The Sword of the Lord: Judgment on Jerusalem and the Nations
21
Chapter 21
1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying.2Son of Adam, set your face toward the way of Teman and drip toward the south and prophesy toward the forest of the field of the Negev.3And you shall say to the forest of the Negev: "Hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am kindling a fire in you, and it shall devour in you every fresh tree and every dry tree. The flame shall not be quenched, a blazing flame, and all faces shall be scorched in it from the Negev to the North."4And all flesh will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it will not be quenched.5And I said, "Ah, Lord the LORD, they are saying to me, 'Is it not a mashal, rulers?'"6The word of the LORD came to me, saying.7Son of Adam, set your face toward Jerusalem and drip toward the sanctuaries and prophesy toward the ground of Israel.8And you shall say to the land of Israel, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am against you, and I will bring out my sword from its sheath, and I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.9Because I have cut off from you righteous and wicked, therefore my sword will go out from its sheath against all flesh from south to north.10And all flesh will know that I, the LORD, have drawn my sword from its sheath; it will not return again.11And you, son of man, groan with breaking of loins and with bitterness groan before their eyes.12And it will be that when they say to you, “On account of what are you groaning?” then you will say, “To a report, for it has come, and every heart will melt and every hand will grow slack and every spirit will grow faint, and every knee will go to water. Behold, it has come and it has happened,” declares the Lord GOD.13And the word of the LORD came to me, saying.14Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord: "Sword, sword! It has been sharpened and also polished."15In order that it be slaughter, slaughter—it was sharpened, in order that there be for it lightning, plucked or withered, rod of my sons, rejection of all tree.16And he gave it to thrust to seize in the palm—she the sharpened sword—and she thrusts to give it in the hand of the slayer.17Cry out and wail, son of Adam, for she was in my people; she in all the princes of Israel—terrors to the sword they were to my people. Therefore, strike on the thigh!18For I have tested, and what? If also a rod—you have rejected—it will not be, says the Lord GOD.19And you, son of man, prophesy and strike palm to palm. Double its third sword—the sword of the profaned ones. It is the sword of the great profaned one, the one thrust through them.20In order to melt the heart and multiply the stumbling blocks, upon all their gates I have given the slaughter of the sword—his brother made for the lightning, a mantle for the slaughterer.21Cling together the right hand the left hand whither your faces from Testimonies.22And I will also strike my palms together and I will cause my wrath to rest; I, the LORD, have spoken.23The word of the LORD came to me, saying.24And you, son of Adam, set for yourself two ways for the coming of the sword of the king of Babel. From one earth they go out, both of them, and hand create at head of way of city create.25You will set a way to come, sword, at Rabbah of the sons of Ammon and at Judah, Jerusalem in divine form.26For the king of Babel stood at the mother of the way, at the head of his two ways, to divine a divination. He shook arrows, he asked teraphim, he gazed in the liver.27It was in our hand, the divination of Jerusalem, to set rams at the opening of the mouth in murder, to lift a voice in trumpet blast, to set rams on gates, to pour out a ramp, to build a battering ram.28And it will be to them like a divination of falsehood in their eyes, seven of sevens to them, and it reminds of iniquity to rebel.29Therefore thus says the Lord the LORD: Because you are remembered for your iniquity in the revealing of your transgressions, to show your sin offerings in all your wondrous deeds; because you are remembered in the palm you will be seized.30And you, wicked prince of Israel who profaned, whose day has come, at the time of the end of iniquity.31Thus says the Lord GOD: Remove the turban and lift up the crown. This—not this! Humble the exalted and exalt the humbled.32Ruin, ruin, ruin—I will set it. It was not until he came, to whom is the judgment, and I gave it to him.