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¹ And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,² Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop [your word] toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel;³ and say to the land of Israel, Thus says Yahweh: Look, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.⁴ Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:⁵ and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return anymore.⁶ Sigh therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your loins and with bitterness you shall sigh before their eyes.⁷ And it shall be, when they say to you, Why do you sigh? that you shall say, Because of the tidings, for it comes; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: look, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁸ And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,⁹ Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: Say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished;¹⁰ it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it despises every tree.¹¹ And it is given to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword, it is sharpened, yes, it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.¹² Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; smite therefore on your thigh.¹³ For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that despises shall be no more? says the Lord Yahweh.¹⁴ You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one that is deadly wounded, which enters into their chambers.¹⁵ I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is sheathed for slaughter.¹⁶ Gather yourself together, go to the right, set yourself in array, go to the left, wherever your face is set.¹⁷ I will also smite my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

¹⁸ The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,¹⁹ Also, you son of man, appoint for yourself two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they shall both come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city.²⁰ You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.²¹ For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to tell his fortune: he shook the arrows to and fro, he consulted the talismans, he looked in the liver.²² In his right hand was the reading [for] Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.²³ And it shall be to them as a false reading in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 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 And you, O deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,²⁶ thus says the Lord Yahweh: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; this [shall be] no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.²⁷ I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: neither has this taken place, 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 Yahweh concerning the sons of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;²⁹ while they see for you false visions, while they tell you a lying fortune, to lay you on the necks of the wicked that are deadly wounded, whose day has come in the time of the iniquity of the end.³⁰ Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, I will judge you.³¹ And I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.³² You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be no more remembered: for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.