Ezek 21
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And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
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Therefore prophesy, son of man, set your face steadfastly toward Jerusalem, and look
toward their holy places, and you shall prophesy against the land of Israel,
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and you shall say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord; Behold, I am against
you, and I will draw forth my Gr. dagger sword out of its sheath, and I will destroy out of you the transgressor and unrighteous.
4
Because I will destroy out of you the unrighteous and the transgressor, therefore
so shall my sword come forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to
the north:
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and all flesh shall know that I the Lord have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath:
it shall not return any more.
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And you, son of man, groan with the breaking of your loins; you shall even groan heavily
in their sight.
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And it shall come to pass, if they shall say to you, Wherefore do you groan? that
you shall say, For the report; because it comes: and every heart shall break, and
all hands shall become feeble, and all flesh and every spirit shall faint, and all
thighs shall be defiled with moisture: behold, it comes, says the Lord.
8
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
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Son of man, prophesy, and you shall say, Thus says the Lord; Say, Sword, sword, be
sharpened and rage,
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that you may slay victims; be sharpened that you may be bright, ready for Gr. paralyzing, or, weakening slaughter, slay, set
at nothing, despise every tree.
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And he made it ready for his hand to hold: the sword is sharpened, it is ready to
put into the hand of the slayer.
12
Cry out and howl, son of man: for this sword is come upon my people, this sword is
come upon all the princes of Israel: they shall Gr. sojourn be as strangers: judgement with the sword is come upon my people:
therefore clap
your hands, for Gr. it has been justified sentence has been passed:
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and what if even the tribe be rejected? it shall not be, says the Lord God.
14
And you, son of man, prophesy, and clap your hands, and take a second sword: the third
sword is the sword of the slain, the great sword of the slain: and you shall strike
them with amazement, Alex. that their heart should be broken lest the heart should faint
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and the weak ones be multiplied at every gate—they are given up to the slaughter of
the sword: it is well fitted for slaughter, Lit. it has happened well it is well fitted for glittering.
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And do you go on, sharpen yourself on the right and on the left wherever your face
may Gr. stir itself up set itself.
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And I also will clap my hands, and Or, relax let loose my fury: I the Lord have spoken it.
18
And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
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and you, son of man, appoint you two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may
enter in: the two shall go forth of one country; and there shall be a force at the
top of the way of the city, you shall set it at the top of the way,
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that the sword may enter in upon Rabbath of the children of Ammon, and upon Judea,
and upon Jerusalem in the midst thereof.
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For the king of Babylon shall stand on the old way, at the head of the two ways, to
use divination, to Perhaps, send forth make bright the arrow, and to enquire of the graven images, and to examine the victims.
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On his right was the divination against Jerusalem, to cast a mound, to open the mouth
in shouting, to lift up the voice with crying, to cast a mound against her gates,
to cast up a heap, and to Or, set up engines build forts.
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And he was to them as one using divination before them, and he himself recounting
his iniquities, that they might be borne in mind.
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Therefore thus says the Lord, Because you have caused your iniquities to be remembered,
in the discovery of your wickedness, so that your sins should be seen, in all your
wickedness and in your evil practices; because you have caused remembrance of them,
in these shall you be taken.
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And you profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day, even an end, is come in a sea
of iniquity, thus says the Lord;
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You have taken off the mitre and put on the crown, it shall not have such another
after it: you have abased that which was high, and exalted that which was low.
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Injustice, injustice, injustice, will I make it: woe to it: such shall it be until
he comes to whom it belongs; and I will deliver it to him.
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And you, son of man, prophesy, and you shall say, Thus says the Lord, concerning the
children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and you shall say, O sword, sword,
drawn for Gr. victims slaughter, and drawn for destruction, awake, that you may gleam.
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Gr. in your vain vision While you are seeing vain visions, and while you are prophesying falsehoods, to bring
yourself upon the necks of ungodly transgressors, Alex. whose day the day is come, even an end, in a season of iniquity.
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Turn, rest not in this place wherein you were Gr. engendered born: in your own land will I judge you.
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And I will pour out my anger upon you, I will blow upon you with the fire of my anger,
and I will deliver you into the hands of barbarians skilled in working destruction.
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You shall be fuel for fire; your blood shall be in the midst of your land; there shall
be no remembrance at all of you: for I the Lord have spoken it.