“Son of man, because Tyre has said about Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, now that she has been destroyed,’

The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it, nor could the fir trees match its boughs; the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches; no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.

In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, a refugee came to me from Jerusalem saying, “The city has been defeated!”

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.’

You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled towns; I will advance against those living quietly in security – all of them living without walls and barred gates –

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days that I would bring you against them?

The altar was of wood, 5¼ feet high, with its length 3½ feet; its corners, its length, and its walls were of wood. He said to me, “This is the table that is before the Lord.”

Then he brought me out to the outer court and led me past the four corners of the court, and I noticed that in every corner of the court there was a court.

Then you multiplied your promiscuity to the land of merchants, Babylonia, but you were not satisfied there either.

Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your trade partners; for lambs, rams, and goats they traded with you.

Your rowers have brought you into surging waters. The east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the seas.

He said to me, “This chamber which faces south is for the priests who keep charge of the temple,

Next to the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon will have one portion.

Next to the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad will have one portion.

‘But I will take you out of the city. And I will hand you over to foreigners. I will execute judgments on you.

I will leave you in the wilderness, you and all the fish of your waterways; you will fall in the open field and will not be gathered up or collected. I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the skies.

Then he brought me to the porch of the temple and measured the jambs of the porch as 8¾ feet on either side, and the width of the gate was 24½ feet and the sides were 5¼ feet on each side.

“Next to the border of Judah from the east side to the west will be the allotment you must set apart. It is to be eight and a quarter miles wide, and the same length as one of the tribal portions, from the east side to the west; the sanctuary will be in the middle of it.

Then one of the cherubim stretched out his hand toward the fire which was among the cherubim. He took some and put it into the hands of the man dressed in linen, who took it and left.

Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘The corpses you have dumped in the midst of the city are the meat, and this city is the cooking pot, but I will take you out of it.