Ezekiel 21:1-22 ▼

1 And the word of Jehovah will be to me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face to Jerusalem, and drop to the holy places, and prophesy to the land of Israel;

3 And say to the land of Israel, Thus said Jehovah: behold me against thee, and I brought forth my sword from its sheath, and I cut off from thee the just and the unjust.

4 Because that I cut off from thee the just and the unjust, for this my sword shall go forth from its sheath against all flesh, from south to north.

5 And all flesh knew that I Jehovah brought forth my sword from its sheath: it shall no more turn back.

6 And thou son of man, sigh with the breaking of the loins; and with bitterness thou shalt sigh before their eyes.

7 And it was when they shall say to thee, For what sighest thou? and say, For the report, because it came: and every heart melted and all hands were relaxed, and every spirit was weak, and all knees shall go into water: behold, it came, and it was, says the Lord Jehovah.

8 And the word of Jehovah will be to me, saying,

9 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus said Jehovah: say, A sword, a sword was sharpened, and also polished.

10 In order to slaughter a slaughter it was sharpened; in order for lightning to be to it, it was polished; then shall we exult? the rod of my son despised, every tree.

11 And he will give it to be polished, to be taken in the hand: this sword was sharpened, and it was polished to give it into the hand of him slaying.

12 Cry and wail, son of man, for it was upon my people, it was upon all the princes of Israel: terrors for the sword were upon my people: for this, strike upon thy thigh.

13 For it is a trial, and what if also the rod was rejected? it shall not be, says the Lord Jehovah.

14 And thou, son of man, prophesy, and strike hand to hand, and thou shalt double the sword the third time, the sword of the wounded: this the sword of the great wounded besieging them.

15 In order to melt the heart and to multiply the ruins, I gave the turning of the sword against all their gates: Ah! it was made for lightnings, it was polished for slaughter.

16 Unite thyself to the right, set thyself to the left, where thy face wavers.

17 And I also will strike my hand to my hand, and I caused my wrath to cease: I Jehovah spake.

18 And the word of Jehovah will be to me, saying,

19 And thou son of man, set to thee two ways for the sword of the king of Babel to come: from one land shall come forth they two, and form thou a hand, form upon the head of the way of the city.

20 Thou shalt set the way for the sword to come to Rabbath of the sons of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.

21 For the king of Babel stood at the mother of the way in the head of the two ways, to divine a divination; he shook with the arrows, he asked in the family gods, he looked in the liver.

22 In his right hand was the divination of Jerusalem, to set battering-rams, to open the mouth in breaking in pieces, to lift up the voice with a loud noise, to set battering-rams against the gates, to throw up a mound, to build a watch-tower.