Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Now you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Therefore make her know all her abominations.

And you shall say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, A city that sheds blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that makes idols, against her own good, that she may defile herself!

You are guilty for  ¹the blood which you have shed and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near and have come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all the countries.

Those who are near and those who are far off from you will mock you, who are ill-reputed and in great tumult.

Indeed the princes of Israel, each according to his power, were within you to shed blood.

They have lightly esteemed father and mother within you; they have treated the stranger with oppression in the midst of you, and the orphan and the widow they have ill-treated within you.

You have despised My holy things and have profaned My Sabbaths.

Slanderous men are within you in order to shed blood, and within you they have eaten upon the mountains; in the midst of you they have committed lewdness.

In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their father; they have humbled women in their uncleanness within you.

And one has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another has humbled his sister, his father's daughter, within you.

Within you they have taken bribes in order to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase and have wrested unjust gain from your neighbors by extortion and have forgotten Me, declares the Lord Jehovah.

Therefore I have now struck My hand against your wrested unjust gain which you have made and at the bloodshed which is in the midst of you.

Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days when I will deal with you? I, Jehovah, have spoken, and I will do it.

And I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness from you.

And you will be profaned through yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am Jehovah.

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.

Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because all of you have become dross, therefore I am now gathering you into the midst of Jerusalem.

As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace to blow fire upon it and smelt it, so will I gather you in My anger and in My wrath; and I will lay you there and smelt you.

Yes, I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of My overflowing wrath, and you will be smelted in the midst of it.

As silver is smelted in the midst of the furnace, so will you be smelted in the midst of it; and you will know that I, Jehovah, have poured out My wrath upon you.

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation.

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her, like a roaring lion taking prey: They have devoured souls; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have increased the number of her widows in the midst of her.

Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, nor have they made the difference known between the unclean and the clean; and from My Sabbaths they have hidden their eyes; and I am profaned in the midst of them.

Her rulers within her are like wolves taking prey, by shedding blood and destroying souls in order to wrest unjust gain.

And her prophets have plastered over their deeds with untempered mortar for them, seeing vain visions and deceptive divination for them, saying, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah has not spoken.

The people of the land have practiced extortion and have committed plunder and have oppressed the poor and needy and have mistreated the stranger without justice.

And I sought a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the breach before Me for the sake of the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.

Therefore I have poured out My indignation upon them; in the fire of My overflowing wrath I have consumed them; I have brought their own way upon their heads, declares the Lord Jehovah.

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one woman;

And they committed fornication in Egypt; in their youth they committed fornication; there their breasts were pressed, and there their virgin bosoms were handled.

And their names were  ¹Oholah, the older one, and  ²Oholibah, her sister; and they became Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names,  ³Samaria is Oholah, and  ³Jerusalem is Oholibah.

And Oholah committed fornication instead of remaining with Me, and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians, who were close to her,

Who were clothed in purple, governors and officials, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding horses.

And she bestowed her fornication upon them, all of them the choice men of Assyria; and with all whom she lusted after, with all their idols, she defiled herself.

And she did not abandon her fornication from her time in Egypt; for in her youth they had lain with her, and they had handled her virgin bosom, and they had poured out their fornication upon her.

Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians whom she lusted after.

They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and daughters, and they slew her with the sword. And she became a byword among women, and they executed judgments upon her.

And her sister Oholibah  ¹saw this, but she was more corrupt in her lust than she and more corrupt in her fornication than the fornication of her sister.

She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, who were close to her, clothed splendidly, horsemen riding horses, all of them desirable young men.

Then I saw that she was defiled. Both had taken the same way.

And she increased her fornication: When she saw men portrayed upon the wall, images of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,

Girded with belts upon their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, like the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their birth;

She lusted after them, her eyes seeing them; and she sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

And the Babylonians came to her at the bed of love and defiled her with their fornication. And when she had been defiled by them, her desire for them departed.

Thus she uncovered her fornication and she uncovered her nakedness, and My desire for her departed, as My desire for her sister had departed.

Yet she multiplied her fornication by recalling the days of her youth, when she committed fornication in the land of Egypt.

And she lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Thus you sought after the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.

Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am now rousing your lovers against you, from whom your desire departed, and am bringing them against you from all around:

The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and officials all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.

And they will come against you with weapons, chariots and wheels, and with a company of peoples; they will set shield and buckler and helmet against you all around. And I will set judgment before them, and they will judge according to their judgments.

And I will set My jealousy against you that they may deal with you in wrath; they will remove your nose and your ears, and your residue will fall by the sword; they will take your sons and your daughters, and they will consume your residue with fire.

They will also strip you of your garments and take your beautiful articles.

Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and to your fornication brought from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.

For thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am now giving you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom your desire has departed.

And they will deal with you in hatred and will take all that you have gained; and they will abandon you, naked and bare, and the nakedness of your fornication will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your fornication.

These things will be done to you because you have gone after the nations as a harlot, because you have defiled yourself with their idols.

You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.

Thus says the Lord Jehovah,
You will drink your sister's cup,
Deep and wide;
You will be a laughingstock and a mockery;
It contains much.

You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,
The cup of horror and desolation,
The cup of your sister Samaria.

And you will drink it and drain it
And gnaw at its shards;
And you will tear out your breasts;
For I have spoken, declares the Lord Jehovah.

Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because you have forgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, bear now as well your lewdness and your fornication.

And Jehovah said to me, Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare their abominations to them.

For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; indeed they have committed adultery with their idols and have also caused their children, whom they bore unto Me, to pass through fire to  ¹their idols, to be devoured.

Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My Sabbaths.

For when they slaughtered their children to their idols, they entered My sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and they have even done this in the midst of My house.

Furthermore, they sent for men who come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and indeed they came; for them you bathed, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments;

And you sat upon a splendid bed with a table prepared before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil.

And the sound of a multitude without care was with her; and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with people of the common sort, who put bracelets upon the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.

Then I said concerning her who was worn out by adulteries, Will they now commit fornication with her when she is thus?

But they went in to her as they would to a woman who is a harlot; thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.

And righteous men, they will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.

For thus says the Lord Jehovah, Bring up a company against them, and give them up to terror and plunder.

And the company will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords; they will slay their sons and their daughters and burn their houses with fire.

Thus I will cause lewdness to cease from the land, that all women may be admonished not to conduct themselves in the way of your lewdness.

And they will bring your lewdness upon you, and you will bear the sins of having your idols, and you will know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

Then the word of Jehovah came to me, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, saying,

Son of man, write down the name of the day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day.

And utter a parable to the rebellious house, and say to them, Thus says the Lord Jehovah,
Put on a pot — put it on;
And also pour water into it;

Gather into it its pieces,
Every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder;
Fill it with choice bones.

Take the choice of the flock,
And also put a pile of  ¹wood under it;
Bring it to a vigorous boil;
Indeed let its bones be boiled in it.

Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the bloody city, to the pot in which there is rust and whose rust has not gone out of it! Take its pieces out of it piece by piece; no lot has fallen upon it.

For her blood was within her; she put it on a bare rock; she did not pour it upon the ground to cover it with dust.

In order to stir up wrath, to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon a bare rock, so that it might not be covered.

Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Woe to the bloody city! I will also make the pile great.

Heap on the wood, light the fire, boil the meat well, and mix in spices, and let the bones be burned.

Then stand it empty upon its coals, so that it may get hot and its bronze may glow, so that its filthiness may be burned away in it and its rust may be consumed.

She has wearied herself with toil, yet her great rust has not gone out of her. Let her rust be in the fire.

Because of your lewd filthiness — because I tried to cleanse you, but you did not get clean, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness anymore, until I have caused My wrath toward you to rest.

I, Jehovah, have spoken. The time is coming, and I will do it; I will not refrain, nor will I spare, nor will I repent. According to your ways and according to your doings  ¹I will judge you, declares the Lord Jehovah.

Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Son of man, I am about to take away the delight of your eyes from you with a blow. Yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, nor shall your tears come.

Groan silently; make no mourning for the dead; bind your turban upon you, and put your sandals upon your feet, and do not cover your lips, and do not eat the bread of men.

So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And in the morning I did as I was commanded.

And the people said to me, Will you not tell us what these things you are doing signify to us?

So I said to them, The word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Speak to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I will profane My sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, and that which your soul longs after; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.

And you will do as I have done; you shall not cover your lips, nor shall you eat the bread of men.

And your turbans shall be upon your heads, and your sandals, upon your feet; you shall not mourn nor weep, but you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan one to another.

Thus Ezekiel will be a sign to you. You shall do just as all he has done. And when it comes, you will know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

As for you, son of man, surely on the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and what they have set their heart on, their sons and their daughters,

On that day one who has escaped will come to you to report it in your ears.

On that day your mouth will be opened to the one who has escaped, and you shall speak and no longer be dumb. So you shall become a sign to them, and they will know that I am Jehovah.