Ezekiel 21 Cross References - MSB

¹ And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel ³ and tell her that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. ⁴ Because I will cut off both the righteous and the wicked, My sword will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north. ⁵ Then all flesh will know that I, the LORD, have taken My sword from its sheath, not to return it again.’ ⁶ But you, son of man, groan! Groan before their eyes with a broken heart and bitter grief. ⁷ And when they ask, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you are to say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt, and every hand will go limp. Every spirit will faint, and every knee will turn to water.’ Yes, it is coming and it will surely happen, declares the Lord GOD.” ⁸ Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ⁹ “Son of man, prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘A sword, a sword, sharpened and polished— ¹⁰ it is sharpened for the slaughter, polished to flash like lightning! Should we rejoice in the scepter of My son? The sword despises every such stick. ¹¹ The sword is appointed to be polished, to be grasped in the hand. It is sharpened and polished, to be placed in the hand of the slayer. ¹² Cry out and wail, O son of man, for the sword is wielded against My people; it is against all the princes of Israel! They are tossed to the sword with My people; therefore strike your thigh. ¹³ Surely testing will come! And what if even the scepter, which the sword despises, does not continue?’ declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁴ ‘So then, son of man, prophesy and strike your hands together. Let the sword strike two times, even three. It is a sword that slays, a sword of great slaughter closing in on every side! ¹⁵ So that their hearts may melt and many may stumble, I have appointed at all their gates a sword for slaughter. Yes, it is ready to flash like lightning; it is drawn for slaughter. ¹⁶ Slash to the right; set your blade to the left—wherever your blade is directed. ¹⁷ I too will strike My hands together, and I will satisfy My wrath.’ I, the LORD, have spoken.” ¹⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁹ “Now you, son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to take, both starting from the same land. And make a signpost where the road branches off to each city. ²⁰ Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and another against Judah into fortified Jerusalem. ²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He shakes the arrows, he consults the idols, he examines the liver. ²² In his right hand appears the portent for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to call for the slaughter, to lift a battle cry, to direct the battering rams against the gates, to build a ramp, and to erect a siege wall. ²³ It will seem like a false omen to the eyes of those who have sworn allegiance to him, but it will draw attention to their guilt and take them captive. ²⁴ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have drawn attention to your guilt, exposing your transgressions, so that your sins are revealed in all your deeds—because you have come to remembrance—you shall be taken in hand. ²⁵ And you, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, the day has come for your final punishment.’ ²⁶ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Remove the turban, and take off the crown. Things will not remain as they are: Exalt the lowly and bring low the exalted. ²⁷ A ruin, a ruin, I will make it a ruin! And it will not be restored until the arrival of Him to whom it belongs, to whom I have assigned the right of judgment.’ ²⁸ Now prophesy, son of man, and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says concerning the Ammonites and their contempt: ‘A sword! A sword is drawn for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning— ²⁹ while they offer false visions for you and lying divinations about you—to be placed on the necks of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment. ³⁰ Return the sword to its sheath! In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you. ³¹ I will pour out My anger upon you; I will breathe the fire of My fury against you; I will hand you over to brutal men, skilled in destruction. ³² You will be fuel for the fire. Your blood will stain your own land. You will not be remembered, for I, the LORD, have spoken.’”

² Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.

¹¹ Then the priests and prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man is worthy of death, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears!” ¹² But Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people, “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

³ Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁷ You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

² “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

⁴⁶ “Son of man, set your face toward the south, preach against it, and prophesy against the forest of the Negev.

² “Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

²¹ “Son of man, set your face against Sidon and prophesy against her.

² “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.

¹ “And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD.

² “Son of man, set your face against Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy against him

¹⁶ Now, therefore, hear the word of the LORD. You say: ‘Do not prophesy against Israel; do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

⁶ “Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”

¹¹ If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!

¹³ where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemies against this holy place and against the law. ¹⁴ For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will boldly make known the mystery of the gospel,

⁹ The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

²⁵ And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

³³ But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

⁴¹ when I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me. ⁴² I will make My arrows drunk with blood, while My sword devours flesh—the blood of the slain and captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.”

²² It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

¹³ Arise, O LORD, confront them! Bring them to their knees; deliver me from the wicked by Your sword,

² It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

⁵ Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath.

⁵ When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

² If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’ ³ I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴ I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

¹³ Behold, I am against you who dwell above the valley, atop the rocky plateau—declares the LORD—you who say, “Who can come against us? Who can enter our dwellings?”

⁶ ‘Alas, O sword of the LORD, how long until you rest? Return to your sheath; cease and be still!’ ⁷ How can it rest when the LORD has commanded it? He has appointed it against Ashkelon and the shore of its coastland.”

³¹ “Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

²⁰ “You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.

²⁵ “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who devastate the whole earth, declares the LORD. I will stretch out My hand against you; I will roll you over the cliffs and turn you into a charred mountain.

⁸ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

¹² A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

⁵ And as I listened, He said to the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing; do not show pity or spare anyone! ⁶ Slaughter the old men, the young men and maidens, the women and children; but do not go near anyone who has the mark. Now begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the temple.

¹⁷ Or if I bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through it,’ so that I cut off from it both man and beast,

²¹ For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?

⁹ “Son of man, prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘A sword, a sword, sharpened and polished— ¹⁰ it is sharpened for the slaughter, polished to flash like lightning! Should we rejoice in the scepter of My son? The sword despises every such stick. ¹¹ The sword is appointed to be polished, to be grasped in the hand. It is sharpened and polished, to be placed in the hand of the slayer.

¹⁹ “Now you, son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to take, both starting from the same land. And make a signpost where the road branches off to each city.

³ therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, O Tyre, I am against you, and I will raise up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.

¹³ “Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will send your chariots up in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

⁵ “Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.

¹² “You too, O Cushites, will be slain by My sword.”

⁷ Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is My Companion, declares the LORD of Hosts. Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones.

¹¹ This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague. ¹² He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them. ¹³ Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols. ¹⁴ I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

² “O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.

⁴⁷ Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched.

²¹ “Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD, ²² not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times— ²³ not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.

²⁴ So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ ²⁵ And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶ They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them. ²⁷ Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book. ²⁸ The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’

¹² On that day I will carry out against Eli everything I have spoken about his family, from beginning to end.

⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples. ⁸ And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ ⁹ And others will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—because of this, the LORD has brought all this disaster upon them.’”

²³ By Myself I have sworn; truth has gone out from My mouth, a word that will not be revoked: Every knee will bow before Me, every tongue will swear allegiance.

¹¹ so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.

²⁰ The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this clearly.

⁴⁸ Then all people will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it will not be quenched.”

³⁰ Return the sword to its sheath! In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.

⁹ Whatever you plot against the LORD, He will bring to an end. Affliction will not rise up a second time.

¹¹ Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres.

³ Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.

⁴ Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

¹⁹ My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.

¹⁷ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them. ¹⁸ Let them come quickly and take up a lament over us, that our eyes may overflow with tears, and our eyelids may gush with water. ¹⁹ For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! How great is our shame! For we have abandoned the land because our dwellings have been torn down.’” ²⁰ Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD. Open your ears to the word of His mouth. Teach your daughters to wail, and one another to lament. ²¹ For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.

¹⁰ Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you,

⁶ Ask now, and see: Can a male give birth? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor and every face turned pale?

¹² And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.”

¹¹ This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague.

⁴ “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”

³ Therefore, son of man, pack your bags for exile. In broad daylight, set out from your place and go to another as they watch. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house. ⁴ Bring out your baggage for exile by day, as they watch. Then in the evening, as they watch, go out like those who go into exile. ⁵ As they watch, dig through the wall and carry your belongings out through it.

¹² Cry out and wail, O son of man, for the sword is wielded against My people; it is against all the princes of Israel! They are tossed to the sword with My people; therefore strike your thigh.

²⁰ When the sticks on which you write are in your hand and in full view of the people,

⁶ his face grew pale and his thoughts so alarmed him that his hips gave way and his knees knocked together.

²⁷ I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was confounded by the vision; it was beyond understanding.

¹⁰ She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste! Hearts melt, knees knock, bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!

¹⁶ I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Decay entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress to come upon the people who invade us.

³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you put him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered. ³⁵ Jesus wept.

¹⁵ Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; trembling will seize the leaders of Moab; those who dwell in Canaan will melt away,

³⁶ As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

⁸ Then the officers shall speak further to the army, saying, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him return home, so that the hearts of his brothers will not melt like his own.”

⁹ and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you. ¹⁰ For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction. ¹¹ When we heard this, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.

¹ Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and their spirits failed for fear of the Israelites.

¹⁰ Then even the most valiant soldier with the heart of a lion will melt with fear, because all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man who has valiant men with him.

¹² this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah that the news will reverberate in the ears of all who hear it.

³ Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands. ⁴ Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

² When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind.

⁷ Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.

¹⁹ As often as it passes through, it will carry you away; it will sweep through morning after morning, by day and by night.” The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.

³ Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!

²² This is what the LORD says: “Behold, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is stirred up from the ends of the earth. ²³ They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Zion.” ²⁴ We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.

¹⁸ My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me.

²³ Concerning Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, for they have heard a bad report; they are agitated like the sea; their anxiety cannot be calmed.

⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard the report, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor.

¹⁷ Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—

² “O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. ³ The end is now upon you, and I will unleash My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. ⁴ I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming! ⁶ The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. Behold, it has come! ⁷ Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy. ⁸ Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. ⁹ I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow. ¹⁰ Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed. ¹¹ Their violence has grown into a rod to punish their wickedness. None of them will remain: none of their multitude, none of their wealth, and nothing of value. ¹² The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude.

¹⁷ Every hand will go limp, and every knee will turn to water.

²⁶ Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor after rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction from the priests will perish, as will counsel from the elders.

⁹ “Son of man, hasn’t the rebellious house of Israel asked you, ‘What are you doing?’ ¹⁰ Tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are there.’ ¹¹ You are to say, ‘I am a sign to you.’ Just as it happened here, so will it be done to them; they will go into exile as captives.

²² “Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by, and every vision fails’? ²³ Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will put an end to this proverb, and in Israel they will no longer recite it.’ But say to them: ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled. ²⁴ For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations within the house of Israel, ²⁵ because I, the LORD, will speak whatever word I speak, and it will be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a message and bring it to pass, declares the Lord GOD.’” ²⁶ Furthermore, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²⁷ “Son of man, take note that the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many years from now; he prophesies about the distant future.’ ²⁸ Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘None of My words will be delayed any longer. The message I speak will be fulfilled, declares the Lord GOD.’”

⁴⁹ Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, they are saying of me, ‘Is he not just telling parables?’”

¹⁹ Then the people asked me, “Won’t you tell us what these things you are doing mean to us?”

²⁶ Men will faint from fear and anxiety over what is coming upon the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

¹² Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees.

⁷ The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.

²⁵ It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.

¹¹ God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation each day. ¹² If one does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has bent and strung His bow. ¹³ He has prepared His deadly weapons; He ordains His arrows with fire.

¹ In that day the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent—Leviathan the coiling serpent—and He will slay the dragon of the sea.

⁵ When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. ⁶ The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

¹⁶ For by fire and by His sword, the LORD will execute judgment on all flesh, and many will be slain by the LORD.

¹² Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the earth to the other. No flesh has peace.

² If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’

³ and tell her that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am against you, and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.

¹⁵ So that their hearts may melt and many may stumble, I have appointed at all their gates a sword for slaughter. Yes, it is ready to flash like lightning; it is drawn for slaughter.

²⁸ Now prophesy, son of man, and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says concerning the Ammonites and their contempt: ‘A sword! A sword is drawn for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning—

⁴ Though they are driven by their enemies into captivity, there I will command the sword to slay them. I will fix My eyes upon them for harm and not for good.”

¹⁴ I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.

¹⁵ The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.

⁷ I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the LORD: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father. ⁸ Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession. ⁹ You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”

²⁶ He will call to Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock of my salvation.’ ²⁷ I will indeed appoint him as My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. ²⁸ I will forever preserve My loving devotion for him, and My covenant with him will stand fast. ²⁹ I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the heavens endure. ³⁰ If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, ³¹ if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments, ³² I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes.

³⁸ Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one. ³⁹ You have renounced the covenant with Your servant and sullied his crown in the dust. ⁴⁰ You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble. ⁴¹ All who pass by plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors. ⁴² You have exalted the right hand of his foes; You have made all his enemies rejoice. ⁴³ You have bent the edge of his sword and have not sustained him in battle. ⁴⁴ You have ended his splendor and cast his throne to the ground. ⁴⁵ You have cut short the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah

⁵ The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His wrath. ⁶ He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead; He will crush the leaders far and wide.

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

¹² At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands. ¹³ Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst. ¹⁴ Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers!

¹² On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth. ¹³ But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” ¹⁴ The LORD of Hosts has revealed in my hearing: “Until your dying day, this sin of yours will never be atoned for,” says the Lord GOD of Hosts.

⁴ Harness the horses; mount the steeds; take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears; put on armor!

¹¹ It had strong branches, fit for a ruler’s scepter. It towered high above the thick branches, conspicuous for its height and for its dense foliage. ¹² But it was uprooted in fury, cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong branches were stripped off and they withered; the fire consumed them. ¹³ Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. ¹⁴ Fire has gone out from its main branch and devoured its fruit; on it no strong branch remains fit for a ruler’s scepter.’ This is a lament and shall be used as a lament.”

²⁵ And you, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, the day has come for your final punishment.’ ²⁶ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Remove the turban, and take off the crown. Things will not remain as they are: Exalt the lowly and bring low the exalted. ²⁷ A ruin, a ruin, I will make it a ruin! And it will not be restored until the arrival of Him to whom it belongs, to whom I have assigned the right of judgment.’

³ You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence. ⁴ You lie on beds inlaid with ivory, and lounge upon your couches. You dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall. ⁵ You improvise songs on the harp like David and invent your own musical instruments. ⁶ You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you fail to grieve over the ruin of Joseph. ⁷ Therefore, you will now go into exile as the first of the captives, and your feasting and lounging will come to an end.

¹⁰ For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.

³ Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end—they stumble over their dead—

¹¹ Sun and moon stood still in their places at the flash of Your flying arrows, at the brightness of Your shining spear.

³⁴ But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare. ³⁵ For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth.

²⁷ He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery—just as I have received authority from My Father.

⁹ behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

³³ Those slain by the LORD on that day will be spread from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, gathered, or buried. They will be like dung lying on the ground.

²⁰ “You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin. ²¹ With you I shatter the horse and rider; with you I shatter the chariot and driver. ²² With you I shatter man and woman; with you I shatter the old man and the youth; with you I shatter the young man and the maiden. ²³ With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock; with you I shatter the farmer and his oxen; with you I shatter the governors and officials.

³⁴ Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter have come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.

¹² They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—the grain, new wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and never again will they languish.

¹⁹ After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

⁸ While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell facedown and cried out, “Oh, Lord GOD, when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem, will You destroy the entire remnant of Israel?”

⁶ But you, son of man, groan! Groan before their eyes with a broken heart and bitter grief.

¹⁴ ‘So then, son of man, prophesy and strike your hands together. Let the sword strike two times, even three. It is a sword that slays, a sword of great slaughter closing in on every side!

² “Son of man, prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Wail, ‘Alas for that day!’

¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

⁸ Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich.

²³ When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

¹⁰ it is sharpened for the slaughter, polished to flash like lightning! Should we rejoice in the scepter of My son? The sword despises every such stick.

²⁵ And you, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, the day has come for your final punishment.’

² In the terrible ordeal they suffered, their abundant joy and deep poverty overflowed into rich generosity.

²¹ If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

²⁴ then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

¹⁰ Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together and said to Balaam, “I summoned you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times.

³⁰ The rest of them fled into the city of Aphek, where the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the remaining men. Ben-hadad also fled to the city and hid in an inner room.

²⁵ Micaiah replied, “You will soon see, on that day when you go and hide in an inner room.”

¹ During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded. So Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, until he turned and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁰ At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. ¹¹ And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it. ¹² Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive. ¹³ As the LORD had declared, Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the treasures from the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD. ¹⁴ He carried into exile all Jerusalem—all the commanders and mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and metalsmiths—ten thousand captives in all. Only the poorest people of the land remained. ¹⁵ Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, as well as the king’s mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ The king of Babylon also brought into exile to Babylon all seven thousand men of valor and a thousand craftsmen and metalsmiths—all strong and fit for battle.

¹ So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it. ² And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ³ By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food. ⁴ Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah, ⁵ but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was separated from him. ⁶ The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment on him. ⁷ And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

¹² “Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”

¹⁷ I too will strike My hands together, and I will satisfy My wrath.’ I, the LORD, have spoken.”

¹⁹ At this, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual,

² Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.

²⁷ But if you do not listen to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in its gates to consume the citadels of Jerusalem.’”

⁷ And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them. And when I set My face against them, you will know that I am the LORD.

⁷ And when they ask, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you are to say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt, and every hand will go limp. Every spirit will faint, and every knee will turn to water.’ Yes, it is coming and it will surely happen, declares the Lord GOD.”

²² In his right hand appears the portent for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to call for the slaughter, to lift a battle cry, to direct the battering rams against the gates, to build a ramp, and to erect a siege wall.

⁹ Is not the whole land before you? Now separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.”

⁴⁶ Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to your north; and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to your south.

⁴ Because I will cut off both the righteous and the wicked, My sword will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north.

²⁰ Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and another against Judah into fortified Jerusalem.

⁶³ Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.

²⁴ Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will be relieved of My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies.

¹³ And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.

⁴² So I will lay to rest My wrath against you, and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be calm and no longer angry.

¹³ Now look, I strike My hands together against your unjust gain and against the blood you have shed in your midst.

⁸ Then the LORD summoned me and said, “Behold, those going to the land of the north have given rest to My Spirit in the land of the north.”

¹⁰ See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”

¹ “Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem. ² Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides. ³ Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

¹ “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. ² When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them. ³ But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment. ⁴ Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel. ⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’ ⁸ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. ¹⁰ As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’ ¹¹ Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you. ¹² A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them. ¹³ And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken. ¹⁴ I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food. ¹⁷ I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

¹¹ (For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

⁹ So David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built it up all the way around, from the supporting terraces inward.

²⁶ Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal fortress.

⁹ Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and the angle in the wall, and he fortified them.

⁵ Then Hezekiah worked resolutely to rebuild all the broken sections of the wall and to raise up towers on it. He also built an outer wall and reinforced the supporting terraces of the City of David, and he produced an abundance of weapons and shields.

¹⁴ After this, Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David from west of Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate, and he brought it around the hill of Ophel and heightened it considerably. He also stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹² March around Zion, encircle her, count her towers, ¹³ consider her ramparts, tour her citadels, that you may tell the next generation.

¹ A song of ascents. Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion. It cannot be moved; it abides forever. ² As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people, both now and forevermore.

¹⁰ You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall.

² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sound the battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a heap of ruins, and its villages will be burned. Then Israel will drive out their dispossessors, says the LORD.

¹² The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any people of the world, that an enemy or a foe could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

⁵ I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’

¹⁴ So I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah to consume its citadels amid war cries on the day of battle and a violent wind on the day of tempest.

¹⁹ Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

³⁰ Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”

⁷ The elders of Moab and Midian departed with the fees for divination in hand. They came to Balaam and relayed to him the words of Balak.

²³ For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What great things God has done!’

²⁸ And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.

¹⁰ Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,

⁵ Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest.

¹⁴ Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that one of these houses has an ephod, household gods, a graven image, and a molten idol? Now think about what you should do.”

¹⁸ When they entered Micah’s house and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

²⁰ So the priest was glad and took the ephod, the household idols, and the graven image, and went with the people.

²⁴ He replied, “You took the gods I had made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you say to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’”

²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”

²⁴ Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD.

¹⁰ A divine verdict is on the lips of a king; his mouth must not betray justice.

³³ The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

¹ The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.

⁴ For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol.

¹² My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.

² For idols speak deceit and diviners see illusions; they tell false dreams and offer empty comfort. Therefore the people wander like sheep, oppressed for lack of a shepherd.

¹⁶ One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling.

¹⁷ When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “The sound of war is in the camp.” ¹⁸ But Moses replied: “It is neither the cry of victory nor the cry of defeat; I hear the sound of singing!”

¹⁰ But Joshua had commanded the people: “Do not give a battle cry or let your voice be heard; do not let one word come out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you are to shout!”

²⁰ So when the rams’ horns sounded, the people shouted. When they heard the blast of the horn, the people gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. Then all the people charged straight into the city and captured it.

²⁰ So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with a keeper, loaded up, and set out as Jesse had instructed him. He reached the camp as the army was marching out to its position and shouting the battle cry.

²⁵ At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor. He catches the scent of battle from afar—the shouts of captains and the cry of war.

²⁴ See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!

⁴ For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah that have been torn down for defense against the siege ramps and the sword:

¹⁴ The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.”

⁴ So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

² Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides.

⁹ He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his axes.

¹⁵ then he is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring for her an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering of memorial as a reminder of iniquity.

¹⁸ “O man of God,” said the woman to Elijah, “what have you done to me? Have you come to remind me of my iniquity and cause the death of my son?”

²⁰ For because of the anger of the LORD, all this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally banished them from His presence. And Zedekiah also rebelled against the king of Babylon.

¹³ He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. But Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

³ For because of the anger of the LORD, all this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally banished them from His presence. And Zedekiah also rebelled against the king of Babylon. ⁴ So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it. ⁵ And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ⁶ By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food. ⁷ Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah, ⁸ but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was separated from him. ⁹ The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on Zedekiah. ¹⁰ There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah. ¹¹ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.

³ They are saying, ‘Is not the time near to build houses? The city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat.’

²² “Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by, and every vision fails’?

¹³ He took a member of the royal family and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. Then he carried away the leading men of the land, ¹⁴ so that the kingdom would be brought low, unable to lift itself up, surviving only by keeping his covenant. ¹⁵ But this king rebelled against Babylon by sending his envoys to Egypt to ask for horses and a large army. Will he flourish? Will the one who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and yet escape?’ ¹⁶ ‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘he will die in Babylon, in the land of the king who enthroned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke. ¹⁷ Pharaoh with his mighty army and vast horde will not help him in battle, when ramps are built and siege walls constructed to destroy many lives. ¹⁸ He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Seeing that he gave his hand in pledge yet did all these things, he will not escape!’ ¹⁹ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘As surely as I live, I will bring down upon his head My oath that he despised and My covenant that he broke.

²⁴ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have drawn attention to your guilt, exposing your transgressions, so that your sins are revealed in all your deeds—because you have come to remembrance—you shall be taken in hand.

¹⁶ Egypt will never again be an object of trust for the house of Israel, but will remind them of their iniquity in turning to the Egyptians. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.”

¹⁹ The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.

⁹ The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.

¹⁷ Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, ¹⁸ roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master.

³⁴ Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things

² “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.

²⁷ Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich. ²⁸ They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

¹⁵ Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the LORD.

¹² Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.

² If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people. ³ “They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the LORD. ⁴ “Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander. ⁵ Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity. ⁶ You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD. ⁷ Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of the daughter of My people?

¹⁶ You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred! ¹⁷ You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself. ¹⁸ You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you set My oil and incense before them. ¹⁹ And you set before them as a pleasing aroma the food I had given you—the fine flour, oil, and honey that I had fed you. That is what happened, declares the Lord GOD. ²⁰ You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough? ²¹ You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols. ²² And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.

³ and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘O city who brings her own doom by shedding blood within her walls and making idols to defile herself, ⁴ you are guilty of the blood you have shed, and you are defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close and have come to the end of your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all the lands. ⁵ Those near and far will mock you, O infamous city, full of turmoil. ⁶ See how every prince of Israel within you has used his power to shed blood. ⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed. ⁸ You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths. ⁹ Among you are slanderous men bent on bloodshed; within you are those who eat on the mountain shrines and commit acts of indecency. ¹⁰ In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity. ¹¹ One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. ¹² In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.

²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, ‘In the day of indignation, you are a land that has not been cleansed, upon which no rain has fallen.’ ²⁵ The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. ²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain. ²⁸ Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice. ³⁰ I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one. ³¹ So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

⁵ Oholah prostituted herself while she was still Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors ⁶ clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all desirable young men, horsemen mounted on steeds. ⁷ She offered sexual favors to all the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of those for whom she lusted. ⁸ She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her. ⁹ Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted. ¹⁰ They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and put her to the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgment against her. ¹¹ Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister. ¹² She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors dressed in splendor, horsemen riding on steeds, all desirable young men. ¹³ And I saw that she too had defiled herself; both of them had taken the same path. ¹⁴ But Oholibah carried her prostitution even further. She saw the men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, engraved in vermilion, ¹⁵ wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. ¹⁶ At the sight of them, she lusted for them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. But after she had been defiled by them, she turned away in disgust. ¹⁸ When Oholibah openly prostituted herself and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt ²⁰ and lusted after their lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. ²¹ So you revisited the indecency of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your bosom and pressed your young breasts.

⁷ For the blood she shed is still within her; she poured it out on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.

² Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

¹ I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Topple them on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the rest with the sword. None of those who flee will get away; none of the fugitives will escape. ² Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down. ³ Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.

¹⁰ who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹ Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.” ¹² Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

⁹ Put an end to the evil of the wicked, but establish the righteous, O righteous God who searches hearts and minds.

⁵ You have rebuked the nations; You have destroyed the wicked; You have erased their name forever and ever. ⁶ The enemy has come to eternal ruin, and You have uprooted their cities; the very memory of them has vanished.

⁸ But like the bad figs, so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the LORD, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem—those remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt.

¹³ You who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come; the thread of your life is cut.

² And Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.

⁶ The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. Behold, it has come!

¹⁹ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘As surely as I live, I will bring down upon his head My oath that he despised and My covenant that he broke.

²⁹ while they offer false visions for you and lying divinations about you—to be placed on the necks of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment.

³ For the day is near, the Day of the LORD is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.

⁵ Because you harbored an ancient hatred and delivered the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their disaster at the final stage of their punishment,

⁷ The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts. ⁸ He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s, and upon them He has set the world.

⁶ The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment on him.

²⁷ On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, in the year Evil-merodach became king of Babylon, he released King Jehoiachin of Judah from prison.

⁷ but it is God who judges; He brings down one and exalts another.

⁷ He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dump ⁸ to seat them with nobles, with the princes of His people.

¹⁸ Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

⁶ There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the nobles of Judah. ⁷ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze chains to take him to Babylon.

³¹ On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil-merodach king of Babylon, he pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison. ³² And he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³ So Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes, and he dined regularly at the king’s table for the rest of his life. ³⁴ And the king of Babylon provided Jehoiachin a daily portion for the rest of his life, until the day of his death.

¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹² And at dusk the prince among them will lift his bags to his shoulder and go out. They will dig through the wall to bring him out. He will cover his face so he cannot see the land. ¹³ But I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, and there he will die.

¹² I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.

²⁴ Then all the trees of the field will know that I am the LORD. I bring the tall tree down and make the low tree tall. I dry up the green tree and make the withered tree flourish. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done it.’”

⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble.

¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.

¹⁹ A ruler will come from Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.”

⁶ “I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.”

⁷ May the righteous flourish in his days and prosperity abound, until the moon is no more. ⁸ May he rule from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth. ⁹ May the nomads bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust. ¹⁰ May the kings of Tarshish and distant shores bring tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.

⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

⁵ Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.

²¹ Their leader will be one of their own, and their ruler will arise from their midst. And I will bring him near, and he will approach Me, for who would dare on his own to approach Me?” declares the LORD.

¹⁵ In those days and at that time I will cause to sprout for David a righteous Branch, and He will administer justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.

²¹ then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant and with My ministers the Levites who are priests, so that David will not have a son to reign on his throne.

²⁶ then I would also reject the descendants of Jacob and of My servant David, so as not to take from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore them from captivity and will have compassion on them.”

²² This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take a shoot from the lofty top of the cedar, and I will set it out. I will pluck a tender sprig from its topmost shoots, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. ²³ I will plant it on the mountain heights of Israel so that it will bear branches; it will yield fruit and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind will nest under it, taking shelter in the shade of its branches.

¹³ Surely testing will come! And what if even the scepter, which the sword despises, does not continue?’ declares the Lord GOD.

²³ I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.

²⁴ My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes. ²⁵ They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever.

⁴⁴ In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever.

²⁵ Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress.

⁵ Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.

¹¹ “In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, ¹² that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name,” declares the LORD, who will do this.

² But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.

⁷ I will shake all the nations, and they will come with all their treasures, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of Hosts.

²¹ “Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I am about to shake the heavens and the earth: ²² I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overturn chariots and their riders; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.

¹² And you are to tell him that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Here is a man whose name is the Branch, and He will branch out from His place and build the temple of the LORD. ¹³ Yes, He will build the temple of the LORD; He will be clothed in splendor and will sit on His throne and rule. And He will be a priest on His throne, and there will be peaceful counsel between the two.’

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹ “Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.

² “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David,

⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David,

¹¹ Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!

⁴ In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

⁹ The true Light who gives light to every man was coming into the world.

²⁰ which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church,

⁹ Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

²⁶ At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.” ²⁷ The words “Once more” signify the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that the unshakable may remain.

²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him.

¹¹ Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war. ¹² He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has names written on Him, and a name written that only He Himself knows. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is The Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses. ¹⁵ And from His mouth proceeds a sharp double-edged sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ¹⁶ And He has a name written on His robe and on His thigh: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

¹ Concerning the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says: “Has Israel no sons? Is he without heir? Why then has Milcom taken possession of Gad? Why have his people settled in their cities? ² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sound the battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a heap of ruins, and its villages will be burned. Then Israel will drive out their dispossessors, says the LORD. ³ Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed; cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth and mourn; run back and forth within your walls, for Milcom will go into exile together with his priests and officials. ⁴ Why do you boast of your valleys—your valleys so fruitful, O faithless daughter? You trust in your riches and say, ‘Who can come against me?’ ⁵ Behold, I am about to bring terror upon you, declares the Lord GOD of Hosts, from all those around you. You will each be driven headlong, with no one to regather the fugitives.

⁹ “Son of man, prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘A sword, a sword, sharpened and polished— ¹⁰ it is sharpened for the slaughter, polished to flash like lightning! Should we rejoice in the scepter of My son? The sword despises every such stick.

² “Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them. ³ Tell the Ammonites to hear the word of the Lord GOD, for this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you exclaimed, “Aha!” when My sanctuary was profaned, when the land of Israel was laid waste, and when the house of Judah went into exile, ⁴ therefore I will indeed give you as a possession to the people of the East. They will set up their camps and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk. ⁵ I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ⁶ For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you clapped your hands and stomped your feet and rejoiced over the land of Israel with a heart full of contempt, ⁷ therefore I will indeed stretch out My hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and exterminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the LORD.’

¹³ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory. ¹⁴ So I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah to consume its citadels amid war cries on the day of battle and a violent wind on the day of tempest. ¹⁵ Their king will go into exile—he and his princes together,” says the LORD.

⁸ “I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders. ⁹ Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.” ¹⁰ This they shall have in return for their pride, for taunting and mocking the people of the LORD of Hosts.

²⁰ Those in the west are appalled at his fate, while those in the east tremble in horror.

¹³ but the Lord laughs, seeing that their day is coming.

²⁵ who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,

¹³ You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you—your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate.

⁹ But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums, or your sorcerers who declare, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’

¹⁴ The visions of your prophets were empty and deceptive; they did not expose your guilt to ward off your captivity. The burdens they envisioned for you were empty and misleading.

²⁴ For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations within the house of Israel,

⁶ They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ when the LORD did not send them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message.

¹⁰ Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built,

²³ therefore you will no longer see false visions or practice divination. I will deliver My people from your hands. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

²⁸ Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken.

¹⁴ But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions.

³ and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴ On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

³⁸ And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.

⁴ Because I will cut off both the righteous and the wicked, My sword will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north. ⁵ Then all flesh will know that I, the LORD, have taken My sword from its sheath, not to return it again.’

¹³ You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold, prepared on the day of your creation.

¹⁵ From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways—until wickedness was found in you.

¹⁵ The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

⁴ you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended! ⁵ The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. ⁶ It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows; it subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution.

³³ For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

⁷ Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

⁷ The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.

⁷ A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and lie uninhabited.

²² This is what the LORD says: “Behold, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is stirred up from the ends of the earth. ²³ They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Zion.”

⁸ Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

¹⁹ Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast,

²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to melt with a fiery blast, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, leave you there, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted within the city. ²² As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted within the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath upon you.’”

⁶ Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

⁶ For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own. ⁷ They are dreaded and feared; from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty. ⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour. ⁹ All of them come bent on violence; their hordes advance like the east wind; they gather prisoners like sand. ¹⁰ They scoff at kings and make rulers an object of scorn. They laugh at every fortress and build up siege ramps to seize it.

⁹ You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

¹⁹ God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

³ Their slain will be left unburied, and the stench of their corpses will rise; the mountains will flow with their blood. ⁴ All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree. ⁵ When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. ⁶ The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. ⁷ And the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong ones. Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat.

⁴⁷ Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched. ⁴⁸ Then all people will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it will not be quenched.”

¹⁰ I will give it along with the Ammonites as a possession to the people of the East, so that the Ammonites will no longer be remembered among the nations.

⁹ Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”

¹ “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

¹⁰ The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹² His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.