‘The ground of Israel is at an end.

The end is coming over the four corners of the land.

Now the end has come over you,

And I will send my anger against you,

And I will judge you according to your ways,

And I will lay on you all your abominations.

My eye will not have pity on you,

And I will not show compassion,

But I will lay your ways on you,

And your abominations will be in your midst,

And you will know

That I am the Lord.’

‘A calamity – one calamity –

Behold,

It is coming.

An end is coming,

The end is coming;

It is looming over you.

Behold,

It is coming.

The turning point has come to you,

You inhabitant of the land.

The time has come,

The day is near;

There is tumult,

And not joyous shouting,

In the mountains.

Now I will shortly pour out my fury over you,

And I will expend my anger against you,

And I will judge you according to your ways,

And I will lay on you all your abominations.

My eye will not have pity,

And I will not show compassion.

As your ways are,

So I will lay them on you,

And your abominations will be in your midst,

And you will know that it is I, the Lord,

Who am doing the striking.

Behold the day;

Behold, it is coming.

The turning point has arisen.

The sceptre has flourished;

The insolence has blossomed.

Violence has arisen as a rod for wickedness,

Not from them or from their own population,

And not from a single one of them.

And there will be no lamentation for them.

The time has come;

The day has arrived.

Don't let the buyer rejoice,

And don't let the seller mourn,

For there is fury over all its population.

For the seller will not return to what is sold

As long as they still live,

For the vision is about the whole of its population,

Which will not return,

And no-one will establish himself in his life

By his iniquity.

They have blown the trumpet,

And they have prepared everything,

But there is no-one going to battle,

For over the whole of its population is my fury.

There is the sword outside

And pestilence and famine inside.

He who is in the field will die by the sword,

And as for him who is in the city,

Famine and pestilence will consume him.

But there will be some of them who escape,

And they will be on the mountains like the doves of the valleys,

All cooing,

Each for his own iniquity.

All hands will become feeble,

And all knees will melt like water.

And they will gird themselves with sackcloth,

And terror will cover them,

And there will be shame on every face,

And baldness on all their heads.

They will discard their silver in the streets,

And their gold will become menstrual uncleanness.

Their silver and their gold will not be able to save them

On the day of the Lord's wrath.

They do not satisfy their desires,

And they do not fulfil their yearnings,

For it has become a stumbling block

Resulting from their iniquity.

And as for his ornamental splendour,

He set it in his pre-eminent place,

But they made their abominable and obscene images in it,

Which is why I have made it

A menstrually unclean thing to them.

And I will deliver it into the hand of foreigners as spoil

And to the wicked of the earth as plunder,

And they will defile it.

And I will turn my face away from them,

And my hidden treasure will be defiled

When raiders come to it

And defile it.

Make a chain,

For the land is full of judicial cases of bloodshed,

And the city is full of violence.

And I will bring wicked men from the Gentiles,

Who will inherit their houses.

And I will put a stop to the arrogance of the powerful,

And their sanctifiers will pass on the inheritance.

Wreckage is coming,

And they will seek peace,

But there won't be any.

Calamity upon calamity will come,

And there will be rumour upon rumour,

And they will seek a vision from a prophet,

But the priest will be devoid of the law,

And the elders will be devoid of counsel.

The king will mourn,

And the prince will wear clothes displaying desolation,

And the hands of the people of the land will be made to tremble.

I will do to them

According to their way,

And I will judge them

With their own judgments,

And they will know

That I am the Lord.’ ”

«The great eagle, with large wings, with long flight-feathers,

With full plumage, which has various colours,

Has gone to Lebanon

And has taken the top of the cedar tree.

He has plucked its topmost shoots off

And brought it all to the land of the merchant

And placed it in a city of traders.

He took some of the seed of the land

And put it in a field ready to be sown.

He took it to a water-rich place

And set it out like willow trees.

And it grew and became a vine

Which spread out at low height,

And it turned its branches towards him,

And its roots were under him.

So it became a vine,

And it produced tendrils and sent out shoots.

And there was another great eagle,

With large wings and copious plumage,

And look, this vine stretched its roots hungrily towards him

And sent its branches from the terrace on which it was planted

To him for him to water it.

It was planted in a good field,

With much water,

To produce branches and to bear fruit,

To become a magnificent vine.» ’

«Will it thrive?

Will he not uproot it

And cut its fruit off

So that it withers?

All the foliage of its growth will wither,

But not by a powerful arm,

Or by a mighty people coming to pluck it up by its roots.

So look, will it, having been planted, thrive?

When the east wind hits it,

Will it not completely wither?

It will wither on the terraces

Where it is cultivated.» ’ ”

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

And the sons' teeth are on edge’?

Look, all individuals are mine.

As the individuality of the father is,

So is the individuality of the son

– They are mine.

The individual who sins will die.

But a man who is just,

And who observes justice and equity,

Who has not eaten on the mountains,

And who has not raised his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,

And who has not defiled his neighbour's wife,

And who has not approached a woman during her menstruation,

And who does not oppress anyone,

Who returns what was given as security for a loan,

Who does not commit robbery,

Who gives his food to the hungry

And covers the naked with clothing,

Who does not lend on interest,

And who does not take a financial return,

Who withdraws his hand from iniquity,

Who practices true justice

Between one man and another,

Who walks in my statutes

And keeps my judicial pronouncements,

By doing what is true

– Such a man is just

And will certainly live,

Says the Lord, the Lord.

If a man begets an unruly son

Who sheds blood,

And who does anything resembling any one of these things,

Although the father himself does not do any of these things,

But the son for his part eats on the mountains

And defiles his neighbour's wife,

Oppresses the poor and needy,

Commits robbery,

Does not return what was given as security

And raises his eyes to the idols,

Commits an abomination,

Lends on interest

And takes a financial return

– Will the son live?

He shall not live;

He has committed all these abominations.

He shall surely be put to death;

His blood will be upon him.

But if on the other hand a man begets a son,

And he sees all his father's sins

Which he has committed,

And he is discerning

And does not do anything like them –

He does not eat on the mountains,

And he does not raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,

And he does not defile his neighbour's wife,

And he does not oppress anyone,

He does not withhold what is taken as security,

He does not commit robbery,

He gives his food to the hungry,

And he covers the naked with clothing,

He withdraws his hand from demanding payment from the poor,

He does not take interest and financial return,

He observes my judicial pronouncements,

And he walks in my statutes,

Then he will not die in the iniquity of his father;

The son will certainly live.

As for his father,

Since he engaged in oppression

And committed robbery of his brother

And did what is not right among his people,

The result is that he will die in his iniquity.

‘What is your mother?

A lioness which lies down among the lions

And brings up her cubs among the young lions.

And she brought up one of her cubs;

It became a young lion

And learned to catch prey.

It ate a man.

The nations heard of it;

It was caught in their pit,

And they brought it with hooks to the land of Egypt.

And the lioness realized after waiting

That her hope was lost,

And she took another of her cubs

And made it a young lion.

So it walked around among the lions

And became a young lion,

And it learned to catch prey.

It ate a man.

And it knew its desolate haunts,

And it laid their cities waste,

And the land and its fulness were devastated

By the sound of its roaring.

Then the nations took action against it,

Round about from various countries.

And they spread their net against it.

It was caught in their pit,

And they put it in a cage using hooks,

And they brought it to the king of Babylon.

They brought it in nets

So that its voice would no longer be heard

On the mountains of Israel.

Your mother is like a vine

Planted in your blood by water.

She became fruitful and full of branches

Due to the abundant water.

And she had strong branches

For the sceptres of rulers,

And its height became great

Among the thick branch growth,

And it appeared in its height

With the abundance of its branches.

But she was plucked up in fury;

She was cast down to the ground,

And the east wind dried her fruit up.

Her strong branches broke apart and dried up,

And a fire consumed it.

And now she has been planted in the desert,

In an arid and thirsty land.

And fire spread from the stem of her branches;

It consumed her fruit,

And there was no strong branch in her

– No sceptre for ruling.

This is a lamentation,

And a lamentation it has become.’ ”

‘A sword, a sword has been sharpened

And also polished.

It has been sharpened to carry out slaughter.

And it is so that it may have a glitter to it

That it has been polished.

Or should we rejoice in the sceptre of my son?

The sword despises all wood.

And he has committed it to polishing,

To be held in the hand.

It is a sword which has been sharpened,

And it has been polished,

For it to be placed in the hand of the killer.’

Cry out and howl,

Son of Adam,

For it will be against my people.

It will be against all the officials of Israel.

My people will be delivered to the sword,

So slap your thigh.

For it is a trial.

For what will happen when even the sceptre,

Which the sword despises,

Is not in existence?

Says the Lord, the Lord.

And you, son of Adam, prophesy,

And strike hand against hand,

And let the sword do double work

Or triple work.

It is a sword for making casualties,

A sword for great loss of life,

Closing in on them.

It is in order that the heart may melt,

With many troubles at all their gates,

That I have appointed the threatening sword.

Oh, it has been made to glitter;

It has been drawn for slaughter.

O sword, be sharp,

Strike to the right,

Take notice,

Strike to the left

– Wherever your face is pointing.

Then I too will strike my hand against my hand,

And give my fury rest.

I, the Lord, have spoken.”

«Remove the turban

And take the crown away.

What was won't be any more.

Exalt the lowly

And humble the exalted.

I will overturn, overturn, overturn it.

Moreover this will not happen

Until the coming of him who has the right,

Which I will give him.» ’

‘The sword, the sword is unsheathed,

Polished for slaughter

To cause devouring

– The reason for its glitter –

When they see false visions concerning you,

When they divine concerning you falsely,

Putting you with the necks of those to be executed for their crimes,

Whose day will come in the final iniquity.

Return it to its sheath.

I will judge you

In the place where you were created,

In your native land.

And I will pour out my indignation over you;

I will blow on my angry fire against you,

And I will deliver you into the hand of savage men,

Forgers of destruction.

You will be fuel for the fire;

Your blood will be in the midst of the land.

You will not be remembered,

For I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

“Son of Adam, there were two women,

Daughters of the same mother.

And they engaged in prostitution in Egypt

– It was in their youth that they engaged in prostitution.

There their breasts were fondled,

And there their virgin nipples were caressed.

And their names were Aholah the elder one

And Aholibah her sister.

And they were mine,

And they gave birth to sons and daughters,

Whose names were Samaria-Aholah

And Jerusalem-Aholibah.

And Aholah acted promiscuously beneath me,

And she made love to her lovers,

With the Assyrians who were near,

Dressed in blue

– Governors and administrators,

All of them attractive young men –

Horsemen riding on horses.

And she gave her immoral favours to them,

All of them being choice sons of Assyria,

And she became unclean by all with whom she made love,

Through all their idols.

And she did not abandon her immoral practices

Brought back from Egypt,

For they lay with her in her youth,

And they caressed her virgin nipples,

And they poured out their immorality on her.

Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers,

Into the hand of the Assyrians,

With whom she made love.

They revealed her nakedness;

They took her sons and her daughters,

And they killed her with the sword,

And she became notorious among women,

For judgment had been passed on her.

And her sister Aholibah saw it,

And she was more perverse than her in her lovemaking,

And she was more profuse in her promiscuous acts than her sister

In her immoral ways.

She made love to the Assyrians,

Governors and administrators who were near,

Dressed immaculately,

Horsemen riding on horses

– All attractive young men.

And I saw that she had become unclean.

The two of them had the same conduct.

And she added to her promiscuous deeds

When she saw an engraving of men on a wall

– Images of Chaldeans

Engraved in red ochre –

Wearing a belt around their waist,

Wearing loose hanging dyed turbans on their heads,

All in the style of brigadiers,

With imagery of the sons of Babylon

– Chaldeans –

And their native land.

And she lusted after them when her eyes saw them,

And she sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

Then the Babylonians came to her

To lie making love,

And they defiled her with their promiscuity,

And she was defiled by them.

Then her sentiments became alienated from them.

When she had revealed her promiscuous acts

And had revealed her nakedness,

My sentiments became alienated from her,

As my sentiments had become alienated from her sister.

And she did more promiscuous acts,

Remembering the days of her youth

When she was promiscuous in the land of Egypt.

And she lusted after their lovers,

Whose flesh was the flesh of donkeys,

And whose emission was the emission of horses.

And you have looked about

For the unchaste way of your youth,

With caressing of your nipples,

As was done in Egypt on account of your youthful breasts.

‘I am about to stir your lovers up against you,

Those from whom your sentiments have become alienated,

And I will bring them against you all around,

The sons of Babylon and all the Chaldeans:

Pekod and Shoa and Koa,

And all the sons of Assyria with them

– All of them attractive young men,

Governors and administrators,

Brigadiers and celebrities,

All of them horseriders.

And a battalion will come against you,

Chariots and vehicles,

With a contingent of various peoples,

Who will beset you all around,

With shield and buckler and helmet.

And I will allow judgment to take place before them,

And they will judge you with their own legal processes.

And I will set my zeal against you,

And they will deal with you in fury.

They will remove your nose and your ears,

And your posterity will fall by the sword.

They will capture your sons and your daughters,

And your posterity will be consumed by fire.

And they will strip your clothes off

And take your magnificent articles away.

And I will put an end to your unchaste way

And your promiscuity which came from the land of Egypt,

And you will not raise your eyes to them,

And you will no longer remember Egypt.

«You will drink your sister's deep and wide cup.

It will be an occasion of derision and mocking

– A lot to stomach.

You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow

With the cup of astonishment and desolation

– The cup of your sister Samaria.

And you will drink it and drain it,

And you will gnaw its broken pieces,

And you will tear your breasts away,

For I have spoken,

Says the Lord, the Lord».

Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord, says:

«Because you have forgotten me,

And you have cast me behind your back,

You too must bear your unchaste behaviour

And immoral ways.» ’ ”

«Put the pot on;

Put it on,

And pour water into it too.

Add its ingredients to it

– Every fine piece of thigh and shoulder;

Fill it with choice joints.

Take the choice of the small cattle,

And also burn the bones under it,

And boil it thoroughly,

And also cook its bones with it.»

Therefore this is what my Lord the Lord says:

«Woe, City of Blood,

Pot which has scum in it,

Which the scum does not come out of.

Bring it out piece by piece.

No lot shall be cast for it.

For her blood is within her confines;

She has put it on a dry surface of a rock.

She did not put it on the ground,

So having it covered with dust.

It is to arouse fury

– To exact vengeance –

That I have put her blood on a dry surface of a rock,

To prevent it being covered over.»

Therefore this is what my Lord the Lord says:

«Woe to the City of Blood.

I for my part will make the bonfire large.

Increase the amount of wood,

Light the fire,

Prepare the flesh;

Spice the ointment,

And let the bones be burned.

And stand it empty on its burning coals

So that it becomes hot,

And its copper burns,

And its uncleanness melts inside it,

And its scum is consumed.

She has caused weariness with vain actions,

And the large quantity of her scum has not come out of her.

In the fire with her scum!

In your uncleanness is your unchaste way,

Because I cleansed you,

But you did not become clean.

You will not be cleansed of your uncleanness any more

Until I have laid my fury on you.

I, the Lord, have spoken.

It will come,

And I will do it.

I will not relent,

Nor will I have pity,

Nor will I show compassion.

They will judge you according to your ways

And according to your deeds,

Says the Lord, the Lord.» ’ ”