Study Desk

A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, will I make it; this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him. And thou, son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their taunt; and say thou: O sword, O sword keen-edged, furbished for the slaughter, to the uttermost, because of the glitterings; While they see falsehood unto thee, while they divine lies unto thee, to lay thee upon the necks of the wicked that are to be slain, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end! Cause it to return into its sheath!--In the place where thou wast created, in the land of thine origin, will I judge thee. And I will pour out My indignation upon thee, I will blow upon thee with the fire of My wrath; and I will deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, skilful to destroy. Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land, thou shalt be no more remembered; for I the LORD have spoken it.'

For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into My sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of My house.

'Son of man, set thy face toward the children of Ammon, and prophesy against them;

and say unto the children of Ammon: Hear the word of the Lord GOD: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Because thou saidst: Aha! against My sanctuary, when it was profaned, and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate, and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity;

therefore, behold, I will deliver thee to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in thee, and make their dwellings in thee; they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk.

And I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and the children of Ammon a couching-place for flocks; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

together with the children of Ammon, unto the children of the east, and I will give them for a possession, that the children of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations;

Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all the mingled people, and Cub, and the children of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.

to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up in their height, even all that drink water; for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.

'Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them: When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;

And thou, son of man, say unto the children of thy people: The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not stumble thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall he that is righteous be able to live thereby in the day that he sinneth.

Yet the children of thy people say: The way of the Lord is not equal; but as for them, their way is not equal.

And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people that talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying: Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD;

Because thou hast had a hatred of old, and hast hurled the children of Israel unto the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end;

Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel, and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance; and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of children.

'And thou, son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it: For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions; then take another stick, and write upon it: For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and of all the house of Israel his companions;

And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying: Wilt thou not tell us what thou meanest by these?

And say unto them: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land;

And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children, for ever; and David My servant shall be their prince for ever.

And He said unto me: 'Son of man, this is the place of My throne, and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever; and the house of Israel shall no more defile My holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their harlotry, and by the carcasses of their kings in their high places;