The Babylonian Exile

And I also, I smite My hand on my hand, And have caused My fury to rest; I, Jehovah, have spoken.'

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,

`And thou, son of man, appoint for thee two ways, for the coming in of the sword of the king of Babylon; from one land they come forth, both of them, and a station prepare thou, at the top of the way of the city prepare it .

A way appoint for the coming of the sword, Unto Rabbath of the sons of Ammon, And to Judah, in Jerusalem--the fenced.

For stood hath the king of Babylon at the head of the way, At the top of the two ways, to use divination, He hath moved lightly with the arrows, He hath asked at the teraphim, He hath looked on the liver.

At his right hath been the divination--Jerusalem, To place battering-rams, To open the mouth with slaughter, To lift up a voice with shouting, To place battering-rams against the gates, To pour out a mount, to build a fortification.

And it hath been to them as a false divination in their eyes, Who have sworn oaths to them, And he is causing iniquity to be remembered to be caught.

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your causing your iniquity to be remembered, In your transgressions being revealed, For your sins being seen, in all your doings, Because of your being remembered, By the hand ye are caught.

And thou, wounded, wicked one, Prince of Israel, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end!

Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Turn aside the mitre, and bear away the crown, This--not this--the low make high, And the high make low.

An overturn, overturn, overturn, I make it, Also this hath not been till the coming of Him, Whose is the judgment, and I have given it.

And thou, son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah concerning the sons of Ammon, and concerning their reproach: and thou hast said: A sword, a sword, open for slaughter, Polished to the utmost for brightness!

In the seeing for thee of a vain thing, In the divining for thee of a lie, To put thee on the necks of the wounded of the wicked, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end.

Turn it back unto its scabbard, In the place where thou wast produced, In the land of thy birth I do judge thee.

And I have poured on thee Mine indignation, With fire of My wrath I blow against thee, And have given thee into the hand of brutish men--artificers of destruction.

To the fire thou art for fuel, Thy blood is in the midst of the land, Thou art not remembered, For I, Jehovah, have spoken!'

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,

`And thou, son of man, dost thou judge? dost thou judge the city of blood? then thou hast caused it to know all its abominations,

and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: The city is shedding blood in its midst, For the coming in of its time, And it hath made idols on it for defilement.

By thy blood that thou hast shed thou hast been guilty, And by thine idols that thou hast made thou hast been defiled, And thou causest thy days to draw near, And art come in unto thine years, Therefore I have given thee a reproach to nations, And a derision to all the lands.

The near and the far-off from thee scoff at thee, O defiled of name--abounding in trouble.

Lo, princes of Israel--each according to his arm Have been in thee to shed blood.

Father and mother made light of in thee, To a sojourner they dealt oppressively in thy midst, Fatherless and widow they oppressed in thee.

My holy things thou hast despised, And My sabbaths thou hast polluted.

Men of slander have been in thee to shed blood, And on the mountains they have eaten in thee, Wickedness they have done in thy midst.