This is what the sovereign Lord says: The enemy has spoken against you, saying “Aha!” and, “The ancient heights ¹  have become our property!”’

In whatever tribe the foreigner resides, there you will give him his inheritance,” declares the sovereign Lord.

He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! ¹ 

For when anyone from the house of Israel, or the foreigner who lives in Israel, separates himself from me and erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet to seek something from me, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally.

So now, bear your disgrace, because you have given your sisters reason to justify their behavior. ¹  Because the sins you have committed were more abominable than those of your sisters; they have become more righteous than you. So now, be ashamed and bear the disgrace of making your sisters appear righteous.

He will cover you with the dust kicked up by his many horses. ¹  Your walls will shake from the noise of the horsemen, wheels, and chariots when he enters your gates like those who invade through a city’s broken walls. ² 

then I will bring you down to bygone people, ¹  to be with those who descend to the pit. I will make you live in the lower parts of the earth, among ²  the primeval ruins, with those who descend to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited or stand ³  in the land of the living.

I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I threw it down to Sheol, along with those who descend to the pit. ¹  Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all that were well-watered, were comforted in the earth below.

Sheba and Dedan and the traders of Tarshish with all its young warriors ¹  will say to you, “Have you come to loot? Have you assembled your armies to plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to haul away a great amount of spoils?”’

But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it will be his until the year of liberty; ¹  then it will revert to the prince. His inheritance will only remain with his sons.

Over the heads of the living beings was something like a platform, ¹  glittering awesomely like ice, ²  stretched out over their heads.

As for you, son of man, listen to what I am saying to you: Do not rebel like that rebellious house! Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.”

However, if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he ¹  does not sin, he will certainly live because he was warned, and you will have saved your own life.”

The time has come; the day has struck! The customer should not rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for divine wrath ¹  comes against their whole crowd.

oppresses the poor and the needy, ¹  commits robbery, does not give back what was given in pledge, prays to ²  idols, performs abominable acts,

does not oppress anyone or keep what has been given in pledge, does not commit robbery, gives his food to the hungry, and clothes the naked,

Do I actually delight in the death of the wicked, declares the sovereign Lord? Do I not prefer that he turn from his wicked conduct and live?

When a righteous person turns back from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing, he will die for it; ¹  because of the wrongdoing he has done, he will die.

Its boughs were strong, fit ¹  for rulers’ scepters; it reached up into the clouds. It stood out because of its height and its many branches. ² 

“‘But I said to their children ¹  in the wilderness, “Do not follow the practices of your fathers; do not observe their regulations, ²  nor defile yourselves with their idols.