21:22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.
21:23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.
21:24 Therefore thus saith the Lord G.o.d; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.
21:25 And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, 21:26 Thus saith the Lord G.o.d; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.
21:27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
21:28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord G.o.d concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering: 21:29 Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.
21:30 Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.
21:31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.
21:32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the LORD have spoken it.
22:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 22:2 Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the b.l.o.o.d.y city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.
22:3 Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord G.o.d, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.
22:4 Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
22:5 Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed.
22:6 Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.
22:7 In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
22:8 Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.
22:9 In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.
22:10 In thee have they discovered their fathers" nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.
22:11 And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour"s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father"s daughter.
22:12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord G.o.d.
22:13 Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.
22:14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.
22:15 And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.
22:16 And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
22:17 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 22:18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are bra.s.s, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.
22:19 Therefore thus saith the Lord G.o.d; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
22:20 As they gather silver, and bra.s.s, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.
22:21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst therof.
22:22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.
22:23 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 22:24 Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.
22:25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
22:27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
22:28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord G.o.d, when the LORD hath not spoken.
22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord G.o.d.
23:1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 23:2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: 23:3 And they committed wh.o.r.edoms in Egypt; they committed wh.o.r.edoms in their youth: there were their b.r.e.a.s.t.s pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
23:4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.
23:5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the a.s.syrians her neighbours, 23:6 Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, hors.e.m.e.n riding upon horses.
23:7 Thus she committed her wh.o.r.edoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of a.s.syria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
23:8 Neither left she her wh.o.r.edoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of her virginity, and poured their wh.o.r.edom upon her.
23:9 Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the a.s.syrians, upon whom she doted.
23:10 These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
23:11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her wh.o.r.edoms more than her sister in her wh.o.r.edoms.
23:12 She doted upon the a.s.syrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, hors.e.m.e.n riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
23:13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, 23:14 And that she increased her wh.o.r.edoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, 23:15 Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: 23:16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
23:17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their wh.o.r.edom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.
23:18 So she discovered her wh.o.r.edoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.
23:19 Yet she multiplied her wh.o.r.edoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.