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¹ AND the word of the LORD came to me, saying,² Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and look at their holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel.³ And say to the land of Israel, Thus says the LORD God: Behold, I am against you; I will draw my sword out of its sheath and will destroy from you the righteous and the sinner.⁴ Seeing then that I will destroy from you the righteous and the sinner, therefore my sword shall go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north,⁵ That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.⁶ And as for you, O Son of man, sigh with a broken heart, and with bitterness groan before their eyes.⁷ And if they should say to you, Why do you sigh? you shall say to them, Because of news of disaster which is coming; and every heart shall melt and all hands shall be feeble and every spirit shall faint and all knees shall be weary; behold, it is coming and it shall be brought to pass, says the LORD God.

⁸ Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,⁹ Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the LORD God: A sword, a sword is sharpened;¹⁰ It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is burnished that it may glitter; and it is sharpened to cut off the family of my son; and to reject every other branch.¹¹ I have given it to be burnished, that it may be handled; the sword is sharpened and polished to deliver it into the hand of the slayer.¹² Cry and wail, Son of man; for it is against my people and against all the princes of Israel;¹³ Clap your hands because this calamity is justified; if the royal family is rejected, it shall be no more, says the LORD God.¹⁴ You therefore, Son of man, prophesy and clap your hands, and let the sword smite double, and the third stroke is the stroke of the slain; this is the sword for a great slaughter that causes them to tremble,¹⁵ That their hearts may faint and the sufferers be multiplied in all their gates, for I have delivered them to the sword which is sharpened, glittering and drawn for the slaughter.¹⁶ Take hold firmly my right hand, take hold firmly my left hand, wherever my face is turned;¹⁷ I will also clap my hands, and I will cause my fury to rest; I the LORD have said it.

¹⁸ The word of the LORD came to me, saying,¹⁹ Also, Son of man, prepare for yourself two ways that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; both of them shall come forth out of the same land; and set a sign at the head of the highway to the choicest city.²⁰ And prepare a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah and to Jerusalem, the mighty city.²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shoots an arrow, he inquires of his idol, he sees his triumph.²² At his right hand was the divination against Jerusalem, saying to build mounds against her, to open his mouth threatening with all his strength, to lift up his voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build siege forts.²³ And it shall be as a false divination to them; but he will call to remembrance their iniquity, that they may be captured.²⁴ Therefore thus says the LORD God: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered clearly and your transgressions are uncovered so that in all your devices your sins are evident, therefore, with the hand shall you be caught.²⁵ And as for you, filthy wicked prince of Israel, your day and the time of your iniquity and your end has come.²⁶ Thus says the LORD God: Remove the diadem and take off the crown; the low is exalted, and the proud is brought down.²⁷ Even this place I will cause to be a ruin; until he comes to whom it belongs by right, and I will deliver it to him.

²⁸ And you, Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the LORD God concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach: even say, The sword, the sword is drawn for the slaughter; it is sharpened and it glitters;²⁹ Because of your false vision and because of your false divination, to bring you upon the necks of the sinful and wicked men, whose day has come and the time of their iniquity and their end.³⁰ Return the sword to its sheath! for in the land wherein you were born, there will I judge you.³¹ And I will pour out my indignation upon you; I will blow against you with the fire of my wrath, and will deliver you into the hand of men brutish and skilful to destroy.³² You shall be fuel for the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be no more remembered; for I the LORD have spoken it.