Study Desk

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.

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.

And as for you, filthy wicked prince of Israel, your day and the time of your iniquity and your end has come.

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;

Return the sword to its sheath! for in the land wherein you were born, there will I judge you.

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.

And her prophets have daubed her walls with untempered mortar which will fall off, seeing for them visions of falsehood, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the LORD, when the LORD has not spoken.

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

Neither did she leave the whoredoms which she had committed in Egypt; for in her youth they defiled her and they broke her virginity and poured out their whoredom upon her.

These uncovered her nakedness; they carried away her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword; and she became a byword among women; for her paramours had executed judgment upon her.

And they added to their whoredoms; for when they saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,

For she doted upon their servants, whose male organs are like those of asses, and whose privates are like those of horses.

For thus says the LORD God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of the Assyrians whom your soul abhorred;

These things were done to you because of your whoredom, for you have played the harlot with the Gentiles and polluted yourself with their idols.

Thus says the LORD God: You shall drink your sisters cup deep and large; you shall become a laughingstock, and be ridiculed and scorned; for it contains much.

Then you shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall cut off your hair and tear your breasts; for I have spoken it, says the LORD God.

For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands, and with their idols they have committed adultery and have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to be consumed in the fire.

For when they had slain their children to their idols, they came the same day into my sanctuary and profaned it; and, 1o, thus have they done in the midst of my house.

Also they sent for men who came from afar, to whom they had sent messengers; and, 1o, as soon as they arrived, they bathed and painted their eyes, and adorned themselves with ornaments.

For thus says the LORD God, I will bring up a multitude against them, and will give them over to terror and spoil.