Ezekiel 22-24

Ezekiel 22

¹Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

²And thou, son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? then cause her to know all her abominations.

³And thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: A city that sheddeth blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that maketh idols against herself to defile her!

⁴Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed, and art defiled in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the nations, and a mocking to all the countries.

⁵Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall mock thee, thou infamous one [and] full of tumult.

⁶Behold, the princes of Israel, every one according to his power, have been in thee to shed blood.

⁷In thee have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the sojourner; in thee have they wronged the fatherless and the widow.

⁸Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.

⁹Slanderous men have been in thee to shed blood; and in thee they have eaten upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they have committed lewdness.

¹⁰In thee have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was unclean in her impurity.

¹¹And one hath committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.

¹²In thee have they taken bribes to shed blood; thou hast taken interest and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by oppression, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹³Behold, therefore, I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.

¹⁴Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I, Jehovah, have spoken it, and will do it.

¹⁵And I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee through the countries; and I will consume thy filthiness out of thee.

¹⁶And thou shalt be profaned in thyself, in the sight of the nations; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah.

¹⁷And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

¹⁸Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross unto me: all of them are brass and tin and iron and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.

¹⁹Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye are all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

²⁰As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you.

²¹Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.

²²As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have poured out my wrath upon you.

²³And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

²⁴Son of man, say unto her, Thou art a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

²⁵There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey: they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in the midst thereof.

²⁶Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

²⁸And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered [mortar], seeing false visions, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah hath not spoken.

²⁹The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yea, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully.

³⁰And I sought for a man among them, that should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.

³¹Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I brought upon their heads, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Ezekiel 23

¹The word of Jehovah came again unto me, saying,

²Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:

³and they played the harlot in Egypt; they played the harlot in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.

⁴And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bare sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

⁵And Oholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians [her] neighbors,

⁶who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

⁷And she bestowed her whoredoms upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whomsoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.

⁸Neither hath she left her whoredoms since [the days of] Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their whoredom upon her. [

⁹Wherefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

¹⁰These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they slew with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments upon her.

¹¹And her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her whoredoms which were more than the whoredoms of her sister.

¹²She doted upon the Assyrians, governors and rulers, [her] neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.

¹³And I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.

¹⁴And she increased her whoredoms; for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

¹⁵girded with girdles upon their loins, with flowing turbans upon their heads, all of them princes to look upon, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their nativity.

¹⁶And as soon as she saw them she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

¹⁷And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.

¹⁸So she uncovered her whoredoms, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.

¹⁹Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, remembering the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

²⁰And she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

²¹Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in the handling of thy bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of thy youth.

²²Therefore, O Oholibah, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy soul is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side:

²³the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, [and] all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding upon horses.

²⁴And they shall come against thee with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against thee with buckler and shield and helmet round about; and I will commit the judgment unto them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.

²⁵And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal with thee in fury; they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.

²⁶They shall also strip thee of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels.

²⁷Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom [brought] from the land of Egypt; so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

²⁸For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy soul is alienated;

²⁹and they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare; and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

³⁰These things shall be done unto thee, for that thou hast played the harlot after the nations, and because thou art polluted with their idols.

³¹Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thy hand.

³²Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup, which is deep and large; thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much.

³³Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

³⁴Thou shalt even drink it and drain it out, and thou shalt gnaw the sherds thereof, and shalt tear thy breasts; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah.

³⁵Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

³⁶Jehovah said moreover unto me: Son of man, wilt thou judge Oholah and Oholibah? then declare unto them their abominations.

³⁷For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass through [the fire] unto them to be devoured.

³⁸Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

³⁹For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of my house.

⁴⁰And furthermore ye have sent for men that come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent, and, lo, they came; for whom thou didst wash thyself, paint thine eyes, and deck thyself with ornaments, [

⁴¹and sit upon a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon thou didst set mine incense and mine oil.

⁴²And the voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets upon the hands of them [twain], and beautiful crowns upon their heads.

⁴³Then said I of her that was old in adulteries, Now will they play the harlot with her, and she [with them] .

⁴⁴And they went in unto her, as they go in unto a harlot: so went they in unto Oholah and unto Oholibah, the lewd women.

⁴⁵And righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

⁴⁶For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed to and fro and robbed.

⁴⁷And the company shall stone them with stones, and despatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

⁴⁸Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

⁴⁹And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols; and ye shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

Ezekiel 24

¹Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth [day] of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

²Son of man, write thee the name of the day, [even] of this selfsame day: the king of Babylon drew close unto Jerusalem this selfsame day.

³And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Set on the caldron, set it on, and also pour water into it:

⁴gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones.

⁵Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile [of wood] for the bones under [the caldron] ; make it boil well; yea, let the bones thereof be boiled in the midst of it.

⁶Wherefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose rust is therein, and whose rust is not gone out of it! take out of it piece after piece; No lot is fallen upon it.

⁷For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the bare rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust.

⁸That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon the bare rock, that it should not be covered.

⁹Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great.

¹⁰Heap on the wood, make the fire hot, boil well the flesh, and make thick the broth, and let the bones be burned.

¹¹Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that it may be hot, and the brass thereof may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the rust of it may be consumed.

¹²She hath wearied [herself] with toil; yet her great rust goeth not forth out of her; her rust [goeth not forth] by fire.

¹³In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed thee and thou wast not cleansed, thou shalt not be cleansed from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my wrath toward thee to rest. [

¹⁴I, Jehovah, have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it: I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge thee, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁵Also the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

¹⁶Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet thou shalt neither mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.

¹⁷Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind thy headtire upon thee, and put thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.

¹⁸So I spake unto the people in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.

¹⁹And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?

²⁰Then I said unto them, The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

²¹Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left behind shall fall by the sword.

²²And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.

²³And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.

²⁴Thus shall Ezekiel be unto you a sign; according to all that he hath done shall ye do: when this cometh, then shall ye know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

²⁵And thou, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their heart, their sons and their daughters,

²⁶that in that day he that escapeth shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with thine ears?

²⁷In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him that is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: so shalt thou be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.