moons.
The burnt offering that the prince shall offer to Yahweh shall
be on the Sabbath day six lambs without blemish and a ram
without blemish;
and the meal offering shall be an ephah for the ram, and the
meal offering for the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of
oil to an ephah.
On the day of the new moon it shall be a young bull without
blemish, and six lambs, and a ram; they shall be without
blemish:
and he shall prepare a meal offering, an ephah for the bull, and
an ephah for the ram, and for the lambs according as he is able,
and a hin of oil to an ephah.
When the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the
porch of the gate, and he shall go forth by its way.
But when the people of the land shall come before Yahweh in the
appointed feasts, he who enters by the way of the north gate to
worship shall go forth by the way of the south gate; and he who
enters by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of
the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate by
which he came in, but shall go forth straight before him.
The prince, when they go in, shall go in with of them; and when
they go out, he shall go out.
In the feasts and in the solemnities the meal offering shall be
an ephah for a bull, and an ephah for a ram,
and for the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an
ephah.
When the prince shall prepare a freewill offering, a burnt
offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to Yahweh,
one shall open for him the gate that looks toward the east; and
he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as
he does on the Sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after
his going forth one shall shut the gate.
You shall prepare a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt
offering to Yahweh daily: morning by morning you shall prepare
it.
You shall prepare a meal offering with it morning by morning,
the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of a hin of oil,
to moisten the fine flour; a meal offering to Yahweh continually
by a perpetual ordinance.
Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meal offering, and the
oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: If the prince give a gift to any of
his sons, it is his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons; it
is their possession by inheritance.
But if he give of his inheritance a gift to one of his servants,
it shall be his to the year of liberty; then it shall return to
the prince; but as for his inheritance, it shall be for his
sons.
Moreover the prince shall not take of the people’s inheritance,
to thrust them out of their possession; he shall give
inheritance to his sons out of his own possession, that my
people not be scattered every man from his possession.
Then he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of
the gate, into the holy rooms for the priests, which looked
toward the north: and behold, there was a place on the hinder
part westward.
He said to me, This is the place where the priests shall boil
the trespass offering and the sin offering, and where they shall
bake the meal offering; that they not bring them forth into the
outer court, to sanctify the people.
Then he brought me forth into the outer court, and caused me to
pass by the four corners of the court; and behold, in every
corner of the court there was a court.
In the four corners of the court there were courts enclosed,
forty cubits long and thirty broad: these four in the corners
were of one measure.
There was a wall around in them, around the four, and boiling
places were made under the walls all around.
Then he said to me, These are the boiling houses, where the
ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people. |
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46:11 1 ephah is about 22
litres or about 2/3 of a bushel
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Ezekiel 47 |
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He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold,
waters issued out from under the threshold of the house
eastward; (for the forefront of the house was toward the east;)
and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the
house, on the south of the altar.
Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led
me round by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of the
gate that looks toward the east; and behold, there ran out
waters on the right side.
When the man went forth eastward with the line in his hand, he
measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through
the waters, waters that were to the ankles.
Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through
the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one
thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that
were to the waist.
Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I
could not pass through; for the waters were risen, waters to
swim in, a river that could not be passed through.
He said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he brought
me, and caused me to return to the bank of the river.
Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were
very many trees on the one side and on the other.
Then he said to me, These waters issue forth toward the eastern
region, and shall go down into the Arabah; and they shall go
toward the sea; into the sea shall the waters go which were made
to issue forth; and the waters shall be healed.
It shall happen, that every living creature which swarms, in
every place where the rivers come, shall live; and there shall
be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters are come
there, and the waters of the sea shall be healed, and everything
shall live wherever the river comes.
It shall happen, that fishermen shall stand by it: from En Gedi
even to En Eglaim shall be a place for the spreading of nets;
their fish shall be after their kinds, as the fish of the great
sea, exceeding many.
But the miry places of it, and its marshes, shall not be healed;
they shall be given up to salt.
By the river on its bank, on this side and on that side, shall
grow every tree for food, whose leaf shall not wither, neither
shall its fruit fail: it shall bring forth new fruit every
month, because its waters issue out of the sanctuary; and its
fruit shall be for food, and its leaf for healing.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This shall be the border, by which
you shall divide the land for inheritance according to the
twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two portions.
You shall inherit it, one as well as another; for I swore to
give it to your fathers: and this land shall fall to you for
inheritance.
This shall be the border of the land: On the north side, from
the great sea, by the way of Hethlon, to the entrance of Zedad;
Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of
Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazer Hatticon, which is by
the border of Hauran.
The border from the sea, shall be Hazar Enon at the border of
Damascus; and on the north northward is the border of Hamath.
This is the north side.
The east side, between Hauran and Damascus and Gilead, and the
land of Israel, shall be the Jordan; from the north border to
the east sea you shall measure. This is the east side.
The south side southward shall be from Tamar as far as the
waters of Meriboth Kadesh, to the brook of Egypt, to the great
sea. This is the south side southward.
The west side shall be the great sea, from the south border as
far as over against the entrance of Hamath. This is the west
side.
So you shall divide this land to you according to the tribes of
Israel.
It shall happen, that you shall divide it by lot for an
inheritance to you and to the aliens who live among you, who
shall father children among you; and they shall be to you as the
native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have
inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.
It shall happen, that in what tribe the stranger lives, there
you shall give him his inheritance, says the Lord Yahweh. |
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Ezekiel 48 |
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Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end,
beside the way of Hethlon to the entrance of Hamath, Hazar Enan
at the border of Damascus, northward beside Hamath, (and they
shall have their sides east and west), Dan, one portion.
By the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side,
Asher, one portion.
By the border of Asher, from the east side even to the west
side, Naphtali, one portion.
By the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side,
Manasseh, one portion.
By the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side,
Ephraim, one portion.
By the border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the west
side, Reuben, one portion.
By the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side,
Judah, one portion.
By the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side,
shall be the offering which you shall offer, twenty-five
thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the portions,
from the east side to the west side: and the sanctuary shall be
in its midst.
The offering that you shall offer to Yahweh shall be twenty-five
thousand reeds in length, and ten thousand in breadth.
For these, even for the priests, shall be the holy offering:
toward the north twenty-five thousand in length, and toward the
west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand
in breadth, and toward the south twenty-five thousand in length:
and the sanctuary of Yahweh shall be in its midst.
It shall be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of
Zadok, who have kept my instruction, who didn’t go astray when
the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.
It shall be to them an offering from the offering of the land, a
thing most holy, by the border of the Levites.
Answerable to the border of the priests, the Levites shall have
twenty-five thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all
the length shall be twenty-five thousand, and the breadth ten
thousand.
They shall sell none of it, nor exchange it, nor shall the first
fruits of the land be alienated; for it is holy to Yahweh.
The five thousand that are left in the breadth, in front of the
twenty-five thousand, shall be for common use, for the city, for
dwelling and for suburbs; and the city shall be in its midst.
These shall be its measures: the north side four thousand and
five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred,
and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the
west side four thousand and five hundred.
The city shall have suburbs: toward the north two hundred fifty,
and toward the south two hundred fifty, and toward the east two
hundred fifty, and toward the west two hundred fifty.
The remainder in the length, answerable to the holy offering,
shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward; and
it shall be answerable to the holy offering; and its increase
shall be for food to those who labor in the city.
Those who labor in the city, out of all the tribes of Israel,
shall cultivate it.
All the offering shall be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five
thousand: you shall offer the holy offering foursquare, with the
possession of the city.
The residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the
other of the holy offering and of the possession of the city; in
front of the twenty-five thousand of the offering toward the
east border, and westward in front of the twenty-five thousand
toward the west border, answerable to the portions, it shall be
for the prince: and the holy offering and the sanctuary of the
house shall be in its midst.
Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the
possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the
prince’s, between the border of Judah and the border of
Benjamin, it shall be for the prince.
As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west
side, Benjamin, one portion.
By the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side,
Simeon, one portion.
By the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side,
Issachar, one portion.
By the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side,
Zebulun, one portion.
By the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side,
Gad, one portion.
By the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border
shall be even from Tamar to the waters of Meribath Kadesh, to
the brook of Egypt, to the great sea.
This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of
Israel for inheritance, and these are their several portions,
says the Lord Yahweh.
These are the exits of the city: On the north side four thousand
and five hundred reeds by measure;
and the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes
of Israel, three gates northward: the gate of Reuben, one; the
gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one.
At the east side four thousand and five hundred reeds, and three
gates: even the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one;
the gate of Dan, one.
At the south side four thousand and five hundred reeds by
measure, and three gates: the gate of Simeon, one; the gate of
Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one.
At the west side four thousand and five hundred reeds, with
their three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one;
the gate of Naphtali, one.
It shall be eighteen thousand reeds around: and the name of the
city from that day shall be, Yahweh is there. |
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