The Babylonian Exile

And not pity doth Mine eye, nor do I spare, According to thy ways unto thee I give, And thine abominations are in thy midst, And ye have known that I am Jehovah the smiter.

Lo, the day, lo, it hath come, Gone forth hath the morning, Blossomed hath the rod, flourished the pride.

The violence hath risen to a rod of wickedness, There is none of them, nor of their multitude, Nor of their noise, nor is there wailing for them.

Come hath the time, arrived hath the day, The buyer doth not rejoice, And the seller doth not become a mourner, For wrath is unto all its multitude.

For the seller to the sold thing turneth not, And yet among the living is their life, For the vision is unto all its multitude, It doth not turn back, And none by his iniquity doth strengthen his life.

They have blown with a trumpet to prepare the whole, And none is going to battle, For My wrath is unto all its multitude.

The sword is without, And the pestilence and the famine within, He who is in a field by sword dieth, And he who is in a city, Famine and pestilence devour him.

And escaped away have their fugitives, And they have been on the mountains As doves of the valleys, All of them make a noising--each for his iniquity.

All the hands are feeble, and all knees go--waters.

And they have girded on sackcloth, And covered them hath trembling, And unto all faces is shame, And on all their heads--baldness.

Their silver into out-places they cast, And their gold impurity becometh. Their silver and their gold is not able to deliver them, In a day of the wrath of Jehovah, Their soul they do not satisfy, And their bowels they do not fill, For the stumbling-block of their iniquity it hath been.

As to the beauty of his ornament, For excellency He set it, And the images of their abominations, Their detestable things--they made in it, Therefore I have given it to them for impurity,

And I have given it into the hand of the strangers for a prey, And to the wicked of the land for a spoil, And they have polluted it.

And I have turned My face from them, And they have polluted My hidden place, Yea, come into it have destroyers, and polluted it.

Make the chain; for the land Hath been full of bloody judgments, And the city hath been full of violence.

And I have brought in the wicked of the nations, And they have possessed their houses, And I have caused to cease the excellency of the strong, And polluted have been those sanctifying them.

Destruction hath come, And they have sought peace, and there is none.

Mischief on mischief cometh, and report is on report, And they have sought a vision from a prophet, And law doth perish from the priest, And counsel from the elders,

The king doth become a mourner, And a prince putteth on desolation, And the hands of the people of the land are troubled, From their own way I deal with them, And with their own judgments I judge them, And they have known that I am Jehovah!'

And it cometh to pass, in the sixth year, in the sixth month , in the fifth of the month, I am sitting in my house, and elders of Judah are sitting before me, and fall on me there doth a hand of the Lord Jehovah,

and I look, and lo, a likeness as the appearance of fire, from the appearance of His loins and downward--fire, and from His loins and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of copper.

And He putteth forth a form of a hand, and taketh me by a lock of my head, and lift me up doth a spirit between the earth and the heavens, and it bringeth me in to Jerusalem in visions of God, unto the opening of the inner gate that is facing the north, where is the seat of the figure of jealousy that is making jealous,

and lo, there the honour of the God of Israel, as the appearance that I saw in the valley.

And He saith unto me, `Son of man, lift up, I pray thee, thine eyes the way of the north.' And I lift up mine eyes the way of the north, and lo, on the north of the gate of the altar this figure of jealousy, at the entrance.

And He saith unto me, `Son of man, art thou seeing what they are doing? the great abominations that the house of Israel are doing here, to keep far off from My sanctuary; and again thou dost turn, thou dost see great abominations.'