1 The word of the LORD came to me:
2 "Son of man, turn your face toward Jerusalem; let your words drip against the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel.
3 Tell the land of Israel, 'Thus says the LORD: I am against you. I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off from you righteous and wicked alike.
4 Since I will cut off from you righteous and wicked alike, my sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north.
5 And all flesh will know that I, the LORD, have drawn my sword from its sheath; it will not go back again.'
6 "You, Son of man, groan! With shaking loins and bitter grief, groan before their eyes.
7 When they ask you, 'Why are you groaning?' tell them, 'Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt, every hand hang limp, every spirit grow faint and every knee drip with water. It is coming and it will happen, declares the Lord GOD.'"
8 The word of the LORD came to me:
9 "Son of man, prophesy and say, 'Thus says the Lord: Say: A sword, a sword, sharpened and polished too,
10 sharpened for slaughter, polished to gleam like lightning! Or shall we rejoice? The rod of my son despises every tree.
11 It has been handed over to be polished, to be gripped in the hand; this is the sword, sharpened and polished, to put into the hand of the killer.'
12 Cry out and howl, Son of man, for it is against my people, against all the princes of Israel; they have been handed over to the sword along with my people. So beat your thigh.
13 For it is a testing; and what if even the rod that despises shall be no more? declares the Lord GOD.
14 "So you, Son of man, prophesy and clap your hands. Let the sword strike twice, three times; it is a sword for the slain, the sword for the great slaughter that hems them in,
15 so that hearts melt and many stumble. At all their gates I have put the glittering point of the sword. Ah, it is made to gleam like lightning, sharpened for slaughter!
16 Slash to the right, take position, slash to the left, wherever your blade is pointed.
17 I too will clap my hands and let my wrath come to rest. I, the LORD, have spoken."
18 The word of the LORD came to me:
19 "You, Son of man, lay out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come by, both starting from the same land. Put up a signpost; put it at the head of the road to a city.
20 Lay out a road for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah, to fortified Jerusalem.
21 For the king of Babylon has stopped at the parting of the way, at the head of the two roads, to seek an omen: he shakes the arrows, he consults the teraphim, he inspects the liver.
22 In his right hand is the omen for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to give the command for slaughter, to raise the war cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a ramp, to build siege works.
23 To them it will look like a false omen, since they have sworn oaths upon oaths; but he will bring their iniquity to mind, so that they are captured.
24 "So thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you have brought your iniquity to mind by having your transgressions exposed, so that your sins show in all your deeds, because you have been brought to mind, you will be seized by force.
25 And you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time of the final punishment,
26 thus says the Lord GOD: Take off the turban and lift off the crown! Nothing will stay as it is: raise the low and lower the high.
27 A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I will make it! This too will not be, until he comes to whom the right belongs; to him I will give it.'
28 "You, Son of man, prophesy and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD about the children of Ammon and their taunts: Say: A sword, a sword is drawn, polished for slaughter, to devour, to gleam like lightning,
29 while they see empty visions for you and divine lies for you, to lay you on the necks of the slain, the wicked whose day has come, the time of the final punishment.
30 Put it back in its sheath! In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, I will judge you.
31 I will pour out my fury on you; with the fire of my wrath I will blow on you, and I will hand you over to brutish men, craftsmen of destruction.
32 You will be fuel for the fire; your blood will be in the middle of the land; you will be remembered no more, for I, the LORD, have spoken.'"