and commit ye harlotry after their abominations?
31 For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even to this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you.
32 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.
33 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:
34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries in which ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out.
35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.
36 As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, saith the Lord GOD.
37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: [1]
38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and after this also, if ye will not hearken to me: but profane ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.
40 For on my holy mountain, on the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. [2]
41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries in which ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. [3]
42 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I lifted up my hand to give it to your fathers.
43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, in which ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.
44 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
45 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
46 Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field;
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned in it.
48 And all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.
49 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?
CHAP. 21.
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,
3 And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth from its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
5 That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn my sword out of its sheath: it shall not return any more.
6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with breaking heart; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.
7 And it shall be, when they say to thee, Why sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD. [4]
8 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished:
10 It is sharpened to make a grievous slaughter; it is polished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it despiseth the rod of my son, as every tree. [5]
11 And he hath given it to be polished, that it may be handled: the sword is sharpened, and it is polished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.
12 Cry and wail, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason
