< Ezekiel 7 >
1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 And thou, son of man, thus hath said the Lord Eternal concerning the land of Israel, There is an end! the end is coming over the four corners of the land.
3 Now cometh the end over thee, and I will let loose my anger against thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will lay upon thee all thy abominations.
4 And my eye shall not show pity upon thee, and I will not spare thee; for thy own ways will I lay upon thee, and thy abominations shall come in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
5 Thus hath said the Lord Eternal, An evil, a peculiar evil, behold, is coming.
6 An end is coming, there is coming the end: it waketh up against thee; behold, [the evil] cometh.
7 The evil decree is come against thee, O thou inhabitant of the land: the time is come, near is the day of tumult, and not the joyful call on the mountains.
8 Now will I in a short time pour out my fury over thee, and I will let out all my anger against thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will lay upon thee all thy abominations.
9 And my eye shall not show pity, and I will not spare: according to thy ways will I lay [evil] on thee, and thy abominations shall come in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth.
10 Behold the day, behold, it is coming; the evil decree is gone forth; the staff hath blossomed, presumption hath budded;
11 The violence is grown up into the staff of wickedness: nothing is left of them, and nothing of their multitude, and nothing of theirs; and there shall be no lamenting for them.
12 The time is coming, the day occurreth; let the buyer not rejoice, and let the seller not mourn; for wrath is against all her multitude.
13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although their soul were yet alive; for the vision is against all her multitude; no one shall return; but the soul of every one is fastened to his iniquity, they do not strengthen themselves [to repent].
14 They have blown the cornet, every one maketh himself ready; but no one goeth to the battle; for my wrath is against all her multitude.
15 The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine are within: he that is in the field shall die by the sword; and he that is in the city, him shall famine and pestilence devour.
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and they shall be on the mountains like the doves of the valleys, all of which are moaning, every one in his iniquity.
17 All hands become feeble, and all knees go into water.
18 And people gird themselves with sackcloth, and shuddering covereth them: and upon all faces there is shame, and upon all their heads there is baldness.
19 Their silver shall they cast into the streets, and their gold shall be as though it were unclean: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord; they shall not satisfy their souls, and not fill their bowels; because it was the stumbling-block for their iniquity.
20 And as for the beauty of his ornament, which he had instituted for [their] pride: even therein did they make the images of their abominations, their detestable things; therefore have I rendered it unclean for them.
21 And I will give it up into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil: and they shall pollute it.
22 And I will turn away my face from them, and they shall pollute my place where I dwelt in secret; and therein shall barbarians enter and pollute it.
23 Make chains; for the land is full of blood-guiltiness, and the city is full of violence.
24 Therefore will I bring the worst of nations, and they shall take possession of their houses: I will also cause the pride of the mighty to cease; and their holy places shall be polluted.
25 Destruction cometh: and they will seek peace, but there shall be none.
26 Mishap shall come upon mishap, and report shall be spread upon report: and then will they seek a vision from the prophet; but the law shall be lost from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with distress, and the hands of the people of the land shall be powerless: after their way will I do unto them, and according to their own manners will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.