1The word of the LORD came to me:
2"Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem. Let your word drop toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel."
3"Say to the land of Israel, 'This is what the LORD says: Look, I am against you. I will draw my sword out of its sheath, and I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked."
4"'Since I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will come out of its sheath against all flesh, from the south to the north."
5"'Then all flesh will know that I the LORD have drawn my sword out of its sheath. It will not go back again.'"
6"So sigh, son of man. Sigh as if your body were breaking, and sigh bitterly before their eyes."
7"And when they say to you, 'Why are you sighing?' you shall answer, 'Because of the news. It is coming. Every heart will melt, and all hands will hang weak, and every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Look, it is coming, and it will be done, says the Lord GOD.'"
8Again the word of the LORD came to me:
9"Son of man, prophesy and say, 'This is what the LORD says: Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished."
10"'It is sharpened to make a great slaughter. It is polished so that it may flash. Should we then be merry? It despises the rod of my son, as it despises every tree."
11"'He has given it to be polished, so that it may be held in the hand. This sword is sharpened, and it is polished, to be put into the hand of the killer.'"
12"Cry out and wail, son of man, for the sword is against my people, it is against all the princes of Israel. Terrors because of the sword are on my people. So strike your thigh."
13"Because it is a testing, and what if the sword despises even the rod? It shall be no more, says the Lord GOD."
14"So you, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together, and let the sword be doubled a third time. It is the sword of the slain. It is the sword of the great men who are slain, which comes into their inner rooms."
15"I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, so that their hearts may melt and their ruins may be many. Ah, it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter."
16"Go one way or the other, to the right hand or to the left, wherever your face is turned."
17"I also will strike my hands together, and I will let my fury rest. I the LORD have spoken it."
18The word of the LORD came to me again:
19"Now you, son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come along. Both of them shall come out of one land. And make a signpost; make it at the start of the road to the city."
20"Mark out a road for the sword to come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah, in Jerusalem the fortified city."
21"For the king of Babylon stood where the road divides, at the head of the two roads, to use divination. He shook his arrows to make them bright, he asked his images, he looked at the liver."
22"In his right hand was the answer for Jerusalem: to set captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with a shout, to set battering rams against the gates, to throw up a ramp, and to build a siege wall."
23"To them it will seem a false divination, for they have sworn oaths. But he will bring their guilt to mind, so that they may be taken."
24"So this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have made your guilt to be remembered, so that your wrongdoing is uncovered and your sins show in all you do; because, I say, you have come to mind, you shall be taken by the hand."
25"And you, unholy and wicked prince of Israel, your day has come, the time when guilt comes to its end."
26"This is what the Lord GOD says: Take off the diadem, and take off the crown. This shall not be as it was. Lift up the one who is low, and bring down the one who is high."
27"I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. And it shall be no more, until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it to him."
28"And you, son of man, prophesy and say, 'This is what the Lord GOD says about the Ammonites and about their insults: Say, The sword, the sword is drawn. It is polished for the slaughter, to destroy, and to flash like lightning."
29"'while they see false visions for you, while they divine lies for you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, the time when guilt comes to its end."
30"'Shall I make it go back into its sheath? I will judge you in the place where you were made, in the land of your birth."
31"'I will pour out my anger on you. I will blow against you with the fire of my wrath, and give you into the hand of brutish men, who are skilled in destroying."
32"'You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the middle of the land. You shall not be remembered any more, for I the LORD have spoken it.'"