Ezekiel 19-24

Ezekiel 19

¹Take up now a song of grief for the ruler of Israel, and say,

²What was your mother? Like a she-lion among lions, stretched out among the young lions she gave food to her little ones.

³And one of her little ones came to growth under her care, and became a young lion, learning to go after beasts for his food; and he took men for his meat.

⁴And the nations had news of him; he was taken in the hole they had made: and, pulling him with hooks, they took him into the land of Egypt.

⁵Now when she saw that her hope was made foolish and gone, she took another of her little ones and made him into a young lion.

⁶And he went up and down among the lions and became a young lion, learning to go after beasts for his food; and he took men for his meat.

⁷And he sent destruction on their widows and made waste their towns; and the land and everything in it became waste because of the loud sound of his voice.

⁸Then the nations came against him from the kingdoms round about: their net was stretched over him and he was taken in the hole they had made.

⁹They made him a prisoner with hooks, and took him to the king of Babylon; they put him in the strong place so that his voice might be sounding no longer on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰Your mother was in comparison like a vine, planted by the waters: she was fertile and full of branches because of the great waters.

¹¹And she had a strong rod for a rod of authority for the rulers, and it became tall among the clouds and it was seen lifted up among the number of its branches.

¹²But she was uprooted in burning wrath, and made low on the earth; the east wind came, drying her up, and her branches were broken off; her strong rod became dry, the fire made a meal of it.

¹³And now she is planted in the waste land, in a dry and unwatered country.

¹⁴And fire has gone out from her rod, causing the destruction of her branches, so that there is no strong rod in her to be the ruler's rod of authority. This is a song of grief, and it was for a song of grief.

Ezekiel 20

¹Now it came about in the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, that certain of the responsible men of Israel came to get directions from the Lord and were seated before me.

²Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

³Son of man, say to the responsible men of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: Have you come to get directions from me? By my life, says the Lord, you will get no directions from me.

⁴Will you be their judge, O son of man, will you be their judge? make clear to them the disgusting ways of their fathers,

⁵And say to them, This is what the Lord has said: In the day when I took Israel for myself, when I made an oath to the seed of the family of Jacob, and I gave them knowledge of myself in the land of Egypt, saying to them with an oath, I am the Lord your God;

⁶In that day I gave my oath to take them out of the land of Egypt into a land which I had been searching out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands:

⁷And I said to them, Let every man among you put away the disgusting things to which his eyes are turned, and do not make yourselves unclean with the images of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

⁸But they would not be controlled by me, and did not give ear to me; they did not put away the disgusting things to which their eyes were turned, or give up the images of Egypt: then I said I would let loose my passion on them to give full effect to my wrath against them in the land of Egypt.

⁹And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean before the eyes of the nations among whom they were, and before whose eyes I gave them knowledge of myself, by taking them out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰So I made them go out of the land of Egypt and took them into the waste land.

¹¹And I gave them my rules and made clear to them my orders, which, if a man keeps them, will be life to him.

¹²And further, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, so that it might be clear that I, who make them holy, am the Lord.

¹³But the children of Israel would not be controlled by me in the waste land: they were not guided by my rules, and they were turned away from my orders, which, if a man does them, will be life to him; and they had no respect for my Sabbaths: then I said that I would let loose my passion on them in the waste land, and put an end to them.

¹⁴And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had taken them out.

¹⁵And further, I gave my oath to them in the waste land, that I would not take them into the land which I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands;

¹⁶Because they were turned away from my orders, and were not guided by my rules, and had no respect for my Sabbaths: for their hearts went after their images.

¹⁷But still my eye had pity on them and I kept them from destruction and did not put an end to them completely in the waste land.

¹⁸And I said to their children in the waste land, Do not be guided by the rules of your fathers or keep their orders or make yourselves unclean with their images:

¹⁹I am the Lord your God; be guided by my rules and keep my orders and do them:

²⁰And keep my Sabbaths holy; and they will be a sign between me and you so that it may be clear to you that I am the Lord your God.

²¹But the children would not be controlled by me; they were not guided by my rules, and they did not keep and do my orders, which, if a man does them, will be life to him; and they had no respect for my Sabbaths: then I said I would let loose my passion on them to give full effect to my wrath against them in the waste land.

²²And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had taken them out.

²³Further, I gave my oath to them in the waste land that I would send them wandering among the nations, driving them out among the countries;

²⁴Because they had not done my orders, but had been turned away from my rules, and had not given respect to my Sabbaths, and their eyes were turned to the images of their fathers.

²⁵And further, I gave them rules which were not good and orders in which there was no life for them;

²⁶I made them unclean in the offerings they gave, causing them to make every first child go through the fire, so that I might put an end to them.

²⁷For this cause, son of man, say to the children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: In this your fathers have further put shame on my name by doing wrong against me.

²⁸For when I had taken them into the land which I made an oath to give to them, then they saw every high hill and every branching tree and made their offerings there, moving me to wrath by their offerings; and there the sweet smell of their offerings went up and their drink offerings were drained out.

²⁹Then I said to them, What is this high place where you go to no purpose? And it is named Bamah to this day.

³⁰For this cause say to the children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: Are you making yourselves unclean as your fathers did? are you being untrue to me by going after their disgusting works?

³¹And when you give your offerings, causing your sons to go through the fire, you make yourselves unclean with all your images to this day; and will you come to me for directions, O children of Israel? By my life, says the Lord, you will get no direction from me.

³²And that which comes into your minds will never take place; when you say, We will be like the nations, like the families of the countries, servants of wood and stone;

³³By my life, says the Lord, truly, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with burning wrath let loose, I will be King over you:

³⁴And I will take you out from the peoples and get you together out of the countries where you are wandering, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with burning wrath let loose:

³⁵And I will take you into the waste land of the peoples, and there I will take up the cause with you face to face.

³⁶As I took up the cause with your fathers in the waste land of the land of Egypt, so will I take up the cause with you says the Lord.

³⁷And I will make you go under the rod and will make you small in number:

³⁸Clearing out from among you all those who are uncontrolled and who are sinning against me; I will take them out of the land where they are living, but they will not come into the land of Israel: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

³⁹As for you, O children of Israel, the Lord has said: Let every man completely put away his images and give ear to me: and let my holy name no longer be shamed by your offerings and your images.

⁴⁰For in my holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord, there all the children of Israel, all of them, will be my servants in the land; there I will take pleasure in them, and there I will be worshipped with your offerings and the first-fruits of the things you give, and with all your holy things.

⁴¹I will take pleasure in you as in a sweet smell, when I take you out from the peoples and get you together from the countries where you have been sent in flight; and I will make myself holy in you before the eyes of the nations.

⁴²And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when I take you into the land of Israel, into the country which I made an oath to give to your fathers.

⁴³And there, at the memory of your ways and of all the things you did to make yourselves unclean, you will have bitter hate for yourselves because of all the evil things you have done.

⁴⁴And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when I take you in hand for the honour of my name, and not for your evil ways or your unclean doings, O children of Israel, says the Lord.

⁴⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁴⁶Son of man, let your face be turned to the south, let your words be dropped to the south, and be a prophet against the woodland of the South;

⁴⁷And say to the woodland of the South, Give ear to the words of the Lord: this is what the Lord has said: See, I will have a fire lighted in you, for the destruction of every green tree in you and every dry tree: the flaming flame will not be put out, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it.

⁴⁸And all flesh will see that I the Lord have had it lighted: it will not be put out.

⁴⁹Then I said, Ah, Lord! they say of me, Is he not a maker of stories?

Ezekiel 21

¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²Son of man, let your face be turned to Jerusalem, let your words be dropped in the direction of her holy place, and be a prophet against the land of Israel;

³And say to the land of Israel, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, and I will take my sword out of its cover, cutting off from you the upright and the evil.

⁴Because I am going to have the upright and the evil cut off from you, for this cause my sword will go out from its cover against all flesh from the south to the north:

⁵And all flesh will see that I the Lord have taken my sword out of its cover: and it will never go back.

⁶Make sounds of grief, son of man; with body bent and a bitter heart make sounds of grief before their eyes.

⁷And when they say to you, Why are you making sounds of grief? then say, Because of the news, for it is coming: and every heart will become soft, and all hands will be feeble, and every spirit will be burning low, and all knees will be turned to water: see, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord.

⁸And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁹Son of man, say as a prophet, These are the words of the Lord: Say, A sword, a sword which has been made sharp and polished:

¹⁰It has been made sharp to give death; it is polished so that it may be like a thunder-flame: ...

¹¹And I have given it to the polisher so that it may be taken in the hand: he has made the sword sharp, he has had it polished, to put it into the hand of him who gives death.

¹²Give loud cries and make sounds of grief, O son of man: for it has come on my people, it has come on all the rulers of Israel: fear of the sword has come on my people: for this cause give signs of grief.

¹³...

¹⁴So then, son of man, be a prophet, and put your hands together with a loud sound, and give two blows with the sword, and even three; it is the sword of those who are wounded, even the sword of the wounded; the great sword which goes round about them.

¹⁵In order that hearts may become soft, and the number of those who are falling may be increased, I have sent death by the sword against all their doors: you are made like a flame, you are polished for death.

¹⁶Be pointed to the right, to the left, wherever your edge is ordered.

¹⁷And I will put my hands together with a loud sound, and I will let my wrath have rest: I the Lord have said it.

¹⁸And the word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

¹⁹And you, son of man, have two ways marked out, so that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; let the two of them come out of one land: and let there be a pillar at the top of the road:

²⁰Put a pillar at the top of the road for the sword to come to Rabbah in the land of the children of Ammon, and to Judah and to Jerusalem in the middle of her.

²¹For the king of Babylon took his place at the parting of the ways, at the top of the two roads, to make use of secret arts: shaking the arrows this way and that, he put questions to the images of his gods, he took note of the inner parts of dead beasts.

²²At his right hand was the fate of Jerusalem, to give orders for destruction, to send up the war-cry, to put engines of war against the doors, lifting up earthworks, building walls.

²³And this answer given by secret arts will seem false to those who have given their oaths and have let them be broken: but he will keep the memory of evil-doing so that they may be taken.

²⁴For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have made your evil-doing come to mind by the uncovering of your wrongdoing, causing your sins to be seen in all your evil-doings; because you have come to mind, you will be taken in them.

²⁵And you, O evil one, wounded to death, O ruler of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the last punishment;

²⁶This is what the Lord has said: Take away the holy head-dress, take off the crown: this will not be again: let that which is low be lifted up, and that which is high be made low.

²⁷I will let it be overturned, overturned, overturned: this will not be again till he comes whose right it is; and I will give it to him.

²⁸And you, son of man, say as a prophet, This is what the Lord has said about the children of Ammon and about their shame: Say, A sword, even a sword let loose, polished for death, to make it shining so that it may be like a flame:

²⁹Your vision is to no purpose, your use of secret arts gives a false answer, to put it on the necks of evil-doers who are wounded to death, whose day has come, in the time of the last punishment.

³⁰Go back into your cover. In the place where you were made, in the land from which you were taken, I will be your judge.

³¹And I will let loose my burning passion on you, breathing out on you the fire of my wrath: and I will give you up into the hands of men like beasts, trained to destruction.

³²You will be food for the fire; your blood will be drained out in the land; there will be no more memory of you: for I the Lord have said it.

Ezekiel 22

¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²And you, son of man, will you be a judge, will you be a judge of the town of blood? then make clear to her all her disgusting ways.

³And you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: A town causing blood to be drained out in her streets so that her time may come, and making images in her to make her unclean!

⁴You are responsible for the blood drained out by you, and you are unclean through the images which you have made; and you have made your day come near, and the time of your judging has come; for this cause I have made you a name of shame to the nations and a cause of laughing to all countries.

⁵Those who are near and those who are far from you will make sport of you; your name is unclean, you are full of sounds of fear.

⁶See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you.

⁷In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow.

⁸You have made little of my holy things, and have made my Sabbaths unclean.

⁹In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death; in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in your streets they have put evil designs into effect.

¹⁰In you they have let the shame of their fathers be seen; in you they have done wrong to a woman at the time when she was unclean.

¹¹And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter.

¹²In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord.

¹³See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath against your taking of goods by force and against the blood which has been flowing in you.

¹⁴Will your heart be high or your hands strong in the days when I take you in hand? I the Lord have said it and will do it.

¹⁵And I will send you in flight among the nations and wandering among the countries; and I will completely take away out of you everything which is unclean.

¹⁶And you will be made low before the eyes of the nations; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord.

¹⁷And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁸Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste.

¹⁹For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have all become waste metal, see, I will get you together inside Jerusalem.

²⁰As they put silver and brass and iron and lead and tin together inside the oven, heating up the fire on it to make it soft; so will I get you together in my wrath and in my passion, and, heating the fire with my breath, will make you soft.

²¹Yes, I will take you, breathing on you the fire of my wrath, and you will become soft in it.

²²As silver becomes soft in the oven, so you will become soft in it; and you will be certain that I the Lord have let loose my passion on you.

²³And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²⁴Son of man, say to her, You are a land on which no rain or thunderstorm has come in the day of wrath.

²⁵Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her.

²⁶Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them.

²⁷Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit.

²⁸And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing.

²⁹The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land.

³⁰And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one.

³¹And I let loose my passion on them, and have put an end to them in the fire of my wrath: I have made the punishment of their ways come on their heads, says the Lord.

Ezekiel 23

¹The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

²Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother:

³They were acting like loose women in Egypt; when they were young their behaviour was loose: there their breasts were crushed, even the points of their young breasts were crushed.

⁴Their names were Oholah, the older, and Oholibah, her sister: and they became mine, and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem, Oholibah.

⁵And Oholah was untrue to me when she was mine; she was full of desire for her lovers, even for the Assyrians, her neighbours,

⁶Who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them young men to be desired, horsemen seated on horses.

⁷And she gave her unclean love to them, all of them the noblest men of Assyria: and she made herself unclean with the images of all who were desired by her.

⁸And she has not given up her loose ways from the time when she was in Egypt; for when she was young they were her lovers, and by them her young breasts were crushed, and they let loose on her their unclean desire.

⁹For this cause I gave her up into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians on whom her desire was fixed.

¹⁰By these her shame was uncovered: they took her sons and daughters and put her to death with the sword: and she became a cause of wonder to women; for they gave her the punishment which was right.

¹¹And her sister Oholibah saw this, but her desire was even more unmeasured, and her loose behaviour was worse than that of her sister.

¹²She was full of desire for the Assyrians, captains and rulers, her neighbours, clothed in blue, horsemen going on horses, all of them young men to be desired.

¹³And I saw that she had become unclean; the two of them went the same way.

¹⁴And her loose behaviour became worse; for she saw men pictured on a wall, pictures of the Chaldaeans painted in bright red,

¹⁵With bands round their bodies and with head-dresses hanging round their heads, all of them looking like rulers, like the Babylonians, the land of whose birth is Chaldaea.

¹⁶And when she saw them she was full of desire for them, and sent servants to them in Chaldaea.

¹⁷And the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and made her unclean with their loose desire, and she became unclean with them, and her soul was turned from them.

¹⁸So her loose behaviour was clearly seen and her shame uncovered: then my soul was turned from her as it had been turned from her sister.

¹⁹But still she went on the more with her loose behaviour, keeping in mind the early days when she had been a loose woman in the land of Egypt.

²⁰And she was full of desire for her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of asses and whose seed is like the seed of horses.

²¹And she made the memory of the loose ways of her early years come back to mind, when her young breasts were crushed by the Egyptians.

²²For this cause, O Oholibah, this is what the Lord has said: See, I will make your lovers come up against you, even those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust; and I will make them come up against you on every side;

²³The Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: young men to be desired, captains and rulers all of them, and chiefs, her neighbours, all of them on horseback.

²⁴And they will come against you from the north on horseback, with war-carriages and a great band of peoples; they will put themselves in order against you with breastplate and body-cover and metal head-dress round about you: and I will make them your judges, and they will give their decision against you as seems right to them.

²⁵And my bitter feeling will be working against you, and they will take you in hand with passion; they will take away your nose and your ears, and the rest of you will be put to the sword: they will take your sons and daughters, and the rest of you will be burned up in the fire.

²⁶And they will take all your clothing off you and take away your ornaments.

²⁷So I will put an end to your evil ways and your loose behaviour which came from the land of Egypt: and your eyes will never be lifted up to them again, and you will have no more memory of Egypt.

²⁸For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will give you up into the hands of those who are hated by you, into the hands of those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust:

²⁹And they will take you in hand with hate, and take away all the fruit of your work, and let you be unveiled and without clothing: and the shame of your loose behaviour will be uncovered, your evil designs and your loose ways.

³⁰They will do these things to you because you have been untrue to me, and have gone after the nations, and have become unclean with their images.

³¹You have gone in the way of your sister; and I will give her cup into your hand.

³²This is what the Lord has said: You will take a drink from your sister's cup, which is deep and wide: you will be laughed at and looked down on, more than you are able to undergo.

³³You will be broken and full of sorrow, with the cup of wonder and destruction, with the cup of your sister Samaria.

³⁴And after drinking it and draining it out, you will take the last drops of it to the end, pulling off your breasts: for I have said it, says the Lord.

³⁵So this is what the Lord has said: Because you have not kept me in your memory, and because your back has been turned to me, you will even undergo the punishment of your evil designs and your loose ways.

³⁶Then the Lord said to me: Son of man, will you be the judge of Oholibah? then make clear to her the disgusting things she has done.

³⁷For she has been false to me, and blood is on her hands, and with her images she has been untrue; and more than this, she made her sons, whom she had by me, go through the fire to them to be burned up.

³⁸Further, this is what she has done to me: she has made my holy place unclean and has made my Sabbaths unclean.

³⁹For when she had made an offering of her children to her images, she came into my holy place to make it unclean; see, this is what she has done inside my house.

⁴⁰And she even sent for men to come from far away, to whom a servant was sent, and they came: for whom she was washing her body and painting her eyes and making herself fair with ornaments.

⁴¹And she took her seat on a great bed, with a table put ready before it on which she put my perfume and my oil.

⁴²... and they put jewels on her hands and beautiful crowns on her head.

⁴³Then I said ... now she will go on with her loose ways.

⁴⁴And they went in to her, as men go to a loose woman: so they went in to Oholibah, the loose woman.

⁴⁵And upright men will be her judges, judging her as false wives and women who take lives are judged; because she has been untrue to me and blood is on her hands.

⁴⁶For this is what the Lord has said: I will make a great meeting of the people come together against her, and will send on her shaking fear and take everything from her.

⁴⁷And the meeting, after stoning her with stones, will put an end to her with their swords; they will put her sons and daughters to death and have her house burned up with fire.

⁴⁸And I will put an end to evil in all the land, teaching all women not to do as you have done.

⁴⁹And I will send on you the punishment of your evil ways, and you will be rewarded for your sins with your images: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 24

¹And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, saying,

²Son of man, put down in writing this very day: The king of Babylon let loose the weight of his attack against Jerusalem on this very day.

³And make a comparison for this uncontrolled people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Put on the cooking-pot, put it on the fire and put water in it:

⁴And get the bits together, the fat tail, every good part, the leg and the top part of it: make it full of the best bones.

⁵Take the best of the flock, put much wood under it: see that its bits are boiling well; let the bones be cooked inside it.

⁶For this is what the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood, the cooking-pot which is unclean inside, which has never been made clean! take out its bits; its fate is still to come on it.

⁷For her blood is in her; she has put it on the open rock not draining it on to the earth so that it might be covered with dust;

⁸In order that it might make wrath come up to give punishment, she has put her blood on the open rock, so that it may not be covered.

⁹For this cause the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood! and I will make great the burning mass.

¹⁰Put on much wood, heating up the fire, boiling the flesh well, and making the soup thick, and let the bones be burned.

¹¹And I will put her on the coals so that she may be heated and her brass burned, so that what is unclean in her may become soft and her waste be completely taken away.

¹²I have made myself tired to no purpose: still all the waste which is in her has not come out, it has an evil smell.

¹³As for your unclean purpose: because I have been attempting to make you clean, but you have not been made clean from it, you will not be made clean till I have let loose my passion on you in full measure.

¹⁴I the Lord have said the word and I will do it; I will not go back or have mercy, and my purpose will not be changed; in the measure of your ways and of your evil doings you will be judged, says the Lord.

¹⁵And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁶Son of man, see, I am taking away the desire of your eyes by disease: but let there be no sorrow or weeping or drops running from your eyes.

¹⁷Let there be no sound of sorrow; make no weeping for your dead, put on your head-dress and your shoes on your feet, let not your lips be covered, and do not take the food of those in grief.

¹⁸So in the morning I was teaching the people and in the evening death took my wife; and in the morning I did what I had been ordered to do.

¹⁹And the people said to me, Will you not make clear to us the sense of these things; is it for us you do them?

²⁰Then I said to them, The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²¹Say to the people of Israel, The Lord has said, See, I will make my holy place unclean, the pride of your strength, the pleasure of your eyes, and the desire of your soul; and your sons and daughters, who did not come with you here, will be put to the sword.

²²And you will do as I have done, not covering your lips or taking the food of those in grief.

²³And your head-dresses will be on your heads and your shoes on your feet: there will be no sorrow or weeping; but you will be wasting away in the punishment of your evil-doing, and you will be looking at one another in wonder.

²⁴And Ezekiel will be a sign to you; everything he has done you will do: when this takes place, you will be certain that I am the Lord.

²⁵And as for you, son of man, your mouth will be shut in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that on which their hearts are fixed, and their sons and daughters.

²⁶In that day, one who has got away safe will come to you to give you news of it.

²⁷In that day your mouth will be open to him who has got away safe, and you will say words to him and your lips will no longer be shut: so you will be a sign to them and they will be certain that I am the Lord.