The Holy Bible

The End of Israel Has Come

word of the Lord came to me:  2  “Son of man, this is what the Lord God says to the land of Israel:

‘An end! The end has come
upon the four corners of the land. 3 The end is now upon you;
I will send My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways;
I will punish you for all your abominations. 4 My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity,
but I will punish you for all the detestable practices within you. Then you will know that I am the Lord’.

5 “This is what the Lord God says:

‘Disaster, disaster! Look, it has come!
6 An end has come; the end has come! It has awakened against you.
Look it has come! 7 Doom has come upon you,
O you who dwell in the land. The time has come; the day is near.
There is panic, not rejoicing, upon the mountains.

8 ‘Soon I will pour out My wrath upon you,
and spend My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways,
and I will repay you for all your abominations. 9 My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity,
I will punish you for your ways, and for your abominations within you. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who strikes.

10 ‘Behold the day!
Behold, the day has come! Doom has burst forth; the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed;
11 violence has grown into a rod of wickedness. None of them, none of that crowd;
none of their wealth, none pre-eminent among them. 12 The time has come; the day has arrived.

‘Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn,
for wrath is on all of her multitude. 13 The seller will not return to that which was sold;
as long as they remain among the living. For the vision concerns the whole multitude,
and it will not be revoked. Not one of them will maintain his grip on life
because of his sins.

14 ‘They have blown the trumpet
and made everything ready; but no one goes to battle,
for My wrath is upon all their multitude. 15 The sword is on the outside;
pestilence and famine are on the inside. Whoever is in the field
will die by the sword; whoever is in the city,
famine and pestilence will devour him.

16 ‘Any who survive and escape
will be in the mountains, like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning,
each one over his iniquity. 17 Every hand will go limp,
and all knees will become as weak as water. 18 They will put on sackcloth;
horror will cover them. Shame will be on every face,
and baldness on all their heads.

19 ‘They will throw their silver into the streets,
and their gold will seem like something filthy. Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them
in the day of the Lord’s wrath. They will not satisfy their hunger
or fill their stomachs with it, because these became the stumbling blocks
that led them into iniquity.

20 ‘As for the beauty of their jewellery and adornments,
they were set in majesty, but melted down to make their abominable idols and detestable things.
Therefore I will make these into something unclean to them. 21 I will hand these over to foreigners as plunder,
and to the wicked of the earth as loot, and they will defile it. 22 I will turn My face away from them,
as they desecrate My treasured place; robbers will enter it and profane it.

23 ‘Forge the chains,
for the land is filled with bloodshed and crime,
and the city is filled with violence. 24 So I will bring the most evil of nations
to take possession of their houses; I will put an end to the pride of the mighty,
and their sacred places will be profaned. 25 When terror comes, they will seek peace,
but there shall be none. 26 Disaster upon disaster will come,
and rumour upon rumour. Then they will seek a vision from the prophet;
but instruction will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

27 ‘The king will mourn,
the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their ways,
and I will judge them according to their own standards. Then they will know that I am the Lord!’ ”