Therefore be  ¹long-suffering, brothers, until the  ²coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer eagerly awaits the precious fruit of the earth, exercising long-suffering over it until it receives the early and late rain.

You also be  ¹long-suffering; establish your hearts because the  ²coming of the Lord has drawn near.

Do not  ¹complain, brothers, against one another lest you be judged. Behold, the  ²Judge stands before the doors.

As an example, brothers, of  ¹suffering evil and of  ²long-suffering, take the prophets, who spoke  ³in the name of the Lord.

Behold, we call those who  ¹endured blessed. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen his end from the Lord, that the Lord is very tenderhearted and compassionate.

But  ¹above all things, my brothers, do  ²not swear, neither by heaven nor by earth nor with any other oath; but let your  ³yes be yes, and your no, no,  ⁴lest you fall under judgment.

Does anyone among you suffer evil? Let him  ¹pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him  ²sing praise.

Is anyone among you  ¹ill? Let him  ²call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him,  ³anointing him with oil  ⁴in the name of the Lord.

And the  ¹prayer of faith will save the one who is  ²sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has  ³committed sins, it will be forgiven him.

Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The petition of a righteous man  ¹avails much in its working.

Elijah was a man of like feeling with us, and he  ¹earnestly prayed that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

And he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth sprouted forth with its fruit.

My brothers, if any one among you is  ¹led astray from the truth and someone turns him back,

Let him know that he who turns a  ¹sinner back from the error of his way will  ²save that one's soul from  ³death and will  ⁴cover a multitude of  ⁵sins.

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Son of man, set your face toward Teman, and utter something against the south and prophesy against the forest field of the  ¹Negev;

And say to the forest of the Negev, Hear the word of Jehovah: Thus says the Lord Jehovah, I am now kindling a fire in you, and it will consume in you every tender tree and every dry tree; the flaming flame will not be quenched, and every surface will be scorched, from the south to the north.

And all flesh will see that I, Jehovah, kindled it; it will not be quenched.

Then I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! They say of me, Does he not just use parables?

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and utter something against the holy places and prophesy against the land of Israel;

And say to the land of Israel, Thus says Jehovah, I am now against you, and I will draw My sword out of its sheath, and I will cut off from you the righteous man and the wicked.

Because I will cut off from you the righteous man and the wicked, therefore My sword will go forth out of its sheath against all flesh, from the south to the north.

And all flesh will know that I, Jehovah, have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it will not return again.

But you, son of man, groan! With the shaking of loins and with bitterness groan in their sight.

And when they say to you, Why do you groan, you shall say, Because of the report that comes; and every heart will melt and every hand will be feeble and every spirit will faint and every knee will flow into water. It is about to come and it will happen, declares the Lord Jehovah.

Again the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord, Say: A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished.

It is sharpened to slaughter utterly, polished to flash like lightning. Or shall we rejoice, saying, The  ¹scepter of my son despises all other wood?

And it is given to be polished, that it may be wielded in the hand. The sword — it is sharpened and it is polished, that it may be given into the hand of the slayer.

Cry out and howl, son of man, for it will come against My people. It will come against all the princes of Israel; they are cast at the sword with My people; therefore  ¹strike your thigh.

For a trial has been made. And what if even the scepter that despises is no more? declares the Lord Jehovah.

You therefore, son of man, prophesy and clap your hands together; and let the sword be doubled a third time, the sword for the slain; it is the sword for a great slain one that encircles them.

In order that hearts may fail and that occasions of falling may multiply at all their gates, I have given the  ¹slaughtering sword. Ah! It has been made to flash like lightning; it is drawn for slaying.

Gather yourself up, go to the right; set yourself, go to the left, to wherever your edge is appointed.

And I, even I, will clap My hands together and will cause My wrath to rest; I, Jehovah, have spoken.

Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

And you, son of man, appoint two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; out of one land both will come. And make a signpost; make it at the fork in the road to each city.

You shall appoint a way for the sword to come, either to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, or to fortified Jerusalem in Judah.

For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork in the two roads, using divination; he shakes his arrows, he inquires of the  ¹teraphim, he  ²observes the liver.

Into his right hand came the divination for Jerusalem, to set up the battering ram, to open his mouth in killing, to lift up his voice with a shout, to set the battering rams against the gates, to cast up a mound, to build a siege wall.

Yet to those in Jerusalem it will be as a false divination in their sight, to those who have sworn solemn oaths; but He brings the iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.

Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, 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 will be taken with the hand.

And you, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come at the time of the  ¹iniquity of the end,

Thus says the Lord Jehovah, Remove the turban, and take off the crown; what is will not be. Exalt the lowly, and lay low the exalted.

Ruins, ruins, ruins will I make it; and this also will be no more, until  ¹He comes whose right it is; and I will give it to Him.

And you, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah concerning the children of Ammon and concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword, drawn for the slaughter, polished to consume, that it may flash like lightning —

While they see vanity for you, while they divine deception for you — to bring you down upon the necks of the wicked slain, whose day has come at the time of the iniquity of the end.

Return it to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.

And I will pour out My indignation upon you; with the fire of My overflowing wrath I will blow against you, and I will give you into the hand of brutal men, skilled in destruction.

You will be fuel for the fire; your blood will be in the midst of the land; you will not be remembered; for I, Jehovah, have spoken.

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.