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¹ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, preach against the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel; ³ and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am against you, and I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked from you. ⁴ Because I will cut off both righteous and wicked from you, therefore My sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north, ⁵ that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not return anymore.” ’ ⁶ Sigh therefore, son of man, with a breaking heart, and sigh with bitterness before their eyes. ⁷ And it shall be when they say to you, ‘Why are you sighing?’ that you shall answer, ‘Because of the news; when it comes, every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass,’ says the Lord God.” ⁸ Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁹ And also polished! ¹⁰ As it does all wood. ¹¹ To be given into the hand of the slayer.’ ¹² Therefore strike your thigh. ¹³ says the Lord God. ¹⁴ That enters their private chambers. ¹⁵ It is grasped for slaughter: ¹⁶ Wherever your edge is ordered! ¹⁷ I, the Lord, have spoken.” ¹⁸ The word of the Lord came to me again, saying: ¹⁹ “And son of man, appoint for yourself two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to go; both of them shall go from the same land. Make a sign; put it at the head of the road to the city. ²⁰ Appoint a road for the sword to go to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah, into fortified Jerusalem. ²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver. ²² In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege mound, and to build a wall. ²³ And it will be to them like a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them; but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken. ²⁴ “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘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 shall be taken in hand. ²⁵ ‘Now to you, O profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose iniquity shall end, ²⁶ Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted. ²⁷ And I will give it to Him.” ’ ²⁸ For consuming, for flashing— ²⁹ Whose iniquity shall end. ³⁰ In the land of your nativity. ³¹ And deliver you into the hands of brutal men who are skillful to destroy. ³² For I the Lord have spoken.’ ”