Ezekiel 7

²“Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the Lord said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”

³The end is now upon you, and I will unleash My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

¹⁰I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.

⁷The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.

¹³Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, “Oh, Lord God, will You bring the remnant of Israel to a complete end?”

¹⁸They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come!

³⁰Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

¹³And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the Lord, in My zeal have spoken.

²⁰Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to his ways, O house of Israel.”

⁸Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

⁹I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who strikes the blow.

³⁸And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.

¹⁰You will fall by the sword, and I will judge you even to the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

¹¹The city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat within it. I will judge you even to the borders of Israel.

⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

²¹But as for those whose hearts pursue detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down upon their own heads, declares the Lord God.”

¹¹Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord God, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

²The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah. He will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

²⁷The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their conduct, and I will judge them by their own standards. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”

⁷The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.

¹²this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah that the news will reverberate in the ears of all who hear it.

¹³I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab, and I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down.

⁹Whatever you plot against the Lord, He will bring to an end. Affliction will not rise up a second time.

⁹Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.

²“Only you have I known from all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

¹²You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

²¹For at that time there will be great tribulation, unseen from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.

⁷Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is My Companion, declares the Lord of Hosts. Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones.

¹⁰Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed.

³The end is now upon you, and I will unleash My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

²⁷I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and every man of Judah who is in the land of Egypt will meet his end by sword or famine, until they are finished off.

²⁵And you, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, the day has come for your final punishment.’

⁵if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

²⁸Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘None of My words will be delayed any longer. The message I speak will be fulfilled, declares the Lord God.’”

¹⁵At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

⁵For the Lord God of Hosts has set a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision—of breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains.

¹²The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude.

²³Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I will put an end to this proverb, and in Israel they will no longer recite it.’ But say to them: ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled.

²⁴For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations within the house of Israel,

¹⁴In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.

⁸While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell facedown and cried out, “Oh, Lord God, when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem, will You destroy the entire remnant of Israel?”

¹⁹Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast,

⁸But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

²⁵So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

⁶Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

²¹But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.

¹³The sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds.

⁷Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

⁹The voice of the Lord calls out to the city (and it is sound wisdom to fear Your name): “Heed the rod and the One who ordained it.

¹³But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the Lord of Hosts.

⁵Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath.

³While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁶But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the fading flower of his glorious splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, the pride of those overcome by wine.

³²I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes.

¹⁸Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the Lord’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.

⁵Indeed, this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go to mourn or show sympathy, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares the Lord.

⁶“Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.

²³Forge the chain, for the land is full of crimes of bloodshed, and the city is full of violence.

⁶Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.

⁷Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword, but their widows could not lament.

¹⁶The survivors will escape and live in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valley, each for his own iniquity.

¹³Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws, and down go Zion’s nobles and masses, her revelers and carousers!

²⁹What I am saying, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;

³⁰those who weep, as if they did not; those who are joyful, as if they were not; those who make a purchase, as if they had nothing;

¹⁰Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed.

¹Behold, the Lord lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—

²people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

⁷Behold! Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, is coming to you to say, ‘Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.’

⁸Then, as the Lord had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’” Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

⁸You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

⁹Do not complain about one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged. Look, the Judge is standing at the door!

²⁴Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

²⁵If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.

²⁶You have relied on your swords, you have committed detestable acts, and each of you has defiled his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’

²⁷Tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘As surely as I live, those in the ruins will fall by the sword, those in the open field I will give to be devoured by wild animals, and those in the strongholds and caves will die by plague.

²⁵For he has stretched out his hand against God and has vaunted himself against the Almighty,

²²Because you have disheartened the righteous with your lies, even though I have caused them no grief, and because you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways to save their lives,

⁷“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

⁸As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

⁵Announce in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves and let us flee to the fortified cities.’

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.

¹¹But I am full of the Lord’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the young men gathered together. For both husband and wife will be captured, the old and the very old alike.

¹Behold, the Lord lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—

²people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

¹²Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the sword of the Lord devours from one end of the earth to the other. No flesh has peace.

²⁷“Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

¹⁸If I go out to the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I enter the city, I see those ravaged by famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land they do not know.’”

²⁰See, O Lord, how distressed I am! I am churning within; my heart is pounding within me, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is death.

²If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the Lord says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’

³I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

²³I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.

²⁴They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.

¹²He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them.

¹⁵O Lord, God of Israel, You are righteous! For we remain this day as a remnant. Here we are before You in our guilt, though because of it no one can stand before You.”

¹¹We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

¹⁴I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

³¹And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above.

¹⁰Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

¹¹On that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be as great as the wailing of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

⁸Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.

⁹Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

⁷And when they ask, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you are to say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt, and every hand will go limp. Every spirit will faint, and every knee will turn to water.’ Yes, it is coming and it will surely happen, declares the Lord God.”

¹²Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees.

¹⁴Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will act.

⁷Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.

⁸Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.

²⁴We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.

¹⁰I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.

²Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.

³In its streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the public squares they all wail, falling down weeping.

³¹They will shave their heads for you and wrap themselves in sackcloth. They will weep over you with anguish of soul and bitter mourning.

²⁴Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of styled hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame.

⁶When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.

⁴My heart pounds within me, and the terrors of death assail me.

⁵Fear and trembling grip me, and horror has overwhelmed me.

⁴Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.

¹⁸Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the Lord’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.

⁷For when any Israelite or any foreigner dwelling in Israel separates himself from Me, sets up idols in his heart, and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me, I the Lord will answer him Myself.

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

²⁰In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold—the idols they made to worship.

²⁶What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

²¹Tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I am about to desecrate My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul. And the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword.’

³⁰For the people of Judah have done evil in My sight, declares the Lord. They have set up their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it.

¹⁵“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

⁷Then He told them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city.

¹¹Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

⁷Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.

⁸“Son of man,” He told me, “dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall and discovered a doorway.

¹³As the Lord had declared, Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the treasures from the house of the Lord and the royal palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord.

²Remember Your congregation, which You purchased long ago and redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance—Mount Zion, where You dwell.

³Turn Your steps to the everlasting ruins, to everything in the sanctuary the enemy has destroyed.

¹³Moreover, the Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars and stands and the bronze Sea in the house of the Lord, and they carried the bronze to Babylon.

¹⁴They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes, and all the articles of bronze used in the temple service.

⁹He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

¹⁸who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king and his officials.

¹⁹Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value.

¹³He burned down the house of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

¹⁴And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.

¹⁷I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity.”

²²O Lord, You have seen it; be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me.

¹¹He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”

²³And the nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity, because they were unfaithful to Me. So I hid My face from them and delivered them into the hands of their enemies, so that they all fell by the sword.

²⁴I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and transgressions, and I hid My face from them.

¹⁸Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O Lord, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of Your dove to beasts; do not forget the lives of Your afflicted forever.

¹⁰How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?

¹¹Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand? Stretch it out to destroy them!

²This is what the Lord said to me: “Make for yourself a yoke out of leather straps and put it on your neck.

⁹He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see.’

¹⁶Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, in addition to the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

²Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

⁶You have multiplied those you killed in this city and filled its streets with the dead.

⁶if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,

⁷behold, I will bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations. They will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and will defile your splendor.

⁴¹He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.

²⁸I will make the land a desolate waste, and the pride of her strength will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will become desolate, so that no one will pass through.

³¹I will pour out My anger upon you; I will breathe the fire of My fury against you; I will hand you over to brutal men, skilled in destruction.

¹⁹But if you turn away and forsake the statutes and commandments I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods,

²⁰then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

²¹Tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I am about to desecrate My sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul. And the sons and daughters you left behind will fall by the sword.’

⁸The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace.

⁹Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

¹⁵We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

¹⁶The snorting of enemy horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds, the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who dwell in it.

¹⁷All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us.

¹⁸They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come!

²¹“There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

¹⁰Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built,

¹²For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the Lord, even to the gate of Jerusalem.

²⁰Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.

¹Then some of the elders of Israel came and sat down before me.

⁶Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.

⁹There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.

¹⁷Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him in his palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there a word from the Lord?” “There is,” Jeremiah replied. “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

²“Please inquire of the Lord on our behalf, since Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is waging war against us. Perhaps the Lord will perform for us something like all His past wonders, so that Nebuchadnezzar will withdraw from us.”

⁴I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’

⁵This is what the Lord God says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming!

³⁰Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.

¹⁰Tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are there.’

¹¹You are to say, ‘I am a sign to you.’ Just as it happened here, so will it be done to them; they will go into exile as captives.

¹⁶All the princes of the sea will descend from their thrones, remove their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. Clothed with terror, they will sit on the ground, trembling every moment, appalled over you.

¹⁷Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

⁸but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him.

⁹The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on Zedekiah.