Ezequiel 21

¹ And the Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

² Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, drop a word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel;

³ and say to the land of Israel, Thus says Jehovah: Behold, I am against you, and I will draw My sword out of 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 from you, therefore My sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north,

⁵ that all flesh may know that I, Jehovah, have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not return anymore.

⁶ Sigh therefore, son of man, with a breaking heart, and groan with bitterness before their eyes.

⁷ And it shall be when they say to you, Why are you sighing? that you shall answer, Because of the news; when it comes, every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass, declares the Lord Jehovah.

⁸ Again the Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

⁹ Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says Jehovah! Say: A sword, a sword is sharpened and also polished!

¹⁰ It is sharpened to slaughter and butcher, polished to flash like lightning! Should we then make mirth? It despises the scepter of My son, as every tree.

¹¹ And He has given it to be polished, that it may be handled; this sword is sharpened, and it is polished to be given into the hand of the slayer.

¹² Cry and howl, son of man; for it will be against My people, against all the rulers of Israel. The sword will be thrown against My people; therefore slap your thigh,

¹³ because it is a testing. And what if the sword despises even the scepter? It shall be no more, declares the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁴ You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike hand to hand; strike. The third time let the sword be doubled. It is the sword that slays, the sword that slays the great men, that surrounds them.

¹⁵ I have set the slaughter of the sword against all their gates, That the heart may melt and many may stumble. Ah! It is made bright; it is grasped for the slaughter:

¹⁶ Be sharp to the right! Set yourself to the left; wherever your face is appointed!

¹⁷ I also will strike My hand to hand, and I will cause My fury to rest; I, Jehovah, have spoken.

¹⁸ The Word of Jehovah came unto me again, saying:

¹⁹ And you, son of man, appoint for yourself two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them shall come forth from the same land. Make a sign; put it at the head of the road to the city.

²⁰ Appoint a road for the sword to go into Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah, into fortified Jerusalem.

²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the head of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.

²² In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a mound, and to build a siege wall.

²³ And it will be to them like a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them; but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.

²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken with the hand.

²⁵ Now to you, O slain, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose iniquity shall end,

²⁶ thus says the Lord Jehovah: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; nothing shall remain as it was. Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted.

²⁷ Ruin, ruin! I will ruin it! It shall be no more, until He comes whose right it is. And I will give it to Him.

²⁸ And you, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword is drawn, polished for slaughter, for consuming, for flashing;

²⁹ while they see false visions for you, while they divine a lie to you, to bring you upon the necks of the slain, the wicked whose day has come, whose iniquity shall end.

³⁰ Return it to its sheath. I will judge you in the place where you were created, in the land of your birth.

³¹ And I will pour out My indignation upon you; I will blow against you with the fire of My wrath, and deliver you into the hands of brutal men who are skilled in destruction.

³² You shall be fuel for the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall not be remembered, for I, Jehovah, have spoken.