EZECHIEL, whose name signifies the STRENGTH OF GOD, was of
the priestly race; and of the number of captives that were
carried away to Babylon with king JOACHIN. He was
contemporary with JEREMIAS, and prophesied to the same
effect in Babylon, as JEREMIAS did in Jerusalem; and is
said to have ended his days in like manner, by martyrdom.
Ezechiel Chapter 1
The time of Ezechiel's prophecy: he sees a glorious vision.
1:1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the
fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, when I was in
the midst of the captives by the river Chobar, the heavens
were opened, and I saw the visions of God.
The thirtieth year... Either of the age of Ezechiel; or, as
others will have it, from the solemn covenant made in the
eighteenth year of the reign of Josias. 4 Kings 23.
1:2. On the fifth day of the month, the same was the fifth
year of the captivity of king Joachin,
1:3. The word of the Lord came to Ezechiel the priest the
son of Buzi in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river
Chobar: and the hand of the Lord was there upon him.
1:4. And I saw, and behold a whirlwind came out of the
north: and a great cloud, and a fire infolding it, and
brightness was about it: and out of the midst thereof, that
is, out of the midst of the fire, as it were the
resemblance of amber:
1:5. And in the midst thereof the likeness of four living
creatures: and this was their appearance: there was the
likeness of a man in them.
Living creatures... Cherubims (as appears from
Ecclesiasticus 49.10) represented to the prophet under
these mysterious shapes, as supporting the throne of God,
and as it were drawing his chariot. All this chapter
appeared so obscure, and so full of mysteries to the
ancient Hebrews, that, as we learn from St. Jerome, (Ep. ad
Paulin.,) they suffered none to read it before they were
thirty years old.
1:6. Every one had four faces, and every one four wings.
1:7. Their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their
foot was like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled
like the appearance of glowing brass.
1:8. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on
their four sides: and they had faces, and wings on the four
sides,
1:9. And the wings of one were joined to the wings of
another. They turned not when they went: but every one
went straight forward.
1:10. And as for the likeness of their faces: there was the
face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side of
all the four: and the face of an ox, on the left side of
all the four: and the face of an eagle over all the four.
1:11. And their faces, and their wings were stretched
upward: two wings of every one were joined, and two covered
their bodies:
1:12. And every one of them went straight forward: whither
the impulse of the spirit was to go, thither they went: and
they turned not when they went.
1:13. And as for the likeness of the living creatures,
their appearance was like that of burning coals of fire,
and like the appearance of lamps. This was the vision
running to and fro in the midst of the living creatures, a
bright fire, and lightning going forth from the fire.
1:14. And the living creatures ran and returned like
flashes of lightning.
1:15. Now as I beheld the living creatures, there appeared
upon the earth by the living creatures one wheel with four
faces.
1:16. And the appearance of the wheels, and the work of
them was like the appearance of the sea: and the four had
all one likeness: and their appearance and their work was
as it were a wheel in the midst of a wheel.
1:17. When they went, they went by their four parts: and
they turned not when they went.
When they went, they went by their four parts... That is,
indifferently to any of their sides either forward or
backward: to the right or to the left.
1:18. The wheels had also a size, and a height, and a
dreadful appearance: and the whole body was full of eyes
round about all the four.
1:19. And, when the living creatures went, the wheels also
went together by them: and when the living creatures were
lifted up from the earth, the wheels also were lifted up
with them.
1:20. Withersoever the spirit went, thither as the spirit
went the wheels also were lifted up withal, and followed
it: for the spirit of life was in the wheels.
1:21. When those went these went, and when those stood
these stood, and when those were lifted up from the earth,
the wheels were lifted up together, and followed them: for
the spirit of life was in the wheels.
1:22. And over the heads of the living creatures was the
likeness of the firmament, the appearance of crystal
terrible to behold, and stretched out over their heads
above.
1:23. And under the firmament were their wings straight,
the one toward the other, every one with two wings covered
his body, and the other was covered in like manner.
1:24. And I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise
of many waters, as it were the voice of the most high God:
when they walked, it was like the voice of a multitude,
like the noise of an army, and when they stood, their wings
were let down.
1:25. For when a voice came from above the firmament, that
was over their heads, they stood, and let down their wings.
1:26. And above the firmament that was over their heads,
was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of the
sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne, was
the likeness of the appearance of a man above upon it.
1:27. And I saw as it were the resemblance of amber as the
appearance of fire within it round about: from his loins
and upward, and from his loins downward, I saw as it were
the resemblance of fire shining round about.
1:28. As the appearance of the rainbow when it is in a
cloud on a rainy day: this was the appearance of the
brightness round about.
Ezechiel Chapter 2
The prophet receives his commission.
2:1. This was the vision of the likeness of the glory of
the Lord, and I saw, and I fell upon my face, and I heard
the voice of one that spoke, and he said to me: Son of man,
stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee.
2:2. And the spirit entered into me after that he spoke to
me, and he set me upon my feet: and I heard him speaking to
me,
2:3. And saying: Son of man, I send thee to the children of
Israel, to a rebellious people, that hath revolted from me,
they, and their fathers, have transgressed my covenant even
unto this day.
2:4. And they to whom I send thee are children of a hard
face, and of an obstinate heart: and thou shalt say to
them: Thus saith the Lord God:
2:5. If so be they at least will hear, and if so be they
will forbear, for they are a provoking house: and they
shall know that there hath been a prophet in the midst of
them.
2:6. And thou, O son of man, fear not, neither be thou
afraid of their words: for thou art among unbelievers and
destroyers, and thou dwellest with scorpions. Fear not
their words, neither be thou dismayed at their looks: for
they are a provoking house.
2:7. And thou shalt speak my words to them, if perhaps they
will hear, and forbear: for they provoke me to anger.
2:8. But thou, O son of man, hear all that I say to thee:
and do not thou provoke me, as that house provoketh me:
open thy mouth, and eat what I give thee.
2:9. And I looked, and behold, a hand was sent to me,
wherein was a book rolled up: and he spread it before me,
and it was written within and without: and there were
written in it lamentations, and canticles, and woe.
Ezechiel Chapter 3
The prophet eats the book, and receives further
instructions: the office of a watchman.
3:1. And he said to me: Son of man, eat all that thou shalt
find: eat this book, and go speak to the children of
Israel.
Eat this book, and go speak to the children of Israel... By
this eating of the book was signified the diligent
attention and affection with which we are to receive, and
embrace the word of God; and to let it, as it were, sink
into our interior by devout meditation.
3:2. And I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that
book:
3:3. And he said to me: Son of man, thy belly shall eat,
and thy bowels shall be filled with this book, which I give
thee, and I did eat it: and it was sweet as honey in my
mouth.
3:4. And he said to me: Son of man, go to the house of
Israel, and thou shalt speak my words to them.
3:5. For thou art not sent to a people of a profound
speech, and of an unknown tongue, but to the house of
Israel:
3:6. Nor to many nations of a strange speech, and of an
unknown tongue, whose words thou canst not understand: and
if thou wert sent to them, they would hearken to thee.
3:7. But the house of Israel will not hearken to thee:
because they will not hearken to me: for all the house of
Israel are of a hard forehead and an obstinate heart.
3:8. Behold I have made thy face stronger than their faces:
and thy forehead harder than their foreheads.
3:9. I have made thy face like an adamant and like flint:
fear them not, neither be thou dismayed at their presence:
for they are a provoking house.
3:10. And he said to me: Son of man, receive in thy heart,
and hear with thy ears, all the words that I speak to thee:
3:11. And go get thee in to them of the captivity, to the
children of thy people, and thou shalt speak to them, and
shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: If so be they will
hear, and will forbear.
3:12. And the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me the
voice of a great commotion, saying: Blessed be the glory of
the Lord, from his place.
3:13. The noise of the wings of the living creatures
striking one against another, and the noise of the wheels
following the living creatures, and the noise of a great
commotion.
3:14. The spirit also lifted me, and took me up: and I went
away in bitterness in the indignation of my spirit: for the
hand of the Lord was with me, strengthening me.
3:15. And I came to them of the captivity, to the heap of
new corn, to them that dwelt by the river Chobar, and I sat
where they sat: and I remained there seven days mourning in
the midst of them.
The heap of new corn... It was the name of a place: in
Hebrew, tel abib.
3:16. And at the end of seven days the word of the Lord
came to me, saying:
3:17. Son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house
of Israel: and thou shalt hear the word out of my mouth,
and shalt tell it them from me.
3:18. If, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die:
thou declare it not to him, nor speak to him, that he may
be converted from his wicked way, and live: the same wicked
man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood
at thy hand.
3:19. But if thou give warning to the wicked, and he be not
converted from his wickedness, and from his evil way: he
indeed shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered
thy soul.
3:20. Moreover if the just man shall turn away from his
justice, and shall commit iniquity: I will lay a
stumblingblock before him, he shall die, because thou hast
not given him warning: he shall die in his sin, and his
justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered: but I
will require his blood at thy hand.
3:21. But if thou warn the just man, that the just may not
sin, and he doth not sin: living he shall live, because
thou hast warned him, and thou hast delivered thy soul.
3:22. And the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he said to
me: Rise and go forth into the plain, and there I will
speak to thee.
3:23. And I rose up, and went forth into the plain: and
behold the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory
which I saw by the river Chobar: and I fell upon my face.
3:24. And the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my
feet: and he spoke to me, and said to me: Go in; and shut
thyself up in the midst of thy house.
3:25. And thou, O son of man, behold they shall put bands
upon thee, and they shall bind thee with them: and thou
shalt not go forth from the midst of them.
3:26. And I will make thy tongue stick fast to the roof of
thy mouth, and thou shalt be dumb, and not as a man that
reproveth: because they are a provoking house.
3:27. But when I shall speak to thee, I will open thy
mouth, and thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord God:
He that heareth, let him hear: and he that forbeareth, let
him forbear: for they are a provoking house.
Ezechiel Chapter 4
A prophetic description of the siege of Jerusalem, and the
famine that shall reign there.
4:1. And thou, O son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it
before thee: and draw upon it the plan of the city of
Jerusalem.
4:2. And lay siege against it, and build forts, and cast up
a mount, and set a camp against it, and place battering
rams round about it.
4:3. And take unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall
of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face
resolutely against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou
shalt lay siege against it: it is a sign to the house of
Israel.
4:4. And thou shalt sleep upon thy left side, and shalt lay
the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to
the number of the days that thou shalt sleep upon it, and
thou shalt take upon thee their iniquity.
4:5. And I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity,
according to the number of the days three hundred and
ninety days: and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house
of Israel.
4:6. And when thou hast accomplished this, thou shalt sleep
again upon thy right side, and thou shalt take upon thee
the iniquity of the house of Juda forty days: a day for a
year, yea, a day for a year I have appointed to thee.
4:7. And thou shalt turn thy face to the siege of Jerusalem
and thy arm shall be stretched out: and thou shalt prophesy
against it.
4:8. Behold I have encompassed thee with bands: and thou
shalt not turn thyself from one side to the other, till
thou hast ended the days of thy siege.
4:9. And take to thee wheat and barley, and beans, and
lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one
vessel, and make thee bread thereof according to the number
of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side: three
hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
4:10. And thy meat that thou shalt eat, shall be in weight
twenty staters a day: from time to time thou shalt eat it.
4:11. And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part
of a hin: from time to time thou shalt drink it,
Hin... That is, a measure of liquids containing about ten
pints.
4:12. And thou shalt eat it as barley bread baked under the
ashes: and thou shalt cover it, in their sight, with the
dung that cometh out of a man.
4:13. And the Lord said: So shall the children of Israel
eat their bread all filthy among the nations whither I will
cast them out.
4:14. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, behold my soul
hath not been defiled, and from my infancy even till now, I
have not eaten any thing that died of itself, or was torn
by beasts, and no unclean flesh hath entered into my mouth.
4:15. And he said to me: Behold I have given thee neat's
dung for man's dung, and thou shalt make thy bread
therewith.
4:16. And he said to me: Son of man: Behold, I will break
in pieces the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall
eat bread by weight, and with care: and they shall drink
water by measure, and in distress.
4:17. So that when bread and water fail, every man may fall
against his brother, and they may pine away in their
iniquities.
Ezechiel Chapter 5
The judgments of God upon the Jews are foreshewn under the
type of the prophet's hair.
5:1. And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife that
shaveth the hair: and cause it to pass over thy head, and
over thy beard: and take thee a balance to weigh in, and
divide the hair.
5:2. A third part thou shalt burn with fire in the midst of
the city, according to the fulfilling of the days of the
siege: and thou shalt take a third part, and cut it in
pieces with the knife all round about: and the other third
part thou shalt scatter in the wind, and I will draw out
the sword after them.
5:3. And thou shalt take thereof a small number: and shalt
bind them in the skirt of thy cloak.
5:4. And thou shalt take of them again, and shalt cast them
in the midst of the fire, and shalt burn them with fire:
and out of it shall come forth a fire into all the house of
Israel.
5:5. Thus saith the Lord God: This is Jerusalem, I have set
her in the midst of the nations, and the countries round
about her.
5:6. And she hath despised my judgments, so as to be more
wicked than the Gentiles; and my commandments, more than
the countries that are round about her: for they have cast
off my judgments, and have not walked in my commandments.
5:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have
surpassed the Gentiles that are round about you, and have
not walked in my commandments, and have not kept my
judgments, and have not done according to the judgments of
the nations that are round about you:
5:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come
against thee, and I myself will execute judgments in the
midst of thee in the sight of the Gentiles.
5:9. And I will do in thee that which I have not done: and
the like to which I will do no more, because of all thy
abominations.
5:10. Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst
of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers: and I will
execute judgments in thee, and I will scatter thy whole
remnant into every wind.
5:11. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God: Because thou
hast violated my sanctuary with all thy offences, and with
all thy abominations: I will also break thee in pieces, and
my eye shall not spare, and I will not have any pity.
5:12. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence,
and shall be consumed with famine in the midst of thee: and
a third part of thee shall fall by the sword round about
thee: and a third part of thee will I scatter into every
wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.
5:13. And I will accomplish my fury, and will cause my
indignation to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and
they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal,
when I shall have accomplished my indignation in them.
5:14. And I will make thee desolate, and a reproach among
the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of
every one that passeth by.
5:15. And thou shalt be a reproach, and a scoff, an
example, and an astonishment amongst the nations that are
round about thee, when I shall have executed judgments in
thee in anger, and in indignation, and in wrathful rebukes.
5:16. I the Lord have spoken it: When I shall send upon
them the grievous arrows of famine, which shall bring
death, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will
gather together famine against you: and I will break among
you the staff of bread.
5:17. And I will send in upon you famine, and evil beasts
unto utter destruction: and pestilence, and blood shall
pass through thee, and I will bring in the sword upon thee.
I the Lord have spoken it.
Ezechiel Chapter 6
The punishment of Israel for their idolatry: a remnant
shall be saved.
6:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
6:2. Son of man set thy face towards the mountains of
Israel, and prophesy against them.
6:3. And say: Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the
Lord God: Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to
the hills, and to the rocks, and the valleys: Behold, I
will bring upon you the sword, and I will destroy your high
places.
6:4. And I will throw down your altars, and your idols
shall be broken in pieces: and I will cast down your slain
before your idols.
6:5. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of
Israel before your idols: and I will scatter your bones
round about your altars,
6:6. In all your dwelling places. The cities shall be laid
waste, and the high places shall be thrown down, and
destroyed, and your altars shall be abolished, and shall be
broken in pieces: and your idols shall be no more, and your
temples shall be destroyed, and your works shall be
defaced.
6:7. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you: and you
shall know that I am the Lord.
6:8. And I will leave in you some that shall escape the
sword among the nations, when I shall have scattered you
through the countries.
6:9. And they that are saved of you shall remember me
amongst the nations, to which they are carried captives:
because I have broken their heart that was faithless, and
revolted from me: and their eyes that went a fornicating
after their idols: and they shall be displeased with
themselves because of the evils which they have committed
in all their abominations.
6:10. And they shall know that I the Lord have not spoken
in vain that I would do this evil to them.
6:11. Thus saith the Lord God: Strike with thy hand and
stamp with thy foot, and say: Alas, for all the
abominations of the evils of the house of Israel: for they
shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the
pestilence.
6:12. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence: and
he that is near, shall fall by the sword: and he that
remaineth, and is besieged, shall die by the famine: and I
will accomplish my indignation upon them.
6:13. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when your
slain shall be amongst your idols, round about your altars,
in every high hill, and on all the tops of mountains, and
under every woody tree, and under every thick oak, the
place where they burnt sweet smelling frankincense to all
their idols.
6:14. And I will stretch forth my hand upon them: and I
will make the land desolate, and abandoned from the desert
of Deblatha in all their dwelling places: and they shall
know that I am the Lord.
Ezechiel Chapter 7
The final desolation of Israel: from which few shall
escape.
7:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
7:2. And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God to the
land of Israel: The end is come, the end is come upon the
four quarters of the land.
7:3. Now is an end come upon thee, and I will send my wrath
upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways: and
I will set all thy abominations against thee.
7:4. And my eye shall not spare thee, and I will shew thee
no pity: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy
abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall
know that I am the Lord.
7:5. Thus saith the Lord God: One affliction, behold an
affliction is come.
7:6. An end is come, the end is come, it hath awaked
against thee: behold it is come.
7:7. Destruction is come upon thee that dwellest in the
land: the time is come, the day of slaughter is near, and
not of the joy of mountains.
7:8. Now very shortly I will pour out my wrath upon thee,
and I will accomplish my anger in thee: and I will judge
thee according to thy ways, and I will lay upon thee all
thy crimes.
7:9. And my eye shall not spare, neither will I shew mercy:
but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations
shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am
the Lord that strike.
7:10. Behold the day, behold it is come: destruction is
gone forth, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.
7:11. Iniquity is risen up into a rod of impiety: nothing
of them shall remain, nor of their people, nor of the noise
of them: and there shall be no rest among them.
7:12. The time is come, the day is at hand: let not the
buyer rejoice: nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all
the people thereof.
7:13. For the seller shall not return to that which he hath
sold, although their life be yet among the living. For the
vision which regardeth all the multitude thereof, shall not
go back: neither shall man be strengthened in the iniquity
of his life.
7:14. Blow the trumpet, let all be made ready, yet there is
none to go to the battle: for my wrath shall be upon all
the people thereof.
7:15. The sword without: and the pestilence, and the famine
within: he that is in the field shall die by the sword: and
they that are in the city, shall be devoured by the
pestilence, and the famine.
7:16. And such of them as shall flee shall escape: and they
shall be in the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of
them trembling, every one for his iniquity.
7:17. All hands shall be made feeble, and all knees shall
run with water.
7:18. And they shall gird themselves with haircloth, and
fear shall cover them and shame shall be upon every face,
and baldness upon all their heads.
7:19. Their silver shall be cast forth, and their gold
shall become a dunghill. Their silver and their gold shall
not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the
Lord. They shall not satisfy their soul, and their bellies
shall not be filled: because it hath been the
stumblingblock of their iniquity.
7:20. And they have turned the ornament of their jewels
into pride, and have made of it the images of their
abominations, and idols: therefore I have made it an
uncleanness to them.
7:21. And I will give it into the hands of strangers for
spoil, and to the wicked of the earth for a prey, and they
shall defile it.
7:22. And I will turn away my face from them, and they
shall violate my secret place: and robbers shall enter into
it, and defile it.
Secret place, etc... Viz., the inward sanctuary, the holy
of holies.
7:23. Make a shutting up: for the land is full of the
judgment of blood, and the city is full of iniquity.
Make a shutting up... In Hebrew, a chain, viz., for
imprisonment and captivity.
7:24. And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they
shall possess their houses: and I will make the pride of
the mighty to cease, and they shall possess their
sanctuary.
7:25. When distress cometh upon them, they will seek for
peace and there shall be none.
7:26. Trouble shall come upon trouble, and rumour upon
rumour, and they shall seek a vision of the prophet, and
the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the
ancients.
7:27. The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed
with sorrow, and the hands of the people of the land shall
be troubled. I will do to them according to their way, and
will judge them according to their judgments: and they
shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezechiel Chapter 8
The prophet sees in a vision the abominations committed in
Jerusalem; which determine the Lord to spare them no
longer.
8:1. And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth
month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house,
and the ancients of Juda sat before me, that the hand of
the Lord God fell there upon me.
8:2. And I saw, and behold a likeness as the appearance of
fire: from the appearance of his loins, and downward, fire:
and from his loins, and upward, as the appearance of
brightness, as the appearance of amber.
8:3. And the likeness of a hand was put forth and took me
by a lock of my head: and the spirit lifted me up between
the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the vision of
God into Jerusalem, near the inner gate, that looked toward
the north, where was set the idol of jealousy to provoke to
jealousy.
8:4. And behold the glory of the God of Israel was there,
according to the vision which I had seen in the plain.
8:5. And he said to me: Son of man, lift up thy eyes
towards the way of the north, and I lifted up my eyes
towards the way of the north: and behold on the north side
of the gate of the altar the idol of jealousy in the very
entry.
8:6. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou see, thinkest
thou, what these are doing, the great abominations that the
house of Israel committeth here, that I should depart far
off from my sanctuary? and turn thee yet again and thou
shalt see greater abominations.
8:7. And he brought me in to the door of the court: and I
saw, and behold a hole in the wall.
8:8. And he said to me: Son of man, dig in the wall, and
when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.
8:9. And he said to me: Go in, and see the wicked
abominations which they commit here.
8:10. And I went in and saw, and behold every form of
creeping things, and of living creatures, the abominations,
and all the idols of the house of Israel, were painted on
the wall all round about.
8:11. And seventy men of the ancients of the house of
Israel, and Jezonias the son of Saaphan stood in the midst
of them, that stood before the pictures: and every one had
a censer in his hand: and a cloud of smoke went up from the
incense.
8:12. And he said to me: Surely thou seest, O son of man,
what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark,
every one in private in his chamber: for they say: The Lord
seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth.
8:13. And he said to me: If thou turn thee again, thou
shalt see greater abominations which these commit.
8:14. And he brought me in by the door of the gate of the
Lord's house, which looked to the north: and behold women
sat there mourning for Adonis.
Adonis... The favourite of Venus, slain by a wild boar, as
feigned by the heathen poets, and which being here
represented by an idol, is lamented by the female
worshippers of that goddess. In the Hebrew, the name is
Tammuz.
8:15. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of
man: but turn thee again, thou shalt see greater
abominations than these.
8:16. And he brought me into the inner court of the house
of the Lord: and behold at the door of the temple of the
Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and
twenty men having their backs towards the temple of the
Lord, in their faces to the east: and they adored towards
the rising of the sun.
8:17. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of
man: is this a light thing to the house of Juda, that they
should commit these abominations which they have committed
here: because they have filled the land with iniquity, and
have turned to provoke me to anger? and behold they put a
branch to their nose.
8:18. Therefore I also will deal with them in my wrath: my
eye shall not spare them, neither will I shew mercy: and
when they shall cry to my ears with a loud voice, I will
not hear them.
Ezechiel Chapter 9
All are ordered to be destroyed that are not marked in
their foreheads. God will not be entreated for them.
9:1. And he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying: The
visitations of the city are at hand, and every one hath a
destroying weapon in his hand.
9:2. And behold six men came from the way of the upper
gate, which looketh to the north: and each one had his
weapon of destruction in his hand: and there was one man in
the midst of them clothed with linen, with a writer's
inkhorn at his reins: and they went in, and stood by the
brazen altar.
9:3. And the glory of the Lord of Israel went up from the
cherub, upon which he was, to the threshold of the house:
and he called to the man that was clothed with linen, and
had a writer's inkhorn at his loins.
9:4. And the Lord said to him: Go through the midst of the
city, through the midst of Jerusalem: and mark Thau upon
the foreheads of the men that sigh, and mourn for all the
abominations that are committed in the midst thereof.
Mark Thau... Thau, or Tau, is the last letter in the Hebrew
alphabet, and signifies a sign, or a mark; which is the
reason why some translators render this place set a mark,
or mark a mark without specifying what this mark was. But
St. Jerome, and other interpreters, conclude it was the
form of the letter Thau, which in the ancient Hebrew
character, was the form of a cross.
9:5. And to the others he said in my hearing: Go ye after
him through the city, and strike: let not your eyes spare,
nor be ye moved with pity.
9:6. Utterly destroy old and young, maidens, children and
women: but upon whomsoever you shall see Thau, kill him
not, and begin ye at my sanctuary. So they began at the
ancient men who were before the house.
9:7. And he said to them: Defile the house, and fill the
courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth,
and slew them that were in the city.
9:8. And the slaughter being ended I was left; and I fell
upon my face, and crying, I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord
God, wilt thou then destroy all the remnant of Israel, by
pouring out thy fury upon Jerusalem?
9:9. And he said to me: The iniquity of the house of
Israel, and of Juda, is exceeding great, and the land is
filled with blood, and the city is filled with
perverseness: for they have said: The Lord hath forsaken
the earth, and the Lord seeth not.
9:10. Therefore neither shall my eye spare, nor will I have
pity: I will requite their way upon their head.
9:11. And behold the man that was clothed with linen, that
had the inkhorn at his back, returned the word, saying: I
have done as thou hast commanded me.
Ezechiel Chapter 10
Fire is taken from the midst of the wheels under the
cherubims, and scattered over the city. A description of
the cherubims.
10:1. And I saw and behold in the firmament that was over
the heads of the cherubims, there appeared over them as it
were the sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness
of a throne.
10:2. And he spoke to the man, that was clothed with linen,
and said: Go in between the wheels that are under the
cherubims and fill thy hand with the coals of fire that are
between the cherubims, and pour them out upon the city. And
he went in, in my sight:
10:3. And the cherubims stood on the right side of the
house, when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner
court.
10:4. And the glory of the Lord was lifted up from above
the cherub to the threshold of the house: and the house was
filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the
brightness of the glory of the Lord.
10:5. And the sound of the wings of the cherubims was heard
even to the outward court as the voice of God Almighty
speaking.
10:6. And when he had commanded the man that was clothed
with linen, saying: Take fire from the midst of the wheels
that are between the cherubims: he went in and stood beside
the wheel.
10:7. And one cherub stretched out his arm from the midst
of the cherubims to the fire that was between the
cherubims: and he took, and put it into the hands of him
that was clothed with linen: who took it and went forth.
10:8. And there appeared in the cherubims the likeness of a
man's hand under their wings.
10:9. And I saw, and behold there were four wheels by the
cherubims: one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by
another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was to the
sight like the chrysolite stone:
10:10. And as to their appearance, all four were alike: as
if a wheel were in the midst of a wheel.
10:11. And when they went, they went by four ways: and they
turned not when they went: but to the place whither they
first turned, the rest also followed, and did not turn
back.
By four ways... That is, by any of the four ways, forward,
backward, to the right or to the left.
10:12. And their whole body, and their necks, and their
hands, and their wings, and the circles were full of eyes,
round about the four wheels.
10:13. And these wheels he called voluble, in my hearing.
Voluble... That is, rolling wheels, galgal.
10:14. And every one had four faces: one face was the face
of a cherub, and the second face, the face of a man: and in
the third was the face of a lion: and in the fourth the
face of an eagle.
10:15. And the cherubims were lifted up: this is the living
creature that I had seen by the river Chobar.
10:16. And when the cherubims went, the wheels also went by
them: and when the cherubims lifted up their wings, to
mount up from the earth, the wheels stayed not behind, but
were by them.
10:17. When they stood, these stood: and when they were
lifted up, these were lifted up: for the spirit of life was
in them.
10:18. And the glory of the Lord went forth from the
threshold of the temple: and stood over the cherubims.
10:19. And the cherubims lifting up their wings, were
raised from the earth before me: and as they went out, the
wheels also followed: and it stood in the entry of the east
gate of the house of the Lord: and the glory of the God of
Israel was over them.
10:20. This is the living creature, which I saw under the
God of Israel by the river Chobar: and I understood that
they were cherubims.
10:21. Each one had four faces, and each one had four
wings: and the likeness of a man's hand was under their
wings.
10:22. And as to the likeness of their faces, they were the
same faces which I had seen by the river Chobar, and their
looks, and the impulse of every one to go straight forward.
Ezechiel Chapter 11
A prophecy against the presumptuous assurance of the great
ones. A remnant shall be saved, and receive a new spirit,
and a new heart.
11:1. And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the
east gate of the house of the Lord, which looketh towards
the rising of the sun: and behold in the entry of the gate
five and twenty men: and I saw in the midst of them
Jezonias the son of Azur, and Pheltias the son of Banaias,
princes of the people.
11:2. And he said to me: Son of man, these are the men that
study iniquity, and frame a wicked counsel in this city,
11:3. Saying: Were not houses lately built? This city is
the caldron, and we the flesh.
Were not houses lately built, etc... These men despised the
predictions and threats of the prophets; who declared to
them from God, that the city should be destroyed, and the
inhabitants carried into captivity: and they made use of
this kind of argument against the prophets, that the city,
so far from being like to be destroyed, had lately been
augmented by the building of new houses; from whence they
further inferred, by way of a proverb, using the similitude
of a cauldron, out of which the flesh is not taken, till it
is thoroughly boiled, and fit to be eaten, that they should
not be carried away out of their city, but there end their
days in peace.
11:4. Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, thou son
of man.
11:5. And the spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said to
me: Speak: Thus saith the Lord: Thus have you spoken, O
house of Israel, for I know the thoughts of your heart.
11:6. You have killed a great many in this city, and you
have filled the streets thereof with the slain.
11:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Your slain, whom
you have laid in the midst thereof, they are the flesh, all
this is the caldron: and I will bring you forth out of the
midst thereof.
11:8. You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword
upon you, saith the Lord God.
11:9. And I will cast you out of the midst thereof, and I
will deliver you into the hand of the enemies, and I will
execute judgments upon you.
11:10. You shall fall by the sword: I will judge you in the
borders of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
In the borders of Israel... They pretended that they should
die in peace in Jerusalem; God tells them it should not be
so; but that they should be judged and condemned, and fall
by the sword in the borders of Israel: viz., in Reblatha in
the land of Emath, where all their chief men were put to
death by Nabuchodonosor. 4 Kings 25., and Jer. 52.10, 27.
11:11. This shall not be as a caldron to you, and you shall
not be as flesh in the midst thereof: I will judge you in
the borders of Israel.
11:12. And you shall know that I am the Lord: because you
have not walked in my commandments, and have not done my
judgments, but you have done according to the judgments of
the nations that are round about you.
11:13. And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that
Pheltias the son of Banaias died: and I fell down upon my
face, and I cried with a loud voice: and said: Alas, alas,
alas, O Lord God: wilt thou make an end of all the remnant
of Israel?
11:14. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
11:15. Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren, thy kinsmen,
and all the house of Israel, all they to whom the
inhabitants of Jerusalem have said: Get ye far from the
Lord, the land is given in possession to us.
Thy brethren, etc... He speaks of them that had been
carried away captives before; who were despised by them
that remained in Jerusalem: but as the prophet here
declares to them from God, should be in a more happy
condition than they, and after some time return from their
captivity.
11:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because I have
removed them far off among the Gentiles, and because I have
scattered them among the countries: I will be to them a
little sanctuary in the countries whither they are come.
11:17. Therefore speak to them: Thus saith the Lord God: I
will gather you from among the peoples, and assemble you
out of the countries wherein you are scattered, and I will
give you the land of Israel.
11:18. And they shall go in thither, and shall take away
all the scandals, and all the abominations thereof from
thence.
11:19. And I will give them one heart, and will put a new
spirit in their bowels: and I will take away the stony
heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of
flesh:
11:20. That they may walk in my commandments, and keep my
judgments, and do them: and that they may be my people, and
I may be their God.
11:21. But as for them whose heart walketh after their
scandals and abominations, I will lay their way upon their
head, saith the Lord God.
11:22. And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and the
wheels with them: and the glory of the God of Israel was
over them.
11:23. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of
the city, and stood over the mount that is on the east side
of the city.
11:24. And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into
Chaldea, to them of the captivity, in vision, by the spirit
of God: and the vision which I had seen was taken up from
me.
11:25. And I spoke to them of the captivity all the words
of the Lord, which he had shewn me.
Ezechiel Chapter 12
The prophet forsheweth, by signs, the captivity of
Sedecias, and the desolation of the people: all which shall
quickly come to pass.
12:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
12:2. Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking
house: who have eyes to see, and see not: and ears to hear,
and hear not: for they are a provoking house.
12:3. Thou, therefore, O son of man, prepare thee all
necessaries for removing, and remove by day into their
sight: and thou shalt remove out of thy place to another
place in their sight, if so be they will regard it: for
they are a provoking house.
12:4. And thou shalt bring forth thy furniture as the
furniture of one that is removing by day in their sight:
and thou shalt go forth in the evening in their presence,
as one goeth forth that removeth his dwelling.
12:5. Dig thee a way through the wall before their eyes:
and thou shalt go forth through it.
12:6. In their sight thou shalt be carried out upon men's
shoulders, thou shalt be carried out in the dark: thou
shalt cover thy face, and shalt not see the ground: for I
have set thee for a sign of things to come to the house of
Israel.
12:7. I did therefore as he had commanded me: I brought
forth my goods by day, as the goods of one that removeth:
and in the evening I digged through the wall with my hand,
and I went forth in the dark, and was carried on men's
shoulders in their sight.
12:8. And the word of the Lord came to me in the morning,
saying:
12:9. Son of man, hath not the house of Israel, the
provoking house, said to thee: What art thou doing?
12:10. Say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: This burden
concerneth my prince that is in Jerusalem, and all the
house of Israel, that are among them.
12:11. Say: I am a sign of things to come to you: as I have
done, so shall it be done to them: they shall be removed
from their dwellings, and go into captivity.
12:12. And the prince that is in the midst of them, shall
be carried on shoulders, he shall go forth in the dark:
they shall dig through the wall to bring him out: his face
shall be covered, that he may not see the ground with his
eyes.
12:13. And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be
taken in my net: and I will bring him into Babylon, into
the land of the Chaldeans, and he shall not see it, and
there he shall die.
He shall not see it... Because his eyes shall be put out by
Nabuchodonosor.
12:14. And all that are about him, his guards, and his
troops I will scatter into every wind: and I will draw out
the sword after them.
12:15. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall
have dispersed them among the nations, and scattered them
in the countries.
12:16. And I will leave a few men of them from the sword,
and from the famine, and from the pestilence: that they may
declare all their wicked deeds among the nations whither
they shall go: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
12:17. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
12:18. Son of man, eat thy bread in trouble and drink thy
water in hurry and sorrow.
12:19. And say to the people of the land: Thus saith the
Lord God to them that dwell in Jerusalem in the land of
Israel: They shall eat their bread in care, and drink their
water in desolation: that the land may become desolate from
the multitude that is therein, for the iniquity of all that
dwell therein.
12:20. And the cities that are now inhabited shall be laid
waste, and the land shall be desolate: and you shall know
that I am the Lord.
12:21. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
12:22. Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in
the land of Israel? saying: The days shall be prolonged,
and every vision shall fail.
12:23. Say to them therefore: Thus saith the Lord God: I
will make this proverb to cease, neither shall it be any
more a common saying in Israel: and tell them that the days
are at hand, and the effect of every vision.
12:24. For there shall be no more any vain visions, nor
doubtful divination in the midst of the children of Israel.
12:25. For I the Lord will speak: and what word soever I
shall speak, it shall come to pass, and shall not be
prolonged any more: but in your days, ye provoking house, I
will speak the word, and will do it, saith the Lord God.
12:26. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
12:27. Son of man, behold the house of Israel, they that
say: The visions that this man seeth, is for many days to
come: and this man prophesieth of times afar off.
12:28. Therefore say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: not
one word of mine shall be prolonged any more: the word that
I shall speak shall be accomplished, saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 13
God declares against false prophets and prophetesses, that
deceive the people with lies.
13:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
13:2. Son of man, prophesy thou against the prophets of
Israel that prophesy: and thou shalt say to them that
prophesy out of their own heart: Hear ye the word of the
Lord:
13:3. Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the foolish prophets
that follow their own spirit, and see nothing.
13:4. Thy prophets, O Israel, were like foxes in the
deserts.
13:5. You have not gone up to face the enemy, nor have you
set up a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in battle
in the day of the Lord.
13:6. They see vain things, and they foretell lies, saying:
The Lord saith: whereas the Lord hath not sent them: and
they have persisted to confirm what they have said.
13:7. Have you not seen a vain vision and spoken a lying
divination: and you say: The Lord saith: whereas I have not
spoken.
13:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have
spoken vain things, and have seen lies: therefore behold I
come against you, saith the Lord God.
13:9. And my hand shall be upon the prophets that see vain
things, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the
council of my people, nor shall they be written in the
writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter
into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the
Lord God.
13:10. Because they have deceived my people, saying: Peace,
and there is no peace: and the people built up a wall, and
they daubed it with dirt without straw.
13:11. Say to them that daub without tempering, that it
shall fall: for there shall be an overflowing shower, and I
will cause great hailstones to fall violently from above,
and a stormy wind to throw it down.
13:12. Behold, when the wall is fallen: shall it not be
said to you: Where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed
it?
13:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Lo, I will cause
a stormy wind to break forth in my indignation, and there
shall be an overflowing shower in my anger: and great
hailstones in my wrath to consume.
13:14. And I will break down the wall that you have daubed
with untempered mortar: and I will make it even with the
ground, and the foundation thereof shall be laid bare: and
it shall fall, and shall be consumed in the midst thereof:
and you shall know that I am the Lord.
13:15. And I will accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and
upon them that daub it without tempering the mortar, and I
will say to you: The wall is no more, and they that daub it
are no more.
13:16. Even the prophets of Israel that prophesy to
Jerusalem, and that see visions of peace for her: and there
is no peace, saith the Lord God.
13:17. And thou, son of man, set thy face against the
daughters of thy people that prophesy out of their own
heart: and do thou prophesy against them,
13:18. And say: Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to them that
sew cushions under every elbow: and make pillows for the
heads of persons of every age to catch souls: and when they
caught the souls of my people, they gave life to their
souls.
Sew cushions, etc... Viz., by making people easy in their
sins, and promising them impunity.-Ibid. They gave life to
their souls... That is, they flattered them with promises
of life, peace, and security.
13:19. And they violated me among my people, for a handful
of barley, and a piece of bread, to kill souls which should
not die, and to save souls alive which should not live,
telling lies to my people that believe lies.
Violated me... That is, dishonoured and discredited me.
Ibid. To kill souls, etc... That is, to sentence souls to
death, which are not to die; and to promise life to them
who are not to live.
13:20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I declare
against your cushions, wherewith you catch flying souls:
and I will tear them off from your arms: and I will let go
the soul that you catch, the souls that should fly.
13:21. And I will tear your pillows, and will deliver my
people out of your hand, neither shall they be any more in
your hands to be a prey: and you shall know that I am the
Lord.
13:22. Because with lies you have made the heart of the
just to mourn, whom I have not made sorrowful: and have
strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not
return from his evil way, and live.
13:23. Therefore you shall not see vain things, nor divine
divinations any more, and I will deliver my people out of
your hand: and you shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezechiel Chapter 14
God suffers the wicked to be deceived in punishment of
their wickedness. The evils that shall come upon them for
their sins: for which they shall not be delivered by the
prayers of Noe, Daniel, and Job. But a remnant shall be
preserved.
14:1. And some of the ancients of Israel came to me, and
sat before me.
14:2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
14:3. Son of man, these men have placed their uncleannesses
in their hearts, and have set up before their face the
stumblingblock of their iniquity: and shall I answer when
they inquire of me?
Uncleanness... That is, their filthy idols, upon which they
have set their hearts: and which are a stumblingblock to
their souls.
14:4. Therefore speak to them, and say to them: Thus saith
the Lord God: Man, man of the house of Israel that shall
place his uncleannesses in his heart, and set up the
stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and shall
come to the prophet inquiring of me by him: I the Lord will
answer him according to the multitude of his uncleannesses:
Man, man... That is, every man, an Hebrew expression.
14:5. That the house of Israel may be caught in their own
heart, with which they have departed from me through all
their idols.
14:6. Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the
Lord God: Be converted, and depart from your idols, and
turn away your faces from all your abominations.
14:7. For every man of the house of Israel, and every
stranger among the proselytes in Israel, if he separate
himself from me, and place his idols in his heart, and set
the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and
come to the prophet to inquire of me by him: I the Lord
will answer him by myself.
14:8. And I will set my face against that man, and will
make him an example, and a proverb, and will cut him off
from the midst of my people: and you shall know that I am
the Lord.
14:9. And when the prophet shall err, and speak a word: I
the Lord have deceived that prophet: and I will stretch
forth my hand upon him, and will cut him off from the midst
of my people Israel.
The prophet shall err, etc... He speaks of false prophets,
answering out of their own heads and according to their own
corrupt inclinations.-Ibid. I have deceived that prophet...
God Almighty deceives falst prophets, partly by withdrawing
his light from them; and abandoning them to their own
corrupt inclinations, which push them on to prophesy such
things as are agreeable to those who consult them: and
partly by disappointing them, and causing all thing to
happen contrary to what they have said.
14:10. And they shall bear their iniquity: according to the
iniquity of him that inquireth, so shall the iniquity of
the prophet be.
14:11. That the house of Israel may go no more astray from
me, nor be polluted with all their transgressions: but may
be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord of
hosts.
14:12. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
14:13. Son of man, when a land shall sin against me, so as
to transgress grievously, I will stretch forth my hand upon
it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof: and I
will send famine upon it, and will destroy man and beast
out of it.
14:14. And if these three men, Noe, Daniel, and Job, shall
be in it: they shall deliver their own souls by their
justice, saith the Lord of hosts.
14:15. And if I shall bring mischievous beasts also upon
the land to waste it, and it be desolate, so that there is
none that can pass because of the beasts:
14:16. If these three men shall be in it, as I live, saith
the Lord, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters:
but they only shall be delivered, and the land shall be
made desolate.
14:17. Or if I bring the sword upon that land, and say to
the sword: Pass through the land: and I destroy man and
beast out of it:
14:18. And these three men be in the midst thereof: as I
live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons
nor daughters, but they themselves alone shall be
delivered.
14:19. Or if I also send the pestilence upon that land, and
pour out my indignation upon it in blood, to cut off from
it man and beast:
14:20. And Noe, and Daniel, and Job be in the midst
thereof: as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver
neither son nor daughter: but they shall only deliver their
own souls by their justice.
14:21. For thus saith the Lord: Although I shall send in
upon Jerusalem my four grievous judgments, the sword, and
the famine, and the mischievous beasts, and the pestilence,
to destroy out of it man and beast,
14:22. Yet there shall be left in it some that shall be
saved, who shall bring away their sons and daughters:
behold they shall come among you, and you shall see their
way, and their doings: and you shall be comforted
concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, in
all things that I have brought upon it.
14:23. And they shall comfort you, when you shall see their
ways, and their doings: and you shall know that I have not
done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the
Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 15
As a vine cut down is fit for nothing but the fire; so it
shall be with Jerusalem, for her sins.
15:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
15:2. Son of man, what shall be made of the wood of the
vine, out of all the trees of the woods that are among the
trees of the forests?
15:3. Shall wood be taken of it, to do any work, or shall a
pin be made of it for any vessel to hang thereon?
15:4. Behold it is cast into the fire for fuel: the fire
hath consumed both ends thereof, and the midst thereof is
reduced to ashes: shall it be useful for any work?
15:5. Even when it was whole it was not fit for work: how
much less, when the fire hath devoured and consumed it,
shall any work be made of it?
15:6. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: As the vine tree
among the trees of the forests which I have given to the
fire to be consumed, so will I deliver up the inhabitants
of Jerusalem.
15:7. And I will set my face against them: they shall go
out from fire, and fire shall consume them: and you shall
know that I am the Lord, when I shall have set my face
against them.
15:8. And I shall have made their land a wilderness, and
desolate, because they have been transgressors, saith the
Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 16
Under the figure of an unfaithful wife, God upbraids
Jerusalem with her ingratitude and manifold disloyalties:
but promiseth mercy by a new covenant.
16:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
16:2. Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.
Make known to Jerusalem... That is, by letters, for the
prophet was then in Babylon.
16:3. And thou shalt say: Thus saith the Lord God to
Jerusalem: Thy root, and thy nativity is of the land of
Chanaan, thy father was an Amorrhite, and thy mother a
Cethite.
16:4. And when thou wast born, in the day of thy nativity
thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed with water
for thy health, nor salted with salt, nor swaddled with
clouts.
16:5. No eye had pity on thee to do any of these things for
thee, out of compassion to thee: but thou wast cast out
upon the face of the earth in the abjection of thy soul, in
the day that thou wast born.
16:6. And passing by thee, I saw that thou wast trodden
under foot in thy own blood: and I said to thee when thou
wast in thy blood: Live: I have said to thee: Live in thy
blood.
16:7. I caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field:
and thou didst increase and grow great, and advancedst, and
camest to woman's ornament: thy breasts were fashioned, and
thy hair grew: and thou was naked, and full of confusion.
16:8. And I passed by thee, and saw thee: and behold thy
time was the time of lovers: and I spread my garment over
thee, and covered thy ignominy. and I swore to thee, and I
entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God: and
thou becamest mine.
16:9. And I washed thee with water, and cleansed away thy
blood from thee: and I anointed thee with oil.
16:10. And I clothed thee with embroidery, and shod thee
with violet coloured shoes: and I girded thee about with
fine linen, and clothed thee with fine garments.
16:11. I decked thee also with ornaments, and put bracelets
on thy hands, and a chain about thy neck.
I decked thee also with ornaments, etc... That is, with
spiritual benefits, giving you a law with sacrifices,
sacraments, and other holy rites.
16:12. And I put a jewel upon thy forehead and earrings in
thy ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.
16:13. And thou wast adorned with gold, and silver, and
wast clothed with fine linen, and embroidered work, and
many colours: thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and
oil, and wast made exceeding beautiful: and wast advanced
to be a queen.
16:14. And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy
beauty: for thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I
had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.
16:15. But trusting in thy beauty, thou playedst the harlot
because of thy renown, and thou hast prostituted thyself to
every passenger, to be his.
16:16. And taking of thy garments thou hast made thee high
places sewed together on each side: and hast played the
harlot upon them, as hath not been done before, nor shall
be hereafter.
16:17. And thou tookest thy beautiful vessels, of my gold,
and my silver, which I gave thee, and thou madest thee
images of men, and hast committed fornication with them.
16:18. And thou tookest thy garments of divers colours, and
coveredst them: and settest my oil and my sweet incense
before them.
16:19. And my bread which I gave thee, the fine flour, and
oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast set before
them for a sweet odour; and it was done, saith the Lord
God.
16:20. And thou hast taken thy sons, and thy daughters,
whom thou hast borne to me: and hast sacrificed the same to
them to be devoured. Is thy fornication small?
16:21. Thou hast sacrificed and given my children to them,
consecrating them by fire.
Thou hast sacrificed, etc... As there is nothing more base
and abominable than the crimes mentioned throughout this
chapter; so the infidelities of the Israelites in forsaking
God, and sacrificing even their children to idols, are
strongly figured by these allegories.
16:22. And after all thy abominations, and fornications,
thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou
wast naked, and full of confusion, trodden under foot in
thy own blood.
16:23. And it came to pass after all thy wickedness (woe,
woe to thee, saith the Lord God)
16:24. That thou didst also build thee a common stew, and
madest thee a brothel house in every street.
16:25. At every head of the way thou hast set up a sign of
thy prostitution: and hast made thy beauty to be
abominable: and hast prostituted thyself to every one that
passed by, and hast multiplied thy fornications.
16:26. And thou hast committed fornication with the
Egyptians thy neighbours, men of large bodies, and hast
multiplied thy fornications to provoke me.
16:27. Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and
will take away thy justification: and I will deliver thee
up to the will of the daughters of the Philistines that
hate thee, that are ashamed of thy wicked way.
16:28. Thou hast also committed fornication with the
Assyrians, because thou wast not yet satisfied: and after
thou hadst played the harlot with them, even so thou wast
not contented.
16:29. Thou hast also multiplied thy fornications in the
land of Chanaan with the Chaldeans: and neither so wast
thou satisfied.
16:30. Wherein shall I cleanse thy heart, saith Lord God:
seeing thou dost all these the works of a shameless
prostitute?
16:31. Because thou hast built thy brothel house at the
head of every way, and thou hast made thy high place in
every street: and wast not as a harlot that by disdain
enhanceth her price,
16:32. But is an adulteress, that bringeth in strangers
over her husband.
16:33. Gifts are given to all harlots: but thou hast given
hire to all thy lovers, and thou hast given them gifts to
come to thee from every side, to commit fornication with
thee.
16:34. And it hath happened in thee contrary to the custom
of women in thy fornications, and after thee there shall be
no such fornication, for in that thou gavest rewards, and
didst not take rewards, the contrary hath been done in
thee.
16:35. Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord.
16:36. Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy money hath been
poured out, and thy shame discovered through thy
fornications with thy lovers, and with the idols of thy
abominations, by the blood of thy children whom thou gavest
them:
16:37. Behold, I will gather together all thy lovers with
whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all whom thou hast
loved, with all whom thou hast hated: and I will gather
them together against thee on every side, and will discover
thy shame in their sight, and they shall see all thy
nakedness.
16:38. And I will judge thee as adulteresses, and they that
shed blood are judged: and I will give thee blood in fury
and jealousy.
16:39. And I will deliver thee into their hands, and they
shall destroy thy brothel house, and throw down thy stews:
and they shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take
away the vessels of thy beauty: and leave thee naked, and
full of disgrace.
16:40. And they shall bring upon thee a multitude, and they
shall stone thee with stones, and shall slay thee with
their swords.
16:41. And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and shall
execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and
thou shalt cease from fornication, and shalt give no hire
any more.
16:42. And my indignation shall rest in thee: and my
jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will cease and be
angry no more.
16:43. Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy
youth, but hast provoked me in all these things: wherefore
I also have turned all thy ways upon thy head, saith the
Lord God, and I have not done according to thy wicked deeds
in all thy abominations.
16:44. Behold every one that useth a common proverb, shall
use this against thee, saying: As the mother was, so also
is her daughter.
16:45. Thou art thy mother's daughter, that cast off her
husband, and her children: and thou art the sister of thy
sisters, who cast off their husbands, and their children:
your mother was a Cethite, and your father an Amorrhite.
16:46. And thy elder sister is Samaria, she and her
daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger
sister that dwelleth at thy right hand is Sodom, and her
daughters.
16:47. But neither hast thou walked in their ways, nor hast
thou done a little less than they according to their
wickednesses: thou hast done almost more wicked things than
they in all thy ways.
16:48. As I live, saith the Lord God, thy sister Sodom
herself, and her daughters, have not done as thou hast
done, and thy daughters.
16:49. Behold this was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister,
pride, fulness of bread, and abundance, and the idleness of
her, and of her daughters: and they did not put forth their
hand to the needy, and the poor.
This was the iniquity of Sodom, etc... That is, these were
the steps by which the Sodomites came to fall into those
abominations for which they were destroyed. For pride,
gluttony, and idleness are the highroad to all kinds of
lust; especially when they are accompanied with a neglect
of the works of mercy.
16:50. And they were lifted up, and committed abominations
before me: and I took them away as thou hast seen.
16:51. And Samaria committed not half thy sins: but thou
hast surpassed them with thy crimes, and hast justified thy
sisters by all thy abominations which thou hast done.
16:52. Therefore do thou also bear thy confusion, thou that
hast surpassed thy sisters with thy sins, doing more
wickedly than they: for they are justified above thee,
therefore be thou also confounded, and bear thy shame, thou
that hast justified thy sisters.
16:53. And I will bring back and restore them by bringing
back Sodom, with her daughters, and by bringing back
Samaria, and her daughters: and I will bring those that
return of thee in the midst of them.
I will bring back, etc... This relates to the conversion of
the Gentiles out of all nations, and of many of the Jews,
to the church of Christ.
16:54. That thou mayest bear thy shame, and mayest be
confounded in all that thou hast done, comforting them.
16:55. And thy sister Sodom and her daughters shall return
to their ancient state: and Samaria and her daughters shall
return to their ancient state: and thou and thy daughters
shall return to your ancient state.
Ancient state... That is, to their former state of liberty,
and their ancient possessions. In the spiritual sense, to
the true liberty, and the happy inheritance of the children
of God, through faith in Christ.
16:56. And Sodom thy sister was not heard of in thy mouth,
in the day of thy pride,
16:57. Before thy malice was laid open: as it is at this
time, making thee a reproach of the daughters of Syria, and
of all the daughters of Palestine round about thee, that
encompass thee on all sides.
16:58. Thou hast borne thy wickedness, and thy disgrace,
saith the Lord God.
16:59. For thus saith the Lord God: I will deal with thee,
as thou hast despised the oath, in breaking the covenant:
16:60. And I will remember my covenant with thee in the
days of thy youth: and I will establish with thee an
everlasting covenant.
16:61. And thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed:
when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thy elder and thy
younger: and I will give them to thee for daughters, but
not by thy covenant.
16:62. And I will establish my covenant with thee: and thou
shalt know that I am the Lord,
16:63. That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and
mayest no more open thy mouth because of thy confusion,
when I shall be pacified toward thee for all that thou hast
done, saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 17
The parable of the two eagles and the vine. A promise of
the cedar of Christ and his church.
17:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
17:2. Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable
to the house of Israel,
17:3. And say: Thus saith the Lord God; A large eagle with
great wings, long-limbed, full of feathers, and of variety,
came to Libanus, and took away the marrow of the cedar.
A large eagle... Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon.-Ibid.
Came to Libanus... That is, to Jerusalem.-Ibid. Took away
the marrow of the cedar... King Jechonias.
17:4. He cropped off the top of the twigs thereof: and
carried it away into the land of Chanaan, and he set it in
a city of merchants.
Chanaan... This name, which signifies traffic, is not taken
here for Palestine, but for Chaldea: and the city of
merchants here mentioned is Babylon.
17:5. And he took of the seed of the land, and put it in
the ground for seed, that it might take a firm root over
many waters: he planted it on the surface of the earth.
Of the seed of the land, etc... Viz., Sedecias, whom he
made king.
17:6. And it sprung up and grew into a spreading vine of
low stature, and the branches thereof looked towards him:
and the roots thereof were under him. So it became a vine,
and grew into branches, and shot forth sprigs.
Towards him... Nabuchodonosor, to whom Sedecias swore
allegiance.
17:7. And there was another large eagle, with great wings,
and many feathers: and behold this vine, bending as it were
her roots towards him, stretched forth her branches to him,
that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.
Another large eagle... Viz., the king of Egypt.
17:8. It was planted in a good ground upon many waters,
that it might bring forth branches, and bear fruit, that it
might become a large vine.
17:9. Say thou: Thus saith the Lord God: Shall it prosper
then? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and strip
off its fruit, and dry up all the branches it hath shot
forth, and make it wither: and this without a strong arm,
or many people to pluck it up by the root?
17:10. Behold, it is planted: shall it prosper then? shall
it not be dried up when the burning wind shall touch it,
and shall it not wither in the furrows where it grew?
17:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
17:12. Say to the provoking house: Know you not what these
things mean? Tell them: Behold the king of Babylon cometh
to Jerusalem: and he shall take away the king and the
princes thereof and carry them with him to Babylon.
Shall take away... Or, hath taken away, etc., for all this
was now done.
17:13. And he shall take one of the king's seed, and make a
covenant with him, and take an oath of him. Yea, and he
shall take away the mighty men of the land,
17:14. That it may be a low kingdom and not lift itself up,
but keep his covenant and observe it.
17:15. But he hath revolted from him and sent ambassadors
to Egypt, that it might give him horses, and much people.
And shall he that hath done thus prosper, or be saved? and
shall he escape that hath broken the covenant?
17:16. As I live, saith the Lord God: In the place where
the king dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he hath
made void, and whose covenant he broke, even in the midst
of Babylon shall he die.
17:17. And not with a great army, nor with much people
shall Pharao fight against him: when he shall cast up
mounts, and build forts, to cut off many souls.
17:18. For he had despised the oath, breaking his covenant,
and behold he hath given his hand: and having done all
these things, he shall not escape.
17:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: As I live, I will
lay upon his head the oath he hath despised, and the
covenant he hath broken.
17:20. And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be
taken in my net: and I will bring him into Babylon, and
will judge him there for the transgression by which he hath
despised me.
17:21. And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall
by the sword: and the residue shall be scattered into every
wind: and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken.
17:22. Thus saith the Lord God: I myself will take of the
marrow of the high cedar, and will set it: I will crop off
a tender twig from the top of the branches thereof, and I
will plant it on a mountain high and eminent.
Of the marrow of the high cedar, etc... Of the royal stock
of David.-Ibid. A tender twig... Viz., Jesus Christ, whom
God hath planted in mount Sion, that is, the high mountain
of his church, to which all nations flow.
17:23. On the high mountains of Israel will I plant it, and
it shall shoot forth into branches and shall bear fruit,
and it shall become a great cedar: and all birds shall
dwell under it, and every fowl shall make its nest under
the shadow of the branches thereof.
17:24. And all the trees of the country shall know that I
the Lord have brought down the high tree, and exalted the
low tree: and have dried up the green tree, and have caused
the dry tree to flourish. I the Lord have spoken and have
done it.
Ezechiel Chapter 18
One man shall not bear the sins of another, but every one
his own; if a wicked man truly repent, he shall be saved;
and if a just man leave his justice, he shall perish.
18:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What is
the meaning?
18:2. That you use among you this parable as a proverb in
the land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour
grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.
18:3. As I live, saith the Lord God, this parable shall be
no more to you a proverb in Israel.
18:4. Behold all souls are mine: as the soul of the father,
so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth,
the same shall die.
18:5. And if a man be just, and do judgment and justice,
18:6. And hath not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up
his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel: and hath not
defiled his neighbour's wife, nor come near to a menstruous
woman:
Not eaten upon the mountains... That is, of the sacrifices
there offered to idols.
18:7. And hath not wronged any man: but hath restored the
pledge to the debtor, hath taken nothing away by violence:
hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the
naked with a garment:
18:8. Hath not lent upon usury, nor taken any increase:
hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, and hath executed
true judgment between man and man:
18:9. Hath walked in my commandments, and kept my
judgments, to do truth: he is just, he shall surely live,
saith the Lord God.
To do truth... That is, to act according to truth; for the
Hebrews called everything that was just, truth.
18:10. And if he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of
blood, and that hath done some one of these things:
18:11. Though he doth not all these things, but that eateth
upon the mountains, and that defileth his neighbour's wife:
18:12. That grieveth the needy and the poor, that taketh
away by violence, that restoreth not the pledge, and that
lifteth up his eyes to idols, that comitteth abomination:
18:13. That giveth upon usury, and that taketh an increase:
shall such a one live? he shall not live. Seeing he hath
done all these detestable things, he shall surely die, his
blood shall be upon him.
18:14. But if he beget a son, who, seeing all his father's
sins, which he hath done, is afraid, and shall not do the
like to them:
18:15. That hath not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted
up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, and hath
not defiled his neighbour's wife:
18:16. And hath not grieved any man, nor withholden the
pledge, nor taken away with violence, but hath given his
bread to the hungry, and covered the naked with a garment:
18:17. That hath turned away his hand from injuring the
poor, hath not taken usury and increase, but hath executed
my judgments, and hath walked in my commandments: this man
shall not die for the iniquity of his father, but living he
shall live.
18:18. As for his father, because he oppressed and offered
violence to his brother, and wrought evil in the midst of
his people, behold he is dead in his own iniquity.
18:19. And you say: Why hath not the son borne the iniquity
of his father? Verily, because the son hath wrought
judgment and justice, hath kept all my commandments, and
done them, living, he shall live.
18:20. The soul that sinneth, the same shall die: the son
shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father
shall not bear the iniquity of the son: the justice of the
just shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked
shall be upon him.
18:21. But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which
he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do
judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not
die.
18:22. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath
done: in his justice which he hath wrought, he shall live.
18:23. Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the
Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his
ways, and live?
18:24. But if the just man turn himself away from his
justice, and do iniquity according to all the abominations
which the wicked man useth to work, shall he live? all his
justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered: in
the prevarication, by which he hath prevaricated, and in
his sin, which he hath committed, in them he shall die.
18:25. And you have said: The way of the Lord is not right.
Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel: Is it my way that is
not right, and are not rather your ways perverse?
18:26. For when the just turneth himself away from his
justice, and comitteth iniquity, he shall die therein: in
the injustice that he hath wrought he shall die.
18:27. And when the wicked turneth himself away from his
wickedness, which he hath wrought, and doeth judgment, and
justice: he shall save his soul alive.
18:28. Because he considereth and turneth away himself from
all his iniquities which he hath wrought, he shall surely
live, and not die.
18:29. And the children of Israel say: The way of the Lord
is not right. Are not my ways right, O house of Israel, and
are not rather your ways perverse?
18:30. Therefore will I judge every man according to his
ways, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God. Be converted,
and do penance for all your iniquities: and iniquity shall
not be your ruin.
18:31. Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which
you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart,
and a new spirit: and why will you die, O house of Israel?
18:32. For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith
the Lord God, return ye and live.
Ezechiel Chapter 19
The parable of the young lions, and of the vineyard that is
wasted.
19:1. Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes
of Israel,
19:2. And say: Why did thy mother the lioness lie down
among the lions, and bring up her whelps in the midst of
young lions?
Thy mother the lioness... Jerusalem.
19:3. And she brought out one of her whelps, and he became
a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour
men.
One of her whelps... Viz., Joachaz, alias Sellum.
19:4. And the nations heard of him, and took him, but not
without receiving wounds: and they brought him in chains
into the land of Egypt.
19:5. But she seeing herself weakened, and that her hope
was lost, took one of her young lions, and set him up for a
lion.
One of her young lions... Joakim.
19:6. And he went up and down among the lions, and became a
lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.
19:7. He learned to make widows, and to lay waste their
cities: and the land became desolate, and the fulness
thereof by the noise of his roaring.
19:8. And the nations came together against him on every
side out of the provinces, and they spread their net over
him, in their wounds he was taken.
19:9. And they put him into a cage, they brought him in
chains to the king of Babylon: and they cast him into
prison, that his voice should no more be heard upon the
mountains of Israel.
19:10. Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood planted by
the water: her fruit and her branches have grown out of
many waters.
19:11. And she hath strong rods to make sceptres for them
that bear rule, and her stature was exalted among the
branches: and she saw her height in the multitude of her
branches.
19:12. But she was plucked up in wrath, and cast on the
ground, and the burning wind dried up her fruit: her strong
rods are withered, and dried up: the fire hath devoured
her.
19:13. And now she is transplanted into the desert, in a
land not passable, and dry.
19:14. And a fire is gone out from a rod of her branches,
which hath devoured her fruit: so that she now hath no
strong rod, to be a sceptre of rulers. This is a
lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.
Ezechiel Chapter 20
God refuses to answer the ancients of Israel inquiring by
the prophet: but by him setteth his benefits before their
eyes, and their heinous sins: threatening yet greater
punishments: but still mixed with mercy.
20:1. And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth
month, the tenth day of the month: there came men of the
ancients of Israel to inquire of the Lord, and they sat
before me.
20:2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
20:3. Son of man, speak to the ancients of Israel and say
to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Are you come to inquire
of me? As I live, I will not answer you, saith the Lord
God.
20:4. If thou judgest them, if thou judgest, O son of man,
declare to them the abominations of their fathers.
If thou judgest them... Or, if thou wilt enter into the
cause and plead against them.
20:5. And say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: In the day
when I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand for the race of
the house of Jacob: and appeared to them in the land of
Egypt, and lifted up my hand for them, saying: I am the
Lord your God:
20:6. In that day I lifted up my hand for them to bring
them out of the land of Egypt, into a land which I had
provided for them, flowing with milk and honey, which
excelled amongst all lands.
20:7. And I said to them: Let every man cast away the
scandals of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the
idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Scandals, etc... Offensiones. That is, the abominations or
idols, to the worship of which they were allured by their
eyes.
20:8. But they provoked me, and would not hearken to me:
they did not every man cast away the abominations of his
eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: and I
said I would pour out my indignation upon them, and
accomplish my wrath against them in the midst of the land
of Egypt.
20:9. But I did otherwise for my name's sake, that it might
not be violated before the nations, in the midst of whom
they were, and among whom I made myself known to them, to
bring them out of the land of Egypt.
20:10. Therefore I brought them out from the land of Egypt,
and brought them into the desert.
20:11. And I gave them my statutes, and I shewed them my
judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them.
20:12. Moreover I gave them also my sabbaths, to be a sign
between me and them: and that they might know that I am the
Lord that sanctify them.
20:13. But the house of Israel provoked me in the desert:
they walked not in my statutes, and they cast away my
judgments, which if a man do he shall live in them: and
they grievously violated my sabbaths. I said therefore that
I would pour out my indignation upon them in the desert,
and would consume them.
20:14. But I spared them for the sake of my name, lest it
should be profaned before the nations, from which I brought
them out, in their sight.
20:15. So I lifted up my hand over them in the desert, not
to bring them into the land which I had given them flowing
with milk and honey, the best of all lands.
20:16. Because they cast off my judgments, and walked not
in my statutes, and violated my sabbaths: for their heart
went after idols.
20:17. Yet my eye spared them, so that I destroyed them
not: neither did I consume them in the desert.
20:18. And I said to their children in the wilderness: Walk
not in the statutes of your fathers, and observe not their
judgments, nor be ye defiled with their idols:
20:19. I am the Lord your God: walk ye in my statutes, and
observe my judgments, and do them.
20:20. And sanctify my sabbaths, that they may be a sign
between me and you: and that you may know that I am the
Lord your God.
20:21. But their children provoked me, they walked not in
my commandments, nor observed my judgments to do them:
which if a man do, he shall live in them: and they violated
my sabbaths: and I threatened to pour out my indignation
upon them, and to accomplish my wrath in them in the
desert.
20:22. But I turned away my hand, and wrought for my name's
sake, that it might not be violated before the nations, out
of which I brought them forth in their sight.
20:23. Again I lifted up my hand upon them in the
wilderness, to disperse them among the nations, and scatter
them through the countries:
20:24. Because they had not done my judgments, and had cast
off my statutes, and had violated my sabbaths, and their
eyes had been after the idols of their fathers.
20:25. Therefore I also gave them statutes that were not
good, and judgments, in which they shall not live.
Statutes that were not good, etc... Viz., the laws and
ordinances of their enemies; or those imposes upon them by
that cruel tyrant the devil, to whose power they were
delivered up for their sins.
20:26. And I polluted them in their own gifts, when they
offered all that opened the womb, for their offences: and
they shall know that I am the Lord.
I polluted them, etc... That is, I gave them up to such
blindness in punishment of their offences, as to pollute
themselves with the blood of all their firstborn, whom they
offered up to their idols in compliance with their wicked
devices.
20:27. Wherefore speak to the house of Israel, O son of
man, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Moreover in
this also your fathers blaspheme me, when they had despised
and contemned me;
20:28. And I had brought them into the land, for which I
lifted up my hand to give it them: they saw every high
hill, and every shady tree, and there they sacrificed their
victims: and there they presented the provocation of their
offerings, and there they set their sweet odours, and
poured forth their libations.
20:29. And I said to them: What meaneth the high place to
which you go? and the name thereof was called High-place
even to this day.
20:30. Wherefore say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the
Lord God: Verily, you are defiled in the way of your
fathers, and you commit fornication with their abominations.
20:31. And you defile yourselves with all your idols unto
this day, in the offering of your gifts, when you make your
children pass through the fire: and shall I answer you, O
house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not
answer you.
20:32. Neither shall the thought of your mind come to pass,
by which you say: We will be as the Gentiles, and as the
families of the earth, to worship stocks and stones.
20:33. As I live, saith the Lord God, I will reign over you
with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with
fury poured out.
20:34. And I will bring you out from the people, and I will
gather you out of the countries, in which you are scattered,
I will reign over you with a strong hand and with a
stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.
20:35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of people,
and there will I plead with you face to face.
The wilderness of people... That is, a desert in which
there are no people.
20:36. As I pleaded against your fathers in the desert of
the land of Egypt; even so will I judge you, saith the Lord
God.
20:37. And I will make you subject to my sceptre, and will
bring you into the bands of the covenant.
20:38. And I will pick out from among you the transgressors,
and the wicked, and will bring them out of the land where
they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of
Israel: and you shall know that I am the Lord.
20:39. And as for you, O house of Israel: thus saith the
Lord God: Walk ye every one after your idols, and serve
them. But if in this also you hear me not, but defile my
holy name any more with your gifts, and with your idols;
Walk ye every one, etc... It is not an allowance, much less
a commandment to serve idols; but a figure of speech, by
which God would have them to understand that if they would
walk after their idols, they must not pretend to serve him
at the same time: for that he would by no means suffer such
a mixture of worship.
20:40. In my holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel,
saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel
serve me; all of them I say, in the land in which they
shall please me, and there will I require your firstfruits,
and the chief of your tithes with all your sanctifications.
In my holy mountain, etc... The foregoing verse, to make
the sense complete, must be understood so as to condemn and
reject that mixture of worship which the Jews then followed.
In this verse, God promises to the true Israelites,
especially to those of the Christian church, that they shall
serve him in another manner, in his holy mountain, the
spiritual Sion: and shall by accepted of by him.
20:41. I will accept of you for an odour of sweetness, when
I shall have brought you out from the people, and shall
have gathered you out of the lands into which you are
scattered, and I will be sanctified in you in the sight of
the nations.
20:42. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall
have brought you into the land of Israel, into the land for
which I lifted up my hand to give it to your fathers.
20:43. And there you shall remember your ways, and all your
wicked doings with which you have been defiled; and you
shall be displeased with yourselves in your own sight, for
all your wicked deeds which you committed.
20:44. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall
have done well by you for my own name's sake, and not
according to your evil ways, nor according to your wicked
deeds, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God.
20:45. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
20:46. Son of man, set thy face against the way of the
south, and drop towards the south, and prophesy against the
forest of the south field.
Of the south... Jerusalem lay towards the south of Babylon,
(where the prohet then was,) and is here called the forest
of the south field, and is threatened with utter
desolation.
20:47. And say to the south forest: Hear the word of the
Lord: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will kindle a fire
in thee, and will burn in thee every green tree, and every
dry tree: the flame of the fire shall not be quenched: and
every face shall be burned in it, from the south even to
the north.
20:48. And all flesh shall see, that I the Lord have
kindled it, and it shall not be quenched.
20:49. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God: they say of me:
Doth not this man speak by parables?
Ezechiel Chapter 21
The destruction of Jerusalem by the sword is further
described: the ruin also of the Ammonites is forshewn. And
finally Babylon, the destroyer of others, shall be
destroyed.
21:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
21:2. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and let
thy speech flow towards the holy places, and prophesy
against the land of Israel:
21:3. And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord
God: Behold I come against thee, and I will draw forth my
sword out of its sheath, and will cut off in thee the just,
and the wicked.
21:4. And forasmuch as I have cut off in thee the just and
the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its
sheath against all flesh, from the south even to the north.
21:5. That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my
sword out of its sheath not to be turned back.
21:6. And thou, son of man, mourn with the breaking of thy
loins, and with bitterness sigh before them.
21:7. And when they shall say to thee: Why mournest thou?
thou shalt say: For that which I hear: because it cometh,
and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be made
feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and water shall run
down every knee: behold it cometh, and it shall be done,
saith the Lord God.
21:8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
21:9. Son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord
God: Say: The sword, the sword is sharpened, and furbished.
21:10. It is sharpened to kill victims: it is furbished
that it may glitter: thou removest the sceptre of my son,
thou hast cut down every tree.
Thou removest the sceptre of my son... He speaks (according
to St. Jerome) to the sword of Nabuchodonosor: which was
about to remove the sceptre of Israel, whom God here calls
his son.
21:11. And I have given it to be furbished, that it may be
handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, that
it may be in the hand of the slayer.
21:12. Cry, and howl, O son of man, for this sword is upon
my people, it is upon all the princes of Israel, that are
fled: they are delivered up to the sword with my people,
strike therefore upon thy thigh,
21:13. Because it is tried: and that when it shall
overthrow the sceptre, and it shall not be, saith the Lord
God.
21:14. Thou therefore, O son of man, prophesy, and strike
thy hands together, and let the sword be doubled, and let
the sword of the slain be tripled: this is the sword of a
great slaughter, that maketh them stand amazed,
21:15. And languish in heart, and that multiplieth ruins.
In all their gates I have set the dread of the sharp sword,
the sword that is furbished to glitter, that is made ready
for slaughter.
21:16. Be thou sharpened, go to the right hand, or to the
left, which way soever thou hast a mind to set thy face.
21:17. And I will clap my hands together, and will satisfy
my indignation: I the Lord have spoken.
21:18. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
21:19. And thou son of man, set thee two ways, for the
sword of the king of Babylon to come: both shall come forth
out of one land: and with his hand he shall draw lots, he
shall consult at the head of the way of the city.
21:20. Thou shalt make a way that the sword may come to
Rabbath of the children of Ammon, and to Juda unto
Jerusalem the strong city.
21:21. For the king of Babylon stood in the highway, at the
head of two ways, seeking divination, shuffling arrows: he
inquired of the idols, and consulted entrails.
21:22. On his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem,
to set battering rams, to open the mouth in slaughter, to
lift up the voice in howling, to set engines against the
gates, to cast up a mount, to build forts.
21:23. And he shall be in their eyes as one consulting the
oracle in vain, and imitating the leisure of sabbaths: but
he will call to remembrance the iniquity that they may be
taken.
21:24. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have
remembered your iniquity, and have discovered your
prevarications, and your sins have appeared in all your
devices: because, I say, You have remembered, you shall be
taken with the hand.
21:25. But thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day
is come that hath been appointed in the time of iniquity:
Thou profane, etc... He speaks to king Sedecias, who had
broken his oath, and was otherwise a wicked prince.
21:26. Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, take off
the crown: is it not this that hath exalted the low one,
and brought down him that was high?
Is it not this that hath exalted the low one... The royal
crown of Juda had exalted Sedecias from a private state and
condition to the sovereign power, as the loss of it had
brought down Jechonias, etc.
21:27. I will shew it to be iniquity, iniquity, iniquity:
but this was not done till he came to whom judgment
belongeth, and I will give it him.
I will shew it to be iniquity, etc... Or, I will overturn
it, viz., the crown of Juda for the manifold iniquities of
the kings: but it shall not be utterly removed, till Christ
come whose right it is: and who shall reign in the
spiritual house of Jacob, that is, in his church, for
evermore.
21:28. And thou son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus saith
the Lord God concerning the children of Ammon, and
concerning their reproach, and thou shalt say: O sword, O
sword, come out of the scabbard to kill, be furbished to
destroy, and to glitter,
Concerning their reproach... By which they had reproached
and insulted over the Jews, at the time of the destruction
of Jerusalem.
21:29. Whilst they see vain things in thy regard, and they
divine lies: to bring thee upon the necks of the wicked
that are wounded, whose appointed day is come in the time
of iniquity.
21:30. Return into thy sheath. I will judge thee in the
place wherein thou wast created, in the land of thy
nativity.
Return into thy sheath, etc... The sword of Babylon, after
raging against many nations, was shortly to be judged and
destroyed at home by the Medes and Persians.
21:31. And I will pour out upon thee my indignation: in the
fire of my rage will I blow upon thee, and will give thee
into the hands of men that are brutish and contrive thy
destruction.
21:32. Thou shalt be fuel for the fire, thy blood shall be
in the midst of the land, thou shalt be forgotten: for I
the Lord have spoken it.
Ezechiel Chapter 22
The general corruption of the inhabitants of Jerusalem: for
which God will consume them as dross in his furnace.
22:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
22:2. And thou son of man, dost thou not judge, dost thou
not judge the city of blood?
22:3. And thou shalt shew her all her abominations, and
shalt say: Thus saith the Lord God: This is the city that
sheddeth blood in the midst of her, that her time may come:
and that hath made idols against herself, to defile herself.
22:4. Thou art become guilty in thy blood which thou hast
shed: and thou art defiled in thy idols which thou hast
made: and thou hast made thy days to draw near, and hast
brought on the time of thy years: therefore have I made
thee a reproach to the Gentiles, and a mockery to all
countries.
22:5. Those that are near, and those that are far from
thee, shall triumph over thee: thou filthy one, infamous,
great in destruction.
22:6. Behold the princes of Israel, every one hath employed
his arm in thee to shed blood.
22:7. They have abused father and mother in thee, they have
oppressed the stranger in the midst of thee, they have
grieved the fatherless and widow in thee.
22:8. Thou hast despised my sanctuaries, and profaned my
sabbaths.
22:9. Slanderers have been in thee to shed blood, and they
have eaten upon the mountains in thee, they have committed
wickedness in the midst of thee.
22:10. They have discovered the nakedness of their father
in thee, they have humbled the uncleanness of the
menstruous woman in thee.
22:11. And every one hath committed abomination with his
neighbour's wife, and the father in law hath wickedly
defiled his daughter in law, the brother hath oppressed his
sister the daughter of his father in thee.
22:12. They have taken gifts in thee to shed blood: thou
hast taken usury and increase, and hast covetously
oppressed thy neighbours: and thou hast forgotten me, saith
the Lord God.
22:13. Behold, I have clapped my hands at thy covetousness,
which thou hast exercised: and at the blood that hath been
shed in the midst of thee.
22:14. Shall thy heart endure, or shall thy hands prevail
in the days which I will bring upon thee: I the Lord have
spoken, and will do it.
22:15. And I will disperse thee in the nations, and will
scatter thee among the countries, and I will put an end to
thy uncleanness in thee.
22:16. And I will possess thee in the sight of the
Gentiles, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
22:17. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
22:18. Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross to
me: all these are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in
the midst of the furnace: they are become the dross of
silver.
22:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you are
all turned into dross, therefore behold I will gather you
together in the midst of Jerusalem.
22:20. As they gather silver, and brass, and tin, and iron,
and lead in the midst of the furnace: that I may kindle a
fire in it to melt it: so will I gather you together in my
fury and in my wrath, and will take my rest, and I will
melt you down.
22:21. And will gather you together, and will burn you in
the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst
thereof.
22:22. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so
shall you be in the midst thereof: and you shall know that
I am the Lord, when I have poured out my indignation upon
you.
22:23. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
22:24. Son of man, say to her: Thou art a land that is
unclean, and not rained upon in the day of wrath.
22:25. There is a conspiracy of prophets in the midst
thereof: like a lion that roareth and catcheth the prey,
they have devoured souls, they have taken riches and hire,
they have made many widows in the midst thereof.
22:26. Her priests have despised my law, and have defiled
my sanctuaries: they have put no difference between holy
and profane: nor have distinguished between the polluted
and the clean: and they have turned away their eyes from my
sabbaths, and I was profaned in the midst of them.
22:27. Her princes in the midst of her, are like wolves
ravening the prey to shed blood, and to destroy souls, and
to run after gains through covetousness.
22:28. And her prophets have daubed them without tempering
the mortar, seeing vain things, and divining lies unto
them, saying: Thus saith the Lord God: when the Lord hath
not spoken.
22:29. The people of the land have used oppression, and
committed robbery: they afflicted the needy and poor, and
they oppressed the stranger by calumny without judgment.
22:30. And I sought among them for a man that might set up
a hedge, and stand in the gap before me in favour of the
land, that I might not destroy it: and I found none.
22:31. And I poured out my indignation upon them, in the
fire of my wrath I consumed them: I have rendered their way
upon their own head, saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 23
Under the names of the two harlots, Oolla and Ooliba, are
described the manifold disloyalties of Samaria and
Jerusalem, with the punishment of them both.
23:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
23:2. Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one
mother.
23:3. And they committed fornication in Egypt, in their
youth they committed fornication: there were their breasts
pressed down, and the teats of their virginity were
bruised.
Committed fornication... That is, idolatry.
23:4. And their names were Oolla the elder, and Ooliba her
younger sister: and I took them, and they bore sons and
daughters. Now for their names, Samaria is Oolla, and
Jerusalem is Ooliba.
Oolla and Ooliba... God calls the kingdom of Israel Oolla,
which signifies their own habitation, because they
separated themselves from his temple: and the kingdom of
Juda, Ooliba, which signifies his habitation in her,
because of his temple among them in Jerusalem.
23:5. And Oolla committed fornication against me, and doted
on her lovers, on the Assyrians that came to her,
On the Assyraians, etc... That is, the idols of the
Assyrians: for all that is said in this chapter of the
fornications of Israel and Juda, is to be understood in a
spiritual sense, of their disloyalty to the Lord, by
worshipping strange gods.
23:6. Who were clothed with blue, princes, and rulers,
beautiful youths, all horsemen, mounted upon horses.
23:7. And she committed her fornications with those chosen
men, all sons of the Assyrians: and she defiled herself
with the uncleanness of all them on whom she doted.
23:8. Moreover also she did not forsake her fornications
which she had committed in Egypt: for they also lay with
her in her youth, and they bruised the breasts of her
virginity, and poured out their fornication upon her.
23:9. Therefore have I delivered her into the hands of her
lovers, into the hands of the sons of the Assyrians, upon
whose lust she doted.
23:10. They discovered her disgrace, took away her sons and
daughters, and slew her with the sword: and they became
infamous women, and they executed judgments in her.
23:11. And when her sister Ooliba saw this, she was mad
with lust more than she: and she carried her fornication
beyond the fornication of her sister.
23:12. Impudently prostituting herself to the children of
the Assyrians, the princes, and rulers that came to her,
clothed with divers colours, to the horsemen that rode upon
horses, and to young men all of great beauty.
23:13. And I saw that she was defiled, and that they both
took one way.
23:14. And she increased her fornications: and when she had
seen men painted on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans
set forth in colours,
23:15. And girded with girdles about their reins, and with
dyed turbans on their heads, the resemblance of all the
captains, the likeness of the sons of Babylon, and of the
land of the Chaldeans wherein they were born,
23:16. She doted upon them with the lust of her eyes, and
she sent messengers to them into Chaldea.
23:17. And when the sons of Babylon were come to her to the
bed of love, they defiled her with their fornications, and
she was polluted by them, and her soul was glutted with
them.
23:18. And she discovered her fornications, and discovered
her disgrace: and my soul was alienated from her, as my
soul was alienated from her sister.
23:19. For she multiplied her fornications, remembering the
days of her youth, in which she played the harlot in the
land of Egypt.
23:20. And she was mad with lust after lying with them
whose flesh is as the flesh of asses: and whose issue as
the issue of horses.
23:21. And thou hast renewed the wickedness of thy youth,
when thy breasts were pressed in Egypt, and the paps of thy
virginity broken.
23:22. Therefore, Ooliba, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I
will raise up against thee all thy lovers with whom thy
soul hath been glutted: and I will gather them together
against thee round about.
23:23. The children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, the
nobles, and the kings, and princes, all the sons of the
Assyrians, beautiful young men, all the captains, and
rulers, the princes of princes, and the renowned horsemen.
23:24. And they shall come upon thee well appointed with
chariot and wheel, a multitude of people: they shall be
armed against thee on every side with breastplate, and
buckler, and helmet: and I will set judgment before them,
and they shall judge thee by their judgments.
23:25. And I will set my jealousy against thee, which they
shall execute upon thee with fury: they shall cut off thy
nose and thy ears: and what remains shall fall by the
sword: they shall take thy sons, and thy daughters, and thy
residue shall be devoured by fire.
23:26. And they shall strip thee of thy garments, and take
away the instruments of thy glory.
23:27. And I will put an end to thy wickedness in thee, and
thy fornication brought out of the land of Egypt: neither
shalt thou lift up thy eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any
more.
23:28. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver
thee into the hands of them whom thou hatest, into their
hands with whom thy soul hath been glutted.
23:29. And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and they
shall take away all thy labours, and shall let thee go
naked, and full of disgrace, and the disgrace of thy
fornication shall be discovered, thy wickedness, and thy
fornications.
23:30. They have done these things to thee, because thou
hast played the harlot with the nations among which thou
wast defiled with their idols.
23:31. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister and I will
give her cup into thy hand.
23:32. Thus saith the Lord God: Thou shalt drink thy
sister's cup, deep and wide: thou shalt be had in derision
and scorn, which containeth very much.
23:33. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness, and sorrow:
with the cup of grief and sadness, with the cup of thy
sister Samaria.
23:34. And thou shalt drink it, and shalt drink it up even
to the dregs, and thou shalt devour the fragments thereof,
thou shalt rend thy breasts: because I have spoken it,
saith the Lord God.
23:35. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast
forgotten me, and hast cast me off behind thy back, bear
thou also thy wickedness, and thy fornications.
23:36. And the Lord spoke to me, saying: Son of man, dost
thou judge Oolla, and Ooliba, and dost thou declare to them
their wicked deeds?
23:37. Because they have committed adultery, and blood is
in their hands, and they have committed fornication with
their idols: moreover also their children, whom they bore
to me, they have offered to them to be devoured.
23:38. Yea, and they have done this to me. They polluted my
sanctuary on the same day, and profaned my sabbaths.
23:39. And when they sacrificed their children to their
idols, and went into my sanctuary the same day to profane
it: they did these things even in the midst of my house.
23:40. They sent for men coming from afar, to whom they had
sent a messenger: and behold they came: for whom thou didst
wash thyself, and didst paint thy eyes, and wast adorned
with women's ornaments.
23:41. Thou sattest on a very fine bed, and a table was
decked before thee: whereupon thou didst set my incense,
and my ointment.
23:42. And there was in her the voice of a multitude
rejoicing: and to some that were brought of the multitude
of men, and that came from the desert, they put bracelets
on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads.
23:43. And I said to her that was worn out in her
adulteries: Now will this woman still continue in her
fornication.
23:44. And they went in to her, as to a harlot: so went
they in unto Oolla, and Ooliba, wicked women.
23:45. They therefore are just men: these shall judge them
as adulteresses are judged, and as shedders of blood are
judged: because they are adulteresses, and blood is in
their hands.
23:46. For thus saith the Lord God: Bring a multitude upon
them, and deliver them over to tumult and rapine:
23:47. And let the people stone them with stone, and let
them be stabbed with their swords: they shall kill their
sons and daughters, and their houses they shall burn with
fire.
23:48. And I will take away wickedness out of the land: and
all women shall learn, not to do according to the
wickedness of them.
23:49. And they shall render your wickedness upon you, and
you shall bear the sins of your idols: and you shall know
that I am the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 24
Under the parable of a boiling pot is shewn the utter
destruction of Jerusalem: for which the Jews at Babylon
shall not dare to mourn.
24:1. And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth
year, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month,
saying:
24:2. Son of man, write thee the name of this day, on which
the king of Babylon hath set himself against Jerusalem to
day.
24:3. And thou shalt speak by a figure a parable to the
provoking house, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God:
Set on a pot, set it on, I say, and put water in it.
24:4. Heap together into it the pieces thereof, every good
piece, the thigh and the shoulder, choice pieces and full
of bones.
24:5. Take the fattest of the flock, and lay together piles
of bones under it: the seething thereof is boiling hot, and
the bones thereof are thoroughly sodden in the midst of it.
24:6. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody
city, to the pot whose rust is in it, and its rust is not
gone out of it: cast it out piece by piece, there hath no
lot fallen upon it.
24:7. For her blood is in the midst of her, she hath shed
it upon the smooth rock: she hath not shed it upon the
ground, that it might be covered with dust.
24:8. And that I might bring my indignation upon her, and
take my vengeance: I have shed her blood upon the smooth
rock, that it should not be covered.
24:9. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody
city, of which I will make a great bonfire.
24:10. Heap together the bones, which I will burn with
fire: the flesh shall be consumed, and the whole
composition shall be sodden, and the bones shall be
consumed.
24:11. Then set it empty upon burning coals, that it may be
hot, and the brass thereof may be melted: and let the filth
of it be melted in the midst thereof, and let the rust of
it be consumed.
24:12. Great pains have been taken, and the great rust
thereof is not gone out, not even by fire.
24:13. Thy uncleanness is execrable: because I desired to
cleanse thee, and thou art not cleansed from thy
filthiness: neither shalt thou be cleansed, before I cause
my indignation to rest in thee.
24:14. I the Lord have spoken: it shall come to pass, and I
will do it: I will not pass by, nor spare, nor be pacified:
I will judge thee according to thy ways, and according to
thy doings, saith the Lord.
24:15. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
24:16. Son of man, behold I take from thee the desire of
thy eyes with a stroke, and thou shall not lament, nor
weep; neither shall thy tears run down.
24:17. Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead: let
the tire of thy head be upon thee, and thy shoes on thy
feet, and cover not thy face, nor eat the meat of mourners.
24:18. So I spoke to the people in the morning, and my wife
died in the evening: and I did in the morning as he had
commanded me.
24:19. And the people said to me: Why dost thou not tell us
what these things mean that thou doest?
24:20. And I said to them: The word of the Lord came to me,
saying:
24:21. Speak to the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord
God: Behold I will profane my sanctuary, the glory of your
realm, and the thing that your eyes desire, and for which
your soul feareth: your sons, and your daughters, whom you
have left, shall fall by the sword.
24:22. And you shall do as I have done: you shall not cover
your faces, nor shall you eat the meat of mourners.
24:23. You shall have crowns on your heads, and shoes on
your feet: you shall not lament nor weep, but you shall
pine away for your iniquities, and every one shall sigh
with his brother.
24:24. And Ezechiel shall be unto you for a sign of things
to come: according to all that he hath done, so shall you
do, when this shall come to pass: and you shall know that I
am the Lord God.
24:25. And thou, O son of man, behold in the day wherein I
will take away from them their strength, and the joy of
their glory, and the desire of their eyes, upon which their
souls rest, their sons and their daughters.
24:26. In that day when he that escapeth shall come to
thee, to tell thee:
24:27. In that day, I say, shall thy mouth be opened to him
that hath escaped, and thou shalt speak, and shalt be
silent no more: and thou shalt be unto them for a sign of
things to come, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezechiel Chapter 25
A prophecy against the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and
Philistines, for their malice against the Israelites.
25:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
25:2. Son of man, set thy face against the children of
Ammon, and thou shalt prophesy of them.
25:3. And thou shalt say to the children of Ammon: Hear ye
the word of the Lord God: Thus saith the Lord God: Because
thou hast said: Ha, ha, upon my sanctuary, because it was
profaned: and upon the land of Israel, because it was laid
waste: and upon the house of Juda, because they are led
into captivity:
25:4. Therefore will I deliver thee to the men of the east
for an inheritance, and they shall place their sheepcotes
in thee, and shall set up their tents in thee: they shall
eat thy fruits: and they shall drink thy milk.
25:5. And I will make Rabbath a stable for camels, and the
children of Ammon a couching place for flocks: and you
shall know that I am the Lord.
Rabbath... The capital city of the Ammonites: it was
afterwards called Philadelphia.
25:6. For thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast
clapped thy hands and stamped with thy foot, and hast
rejoiced with all thy heart against the land of Israel:
25:7. Therefore behold I will stretch forth my hand upon
thee, and will deliver thee to be the spoil of nations, and
will cut thee off from among the people, and destroy thee
out of the lands, and break thee in pieces: and thou shalt
know that I am the Lord.
25:8. Thus saith the Lord God: Because Moab and Seir have
said: Behold the house of Juda is like all other nations:
25:9. Therefore behold I will open the shoulder of Moab
from the cities, from his cities, I say, and his borders,
the noble cities of the land of Bethiesimoth, and Beelmeon,
and Cariathaim,
25:10. To the people of the east with the children of
Ammon, and I will give it them for an inheritance: that
there may be no more any remembrance of the children of
Ammon among the nations.
25:11. And I will execute judgments in Moab: and they shall
know that I am the Lord.
25:12. Thus saith the Lord God: Because Edom hath taken
vengeance to revenge herself of the children of Juda, and
hath greatly offended, and hath sought revenge of them:
25:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: I will stretch
forth my hand upon Edom, and will take away out of it man
and beast, and will make it desolate from the south: and
they that are in Dedan shall fall by the sword.
25:14. And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of
my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to my
wrath, and my fury: and they shall know my vengeance, saith
the Lord God.
25:15. Thus saith the Lord God: Because the Philistines
have taken vengeance, and have revenged themselves with all
their mind, destroying and satisfying old enmities:
25:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will
stretch forth my hand upon the Philistines, and will kill
the killers, and will destroy the remnant of the sea coast.
25:17. And I will execute great vengeance upon them,
rebuking them in fury: and they shall know that I am the
Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.
Ezechiel Chapter 26
A prophecy of the destruction of the famous city of Tyre by
Nabuchodonosor.
26:1. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, the first
day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me,
saying:
26:2. Son of man, because Tyre hath said of Jerusalem: Aha,
the gates of the people are broken, she is turned to me: I
shall be filled, now she is laid waste.
26:3. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come
against thee, O Tyre, and I will cause many nations to come
up to thee, as the waves of the sea rise up.
26:4. And they shall break down the walls of Tyre, and
destroy the towers thereof: and I will scrape her dust from
her, and make her like a smooth rock.
26:5. She shall be a drying place for nets in the midst of
the sea, because I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and
she shall be a spoil to the nations.
26:6. Her daughters also that are in the field, shall be
slain by the sword: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
26:7. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will bring
against Tyre Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, the king of
kings, from the north, with horses, and chariots, and
horsemen, and companies, and much people.
26:8. Thy daughters that are in the field, he shall kill
with the sword: and he shall compass thee with forts, and
shall cast up a mount round about: and he shall lift up the
buckler against thee.
26:9. And he shall set engines of war and battering rams
against thy walls, and shall destroy thy towers with his
arms.
26:10. By reason of the multitude of his horses, their dust
shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the
horsemen, and wheels, and chariots, when they shall go in
at thy gates, as by the entrance of a city that is
destroyed.
26:11. With the hoofs of his horses he shall tread down all
thy streets, thy people he shall kill with the sword, and
thy famous statues shall fall to the ground.
26:12. They shall waste thy riches, they shall make a spoil
of thy merchandise: and they shall destroy thy walls, and
pull down thy fine houses: and they shall lay thy stones
and thy timber, and thy dust in the midst of the waters.
26:13. And I will make the multitude of thy songs to cease,
and the sound of thy harps shall be heard no more.
26:14. And I will make thee like a naked rock, thou shalt
be a drying place for nets, neither shalt thou be built any
more: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.
26:15. Thus saith the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the
islands shake at the sound of thy fall, and the groans of
thy slain when they shall be killed in the midst of thee?
26:16. Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from
their thrones: and take off their robes, and cast away
their broidered garments, and be clothed with astonishment:
they shall sit on the ground, and with amazement shall
wonder at thy sudden fall.
26:17. And taking up a lamentation over thee, they shall
say to thee: How art thou fallen, that dwellest in the sea,
renowned city that wast strong in the sea, with thy
inhabitants whom all did dread?
26:18. Now shall the ships be astonished in the day of thy
terror: and the islands in the sea shall be troubled
because no one cometh out of thee.
26:19. For thus saith the Lord God: When I shall make thee
a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited: and
shall bring the deep upon thee, and many waters shall cover
thee:
26:20. And when I shall bring thee down with those that
descend into the pit to the everlasting people, and shall
set thee in the lowest parts of the earth, as places
desolate of old, with them that are brought down into the
pit, that thou be not inhabited: and when I shall give
glory in the land of the living,
26:21. I will bring thee to nothing, and thou shalt not be,
and if thou be sought for, thou shalt not be found any more
for ever, saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 27
A description of the glory and riches of Tyre: and of her
irrecoverable fall.
27:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
27:2. Thou therefore, O son of man, take up a lamentation
for Tyre:
27:3. And say to Tyre that dwelleth at the entry of the
sea, being the mart of the people for many islands: Thus
saith the Lord God: O Tyre, thou hast said: I am of perfect
beauty,
27:4. And situate in the heart of the sea. Thy neighbours,
that built thee, have perfected thy beauty:
27:5. With fir trees of Sanir they have built thee with all
sea planks: they have taken cedars from Libanus to make
thee masts.
Sea planks... That is, timber brought by sea to build the
city.
27:6. They have cut thy oars out of the oaks of Basan: and
they have made thee benches of Indian ivory and cabins with
things brought from the islands of Italy.
27:7. Fine broidered linen from Egypt was woven for thy
sail, to be spread on thy mast: blue and purple from the
islands of Elisa, were made thy covering.
27:8. The inhabitants of Sidon, and the Arabians were thy
rowers: thy wise men, O Tyre, were thy pilots.
27:9. The ancients of Gebal, and the wise men thereof
furnished mariners for the service of thy various
furniture: all the ships of the sea, and their mariners
were thy factors.
27:10. The Persians, and Lydians, and the Libyans were thy
soldiers in thy army: they hung up the buckler and the
helmet in thee for thy ornament.
27:11. The men of Arad were with thy army upon thy walls
round about: the Pygmeans also that were in thy towers,
hung up their quivers on thy walls round about: they
perfected thy beauty.
Pygmeans... That is, strong and valiant men. In Hebrew,
Gammadim.
27:12. The Carthaginians thy merchants supplied thy fairs
with a multitude of all kinds of riches, with silver, iron,
tin, and lead,
27:13. Greece, Thubal, and Mosoch, they were thy merchants,
they brought to thy people slaves and vessels of brass.
27:14. From the house of Thogorma they brought horses, and
horsemen, and mules to thy market.
27:15. The men of Dedan were thy merchants: many islands
were the traffic of thy hand, they exchanged for thy price
teeth of ivory and ebony.
27:16. The Syrian was thy merchant: by reason of the
multitude of thy works, they set forth precious stories,
and purple, and broidered works, and fine linen, and silk,
and chodchod in thy market.
Chodchod... It is the Hebrew name for some precious stone;
but of what kind in particular interpreters are not agreed.
27:17. Juda and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants
with the best corn: they set forth balm, and honey, and oil
and rosin in thy fairs.
27:18. The men of Damascus were thy merchants in the
multitude of thy works, the multitude of divers riches, in
rich wine, in wool of the best colour.
27:19. Dan, and Greece, and Mosel have set forth in thy
marts wrought iron: stacte, and calamus were in thy market.
27:20. The men of Dedan were thy merchants in tapestry for
seats.
27:21. Arabia, and all the princes of Cedar, they were the
merchants of thy hand: thy merchants came to thee with
lambs, and rams, and kids.
27:22. The sellers of Saba, and Reema, they were thy
merchants: with all the best spices, and precious stones,
and gold, which they set forth in thy market.
27:23. Haran, and Chene, and Eden were thy merchants; Saba,
Assur, and Chelmad sold to thee.
27:24. They were thy merchants in divers manners, with
bales of blue cloth, and of embroidered work, and of
precious riches, which were wrapped up and bound with
cords: they had cedars also in thy merchandise.
27:25. The ships of the sea, were thy chief in thy
merchandise: and thou wast replenished, and glorified
exceedingly in the heart of the sea.
27:26. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the
south wind hath broken thee in the heart of the sea.
27:27. Thy riches, and thy treasures, and thy manifold
furniture, thy mariners, and thy pilots, who kept thy
goods, and were chief over thy people: thy men of war also,
that were in thee, with all thy multitude that is in the
midst of thee: shall fall in the heart of the sea in the
day of thy ruin.
27:28. Thy fleets shall be troubled at the sound of the cry
of thy pilots.
27:29. And all that handled the oar shall come down from
their ships: the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea
shall stand upon the land:
27:30. And they shall mourn over thee with a loud voice and
shall cry bitterly: and they shall cast up dust upon their
heads and shall be sprinkled with ashes.
27:31. And they shall shave themselves bald for thee, and
shall be girded with haircloth: and they shall weep for
thee with bitterness of soul, with most bitter weeping.
27:32. And they shall take up a mournful song for thee, and
shall lament thee: What city is like Tyre, which is become
silent in the midst of the sea?
27:33. Which by thy merchandise that went from thee by sea
didst fill many people: which by the multitude of thy
riches, and of thy people didst enrich the kings of the
earth.
27:34. Now thou art destroyed by the sea, thy riches are in
the bottom of the waters, and all the multitude that was in
the midst of thee is fallen.
27:35. All the inhabitants of the islands are astonished at
thee: and all their kings being struck with the storm have
changed their countenance.
27:36. The merchants of people have hissed at thee: thou
art brought to nothing, and thou shalt never be any more.
Ezechiel Chapter 28
The king of Tyre, who affected to be like to God, shall
fall under the like sentence with Lucifer. The judgment of
Sidon. The restoration of Israel.
28:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
28:2. Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus saith the
Lord God: Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast
said: I am God, and I sit in the chair of God in the heart
of the sea: whereas thou art a man, and not God: and hast
set thy heart as if it were the heart of God.
28:3. Behold thou art wiser than Daniel: no secret is hid
from thee.
Thou art wiser than Daniel... Viz., in thy own conceit. The
wisdom of Daniel was so much celebrated in his days, that
it became a proverb amongst the Chaldeans, when any one
would express an extraordinary wisdom, to say he was as
wise as Daniel.
28:4. In thy wisdom and thy understanding thou hast made
thyself strong: and hast gotten gold an silver into thy
treasures.
28:5. By the greatness of thy wisdom, and by thy traffic
thou hast increased thy strength: and thy heart is lifted
up with thy strength.
28:6. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Because thy heart
is lifted up as the heart of God:
28:7. Therefore behold, I will bring upon thee strangers:
the strongest of the nations: and they shall draw their
swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall
defile thy beauty.
28:8. They shall kill thee, and bring thee down: and thou
shalt die the death of them that are slain in the heart of
the sea.
28:9. Wilt thou yet say before them that slay thee: I am
God; whereas thou art a man, and not God, in the hand of
them that slay thee?
28:10. Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised by the
hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord
God.
28:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of
man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre:
28:12. And say to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Thou wast
the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in
beauty.
Thou wast the seal of resemblance... The king of Tyre, by
his dignity and his natural perfections, bore in himself a
certain resemblance to God, by reason of which he might be
called the seal of resemblance, etc. But what is here said
to him is commonly understood of Lucifer, the king over all
the children of pride.
28:13. Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God:
every precious stone was thy covering: the sardius, the
topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and
the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle, and the
emerald: gold the work of thy beauty: and thy pipes were
prepared in the day that thou wast created.
28:14. Thou a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I
set thee in the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked in
the midst of the stones of fire.
A cherub stretched out... That is, thy wings extended. This
alludes to the figure of the cherubims in the sanctuary,
which with stretched out wings covered the ark.-Ibid. The
stones of fire... That is, bright and precious stones which
sparkle like fire.
28:15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy
creation, until iniquity was found in thee.
28:16. By the multitude of thy merchandise, thy inner parts
were filled with iniquity, and thou hast sinned: and I cast
thee out from the mountain of God, and destroyed thee, O
covering cherub, out of the midst of the stones of fire.
28:17. And thy heart was lifted up with thy beauty: thou
hast lost thy wisdom in thy beauty, I have cast thee to the
ground: I have set thee before the face of kings, that they
might behold thee.
28:18. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude
of thy iniquities, and by the iniquity of thy traffic:
therefore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee,
to devour thee, and I will make thee as ashes upon the
earth in the sight of all that see thee.
28:19. All that shall see thee among the nations, shall be
astonished at thee: thou art brought to nothing, and thou
shalt never be any more.
28:20. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
28:21. Son of man, set thy face against Sidon: and thou
shalt prophesy of it,
28:22. And shalt say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I
come against thee, Sidon, and I will be glorified in the
midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when
I shall execute judgments in her, and shall be sanctified
in her.
28:23. And I will send into her pestilence, and blood in
her streets: and they shall fall being slain by the sword
on all sides in the midst thereof: and they shall know that
I am the Lord.
28:24. And the house of Israel shall have no more a
stumblingblock of bitterness, nor a thorn causing pain on
every side round about them, of them that are against them:
and they shall know that I am the Lord God.
28:25. Thus saith the Lord God: When I shall have gathered
together the house of Israel out of the people among whom
they are scattered: I will be sanctified in them before the
Gentiles: and they shall dwell in their own land, which I
gave to my servant Jacob.
28:26. And they shall dwell therein secure, and they shall
build houses, and shall plant vineyards, and shall dwell
with confidence, when I shall have executed judgments upon
all that are their enemies round about: and they shall know
that I am the Lord their God.
Ezechiel Chapter 29
The king of Egypt shall be overthrown, and his kingdom
wasted: it shall be given to Nabuchodonosor for his service
against Tyre.
29:1. In the tenth year, the tenth month, the eleventh day
of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
29:2. Son of man, set thy face against Pharao king of
Egypt: and thou shalt prophesy of him, and of all Egypt:
29:3. Speak, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I
come against thee, Pharao king of Egypt, thou great dragon
that liest in the midst of thy rivers, and sayest: The
river is mine, and I made myself.
29:4. But I will put a bridle in thy jaws: and I will cause
the fish of thy rivers to stick to thy scales: and I will
draw thee out of the midst of thy rivers, and all thy fish
shall stick to thy scales.
29:5. And I will cast thee forth into the desert, and all
the fish of thy river: thou shalt fall upon the face of the
earth, thou shalt not be taken up, nor gathered together: I
have given thee for meat to the beasts of the earth, and to
the fowls of the air.
29:6. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am
the Lord: because thou hast been a staff of a reed to the
house of Israel.
29:7. When they took hold of thee with the hand thou didst
break, and rent all their shoulder: and when they leaned
upon thee, thou brokest, and weakenest all their loins.
29:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will
bring the sword upon thee: and cut off man and beast out of
thee.
29:9. And the land of Egypt shall become a desert, and a
wilderness: and they shall know that I am the Lord, because
thou hast said: The river is mine, and I made it.
29:10. Therefore, behold I come against thee, and thy
rivers: and I will make the land of Egypt utterly desolate,
and wasted by the sword, from the tower of Syene, even to
the borders of Ethiopia.
29:11. The foot of man shall not pass through it, neither
shall the foot of beasts go through it: nor shall it be
inhabited during forty years.
29:12. And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the
midst of the lands that are desolate, and the cities
thereof in the midst of the cites that are destroyed, and
they shall be desolate for forty years: and I will scatter
the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them
through the countries.
29:13. For thus saith the Lord God: At the end of forty
years I will gather the Egyptians from the people among
whom they had been scattered.
29:14. And I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and
will place them in the land of Phatures, in the land of
their nativity, and they shall be there a low kingdom:
29:15. It shall be the lowest among other kingdoms, and it
shall no more be exalted over the nations, and I will
diminish them that they shall rule no more over the
nations.
29:16. And they shall be no more a confidence to the house
of Israel, teaching iniquity, that they may flee, and
follow them: and they shall know that I am the Lord God.
29:17. And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year
in the first month, in the first of the month: that the
word of the Lord came to me, saying:
29:18. Son of man, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath made
his army to undergo hard service against Tyre: every head
was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled and there hath
been no reward given him, nor his army for Tyre, for the
service that he rendered me against it.
29:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will
set Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon in the land of
Egypt: and he shall take her multitude, and take the booty
thereof for a prey, and rifle the spoils thereof: and it
shall be wages for his army.
29:20. And for the service that he hath done me against it:
I have given him the land of Egypt, because he hath
laboured for me, saith the Lord God.
29:21. In that day a horn shall bud forth to the house of
Israel, and I will give thee an open mouth in the midst of
them: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezechiel Chapter 30
The desolation of Egypt and her helpers: all her cities
shall be wasted.
30:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
30:2. Son of man prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord
God: Howl ye, Woe, woe to the day:
30:3. For the day is near, yea the day of the Lord is near:
a cloudy day, it shall be the time of the nations.
30:4. And the sword shall come upon Egypt: and there shall
be dread in Ethiopia, when the wounded shall fall in Egypt,
and the multitude thereof shall be taken away, and the
foundations thereof shall be destroyed.
30:5. Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the rest of
the crowd, and Chub, and the children of the land of the
covenant, shall fall with them by the sword.
30:6. Thus saith the Lord God: They also that uphold Egypt
shall fall, and the pride of her empire shall be brought
down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the
sword, saith the Lord the God of hosts.
30:7. And they shall be desolate in the midst of the lands
that are desolate, and the cities thereof shall be in the
midst of the cities that are wasted.
30:8. And they shall know that I am the Lord: when I shall
have set a fire in Egypt, and all the helpers thereof shall
be destroyed.
30:9. In that day shall messengers go forth from my face in
ships to destroy the confidence of Ethiopia, and there
shall be dread among them in the day of Egypt: because it
shall certainly come.
30:10. Thus saith the Lord God: I will make the multitude
of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nabuchodonosor the king of
Babylon.
30:11. He and his people with him, the strongest of nations,
shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw
their swords upon Egypt: and shall fill the land with the
slain.
30:12. And I will make the channels of the rivers dry, and
will deliver the land into the hand of the wicked: and will
lay waste the land and all that is therein by the hands of
strangers, I the Lord have spoken it.
30:13. Thus saith the Lord God: I will also destroy the
idols, and I will make an end of the idols of Memphis: and
there shall: be no more a prince of the land of Egypt and I
will cause a terror in the land of Egypt.
30:14. And I will destroy the land of Phatures, and will
make a fire in Taphnis, and will execute judgments in
Alexandria.
Alexandria... In the Hebrew, No: which was the ancient name
of that city, which was afterwards rebuilt by Alexander the
Great, and from his name called Alexandria.
30:15. And I will pour out my indignation upon Pelusium the
strength of Egypt, and will cut off the multitude of
Alexandria.
30:16. And I will make a fire in Egypt: Pelusium shall be
in pain like a woman in labour, and Alexandria shall be
laid waste, and in Memphis there shall be daily distresses.
30:17. The young men of Heliopolis, and of Bubastus shall
fall by the sword, and they themselves shall go into
captivity.
30:18. And in Taphnis the day shall be darkened, when I
shall break there the sceptres of Egypt, and the pride of
her power shall cease in her: a cloud shall cover her, and
her daughters shall be led into captivity.
30:19. And I will execute judgments in Egypt: and they
shall know that I am the Lord.
30:20. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the
first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word
of the Lord came, me, saying:
30:21. Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharao king of
Egypt: and behold it is not bound up, to be healed, to be
tied up with clothes, and swathed with linen, that it might
recover strength, and hold the sword.
30:22. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come
against Pharao king of Egypt, and I will break into pieces
his strong arm, which is already broken: and I will cause
the sword to fall out of his hand:
30:23. And I will disperse Egypt among the nations, and
scatter them through the countries.
30:24. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of
Babylon, and will put my sword in his hand: and I will
break the arms of Pharao, and they shall groan bitterly
being slain before his face.
30:25. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of
Babylon, and the arms of Pharao shall fall: and they shall
know that I am the Lord, when I shall have given my sword
into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall have
stretched it forth upon the land of Egypt.
30:26. And I will disperse Egypt among the nations, and
will scatter them through the countries, and they shall
know that I am the Lord.
Ezechiel Chapter 31
The Assyrian empire fell for their pride: the Egyptian
shall fall in like manner.
31:1. And it came to pass, in the eleventh year, the third
month the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord
came to me, saying:
31:2. Son of man, speak to Pharao king of Egypt, and to his
people: To whom art thou like in thy greatness?
31:3. Behold, the Assyrian like a cedar in Libanus, with
fair branches, and full of leaves, of a high stature, and
his top was elevated among the thick boughs.
31:4. The waters nourished him, the deep set him tip on
high, the streams thereof ran round about his roots, and it
sent, forth its rivulets to all the trees of the country.
31:5. Therefore was his height exalted above all the trees
of the country and his branches were multiplied, and his
boughs were elevated because of many waters.
31:6. And when he had spread forth his shadow, all the
fowls of the air made their nests in his boughs, and all
the beasts of the forest brought forth their young under
his branches, and the assembly of many nations dwelt under
his shadow.
31:7. And he was most beautiful for his greatness, and for
the spreading of his branches: for his root was near great
waters.
31:8. The cedars in the paradise of God were not higher
than he, the fir trees did not equal his top, neither were
the plane trees to be compared with him for branches: no
tree in the paradise of God was like him in his beauty.
31:9. For I made him beautiful and thick set with many
branches: and all the trees of pleasure, that were in the
paradise of God, envied him.
31:10. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because he was
exalted in height, and shot up his top green and thick, and
his heart was lifted up in his height:
31:11. I have delivered him into the hands of the mighty
one of the nations, he shall deal with him: I have cast him
out according to his wickedness.
I have delivered... Here the time past is put for the
future, i. e., I shall deliver.-Ibid. The mighty one,
etc... Viz., Nabuchodonosor, who conquered both the
Assyrians and Egyptians.
31:12. And strangers, and the most cruel of the nations
shall cut him down, and cast him away upon the mountains,
and his boughs shall fall in every valley, and his branches
shall be broken on every rock of the country: and all the
people of the earth shall depart from his shadow, and leave
him.
31:13. All the fowls of the air dwelt upon his ruins, and
all the beasts of the field were among his branches.
31:14. For which cause none of the trees by the waters
shall exalt themselves for their height: nor shoot up their
tops among the thick branches and leaves, neither shall any
of them that are watered stand up in their height: for they
are all delivered unto death to the lowest parts of the
earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that
go down into the pit.
31:15. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when he went
down to hell, I brought in mourning, I covered him with the
deep: and I withheld its rivers, and restrained the many
waters: Libanus grieved for him, and all the trees of the
field trembled.
31:16. I shook the nations with the sound of his fall, when
I brought him down to hell with them that descend into the
pit: and all the trees of pleasure, the choice and best in
Libanus, all that were moistened with waters, were
comforted in the lowest parts of the earth.
31:17. For they also shall go down with him to hell to them
that are slain by the sword; and the arm of every one shall
sit down under his shadow in the midst of the nations.
31:18. To whom art thou like, O thou that art famous and
lofty among the trees of pleasure? Behold, thou art brought
down with the trees of pleasure to the lowest parts of the
earth: thou shalt sleep in the midst of the uncircumcised,
with them that are slain by the sword: this is Pharao, and
all his multitude, saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 32
The prophet's lamentation for the king of Egypt.
32:1. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the
twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word
of the Lord came to me, saying:
32:2. Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharao the king
of Egypt, and say to him: Thou art like the lion of the
nations, and the dragon that is in the sea: and thou didst
push with the horn in thy rivers, and didst trouble the
waters with thy feet, and didst trample upon their streams.
32:3. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: I will spread out
my net over thee with the multitude of many people, and I
will draw thee up in my net.
32:4. And I will throw thee out on the land, I will cast
thee away into the open field and I will cause all the
fowls of the air to dwell upon thee, and I will fill the
beasts of all the earth with thee.
32:5. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and will
fill thy hills with thy corruption,
32:6. And I will water the earth with thy stinking blood
upon the mountains, and the valleys shall be filled with
thee.
32:7. And I will cover the heavens, when thou shalt be put
out, and I will make the stars thereof dark: I will cover
the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her
light.
32:8. I will make all the lights of heaven to mourn over
thee and I will cause darkness upon thy land, saith the
Lord God, when thy wounded shall fall in the midst of the
land, saith the Lord God.
32:9. And I shall provoke to anger the heart of many
people, when I shall have brought in thy destruction among
the nations upon the lands, which thou knowest not.
32:10. And I will make many people to be amazed at thee,
and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when my
sword shall begin to fly upon their faces: and they shall
be astonished on a sudden, every one for his own life, in
the day of their ruin.
32:11. For thus saith the Lord God: The sword of the king
of Babylon shall come upon thee,
32:12. By the swords of the mighty I will overthrow thy
multitude: all these nations are invincible: and they shall
waste the pride of Egypt, and the multitude thereof shall
be destroyed.
32:13. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof that were
beside the great waters: and the foot of man shall trouble
them no more, neither shall the hoof of beasts trouble
them.
32:14. Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their
rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord God:
32:15. When I shall have made the land of Egypt desolate:
and the land shall be destitute of her fulness, when I
shall have struck all the inhabitants thereof and they
shall know that I am the Lord.
32:16. This is the lamentation, and they shall lament
therewith: the daughters of the nations shall lament
therewith for Egypt, and for the multitude thereof they
shall lament therewith, saith the Lord God.
32:17. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the
fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the Lord came
to me saying:
32:18. Son of man, sing a mournful song for the multitude
of Egypt: and cast her down, both her, and the daughters of
the mighty nations to the lowest part of the earth, with
them that go down into the pit.
32:19. Whom dost thou excel in beauty? go down and sleep
with the uncircumcised.
32:20. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain
with the sword: the sword is given, they have drawn her
down, and all her people.
32:21. The most mighty among the strong ones shall speak to
him from the midst of hell, they that went down with his
helpers and slept uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
32:22. Assur is there, and all his multitude: their graves
are round about him, all of them slain, and that fell by
the sword.
32:23. Whose graves are set in the lowest parts of the pit:
and his multitude lay round about his grave: all of them
slain, and fallen by the sword, they that heretofore spread
terror in the land of the living.
32:24. There is Elam and all his multitude round about his
grave, all of them slain, and fallen by the sword; that
went down uncircumcised to the lowest parts of the earth:
that caused their terror in the land of the living, and
they have borne their shame with them that go down into the
pit.
32:25. In the midst of the slain they have set him a bed
among all his people: their graves are round about him: all
these are uncircumcised, and slain by the sword: for they
spread their terror in the land of the living, and have
borne their shame with them that descend into the pit: they
are laid in the midst of the slain.
32:26. There is Mosoch, and Thubal, and all their
multitude: their graves are round about him: all of them
uncircumcised and slain, and fallen by the sword: though
they spread their terror in the land of the living.
32:27. And they shall not sleep with the brave, and with
them that fell uncircumcised, that went down to hell with
their weapons, and laid their swords under their heads, and
their iniquities were in their bones, because they were the
terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
32:28. So thou also shalt be broken in the midst of the
uncircumcised, and shalt sleep with them that are slain by
the sword.
32:29. There is Edom, and her kings, and all her princes,
who with their army are joined with them that are slain by
the sword: and have slept with the uncircumcised, and with
them that go down into the pit.
32:30. There are all the princes of the north, and all the
hunters: who were brought down with the slain, fearing, and
confounded in their strength: who slept uncircumcised with
them that are slain by the sword, and have borne their
shame with them that go down into the pit.
32:31. Pharao saw them, and he was comforted concerning all
his multitude, which was slain by the sword: Pharao, and
all his army, saith the Lord God:
32:32. Because I have spread my terror in the land of the
living, and he hath slept in the midst of the uncircumcised
with them that are slain by the sword: Pharao and all his
multitude, saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 33
The duty of the watchman appointed by God: the justice of
God's ways: his judgments upon the Jews.
33:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
33:2. Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and
say to them: When I bring the sword upon a land, if the
people of the land take a man, one of their meanest, and
make him a watchman over them:
33:3. And he sees the sword coming upon the land, and sound
the trumpet, and tell the people:
33:4. Then he that heareth the sound of the trumpet,
whosoever he be, and doth not look to himself, if the sword
come, and cut him off: his blood shall be upon his own
head.
33:5. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and did not look
to himself, his blood shall be upon him: but if he look to
himself, he shall save his life.
33:6. And if the watchman see the sword coming, and sound
not the trumpet: and the people look not to themselves, and
the sword come, and cut off a soul from among them: he
indeed is taken away in his iniquity, but I will require
his blood at the hand of the watchman.
33:7. So thou, O son of man, I have made thee a watchman to
the house of Israel: therefore thou shalt hear the word
from my mouth, and shalt tell it them from me.
33:8. When I say to the wicked: O wicked man, thou shalt
surely die: if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked man
from his way: that wicked man shall die in his iniquity,
but I will require his blood at thy hand.
33:9. But if thou tell the wicked man, that he may be
converted from his ways, and he be not converted from his
way he shall die in his iniquity: but thou hast delivered
thy soul.
33:10. Thou therefore, O son of man, say to the house of
Israel: Thus you have spoken, saying: Our iniquities, and
our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them: how then
can we live?
33:11. Say to them: As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire
not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from
his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways:
and why will you die, O house of Israel?
33:12. Thou therefore, O son of man, say to the children of
thy people: The justice of the just shall not deliver him,
in what day soever he shall sin: and the wickedness of the
wicked shall not hurt him, in what day soever he shall turn
from his wickedness: and the just shall not be able to live
in his justice, in what day soever he shall sin.
33:13. Yea, if I shall say to the just that he shall surely
live, and he, trusting in his justice, commit iniquity: all
his justices shall be forgotten, and his iniquity, which he
hath committed, in the same shall he die.
33:14. And it I shall say to the wicked: Thou shalt surely
die: and he do penance for his sin, and do judgment and
justice,
33:15. And if that wicked man restore the pledge, and
render what he had robbed, and walk in the commandments of
life, and do no unjust thing: he shall surely live, and
shall not die.
33:16. None of his sins, which he hath committed, shall be
imputed to him: he hath done judgment and justice, he shall
surely live.
33:17. And the children of thy people have said: The way of
the Lord is not equitable: whereas their own way is unjust.
33:18. For when the just shall depart from his justice, and
commit iniquities, he shall die in them.
33:19. And when the wicked shall depart from his
wickedness, and shall do judgments, and justice, he shall
live in them.
33:20. And you say: The way of the Lord is not right, I
will judge every one of you according to his ways, O house
of Israel.
33:21. And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our
captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the
month, that there came to me one that was fled from
Jerusalem, saying: The city is laid waste.
33:22. And the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the
evening, before he that was fled came: and he opened my
mouth till he came to me in the morning, and my mouth being
opened, I was silent no more.
33:23. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
33:24. Son of man, they that dwell in these ruinous places
in the land of Israel, speak, saying: Abraham was one, and
he inherited the land, but we are many, the land is given
us in possession.
33:25. Therefore say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: You
that eat with the blood and lift up your eyes to your
uncleannesses, and that shed blood: shall you possess the
land by inheritance?
33:26. You stood on your swords, you have committed
abominations, and every one hath defiled his neighbours
wife; and shall you possess the land by inheritance?
33:27. Say thou thus to them: Thus saith the Lord God: As I
live, they that dwell in the ruinous places, shall fall by
the sword: and he that is in the field, shall be given to
the beasts to be devoured: and they that are in holds, and
caves, shall die of the pestilence.
33:28. And I will make the land a wilderness, and a desert,
and the proud strength thereof shall fail, and the
mountains of Israel shall be desolate, because there is
none to pass by them,
33:29. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall
have made their land waste and desolate, for all their
abominations which they have committed.
33:30. And thou son of man: the children of thy people,
that talk of thee by the walls, and in the doors of the
houses, and speak one to another each man to his neighbour,
saying: Come, and let us hear what is the word that cometh
forth from the Lord.
33:31. And they come to thee, as if people were coming in,
and my people sit before thee: and hear thy words, and do
them not: for they turn them into a song of their mouth,
and their heart goeth after their covetousness.
33:32. And thou art to them as a musical song which is sung
with a sweet and agreeable voice: and they hear thy words,
and do them not.
33:33. And when that which was foretold shall come to pass,
for behold it is coming, then shall they know that a
prophet hath been among them.
Ezechiel Chapter 34
Evil pastors are reproved. Christ the true pastor shall
come, and gather together his flock from all parts of the
earth, and preserve it for ever.
34:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, it saying:
34:2. Son of man, prophesy concerning the shepherds of
Israel: prophesy, and say to the shepherds: Thus saith the
Lord God: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, that fed
themselves: should not the flocks be fed by the shepherds?
Shepherds... That is, princes, magistrates, chief priests,
and scribes.
34:3. You ate the milk, and you clothed yourselves with the
wool, and you killed that which was fat: but my flock you
did not feed.
34:4. The weak you have not strengthened, and that which
was sick you have not healed, that which was broken you
have not bound up, and that which was driven away you have
not brought again, neither have you sought that which was
lost: but you ruled over them with rigour, and with a high
hand.
34:5. And my sheep were scattered, because there was no
shepherd and they became the prey of all the beasts of the
field, and were scattered.
34:6. My sheep have wandered in every mountain, and in
every high hill: and my flocks were scattered upon the face
of the earth, and there was none that sought them, there
was none, I say, that sought them.
34:7. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
34:8. As I live, saith the Lord God, forasmuch as my flocks
have been made a spoil, and my sheep are become a prey to
all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd:
for my shepherds did not seek after my flock, but the
shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flocks:
34:9. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
34:10. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I myself come upon
the shepherds, I will require my flock at their hand, and I
will cause them to cease from feeding the flock any more,
neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more: and I
will deliver my flock from their mouth, and it shall no
more be meat for them.
34:11. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold I myself will
seek my sheep, and will visit them.
34:12. As the shepherd visiteth his flock in the day when
he shall be in the midst of his sheep that were scattered,
so will I visit my sheep, and will deliver them out of all
the places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and
dark day.
34:13. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and will
gather them out of the countries, and will bring them to
their own land: and I will feed them in the mountains of
Israel, by the rivers, and in all the habitations of the
land.
34:14. I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures, and
their pastures shall be in the high mountains of Israel:
there shall they rest on the green grass, and be fed in fat
pastures upon the mountains of Israel.
34:15. I will feed my sheep: and I will cause them to lie
down, saith the Lord God.
34:16. I will seek that which was lost: and that which was
driven away, I will bring again: and I will bind up that
which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was
weak, and that which was fat and strong I will preserve,
and I will feed them in judgment.
34:17. And as for you, O my flocks, thus saith the Lord
God: Behold I judge between cattle and cattle, of rams and
of he goats.
34:18. Was it not enough for you to feed upon good
pastures? but you must also tread down with your feet the
residue of your pastures: and when you drank the clearest
water, you troubled the rest with your feet.
34:19. And my sheep were fed with that which you had
trodden with your feet: and they drank what your feet had
troubled.
34:20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God to you: Behold, I
myself will judge between the fat cattle and the lean.
34:21. Because you thrusted with sides and shoulders, and
struck all the weak cattle with your horns, till they were
scattered abroad:
34:22. I will save my flock, and it shall be no more a
spoil, and I will judge between cattle and cattle.
34:23. And I WILL SET UP ONE SHEPHERD OVER THEM, and he
shall feed them, even my servant David: he shall feed them,
and he shall be their shepherd.
David... Christ, who is of the house of David.
34:24. And I the Lord will be their God: and my servant
David the prince in the midst of them: I the Lord have
spoken it.
34:25. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and
will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and
they that dwell in the wilderness shall sleep secure in the
forests.
34:26. And I will make them a blessing round about my hill:
and I will send down the rain in its season, there shall be
showers of blessing.
34:27. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and
the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be in
their land without fear: and they shall know that I am the
Lord, when I shall have broken the bonds of their yoke, and
shall have delivered them out of the hand of those that
rule over them.
34:28. And they shall be no more for a spoil to the
nations, neither shall the beasts of the earth devour them:
but they shall dwell securely without, any terror.
34:29. And I will raise up for them a bud of renown: and
they shall be no more consumed with famine in the land,
neither shall they bear any more the reproach of the
Gentiles.
A bud of renown... Germen nominatum. He speaks of Christ our
Lord, the illustrious bud of the house of David, renowned
over all the earth. See Jer. 33.15.
34:30. And they shall know that I the Lord their God am
with them, and that they are my people the house of Israel:
saith the Lord God.
34:31. And you my flocks, the flocks of my pasture are men:
and I am the Lord your God, saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 35
The judgment of mount Seir, for their hatred of Israel.
35:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
35:2. Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and
prophesy concerning it, and say to it:
35:3. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against thee,
mount Seir, and I will stretch forth my hand upon thee, and
I will make thee desolate and waste.
35:4. I will destroy thy cities, and thou shalt be
desolate: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
35:5. Because thou hast been an everlasting enemy, and hast
shut up the children of Israel in the hands of the sword in
the time of their affliction, in the time of their last
iniquity.
35:6. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will
deliver thee up to blood, and blood shall pursue thee: and
whereas thou hast hated blood, blood shall pursue thee.
35:7. And I will make mount Seir waste and desolate: and I
will take away from it him that goeth and him that
returneth.
35:8. And I will fill his mountains with his men that are
slain: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in thy
torrents they shall fall that are slain with the sword.
35:9. I will make thee everlasting desolations, and thy
cities shall not be inhabited: and thou shalt know that I
am the Lord God.
35:10. Because thou hast said: The two nations, and the two
lands shall be mine, and I will possess them by
inheritance: whereas the Lord was there.
35:11. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will do
according to thy wrath, and according to thy envy, which
thou hast exercised in hatred to them: and I will be made
known by them, when I shall have judged thee.
35:12. And thou shalt know that I the Lord have heard all
thy reproaches, that thou hast spoken against the mountains
of Israel, saying. They are desolate, they are given to us
to consume.
35:13. And you rose up against me with your mouth, and have
derogated from me by your words: I have heard them.
35:14. Thus saith the Lord God: When the whole earth shall
rejoice, I will make thee a wilderness.
35:15. As thou hast rejoiced over the inheritance of the
house of Israel, because it was laid waste, so will I do to
thee: thou shalt be laid waste, O mount Seir, and all
Idumea: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezechiel Chapter 36
The restoration of Israel, not for their merits, but by
God's special grace. Christ's baptism.
36:1. And thou son of man, prophesy to the mountains of
Israel, and say: Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of
the Lord:
36:2. Thus saith the Lord God: Because the enemy hath said
to you: Aha, the everlasting heights are given to us for an
inheritance.
36:3. Therefore prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God:
Because you have been desolate, and trodden under foot on
every side, and made an inheritance to the rest of the
nations, and are become the subject of the talk, and the
reproach of the people:
36:4. Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of
the Lord God: Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and
to the hills, to the brooks, and to the valleys, and to
desolate places, and ruinous walls, and to the cities that
are forsaken, that are spoiled, and derided by the rest of
the nations round about.
36:5. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: In the fire of my
zeal I have spoken of the rest of the nations, and of all
Edom, who have taken my land to themselves, for an
inheritance with joy, and with all the heart, and with the
mind: and have cast it out to lay it waste.
36:6. Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and
say to the mountains, and to the hills, to the ridges, and
to the valleys: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I have
spoken in my zeal, and in my indignation, because you have
borne the shame of the Gentiles.
36:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: I have lifted up
my hand, that the Gentiles who are round about you, shall
themselves bear their shame.
36:8. But as for you, O mountains of Israel, shoot ye forth
your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel:
for they are at hand to come.
36:9. For I, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you
shall be ploughed and sown.
36:10. And I will multiply men upon you, and all the house
of Israel: and the cities ball be inhabited, and the
ruinous places shall be repaired.
36:11. And I will make you abound with men and with beasts:
and they shall be multiplied, and increased: and I will
settle you as from the beginning, and will give you greater
gifts, than you had from the beginning: and you shall know
that I am the Lord.
36:12. And I will bring men upon you, my people Israel, and
they shall possess thee for their inheritance: and thou
shalt be their inheritance, and shalt no more henceforth be
without them.
36:13. Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy say of you:
Thou art a devourer of men, and one that suffocatest thy
nation:
36:14. Therefore thou shalt devour men no more nor destroy
thy nation any more, saith the Lord God.
36:15. Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame
of the nations any more, nor shalt thou bear the reproach
of the people, nor lose thy nation any more, saith the Lord
God.
Nor lose thy nation any more... This whole promise
principally relates to the church of Christ, and God's
perpetual protection of her: for as to the carnal Jews,
they have been removed out of their land these sixteen
hundred years.
36:16. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
36:17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their
own land, they defiled it with their ways, and with their
doings: their way was before me like the uncleanness of a
menstruous woman.
36:18. And I poured out my indignation upon them for the
blood which they had shed upon the land, and with their
idols they defiled it.
36:19. And I scattered them among the nations, and they are
dispersed through the countries: I have judged them
according to their ways, and their devices.
36:20. And when they entered among the nations whither they
went, they profaned my holy name, when it was said of them:
This is the people of the Lord, and they are come forth out
of his land.
36:21. And I have regarded my own holy name, which the
house of Israel hath profaned among the nations to which
they went in.
36:22. Therefore thou shalt say to the house of Israel:
Thus saith the Lord God: It is not for your sake that I
will do this, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's
sake, which you have profaned among the nations whither you
went.
36:23. And I will sanctify my great name, which was
profaned among the Gentiles, which you have profaned in the
midst of them: that the Gentiles may know that I am the
Lord, saith the Lord of hosts, when I shall be sanctified
in you before their eyes.
36:24. For I will take you from among the Gentiles, and
will gather you together out of all the countries, and will
bring you into your own land.
36:25. And I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall
be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse
you from all your idols.
36:26. And I will give you a new heart, and put a new
spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.
36:27. And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I
will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my
judgments, and do them.
36:28. And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your
fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your
God.
36:29. And I will save you from all your uncleannesses: and
I will call for corn, and will multiply it, and will lay no
famine upon you.
36:30. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the
increase of the field, that you bear no more the reproach
of famine among the nations.
36:31. And you shall remember your wicked ways, and your
doings that were not good: and your iniquities, and your
wicked deeds shall displease you.
36:32. It is not for your sakes that I will do this, saith
the Lord God, be it known to you: be confounded, and
ashamed at your own ways, O house of Israel.
36:33. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day that I shall
cleanse you from all your iniquities, and shall cause the
cities to be inhabited, and shall repair the ruinous
places,
36:34. And the desolate land shall be tilled, which before
was waste in the sight of all that passed by,
36:35. They shall say: This land that was untilled is
become as a garden of pleasure: and the cities that were
abandoned, and desolate, and destroyed, are peopled and
fenced.
36:36. And the nations, that shall be left round about you,
shall know that I the Lord have built up what was
destroyed, and planted what was desolate, that I the Lord
have spoken and done it.
36:37. Thus saith the Lord God: Moreover in this shall the
house of Israel find me, that I will do it for them: I will
multiply them as a flock of men,
36:38. As a holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her
solemn feasts: so shall the waste cities be full of flocks
of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezechiel Chapter 37
A vision of the resurrection of dry bones, foreshewing the
deliverance of the people from their captivity. Juda and
Israel shall be all one kingdom under Christ. God's
everlasting covenant with the church.
37:1. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me
forth in the spirit of the Lord: and set me down in the
midst of a plain that was full of bones.
37:2. And he led me about through them on every side: now
they were very many upon the face of the plain, and they
were exceeding dry.
37:3. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these
bones shall live and I answered: O Lord God, thou knowest.
37:4. And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones;
and say to them: Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
37:5. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I
will send spirit into you, and you shall live.
Spirit... That is, soul, life, and breath.
37:6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh
to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will
give you spirit and you shall live, and you shall know that
I am the Lord.
37:7. And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and as I
prophesied there was a noise, and behold a commotion: and
the bones came together, each one, its joint.
37:8. And I saw, and behold the sinews, and the flesh came
up upon them: and the skin was stretched out over them, but
there was no spirit in them.
37:9. And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy,
O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord
God: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these
slain, and let them live again.
37:10. And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and the
spirit came into them, and they lived: and they stood up
upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
37:11. And he said to me: Son of man: All these bones are
the house of Israel: they say: Our bones are dried up, and
our hope is lost, and we are cut off.
37:12. Therefore prophesy, and say to them: Thus saith the
Lord God: Behold I will open your graves, and will bring
you out of your sepulchres, O my people: and will bring you
into the land of Israel.
37:13. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall
have opened your sepulchres, and shall have brought you out
of your graves, O my people:
37:14. And shall have put my spirit in you, and you shall
live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land: and you
shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and done it, saith
the Lord God:
37:15. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
37:16. And thou son of man, take thee a stick: and write
upon it: Of Juda, and of the children of Israel his
associates: and take another stick and write upon it: For
Joseph the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of
Israel, and of his associates.
37:17. And join them one to the other into one stick, and
they shall become one in thy hand.
37:18. And when the children of thy people shall speak to
thee, saying: Wilt thou not tell us what thou meanest by
this?
37:19. Say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will
take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim,
and the tribes of Israel that are associated with him, and
I will put them together with the stick of Juda, and will
make them one stick: and they shall be one in his hand.
37:20. And the sticks whereon thou hast written, shall be
in thy hand, before their eyes.
37:21. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord God:
Behold, I will take of the children of Israel from the
midst of the nations whither they are gone: and I will
gather them on every side, and will bring them to their own
land.
37:22. And I will make them one nation in the land on the
mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king over them
all: and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall
they be divided any more into two kingdoms.
37:23. Nor shall they be defiled any more with their idols,
nor with their abominations, nor with all their iniquities:
and I will save them out of all the places in which they
have sinned, and I will cleanse them: and they shall be my
people, and I will be their God.
37:24. And my servant David shall be king over them, and
they shall have one shepherd: they shall walk in my
judgments, and shall keep my commandments, and shall do
them.
37:25. And they shall dwell in the land which I gave to my
servant Jacob, wherein your fathers dwelt, and they shall
dwell in it, they and their children, and their children's
children, for ever: and David my servant shall be their
prince for ever.
37:26. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, it
shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will
establish them, and will multiply them, and will set my
sanctuary in the midst of them for ever.
37:27. And my tabernacle shall be with them: and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people.
37:28. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord the
sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the
midst of them for ever.
Ezechiel Chapter 38
Gog shall persecute the church in the latter days. He shall
be overthrown.
38:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
38:2. Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of
Magog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal: and prophesy
of him,
Gog... This name, which signifies hidden or covered, is
taken in this place, either for the persecutors of the
church of God in general, or some arch-persecutor in
particular: such as Antichrist shall be in the latter days.
See Apoc. 20.8. And what is said of the punishment of Gog,
is verified by the unhappy ends of persecutors.-Ibid.
Magog... Scythia or Tartary, from whence the Turks, and
other enemies of the church of Christ, originally sprung.
38:3. And say to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I
come against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Mosoch and
Thubal.
38:4. And I will turn thee about, and I will put a bit in
thy jaws: and I will bring thee forth, and all thy army,
horses and horsemen all clothed with coats of mail, a great
multitude, armed with spears and shields and swords.
38:5. The Persians, Ethiopians, and Libyans with them, all
with shields and helmets.
38:6. Gomer, and all his bands, the house of Thogorma, the
northern parts and all his strength, and many peoples with
thee.
38:7. Prepare and make thyself ready, and all thy multitude
that is assembled about thee, and be thou commander over
them.
38:8. After many days thou shalt be visited: at the end of
years thou shalt come to the land that is returned from the
sword, and is gathered out of many nations, to the
mountains of Israel which have been continually waste: but
it hath been brought forth out of the nations, and they
shall all of them dwell securely in it.
38:9. And thou shalt go up and come like a storm, and like
a cloud to cover the land, thou and all thy bands and many
people with thee.
38:10. Thus saith the Lord God: In that day projects shall
enter into thy heart, and thou shalt conceive a mischievous
design.
38:11. And thou shalt say: I will go up to the land which
is without a wall, I will come to them that are at rest,
and dwell securely: all these dwell without a wall, they
have no bars nor gates:
38:12. To take spoils, and lay hold on the prey, to lay thy
hand upon them that had been wasted, and afterwards
restored, and upon the people that is gathered together out
of the nations, which hath begun to possess and to dwell in
the midst of the earth.
38:13. Saba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tharsis, and
all the lions thereof shall say to thee: Art thou come to
take spoils? behold, thou hast gathered thy multitude to
take a prey, to take silver, and gold, and to carry away
goods and substance, and to take rich spoils.
38:14. Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy and say to Gog:
Thus saith the Lord God: Shalt thou not know, in that day,
when my people of Israel shall dwell securely?
38:15. And thou shalt come out of thy place from the
northern parts, thou and many people with thee, all of them
riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army.
38:16. And thou shalt come upon my people of Israel like a
cloud, to cover the earth. Thou shalt be in the latter
days, and I will bring thee upon my land: that the nations
may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog,
before their eyes.
38:17. Thus saith the Lord God: Thou then art he, of whom I
have spoken in the days of old, by my servants the prophets
of Israel, who prophesied in the days of those times that I
would bring thee upon them.
38:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, in the day of
the coming of Gog upon the land of Israel, saith the Lord
God, that my indignation shall come up in my wrath.
38:19. And I have spoken in my zeal, and in the fire of my
anger, that in that day there shall be a great commotion
upon the land of Israel:
38:20. So that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the
air, and the beasts of the field, and every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the ground, and all men that are upon
the face of the earth, shall be moved at my presence: and
the mountains shall be thrown down, and the hedges shall
fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
38:21. And I will call in the sword against him in all my
mountains, saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be
pointed against his brother.
38:22. And I will judge him with pestilence, and with
blood, and with violent rain, and vast hailstones: I will
rain fire and brimstone upon him, and upon his army, and
upon the many nations that are with him.
38:23. And I will be magnified, and I will be sanctified:
and I will be known in the eyes of many nations and they
shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezechiel Chapter 39
God's judgments upon Gog. God's people were punished for
their sins: but shall be favoured with everlasting
kindness.
39:1. And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say:
Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, O
Gog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal.
39:2. And I will turn thee round, and I will lead thee out,
and will make thee go up from the northern parts: and will
bring thee upon the mountains of Israel.
39:3. And I will break thy bow in thy left hand, and I will
cause thy arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
39:4. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou
and all thy bands, and thy nations that are with thee: I
have given thee to the wild beasts, to the birds, and to
every fowl, and to the beasts of the earth to be devoured.
39:5. Thou shalt fall upon the face of the field: for I
have spoken it, saith the Lord God.
39:6. And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that
dwell confidently in the islands: and they shall know that
I am the Lord.
39:7. And I will make my holy name known in the midst of my
people Israel, and my holy name shall be profaned no more:
and the Gentiles shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy
One of Israel.
39:8. Behold it cometh, and it is done, saith the Lord God:
this is the day whereof I have spoken.
39:9. And the inhabitants shall go forth of the cities of
Israel, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, the
shields, and the spears, the bows and the arrows, and the
handstaves and the pikes: and they shall burn them with
fire seven years.
39:10. And they shall not bring wood out of the countries,
nor cut down out of the forests: for they shall burn the
weapons with fire, and shall make a prey of them to whom
they had been a prey, and they shall rob those that robbed
them, saith the Lord God.
39:11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will
give Gog a noted place for a sepulchre in Israel: the
valley of the passengers on the east of the sea, which
shall cause astonishment in them that pass by: and there
shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude, and it shall be
called the valley of the multitude of Gog.
39:12. And the house of Israel shall bury them for seven
months to cleanse the land.
39:13. And all the people of the land shall bury him, and
it shall be unto them a noted day, wherein I was glorified,
saith the Lord God.
39:14. And they shall appoint men to go continually about
the land, to bury and to seek out them that were remaining
upon the face of the earth, that they may cleanse it: and
after seven months they shall begin to seek.
39:15. And they shall go about passing through the land:
and when they shall see the bone of a man, they shall set
up sign by it, till the buriers bury it in the valley, of
the multitude of Gog.
39:16. And the name of the city shall be Amona, and they
shall cleanse the land.
39:17. And thou, O son of man, saith the Lord God, say to
every fowl, and to all the birds, and to all the beasts of
the field: Assemble yourselves, make haste, come together
from every side to my victim, which I slay for you, a great
victim upon the mountains of Israel: to eat flesh, and
drink blood.
39:18. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and you shall
drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, and
of lambs, and of he goats, and bullocks, and of all that
are well fed and fat.
39:19. And you shall eat the fat till you be full, and
shall drink blood till you be drunk of the victim which I
shall slay for you.
39:20. And you shall be filled at my table with horses, and
mighty horsemen, and all the men of war, saith the Lord
God.
39:21. And I will set my glory among the nations: and all
nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my
hand that I have laid upon them.
39:22. And the house of Israel shall know that I am the
Lord their God from that day and forward.
39:23. And the nations shall know that the house of Israel
were made captives for their iniquity, because they forsook
me, and I hid my face from them: and I delivered them into
the hands of their enemies, and they fell all by the sword.
39:24. I have dealt with them according to their
uncleanness, and wickedness, and hid my face from them.
39:25. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Now will I bring
back the captivity of Jacob, and will have mercy on all the
house of Israel and I will be jealous for my holy name.
39:26. And they shall bear their confusion, and all the
transgressions wherewith they have transgressed against me,
when they shall dwell in their land securely fearing no
man:
39:27. And I shall have brought them back from among the
nations, and shall have gathered them together out of the
lands of their enemies, and shall be sanctified in them, in
the sight of many nations.
39:28. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God,
because I caused them to be carried away among the nations;
and I have gathered them together unto their own land, and
have not left any of them there.
39:29. And I will hide my face no more from them, for I
have poured out my spirit upon all the house of Israel,
saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 40
The prophet sees in a vision the rebuilding of the temple:
the dimensions of several parts thereof.
40:1. In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in
the beginning of the year, the tenth day of the month, the
fourteenth year after the city was destroyed: in the
selfsame day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he
brought me thither.
40:2. In the visions of God he brought me into the land of
Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain: upon which
there was as the building of a city, bending towards the
south.
40:3. And he brought me in thither, and behold a man, whose
appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of
flax in his hand, and a measuring reed in his hand, and he
stood in the gate.
40:4. And this man said to me: Son of man, see with thy
eyes, and hear with thy ears, and set thy heart upon all
that I shall shew thee: for thou art brought hither that
they may be shewn to thee: declare all that thou seest, to
the house of Israel.
40:5. And behold there was a wall on the outside of the
house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed
of six cubits and a handbreadth: and he measured the
breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed.
40:6. And he came to the gate that looked toward the east,
and he went up the steps thereof: and he measured the
breadth of the threshold of the gate one reed, that is, one
threshold was one reed broad;
40:7. And every little chamber was one reed long, and one
reed broad: and between the little chambers were five
cubits:
40:8. And the threshold of the gate by the porch of the
gate within, was one reed.
40:9. And he measured the porch of the gate eight cubits,
and the front thereof two cubits: and the porch of the gate
was inward.
40:10. And the little chambers of the gate that looked
eastward were three on this side, and three on that side:
all three were of one measure, and the fronts of one
measure, on both parts.
40:11. And he measured the breadth of the threshold of the
gate ten cubits: and the length of the gate thirteen cubits:
40:12. And the border before the little chambers one cubit:
and one cubit was the border on both sides: and the little
chambers were six cubits on this side and that side.
40:13. And he measured the gate from the roof of one little
chamber to the roof of another, in breadth five and twenty
cubits: door against door.
40:14. He made also fronts of sixty cubits: and to the
front the court of the gate on every side round about.
40:15. And before the face of the gate which reached even
to the face of the porch of the inner gate, fifty cubits.
40:16. And slanting windows in the little chambers, and in
their fronts, which were within the gate on every side
round about: and in like manner there were also in the
porches windows round about within, and before the fronts
the representation of palm trees.
40:17. And he brought me into the outward court, and behold
there were chambers, and a pavement of stone in the court
round about: thirty chambers encompassed the pavement.
There were chambers... Gazophylacia, so called, because the
priests and Levites kept in them the stores and vessels
that belonged to the temple.
40:18. And the pavement in the front of the gates according
to the length of the gates was lower.
40:19. And he measured the breadth from the face of the
lower gate to the front of the inner court without, a
hundred cubits to the east, and to the north.
40:20. He measured also both the length and the breadth of
the gate of the outward court, which looked northward.
40:21. And the little chambers thereof three on this side,
and three on that side: and the front thereof, and the
porch thereof according to the measure of the former gate,
fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.
40:22. And the windows thereof, and the porch, and the
gravings according to the measure of the gate that looked
to the east, and they went up to it by seven steps, and a
porch was before it.
40:23. And the gate of the inner court was over against the
gate of the north, and that of the east: and he measured
from gate to gate a hundred cubits.
40:24. And he brought me out to the way of the south, and
behold the gate that looked to the south: and he measured
the front thereof, and the porch thereof according to the
former measures.
40:25. And the windows thereof, and the porches round
about, as the other windows: the length was fifty cubits,
and the breadth five and twenty cubits.
40:26. And there were seven steps to go up to it: and a
porch before the doors thereof: and there were graven palm
trees, one on this side, and another on that side in the
front thereof.
40:27. And there was a gate of the inner court towards the
south: and he measured from gate to gate towards the south,
a hundred cubits.
40:28. And he brought me into the inner court at the south
gate: and he measured the gate according to the former
measures.
40:29. The little chamber thereof, and the front thereof,
and the porch thereof with the same measures: and the
windows thereof, and the porch thereof round about it was
fifty cubits in length, and five and twenty cubits in
breadth.
40:30. And the porch round about was five and twenty cubits
long, and five cubits broad.
40:31. And the porch thereof to the outward court, and the
palm trees thereof in the front: and there were eight steps
to go up to it.
40:32. And he brought me into the inner court by the way of
the east: and he measured the gate according to the former
measures.
40:33. The little chamber thereof, and the front thereof,
and the porch thereof as before: and the windows thereof,
and the porches thereof round about it was fifty cubits
long, and five and twenty cubits broad.
40:34. And the porch thereof, that is, of the outward
court: and the graven palm trees in the front thereof on
this side and on that side: and the going up thereof was by
eight steps.
40:35. And he brought me into the gate that looked to the
north: and he measured according to the former measures.
40:36. The little chamber thereof, and the front thereof,
and the porch thereof, and the windows thereof round about
it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.
40:37. And the porch thereof looked to the outward court:
and the graving of palm trees in the front thereof was on
this side and on that side: and the going up to it was by
eight steps.
40:38. And at every chamber was a door in the forefronts of
the gates: there they washed the holocaust.
40:39. And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this
side, and two tables on that side: that the holocaust, and
the sin offering, and the trespass offering might be slain
thereon.
40:40. And on the outward side, which goeth up to the entry
of the gate that looketh toward the north, were two tables:
and at the other side before the porch of the gate were two
tables,
40:41. Four tables were on this side, and four tables on
that side at the sides of the gate were eight tables, upon
which they slew the victims.
40:42. And the four tables for the holocausts were made of
square stones: one cubit and a half long, and one cubit and
a half broad, and one cubit high: to lay the vessels upon,
in which the holocaust and the victim is slain.
40:43. And the borders of them were of one handbreadth,
turned inwards round about: and upon the tables was the
flesh of the offering.
40:44. And without the inner gate were the chambers of the
singing men in the inner court, which was on the side of
the gate that looketh to the north: and their prospect was
towards the south, one at the side of the east gate, which
looketh toward the north.
40:45. And he said to me: This chamber, which looketh
toward the south shall be for the priests that watch in the
wards of the temple.
40:46. But the chamber that looketh towards the north shall
be for the priests that watch over the ministry of the
altar. These are the sons of Sadoc, who among the sons of
Levi, come near to the Lord, to minister to him.
40:47. And he measured the court a hundred cubits long, and
a hundred cubits broad foursquare: and the altar that was
before the face of the temple.
40:48. And he brought me into the porch of the temple: and
he measured the porch five cubits on this side, and five
cubits on that side: and the breadth of the gate three
cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side.
40:49. And the length of the porch was twenty cubits, and
the breadth eleven cubits, and there were eight steps to go
up to it. And there were pillars in the fronts: one on this
side, and another on that side.
Ezechiel Chapter 41
A description of the temple, and of all the parts of it.
41:1. And he brought me into the temple, and he measured
the fronts six cubits broad on this side, and six cubits on
that side, the breadth of the tabernacle.
The temple... This plan of a temple, which was here shewn
to the prophet in a vision, partly had relation to the
material temple, which was to be rebuilt: and partly, in a
mystical sense, to the spiritual temple of God, the church
of Christ.
41:2. And the breadth of the gate was ten cubits: and the
sides of the gate five cubits on this side, and five cubits
on that side: and he measured the length thereof forty
cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.
41:3. Then going inward he measured the front of the gate
two cubits: and the gate six cubits, and the breadth of the
gate seven cubits.
41:4. And he measured the length thereof twenty cubits, and
the breadth twenty cubits, before the face of the temple:
and he said to me: This is the holy of holies.
41:5. And he measured the wall of the house six cubits: and
the breadth of every side chamber four cubits round about
the house on every side.
41:6. And the side chambers one by another, were twice
thirty-three: and they bore outwards, that they might enter
in through the wall of the house in the sides round about,
to hold in, and not to touch the wall of the temple.
One by another... Or one over another; literally, side to
side, or side upon side.
41:7. And there was a broad passage round about, going up
by winding stairs, and it led into the upper loft of the
temple all round: therefore was the temple broader in the
higher parts: and so from the lower parts they went to the
higher by the midst.
41:8. And I saw in the house the height round about, the
foundations of the side chambers which were the measure of
a reed the space of six cubits:
41:9. And the thickness of the wall for the side chamber
without, which was five cubits: and the inner house was
within the side chambers of the house,
And the inner house was within the side chambers of the
house... Because these side chambers were in the very walls
of the temple all round. Or, it may also be rendered (more
agreeably to the Hebrew) so as to signify that the
thickness of the wall for the side chamber within, was the
same as that of the wall without; that is, equally five
cubits.
41:10. And between the chambers was the breadth of twenty
cubits round about the house on every side.
41:11. And the door of the side chambers was turned towards
the place of prayer: one door was toward the north, and
another door was toward the south: and the breadth of the
place for prayer, was five cubits round about.
41:12. And the building that was separate, and turned to
the way that looked toward the sea, was seventy cubits
broad and the wall of the building, five cubits thick round
about: and ninety cubits long.
41:13. And he measured the length of the house, a hundred
cubits: and the separate building, and the walls thereof, a
hundred cubits in length.
41:14. And the breadth before the face of the house, and of
the separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits.
41:15. And he measured the length of the building over
against it, which was separated at the back of it: and the
galleries on both sides a hundred cubits: and the inner
temple, and the porches of the court.
41:16. The thresholds, and the oblique windows, and the
galleries round about on three sides, over against the
threshold of every one, and floored with wood all round
about: and the ground was up to the windows, and the
windows were shut over the doors.
41:17. And even to the inner house, and without all the
wall round about within and without, by measure.
41:18. And there were cherubims and palm trees wrought, so
that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub, and
every cherub had two faces.
41:19. The face of a man was toward the palm tree on one
side, and the face of a lion was toward the palm tree on
the other side: set forth through all the house round
about.
41:20. From the ground even to the upper parts of the gate,
were cherubims and palm trees wrought in the wall of the
temple.
41:21. The threshold was foursquare, and the face of the
sanctuary sight to sight.
The threshold was foursquare... That is, the gate of the
temple was foursquare: and so placed as to answer the gate
of the sanctuary within.
41:22. The altar of wood was three cubits high: and the
length thereof was two cubits: and the corners thereof, aid
the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood.
And he said to me: This is the table before the Lord.
41:23. And there were two doors in the temple, and in the
sanctuary.
41:24. And in the two doors on both sides were two little
doors, which were folded within each other: for there were
two wickets on both sides of the doors.
41:25. And there were cherubims also wrought in the doors
of the temple, and the figures of palm trees, like as were
made on the walls: for which cause also the planks were
thicker in the front of the porch without.
41:26. Upon which were the oblique windows, and the
representation of palm trees on this side, and on that side
in the sides of the porch, according to the sides of the
house, and the breadth of the walls.
Ezechiel Chapter 42
A description of the courts, chambers, and other places
belonging to the temple.
42:1. And he brought me forth into the outward court by the
way that leadeth to the north, and he brought me into the
chamber that was over against the separate building, and
over against the house toward the north.
42:2. In the face of the north door was the length of
hundred cubits, and the breadth of fifty cubits.
42:3. Over against the twenty cubits of the inner court,
and over against the pavement of the outward court that was
paved with stone, where there was a gallery joined to a
triple gallery.
42:4. And before the chambers was a walk ten cubits broad,
looking to the inner parts of a way of one cubit. And their
doors were toward the north.
42:5. Where were the store chambers lower above: because
they bore up the galleries, which appeared above out of
them from he lower parts, and from the midst of the
building.
42:6. For they were of three stories, and had not pillars,
as the pillars of the courts: therefore did they appear
above out of the lower places, and out of the middle
places, fifty cubits from the ground.
42:7. And the outward wall that went about by the chambers,
which were towards the outward court on the forepart of the
chambers, was fifty cubits long.
42:8. For the length of the chambers of the outward court
was fifty cubits: and the length before the face of the
temple, a hundred cubits.
42:9. And there was under these chambers, an entrance from
the east, for them that went into them out of the outward
court.
42:10. In the breadth of the outward wall of the court that
was toward the east, over against the separate building,
and there were chambers before the building.
42:11. And the way before them was like the chambers which
were toward the north: they were as long as they, and as
broad as they: and all the going in to them, and their
fashions, and their doors were alike.
42:12. According to the doors of the chambers that were
towards the south: there was a door in the head of the way,
which way was before the porch, separated towards the east
as one entereth in.
42:13. And he said to me: The chambers of the north, and
the chambers of the south, which are before the separate
building: they are holy chambers, in which the priests
shall eat, that approach to the Lord into the holy of
holies: there they shall lay the most holy things, and the
offering for sin, and for trespass: for it is a holy place.
42:14. And when the priests shall have entered in, they
shall not go out of the holy places into the outward court:
but there they shall lay their vestments, wherein they
minister, for they are holy: and they shall put on other
garments, and so they shall go forth to the people.
42:15. Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner
house, he brought me out by the way of the gate that looked
toward the east: and he measured it on every side round
about.
42:16. And he measured toward the east with the measuring
reed, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round
about.
42:17. And he measured toward the north five hundred reeds
with the measuring reed round about.
42:18. And towards the south he measured five hundred reeds
with the measuring reed round about.
42:19. And toward the west he measured five hundred reeds,
with the measuring reed.
42:20. By the four winds he measured the wall thereof on
every side round about, five hundred cubits and five
hundred cubits broad, making a separation between the
sanctuary and the place of the people.
Ezechiel Chapter 43
The glory of God returns to the new temple. The Israelites
shall no more profane God's name by idolatry: the prophet
is commanded to shew them the dimensions, and form of the
temple, and of the altar, with the sacrifices to be offered
thereon.
43:1. And he brought me to the gate that looked towards the
east.
43:2. And behold the glory of the God of Israel came in by
the way of the east: and his voice was like the noise of
many waters, and the earth shone with his majesty.
43:3. And I saw the vision according to the appearance
which I had seen when he came to destroy the city: and the
appearance was according to the vision which I had seen by
the river Chobar: and I fell upon my face.
43:4. And the majesty of the Lord went into the temple by
the way of the gate that looked to the east.
43:5. And the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the
inner court: and behold the house was filled with the glory
of the Lord.
43:6. And I heard one speaking to me out of the house, and
the man that stood by me,
43:7. Said to me: Son of man, the place of my throne, and
the place of the soles of my feet, where I dwell in the
midst of the children of Israel for ever: and the house of
Israel shall no more profane my holy name, they and their
kings by their fornications, and by the carcasses of their
kings, and by the high places.
43:8. They who have set their threshold by my threshold,
and their posts by my posts: and there was but a wall
between me, and them: and they profaned my holy name by the
abominations which they committed: for which reason I
consumed them in my wrath.
43:9. Now therefore let them put away their fornications,
and the carcasses of their kings far from me: and I will
dwell in the midst of them for ever.
43:10. But thou, son of man, shew to the house of Israel
the temple, and let them be ashamed of their iniquities,
and let them measure the building:
43:11. And be ashamed of all that they have done. Shew them
the form of the house, and of the fashion thereof, the
goings out and the comings in, and the whole plan thereof,
and all its ordinances, and all its order, and all its
laws, and thou shalt write it in their sight: that they may
keep the whole form thereof, and its ordinances, and do
them.
43:12. This is the law of the house upon the top of the
mountain: All its border round about; most holy: this then
is the law of the house.
43:13. And these are the measures of the altar by the
truest cubit, which is a cubit and a handbreadth: the
bottom thereof was a cubit, and the breadth a cubit: and
the border thereof unto its edge, and round about, one
handbreadth: and this was the trench of the altar.
43:14. And from the bottom of the ground to the lowest brim
two cubits, and the breadth of one cubit: and from the
lesser brim to the greater brim four cubits, and the
breadth of one cubit.
43:15. And the Ariel itself was four cubits: and from the
Ariel upward were four horns.
The Ariel... That is, the altar itself, or rather the
highest part of it, upon which the burnt offerings were
laid. In the Hebrew it is Harel, that is, the mountain of
God: but in the following verse Haariel, that is, the lion
of God; a figure, from its consuming, and as it were
devouring the sacrifices, as a lion devours its prey.
43:16. And the Ariel was twelve cubits long, and twelve
cubits broad, foursquare, with equal sides.
43:17. And the brim was fourteen cubits long, and fourteen
cubits broad in the four corners thereof: and the crown
round about it was half a cubit, and the bottom of it one
cubit round about: and its steps turned toward the east.
43:18. And he said to me: Son of man, thus saith the Lord
God: These are the ceremonies of the altar, in what day
soever it shall be made: that holocausts may be offered
upon it, and blood poured out.
43:19. And thou shalt give to the priests, and the Levites,
that are of the race of Sadoc, who approach to me, saith
the Lord God, to offer to me a calf of the herd for sin.
43:20. And thou shalt take of his blood, and shalt put it
upon the four horns thereof, and upon the four corners of
the brim, and upon the crown round about: and thou shalt
cleanse, and expiate it.
43:21. And thou shalt take the calf, that is offered for
sin: and thou shalt burn him in a separate place of the
house without the sanctuary.
43:22. And in the second day thou shalt offer a he goat
without blemish for sin: and they shall expiate the altar,
as they expiated it with the calf.
43:23. And when thou shalt have made an end of the
expiation thereof, thou shalt offer a calf of the herd
without blemish, and a ram of the flock without blemish.
43:24. And thou shalt offer them in the sight of the Lord,
and the priests shall put salt upon them, and shall offer
them a holocaust to the Lord.
43:25. Seven days shalt thou offer a he goat for sin daily:
they shall offer also a calf of the herd, and a ram of the
flock without blemish.
43:26. Seven days shall they expiate the altar, and shall
cleanse it: and they shall consecrate it.
Consecrate it... Literally, fill its hand, that is,
dedicate and apply it to holy service.
43:27. And the days being expired, on the eighth day and
thenceforward, the priests shall offer your holocausts upon
the altar, and the peace offerings: and I will be pacified
towards you, saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 44
The east gate of the sanctuary shall be always shut. The
uncircumcised shall not enter into the sanctuary: nor the
Levites that have served idols: but the sons of Sadoc shall
do the priestly functions, who stood firm in the worst of
times.
44:1. And he brought me back to the way of the gate of the
outward sanctuary, which looked towards the east: and it
was shut.
44:2. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it
shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it:
because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it,
and it shall be shut
44:3. For the prince. The prince himself shall sit in it,
to eat bread before the Lord: he shall enter in by the way
of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.
44:4. And he brought me by the way of the north gate, in
the sight of the house: and I saw, and behold the glory of
the Lord filled the house of the Lord: and I fell on my
face.
44:5. And the Lord said to me: Son of man, attend with thy
heart and behold with thy eyes, and hear with thy ears, all
that I say to thee concerning all the ceremonies of the
house of the Lord, and concerning all the laws thereof: and
mark well the ways of the temple, with all the goings out
of the sanctuary.
44:6. And thou shalt say to the house of Israel that
provoketh me: Thus saith the Lord God: Let all your wicked
doings suffice you, O house of Israel:
44:7. In that you have brought in strangers uncircumcised
in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary,
and to defile my house: and you offer my bread, the fat, and
the blood: and you have broken my covenant by all your
wicked doings.
44:8. And you have not kept the ordinances of my sanctuary:
but you have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for
yourselves.
44:9. Thus saith the Lord God: No stranger uncircumcised in
heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my
sanctuary, no stranger that is in the midst of the children
of Israel.
44:10. Moreover the Levites that went away far from me,
when the children of Israel went astray, and have wandered
from me after their idols, and have borne their iniquity:
44:11. They shall be officers in my sanctuary, and
doorkeepers of the gates of the house, and ministers to the
house: they shall slay the holocausts, and the victims of
the people: and they shall stand in their sight, to minister
to them.
44:12. Because they ministered to them before their idols,
and were a stumblingblock of iniquity to the house of
Israel: therefore have I lifted up my hand against them,
saith the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity:
44:13. And they shall not come near to me, to do the office
of priest to me, neither shall they come near to any of my
holy things that are by the holy of holies: but they shall
bear their shame, and their wickednesses which they have
committed.
44:14. And I will make them doorkeepers of the house, for
all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done
therein.
44:15. But the priests, and Levites, the sons of Sadoc, who
kept the ceremonies of my sanctuary, when the children of
Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me, to
minister to me: and they shall stand before me, to offer me
the fat, and the blood, saith the Lord God.
44:16. They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall
come near to my table, to minister unto me, and to keep my
ceremonies.
44:17. And when they shall enter in at the gates of the
inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments:
neither shall any woollen come upon them, when they
minister in the gates of the inner court and within.
44:18. They shall have linen mitres on their heads, and
linen breeches on their loins, and they shall not be girded
with any thing that causeth sweat.
44:19. And when they shall go forth to the outward court to
the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they
ministered, and lay them up in the store chamber of the
sanctuary, and they shall clothe themselves with other
garments: and they shall not sanctify the people with their
vestments.
Shall not sanctify the people with their vestments... By
exposing them to the danger of touching the sacred
vestments, which none were to touch but they that were
sanctified.
44:20. Neither shall they shave their heads, nor wear long
hair: but they shall only poll their heads.
44:21. And no priest shall drink wine when he is to go into
the inner court.
44:22. Neither shall they take to wife a widow, nor one
that is divorced, but they shall take virgins of the seed
of the house of Israel: but they may take a widow also,
that is, the widow of a priest.
44:23. And they shall teach my people the difference
between holy and profane, and shew them how to discern
between clean and unclean.
44:24. And when there shall be a controversy, they shall
stand in my judgments, and shall judge: they shall keep my
laws, and my ordinances in all my solemnities, and sanctify
my sabbaths.
44:25. And they shall come near no dead person, lest they
be defiled, only their father and mother, and son and
daughter, and brother and sister, that hath not had another
husband: for whom they may become unclean.
44:26. And after one is cleansed, they shall reckon unto
him seven days.
44:27. And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, to
the inner court, to minister unto me in the sanctuary, he
shall offer for his sin, saith the Lord God.
44:28. And they shall have no inheritance, I am their
inheritance: neither shall you give them any possession in
Israel, for I am their possession.
44:29. They shall eat the victim both for sin and for
trespass: and every vowed thing in Israel shall be theirs.
30. And the firstfruits of all the firstborn, and all the
libations of all things that are offered, shall be the
priest's: and you shall give the firstfruits of your meats
to the priest, that he may return a blessing upon thy
house.
44:31. The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead
of itself or caught by a beast, whether it be fowl or
cattle.
Ezechiel Chapter 45
Portions of land for the sanctuary, for the city, and for
the prince. Ordinances for the prince.
45:1. And when you shall begin to divide the land by lot,
separate ye firstfruits to the Lord, a portion of the land
to be holy, in length twenty-five thousand and in breadth
ten thousand: it shall be holy in all the borders thereof
round about.
Twenty-five thousand... Viz., reeds or cubits.
45:2. And there shall be for the sanctuary on every side
five hundred by five hundred, foursquare round about: and
fifty cubits for the suburbs thereof round about.
45:3. And with this measure thou shalt measure the length
of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten
thousand, and in it shall be the temple and the holy of
holies.
45:4. The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests
the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to the
ministry of the Lord: and it shall be a place for their
houses, and for the holy place of the sanctuary.
45:5. And five and twenty thousand of length, and ten
thousand of breadth shall be for the Levites, that minister
in the house: they shall possess twenty store chambers.
45:6. And you shall appoint the possession of the city five
thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, according
to the separation of the sanctuary, for the whole house of
Israel.
45:7. For the prince also on the one side and on the other
side, according to the separation of the sanctuary, and
according to the possession of the city, over against the
separation of the sanctuary, and over against the possession
of the city: from the side of the sea even to the sea, and
from the side of the east even to the east. And the length
according to every part from the west border to the east
border.
45:8. He shall have a portion of the land in Israel: and
the princes shall no more rob my people: but they shall
give the land to the house of Israel according to their
tribes:
45:9. Thus saith the Lord God: Let it suffice you, O
princes of Israel: cease from iniquity and robberies, and
execute judgment and justice, separate your confines from
my people, saith the Lord God.
45:10. You shall have just balances, and a just ephi, and a
just bate.
45:11. The ephi and the bate shall be equal, and of one
measure: that the bate may contain the tenth part of a
core, and the ephi the tenth part of a core: their weight
shall be equal according to the measure of a core.
The ephi and the bate... These measures were of equal
capacity, but the bate served for liquids, and the ephi for
dry things.
45:12. And the sicle hath twenty obols. Now twenty sicles,
and five and twenty sicles, and fifteen sicles, make a mna,
45:13. And these are the firstfruits, which you shall take:
the sixth part of an ephi of a core of wheat, and the sixth
part of an ephi of a core of barley.
45:14. The measure of oil also, a bate of oil is the tenth
part of a core: and ten bates make a core: for ten bates
fill a core.
45:15. And one ram out of a flock of two hundred, of those
that Israel feedeth for sacrifice, and for holocausts, and
for peace offerings, to make atonement for them, saith the
Lord God.
45:16. All the people of the land shall be bound to these
firstfruits for the prince in Israel.
45:17. And the prince shall give the holocaust, and the
sacrifice, and the libations on the feasts, and on the new
moons, and on the sabbaths, and on all the solemnities of
the house of Israel: he shall offer the sacrifice for sin,
and the holocaust, and the peace offerings to make
expiation for the house of Israel.
45:18. Thus saith the Lord God: In the first month, the
first of the month, thou shalt take a calf of the herd
without blemish, and thou shalt expiate the sanctuary.
45:19. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin
offering: and he shall put it on the posts of the house,
and on the four corners of the brim of the altar, and oil
the posts of the gate of the inner court.
45:20. And so shalt thou do in the seventh day of the
month, for every one that hath been ignorant, and hath been
deceived by error, and thou shalt make expiation for the
house.
45:21. In the first month, the fourteenth day of the month,
you shall observe the solemnity of the pasch: seven days
unleavened bread shall be eaten.
45:22. And the prince on that day shall offer for himself,
and for all the people of the land, a calf for sin.
45:23. And in the solemnity of the seven days he shall
offer for a holocaust to the Lord, seven calves, and seven
rams without blemish daily for seven days: and for sin a he
goat daily.
45:24. And he shall offer the sacrifice of an ephi for
every calf, and an ephi for every ram: and a hin of oil for
every ephi.
45:25. In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the
month, in the solemn feast, he shall do the like for the
seven days: as well in regard to the sin offering, as to
the holocaust, and the sacrifice, and the oil.
Ezechiel Chapter 46
Other ordinances for the prince and for the sacrifices.
46:1. Thus saith the Lord God: The gate of the inner court
that looketh toward the east, shall be shut the six days,
on which work is done; but on the sabbath day it shall be
opened, yea and on the day of the new moon it shall be
opened.
46:2. And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of
the gate from without, and he shall stand at the threshold
of the gate: and the priests shall offer his holocaust, and
his peace offerings: and he shall adore upon the threshold
of the gate, and shall go out: but the gate shall not be
shut till the evening.
46:3. And the people of the land shall adore at the door of
that gate before the Lord on the sabbaths, and on the new
moons.
46:4. And the holocaust that the prince shall offer to the
Lord on the sabbath day, shall be six lambs without blemish,
and a ram without blemish.
46:5. And the sacrifice of all ephi for a ram: but for the
lambs what sacrifice his hand shall allow: and a hin of oil
for every ephi.
46:6. And on the day of the new moon a calf of the herd
without blemish: and the six lambs, and the rams shall be
without blemish.
46:7. And he shall offer in sacrifice an ephi for calf, an
ephi also for a ram: but for the lambs, as his hand shall
find: and a hin of oil for every ephi.
46:8. And when the prince is to go in, let him go in by the
way of the porch of the gate, and let him go out the same
way.
46:9. But when the people of the land shall go in before
the Lord in the solemn feasts, he that goeth in by the
north gate to adore, shall go out by the way of the south
gate; and he that goeth in by the way of the south gate,
shall go out by the way of the north gate: he shall not
return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall
go out at that over against it.
46:10. And the prince in the midst of them, shall go in
when they go in, and go out when they go out.
46:11. And in the fairs, and in the solemnities there shall
be the sacrifice of an ephi to a calf, and an ephi to a
ram: and to the lambs, the sacrifice shall be as his hand
shall find: and a hin of oil to every ephi.
46:12. But when the prince shall offer a voluntary
holocaust, or voluntary peace offering to the Lord: the
gate that looketh towards the east shall be opened to him,
and he shall offer his holocaust, and his peace offerings,
as it is wont to be done on the sabbath day: and he shall
go out, and the gate shall be shut after he is gone forth.
46:13. And he shall offer every day for a holocaust to the
Lord, a lamb of the same year without blemish: he shall
offer it always in the morning.
46:14. And he shall offer the sacrifice for it morning by
morning, the sixth part of an ephi: and the third part of a
hin of oil to be mingled with the fine flour: a sacrifice
to the Lord by ordinance continual and everlasting.
46:15. He shall offer the lamb, and the sacrifice, and the
oil morning by morning: an everlasting holocaust.
46:16. Thus saith the Lord God: If the prince give a gift
to any of his sons: the inheritance of it shall go to his
children, they shall possess it by inheritance.
46:17. But if he give a legacy out of his inheritance to
one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of
release, and it shall return to the prince: but his
inheritance shall go to his sons.
46:18. And the prince shall not take of the people's
inheritance by violence, nor of their possession: but out
of his own possession he shall give an inheritance to his
sons: that my people be not dispersed every man from his
possession.
46:19. And he brought me in by the entry that was at the
side of the gate, into the chambers of the sanctuary that
were for the priests, which looked toward the north. And
there was a place bending to the west.
46:20. And he said to me: This is the place where the
priests shall boil the sin offering, and the trespass
offering: where they shall dress the sacrifice, that they
may not bring it out into the outward court, and the people
be sanctified.
46:21. And he brought me into the outward court, and he led
me about by the four corners of the court: and behold there
was a little court in the corner of the court, to every
corner of the court there was a little court.
46:22. In the four corners of the court were little courts
disposed, forty cubits long, and thirty broad, all the four
were of one measure.
46:23. And there was a wall round about compassing the four
little courts, and there were kitchens built under the rows
round about.
46:24. And he said to me: This is the house of the kitchens
wherein the ministers of the house of the Lord shall boil
the victims of the people.
Ezechiel Chapter 47
The vision of the holy waters issuing out from under the
temple: the borders of the land to be divided among the
twelve tribes.
47:1. And he brought me again to the gate of the house, and
behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the
house toward the east: for the forefront of the house
looked toward the east: but the waters came down to the
right side of the temple to the south part of the altar.
Waters... These waters are not to be understood literally
(for there were none such that flowed from the temple); but
mystically, of the baptism of Christ, and of his doctrine
and his grace: the trees that grow on the banks are
Christian virtues: the fishes are Christians, that
spiritually live in and by these holy waters, the fishermen
are the apostles, and apostolic preachers: the fenny
places, where there is no health, are such as by being out
of the church are separated from these waters of life.
47:2. And he led me out by the way of the north gate, and
he caused me to turn to the way without the outward gate to
the way that looked toward the east: and behold there ran
out waters on the right side.
47:3. And when the man that had the line in his hand went
out towards the east, he measured a thousand cubits: and he
brought me through the water up to the ankles.
47:4. And again he measured a thousand, and he brought me
through the water up to the knees.
47:5. And he measured a thousand, and he brought me through
the water up to the loins. And he measured a thousand, and
it was a torrent, which I could not pass over: for the
waters were risen so as to make a deep torrent, which could
not be passed over.
47:6. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of
man. And he brought me out, and he caused me to turn to
the bank of the torrent.
47:7. And when I had turned myself, behold on the bank of
the torrent were very many trees on both sides.
47:8. And he said to me: These waters that issue forth
toward the hillocks of sand to the east, and go down to the
plains of the desert, shall go into the sea, and shall go
out, and the waters shall be healed.
47:9. And every living creature that creepeth whithersoever
the torrent shall come, shall live: and there shall be
fishes in abundance after these waters shall come thither,
and they shall be healed, and all things shall live to
which the torrent shall come.
47:10. And the fishers shall stand over these waters, from
Engaddi even to Engallim there shall be drying of nets:
there shall be many sorts of the fishes thereof, as the
fishes of the great sea, a very great multitude:
47:11. But on the shore thereof, and in the fenny places
they shall not be healed, because they shall be turned into
saltpits.
47:12. And by the torrent on the banks thereof on both
sides shall grow all trees that bear fruit: their leaf
shall not fall off, and their fruit shall not fail: every
month shall they bring forth firstfruits, because the
waters thereof shall issue out of the sanctuary: and the
fruits thereof shall be for food, and the leaves thereof
for medicine.
47:13. Thus saith the Lord God: This is the border, by
which you shall possess the land according to the twelve
tribes of Israel: for Joseph hath a double portion.
47:14. And you shall possess it, every man in like manner
as his brother: concerning which I lifted up my hand to
give it to your fathers: and this land shall fall unto you
for a possession.
47:15. And this is the border of the land: toward the north
side, from the great sea by the way of Hethalon, as men go
to Sedada,
47:16. Emath, Berotha, Sabarim, which is between the border
of Damascus and the border of Emath the house of Tichon,
which is by the border of Auran.
47:17. And the border from the sea even to the court of
Enan, shall be the border of Damascus, and from the north
to the north: the border of Emath, this is the north side.
47:18. And the east side is from the midst of Auran, and
from the midst of Damascus, and from the midst of Galaad,
and from the midst of the land of Israel, Jordan making the
bound to the east sea, and thus you shall measure the east
side.
47:19. And the south side southward is, from Thamar even to
the waters of contradiction of Cades: and, the torrent even
to the great sea: and this is the south side southward.
47:20. And the side toward the sea, is the great sea from
the borders straight on, till thou come to Emath: this is
the side of the sea.
47:21. And you shall divide this land unto you by the
tribes of Israel:
47:22. And you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance to
you, and to the strangers that shall come over to you, that
shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you
as men of the same country born among the children of
Israel: they shall divide the possession with you in the
midst of the tribes of Israel.
47:23. And in what tribe soever the stranger shall be,
there shall you give him possession, saith the Lord God.
Ezechiel Chapter 48
The portions of the twelve tribes, of the sanctuary, of the
city, and of the prince. The dimensions and gates of the
city.
48:1. And these are the names of the tribes from the
borders of the north, by the way of Hethalon, as they go to
Emath, the court of Enan the border of Damascus northward,
by the way off Emath. And from the east side thereof to the
sea shall be one portion for Dan.
48:2. And by the border of Dan, from the east side even to
the side of the sea, one portion for Aser:
48:3. And by the border of Aser, from the east side even to
the side of the sea one portion for Nephthali.
48:4. And by the border of Nephthali, from the east side
even to the side of the one portion for Manasses.
48:5. And by the border of Manasses, from the east side
even to the side of the sea, one portion for Ephraim.
48:6. And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even
to the side of the sea, one portion for Ruben.
48:7. And by the border of Ruben, from the east side even
to the side of the sea, one portion for Juda.
48:8. And by the border of Juda, from the east side even to
the side of the sea, shall be the firstfruits which you
shall set apart, five and twenty thousand in breadth, and
length, as every one of the portions from the east side to
the side of the sea: and the sanctuary shall be in the
midst thereof.
48:9. The firstfruits which you shall set apart for the
Lord will be the length of five and twenty thousand, and
the breadth of ten thousand.
48:10. And these shall be the firstfruits of the sanctuary
for the priests: toward the north five and twenty thousand
in length, and toward the sea ten thousand in breadth, and
toward the east also ten thousand in breadth, and toward
the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the
sanctuary of the Lord shall be in the midst thereof.
48:11. The sanctuary shall be for the priests of the sons
of Sadoc, who kept my ceremonies, and went not astray when
the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites also
went astray.
48:12. And for them shall be the firstfruits of the
firstfruits of the land holy of holies, by the border of
the Levites,
48:13. And the Levites in like manner shall have by the
borders of the priests five and twenty thousand in length,
and ten thousand in breadth. All the length shall be five
and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.
48:14. And they shall not sell thereof, nor exchange,
neither shall the firstfruits of the land be alienated,
because they are sanctified to the Lord.
48:15. But the five thousand that remain in the breadth
over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a
profane place for the city for dwelling, and for suburbs
and the city shall be in the midst thereof.
48:16. And these are the measures thereof: on the north
side four thousand and five hundred: and on the south side
four thousand and five hundred: and on the east side four
thousand and five hundred: and on the west side four
thousand and five hundred.
48:17. And the suburbs of the city shall be to the north
two hundred and fifty, and the south two hundred and fifty,
and to the east two hundred and fifty, and to the sea two
hundred and fifty.
48:18. And the residue in length by the firstfruits of the
sanctuary, ten thousand toward the east, and ten thousand
toward the west, shall be as the firstfruits of the
sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for bread to them
that serve the city.
48:19. And they that serve the city, shall serve it out of
all the tribes of Israel.
48:20. All the firstfruits, of five and twenty thousand, by
five and twenty thousand foursquare, shall be set apart for
the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and for the possession of
the city.
48:21. And the residue shall be for the prince on every
side of the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and of the
possession of the city over against the five and twenty
thousand of the firstfruits unto the east border: toward
the sea also over against the five and twenty thousand,
unto the border of the sea, shall likewise be the portion
of the prince: and the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and
the sanctuary of the temple shall be in the midst thereof.
48:22. And from the possession of the Levites, and from the
possession of the city which are in the midst of the
prince's portions: what shall be to the border of Juda, and
to the border of Benjamin, shall also belong to the prince.
48:23. And for the rest of the tribes: from the east side
to the west side, one portion for Benjamin.
48:24. And over against the border of Benjamin, from the
east side to the west side, one portion for Simeon.
48:25. And by the border of Simeon, from the east side to
the west side, one portion for Issachar.
48:26. And by the border of Issachar, from the east side to
the west side, one portion for Zabulon.
48:27. And by the border of Zabulon, from the east side to
the side of the sea, one portion for Gad.
48:28. And by the border of Gad, the south side southward:
and the border shall be from Thamar, even to the waters of
contradiction of Cades, the inheritance over against the
great sea.
48:29. This is the land which you shall divide by lot to
the tribes of Israel: and these are the portions of them,
saith the Lord God.
48:30. And these are the goings out of the city: on the
north side thou shalt measure four thousand and five
hundred.
48:31. And the gates of the city according to the name, of
the tribes of Israel, three gates on the north side, the
gate of Ruben one, the gate of Juda one, the gate of Levi
one.
48:32. And at the east side, four thousand and five
hundred: and three gates, the gate of Joseph one, the gate
of Benjamin one, the gate of Dan one.
48:33. And at the south side, thou shalt measure four
thousand and five hundred and three gates, the gate of
Simeon one, the gate of Issachar one, the gate of Zabulon
one.
48:34. And at the west side, four thousand and five
hundred, and their three gates, the gate of Gad one, the
gate of Aser one, the gate of Nephthali one.
48:35. Its circumference was eighteen thousand: and the
name of the city from that day, The Lord is there.
The Lord is there.... This name is here given to the city,
that is, to the church of Christ: because the Lord is
always with her till the end of the world. Matt. 28.20.
The text in this file was taken with permission from Catholic Software's Douay Bible program, a complete multimedia Bible for the PC. The complete product description follows:
Douay Bible ME: A multimedia Bible. Text and footnotes are from the 1899 version of the Douay-Rheims Bible. Supports unlimited cut and paste as well as searches. It also has a concordance, topical index, and maps. These features make it powerful and easy to use. Music and color photography make it a visual and auditory feast. However, if your computer doesn't support multimedia, you can suppress these features at installation time. Available for DOS, Windows, or Windows 95. $85.00. Order from: Catholic Software, P.O. Box 1914, Murray, KY 42071. Phone: 1-502-753-8198.
