God’s Sword of Judgment
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop a word toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel.
And say to the land of Israel: Thus says the LORD: See, I am against you, and I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off from you righteous and wicked.
Because I will cut off from you righteous and wicked, therefore my sword will go out from its sheath against all flesh, from south to north.
And all flesh will know that I the LORD have drawn my sword from its sheath; it will not return again.
And you, son of man, groan — with breaking of the loins and with bitterness groan before their eyes.
And it will be, when they say to you: Why are you groaning? — that you will say: Because of a report, for it is coming. And every heart will melt and all hands go slack, and every spirit grow dim, and all knees run with water. See, it is coming, and it will be, the utterance of the Lord GOD.
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Son of man, prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord: Say — A sword, a sword! It is sharpened, and also polished.
To slaughter a slaughter it is sharpened, so that it may have lightning it is polished. Or shall we rejoice? The rod of my son rejects every tree.
And he gave it to be polished, to be grasped in the palm. It is sharpened, a sword, and it is polished, to be put into the hand of a killer.
Cry out and wail, son of man, for it is against my people, it is against all the leaders of Israel. Thrown to the sword with my people they are — therefore strike the thigh.
For it is a testing — and what if even the rod that rejects will be no more? The utterance of the Lord GOD.
And you, son of man, prophesy and strike palm against palm. And let the sword be doubled a third time — the sword of the slain, it is the sword of the great one slain, closing in on them —
so that the heart melts and the stumbling blocks are many. Against all their gates I have set the flashing of the sword. Ah! It is made for lightning, wrapped for slaughter.
Gather yourself to the right, set yourself to the left, wherever your face is appointed.
And I too will strike my palm against my palm, and I will let my wrath rest. I the LORD have spoken.
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
And you, son of man, set for yourself two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. From one land the two of them will go out; and carve a hand, carve it at the head of the road to a city.
Set a road for the sword to come to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and to Judah, in fortified Jerusalem.
For the king of Babylon has stood at the mother of the road, at the head of the two roads, to divine a divination: he shook the arrows, he inquired of the teraphim, he looked in the liver.
In his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem — to set battering rams, to open the mouth in a killing, to raise a voice with a shout, to set battering rams against the gates, to pour up a ramp, to build siege walls.
And it will be in their eyes like an empty divination, they who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to remembrance, so that they are caught.
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have brought your iniquity to remembrance, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that your sins are seen in all your deeds — because you are remembered, you will be caught by the hand.
And you, profaned wicked one, leader of Israel, whose day has come at the time of the iniquity of the end:
Thus says the Lord GOD: Remove the turban and lift off the crown. This is not this: raise the low and bring the high low.
Overturned, overturned, overturned I will make it. Even this will not be, until the one comes to whom the judgment belongs, and I will give it to him.
And you, son of man, prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the sons of Ammon and concerning their reproach. And say: A sword, a sword drawn for slaughter, polished to devour, so that it may have lightning —
while they see emptiness for you, while they divine a lie for you, to set you on the necks of the profaned wicked, whose day has come at the time of the iniquity of the end.
Return it to its sheath! In the place where you were created, in the land of your origins, I will judge you.
And I will pour out my indignation on you; in the fire of my fury I will blow against you, and I will give you into the hand of brutish men, craftsmen of destruction.
You will be fuel for the fire; your blood will be in the midst of the land. You will not be remembered, for I the LORD have spoken.