Study Desk

Cry and wail, son of man, for it is against my people; it is against all of the princes of Israel. They are thrown to the sword with my people; therefore strike your thigh.

"And you, son of man, mark out for yourself two roads for the coming of the sword of the king of Babylon; they must both go out from the same land. And hew out a signpost; hew it at the head of the road of the city.

And it will be to them like practicing divination falsely in their eyes; they have sworn oaths for themselves. But he will bring their guilt to remembrance so as to seize them.

They have treated father and mother with contempt in you; they violated the alien with extortion; in the midst of you they mistreated the orphan and widow.

Slanderous men are among you to shed blood, and they, among you, eat upon the mountains; they do wickedness in the midst of you.

They take a bribe among you in order to shed blood; and you take usury, and you make gain from your neighbors by extortion, and so you have forgotten me, declares the Lord Yahweh.

"Son of man, the house of Israel has become as silver dross to me; all of them are as bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace, even as silver dross, silver dross they became!

The conspiracy of its prophets in the midst of her is like a roaring lion that is tearing prey. They devour people, and they take wealth and treasure; they make its widows numerous in the midst of her.

Its priests treat my law violently, and they profane my holy objects; they do not distinguish between a holy object and what is unholy, or between the clean and the unclean. They do not teach the difference, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and so I am profaned in the midst of them.

And for them its prophets plaster whitewash; they are seeing falseness and are practicing divination for them by lying, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh,' and Yahweh has not spoken.

They severely oppress the people of the land, and they committed robbery, and they mistreated the needy and the poor, and they oppressed the alien without justice.

and they prostituted themselves in Egypt in their childhood; they were prostituting themselves there, and their breasts were fondled, and there they caressed the bosoms of their virginity.

Now as for their names, the older was Oholah, and Oholibah was her sister. And they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters, and their names are Samaria for Oholah, and Jerusalem for Oholibah.

And her whorings from the time of Egypt she did not abandon, for they slept with her in her childhood, and they caressed the bosoms of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication on her.

They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. And she became a name for the women, and they executed judgments against her.

And I saw that she was defiled; they had both taken the same path!

And so the Babylonians came to her for the bed of lovemaking; and they defiled her with their fornication, and she was defiled by them, and she turned from them.

And they will come against you with an army chariot and wagon and with a crowd of peoples; they will set themselves against you from all around with large shield and small shield and helmet. And I will give before them judgment, and they will judge you with their judgments.

And I will direct my zeal against you, and they will deal with you in anger; your nose and your ears they will remove, and those who are left, they will fall by the sword, and they will take your sons and your daughters, and your remnant will be consumed by fire.

And they will strip you of your clothes, and they will take your splendid jewelry.