Babylon Is God’s Sword

21 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, look toward Jerusalem and speak against the holy places. Speak against the land of Israel. ³ Tell the land of Israel, ‘The Lord says, “See, I am against you. I will take My sword out of its holder and destroy from you both the good and the sinful. ⁴ Because I will destroy from you both the good and the sinful, My sword will go out against everyone from south to north. ⁵ Then all people will know that I, the Lord, have taken out My sword. It will not be put back into its holder again.”’ ⁶ As for you, son of man, cry in sorrow in front of them, as if your heart is breaking. ⁷ And when they ask you, ‘Why are you crying?’ tell them, ‘Because of the news that is coming, every heart will melt and all hands will be weak. Every spirit will lose its strength, and all knees will be as weak as water. It is coming, and it will happen,’ says the Lord God.”

⁸ Again the Word of the Lord came to me saying, ⁹ “Son of man, speak in My name and tell them, ‘The Lord says, “A sword, a sharp and shining sword! ¹⁰ It is made sharp to kill, and shined to look like lightning! Shall we have joy? It hates the special stick of My son, as it does all wood. ¹¹ The sword is being shined to make it ready to use. It is made sharp and shiny, to be put into the hand of the killer. ¹² Cry out in a loud voice, son of man, for the sword is against My people. It is against all the leaders of Israel. They are going to be killed with My people, so beat your upper leg in sorrow. ¹³ They will be put to the test. If they do not turn from their sinful ways, these things will happen,” says the Lord God.’

¹⁴ “So speak in My name, son of man, and clap your hands together. Let the sword that kills hit two, even three times. It is the sword that kills and is all around them, ¹⁵ so that they will lose their strength of heart, and many will be killed at all their gates. I have sent the shining sword. It is made to shine like lightning, and is ready to kill. ¹⁶ O sharp sword, cut to the left and to the right. Cut wherever you have been sent. ¹⁷ I will also clap My hands, and My anger will be gone. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹⁸ The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹⁹ “Son of man, make two ways for the king of Babylon to come with his sword. Both of them will come from the same land. Mark the way where the road divides and goes to the city. ²⁰ Mark a way for the sword to go to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah into the strong city of Jerusalem. ²¹ For the king of Babylon stands where the road divides in two to use strange secret powers. He shakes the arrows and speaks with false gods, and looks at the liver. ²² In his right hand is the arrow marked for Jerusalem. It tells him to set up objects to knock down the city walls, to call out the battle cry, to set up objects to break down the gates, and to build a wall of dirt and battle towers. ²³ The people who promised to obey him will not believe this. But he will make them remember their guilt so that they may be taken. ²⁴ So the Lord God says, ‘You have made your guilt to be remembered. Your sins are no longer covered, and everyone has seen the bad things you have done and remembers them. So you will be taken in battle. ²⁵ And you, O bad and sinful one, the leader of Israel, the day of your punishment has come. Your sin will end.’ ²⁶ The Lord God says, ‘Take off the head-covering. Take off the crown. Things will not stay as they are. Honor that which is low. And bring down that which is honored. ²⁷ A waste, a waste. I will lay the city waste. It will be no more, until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him.’

²⁸ “And you, son of man, speak in My name and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says about the sons of Ammon and about their shame.’ Tell them, ‘A sword is pulled out ready to kill! It is made to shine like lightning! ²⁹ Even with the false dreams about you, and the lies spoken about you by using secret ways, you will be laid on the necks of the sinful who are killed, whose day has come for their last punishment. ³⁰ Put your sword back into its holder. I will punish you in the place where you were made, in the land of your birth. ³¹ I will be angry with you. I will blow on you with the fire of My anger. And I will give you over to men who show no pity, who have been taught to destroy. ³² You will be destroyed by fire. You will be killed in your land, and you will not be remembered. For I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

Jerusalem’s Sins

22 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, will you judge? Will you judge this city of blood? Then tell the people about all their sinful acts. ³ Tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “O city, because you have killed your own people and have made yourselves false gods to add to your sins, your time will come! ⁴ You have become guilty by killing your people, and sinful by the false gods you have made. You have brought the day of your punishment near. The end of your years has come. So I have made you a shame to the nations. All the countries laugh at you. ⁵ People both near and far will make fun of you, you who are full of shame and trouble. ⁶ See, each of the rulers of Israel who are in you has used his power to kill. ⁷ They have not honored father and mother within you. They have made it hard for the stranger living among you. They have done wrong to those in you who have lost their father or husband. ⁸ You have hated My holy things and have not kept My Days of Rest holy. ⁹ There are men in you who have lied about others to cause them to be put to death. Some have eaten at the altars on the mountains, and have done sex sins there. ¹⁰ Men have done sex sins with their fathers’ wives. Men have put women to shame during their time of the month when they are unclean. ¹¹ One has done sex sins with his neighbor’s wife. Another has done sex sins with his daughter-in-law. And another has put his own sister to shame, his father’s daughter. ¹² In you they have taken pay to kill people. You have made others pay back more than they owe you. You have hurt your neighbors by making it hard for them to pay you. And you have forgotten Me,” says the Lord God.

¹³ “I will bring My hand down hard upon the money you have made by your sinful ways, and for the blood of those you have killed among you. ¹⁴ Can your strength of heart last? Or can your hands be strong, in the days that I punish you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I say. ¹⁵ I will divide you among the nations and spread you out through the lands. I will take away from you all that is unclean. ¹⁶ You will become sinful in the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am the Lord.”’”

¹⁷ The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹⁸ “Son of man, the people of Israel have become waste to Me. They are like brass, tin, iron, and lead in the fire and have become waste that is left after silver has gone through the fire. ¹⁹ So the Lord God says, ‘Because you have all become waste, I am going to gather you together in Jerusalem. ²⁰ As men gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the stove to blow fire on it and melt it, so I will gather you in My anger. I will put you in the city and melt you. ²¹ I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My anger, and you will be melted within it. ²² As silver is melted in the hot stove, so you will be melted in Jerusalem. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out My anger upon you.’”

²³ The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ²⁴ “Son of man, tell Israel, ‘You are a land that is not made clean or rained on in the day of anger.’ ²⁵ Israel’s false religious leaders are making plans within her. They are like a lion making noise over the food it has killed. They have taken human lives and also riches and things of much worth. They have made many women in Israel lose their husbands. ²⁶ Her religious leaders have broken My Law, and have made My holy things unclean. It makes no difference to them if something is holy or unclean. They have not taught the difference between what is clean and unclean. They hide their eyes from My Days of Rest, and I am not honored among them. ²⁷ Her leaders are like wolves tearing apart the animals they have killed. They kill and destroy lives to get things by doing wrong. ²⁸ Her men who speak in My name have covered these sins with whitewash for the people. They see false dreams and lie to them using their secret ways, saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have made it hard for others and have stolen. They have done wrong to the poor and those in need. And they have made it hard for the stranger who lives among them, taking away his rights. ³⁰ I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before Me in the place where it is broken, to stop Me from destroying the land, but I found no one. ³¹ So I have become angry with them. I have destroyed them with the fire of My anger. I am punishing them for what they have done,” says the Lord God.

Two Sinful Sisters

23 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother. ³ They sold the use of their bodies in Egypt, and did so when they were young. Their breasts were lain upon in that land. Their breasts, which had never before been held by a man, were held. ⁴ The name of the older sister was Oholah, and her younger sister was Oholibah. They became Mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

The Older Sister—Samaria

⁵ “Oholah sold the use of her body while she was Mine. She was full of desire for her lovers, the Assyrians who lived near her ⁶ who were dressed in purple. They were rulers and leaders, all of them good-looking young men who rode on horses. ⁷ She gave her body to them for sex. They were all the best men of Assyria. And she also sinned by worshiping the false gods of all the men she desired. ⁸ She did not turn away from her sex sins she had begun in Egypt. Men had lain with her since she was young. They had held her young breasts and used her to fill their desire. ⁹ So I gave her over to her lovers the Assyrians whom she desired. ¹⁰ They took off her clothes. They took her sons and daughters. But they killed her with the sword. So she became a saying among women, because she was punished.

The Younger Sister—Jerusalem

¹¹ “Her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was more sinful in her desire for sex than Oholah. Her sex sins were worse than those of her sister. ¹² She wanted to have the Assyrians, rulers and leaders, men who were well dressed, those who rode on horses, all those good looking young men. ¹³ And I saw that she was sinful. Both sisters went the same way. ¹⁴ But she did even more sex sins. She saw pictures of men on the wall, pictures of Babylonians drawn in bright red. ¹⁵ They had belts around them, and flowing head-coverings. All of them looked like Babylonian captains who were born in Chaldea. ¹⁶ And when she saw them, she had a desire for sex with them, and sent word to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ The Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love. They made her sinful with their desire. And after she had had sex with them, she became sick of them. ¹⁸ When she let her sins and her body be seen, I turned away from her in anger, as I had turned from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she did even more sex sins. She remembered when she was young, when she sold the use of her body in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ She was full of desire for lovers whose flesh was like those of donkeys, and whose flow was like that of horses. ²¹ Oholibah, you were filled with desire for the sex sins you did when you were young, when the Egyptians held your breasts.

Jerusalem Is Judged

²² “So, Oholibah, the Lord God says, ‘I will bring your lovers against you, those you turned away from. I will bring them against you from every side: ²³ Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, good looking young men, all of them rulers, leaders, captains, and men who are well-known, all of them riding on horses. ²⁴ They will come against you from the north, with war-wagons and an army of people. They will come against you on every side with battlecoverings and head-coverings. And I will let them punish you. They will punish you in their own way. ²⁵ Because of My jealous anger, I will let them act toward you in anger. They will cut off your nose and ears, and any people who are left will be killed by the sword. They will take your sons and daughters, and any yet left will be burned in the fire. ²⁶ They will take away your clothes and take away the beautiful objects you wear. ²⁷ So I will put an end to the sex sins you brought from the land of Egypt. You will never again look at these things with desire or remember Egypt.’ ²⁸ For the Lord God says, ‘I will give you over to those you hate, to the men you turned away from. ²⁹ And because they hate you, they will take away everything you own and leave you without clothing. Then your body without clothes will be seen as a sinful woman. ³⁰ These things will be done to you because you have sold the use of your body to the nations, and because you have made yourself sinful with their false gods. ³¹ You have followed the way of your sister, so I will give you the same cup of punishment to drink.’ ³² The Lord God says, ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, which is deep and wide. You will be laughed at and made fun of, for it holds much. ³³ You will become drunk and filled with sorrow, with the cup of fear and waste, with the cup of your sister Samaria. ³⁴ You will drink it until it is empty. Then you will chew its pieces and tear your breasts, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord God. ³⁵ So the Lord God says, ‘Because you have forgotten Me and put Me behind your back, now suffer the punishment of your sex sins.’”

Both Sisters Are Judged

³⁶ The Lord said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Make them know their sinful acts. ³⁷ For they have not been faithful to Me, and blood is on their hands. They have left Me for their false gods. And they gave their sons to these false gods as burnt gifts, the sons they had given to Me at birth. ³⁸ That is not all they did. At that same time they have not kept My holy place and My Days of Rest holy. ³⁹ When they had killed their children for their false gods, they went into My holy place on the same day to make it unclean. This is what they did within My house. ⁴⁰ They even sent for men who came from far away. And when they came, you washed yourselves, colored your eyes, and put on beautiful objects for them. ⁴¹ You sat on a beautiful seat with a table made ready in front of it on which you had set My special perfume and My oil. ⁴² The sound of a group free of care was around you. Men who drank too much were brought from the desert with men who were not important. They put beautiful objects on the women’s hands and beautiful crowns on their heads. ⁴³ Then I said about the one who was worn out by sex sins, ‘Will they now lie with her when she is this way?’ ⁴⁴ But they went in to her as they would go in to a woman who sells the use of her body. So they went in to Oholah and Oholibah, the sinful women. ⁴⁵ But men who are right and good will punish them as women are punished who do sex sins and kill, because they are sinful women and blood is on their hands.

⁴⁶ “The Lord God says, ‘Bring up a group against them to fill them with fear and to rob them. ⁴⁷ The group will kill them with stones and with swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses. ⁴⁸ So I will put an end to sex sins in the land, that all women will learn of the danger and not sin as you have done. ⁴⁹ You will suffer the penalty for your sex sins and for worshiping your false gods. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.’”

The Boiling Pot

24 The Word of the Lord came to me on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year, saying, ² “Son of man, put down in writing this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has shut Jerusalem in with his army this very day. ³ And tell a picture-story to these sinful people of Israel. Tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “Put the pot on the fire. Put it on, and pour water in it. ⁴ Put all the good pieces of meat in it, the thigh, the shoulder. And fill it with the best bones. ⁵ Take the best of the flock. Put more and more wood under the pot to make it boil, and boil the bones in it.”

⁶ ’For the Lord God says, “It is bad for the city of blood, for the rusted pot whose rust has not been cleaned out of it! Take the pieces of meat out of it without choosing them. ⁷ For the blood of the city has been poured on the rock. It was not poured on the ground where the dust would cover it. ⁸ I have put the blood on the rock where it could not be covered, so that it would cause anger and punishment.” ⁹ So the Lord God says, “It is bad for the city of blood! I will put much wood on the fire. ¹⁰ Put on more and more wood, and make the fire burn. Boil the meat well. Mix in the spices, and let the bones be burned up. ¹¹ Now set the empty pot on the coals until it becomes hot and its brass becomes bright with the heat. Then what is not clean in it will melt away. Its rust will be destroyed. ¹² But it has been all for nothing. Its rust has not left it, not even by fire. ¹³ It is sin that makes you unclean. I have tried to make you clean, but you would not be made clean from your sins. So you will not be clean again until My anger against you is finished. ¹⁴ I, the Lord, have spoken. The time has come for Me to act. I will not hold back, I will not pity, and I will not be sorry. I will punish you for your ways and for what you have done,” says the Lord God.’”

Ezekiel’s Wife Dies

¹⁵ The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹⁶ “Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the desire of your eyes. But do not have sorrow or loud crying or any tears. ¹⁷ Cry inside yourself. Do not show sorrow for the dead. Put your head-covering on. Put your shoes on your feet. Do not cover your face or eat the bread of those in sorrow.” ¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I was told. ¹⁹ And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things you are doing mean for us?” ²⁰ So I said to them, “The Word of the Lord came to me saying, ²¹ ’Tell the people of Israel, “The Lord God says, ‘I am about to let sin fill My holy place, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and the happiness of your soul. And your sons and daughters you have left behind will be killed by the sword. ²² Then you will do as I have done. You will not cover your face or eat the bread of those in sorrow. ²³ Your heads will be covered and your shoes will be on your feet. You will not have sorrow or cry. But you will waste away in your sins and cry in pain to one another. ²⁴ So Ezekiel will be something special for you to see. You will do just as he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Lord God.’”

²⁵ ‘Son of man, I will take away their strong-place that was their joy and pride, the desire of their eyes and the things their hearts wanted most. And I will take away their sons and their daughters. ²⁶ On that day, one who gets away will come to you with the news. ²⁷ That same day your mouth will be opened. You will speak with him and no longer be quiet. So you will be something special for them to see, and they will know that I am the Lord.’”