<p class="poetry">A voice says, &#8220;Cry out!&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">Another asks,<n id="1" /> &#8220;What should I cry out?&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">The first voice responds:<n id="2" /> &#8220;All people are like grass,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and all their promises<n id="4" /> are like the flowers in the field.p>

<p class="poetry">Half of it he burns in the fire &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">over that half he cooks<n id="1" /> meat;p> <p class="poetry">he roasts a meal and fills himself.p> <p class="poetry">Yes, he warms himself and says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">I want you<n id="1" /> to share your food with the hungryp> <p class="poetry">and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">When you see someone naked, clothe him!p> <p class="poetry">Don&#8217;t turn your back on your own flesh and blood!<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;As for those who consecrate and ritually purify themselves so they can follow their leader and worship in the sacred orchards,<n id="1" /> those who eat the flesh of pigs and other disgusting creatures, like mice<n id="2" /> &#8211; they will all be destroyed together,&#8221;<n id="3" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.

From one month<n id="1" /> to the next and from one Sabbath to the next, all people<n id="2" /> will come to worship me,&#8221;<n id="3" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.

&#8220;They will go out and observe the corpses of those who rebelled against me, for the maggots that eat them will not die,<n id="1" /> and the fire that consumes them will not die out.<n id="2" /> All people will find the sight abhorrent.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says to the people of Judah,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people?<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Many of you have done wicked things.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them?<n id="5" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I will put a curse on peoplep> <p class="poetry">who trust in mere human beings,p> <p class="poetry">who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and whose hearts<n id="3" /> have turned away from the <sc>Lordsc>.p>

<p class="poetry">The sounds of battle<n id="1" /> will resound to the ends of the earth.p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> will bring charges against the nations.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He will pass judgment on all humankindp> <p class="poetry">and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.&#8217;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> so affirms it!<n id="4" />p>

Therefore, this is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says: &#8216;The corpses you have dumped<n id="1" /> in the midst of the city<n id="2" /> are the meat, and this city<n id="3" /> is the cooking pot, but I will take you out of it.<n id="4" />

This city will not be a cooking pot for you, and you will not<n id="1" /> be meat within it; I will judge you at the border of Israel.

Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will go out from its sheath against everyone<n id="1" /> from the south<n id="2" /> to the north.

Then everyone will know that I am the <sc>Lord,sc> who drew my sword from its sheath &#8211; it will not be sheathed again!&#8217;p>

I will put tendons<n id="1" /> on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath<n id="2" /> in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8217;&#8221;p>

As I watched, I saw<n id="1" /> tendons on them, then muscles appeared,<n id="2" /> and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath<n id="3" /> in them.p>

You will eat the flesh of warriors<n id="1" /> and drink the blood of the princes of the earth &#8211; the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan.

<p class="bodytext">At the end of the ten days their appearance was better and their bodies were healthier<n id="1" /> than all the young men who had been eating the royal delicacies.

I ate no choice food; no meat or wine came to my lips,<n id="1" /> nor did I anoint myself with oil<n id="2" /> until the end of those three weeks.p>

<p class="poetry">They offer up sacrificial gifts to me,p> <p class="poetry">and eat the meat,p> <p class="poetry">but the <sc>Lordsc> does not accept their sacrifices.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Soon he will remember their wrongdoing,p> <p class="poetry">he will punish their sins,p> <p class="poetry">and they will return to Egypt.p>

<p class="poetry">You<n id="1" /> devour my people&#8217;s flesh,p> <p class="poetry">strip off their skin,p> <p class="poetry">and crush their bones.p> <p class="poetry">You chop them up like flesh in a pot<n id="2" /> &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">like meat in a kettle.p>