All the people of the land will contribute ¹  to this offering for the prince of Israel.

On that day the prince will provide for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering.

and say ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to those who sew bands ¹  on all their wrists ²  and make headbands ³  for heads of every size to entrap people’s lives! ⁴  Will you entrap my people’s lives, yet preserve your own lives?

I will plant it on a high mountain of Israel, and it will raise branches and produce fruit and become a beautiful cedar. Every bird will live under it; Every winged creature will live in the shade of its branches.

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.

And he said to me, “Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you to heart and listen carefully.

Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire, ¹  and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the house of Israel.

I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again because of all your abominable practices. ¹ 

Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, ¹  and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors ²  to the winds. ³ 

The end is now upon you, and I will release my anger against you; I will judge ¹  you according to your behavior, ²  I will hold you accountable for ³  all your abominable practices.

Soon now I will pour out my rage ¹  on you; I will fully vent my anger against you. I will judge you according to your behavior. I will hold you accountable for all your abominable practices.

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.

So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure ¹  of creeping thing and beast – detestable images ²  – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. ³ 

“Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel, ‘The days pass slowly, and every vision fails’?

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Return! Turn from your idols, and turn your faces away from your abominations.

Can wood be taken from it to make anything useful? Or can anyone make a peg from it to hang things on?

“‘But you trusted in your beauty and capitalized on your fame by becoming a prostitute. You offered your sexual favors to every man who passed by so that your beauty ¹  became his.

And with all your abominable practices and prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, kicking around in your blood.

At the head of every street you erected your pavilion and you disgraced ¹  your beauty when you spread ²  your legs to every passerby and multiplied your promiscuity.

“‘How sick is your heart, declares the sovereign Lord, when you perform all of these acts, the deeds of a bold prostitute.