1 Moreover the
word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land
of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of
the land.
3 Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger
upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will
recompense upon thee all thine abominations.
4 And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity:
but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations
shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the
LORD.
5 Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is
come.
6 An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold,
it is come.
7 The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the
land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not
the sounding again of the mountains.
8 Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish
mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy
ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.
9 And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I
will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations
that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the
LORD that smiteth.
10 Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth;
the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.
11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them
shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs:
neither shall there be wailing for them.
12 The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer
rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude
thereof.
13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although
they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude
thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen
himself in the iniquity of his life.
14 They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but
none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude
thereof.
15 The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within:
he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that
is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on
the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning,
every one for his iniquity.
17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as
water.
18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror
shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness
upon all their heads.
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold
shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able
to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall
not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because
it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty:
but they made the images of their abominations and of their
detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from
them.
21 And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a
prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall
pollute it.
22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute
my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile
it.
23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and
the city is full of violence.
24 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they
shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the
strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.
25 Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there
shall be none.
26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon
rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the
law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with
desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be
troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according
to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that
I am the LORD.
Chapter 8
1 And it came to
pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day
of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah
sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon
me.
2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire:
from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from
his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the
colour of amber.
3 And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock
of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth
and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem,
to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north;
where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh
to jealousy.
4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according
to the vision that I saw in the plain.
5 Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the
way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward
the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this
image of jealousy in the entry.
6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they
do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth
here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee
yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.
7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked,
behold a hole in the wall.
8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and
when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
9 And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations
that they do here.
10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things,
and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel,
pourtrayed upon the wall round about.
11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of
the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah
the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and
a thick cloud of incense went up.
12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the
ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in
the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us
not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.
13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt
see greater abominations that they do.
14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's
house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women
weeping for Tammuz.
15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man?
turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations
than these.
16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house,
and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between
the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with
their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward
the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man?
Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the
abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the
land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger:
and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare,
neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with
a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
Chapter 9
1 He cried also
in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have
charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying
weapon in his hand.
2 And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate,
which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon
in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen,
with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood
beside the brasen altar.
3 And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub,
whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called
to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn
by his side;
4 And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city,
through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads
of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that
be done in the midst thereof.
5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him
through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither
have ye pity:
6 Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children,
and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark;
and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men
which were before the house.
7 And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts
with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in
the city.
8 And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was
left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord
GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring
out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel
and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood,
and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath
forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
10 And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will
I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.
11 And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn
by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou
hast commanded me. |