Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will subject you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.

“‘I passed by you and saw you kicking around helplessly in your blood. I said to you as you lay there in your blood, “Live!” I said to you as you lay there in your blood, “Live!” ¹ 

I will punish you as an adulteress and murderer deserves. ¹  I will avenge your bloody deeds with furious rage. ² 

But upright men will punish them appropriately for their adultery and bloodshed, ¹  because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.

Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, ¹  pray to ²  your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess ³  the land?

“‘Then I bathed you in water, washed the blood off you, and anointed you with fragrant oil.

(Make the chain, ¹  because the land is full of murder ²  and the city is full of violence.)

“Suppose such a man has ¹  a violent son who sheds blood and does any of these things ²  mentioned previously

“‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, ¹  planted by water. It was fruitful and full of branches because it was well-watered.

“As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, ¹  are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? ²  Then confront her with all her abominable deeds!

“‘See how each of the princes of Israel living within you has used his authority to shed blood. ¹ 

“‘See, I strike my hands together ¹  at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed ²  they have done among you.

Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit.

To arouse anger, to take vengeance, I have placed her blood on an exposed rock so that it cannot be covered up.

“‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the city of bloodshed! I will also make the pile high.

I will drench the land with the flow of your blood up to the mountains, and the ravines will be full of your blood. ¹ 

So I poured my anger on them ¹  because of the blood they shed on the land and because of the idols with which they defiled it. ² 

You will eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, ¹  at my slaughter ²  which I have made for you.

I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ¹  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ²  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

“Or suppose I were to send a plague into that land, and pour out my rage on it with bloodshed, killing both people and animals.