He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

“I have made your face adamant to match their faces, and your forehead hard to match their foreheads.

I will place the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.

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

“When they return to it, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.

“Then they will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among foreign countries.

“Are you willing to pronounce judgment? Are you willing to pronounce judgment, son of man? Then confront them with the abominable practices of their fathers,

I am the Lord your God; follow my statutes, observe my regulations, and carry them out.

“As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? Then confront her with all her abominable deeds!

Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt.

Moreover, they have done this to me: In the very same day they desecrated my sanctuary and profaned my Sabbaths.

I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among foreign countries. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

He sees the sword coming against the land, blows the trumpet, and warns the people,

You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the choice animals, but you do not feed the sheep!

I will put my Spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations.

Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people.

For seven days they will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, so they will consecrate it.

You will pick up your images of Sikkuth, your king, and Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves,

I will remove those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, those who swear allegiance to the Lord while taking oaths in the name of their ‘king,’

and those who turn their backs on the Lord and do not want the Lord’s help or guidance.”