Title: The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 31: Ezechiel - The Challoner Revision
Author: - To be updated
Language: English
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THE HOLY BIBLE



Translated from the Latin Vulgate


Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek,
and Other Editions in Divers Languages


THE OLD TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Douay
A.D. 1609 & 1610

and

THE NEW TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Rheims
A.D. 1582


With Annotations


The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with
the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner
A.D. 1749-1752



THE PROPHECY OF EZECHIEL

EZECHIEL, whose name signifies the STRENGTH OF GOD, was of the priestly
race; and of the number of captives that were carried away to Babylon
with king JOACHIN. He was contemporary with JEREMIAS, and prophesied to
the same effect in Babylon, as JEREMIAS did in Jerusalem; and is said to
have ended his days in like manner, by martyrdom.


Ezechiel Chapter 1

The time of Ezechiel's prophecy: he sees a glorious vision.

1:1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on
the fifth day of the month, when I was in the midst of the captives by
the river Chobar, the heavens were opened, and I saw the visions of God.

The thirtieth year... Either of the age of Ezechiel; or, as others will
have it, from the solemn covenant made in the eighteenth year of the
reign of Josias. 4 Kings 23.

1:2. On the fifth day of the month, the same was the fifth year of the
captivity of king Joachin,

1:3. The word of the Lord came to Ezechiel the priest the son of Buzi in
the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chobar: and the hand of the Lord
was there upon him.

1:4. And I saw, and behold a whirlwind came out of the north: and a
great cloud, and a fire infolding it, and brightness was about it: and
out of the midst thereof, that is, out of the midst of the fire, as it
were the resemblance of amber:

1:5. And in the midst thereof the likeness of four living creatures: and
this was their appearance: there was the likeness of a man in them.

Living creatures... Cherubims (as appears from Ecclesiasticus 49.10)
represented to the prophet under these mysterious shapes, as supporting
the throne of God, and as it were drawing his chariot. All this chapter
appeared so obscure, and so full of mysteries to the ancient Hebrews,
that, as we learn from St. Jerome, (Ep. ad Paulin.,) they suffered none
to read it before they were thirty years old.

1:6. Every one had four faces, and every one four wings.

1:7. Their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their foot was like
the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like the appearance of
glowing brass.

1:8. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four
sides: and they had faces, and wings on the four sides,

1:9. And the wings of one were joined to the wings of another. They
turned not when they went: but every one went straight forward.

1:10. And as for the likeness of their faces: there was the face of a
man, and the face of a lion on the right side of all the four: and the
face of an ox, on the left side of all the four: and the face of an
eagle over all the four.

1:11. And their faces, and their wings were stretched upward: two wings
of every one were joined, and two covered their bodies:

1:12. And every one of them went straight forward: whither the impulse
of the spirit was to go, thither they went: and they turned not when
they went.

1:13. And as for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance
was like that of burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of
lamps. This was the vision running to and fro in the midst of the living
creatures, a bright fire, and lightning going forth from the fire.

1:14. And the living creatures ran and returned like flashes of
lightning.

1:15. Now as I beheld the living creatures, there appeared upon the
earth by the living creatures one wheel with four faces.

1:16. And the appearance of the wheels, and the work of them was like
the appearance of the sea: and the four had all one likeness: and their
appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the midst of a
wheel.

1:17. When they went, they went by their four parts: and they turned not
when they went.

When they went, they went by their four parts... That is, indifferently
to any of their sides either forward or backward: to the right or to the
left.

1:18. The wheels had also a size, and a height, and a dreadful
appearance: and the whole body was full of eyes round about all the
four.

1:19. And, when the living creatures went, the wheels also went together
by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth,
the wheels also were lifted up with them.

1:20. Withersoever the spirit went, thither as the spirit went the
wheels also were lifted up withal, and followed it: for the spirit of
life was in the wheels.

1:21. When those went these went, and when those stood these stood, and
when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up
together, and followed them: for the spirit of life was in the wheels.

1:22. And over the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of the
firmament, the appearance of crystal terrible to behold, and stretched
out over their heads above.

1:23. And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward
the other, every one with two wings covered his body, and the other was
covered in like manner.

1:24. And I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many
waters, as it were the voice of the most high God: when they walked, it
was like the voice of a multitude, like the noise of an army, and when
they stood, their wings were let down.

1:25. For when a voice came from above the firmament, that was over
their heads, they stood, and let down their wings.

1:26. And above the firmament that was over their heads, was the
likeness of a throne, as the appearance of the sapphire stone, and upon
the likeness of the throne, was the likeness of the appearance of a man
above upon it.

1:27. And I saw as it were the resemblance of amber as the appearance of
fire within it round about: from his loins and upward, and from his
loins downward, I saw as it were the resemblance of fire shining round
about.

1:28. As the appearance of the rainbow when it is in a cloud on a rainy
day: this was the appearance of the brightness round about.

Ezechiel Chapter 2

The prophet receives his commission.

2:1. This was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, and I
saw, and I fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of one that spoke,
and he said to me: Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to
thee.

2:2. And the spirit entered into me after that he spoke to me, and he
set me upon my feet: and I heard him speaking to me,

2:3. And saying: Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a
rebellious people, that hath revolted from me, they, and their fathers,
have transgressed my covenant even unto this day.

2:4. And they to whom I send thee are children of a hard face, and of an
obstinate heart: and thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord God:

2:5. If so be they at least will hear, and if so be they will forbear,
for they are a provoking house: and they shall know that there hath been
a prophet in the midst of them.

2:6. And thou, O son of man, fear not, neither be thou afraid of their
words: for thou art among unbelievers and destroyers, and thou dwellest
with scorpions. Fear not their words, neither be thou dismayed at their
looks: for they are a provoking house.

2:7. And thou shalt speak my words to them, if perhaps they will hear,
and forbear: for they provoke me to anger.

2:8. But thou, O son of man, hear all that I say to thee: and do not
thou provoke me, as that house provoketh me: open thy mouth, and eat
what I give thee.

2:9. And I looked, and behold, a hand was sent to me, wherein was a book
rolled up: and he spread it before me, and it was written within and
without: and there were written in it lamentations, and canticles, and
woe.

Ezechiel Chapter 3

The prophet eats the book, and receives further instructions: the office
of a watchman.

3:1. And he said to me: Son of man, eat all that thou shalt find: eat
this book, and go speak to the children of Israel.

Eat this book, and go speak to the children of Israel... By this eating
of the book was signified the diligent attention and affection with
which we are to receive, and embrace the word of God; and to let it, as
it were, sink into our interior by devout meditation.

3:2. And I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that book:

3:3. And he said to me: Son of man, thy belly shall eat, and thy bowels
shall be filled with this book, which I give thee, and I did eat it: and
it was sweet as honey in my mouth.

3:4. And he said to me: Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and thou
shalt speak my words to them.

3:5. For thou art not sent to a people of a profound speech, and of an
unknown tongue, but to the house of Israel:

3:6. Nor to many nations of a strange speech, and of an unknown tongue,
whose words thou canst not understand: and if thou wert sent to them,
they would hearken to thee.

3:7. But the house of Israel will not hearken to thee: because they will
not hearken to me: for all the house of Israel are of a hard forehead
and an obstinate heart.

3:8. Behold I have made thy face stronger than their faces: and thy
forehead harder than their foreheads.

3:9. I have made thy face like an adamant and like flint: fear them not,
neither be thou dismayed at their presence: for they are a provoking
house.

3:10. And he said to me: Son of man, receive in thy heart, and hear with
thy ears, all the words that I speak to thee:

3:11. And go get thee in to them of the captivity, to the children of
thy people, and thou shalt speak to them, and shalt say to them: Thus
saith the Lord: If so be they will hear, and will forbear.

3:12. And the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a
great commotion, saying: Blessed be the glory of the Lord, from his
place.

3:13. The noise of the wings of the living creatures striking one
against another, and the noise of the wheels following the living
creatures, and the noise of a great commotion.

3:14. The spirit also lifted me, and took me up: and I went away in
bitterness in the indignation of my spirit: for the hand of the Lord was
with me, strengthening me.

3:15. And I came to them of the captivity, to the heap of new corn, to
them that dwelt by the river Chobar, and I sat where they sat: and I
remained there seven days mourning in the midst of them.

The heap of new corn... It was the name of a place: in Hebrew, tel abib.

3:16. And at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me,
saying:

3:17. Son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel:
and thou shalt hear the word out of my mouth, and shalt tell it them
from me.

3:18. If, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: thou declare
it not to him, nor speak to him, that he may be converted from his
wicked way, and live: the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but
I will require his blood at thy hand.

3:19. But if thou give warning to the wicked, and he be not converted
from his wickedness, and from his evil way: he indeed shall die in his
iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.

3:20. Moreover if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and
shall commit iniquity: I will lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall
die, because thou hast not given him warning: he shall die in his sin,
and his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered: but I will
require his blood at thy hand.

3:21. But if thou warn the just man, that the just may not sin, and he
doth not sin: living he shall live, because thou hast warned him, and
thou hast delivered thy soul.

3:22. And the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he said to me: Rise and
go forth into the plain, and there I will speak to thee.

3:23. And I rose up, and went forth into the plain: and behold the glory
of the Lord stood there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chobar:
and I fell upon my face.

3:24. And the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet: and he
spoke to me, and said to me: Go in; and shut thyself up in the midst of
thy house.

3:25. And thou, O son of man, behold they shall put bands upon thee, and
they shall bind thee with them: and thou shalt not go forth from the
midst of them.

3:26. And I will make thy tongue stick fast to the roof of thy mouth,
and thou shalt be dumb, and not as a man that reproveth: because they
are a provoking house.

3:27. But when I shall speak to thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou
shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: He that heareth, let him
hear: and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a provoking
house.

Ezechiel Chapter 4

A prophetic description of the siege of Jerusalem, and the famine that
shall reign there.

4:1. And thou, O son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee:
and draw upon it the plan of the city of Jerusalem.

4:2. And lay siege against it, and build forts, and cast up a mount, and
set a camp against it, and place battering rams round about it.

4:3. And take unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron
between thee and the city: and set thy face resolutely against it, and
it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it: it is a sign
to the house of Israel.

4:4. And thou shalt sleep upon thy left side, and shalt lay the
iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of
the days that thou shalt sleep upon it, and thou shalt take upon thee
their iniquity.

4:5. And I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to
the number of the days three hundred and ninety days: and thou shalt
bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

4:6. And when thou hast accomplished this, thou shalt sleep again upon
thy right side, and thou shalt take upon thee the iniquity of the house
of Juda forty days: a day for a year, yea, a day for a year I have
appointed to thee.

4:7. And thou shalt turn thy face to the siege of Jerusalem and thy arm
shall be stretched out: and thou shalt prophesy against it.

4:8. Behold I have encompassed thee with bands: and thou shalt not turn
thyself from one side to the other, till thou hast ended the days of thy
siege.

4:9. And take to thee wheat and barley, and beans, and lentils, and
millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread
thereof according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy
side: three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

4:10. And thy meat that thou shalt eat, shall be in weight twenty
staters a day: from time to time thou shalt eat it.

4:11. And thou shalt drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin:
from time to time thou shalt drink it,

Hin... That is, a measure of liquids containing about ten pints.

4:12. And thou shalt eat it as barley bread baked under the ashes: and
thou shalt cover it, in their sight, with the dung that cometh out of a
man.

4:13. And the Lord said: So shall the children of Israel eat their bread
all filthy among the nations whither I will cast them out.

4:14. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, behold my soul hath not been
defiled, and from my infancy even till now, I have not eaten any thing
that died of itself, or was torn by beasts, and no unclean flesh hath
entered into my mouth.

4:15. And he said to me: Behold I have given thee neat's dung for man's
dung, and thou shalt make thy bread therewith.

4:16. And he said to me: Son of man: Behold, I will break in pieces the
staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and
with care: and they shall drink water by measure, and in distress.

4:17. So that when bread and water fail, every man may fall against his
brother, and they may pine away in their iniquities.

Ezechiel Chapter 5

The judgments of God upon the Jews are foreshewn under the type of the
prophet's hair.

5:1. And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife that shaveth the
hair: and cause it to pass over thy head, and over thy beard: and take
thee a balance to weigh in, and divide the hair.

5:2. A third part thou shalt burn with fire in the midst of the city,
according to the fulfilling of the days of the siege: and thou shalt
take a third part, and cut it in pieces with the knife all round about:
and the other third part thou shalt scatter in the wind, and I will draw
out the sword after them.

5:3. And thou shalt take thereof a small number: and shalt bind them in
the skirt of thy cloak.

5:4. And thou shalt take of them again, and shalt cast them in the midst
of the fire, and shalt burn them with fire: and out of it shall come
forth a fire into all the house of Israel.

5:5. Thus saith the Lord God: This is Jerusalem, I have set her in the
midst of the nations, and the countries round about her.

5:6. And she hath despised my judgments, so as to be more wicked than
the Gentiles; and my commandments, more than the countries that are
round about her: for they have cast off my judgments, and have not
walked in my commandments.

5:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have surpassed the
Gentiles that are round about you, and have not walked in my
commandments, and have not kept my judgments, and have not done
according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you:

5:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against thee, and
I myself will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the
Gentiles.

5:9. And I will do in thee that which I have not done: and the like to
which I will do no more, because of all thy abominations.

5:10. Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and
the sons shall eat their fathers: and I will execute judgments in thee,
and I will scatter thy whole remnant into every wind.

5:11. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God: Because thou hast
violated my sanctuary with all thy offences, and with all thy
abominations: I will also break thee in pieces, and my eye shall not
spare, and I will not have any pity.

5:12. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and shall be
consumed with famine in the midst of thee: and a third part of thee
shall fall by the sword round about thee: and a third part of thee will
I scatter into every wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.

5:13. And I will accomplish my fury, and will cause my indignation to
rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the
Lord have spoken it in my zeal, when I shall have accomplished my
indignation in them.

5:14. And I will make thee desolate, and a reproach among the nations
that are round about thee, in the sight of every one that passeth by.

5:15. And thou shalt be a reproach, and a scoff, an example, and an
astonishment amongst the nations that are round about thee, when I shall
have executed judgments in thee in anger, and in indignation, and in
wrathful rebukes.

5:16. I the Lord have spoken it: When I shall send upon them the
grievous arrows of famine, which shall bring death, and which I will
send to destroy you: and I will gather together famine against you: and
I will break among you the staff of bread.

5:17. And I will send in upon you famine, and evil beasts unto utter
destruction: and pestilence, and blood shall pass through thee, and I
will bring in the sword upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it.

Ezechiel Chapter 6

The punishment of Israel for their idolatry: a remnant shall be saved.

6:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

6:2. Son of man set thy face towards the mountains of Israel, and
prophesy against them.

6:3. And say: Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God:
Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the
rocks, and the valleys: Behold, I will bring upon you the sword, and I
will destroy your high places.

6:4. And I will throw down your altars, and your idols shall be broken
in pieces: and I will cast down your slain before your idols.

6:5. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before
your idols: and I will scatter your bones round about your altars,

6:6. In all your dwelling places. The cities shall be laid waste, and
the high places shall be thrown down, and destroyed, and your altars
shall be abolished, and shall be broken in pieces: and your idols shall
be no more, and your temples shall be destroyed, and your works shall be
defaced.

6:7. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you: and you shall know
that I am the Lord.

6:8. And I will leave in you some that shall escape the sword among the
nations, when I shall have scattered you through the countries.

6:9. And they that are saved of you shall remember me amongst the
nations, to which they are carried captives: because I have broken their
heart that was faithless, and revolted from me: and their eyes that went
a fornicating after their idols: and they shall be displeased with
themselves because of the evils which they have committed in all their
abominations.

6:10. And they shall know that I the Lord have not spoken in vain that I
would do this evil to them.

6:11. Thus saith the Lord God: Strike with thy hand and stamp with thy
foot, and say: Alas, for all the abominations of the evils of the house
of Israel: for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the
pestilence.

6:12. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence: and he that is
near, shall fall by the sword: and he that remaineth, and is besieged,
shall die by the famine: and I will accomplish my indignation upon them.

6:13. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain shall be
amongst your idols, round about your altars, in every high hill, and on
all the tops of mountains, and under every woody tree, and under every
thick oak, the place where they burnt sweet smelling frankincense to all
their idols.

6:14. And I will stretch forth my hand upon them: and I will make the
land desolate, and abandoned from the desert of Deblatha in all their
dwelling places: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 7

The final desolation of Israel: from which few shall escape.

7:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

7:2. And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God to the land of Israel:
The end is come, the end is come upon the four quarters of the land.

7:3. Now is an end come upon thee, and I will send my wrath upon thee,
and I will judge thee according to thy ways: and I will set all thy
abominations against thee.

7:4. And my eye shall not spare thee, and I will shew thee no pity: but
I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the
midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

7:5. Thus saith the Lord God: One affliction, behold an affliction is
come.

7:6. An end is come, the end is come, it hath awaked against thee:
behold it is come.

7:7. Destruction is come upon thee that dwellest in the land: the time
is come, the day of slaughter is near, and not of the joy of mountains.

7:8. Now very shortly I will pour out my wrath upon thee, and I will
accomplish my anger in thee: and I will judge thee according to thy
ways, and I will lay upon thee all thy crimes.

7:9. And my eye shall not spare, neither will I shew mercy: but I will
lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of
thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord that strike.

7:10. Behold the day, behold it is come: destruction is gone forth, the
rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

7:11. Iniquity is risen up into a rod of impiety: nothing of them shall
remain, nor of their people, nor of the noise of them: and there shall
be no rest among them.

7:12. The time is come, the day is at hand: let not the buyer rejoice:
nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the people thereof.

7:13. For the seller shall not return to that which he hath sold,
although their life be yet among the living. For the vision which
regardeth all the multitude thereof, shall not go back: neither shall
man be strengthened in the iniquity of his life.

7:14. Blow the trumpet, let all be made ready, yet there is none to go
to the battle: for my wrath shall be upon all the people thereof.

7:15. The sword without: and the pestilence, and the famine within: he
that is in the field shall die by the sword: and they that are in the
city, shall be devoured by the pestilence, and the famine.

7:16. And such of them as shall flee shall escape: and they shall be in
the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them trembling, every
one for his iniquity.

7:17. All hands shall be made feeble, and all knees shall run with
water.

7:18. And they shall gird themselves with haircloth, and fear shall
cover them and shame shall be upon every face, and baldness upon all
their heads.

7:19. Their silver shall be cast forth, and their gold shall become a
dunghill. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them
in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their soul,
and their bellies shall not be filled: because it hath been the
stumblingblock of their iniquity.

7:20. And they have turned the ornament of their jewels into pride, and
have made of it the images of their abominations, and idols: therefore I
have made it an uncleanness to them.

7:21. And I will give it into the hands of strangers for spoil, and to
the wicked of the earth for a prey, and they shall defile it.

7:22. And I will turn away my face from them, and they shall violate my
secret place: and robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

Secret place, etc... Viz., the inward sanctuary, the holy of holies.

7:23.  Make a shutting up: for the land is full of the judgment of
blood, and the city is full of iniquity.

Make a shutting up... In Hebrew, a chain, viz., for imprisonment and
captivity.

7:24. And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess
their houses: and I will make the pride of the mighty to cease, and they
shall possess their sanctuary.

7:25. When distress cometh upon them, they will seek for peace and there
shall be none.

7:26. Trouble shall come upon trouble, and rumour upon rumour, and they
shall seek a vision of the prophet, and the law shall perish from the
priest, and counsel from the ancients.

7:27. The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with sorrow,
and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do to
them according to their way, and will judge them according to their
judgments: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 8

The prophet sees in a vision the abominations committed in Jerusalem;
which determine the Lord to spare them no longer.

8:1. And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the
fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the ancients of Juda
sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me.

8:2. And I saw, and behold a likeness as the appearance of fire: from
the appearance of his loins, and downward, fire: and from his loins, and
upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the appearance of amber.

8:3. And the likeness of a hand was put forth and took me by a lock of
my head: and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven,
and brought me in the vision of God into Jerusalem, near the inner gate,
that looked toward the north, where was set the idol of jealousy to
provoke to jealousy.

8:4. And behold the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to
the vision which I had seen in the plain.

8:5. And he said to me: Son of man, lift up thy eyes towards the way of
the north, and I lifted up my eyes towards the way of the north: and
behold on the north side of the gate of the altar the idol of jealousy
in the very entry.

8:6. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou see, thinkest thou, what
these are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel
committeth here, that I should depart far off from my sanctuary? and
turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations.

8:7. And he brought me in to the door of the court: and I saw, and
behold a hole in the wall.

8:8. And he said to me: Son of man, dig in the wall, and when I had
digged in the wall, behold a door.

8:9. And he said to me: Go in, and see the wicked abominations which
they commit here.

8:10. And I went in and saw, and behold every form of creeping things,
and of living creatures, the abominations, and all the idols of the
house of Israel, were painted on the wall all round about.

8:11. And seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and
Jezonias the son of Saaphan stood in the midst of them, that stood
before the pictures: and every one had a censer in his hand: and a cloud
of smoke went up from the incense.

8:12. And he said to me: Surely thou seest, O son of man, what the
ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every one in private in
his chamber: for they say: The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken
the earth.

8:13. And he said to me: If thou turn thee again, thou shalt see greater
abominations which these commit.

8:14. And he brought me in by the door of the gate of the Lord's house,
which looked to the north: and behold women sat there mourning for
Adonis.

Adonis... The favourite of Venus, slain by a wild boar, as feigned by
the heathen poets, and which being here represented by an idol, is
lamented by the female worshippers of that goddess. In the Hebrew, the
name is Tammuz.

8:15. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man: but turn
thee again, thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

8:16. And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord:
and behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and
the altar, were about five and twenty men having their backs towards the
temple of the Lord, in their faces to the east: and they adored towards
the rising of the sun.

8:17. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man: is this a
light thing to the house of Juda, that they should commit these
abominations which they have committed here: because they have filled
the land with iniquity, and have turned to provoke me to anger? and
behold they put a branch to their nose.

8:18. Therefore I also will deal with them in my wrath: my eye shall not
spare them, neither will I shew mercy: and when they shall cry to my
ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.

Ezechiel Chapter 9

All are ordered to be destroyed that are not marked in their foreheads.
God will not be entreated for them.

9:1. And he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying: The visitations
of the city are at hand, and every one hath a destroying weapon in his
hand.

9:2. And behold six men came from the way of the upper gate, which
looketh to the north: and each one had his weapon of destruction in his
hand: and there was one man in the midst of them clothed with linen,
with a writer's inkhorn at his reins: and they went in, and stood by the
brazen altar.

9:3. And the glory of the Lord of Israel went up from the cherub, upon
which he was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man
that was clothed with linen, and had a writer's inkhorn at his loins.

9:4. And the Lord said to him: Go through the midst of the city, through
the midst of Jerusalem: and mark Thau upon the foreheads of the men that
sigh, and mourn for all the abominations that are committed in the midst
thereof.

Mark Thau... Thau, or Tau, is the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet,
and signifies a sign, or a mark; which is the reason why some
translators render this place set a mark, or mark a mark without
specifying what this mark was. But St. Jerome, and other interpreters,
conclude it was the form of the letter Thau, which in the ancient Hebrew
character, was the form of a cross.

9:5. And to the others he said in my hearing: Go ye after him through
the city, and strike: let not your eyes spare, nor be ye moved with
pity.

9:6. Utterly destroy old and young, maidens, children and women: but
upon whomsoever you shall see Thau, kill him not, and begin ye at my
sanctuary. So they began at the ancient men who were before the house.

9:7. And he said to them: Defile the house, and fill the courts with the
slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew them that were in the
city.

9:8. And the slaughter being ended I was left; and I fell upon my face,
and crying, I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, wilt thou then destroy
all the remnant of Israel, by pouring out thy fury upon Jerusalem?

9:9. And he said to me: The iniquity of the house of Israel, and of
Juda, is exceeding great, and the land is filled with blood, and the
city is filled with perverseness: for they have said: The Lord hath
forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.

9:10. Therefore neither shall my eye spare, nor will I have pity: I will
requite their way upon their head.

9:11. And behold the man that was clothed with linen, that had the
inkhorn at his back, returned the word, saying: I have done as thou hast
commanded me.

Ezechiel Chapter 10

Fire is taken from the midst of the wheels under the cherubims, and
scattered over the city. A description of the cherubims.

10:1. And I saw and behold in the firmament that was over the heads of
the cherubims, there appeared over them as it were the sapphire stone,
as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.

10:2. And he spoke to the man, that was clothed with linen, and said: Go
in between the wheels that are under the cherubims and fill thy hand
with the coals of fire that are between the cherubims, and pour them out
upon the city. And he went in, in my sight:

10:3. And the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the
man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court.

10:4. And the glory of the Lord was lifted up from above the cherub to
the threshold of the house: and the house was filled with the cloud, and
the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord.

10:5. And the sound of the wings of the cherubims was heard even to the
outward court as the voice of God Almighty speaking.

10:6. And when he had commanded the man that was clothed with linen,
saying: Take fire from the midst of the wheels that are between the
cherubims: he went in and stood beside the wheel.

10:7. And one cherub stretched out his arm from the midst of the
cherubims to the fire that was between the cherubims: and he took, and
put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linen: who took it
and went forth.

10:8. And there appeared in the cherubims the likeness of a man's hand
under their wings.

10:9. And I saw, and behold there were four wheels by the cherubims: one
wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the
appearance of the wheels was to the sight like the chrysolite stone:

10:10. And as to their appearance, all four were alike: as if a wheel
were in the midst of a wheel.

10:11. And when they went, they went by four ways: and they turned not
when they went: but to the place whither they first turned, the rest
also followed, and did not turn back.

By four ways... That is, by any of the four ways, forward, backward, to
the right or to the left.

10:12. And their whole body, and their necks, and their hands, and their
wings, and the circles were full of eyes, round about the four wheels.

10:13. And these wheels he called voluble, in my hearing.

Voluble... That is, rolling wheels, galgal.

10:14. And every one had four faces: one face was the face of a cherub,
and the second face, the face of a man: and in the third was the face of
a lion: and in the fourth the face of an eagle.

10:15. And the cherubims were lifted up: this is the living creature
that I had seen by the river Chobar.

10:16. And when the cherubims went, the wheels also went by them: and
when the cherubims lifted up their wings, to mount up from the earth,
the wheels stayed not behind, but were by them.

10:17. When they stood, these stood: and when they were lifted up, these
were lifted up: for the spirit of life was in them.

10:18. And the glory of the Lord went forth from the threshold of the
temple: and stood over the cherubims.

10:19. And the cherubims lifting up their wings, were raised from the
earth before me: and as they went out, the wheels also followed: and it
stood in the entry of the east gate of the house of the Lord: and the
glory of the God of Israel was over them.

10:20. This is the living creature, which I saw under the God of Israel
by the river Chobar: and I understood that they were cherubims.

10:21. Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings: and the
likeness of a man's hand was under their wings.

10:22. And as to the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces
which I had seen by the river Chobar, and their looks, and the impulse
of every one to go straight forward.

Ezechiel Chapter 11

A prophecy against the presumptuous assurance of the great ones. A
remnant shall be saved, and receive a new spirit, and a new heart.

11:1. And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the east gate of
the house of the Lord, which looketh towards the rising of the sun: and
behold in the entry of the gate five and twenty men: and I saw in the
midst of them Jezonias the son of Azur, and Pheltias the son of Banaias,
princes of the people.

11:2. And he said to me: Son of man, these are the men that study
iniquity, and frame a wicked counsel in this city,

11:3. Saying: Were not houses lately built? This city is the caldron,
and we the flesh.

Were not houses lately built, etc... These men despised the predictions
and threats of the prophets; who declared to them from God, that the
city should be destroyed, and the inhabitants carried into captivity:
and they made use of this kind of argument against the prophets, that
the city, so far from being like to be destroyed, had lately been
augmented by the building of new houses; from whence they further
inferred, by way of a proverb, using the similitude of a cauldron, out
of which the flesh is not taken, till it is thoroughly boiled, and fit
to be eaten, that they should not be carried away out of their city, but
there end their days in peace.

11:4. Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, thou son of man.

11:5. And the spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said to me: Speak:
Thus saith the Lord: Thus have you spoken, O house of Israel, for I know
the thoughts of your heart.

11:6. You have killed a great many in this city, and you have filled the
streets thereof with the slain.

11:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Your slain, whom you have laid
in the midst thereof, they are the flesh, all this is the caldron: and I
will bring you forth out of the midst thereof.

11:8. You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you,
saith the Lord God.

11:9. And I will cast you out of the midst thereof, and I will deliver
you into the hand of the enemies, and I will execute judgments upon you.

11:10. You shall fall by the sword: I will judge you in the borders of
Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

In the borders of Israel... They pretended that they should die in peace
in Jerusalem; God tells them it should not be so; but that they should
be judged and condemned, and fall by the sword in the borders of Israel:
viz., in Reblatha in the land of Emath, where all their chief men were
put to death by Nabuchodonosor. 4 Kings 25., and Jer. 52.10, 27.

11:11. This shall not be as a caldron to you, and you shall not be as
flesh in the midst thereof: I will judge you in the borders of Israel.

11:12. And you shall know that I am the Lord: because you have not
walked in my commandments, and have not done my judgments, but you have
done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you.

11:13. And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pheltias the son of
Banaias died: and I fell down upon my face, and I cried with a loud
voice: and said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God: wilt thou make an end of
all the remnant of Israel?

11:14. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

11:15. Son of man, thy brethren, thy brethren, thy kinsmen, and all the
house of Israel, all they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have
said: Get ye far from the Lord, the land is given in possession to us.

Thy brethren, etc... He speaks of them that had been carried away
captives before; who were despised by them that remained in Jerusalem:
but as the prophet here declares to them from God, should be in a more
happy condition than they, and after some time return from their
captivity.

11:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because I have removed them
far off among the Gentiles, and because I have scattered them among the
countries: I will be to them a little sanctuary in the countries whither
they are come.

11:17. Therefore speak to them: Thus saith the Lord God: I will gather
you from among the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries
wherein you are scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

11:18. And they shall go in thither, and shall take away all the
scandals, and all the abominations thereof from thence.

11:19. And I will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit in
their bowels: and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh,
and will give them a heart of flesh:

11:20. That they may walk in my commandments, and keep my judgments, and
do them: and that they may be my people, and I may be their God.

11:21. But as for them whose heart walketh after their scandals and
abominations, I will lay their way upon their head, saith the Lord God.

11:22. And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and the wheels with
them: and the glory of the God of Israel was over them.

11:23. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and
stood over the mount that is on the east side of the city.

11:24. And the spirit lifted me up, and brought me into Chaldea, to them
of the captivity, in vision, by the spirit of God: and the vision which
I had seen was taken up from me.

11:25. And I spoke to them of the captivity all the words of the Lord,
which he had shewn me.

Ezechiel Chapter 12

The prophet forsheweth, by signs, the captivity of Sedecias, and the
desolation of the people: all which shall quickly come to pass.

12:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

12:2. Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house: who
have eyes to see, and see not: and ears to hear, and hear not: for they
are a provoking house.

12:3. Thou, therefore, O son of man, prepare thee all necessaries for
removing, and remove by day into their sight: and thou shalt remove out
of thy place to another place in their sight, if so be they will regard
it: for they are a provoking house.

12:4. And thou shalt bring forth thy furniture as the furniture of one
that is removing by day in their sight: and thou shalt go forth in the
evening in their presence, as one goeth forth that removeth his
dwelling.

12:5. Dig thee a way through the wall before their eyes: and thou shalt
go forth through it.

12:6. In their sight thou shalt be carried out upon men's shoulders,
thou shalt be carried out in the dark: thou shalt cover thy face, and
shalt not see the ground: for I have set thee for a sign of things to
come to the house of Israel.

12:7. I did therefore as he had commanded me: I brought forth my goods
by day, as the goods of one that removeth: and in the evening I digged
through the wall with my hand, and I went forth in the dark, and was
carried on men's shoulders in their sight.

12:8. And the word of the Lord came to me in the morning, saying:

12:9. Son of man, hath not the house of Israel, the provoking house,
said to thee: What art thou doing?

12:10. Say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: This burden concerneth my
prince that is in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel, that are among
them.

12:11. Say: I am a sign of things to come to you: as I have done, so
shall it be done to them: they shall be removed from their dwellings,
and go into captivity.

12:12. And the prince that is in the midst of them, shall be carried on
shoulders, he shall go forth in the dark: they shall dig through the
wall to bring him out: his face shall be covered, that he may not see
the ground with his eyes.

12:13. And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my
net: and I will bring him into Babylon, into the land of the Chaldeans,
and he shall not see it, and there he shall die.

He shall not see it... Because his eyes shall be put out by
Nabuchodonosor.

12:14. And all that are about him, his guards, and his troops I will
scatter into every wind: and I will draw out the sword after them.

12:15. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have
dispersed them among the nations, and scattered them in the countries.

12:16. And I will leave a few men of them from the sword, and from the
famine, and from the pestilence: that they may declare all their wicked
deeds among the nations whither they shall go: and they shall know that
I am the Lord.

12:17. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

12:18. Son of man, eat thy bread in trouble and drink thy water in hurry
and sorrow.

12:19. And say to the people of the land: Thus saith the Lord God to
them that dwell in Jerusalem in the land of Israel: They shall eat their
bread in care, and drink their water in desolation: that the land may
become desolate from the multitude that is therein, for the iniquity of
all that dwell therein.

12:20. And the cities that are now inhabited shall be laid waste, and
the land shall be desolate: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

12:21. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

12:22. Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of
Israel? saying: The days shall be prolonged, and every vision shall
fail.

12:23. Say to them therefore: Thus saith the Lord God: I will make this
proverb to cease, neither shall it be any more a common saying in
Israel: and tell them that the days are at hand, and the effect of every
vision.

12:24. For there shall be no more any vain visions, nor doubtful
divination in the midst of the children of Israel.

12:25. For I the Lord will speak: and what word soever I shall speak, it
shall come to pass, and shall not be prolonged any more: but in your
days, ye provoking house, I will speak the word, and will do it, saith
the Lord God.

12:26. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

12:27. Son of man, behold the house of Israel, they that say: The
visions that this man seeth, is for many days to come: and this man
prophesieth of times afar off.

12:28. Therefore say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: not one word of
mine shall be prolonged any more: the word that I shall speak shall be
accomplished, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 13

God declares against false prophets and prophetesses, that deceive the
people with lies.

13:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

13:2. Son of man, prophesy thou against the prophets of Israel that
prophesy: and thou shalt say to them that prophesy out of their own
heart: Hear ye the word of the Lord:

13:3. Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the foolish prophets that follow
their own spirit, and see nothing.

13:4. Thy prophets, O Israel, were like foxes in the deserts.

13:5. You have not gone up to face the enemy, nor have you set up a wall
for the house of Israel, to stand in battle in the day of the Lord.

13:6. They see vain things, and they foretell lies, saying: The Lord
saith: whereas the Lord hath not sent them: and they have persisted to
confirm what they have said.

13:7. Have you not seen a vain vision and spoken a lying divination: and
you say: The Lord saith: whereas I have not spoken.

13:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have spoken vain
things, and have seen lies: therefore behold I come against you, saith
the Lord God.

13:9. And my hand shall be upon the prophets that see vain things, and
that divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, nor
shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither
shall they enter into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am
the Lord God.

13:10. Because they have deceived my people, saying: Peace, and there is
no peace: and the people built up a wall, and they daubed it with dirt
without straw.

13:11. Say to them that daub without tempering, that it shall fall: for
there shall be an overflowing shower, and I will cause great hailstones
to fall violently from above, and a stormy wind to throw it down.

13:12. Behold, when the wall is fallen: shall it not be said to you:
Where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed it?

13:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Lo, I will cause a stormy wind
to break forth in my indignation, and there shall be an overflowing
shower in my anger: and great hailstones in my wrath to consume.

13:14. And I will break down the wall that you have daubed with
untempered mortar: and I will make it even with the ground, and the
foundation thereof shall be laid bare: and it shall fall, and shall be
consumed in the midst thereof: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

13:15. And I will accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that
daub it without tempering the mortar, and I will say to you: The wall is
no more, and they that daub it are no more.

13:16. Even the prophets of Israel that prophesy to Jerusalem, and that
see visions of peace for her: and there is no peace, saith the Lord God.

13:17. And thou, son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy
people that prophesy out of their own heart: and do thou prophesy
against them,

13:18. And say: Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to them that sew cushions
under every elbow: and make pillows for the heads of persons of every
age to catch souls: and when they caught the souls of my people, they
gave life to their souls.

Sew cushions, etc... Viz., by making people easy in their sins, and
promising them impunity.-Ibid. They gave life to their souls... That is,
they flattered them with promises of life, peace, and security.

13:19. And they violated me among my people, for a handful of barley,
and a piece of bread, to kill souls which should not die, and to save
souls alive which should not live, telling lies to my people that
believe lies.

Violated me... That is, dishonoured and discredited me. Ibid. To kill
souls, etc... That is, to sentence souls to death, which are not to die;
and to promise life to them who are not to live.

13:20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I declare against your
cushions, wherewith you catch flying souls: and I will tear them off
from your arms: and I will let go the soul that you catch, the souls
that should fly.

13:21. And I will tear your pillows, and will deliver my people out of
your hand, neither shall they be any more in your hands to be a prey:
and you shall know that I am the Lord.

13:22. Because with lies you have made the heart of the just to mourn,
whom I have not made sorrowful: and have strengthened the hands of the
wicked, that he should not return from his evil way, and live.

13:23. Therefore you shall not see vain things, nor divine divinations
any more, and I will deliver my people out of your hand: and you shall
know that I am the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 14

God suffers the wicked to be deceived in punishment of their wickedness.
The evils that shall come upon them for their sins: for which they shall
not be delivered by the prayers of Noe, Daniel, and Job. But a remnant
shall be preserved.

14:1. And some of the ancients of Israel came to me, and sat before me.

14:2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

14:3. Son of man, these men have placed their uncleannesses in their
hearts, and have set up before their face the stumblingblock of their
iniquity: and shall I answer when they inquire of me?

Uncleanness... That is, their filthy idols, upon which they have set
their hearts: and which are a stumblingblock to their souls.

14:4. Therefore speak to them, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God:
Man, man of the house of Israel that shall place his uncleannesses in
his heart, and set up the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his
face, and shall come to the prophet inquiring of me by him: I the Lord
will answer him according to the multitude of his uncleannesses:

Man, man... That is, every man, an Hebrew expression.

14:5. That the house of Israel may be caught in their own heart, with
which they have departed from me through all their idols.

14:6. Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord God: Be
converted, and depart from your idols, and turn away your faces from all
your abominations.

14:7. For every man of the house of Israel, and every stranger among the
proselytes in Israel, if he separate himself from me, and place his
idols in his heart, and set the stumblingblock of his iniquity before
his face, and come to the prophet to inquire of me by him: I the Lord
will answer him by myself.

14:8. And I will set my face against that man, and will make him an
example, and a proverb, and will cut him off from the midst of my
people: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

14:9. And when the prophet shall err, and speak a word: I the Lord have
deceived that prophet: and I will stretch forth my hand upon him, and
will cut him off from the midst of my people Israel.

The prophet shall err, etc... He speaks of false prophets, answering out
of their own heads and according to their own corrupt inclinations.
Ibid. I have deceived that prophet... God Almighty deceives false
prophets, partly by withdrawing his light from them; and abandoning them
to their own corrupt inclinations, which push them on to prophesy such
things as are agreeable to those who consult them: and partly by
disappointing them, and causing all thing to happen contrary to what
they have said.

14:10. And they shall bear their iniquity: according to the iniquity of
him that inquireth, so shall the iniquity of the prophet be.

14:11. That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, nor be
polluted with all their transgressions: but may be my people, and I may
be their God, saith the Lord of hosts.

14:12. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

14:13. Son of man, when a land shall sin against me, so as to transgress
grievously, I will stretch forth my hand upon it, and will break the
staff of the bread thereof: and I will send famine upon it, and will
destroy man and beast out of it.

14:14. And if these three men, Noe, Daniel, and Job, shall be in it:
they shall deliver their own souls by their justice, saith the Lord of
hosts.

14:15. And if I shall bring mischievous beasts also upon the land to
waste it, and it be desolate, so that there is none that can pass
because of the beasts:

14:16. If these three men shall be in it, as I live, saith the Lord,
they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters: but they only shall be
delivered, and the land shall be made desolate.

14:17. Or if I bring the sword upon that land, and say to the sword:
Pass through the land: and I destroy man and beast out of it:

14:18. And these three men be in the midst thereof: as I live, saith the
Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they
themselves alone shall be delivered.

14:19. Or if I also send the pestilence upon that land, and pour out my
indignation upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:

14:20. And Noe, and Daniel, and Job be in the midst thereof: as I live,
saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter: but
they shall only deliver their own souls by their justice.

14:21. For thus saith the Lord: Although I shall send in upon Jerusalem
my four grievous judgments, the sword, and the famine, and the
mischievous beasts, and the pestilence, to destroy out of it man and
beast,

14:22. Yet there shall be left in it some that shall be saved, who shall
bring away their sons and daughters: behold they shall come among you,
and you shall see their way, and their doings: and you shall be
comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, in all
things that I have brought upon it.

14:23. And they shall comfort you, when you shall see their ways, and
their doings: and you shall know that I have not done without cause all
that I have done in it, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 15

As a vine cut down is fit for nothing but the fire; so it shall be with
Jerusalem, for her sins.

15:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

15:2. Son of man, what shall be made of the wood of the vine, out of all
the trees of the woods that are among the trees of the forests?

15:3. Shall wood be taken of it, to do any work, or shall a pin be made
of it for any vessel to hang thereon?

15:4. Behold it is cast into the fire for fuel: the fire hath consumed
both ends thereof, and the midst thereof is reduced to ashes: shall it
be useful for any work?

15:5. Even when it was whole it was not fit for work: how much less,
when the fire hath devoured and consumed it, shall any work be made of
it?

15:6. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: As the vine tree among the
trees of the forests which I have given to the fire to be consumed, so
will I deliver up the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

15:7. And I will set my face against them: they shall go out from fire,
and fire shall consume them: and you shall know that I am the Lord, when
I shall have set my face against them.

15:8. And I shall have made their land a wilderness, and desolate,
because they have been transgressors, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 16

Under the figure of an unfaithful wife, God upbraids Jerusalem with her
ingratitude and manifold disloyalties: but promiseth mercy by a new
covenant.

16:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

16:2. Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.

Make known to Jerusalem... That is, by letters, for the prophet was then
in Babylon.

16:3. And thou shalt say: Thus saith the Lord God to Jerusalem: Thy
root, and thy nativity is of the land of Chanaan, thy father was an
Amorrhite, and thy mother a Cethite.

16:4. And when thou wast born, in the day of thy nativity thy navel was
not cut, neither wast thou washed with water for thy health, nor salted
with salt, nor swaddled with clouts.

16:5. No eye had pity on thee to do any of these things for thee, out of
compassion to thee: but thou wast cast out upon the face of the earth in
the abjection of thy soul, in the day that thou wast born.

16:6. And passing by thee, I saw that thou wast trodden under foot in
thy own blood: and I said to thee when thou wast in thy blood: Live: I
have said to thee: Live in thy blood.

16:7. I caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field: and thou didst
increase and grow great, and advancedst, and camest to woman's ornament:
thy breasts were fashioned, and thy hair grew: and thou was naked, and
full of confusion.

16:8. And I passed by thee, and saw thee: and behold thy time was the
time of lovers: and I spread my garment over thee, and covered thy
ignominy and I swore to thee, and I entered into a covenant with thee,
saith the Lord God: and thou becamest mine.

16:9. And I washed thee with water, and cleansed away thy blood from
thee: and I anointed thee with oil.

16:10. And I clothed thee with embroidery, and shod thee with violet
coloured shoes: and I girded thee about with fine linen, and clothed
thee with fine garments.

16:11. I decked thee also with ornaments, and put bracelets on thy
hands, and a chain about thy neck.

I decked thee also with ornaments, etc... That is, with spiritual
benefits, giving you a law with sacrifices, sacraments, and other holy
rites.

16:12. And I put a jewel upon thy forehead and earrings in thy ears, and
a beautiful crown upon thy head.

16:13. And thou wast adorned with gold, and silver, and wast clothed
with fine linen, and embroidered work, and many colours: thou didst eat
fine flour, and honey, and oil, and wast made exceeding beautiful: and
wast advanced to be a queen.

16:14. And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty: for
thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I had put upon thee, saith
the Lord God.

16:15. But trusting in thy beauty, thou playedst the harlot because of
thy renown, and thou hast prostituted thyself to every passenger, to be
his.

16:16. And taking of thy garments thou hast made thee high places sewed
together on each side: and hast played the harlot upon them, as hath not
been done before, nor shall be hereafter.

16:17. And thou tookest thy beautiful vessels, of my gold, and my
silver, which I gave thee, and thou madest thee images of men, and hast
committed fornication with them.

16:18. And thou tookest thy garments of divers colours, and coveredst
them: and settest my oil and my sweet incense before them.

16:19. And my bread which I gave thee, the fine flour, and oil, and
honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast set before them for a sweet
odour; and it was done, saith the Lord God.

16:20. And thou hast taken thy sons, and thy daughters, whom thou hast
borne to me: and hast sacrificed the same to them to be devoured. Is thy
fornication small?

16:21. Thou hast sacrificed and given my children to them, consecrating
them by fire.

Thou hast sacrificed, etc... As there is nothing more base and
abominable than the crimes mentioned throughout this chapter; so the
infidelities of the Israelites in forsaking God, and sacrificing even
their children to idols, are strongly figured by these allegories.

16:22. And after all thy abominations, and fornications, thou hast not
remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked, and full of
confusion, trodden under foot in thy own blood.

16:23. And it came to pass after all thy wickedness (woe, woe to thee,
saith the Lord God)

16:24. That thou didst also build thee a common stew, and madest thee a
brothel house in every street.

16:25. At every head of the way thou hast set up a sign of thy
prostitution: and hast made thy beauty to be abominable: and hast
prostituted thyself to every one that passed by, and hast multiplied thy
fornications.

16:26. And thou hast committed fornication with the Egyptians thy
neighbours, men of large bodies, and hast multiplied thy fornications to
provoke me.

16:27. Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and will take away
thy justification: and I will deliver thee up to the will of the
daughters of the Philistines that hate thee, that are ashamed of thy
wicked way.

16:28. Thou hast also committed fornication with the Assyrians, because
thou wast not yet satisfied: and after thou hadst played the harlot with
them, even so thou wast not contented.

16:29. Thou hast also multiplied thy fornications in the land of Chanaan
with the Chaldeans: and neither so wast thou satisfied.

16:30. Wherein shall I cleanse thy heart, saith Lord God: seeing thou
dost all these the works of a shameless prostitute?

16:31. Because thou hast built thy brothel house at the head of every
way, and thou hast made thy high place in every street: and wast not as
a harlot that by disdain enhanceth her price,

16:32. But is an adulteress, that bringeth in strangers over her
husband.

16:33. Gifts are given to all harlots: but thou hast given hire to all
thy lovers, and thou hast given them gifts to come to thee from every
side, to commit fornication with thee.

16:34. And it hath happened in thee contrary to the custom of women in
thy fornications, and after thee there shall be no such fornication, for
in that thou gavest rewards, and didst not take rewards, the contrary
hath been done in thee.

16:35. Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord.

16:36. Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy money hath been poured out,
and thy shame discovered through thy fornications with thy lovers, and
with the idols of thy abominations, by the blood of thy children whom
thou gavest them:

16:37. Behold, I will gather together all thy lovers with whom thou hast
taken pleasure, and all whom thou hast loved, with all whom thou hast
hated: and I will gather them together against thee on every side, and
will discover thy shame in their sight, and they shall see all thy
nakedness.

16:38. And I will judge thee as adulteresses, and they that shed blood
are judged: and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

16:39. And I will deliver thee into their hands, and they shall destroy
thy brothel house, and throw down thy stews: and they shall strip thee
of thy garments, and shall take away the vessels of thy beauty: and
leave thee naked, and full of disgrace.

16:40. And they shall bring upon thee a multitude, and they shall stone
thee with stones, and shall slay thee with their swords.

16:41. And they shall burn thy houses with fire, and shall execute
judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and thou shalt cease
from fornication, and shalt give no hire any more.

16:42. And my indignation shall rest in thee: and my jealousy shall
depart from thee, and I will cease and be angry no more.

16:43. Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast
provoked me in all these things: wherefore I also have turned all thy
ways upon thy head, saith the Lord God, and I have not done according to
thy wicked deeds in all thy abominations.

16:44. Behold every one that useth a common proverb, shall use this
against thee, saying: As the mother was, so also is her daughter.

16:45. Thou art thy mother's daughter, that cast off her husband, and
her children: and thou art the sister of thy sisters, who cast off their
husbands, and their children: your mother was a Cethite, and your father
an Amorrhite.

16:46. And thy elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell
at thy left hand: and thy younger sister that dwelleth at thy right hand
is Sodom, and her daughters.

16:47. But neither hast thou walked in their ways, nor hast thou done a
little less than they according to their wickednesses: thou hast done
almost more wicked things than they in all thy ways.

16:48. As I live, saith the Lord God, thy sister Sodom herself, and her
daughters, have not done as thou hast done, and thy daughters.

16:49. Behold this was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, pride, fulness
of bread, and abundance, and the idleness of her, and of her daughters:
and they did not put forth their hand to the needy, and the poor.

This was the iniquity of Sodom, etc... That is, these were the steps by
which the Sodomites came to fall into those abominations for which they
were destroyed. For pride, gluttony, and idleness are the highroad to
all kinds of lust; especially when they are accompanied with a neglect
of the works of mercy.

16:50. And they were lifted up, and committed abominations before me:
and I took them away as thou hast seen.

16:51. And Samaria committed not half thy sins: but thou hast surpassed
them with thy crimes, and hast justified thy sisters by all thy
abominations which thou hast done.

16:52. Therefore do thou also bear thy confusion, thou that hast
surpassed thy sisters with thy sins, doing more wickedly than they: for
they are justified above thee, therefore be thou also confounded, and
bear thy shame, thou that hast justified thy sisters.

16:53. And I will bring back and restore them by bringing back Sodom,
with her daughters, and by bringing back Samaria, and her daughters: and
I will bring those that return of thee in the midst of them.

I will bring back, etc... This relates to the conversion of the Gentiles
out of all nations, and of many of the Jews, to the church of Christ.

16:54. That thou mayest bear thy shame, and mayest be confounded in all
that thou hast done, comforting them.

16:55. And thy sister Sodom and her daughters shall return to their
ancient state: and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their
ancient state: and thou and thy daughters shall return to your ancient
state.

Ancient state... That is, to their former state of liberty, and their
ancient possessions. In the spiritual sense, to the true liberty, and
the happy inheritance of the children of God, through faith in Christ.

16:56. And Sodom thy sister was not heard of in thy mouth, in the day of
thy pride,

16:57. Before thy malice was laid open: as it is at this time, making
thee a reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all the daughters of
Palestine round about thee, that encompass thee on all sides.

16:58. Thou hast borne thy wickedness, and thy disgrace, saith the Lord
God.

16:59. For thus saith the Lord God: I will deal with thee, as thou hast
despised the oath, in breaking the covenant:

16:60. And I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy
youth: and I will establish with thee an everlasting covenant.

16:61. And thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed: when thou shalt
receive thy sisters, thy elder and thy younger: and I will give them to
thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.

16:62. And I will establish my covenant with thee: and thou shalt know
that I am the Lord,

16:63. That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and mayest no more
open thy mouth because of thy confusion, when I shall be pacified toward
thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 17

The parable of the two eagles and the vine. A promise of the cedar of
Christ and his church.

17:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

17:2. Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the house
of Israel,

17:3. And say: Thus saith the Lord God; A large eagle with great wings,
long-limbed, full of feathers, and of variety, came to Libanus, and took
away the marrow of the cedar.

A large eagle... Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon.-Ibid. Came to
Libanus... That is, to Jerusalem.-Ibid. Took away the marrow of the
cedar... King Jechonias.

17:4. He cropped off the top of the twigs thereof: and carried it away
into the land of Chanaan, and he set it in a city of merchants.

Chanaan... This name, which signifies traffic, is not taken here for
Palestine, but for Chaldea: and the city of merchants here mentioned is
Babylon.

17:5. And he took of the seed of the land, and put it in the ground for
seed, that it might take a firm root over many waters: he planted it on
the surface of the earth.

Of the seed of the land, etc... Viz., Sedecias, whom he made king.

17:6. And it sprung up and grew into a spreading vine of low stature,
and the branches thereof looked towards him: and the roots thereof were
under him. So it became a vine, and grew into branches, and shot forth
sprigs.

Towards him... Nabuchodonosor, to whom Sedecias swore allegiance.

17:7. And there was another large eagle, with great wings, and many
feathers: and behold this vine, bending as it were her roots towards
him, stretched forth her branches to him, that he might water it by the
furrows of her plantation.

Another large eagle... Viz., the king of Egypt.

17:8. It was planted in a good ground upon many waters, that it might
bring forth branches, and bear fruit, that it might become a large vine.

17:9. Say thou: Thus saith the Lord God: Shall it prosper then?  shall
he not pull up the roots thereof, and strip off its fruit, and dry up
all the branches it hath shot forth, and make it wither: and this
without a strong arm, or many people to pluck it up by the root?

17:10. Behold, it is planted: shall it prosper then? shall it not be
dried up when the burning wind shall touch it, and shall it not wither
in the furrows where it grew?

17:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

17:12. Say to the provoking house: Know you not what these things mean?
Tell them: Behold the king of Babylon cometh to Jerusalem: and he shall
take away the king and the princes thereof and carry them with him to
Babylon.

Shall take away... Or, hath taken away, etc., for all this was now done.

17:13. And he shall take one of the king's seed, and make a covenant
with him, and take an oath of him. Yea, and he shall take away the
mighty men of the land,

17:14. That it may be a low kingdom and not lift itself up, but keep his
covenant and observe it.

17:15. But he hath revolted from him and sent ambassadors to Egypt, that
it might give him horses, and much people. And shall he that hath done
thus prosper, or be saved? and shall he escape that hath broken the
covenant?

17:16. As I live, saith the Lord God: In the place where the king
dwelleth that made him king, whose oath he hath made void, and whose
covenant he broke, even in the midst of Babylon shall he die.

17:17. And not with a great army, nor with much people shall Pharao
fight against him: when he shall cast up mounts, and build forts, to cut
off many souls.

17:18. For he had despised the oath, breaking his covenant, and behold
he hath given his hand: and having done all these things, he shall not
escape.

17:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: As I live, I will lay upon his
head the oath he hath despised, and the covenant he hath broken.

17:20. And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my
net: and I will bring him into Babylon, and will judge him there for the
transgression by which he hath despised me.

17:21. And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword:
and the residue shall be scattered into every wind: and you shall know
that I the Lord have spoken.

17:22. Thus saith the Lord God: I myself will take of the marrow of the
high cedar, and will set it: I will crop off a tender twig from the top
of the branches thereof, and I will plant it on a mountain high and
eminent.

Of the marrow of the high cedar, etc... Of the royal stock of David.
Ibid. A tender twig... Viz., Jesus Christ, whom God hath planted in
mount Sion, that is, the high mountain of his church, to which all
nations flow.

17:23. On the high mountains of Israel will I plant it, and it shall
shoot forth into branches and shall bear fruit, and it shall become a
great cedar: and all birds shall dwell under it, and every fowl shall
make its nest under the shadow of the branches thereof.

17:24. And all the trees of the country shall know that I the Lord have
brought down the high tree, and exalted the low tree: and have dried up
the green tree, and have caused the dry tree to flourish. I the Lord
have spoken and have done it.

Ezechiel Chapter 18

One man shall not bear the sins of another, but every one his own; if a
wicked man truly repent, he shall be saved; and if a just man leave his
justice, he shall perish.

18:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What is the meaning?

18:2. That you use among you this parable as a proverb in the land of
Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the
children are set on edge.

18:3. As I live, saith the Lord God, this parable shall be no more to
you a proverb in Israel.

18:4. Behold all souls are mine: as the soul of the father, so also the
soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, the same shall die.

18:5. And if a man be just, and do judgment and justice,

18:6. And hath not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to
the idols of the house of Israel: and hath not defiled his neighbour's
wife, nor come near to a menstruous woman:

Not eaten upon the mountains... That is, of the sacrifices there offered
to idols.

18:7. And hath not wronged any man: but hath restored the pledge to the
debtor, hath taken nothing away by violence: hath given his bread to the
hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment:

18:8. Hath not lent upon usury, nor taken any increase: hath withdrawn
his hand from iniquity, and hath executed true judgment between man and
man:

18:9. Hath walked in my commandments, and kept my judgments, to do
truth: he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God.

To do truth... That is, to act according to truth; for the Hebrews
called everything that was just, truth.

18:10. And if he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood, and
that hath done some one of these things:

18:11. Though he doth not all these things, but that eateth upon the
mountains, and that defileth his neighbour's wife:

18:12. That grieveth the needy and the poor, that taketh away by
violence, that restoreth not the pledge, and that lifteth up his eyes to
idols, that comitteth abomination:

18:13. That giveth upon usury, and that taketh an increase: shall such a
one live? he shall not live. Seeing he hath done all these detestable
things, he shall surely die, his blood shall be upon him.

18:14. But if he beget a son, who, seeing all his father's sins, which
he hath done, is afraid, and shall not do the like to them:

18:15. That hath not eaten upon the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to
the idols of the house of Israel, and hath not defiled his neighbour's
wife:

18:16. And hath not grieved any man, nor withholden the pledge, nor
taken away with violence, but hath given his bread to the hungry, and
covered the naked with a garment:

18:17. That hath turned away his hand from injuring the poor, hath not
taken usury and increase, but hath executed my judgments, and hath
walked in my commandments: this man shall not die for the iniquity of
his father, but living he shall live.

18:18. As for his father, because he oppressed and offered violence to
his brother, and wrought evil in the midst of his people, behold he is
dead in his own iniquity.

18:19. And you say: Why hath not the son borne the iniquity of his
father? Verily, because the son hath wrought judgment and justice, hath
kept all my commandments, and done them, living, he shall live.

18:20. The soul that sinneth, the same shall die: the son shall not bear
the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity
of the son: the justice of the just shall be upon him, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

18:21. But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath
committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and justice,
living he shall live, and shall not die.

18:22. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done: in his
justice which he hath wrought, he shall live.

18:23. Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and
not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?

18:24. But if the just man turn himself away from his justice, and do
iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man useth to
work, shall he live? all his justices which he hath done, shall not be
remembered: in the prevarication, by which he hath prevaricated, and in
his sin, which he hath committed, in them he shall die.

18:25. And you have said: The way of the Lord is not right. Hear ye,
therefore, O house of Israel: Is it my way that is not right, and are
not rather your ways perverse?

18:26. For when the just turneth himself away from his justice, and
comitteth iniquity, he shall die therein: in the injustice that he hath
wrought he shall die.

18:27. And when the wicked turneth himself away from his wickedness,
which he hath wrought, and doeth judgment, and justice: he shall save
his soul alive.

18:28. Because he considereth and turneth away himself from all his
iniquities which he hath wrought, he shall surely live, and not die.

18:29. And the children of Israel say: The way of the Lord is not right.
Are not my ways right, O house of Israel, and are not rather your ways
perverse?

18:30. Therefore will I judge every man according to his ways, O house
of Israel, saith the Lord God. Be converted, and do penance for all your
iniquities: and iniquity shall not be your ruin.

18:31. Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have
transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit: and
why will you die, O house of Israel?

18:32. For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God,
return ye and live.

Ezechiel Chapter 19

The parable of the young lions, and of the vineyard that is wasted.

19:1. Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

19:2. And say: Why did thy mother the lioness lie down among the lions,
and bring up her whelps in the midst of young lions?

Thy mother the lioness... Jerusalem.

19:3. And she brought out one of her whelps, and he became a lion: and
he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.

One of her whelps... Viz., Joachaz, alias Sellum.

19:4. And the nations heard of him, and took him, but not without
receiving wounds: and they brought him in chains into the land of Egypt.

19:5. But she seeing herself weakened, and that her hope was lost, took
one of her young lions, and set him up for a lion.

One of her young lions... Joakim.

19:6. And he went up and down among the lions, and became a lion: and he
learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.

19:7. He learned to make widows, and to lay waste their cities: and the
land became desolate, and the fulness thereof by the noise of his
roaring.

19:8. And the nations came together against him on every side out of the
provinces, and they spread their net over him, in their wounds he was
taken.

19:9. And they put him into a cage, they brought him in chains to the
king of Babylon: and they cast him into prison, that his voice should no
more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

19:10. Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood planted by the water: her
fruit and her branches have grown out of many waters.

19:11. And she hath strong rods to make sceptres for them that bear
rule, and her stature was exalted among the branches: and she saw her
height in the multitude of her branches.

19:12. But she was plucked up in wrath, and cast on the ground, and the
burning wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods are withered, and dried
up: the fire hath devoured her.

19:13. And now she is transplanted into the desert, in a land not
passable, and dry.

19:14. And a fire is gone out from a rod of her branches, which hath
devoured her fruit: so that she now hath no strong rod, to be a sceptre
of rulers. This is a lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.

Ezechiel Chapter 20

God refuses to answer the ancients of Israel inquiring by the prophet:
but by him setteth his benefits before their eyes, and their heinous
sins: threatening yet greater punishments: but still mixed with mercy.

20:1. And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the
tenth day of the month: there came men of the ancients of Israel to
inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me.

20:2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

20:3. Son of man, speak to the ancients of Israel and say to them: Thus
saith the Lord God: Are you come to inquire of me? As I live, I will not
answer you, saith the Lord God.

20:4. If thou judgest them, if thou judgest, O son of man, declare to
them the abominations of their fathers.

If thou judgest them... Or, if thou wilt enter into the cause and plead
against them.

20:5. And say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when I chose
Israel, and lifted up my hand for the race of the house of Jacob: and
appeared to them in the land of Egypt, and lifted up my hand for them,
saying: I am the Lord your God:

20:6. In that day I lifted up my hand for them to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, into a land which I had provided for them, flowing with
milk and honey, which excelled amongst all lands.

20:7. And I said to them: Let every man cast away the scandals of his
eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord
your God.

Scandals, etc... Offensiones. That is, the abominations or idols, to the
worship of which they were allured by their eyes.

20:8. But they provoked me, and would not hearken to me: they did not
every man cast away the abominations of his eyes, neither did they
forsake the idols of Egypt: and I said I would pour out my indignation
upon them, and accomplish my wrath against them in the midst of the land
of Egypt.

20:9. But I did otherwise for my name's sake, that it might not be
violated before the nations, in the midst of whom they were, and among
whom I made myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of
Egypt.

20:10. Therefore I brought them out from the land of Egypt, and brought
them into the desert.

20:11. And I gave them my statutes, and I shewed them my judgments,
which if a man do, he shall live in them.

20:12. Moreover I gave them also my sabbaths, to be a sign between me
and them: and that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify
them.

20:13. But the house of Israel provoked me in the desert: they walked
not in my statutes, and they cast away my judgments, which if a man do
he shall live in them: and they grievously violated my sabbaths. I said
therefore that I would pour out my indignation upon them in the desert,
and would consume them.

20:14. But I spared them for the sake of my name, lest it should be
profaned before the nations, from which I brought them out, in their
sight.

20:15. So I lifted up my hand over them in the desert, not to bring them
into the land which I had given them flowing with milk and honey, the
best of all lands.

20:16. Because they cast off my judgments, and walked not in my
statutes, and violated my sabbaths: for their heart went after idols.

20:17. Yet my eye spared them, so that I destroyed them not: neither did
I consume them in the desert.

20:18. And I said to their children in the wilderness: Walk not in the
statutes of your fathers, and observe not their judgments, nor be ye
defiled with their idols:

20:19. I am the Lord your God: walk ye in my statutes, and observe my
judgments, and do them.

20:20. And sanctify my sabbaths, that they may be a sign between me and
you: and that you may know that I am the Lord your God.

20:21. But their children provoked me, they walked not in my
commandments, nor observed my judgments to do them: which if a man do,
he shall live in them: and they violated my sabbaths: and I threatened
to pour out my indignation upon them, and to accomplish my wrath in them
in the desert.

20:22. But I turned away my hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that
it might not be violated before the nations, out of which I brought them
forth in their sight.

20:23. Again I lifted up my hand upon them in the wilderness, to
disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries:

20:24. Because they had not done my judgments, and had cast off my
statutes, and had violated my sabbaths, and their eyes had been after
the idols of their fathers.

20:25. Therefore I also gave them statutes that were not good, and
judgments, in which they shall not live.

Statutes that were not good, etc... Viz., the laws and ordinances of
their enemies; or those imposes upon them by that cruel tyrant the
devil, to whose power they were delivered up for their sins.

20:26. And I polluted them in their own gifts, when they offered all
that opened the womb, for their offences: and they shall know that I am
the Lord.

I polluted them, etc... That is, I gave them up to such blindness in
punishment of their offences, as to pollute themselves with the blood of
all their firstborn, whom they offered up to their idols in compliance
with their wicked devices.

20:27. Wherefore speak to the house of Israel, O son of man, and say to
them: Thus saith the Lord God: Moreover in this also your fathers
blaspheme me, when they had despised and contemned me;

20:28. And I had brought them into the land, for which I lifted up my
hand to give it them: they saw every high hill, and every shady tree,
and there they sacrificed their victims: and there they presented the
provocation of their offerings, and there they set their sweet odours,
and poured forth their libations.

20:29. And I said to them: What meaneth the high place to which you go?
and the name thereof was called High-place even to this day.

20:30. Wherefore say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord God:
Verily, you are defiled in the way of your fathers, and you commit
fornication with their abominations.

20:31. And you defile yourselves with all your idols unto this day, in
the offering of your gifts, when you make your children pass through the
fire: and shall I answer you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the
Lord God, I will not answer you.

20:32. Neither shall the thought of your mind come to pass, by which you
say: We will be as the Gentiles, and as the families of the earth, to
worship stocks and stones.

20:33. As I live, saith the Lord God, I will reign over you with a
strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

20:34. And I will bring you out from the people, and I will gather you
out of the countries, in which you are scattered, I will reign over you
with a strong hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured
out.

20:35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of people, and there
will I plead with you face to face.

The wilderness of people... That is, a desert in which there are no
people.

20:36. As I pleaded against your fathers in the desert of the land of
Egypt; even so will I judge you, saith the Lord God.

20:37. And I will make you subject to my sceptre, and will bring you
into the bands of the covenant.

20:38. And I will pick out from among you the transgressors, and the
wicked, and will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, and they
shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am
the Lord.

20:39. And as for you, O house of Israel: thus saith the Lord God: Walk
ye every one after your idols, and serve them. But if in this also you
hear me not, but defile my holy name any more with your gifts, and with
your idols;

Walk ye every one, etc... It is not an allowance, much less a
commandment to serve idols; but a figure of speech, by which God would
have them to understand that if they would walk after their idols, they
must not pretend to serve him at the same time: for that he would by no
means suffer such a mixture of worship.

20:40. In my holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel, saith the
Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel serve me; all of them I
say, in the land in which they shall please me, and there will I require
your firstfruits, and the chief of your tithes with all your
sanctifications.

In my holy mountain, etc... The foregoing verse, to make the sense
complete, must be understood so as to condemn and reject that mixture of
worship which the Jews then followed. In this verse, God promises to the
true Israelites, especially to those of the Christian church, that they
shall serve him in another manner, in his holy mountain, the spiritual
Sion: and shall by accepted of by him.

20:41. I will accept of you for an odour of sweetness, when I shall have
brought you out from the people, and shall have gathered you out of the
lands into which you are scattered, and I will be sanctified in you in
the sight of the nations.

20:42. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have brought
you into the land of Israel, into the land for which I lifted up my hand
to give it to your fathers.

20:43. And there you shall remember your ways, and all your wicked
doings with which you have been defiled; and you shall be displeased
with yourselves in your own sight, for all your wicked deeds which you
committed.

20:44. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have done
well by you for my own name's sake, and not according to your evil ways,
nor according to your wicked deeds, O house of Israel, saith the Lord
God.

20:45. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

20:46. Son of man, set thy face against the way of the south, and drop
towards the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field.

Of the south... Jerusalem lay towards the south of Babylon, (where the
prohet then was,) and is here called the forest of the south field, and
is threatened with utter desolation.

20:47. And say to the south forest: Hear the word of the Lord: Thus
saith the Lord God: Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and will burn
in thee every green tree, and every dry tree: the flame of the fire
shall not be quenched: and every face shall be burned in it, from the
south even to the north.

20:48. And all flesh shall see, that I the Lord have kindled it, and it
shall not be quenched.

20:49. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God: they say of me: Doth not this
man speak by parables?

Ezechiel Chapter 21

The destruction of Jerusalem by the sword is further described: the ruin
also of the Ammonites is forshewn. And finally Babylon, the destroyer of
others, shall be destroyed.

21:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

21:2. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and let thy speech flow
towards the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel:

21:3. And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I
come against thee, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and
will cut off in thee the just, and the wicked.

21:4. And forasmuch as I have cut off in thee the just and the wicked,
therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh,
from the south even to the north.

21:5. That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my sword out of
its sheath not to be turned back.

21:6. And thou, son of man, mourn with the breaking of thy loins, and
with bitterness sigh before them.

21:7. And when they shall say to thee: Why mournest thou? thou shalt
say: For that which I hear: because it cometh, and every heart shall
melt, and all hands shall be made feeble, and every spirit shall faint,
and water shall run down every knee: behold it cometh, and it shall be
done, saith the Lord God.

21:8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

21:9. Son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Say: The
sword, the sword is sharpened, and furbished.

21:10. It is sharpened to kill victims: it is furbished that it may
glitter: thou removest the sceptre of my son, thou hast cut down every
tree.

Thou removest the sceptre of my son... He speaks (according to St.
Jerome) to the sword of Nabuchodonosor: which was about to remove the
sceptre of Israel, whom God here calls his son.

21:11. And I have given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this
sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, that it may be in the hand of
the slayer.

21:12. Cry, and howl, O son of man, for this sword is upon my people, it
is upon all the princes of Israel, that are fled: they are delivered up
to the sword with my people, strike therefore upon thy thigh,

21:13. Because it is tried: and that when it shall overthrow the
sceptre, and it shall not be, saith the Lord God.

21:14. Thou therefore, O son of man, prophesy, and strike thy hands
together, and let the sword be doubled, and let the sword of the slain
be tripled: this is the sword of a great slaughter, that maketh them
stand amazed,

21:15. And languish in heart, and that multiplieth ruins. In all their
gates I have set the dread of the sharp sword, the sword that is
furbished to glitter, that is made ready for slaughter.

21:16. Be thou sharpened, go to the right hand, or to the left, which
way soever thou hast a mind to set thy face.

21:17. And I will clap my hands together, and will satisfy my
indignation: I the Lord have spoken.

21:18. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

21:19. And thou son of man, set thee two ways, for the sword of the king
of Babylon to come: both shall come forth out of one land: and with his
hand he shall draw lots, he shall consult at the head of the way of the
city.

21:20. Thou shalt make a way that the sword may come to Rabbath of the
children of Ammon, and to Juda unto Jerusalem the strong city.

21:21. For the king of Babylon stood in the highway, at the head of two
ways, seeking divination, shuffling arrows: he inquired of the idols,
and consulted entrails.

21:22. On his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to set
battering rams, to open the mouth in slaughter, to lift up the voice in
howling, to set engines against the gates, to cast up a mount, to build
forts.

21:23. And he shall be in their eyes as one consulting the oracle in
vain, and imitating the leisure of sabbaths: but he will call to
remembrance the iniquity that they may be taken.

21:24. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have remembered
your iniquity, and have discovered your prevarications, and your sins
have appeared in all your devices: because, I say, You have remembered,
you shall be taken with the hand.

21:25. But thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come that
hath been appointed in the time of iniquity:

Thou profane, etc... He speaks to king Sedecias, who had broken his
oath, and was otherwise a wicked prince.

21:26. Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, take off the crown:
is it not this that hath exalted the low one, and brought down him that
was high?

Is it not this that hath exalted the low one... The royal crown of Juda
had exalted Sedecias from a private state and condition to the sovereign
power, as the loss of it had brought down Jechonias, etc.

21:27. I will shew it to be iniquity, iniquity, iniquity: but this was
not done till he came to whom judgment belongeth, and I will give it
him.

I will shew it to be iniquity, etc... Or, I will overturn it, viz., the
crown of Juda for the manifold iniquities of the kings: but it shall not
be utterly removed, till Christ come whose right it is: and who shall
reign in the spiritual house of Jacob, that is, in his church, for
evermore.

21:28. And thou son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God
concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach, and
thou shalt say: O sword, O sword, come out of the scabbard to kill, be
furbished to destroy, and to glitter,

Concerning their reproach... By which they had reproached and insulted
over the Jews, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.

21:29. Whilst they see vain things in thy regard, and they divine lies:
to bring thee upon the necks of the wicked that are wounded, whose
appointed day is come in the time of iniquity.

21:30. Return into thy sheath. I will judge thee in the place wherein
thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.

Return into thy sheath, etc... The sword of Babylon, after raging
against many nations, was shortly to be judged and destroyed at home by
the Medes and Persians.

21:31. And I will pour out upon thee my indignation: in the fire of my
rage will I blow upon thee, and will give thee into the hands of men
that are brutish and contrive thy destruction.

21:32. Thou shalt be fuel for the fire, thy blood shall be in the midst
of the land, thou shalt be forgotten: for I the Lord have spoken it.

Ezechiel Chapter 22

The general corruption of the inhabitants of Jerusalem: for which God
will consume them as dross in his furnace.

22:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

22:2. And thou son of man, dost thou not judge, dost thou not judge the
city of blood?

22:3. And thou shalt shew her all her abominations, and shalt say: Thus
saith the Lord God: This is the city that sheddeth blood in the midst of
her, that her time may come: and that hath made idols against herself,
to defile herself.

22:4. Thou art become guilty in thy blood which thou hast shed: and thou
art defiled in thy idols which thou hast made: and thou hast made thy
days to draw near, and hast brought on the time of thy years: therefore
have I made thee a reproach to the Gentiles, and a mockery to all
countries.

22:5. Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall
triumph over thee: thou filthy one, infamous, great in destruction.

22:6. Behold the princes of Israel, every one hath employed his arm in
thee to shed blood.

22:7. They have abused father and mother in thee, they have oppressed
the stranger in the midst of thee, they have grieved the fatherless and
widow in thee.

22:8. Thou hast despised my sanctuaries, and profaned my sabbaths.

22:9. Slanderers have been in thee to shed blood, and they have eaten
upon the mountains in thee, they have committed wickedness in the midst
of thee.

22:10. They have discovered the nakedness of their father in thee, they
have humbled the uncleanness of the menstruous woman in thee.

22:11. And every one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's
wife, and the father in law hath wickedly defiled his daughter in law,
the brother hath oppressed his sister the daughter of his father in
thee.

22:12. They have taken gifts in thee to shed blood: thou hast taken
usury and increase, and hast covetously oppressed thy neighbours: and
thou hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.

22:13. Behold, I have clapped my hands at thy covetousness, which thou
hast exercised: and at the blood that hath been shed in the midst of
thee.

22:14. Shall thy heart endure, or shall thy hands prevail in the days
which I will bring upon thee: I the Lord have spoken, and will do it.

22:15. And I will disperse thee in the nations, and will scatter thee
among the countries, and I will put an end to thy uncleanness in thee.

22:16. And I will possess thee in the sight of the Gentiles, and thou
shalt know that I am the Lord.

22:17. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

22:18. Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross to me: all these
are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace:
they are become the dross of silver.

22:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you are all turned
into dross, therefore behold I will gather you together in the midst of
Jerusalem.

22:20. As they gather silver, and brass, and tin, and iron, and lead in
the midst of the furnace: that I may kindle a fire in it to melt it: so
will I gather you together in my fury and in my wrath, and will take my
rest, and I will melt you down.

22:21. And will gather you together, and will burn you in the fire of my
wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof.

22:22. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be
in the midst thereof: and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have
poured out my indignation upon you.

22:23. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

22:24. Son of man, say to her: Thou art a land that is unclean, and not
rained upon in the day of wrath.

22:25. There is a conspiracy of prophets in the midst thereof: like a
lion that roareth and catcheth the prey, they have devoured souls, they
have taken riches and hire, they have made many widows in the midst
thereof.

22:26. Her priests have despised my law, and have defiled my
sanctuaries: they have put no difference between holy and profane: nor
have distinguished between the polluted and the clean: and they have
turned away their eyes from my sabbaths, and I was profaned in the midst
of them.

22:27. Her princes in the midst of her, are like wolves ravening the
prey to shed blood, and to destroy souls, and to run after gains through
covetousness.

22:28. And her prophets have daubed them without tempering the mortar,
seeing vain things, and divining lies unto them, saying: Thus saith the
Lord God: when the Lord hath not spoken.

22:29. The people of the land have used oppression, and committed
robbery: they afflicted the needy and poor, and they oppressed the
stranger by calumny without judgment.

22:30. And I sought among them for a man that might set up a hedge, and
stand in the gap before me in favour of the land, that I might not
destroy it: and I found none.

22:31. And I poured out my indignation upon them, in the fire of my
wrath I consumed them: I have rendered their way upon their own head,
saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 23

Under the names of the two harlots, Oolla and Ooliba, are described the
manifold disloyalties of Samaria and Jerusalem, with the punishment of
them both.

23:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

23:2. Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother.

23:3. And they committed fornication in Egypt, in their youth they
committed fornication: there were their breasts pressed down, and the
teats of their virginity were bruised.

Committed fornication... That is, idolatry.

23:4. And their names were Oolla the elder, and Ooliba her younger
sister: and I took them, and they bore sons and daughters. Now for their
names, Samaria is Oolla, and Jerusalem is Ooliba.

Oolla and Ooliba... God calls the kingdom of Israel Oolla, which
signifies their own habitation, because they separated themselves from
his temple: and the kingdom of Juda, Ooliba, which signifies his
habitation in her, because of his temple among them in Jerusalem.

23:5. And Oolla committed fornication against me, and doted on her
lovers, on the Assyrians that came to her,

On the Assyraians, etc... That is, the idols of the Assyrians: for all
that is said in this chapter of the fornications of Israel and Juda, is
to be understood in a spiritual sense, of their disloyalty to the Lord,
by worshipping strange gods.

23:6. Who were clothed with blue, princes, and rulers, beautiful youths,
all horsemen, mounted upon horses.

23:7. And she committed her fornications with those chosen men, all sons
of the Assyrians: and she defiled herself with the uncleanness of all
them on whom she doted.

23:8. Moreover also she did not forsake her fornications which she had
committed in Egypt: for they also lay with her in her youth, and they
bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured out their fornication
upon her.

23:9. Therefore have I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into
the hands of the sons of the Assyrians, upon whose lust she doted.

23:10. They discovered her disgrace, took away her sons and daughters,
and slew her with the sword: and they became infamous women, and they
executed judgments in her.

23:11. And when her sister Ooliba saw this, she was mad with lust more
than she: and she carried her fornication beyond the fornication of her
sister.

23:12. Impudently prostituting herself to the children of the Assyrians,
the princes, and rulers that came to her, clothed with divers colours,
to the horsemen that rode upon horses, and to young men all of great
beauty.

23:13. And I saw that she was defiled, and that they both took one way.

23:14. And she increased her fornications: and when she had seen men
painted on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans set forth in colours,

23:15. And girded with girdles about their reins, and with dyed turbans
on their heads, the resemblance of all the captains, the likeness of the
sons of Babylon, and of the land of the Chaldeans wherein they were
born,

23:16. She doted upon them with the lust of her eyes, and she sent
messengers to them into Chaldea.

23:17. And when the sons of Babylon were come to her to the bed of love,
they defiled her with their fornications, and she was polluted by them,
and her soul was glutted with them.

23:18. And she discovered her fornications, and discovered her disgrace:
and my soul was alienated from her, as my soul was alienated from her
sister.

23:19. For she multiplied her fornications, remembering the days of her
youth, in which she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

23:20. And she was mad with lust after lying with them whose flesh is as
the flesh of asses: and whose issue as the issue of horses.

23:21. And thou hast renewed the wickedness of thy youth, when thy
breasts were pressed in Egypt, and the paps of thy virginity broken.

23:22. Therefore, Ooliba, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will raise
up against thee all thy lovers with whom thy soul hath been glutted: and
I will gather them together against thee round about.

23:23. The children of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, the nobles, and
the kings, and princes, all the sons of the Assyrians, beautiful young
men, all the captains, and rulers, the princes of princes, and the
renowned horsemen.

23:24. And they shall come upon thee well appointed with chariot and
wheel, a multitude of people: they shall be armed against thee on every
side with breastplate, and buckler, and helmet: and I will set judgment
before them, and they shall judge thee by their judgments.

23:25. And I will set my jealousy against thee, which they shall execute
upon thee with fury: they shall cut off thy nose and thy ears: and what
remains shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons, and thy
daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by fire.

23:26. And they shall strip thee of thy garments, and take away the
instruments of thy glory.

23:27. And I will put an end to thy wickedness in thee, and thy
fornication brought out of the land of Egypt: neither shalt thou lift up
thy eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.

23:28. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver thee into the
hands of them whom thou hatest, into their hands with whom thy soul hath
been glutted.

23:29. And they shall deal with thee in hatred, and they shall take away
all thy labours, and shall let thee go naked, and full of disgrace, and
the disgrace of thy fornication shall be discovered, thy wickedness, and
thy fornications.

23:30. They have done these things to thee, because thou hast played the
harlot with the nations among which thou wast defiled with their idols.

23:31. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister and I will give her cup
into thy hand.

23:32. Thus saith the Lord God: Thou shalt drink thy sister's cup, deep
and wide: thou shalt be had in derision and scorn, which containeth very
much.

23:33. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness, and sorrow: with the cup
of grief and sadness, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

23:34. And thou shalt drink it, and shalt drink it up even to the dregs,
and thou shalt devour the fragments thereof, thou shalt rend thy
breasts: because I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

23:35. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast forgotten
me, and hast cast me off behind thy back, bear thou also thy wickedness,
and thy fornications.

23:36. And the Lord spoke to me, saying: Son of man, dost thou judge
Oolla, and Ooliba, and dost thou declare to them their wicked deeds?

23:37. Because they have committed adultery, and blood is in their
hands, and they have committed fornication with their idols: moreover
also their children, whom they bore to me, they have offered to them to
be devoured.

23:38. Yea, and they have done this to me. They polluted my sanctuary on
the same day, and profaned my sabbaths.

23:39. And when they sacrificed their children to their idols, and went
into my sanctuary the same day to profane it: they did these things even
in the midst of my house.

23:40. They sent for men coming from afar, to whom they had sent a
messenger: and behold they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, and
didst paint thy eyes, and wast adorned with women's ornaments.

23:41. Thou sattest on a very fine bed, and a table was decked before
thee: whereupon thou didst set my incense, and my ointment.

23:42. And there was in her the voice of a multitude rejoicing: and to
some that were brought of the multitude of men, and that came from the
desert, they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their
heads.

23:43. And I said to her that was worn out in her adulteries: Now will
this woman still continue in her fornication.

23:44. And they went in to her, as to a harlot: so went they in unto
Oolla, and Ooliba, wicked women.

23:45. They therefore are just men: these shall judge them as
adulteresses are judged, and as shedders of blood are judged: because
they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

23:46. For thus saith the Lord God: Bring a multitude upon them, and
deliver them over to tumult and rapine:

23:47. And let the people stone them with stone, and let them be stabbed
with their swords: they shall kill their sons and daughters, and their
houses they shall burn with fire.

23:48. And I will take away wickedness out of the land: and all women
shall learn, not to do according to the wickedness of them.

23:49. And they shall render your wickedness upon you, and you shall
bear the sins of your idols: and you shall know that I am the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 24

Under the parable of a boiling pot is shewn the utter destruction of
Jerusalem: for which the Jews at Babylon shall not dare to mourn.

24:1. And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the
tenth month, the tenth day of the month, saying:

24:2. Son of man, write thee the name of this day, on which the king of
Babylon hath set himself against Jerusalem to day.

24:3. And thou shalt speak by a figure a parable to the provoking house,
and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Set on a pot, set it on, I
say, and put water in it.

24:4. Heap together into it the pieces thereof, every good piece, the
thigh and the shoulder, choice pieces and full of bones.

24:5. Take the fattest of the flock, and lay together piles of bones
under it: the seething thereof is boiling hot, and the bones thereof are
thoroughly sodden in the midst of it.

24:6. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the
pot whose rust is in it, and its rust is not gone out of it: cast it out
piece by piece, there hath no lot fallen upon it.

24:7. For her blood is in the midst of her, she hath shed it upon the
smooth rock: she hath not shed it upon the ground, that it might be
covered with dust.

24:8. And that I might bring my indignation upon her, and take my
vengeance: I have shed her blood upon the smooth rock, that it should
not be covered.

24:9. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, of
which I will make a great bonfire.

24:10. Heap together the bones, which I will burn with fire: the flesh
shall be consumed, and the whole composition shall be sodden, and the
bones shall be consumed.

24:11. Then set it empty upon burning coals, that it may be hot, and the
brass thereof may be melted: and let the filth of it be melted in the
midst thereof, and let the rust of it be consumed.

24:12. Great pains have been taken, and the great rust thereof is not
gone out, not even by fire.

24:13. Thy uncleanness is execrable: because I desired to cleanse thee,
and thou art not cleansed from thy filthiness: neither shalt thou be
cleansed, before I cause my indignation to rest in thee.

24:14. I the Lord have spoken: it shall come to pass, and I will do it:
I will not pass by, nor spare, nor be pacified: I will judge thee
according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, saith the Lord.

24:15. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

24:16. Son of man, behold I take from thee the desire of thy eyes with a
stroke, and thou shall not lament, nor weep; neither shall thy tears run
down.

24:17. Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead: let the tire of
thy head be upon thee, and thy shoes on thy feet, and cover not thy
face, nor eat the meat of mourners.

24:18. So I spoke to the people in the morning, and my wife died in the
evening: and I did in the morning as he had commanded me.

24:19. And the people said to me: Why dost thou not tell us what these
things mean that thou doest?

24:20. And I said to them: The word of the Lord came to me, saying:

24:21. Speak to the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I
will profane my sanctuary, the glory of your realm, and the thing that
your eyes desire, and for which your soul feareth: your sons, and your
daughters, whom you have left, shall fall by the sword.

24:22. And you shall do as I have done: you shall not cover your faces,
nor shall you eat the meat of mourners.

24:23. You shall have crowns on your heads, and shoes on your feet: you
shall not lament nor weep, but you shall pine away for your iniquities,
and every one shall sigh with his brother.

24:24. And Ezechiel shall be unto you for a sign of things to come:
according to all that he hath done, so shall you do, when this shall
come to pass: and you shall know that I am the Lord God.

24:25. And thou, O son of man, behold in the day wherein I will take
away from them their strength, and the joy of their glory, and the
desire of their eyes, upon which their souls rest, their sons and their
daughters.

24:26. In that day when he that escapeth shall come to thee, to tell
thee:

24:27. In that day, I say, shall thy mouth be opened to him that hath
escaped, and thou shalt speak, and shalt be silent no more: and thou
shalt be unto them for a sign of things to come, and you shall know that
I am the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 25

A prophecy against the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Philistines,
for their malice against the Israelites.

25:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

25:2. Son of man, set thy face against the children of Ammon, and thou
shalt prophesy of them.

25:3. And thou shalt say to the children of Ammon: Hear ye the word of
the Lord God: Thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast said: Ha, ha,
upon my sanctuary, because it was profaned: and upon the land of Israel,
because it was laid waste: and upon the house of Juda, because they are
led into captivity:

25:4. Therefore will I deliver thee to the men of the east for an
inheritance, and they shall place their sheepcotes in thee, and shall
set up their tents in thee: they shall eat thy fruits: and they shall
drink thy milk.

25:5. And I will make Rabbath a stable for camels, and the children of
Ammon a couching place for flocks: and you shall know that I am the
Lord.

Rabbath... The capital city of the Ammonites: it was afterwards called
Philadelphia.

25:6. For thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast clapped thy hands
and stamped with thy foot, and hast rejoiced with all thy heart against
the land of Israel:

25:7. Therefore behold I will stretch forth my hand upon thee, and will
deliver thee to be the spoil of nations, and will cut thee off from
among the people, and destroy thee out of the lands, and break thee in
pieces: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

25:8. Thus saith the Lord God: Because Moab and Seir have said: Behold
the house of Juda is like all other nations:

25:9. Therefore behold I will open the shoulder of Moab from the cities,
from his cities, I say, and his borders, the noble cities of the land of
Bethiesimoth, and Beelmeon, and Cariathaim,

25:10. To the people of the east with the children of Ammon, and I will
give it them for an inheritance: that there may be no more any
remembrance of the children of Ammon among the nations.

25:11. And I will execute judgments in Moab: and they shall know that I
am the Lord.

25:12. Thus saith the Lord God: Because Edom hath taken vengeance to
revenge herself of the children of Juda, and hath greatly offended, and
hath sought revenge of them:

25:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: I will stretch forth my hand
upon Edom, and will take away out of it man and beast, and will make it
desolate from the south: and they that are in Dedan shall fall by the
sword.

25:14. And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people
Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to my wrath, and my fury:
and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God.

25:15. Thus saith the Lord God: Because the Philistines have taken
vengeance, and have revenged themselves with all their mind, destroying
and satisfying old enmities:

25:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will stretch forth my
hand upon the Philistines, and will kill the killers, and will destroy
the remnant of the sea coast.

25:17. And I will execute great vengeance upon them, rebuking them in
fury: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my
vengeance upon them.

Ezechiel Chapter 26

A prophecy of the destruction of the famous city of Tyre by
Nabuchodonosor.

26:1. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, the first day of the
month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

26:2. Son of man, because Tyre hath said of Jerusalem: Aha, the gates of
the people are broken, she is turned to me: I shall be filled, now she
is laid waste.

26:3. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against thee, O
Tyre, and I will cause many nations to come up to thee, as the waves of
the sea rise up.

26:4. And they shall break down the walls of Tyre, and destroy the
towers thereof: and I will scrape her dust from her, and make her like a
smooth rock.

26:5. She shall be a drying place for nets in the midst of the sea,
because I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and she shall be a spoil
to the nations.

26:6. Her daughters also that are in the field, shall be slain by the
sword: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

26:7. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will bring against Tyre
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, the king of kings, from the north, with
horses, and chariots, and horsemen, and companies, and much people.

26:8. Thy daughters that are in the field, he shall kill with the sword:
and he shall compass thee with forts, and shall cast up a mount round
about: and he shall lift up the buckler against thee.

26:9. And he shall set engines of war and battering rams against thy
walls, and shall destroy thy towers with his arms.

26:10. By reason of the multitude of his horses, their dust shall cover
thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and wheels,
and chariots, when they shall go in at thy gates, as by the entrance of
a city that is destroyed.

26:11. With the hoofs of his horses he shall tread down all thy streets,
thy people he shall kill with the sword, and thy famous statues shall
fall to the ground.

26:12. They shall waste thy riches, they shall make a spoil of thy
merchandise: and they shall destroy thy walls, and pull down thy fine
houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber, and thy dust in
the midst of the waters.

26:13. And I will make the multitude of thy songs to cease, and the
sound of thy harps shall be heard no more.

26:14. And I will make thee like a naked rock, thou shalt be a drying
place for nets, neither shalt thou be built any more: for I have spoken
it, saith the Lord God.

26:15. Thus saith the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the islands shake at
the sound of thy fall, and the groans of thy slain when they shall be
killed in the midst of thee?

26:16. Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their
thrones: and take off their robes, and cast away their broidered
garments, and be clothed with astonishment: they shall sit on the
ground, and with amazement shall wonder at thy sudden fall.

26:17. And taking up a lamentation over thee, they shall say to thee:
How art thou fallen, that dwellest in the sea, renowned city that wast
strong in the sea, with thy inhabitants whom all did dread?

26:18. Now shall the ships be astonished in the day of thy terror: and
the islands in the sea shall be troubled because no one cometh out of
thee.

26:19. For thus saith the Lord God: When I shall make thee a desolate
city like the cities that are not inhabited: and shall bring the deep
upon thee, and many waters shall cover thee:

26:20. And when I shall bring thee down with those that descend into the
pit to the everlasting people, and shall set thee in the lowest parts of
the earth, as places desolate of old, with them that are brought down
into the pit, that thou be not inhabited: and when I shall give glory in
the land of the living,

26:21. I will bring thee to nothing, and thou shalt not be, and if thou
be sought for, thou shalt not be found any more for ever, saith the Lord
God.

Ezechiel Chapter 27

A description of the glory and riches of Tyre: and of her irrecoverable
fall.

27:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

27:2. Thou therefore, O son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyre:

27:3. And say to Tyre that dwelleth at the entry of the sea, being the
mart of the people for many islands: Thus saith the Lord God: O Tyre,
thou hast said: I am of perfect beauty,

27:4. And situate in the heart of the sea. Thy neighbours, that built
thee, have perfected thy beauty:

27:5. With fir trees of Sanir they have built thee with all sea planks:
they have taken cedars from Libanus to make thee masts.

Sea planks... That is, timber brought by sea to build the city.

27:6. They have cut thy oars out of the oaks of Basan: and they have
made thee benches of Indian ivory and cabins with things brought from
the islands of Italy.

27:7. Fine broidered linen from Egypt was woven for thy sail, to be
spread on thy mast: blue and purple from the islands of Elisa, were made
thy covering.

27:8. The inhabitants of Sidon, and the Arabians were thy rowers: thy
wise men, O Tyre, were thy pilots.

27:9. The ancients of Gebal, and the wise men thereof furnished mariners
for the service of thy various furniture: all the ships of the sea, and
their mariners were thy factors.

27:10. The Persians, and Lydians, and the Libyans were thy soldiers in
thy army: they hung up the buckler and the helmet in thee for thy
ornament.

27:11. The men of Arad were with thy army upon thy walls round about:
the Pygmeans also that were in thy towers, hung up their quivers on thy
walls round about: they perfected thy beauty.

Pygmeans... That is, strong and valiant men. In Hebrew, Gammadim.

27:12. The Carthaginians thy merchants supplied thy fairs with a
multitude of all kinds of riches, with silver, iron, tin, and lead,

27:13. Greece, Thubal, and Mosoch, they were thy merchants, they brought
to thy people slaves and vessels of brass.

27:14. From the house of Thogorma they brought horses, and horsemen, and
mules to thy market.

27:15. The men of Dedan were thy merchants: many islands were the
traffic of thy hand, they exchanged for thy price teeth of ivory and
ebony.

27:16. The Syrian was thy merchant: by reason of the multitude of thy
works, they set forth precious stories, and purple, and broidered works,
and fine linen, and silk, and chodchod in thy market.

Chodchod... It is the Hebrew name for some precious stone; but of what
kind in particular interpreters are not agreed.

27:17. Juda and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants with the
best corn: they set forth balm, and honey, and oil and rosin in thy
fairs.

27:18. The men of Damascus were thy merchants in the multitude of thy
works, the multitude of divers riches, in rich wine, in wool of the best
colour.

27:19. Dan, and Greece, and Mosel have set forth in thy marts wrought
iron: stacte, and calamus were in thy market.

27:20. The men of Dedan were thy merchants in tapestry for seats.

27:21. Arabia, and all the princes of Cedar, they were the merchants of
thy hand: thy merchants came to thee with lambs, and rams, and kids.

27:22. The sellers of Saba, and Reema, they were thy merchants: with all
the best spices, and precious stones, and gold, which they set forth in
thy market.

27:23. Haran, and Chene, and Eden were thy merchants; Saba, Assur, and
Chelmad sold to thee.

27:24. They were thy merchants in divers manners, with bales of blue
cloth, and of embroidered work, and of precious riches, which were
wrapped up and bound with cords: they had cedars also in thy
merchandise.

27:25. The ships of the sea, were thy chief in thy merchandise: and thou
wast replenished, and glorified exceedingly in the heart of the sea.

27:26. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the south wind
hath broken thee in the heart of the sea.

27:27. Thy riches, and thy treasures, and thy manifold furniture, thy
mariners, and thy pilots, who kept thy goods, and were chief over thy
people: thy men of war also, that were in thee, with all thy multitude
that is in the midst of thee: shall fall in the heart of the sea in the
day of thy ruin.

27:28. Thy fleets shall be troubled at the sound of the cry of thy
pilots.

27:29. And all that handled the oar shall come down from their ships:
the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea shall stand upon the land:

27:30. And they shall mourn over thee with a loud voice and shall cry
bitterly: and they shall cast up dust upon their heads and shall be
sprinkled with ashes.

27:31. And they shall shave themselves bald for thee, and shall be
girded with haircloth: and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of
soul, with most bitter weeping.

27:32. And they shall take up a mournful song for thee, and shall lament
thee: What city is like Tyre, which is become silent in the midst of the
sea?

27:33. Which by thy merchandise that went from thee by sea didst fill
many people: which by the multitude of thy riches, and of thy people
didst enrich the kings of the earth.

27:34. Now thou art destroyed by the sea, thy riches are in the bottom
of the waters, and all the multitude that was in the midst of thee is
fallen.

27:35. All the inhabitants of the islands are astonished at thee: and
all their kings being struck with the storm have changed their
countenance.

27:36. The merchants of people have hissed at thee: thou art brought to
nothing, and thou shalt never be any more.

Ezechiel Chapter 28

The king of Tyre, who affected to be like to God, shall fall under the
like sentence with Lucifer. The judgment of Sidon. The restoration of
Israel.

28:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

28:2. Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre: Thus saith the Lord God:
Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said: I am God, and I sit
in the chair of God in the heart of the sea: whereas thou art a man, and
not God: and hast set thy heart as if it were the heart of God.

28:3. Behold thou art wiser than Daniel: no secret is hid from thee.

Thou art wiser than Daniel... Viz., in thy own conceit. The wisdom of
Daniel was so much celebrated in his days, that it became a proverb
amongst the Chaldeans, when any one would express an extraordinary
wisdom, to say he was as wise as Daniel.

28:4. In thy wisdom and thy understanding thou hast made thyself strong:
and hast gotten gold an silver into thy treasures.

28:5. By the greatness of thy wisdom, and by thy traffic thou hast
increased thy strength: and thy heart is lifted up with thy strength.

28:6. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Because thy heart is lifted up
as the heart of God:

28:7. Therefore behold, I will bring upon thee strangers: the strongest
of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of
thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy beauty.

28:8. They shall kill thee, and bring thee down: and thou shalt die the
death of them that are slain in the heart of the sea.

28:9. Wilt thou yet say before them that slay thee: I am God; whereas
thou art a man, and not God, in the hand of them that slay thee?

28:10. Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of
strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

28:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up
a lamentation upon the king of Tyre:

28:12. And say to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Thou wast the seal of
resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

Thou wast the seal of resemblance... The king of Tyre, by his dignity
and his natural perfections, bore in himself a certain resemblance to
God, by reason of which he might be called the seal of resemblance, etc.
But what is here said to him is commonly understood of Lucifer, the king
over all the children of pride.

28:13. Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God: every precious
stone was thy covering: the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the
chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the
carbuncle, and the emerald: gold the work of thy beauty: and thy pipes
were prepared in the day that thou wast created.

28:14. Thou a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set thee in
the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked in the midst of the stones of
fire.

A cherub stretched out... That is, thy wings extended. This alludes to
the figure of the cherubims in the sanctuary, which with stretched out
wings covered the ark.-Ibid. The stones of fire... That is, bright and
precious stones which sparkle like fire.

28:15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until
iniquity was found in thee.

28:16. By the multitude of thy merchandise, thy inner parts were filled
with iniquity, and thou hast sinned: and I cast thee out from the
mountain of God, and destroyed thee, O covering cherub, out of the midst
of the stones of fire.

28:17. And thy heart was lifted up with thy beauty: thou hast lost thy
wisdom in thy beauty, I have cast thee to the ground: I have set thee
before the face of kings, that they might behold thee.

28:18. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thy
iniquities, and by the iniquity of thy traffic: therefore I will bring
forth a fire from the midst of thee, to devour thee, and I will make
thee as ashes upon the earth in the sight of all that see thee.

28:19. All that shall see thee among the nations, shall be astonished at
thee: thou art brought to nothing, and thou shalt never be any more.

28:20. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

28:21. Son of man, set thy face against Sidon: and thou shalt prophesy
of it,

28:22. And shalt say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against
thee, Sidon, and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they
shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall execute judgments in her,
and shall be sanctified in her.

28:23. And I will send into her pestilence, and blood in her streets:
and they shall fall being slain by the sword on all sides in the midst
thereof: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

28:24. And the house of Israel shall have no more a stumblingblock of
bitterness, nor a thorn causing pain on every side round about them, of
them that are against them: and they shall know that I am the Lord God.

28:25. Thus saith the Lord God: When I shall have gathered together the
house of Israel out of the people among whom they are scattered: I will
be sanctified in them before the Gentiles: and they shall dwell in their
own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob.

28:26. And they shall dwell therein secure, and they shall build houses,
and shall plant vineyards, and shall dwell with confidence, when I shall
have executed judgments upon all that are their enemies round about: and
they shall know that I am the Lord their God.

Ezechiel Chapter 29

The king of Egypt shall be overthrown, and his kingdom wasted: it shall
be given to Nabuchodonosor for his service against Tyre.

29:1. In the tenth year, the tenth month, the eleventh day of the month,
the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

29:2. Son of man, set thy face against Pharao king of Egypt: and thou
shalt prophesy of him, and of all Egypt:

29:3. Speak, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against
thee, Pharao king of Egypt, thou great dragon that liest in the midst of
thy rivers, and sayest: The river is mine, and I made myself.

29:4. But I will put a bridle in thy jaws: and I will cause the fish of
thy rivers to stick to thy scales: and I will draw thee out of the midst
of thy rivers, and all thy fish shall stick to thy scales.

29:5. And I will cast thee forth into the desert, and all the fish of
thy river: thou shalt fall upon the face of the earth, thou shalt not be
taken up, nor gathered together: I have given thee for meat to the
beasts of the earth, and to the fowls of the air.

29:6. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord:
because thou hast been a staff of a reed to the house of Israel.

29:7. When they took hold of thee with the hand thou didst break, and
rent all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brokest,
and weakenest all their loins.

29:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will bring the sword
upon thee: and cut off man and beast out of thee.

29:9. And the land of Egypt shall become a desert, and a wilderness: and
they shall know that I am the Lord, because thou hast said: The river is
mine, and I made it.

29:10. Therefore, behold I come against thee, and thy rivers: and I will
make the land of Egypt utterly desolate, and wasted by the sword, from
the tower of Syene, even to the borders of Ethiopia.

29:11. The foot of man shall not pass through it, neither shall the foot
of beasts go through it: nor shall it be inhabited during forty years.

29:12. And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the
lands that are desolate, and the cities thereof in the midst of the
cites that are destroyed, and they shall be desolate for forty years:
and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse
them through the countries.

29:13. For thus saith the Lord God: At the end of forty years I will
gather the Egyptians from the people among whom they had been scattered.

29:14. And I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will place them
in the land of Phatures, in the land of their nativity, and they shall
be there a low kingdom:

29:15. It shall be the lowest among other kingdoms, and it shall no more
be exalted over the nations, and I will diminish them that they shall
rule no more over the nations.

29:16. And they shall be no more a confidence to the house of Israel,
teaching iniquity, that they may flee, and follow them: and they shall
know that I am the Lord God.

29:17. And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year in the first
month, in the first of the month: that the word of the Lord came to me,
saying:

29:18. Son of man, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath made his army to
undergo hard service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every
shoulder was peeled and there hath been no reward given him, nor his
army for Tyre, for the service that he rendered me against it.

29:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will set
Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon in the land of Egypt: and he shall
take her multitude, and take the booty thereof for a prey, and rifle the
spoils thereof: and it shall be wages for his army.

29:20. And for the service that he hath done me against it: I have given
him the land of Egypt, because he hath laboured for me, saith the Lord
God.

29:21. In that day a horn shall bud forth to the house of Israel, and I
will give thee an open mouth in the midst of them: and they shall know
that I am the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 30

The desolation of Egypt and her helpers: all her cities shall be wasted.

30:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

30:2. Son of man prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Howl ye,
Woe, woe to the day:

30:3. For the day is near, yea the day of the Lord is near: a cloudy
day, it shall be the time of the nations.

30:4. And the sword shall come upon Egypt: and there shall be dread in
Ethiopia, when the wounded shall fall in Egypt, and the multitude
thereof shall be taken away, and the foundations thereof shall be
destroyed.

30:5. Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the rest of the crowd, and
Chub, and the children of the land of the covenant, shall fall with them
by the sword.

30:6. Thus saith the Lord God: They also that uphold Egypt shall fall,
and the pride of her empire shall be brought down: from the tower of
Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord the God of
hosts.

30:7. And they shall be desolate in the midst of the lands that are
desolate, and the cities thereof shall be in the midst of the cities
that are wasted.

30:8. And they shall know that I am the Lord: when I shall have set a
fire in Egypt, and all the helpers thereof shall be destroyed.

30:9. In that day shall messengers go forth from my face in ships to
destroy the confidence of Ethiopia, and there shall be dread among them
in the day of Egypt: because it shall certainly come.

30:10. Thus saith the Lord God: I will make the multitude of Egypt to
cease by the hand of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon.

30:11. He and his people with him, the strongest of nations, shall be
brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords upon
Egypt: and shall fill the land with the slain.

30:12. And I will make the channels of the rivers dry, and will deliver
the land into the hand of the wicked: and will lay waste the land and
all that is therein by the hands of strangers, I the Lord have spoken
it.

30:13. Thus saith the Lord God: I will also destroy the idols, and I
will make an end of the idols of Memphis: and there shall: be no more a
prince of the land of Egypt and I will cause a terror in the land of
Egypt.

30:14. And I will destroy the land of Phatures, and will make a fire in
Taphnis, and will execute judgments in Alexandria.

Alexandria... In the Hebrew, No: which was the ancient name of that
city, which was afterwards rebuilt by Alexander the Great, and from his
name called Alexandria.

30:15. And I will pour out my indignation upon Pelusium the strength of
Egypt, and will cut off the multitude of Alexandria.

30:16. And I will make a fire in Egypt: Pelusium shall be in pain like a
woman in labour, and Alexandria shall be laid waste, and in Memphis
there shall be daily distresses.

30:17. The young men of Heliopolis, and of Bubastus shall fall by the
sword, and they themselves shall go into captivity.

30:18. And in Taphnis the day shall be darkened, when I shall break
there the sceptres of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall cease in
her: a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall be led into
captivity.

30:19. And I will execute judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I
am the Lord.

30:20. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in
the seventh day of the month, that the word of the Lord came, me,
saying:

30:21. Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharao king of Egypt: and
behold it is not bound up, to be healed, to be tied up with clothes, and
swathed with linen, that it might recover strength, and hold the sword.

30:22. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against Pharao
king of Egypt, and I will break into pieces his strong arm, which is
already broken: and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand:

30:23. And I will disperse Egypt among the nations, and scatter them
through the countries.

30:24. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and will
put my sword in his hand: and I will break the arms of Pharao, and they
shall groan bitterly being slain before his face.

30:25. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the
arms of Pharao shall fall: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when
I shall have given my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he
shall have stretched it forth upon the land of Egypt.

30:26. And I will disperse Egypt among the nations, and will scatter
them through the countries, and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 31

The Assyrian empire fell for their pride: the Egyptian shall fall in
like manner.

31:1. And it came to pass, in the eleventh year, the third month the
first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

31:2. Son of man, speak to Pharao king of Egypt, and to his people: To
whom art thou like in thy greatness?

31:3. Behold, the Assyrian like a cedar in Libanus, with fair branches,
and full of leaves, of a high stature, and his top was elevated among
the thick boughs.

31:4. The waters nourished him, the deep set him tip on high, the
streams thereof ran round about his roots, and it sent, forth its
rivulets to all the trees of the country.

31:5. Therefore was his height exalted above all the trees of the
country and his branches were multiplied, and his boughs were elevated
because of many waters.

31:6. And when he had spread forth his shadow, all the fowls of the air
made their nests in his boughs, and all the beasts of the forest brought
forth their young under his branches, and the assembly of many nations
dwelt under his shadow.

31:7. And he was most beautiful for his greatness, and for the spreading
of his branches: for his root was near great waters.

31:8. The cedars in the paradise of God were not higher than he, the fir
trees did not equal his top, neither were the plane trees to be compared
with him for branches: no tree in the paradise of God was like him in
his beauty.

31:9. For I made him beautiful and thick set with many branches: and all
the trees of pleasure, that were in the paradise of God, envied him.

31:10. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because he was exalted in
height, and shot up his top green and thick, and his heart was lifted up
in his height:

31:11. I have delivered him into the hands of the mighty one of the
nations, he shall deal with him: I have cast him out according to his
wickedness.

I have delivered... Here the time past is put for the future, i. e.,
I shall deliver.--Ibid. The mighty one, etc... Viz., Nabuchodonosor, who
conquered both the Assyrians and Egyptians.

31:12. And strangers, and the most cruel of the nations shall cut him
down, and cast him away upon the mountains, and his boughs shall fall in
every valley, and his branches shall be broken on every rock of the
country: and all the people of the earth shall depart from his shadow,
and leave him.

31:13. All the fowls of the air dwelt upon his ruins, and all the beasts
of the field were among his branches.

31:14. For which cause none of the trees by the waters shall exalt
themselves for their height: nor shoot up their tops among the thick
branches and leaves, neither shall any of them that are watered stand up
in their height: for they are all delivered unto death to the lowest
parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that
go down into the pit.

31:15. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when he went down to hell, I
brought in mourning, I covered him with the deep: and I withheld its
rivers, and restrained the many waters: Libanus grieved for him, and all
the trees of the field trembled.

31:16. I shook the nations with the sound of his fall, when I brought
him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees
of pleasure, the choice and best in Libanus, all that were moistened
with waters, were comforted in the lowest parts of the earth.

31:17. For they also shall go down with him to hell to them that are
slain by the sword; and the arm of every one shall sit down under his
shadow in the midst of the nations.

31:18. To whom art thou like, O thou that art famous and lofty among the
trees of pleasure? Behold, thou art brought down with the trees of
pleasure to the lowest parts of the earth: thou shalt sleep in the midst
of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword: this is
Pharao, and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 32

The prophet's lamentation for the king of Egypt.

32:1. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in
the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me,
saying:

32:2. Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharao the king of Egypt,
and say to him: Thou art like the lion of the nations, and the dragon
that is in the sea: and thou didst push with the horn in thy rivers, and
didst trouble the waters with thy feet, and didst trample upon their
streams.

32:3. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: I will spread out my net over
thee with the multitude of many people, and I will draw thee up in my
net.

32:4. And I will throw thee out on the land, I will cast thee away into
the open field and I will cause all the fowls of the air to dwell upon
thee, and I will fill the beasts of all the earth with thee.

32:5. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and will fill thy
hills with thy corruption,

32:6. And I will water the earth with thy stinking blood upon the
mountains, and the valleys shall be filled with thee.

32:7. And I will cover the heavens, when thou shalt be put out, and I
will make the stars thereof dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and
the moon shall not give her light.

32:8. I will make all the lights of heaven to mourn over thee and I will
cause darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God, when thy wounded shall
fall in the midst of the land, saith the Lord God.

32:9. And I shall provoke to anger the heart of many people, when I
shall have brought in thy destruction among the nations upon the lands,
which thou knowest not.

32:10. And I will make many people to be amazed at thee, and their kings
shall be horribly afraid for thee, when my sword shall begin to fly upon
their faces: and they shall be astonished on a sudden, every one for his
own life, in the day of their ruin.

32:11. For thus saith the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon
shall come upon thee,

32:12. By the swords of the mighty I will overthrow thy multitude: all
these nations are invincible: and they shall waste the pride of Egypt,
and the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.

32:13. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof that were beside the
great waters: and the foot of man shall trouble them no more, neither
shall the hoof of beasts trouble them.

32:14. Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to
run like oil, saith the Lord God:

32:15. When I shall have made the land of Egypt desolate: and the land
shall be destitute of her fulness, when I shall have struck all the
inhabitants thereof and they shall know that I am the Lord.

32:16. This is the lamentation, and they shall lament therewith: the
daughters of the nations shall lament therewith for Egypt, and for the
multitude thereof they shall lament therewith, saith the Lord God.

32:17. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of
the month, that the word of the Lord came to me saying:

32:18. Son of man, sing a mournful song for the multitude of Egypt: and
cast her down, both her, and the daughters of the mighty nations to the
lowest part of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.

32:19. Whom dost thou excel in beauty? go down and sleep with the
uncircumcised.

32:20. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain with the
sword: the sword is given, they have drawn her down, and all her people.

32:21. The most mighty among the strong ones shall speak to him from the
midst of hell, they that went down with his helpers and slept
uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

32:22. Assur is there, and all his multitude: their graves are round
about him, all of them slain, and that fell by the sword.

32:23. Whose graves are set in the lowest parts of the pit: and his
multitude lay round about his grave: all of them slain, and fallen by
the sword, they that heretofore spread terror in the land of the living.

32:24. There is Elam and all his multitude round about his grave, all of
them slain, and fallen by the sword; that went down uncircumcised to the
lowest parts of the earth: that caused their terror in the land of the
living, and they have borne their shame with them that go down into the
pit.

32:25. In the midst of the slain they have set him a bed among all his
people: their graves are round about him: all these are uncircumcised,
and slain by the sword: for they spread their terror in the land of the
living, and have borne their shame with them that descend into the pit:
they are laid in the midst of the slain.

32:26. There is Mosoch, and Thubal, and all their multitude: their
graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised and slain, and
fallen by the sword: though they spread their terror in the land of the
living.

32:27. And they shall not sleep with the brave, and with them that fell
uncircumcised, that went down to hell with their weapons, and laid their
swords under their heads, and their iniquities were in their bones,
because they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

32:28. So thou also shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised,
and shalt sleep with them that are slain by the sword.

32:29. There is Edom, and her kings, and all her princes, who with their
army are joined with them that are slain by the sword: and have slept
with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down into the pit.

32:30. There are all the princes of the north, and all the hunters: who
were brought down with the slain, fearing, and confounded in their
strength: who slept uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword,
and have borne their shame with them that go down into the pit.

32:31. Pharao saw them, and he was comforted concerning all his
multitude, which was slain by the sword: Pharao, and all his army, saith
the Lord God:

32:32. Because I have spread my terror in the land of the living, and he
hath slept in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain by
the sword: Pharao and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 33

The duty of the watchman appointed by God: the justice of God's ways:
his judgments upon the Jews.

33:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

33:2. Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say to them:
When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a
man, one of their meanest, and make him a watchman over them:

33:3. And he sees the sword coming upon the land, and sound the trumpet,
and tell the people:

33:4. Then he that heareth the sound of the trumpet, whosoever he be,
and doth not look to himself, if the sword come, and cut him off: his
blood shall be upon his own head.

33:5. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and did not look to himself,
his blood shall be upon him: but if he look to himself, he shall save
his life.

33:6. And if the watchman see the sword coming, and sound not the
trumpet: and the people look not to themselves, and the sword come, and
cut off a soul from among them: he indeed is taken away in his iniquity,
but I will require his blood at the hand of the watchman.

33:7. So thou, O son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of
Israel: therefore thou shalt hear the word from my mouth, and shalt tell
it them from me.

33:8. When I say to the wicked: O wicked man, thou shalt surely die: if
thou dost not speak to warn the wicked man from his way: that wicked man
shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand.

33:9. But if thou tell the wicked man, that he may be converted from his
ways, and he be not converted from his way he shall die in his iniquity:
but thou hast delivered thy soul.

33:10. Thou therefore, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: Thus
you have spoken, saying: Our iniquities, and our sins are upon us, and
we pine away in them: how then can we live?

33:11. Say to them: As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the
death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.
Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die, O house of
Israel?

33:12. Thou therefore, O son of man, say to the children of thy people:
The justice of the just shall not deliver him, in what day soever he
shall sin: and the wickedness of the wicked shall not hurt him, in what
day soever he shall turn from his wickedness: and the just shall not be
able to live in his justice, in what day soever he shall sin.

33:13. Yea, if I shall say to the just that he shall surely live, and
he, trusting in his justice, commit iniquity: all his justices shall be
forgotten, and his iniquity, which he hath committed, in the same shall
he die.

33:14. And it I shall say to the wicked: Thou shalt surely die: and he
do penance for his sin, and do judgment and justice,

33:15. And if that wicked man restore the pledge, and render what he had
robbed, and walk in the commandments of life, and do no unjust thing: he
shall surely live, and shall not die.

33:16. None of his sins, which he hath committed, shall be imputed to
him: he hath done judgment and justice, he shall surely live.

33:17. And the children of thy people have said: The way of the Lord is
not equitable: whereas their own way is unjust.

33:18. For when the just shall depart from his justice, and commit
iniquities, he shall die in them.

33:19. And when the wicked shall depart from his wickedness, and shall
do judgments, and justice, he shall live in them.

33:20. And you say: The way of the Lord is not right, I will judge every
one of you according to his ways, O house of Israel.

33:21. And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the
tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that there came to me one
that was fled from Jerusalem, saying: The city is laid waste.

33:22. And the hand of the Lord had been upon me in the evening, before
he that was fled came: and he opened my mouth till he came to me in the
morning, and my mouth being opened, I was silent no more.

33:23. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

33:24. Son of man, they that dwell in these ruinous places in the land
of Israel, speak, saying: Abraham was one, and he inherited the land,
but we are many, the land is given us in possession.

33:25. Therefore say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: You that eat with
the blood and lift up your eyes to your uncleannesses, and that shed
blood: shall you possess the land by inheritance?

33:26. You stood on your swords, you have committed abominations, and
every one hath defiled his neighbours wife; and shall you possess the
land by inheritance?

33:27. Say thou thus to them: Thus saith the Lord God: As I live, they
that dwell in the ruinous places, shall fall by the sword: and he that
is in the field, shall be given to the beasts to be devoured: and they
that are in holds, and caves, shall die of the pestilence.

33:28. And I will make the land a wilderness, and a desert, and the
proud strength thereof shall fail, and the mountains of Israel shall be
desolate, because there is none to pass by them,

33:29. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have made
their land waste and desolate, for all their abominations which they
have committed.

33:30. And thou son of man: the children of thy people, that talk of
thee by the walls, and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to
another each man to his neighbour, saying: Come, and let us hear what is
the word that cometh forth from the Lord.

33:31. And they come to thee, as if people were coming in, and my people
sit before thee: and hear thy words, and do them not: for they turn them
into a song of their mouth, and their heart goeth after their
covetousness.

33:32. And thou art to them as a musical song which is sung with a sweet
and agreeable voice: and they hear thy words, and do them not.

33:33. And when that which was foretold shall come to pass, for behold
it is coming, then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.

Ezechiel Chapter 34

Evil pastors are reproved. Christ the true pastor shall come, and gather
together his flock from all parts of the earth, and preserve it for
ever.

34:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, it saying:

34:2. Son of man, prophesy concerning the shepherds of Israel: prophesy,
and say to the shepherds: Thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the shepherds
of Israel, that fed themselves: should not the flocks be fed by the
shepherds?

Shepherds... That is, princes, magistrates, chief priests, and scribes.

34:3. You ate the milk, and you clothed yourselves with the wool, and
you killed that which was fat: but my flock you did not feed.

34:4. The weak you have not strengthened, and that which was sick you
have not healed, that which was broken you have not bound up, and that
which was driven away you have not brought again, neither have you
sought that which was lost: but you ruled over them with rigour, and
with a high hand.

34:5. And my sheep were scattered, because there was no shepherd and
they became the prey of all the beasts of the field, and were scattered.

34:6. My sheep have wandered in every mountain, and in every high hill:
and my flocks were scattered upon the face of the earth, and there was
none that sought them, there was none, I say, that sought them.

34:7. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

34:8. As I live, saith the Lord God, forasmuch as my flocks have been
made a spoil, and my sheep are become a prey to all the beasts of the
field, because there was no shepherd: for my shepherds did not seek
after my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flocks:

34:9. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:

34:10. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I myself come upon the shepherds,
I will require my flock at their hand, and I will cause them to cease
from feeding the flock any more, neither shall the shepherds feed
themselves any more: and I will deliver my flock from their mouth, and
it shall no more be meat for them.

34:11. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold I myself will seek my sheep,
and will visit them.

34:12. As the shepherd visiteth his flock in the day when he shall be in
the midst of his sheep that were scattered, so will I visit my sheep,
and will deliver them out of all the places where they have been
scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

34:13. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and will gather them
out of the countries, and will bring them to their own land: and I will
feed them in the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the
habitations of the land.

34:14. I will feed them in the most fruitful pastures, and their
pastures shall be in the high mountains of Israel: there shall they rest
on the green grass, and be fed in fat pastures upon the mountains of
Israel.

34:15. I will feed my sheep: and I will cause them to lie down, saith
the Lord God.

34:16. I will seek that which was lost: and that which was driven away,
I will bring again: and I will bind up that which was broken, and I will
strengthen that which was weak, and that which was fat and strong I will
preserve, and I will feed them in judgment.

34:17. And as for you, O my flocks, thus saith the Lord God: Behold I
judge between cattle and cattle, of rams and of he goats.

34:18. Was it not enough for you to feed upon good pastures? but you
must also tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures: and
when you drank the clearest water, you troubled the rest with your feet.

34:19. And my sheep were fed with that which you had trodden with your
feet: and they drank what your feet had troubled.

34:20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God to you: Behold, I myself will
judge between the fat cattle and the lean.

34:21. Because you thrusted with sides and shoulders, and struck all the
weak cattle with your horns, till they were scattered abroad:

34:22. I will save my flock, and it shall be no more a spoil, and I will
judge between cattle and cattle.

34:23. And I WILL SET UP ONE SHEPHERD OVER THEM, and he shall feed them,
even my servant David: he shall feed them, and he shall be their
shepherd.

David... Christ, who is of the house of David.

34:24. And I the Lord will be their God: and my servant David the prince
in the midst of them: I the Lord have spoken it.

34:25. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and will cause the
evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they that dwell in the
wilderness shall sleep secure in the forests.

34:26. And I will make them a blessing round about my hill: and I will
send down the rain in its season, there shall be showers of blessing.

34:27. And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth
shall yield her increase, and they shall be in their land without fear:
and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have broken the
bonds of their yoke, and shall have delivered them out of the hand of
those that rule over them.

34:28. And they shall be no more for a spoil to the nations, neither
shall the beasts of the earth devour them: but they shall dwell securely
without, any terror.

34:29. And I will raise up for them a bud of renown: and they shall be
no more consumed with famine in the land, neither shall they bear any
more the reproach of the Gentiles.

A bud of renown... Germen nominatum. He speaks of Christ our Lord, the
illustrious bud of the house of David, renowned over all the earth. See
Jer. 33.15.

34:30. And they shall know that I the Lord their God am with them, and
that they are my people the house of Israel: saith the Lord God.

34:31. And you my flocks, the flocks of my pasture are men: and I am the
Lord your God, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 35

The judgment of mount Seir, for their hatred of Israel.

35:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

35:2. Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy
concerning it, and say to it:

35:3. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against thee, mount Seir,
and I will stretch forth my hand upon thee, and I will make thee
desolate and waste.

35:4. I will destroy thy cities, and thou shalt be desolate: and thou
shalt know that I am the Lord.

35:5. Because thou hast been an everlasting enemy, and hast shut up the
children of Israel in the hands of the sword in the time of their
affliction, in the time of their last iniquity.

35:6. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will deliver thee up to
blood, and blood shall pursue thee: and whereas thou hast hated blood,
blood shall pursue thee.

35:7. And I will make mount Seir waste and desolate: and I will take
away from it him that goeth and him that returneth.

35:8. And I will fill his mountains with his men that are slain: in thy
hills, and in thy valleys, and in thy torrents they shall fall that are
slain with the sword.

35:9. I will make thee everlasting desolations, and thy cities shall not
be inhabited: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord God.

35:10. Because thou hast said: The two nations, and the two lands shall
be mine, and I will possess them by inheritance: whereas the Lord was
there.

35:11. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will do according to
thy wrath, and according to thy envy, which thou hast exercised in
hatred to them: and I will be made known by them, when I shall have
judged thee.

35:12. And thou shalt know that I the Lord have heard all thy
reproaches, that thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel,
saying. They are desolate, they are given to us to consume.

35:13. And you rose up against me with your mouth, and have derogated
from me by your words: I have heard them.

35:14. Thus saith the Lord God: When the whole earth shall rejoice, I
will make thee a wilderness.

35:15. As thou hast rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of
Israel, because it was laid waste, so will I do to thee: thou shalt be
laid waste, O mount Seir, and all Idumea: and they shall know that I am
the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 36

The restoration of Israel, not for their merits, but by God's special
grace. Christ's baptism.

36:1. And thou son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say:
Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord:

36:2. Thus saith the Lord God: Because the enemy hath said to you: Aha,
the everlasting heights are given to us for an inheritance.

36:3. Therefore prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Because you
have been desolate, and trodden under foot on every side, and made an
inheritance to the rest of the nations, and are become the subject of
the talk, and the reproach of the people:

36:4. Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God:
Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the
brooks, and to the valleys, and to desolate places, and ruinous walls,
and to the cities that are forsaken, that are spoiled, and derided by
the rest of the nations round about.

36:5. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: In the fire of my zeal I have
spoken of the rest of the nations, and of all Edom, who have taken my
land to themselves, for an inheritance with joy, and with all the heart,
and with the mind: and have cast it out to lay it waste.

36:6. Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say to the
mountains, and to the hills, to the ridges, and to the valleys: Thus
saith the Lord God: Behold I have spoken in my zeal, and in my
indignation, because you have borne the shame of the Gentiles.

36:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: I have lifted up my hand, that
the Gentiles who are round about you, shall themselves bear their shame.

36:8. But as for you, O mountains of Israel, shoot ye forth your
branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel: for they are at
hand to come.

36:9. For I, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be
ploughed and sown.

36:10. And I will multiply men upon you, and all the house of Israel:
and the cities ball be inhabited, and the ruinous places shall be
repaired.

36:11. And I will make you abound with men and with beasts: and they
shall be multiplied, and increased: and I will settle you as from the
beginning, and will give you greater gifts, than you had from the
beginning: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

36:12. And I will bring men upon you, my people Israel, and they shall
possess thee for their inheritance: and thou shalt be their inheritance,
and shalt no more henceforth be without them.

36:13. Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy say of you: Thou art a
devourer of men, and one that suffocatest thy nation:

36:14. Therefore thou shalt devour men no more nor destroy thy nation
any more, saith the Lord God.

36:15. Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the nations
any more, nor shalt thou bear the reproach of the people, nor lose thy
nation any more, saith the Lord God.

Nor lose thy nation any more... This whole promise principally relates
to the church of Christ, and God's perpetual protection of her: for as
to the carnal Jews, they have been removed out of their land these
sixteen hundred years.

36:16. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

36:17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land,
they defiled it with their ways, and with their doings: their way was
before me like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman.

36:18. And I poured out my indignation upon them for the blood which
they had shed upon the land, and with their idols they defiled it.

36:19. And I scattered them among the nations, and they are dispersed
through the countries: I have judged them according to their ways, and
their devices.

36:20. And when they entered among the nations whither they went, they
profaned my holy name, when it was said of them: This is the people of
the Lord, and they are come forth out of his land.

36:21. And I have regarded my own holy name, which the house of Israel
hath profaned among the nations to which they went in.

36:22. Therefore thou shalt say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the
Lord God: It is not for your sake that I will do this, O house of
Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the
nations whither you went.

36:23. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the
Gentiles, which you have profaned in the midst of them: that the
Gentiles may know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord of hosts, when I
shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

36:24. For I will take you from among the Gentiles, and will gather you
together out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own
land.

36:25. And I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed
from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols.

36:26. And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you:
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give
you a heart of flesh.

36:27. And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause
you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them.

36:28. And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and
you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

36:29. And I will save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call
for corn, and will multiply it, and will lay no famine upon you.

36:30. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of
the field, that you bear no more the reproach of famine among the
nations.

36:31. And you shall remember your wicked ways, and your doings that
were not good: and your iniquities, and your wicked deeds shall
displease you.

36:32. It is not for your sakes that I will do this, saith the Lord God,
be it known to you: be confounded, and ashamed at your own ways, O house
of Israel.

36:33. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day that I shall cleanse you from
all your iniquities, and shall cause the cities to be inhabited, and
shall repair the ruinous places,

36:34. And the desolate land shall be tilled, which before was waste in
the sight of all that passed by,

36:35. They shall say: This land that was untilled is become as a garden
of pleasure: and the cities that were abandoned, and desolate, and
destroyed, are peopled and fenced.

36:36. And the nations, that shall be left round about you, shall know
that I the Lord have built up what was destroyed, and planted what was
desolate, that I the Lord have spoken and done it.

36:37. Thus saith the Lord God: Moreover in this shall the house of
Israel find me, that I will do it for them: I will multiply them as a
flock of men,

36:38. As a holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts:
so shall the waste cities be full of flocks of men: and they shall know
that I am the Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 37

A vision of the resurrection of dry bones, foreshewing the deliverance
of the people from their captivity. Juda and Israel shall be all one
kingdom under Christ. God's everlasting covenant with the church.

37:1. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and brought me forth in the
spirit of the Lord: and set me down in the midst of a plain that was
full of bones.

37:2. And he led me about through them on every side: now they were very
many upon the face of the plain, and they were exceeding dry.

37:3. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall
live and I answered: O Lord God, thou knowest.

37:4. And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones; and say to
them: Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

37:5. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit
into you, and you shall live.

Spirit... That is, soul, life, and breath.

37:6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over
you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit and you
shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

37:7. And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and as I prophesied there
was a noise, and behold a commotion: and the bones came together, each
one, its joint.

37:8. And I saw, and behold the sinews, and the flesh came up upon them:
and the skin was stretched out over them, but there was no spirit in
them.

37:9. And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man,
and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: Come, spirit, from the
four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again.

37:10. And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and the spirit came into
them, and they lived: and they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding
great army.

37:11. And he said to me: Son of man: All these bones are the house of
Israel: they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we
are cut off.

37:12. Therefore prophesy, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God:
Behold I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your
sepulchres, O my people: and will bring you into the land of Israel.

37:13. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened
your sepulchres, and shall have brought you out of your graves, O my
people:

37:14. And shall have put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I
shall make you rest upon your own land: and you shall know that I the
Lord have spoken, and done it, saith the Lord God:

37:15. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

37:16. And thou son of man, take thee a stick: and write upon it: Of
Juda, and of the children of Israel his associates: and take another
stick and write upon it: For Joseph the stick of Ephraim, and for all
the house of Israel, and of his associates.

37:17. And join them one to the other into one stick, and they shall
become one in thy hand.

37:18. And when the children of thy people shall speak to thee, saying:
Wilt thou not tell us what thou meanest by this?

37:19. Say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will take the
stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of
Israel that are associated with him, and I will put them together with
the stick of Juda, and will make them one stick: and they shall be one
in his hand.

37:20. And the sticks whereon thou hast written, shall be in thy hand,
before their eyes.

37:21. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I
will take of the children of Israel from the midst of the nations
whither they are gone: and I will gather them on every side, and will
bring them to their own land.

37:22. And I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of
Israel, and one king shall be king over them all: and they shall no more
be two nations, neither shall they be divided any more into two
kingdoms.

37:23. Nor shall they be defiled any more with their idols, nor with
their abominations, nor with all their iniquities: and I will save them
out of all the places in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse
them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

37:24. And my servant David shall be king over them, and they shall have
one shepherd: they shall walk in my judgments, and shall keep my
commandments, and shall do them.

37:25. And they shall dwell in the land which I gave to my servant
Jacob, wherein your fathers dwelt, and they shall dwell in it, they and
their children, and their children's children, for ever: and David my
servant shall be their prince for ever.

37:26. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an
everlasting covenant with them: and I will establish them, and will
multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever.

37:27. And my tabernacle shall be with them: and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.

37:28. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord the sanctifier of
Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever.

Ezechiel Chapter 38

Gog shall persecute the church in the latter days. He shall be
overthrown.

38:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

38:2. Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief
prince of Mosoch and Thubal: and prophesy of him,

Gog... This name, which signifies hidden or covered, is taken in this
place, either for the persecutors of the church of God in general, or
some arch-persecutor in particular: such as Antichrist shall be in the
latter days. See Apoc. 20.8. And what is said of the punishment of Gog,
is verified by the unhappy ends of persecutors.-Ibid. Magog... Scythia
or Tartary, from whence the Turks, and other enemies of the church of
Christ, originally sprung.

38:3. And say to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against
thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal.

38:4. And I will turn thee about, and I will put a bit in thy jaws: and
I will bring thee forth, and all thy army, horses and horsemen all
clothed with coats of mail, a great multitude, armed with spears and
shields and swords.

38:5. The Persians, Ethiopians, and Libyans with them, all with shields
and helmets.

38:6. Gomer, and all his bands, the house of Thogorma, the northern
parts and all his strength, and many peoples with thee.

38:7. Prepare and make thyself ready, and all thy multitude that is
assembled about thee, and be thou commander over them.

38:8. After many days thou shalt be visited: at the end of years thou
shalt come to the land that is returned from the sword, and is gathered
out of many nations, to the mountains of Israel which have been
continually waste: but it hath been brought forth out of the nations,
and they shall all of them dwell securely in it.

38:9. And thou shalt go up and come like a storm, and like a cloud to
cover the land, thou and all thy bands and many people with thee.

38:10. Thus saith the Lord God: In that day projects shall enter into
thy heart, and thou shalt conceive a mischievous design.

38:11. And thou shalt say: I will go up to the land which is without a
wall, I will come to them that are at rest, and dwell securely: all
these dwell without a wall, they have no bars nor gates:

38:12. To take spoils, and lay hold on the prey, to lay thy hand upon
them that had been wasted, and afterwards restored, and upon the people
that is gathered together out of the nations, which hath begun to
possess and to dwell in the midst of the earth.

38:13. Saba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tharsis, and all the lions
thereof shall say to thee: Art thou come to take spoils?  behold, thou
hast gathered thy multitude to take a prey, to take silver, and gold,
and to carry away goods and substance, and to take rich spoils.

38:14. Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: Thus saith
the Lord God: Shalt thou not know, in that day, when my people of Israel
shall dwell securely?

38:15. And thou shalt come out of thy place from the northern parts,
thou and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great
company and a mighty army.

38:16. And thou shalt come upon my people of Israel like a cloud, to
cover the earth. Thou shalt be in the latter days, and I will bring thee
upon my land: that the nations may know me, when I shall be sanctified
in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

38:17. Thus saith the Lord God: Thou then art he, of whom I have spoken
in the days of old, by my servants the prophets of Israel, who
prophesied in the days of those times that I would bring thee upon them.

38:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, in the day of the coming
of Gog upon the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my indignation
shall come up in my wrath.

38:19. And I have spoken in my zeal, and in the fire of my anger, that
in that day there shall be a great commotion upon the land of Israel:

38:20. So that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the
beasts of the field, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
ground, and all men that are upon the face of the earth, shall be moved
at my presence: and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the hedges
shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

38:21. And I will call in the sword against him in all my mountains,
saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be pointed against his
brother.

38:22. And I will judge him with pestilence, and with blood, and with
violent rain, and vast hailstones: I will rain fire and brimstone upon
him, and upon his army, and upon the many nations that are with him.

38:23. And I will be magnified, and I will be sanctified: and I will be
known in the eyes of many nations and they shall know that I am the
Lord.

Ezechiel Chapter 39

God's judgments upon Gog. God's people were punished for their sins: but
shall be favoured with everlasting kindness.

39:1. And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say: Thus saith
the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of
Mosoch and Thubal.

39:2. And I will turn thee round, and I will lead thee out, and will
make thee go up from the northern parts: and will bring thee upon the
mountains of Israel.

39:3. And I will break thy bow in thy left hand, and I will cause thy
arrows to fall out of thy right hand.

39:4. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy
bands, and thy nations that are with thee: I have given thee to the wild
beasts, to the birds, and to every fowl, and to the beasts of the earth
to be devoured.

39:5. Thou shalt fall upon the face of the field: for I have spoken it,
saith the Lord God.

39:6. And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell
confidently in the islands: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

39:7. And I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people
Israel, and my holy name shall be profaned no more: and the Gentiles
shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

39:8. Behold it cometh, and it is done, saith the Lord God: this is the
day whereof I have spoken.

39:9. And the inhabitants shall go forth of the cities of Israel, and
shall set on fire and burn the weapons, the shields, and the spears, the
bows and the arrows, and the handstaves and the pikes: and they shall
burn them with fire seven years.

39:10. And they shall not bring wood out of the countries, nor cut down
out of the forests: for they shall burn the weapons with fire, and shall
make a prey of them to whom they had been a prey, and they shall rob
those that robbed them, saith the Lord God.

39:11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give Gog a
noted place for a sepulchre in Israel: the valley of the passengers on
the east of the sea, which shall cause astonishment in them that pass
by: and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude, and it shall
be called the valley of the multitude of Gog.

39:12. And the house of Israel shall bury them for seven months to
cleanse the land.

39:13. And all the people of the land shall bury him, and it shall be
unto them a noted day, wherein I was glorified, saith the Lord God.

39:14. And they shall appoint men to go continually about the land, to
bury and to seek out them that were remaining upon the face of the
earth, that they may cleanse it: and after seven months they shall begin
to seek.

39:15. And they shall go about passing through the land: and when they
shall see the bone of a man, they shall set up sign by it, till the
buriers bury it in the valley, of the multitude of Gog.

39:16. And the name of the city shall be Amona, and they shall cleanse
the land.

39:17. And thou, O son of man, saith the Lord God, say to every fowl,
and to all the birds, and to all the beasts of the field: Assemble
yourselves, make haste, come together from every side to my victim,
which I slay for you, a great victim upon the mountains of Israel: to
eat flesh, and drink blood.

39:18. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and you shall drink the
blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, and of lambs, and of he
goats, and bullocks, and of all that are well fed and fat.

39:19. And you shall eat the fat till you be full, and shall drink blood
till you be drunk of the victim which I shall slay for you.

39:20. And you shall be filled at my table with horses, and mighty
horsemen, and all the men of war, saith the Lord God.

39:21. And I will set my glory among the nations: and all nations shall
see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon
them.

39:22. And the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God
from that day and forward.

39:23. And the nations shall know that the house of Israel were made
captives for their iniquity, because they forsook me, and I hid my face
from them: and I delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and
they fell all by the sword.

39:24. I have dealt with them according to their uncleanness, and
wickedness, and hid my face from them.

39:25. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Now will I bring back the
captivity of Jacob, and will have mercy on all the house of Israel and I
will be jealous for my holy name.

39:26. And they shall bear their confusion, and all the transgressions
wherewith they have transgressed against me, when they shall dwell in
their land securely fearing no man:

39:27. And I shall have brought them back from among the nations, and
shall have gathered them together out of the lands of their enemies, and
shall be sanctified in them, in the sight of many nations.

39:28. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I
caused them to be carried away among the nations; and I have gathered
them together unto their own land, and have not left any of them there.

39:29. And I will hide my face no more from them, for I have poured out
my spirit upon all the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 40

The prophet sees in a vision the rebuilding of the temple: the
dimensions of several parts thereof.

40:1. In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning
of the year, the tenth day of the month, the fourteenth year after the
city was destroyed: in the selfsame day the hand of the Lord was upon
me, and he brought me thither.

40:2. In the visions of God he brought me into the land of Israel, and
set me upon a very high mountain: upon which there was as the building
of a city, bending towards the south.

40:3. And he brought me in thither, and behold a man, whose appearance
was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a
measuring reed in his hand, and he stood in the gate.

40:4. And this man said to me: Son of man, see with thy eyes, and hear
with thy ears, and set thy heart upon all that I shall shew thee: for
thou art brought hither that they may be shewn to thee: declare all that
thou seest, to the house of Israel.

40:5. And behold there was a wall on the outside of the house round
about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits and a
handbreadth: and he measured the breadth of the building one reed, and
the height one reed.

40:6. And he came to the gate that looked toward the east, and he went
up the steps thereof: and he measured the breadth of the threshold of
the gate one reed, that is, one threshold was one reed broad;

40:7. And every little chamber was one reed long, and one reed broad:
and between the little chambers were five cubits:

40:8. And the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within, was
one reed.

40:9. And he measured the porch of the gate eight cubits, and the front
thereof two cubits: and the porch of the gate was inward.

40:10. And the little chambers of the gate that looked eastward were
three on this side, and three on that side: all three were of one
measure, and the fronts of one measure, on both parts.

40:11. And he measured the breadth of the threshold of the gate ten
cubits: and the length of the gate thirteen cubits:

40:12. And the border before the little chambers one cubit: and one
cubit was the border on both sides: and the little chambers were six
cubits on this side and that side.

40:13. And he measured the gate from the roof of one little chamber to
the roof of another, in breadth five and twenty cubits: door against
door.

40:14. He made also fronts of sixty cubits: and to the front the court
of the gate on every side round about.

40:15. And before the face of the gate which reached even to the face of
the porch of the inner gate, fifty cubits.

40:16. And slanting windows in the little chambers, and in their fronts,
which were within the gate on every side round about: and in like manner
there were also in the porches windows round about within, and before
the fronts the representation of palm trees.

40:17. And he brought me into the outward court, and behold there were
chambers, and a pavement of stone in the court round about: thirty
chambers encompassed the pavement.

There were chambers... Gazophylacia, so called, because the priests and
Levites kept in them the stores and vessels that belonged to the temple.

40:18. And the pavement in the front of the gates according to the
length of the gates was lower.

40:19. And he measured the breadth from the face of the lower gate to
the front of the inner court without, a hundred cubits to the east, and
to the north.

40:20. He measured also both the length and the breadth of the gate of
the outward court, which looked northward.

40:21. And the little chambers thereof three on this side, and three on
that side: and the front thereof, and the porch thereof according to the
measure of the former gate, fifty cubits long, and five and twenty
cubits broad.

40:22. And the windows thereof, and the porch, and the gravings
according to the measure of the gate that looked to the east, and they
went up to it by seven steps, and a porch was before it.

40:23. And the gate of the inner court was over against the gate of the
north, and that of the east: and he measured from gate to gate a hundred
cubits.

40:24. And he brought me out to the way of the south, and behold the
gate that looked to the south: and he measured the front thereof, and
the porch thereof according to the former measures.

40:25. And the windows thereof, and the porches round about, as the
other windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and
twenty cubits.

40:26. And there were seven steps to go up to it: and a porch before the
doors thereof: and there were graven palm trees, one on this side, and
another on that side in the front thereof.

40:27. And there was a gate of the inner court towards the south: and he
measured from gate to gate towards the south, a hundred cubits.

40:28. And he brought me into the inner court at the south gate: and he
measured the gate according to the former measures.

40:29. The little chamber thereof, and the front thereof, and the porch
thereof with the same measures: and the windows thereof, and the porch
thereof round about it was fifty cubits in length, and five and twenty
cubits in breadth.

40:30. And the porch round about was five and twenty cubits long, and
five cubits broad.

40:31. And the porch thereof to the outward court, and the palm trees
thereof in the front: and there were eight steps to go up to it.

40:32. And he brought me into the inner court by the way of the east:
and he measured the gate according to the former measures.

40:33. The little chamber thereof, and the front thereof, and the porch
thereof as before: and the windows thereof, and the porches thereof
round about it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.

40:34. And the porch thereof, that is, of the outward court: and the
graven palm trees in the front thereof on this side and on that side:
and the going up thereof was by eight steps.

40:35. And he brought me into the gate that looked to the north: and he
measured according to the former measures.

40:36. The little chamber thereof, and the front thereof, and the porch
thereof, and the windows thereof round about it was fifty cubits long,
and five and twenty cubits broad.

40:37. And the porch thereof looked to the outward court: and the
graving of palm trees in the front thereof was on this side and on that
side: and the going up to it was by eight steps.

40:38. And at every chamber was a door in the forefronts of the gates:
there they washed the holocaust.

40:39. And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and
two tables on that side: that the holocaust, and the sin offering, and
the trespass offering might be slain thereon.

40:40. And on the outward side, which goeth up to the entry of the gate
that looketh toward the north, were two tables: and at the other side
before the porch of the gate were two tables,

40:41. Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side at
the sides of the gate were eight tables, upon which they slew the
victims.

40:42. And the four tables for the holocausts were made of square
stones: one cubit and a half long, and one cubit and a half broad, and
one cubit high: to lay the vessels upon, in which the holocaust and the
victim is slain.

40:43. And the borders of them were of one handbreadth, turned inwards
round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the offering.

40:44. And without the inner gate were the chambers of the singing men
in the inner court, which was on the side of the gate that looketh to
the north: and their prospect was towards the south, one at the side of
the east gate, which looketh toward the north.

40:45. And he said to me: This chamber, which looketh toward the south
shall be for the priests that watch in the wards of the temple.

40:46. But the chamber that looketh towards the north shall be for the
priests that watch over the ministry of the altar. These are the sons of
Sadoc, who among the sons of Levi, come near to the Lord, to minister to
him.

40:47. And he measured the court a hundred cubits long, and a hundred
cubits broad foursquare: and the altar that was before the face of the
temple.

40:48. And he brought me into the porch of the temple: and he measured
the porch five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side: and
the breadth of the gate three cubits on this side, and three cubits on
that side.

40:49. And the length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth
eleven cubits, and there were eight steps to go up to it. And there were
pillars in the fronts: one on this side, and another on that side.

Ezechiel Chapter 41

A description of the temple, and of all the parts of it.

41:1. And he brought me into the temple, and he measured the fronts six
cubits broad on this side, and six cubits on that side, the breadth of
the tabernacle.

The temple... This plan of a temple, which was here shewn to the prophet
in a vision, partly had relation to the material temple, which was to be
rebuilt: and partly, in a mystical sense, to the spiritual temple of
God, the church of Christ.

41:2. And the breadth of the gate was ten cubits: and the sides of the
gate five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side: and he
measured the length thereof forty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

41:3. Then going inward he measured the front of the gate two cubits:
and the gate six cubits, and the breadth of the gate seven cubits.

41:4. And he measured the length thereof twenty cubits, and the breadth
twenty cubits, before the face of the temple: and he said to me: This is
the holy of holies.

41:5. And he measured the wall of the house six cubits: and the breadth
of every side chamber four cubits round about the house on every side.

41:6. And the side chambers one by another, were twice thirty-three: and
they bore outwards, that they might enter in through the wall of the
house in the sides round about, to hold in, and not to touch the wall of
the temple.

One by another... Or one over another; literally, side to side, or side
upon side.

41:7. And there was a broad passage round about, going up by winding
stairs, and it led into the upper loft of the temple all round:
therefore was the temple broader in the higher parts: and so from the
lower parts they went to the higher by the midst.

41:8. And I saw in the house the height round about, the foundations of
the side chambers which were the measure of a reed the space of six
cubits:

41:9. And the thickness of the wall for the side chamber without, which
was five cubits: and the inner house was within the side chambers of the
house,

And the inner house was within the side chambers of the house... Because
these side chambers were in the very walls of the temple all round. Or,
it may also be rendered (more agreeably to the Hebrew) so as to signify
that the thickness of the wall for the side chamber within, was the same
as that of the wall without; that is, equally five cubits.

41:10. And between the chambers was the breadth of twenty cubits round
about the house on every side.

41:11. And the door of the side chambers was turned towards the place of
prayer: one door was toward the north, and another door was toward the
south: and the breadth of the place for prayer, was five cubits round
about.

41:12. And the building that was separate, and turned to the way that
looked toward the sea, was seventy cubits broad and the wall of the
building, five cubits thick round about: and ninety cubits long.

41:13. And he measured the length of the house, a hundred cubits: and
the separate building, and the walls thereof, a hundred cubits in
length.

41:14. And the breadth before the face of the house, and of the separate
place toward the east, a hundred cubits.

41:15. And he measured the length of the building over against it, which
was separated at the back of it: and the galleries on both sides a
hundred cubits: and the inner temple, and the porches of the court.

41:16. The thresholds, and the oblique windows, and the galleries round
about on three sides, over against the threshold of every one, and
floored with wood all round about: and the ground was up to the windows,
and the windows were shut over the doors.

41:17. And even to the inner house, and without all the wall round about
within and without, by measure.

41:18. And there were cherubims and palm trees wrought, so that a palm
tree was between a cherub and a cherub, and every cherub had two faces.

41:19. The face of a man was toward the palm tree on one side, and the
face of a lion was toward the palm tree on the other side: set forth
through all the house round about.

41:20. From the ground even to the upper parts of the gate, were
cherubims and palm trees wrought in the wall of the temple.

41:21. The threshold was foursquare, and the face of the sanctuary sight
to sight.

The threshold was foursquare... That is, the gate of the temple was
foursquare: and so placed as to answer the gate of the sanctuary within.

41:22. The altar of wood was three cubits high: and the length thereof
was two cubits: and the corners thereof, aid the length thereof, and the
walls thereof, were of wood. And he said to me: This is the table before
the Lord.

41:23. And there were two doors in the temple, and in the sanctuary.

41:24. And in the two doors on both sides were two little doors, which
were folded within each other: for there were two wickets on both sides
of the doors.

41:25. And there were cherubims also wrought in the doors of the temple,
and the figures of palm trees, like as were made on the walls: for which
cause also the planks were thicker in the front of the porch without.

41:26. Upon which were the oblique windows, and the representation of
palm trees on this side, and on that side in the sides of the porch,
according to the sides of the house, and the breadth of the walls.

Ezechiel Chapter 42

A description of the courts, chambers, and other places belonging to the
temple.

42:1. And he brought me forth into the outward court by the way that
leadeth to the north, and he brought me into the chamber that was over
against the separate building, and over against the house toward the
north.

42:2. In the face of the north door was the length of hundred cubits,
and the breadth of fifty cubits.

42:3. Over against the twenty cubits of the inner court, and over
against the pavement of the outward court that was paved with stone,
where there was a gallery joined to a triple gallery.

42:4. And before the chambers was a walk ten cubits broad, looking to
the inner parts of a way of one cubit. And their doors were toward the
north.

42:5. Where were the store chambers lower above: because they bore up
the galleries, which appeared above out of them from he lower parts, and
from the midst of the building.

42:6. For they were of three stories, and had not pillars, as the
pillars of the courts: therefore did they appear above out of the lower
places, and out of the middle places, fifty cubits from the ground.

42:7. And the outward wall that went about by the chambers, which were
towards the outward court on the forepart of the chambers, was fifty
cubits long.

42:8. For the length of the chambers of the outward court was fifty
cubits: and the length before the face of the temple, a hundred cubits.

42:9. And there was under these chambers, an entrance from the east, for
them that went into them out of the outward court.

42:10. In the breadth of the outward wall of the court that was toward
the east, over against the separate building, and there were chambers
before the building.

42:11. And the way before them was like the chambers which were toward
the north: they were as long as they, and as broad as they: and all the
going in to them, and their fashions, and their doors were alike.

42:12. According to the doors of the chambers that were towards the
south: there was a door in the head of the way, which way was before the
porch, separated towards the east as one entereth in.

42:13. And he said to me: The chambers of the north, and the chambers of
the south, which are before the separate building: they are holy
chambers, in which the priests shall eat, that approach to the Lord into
the holy of holies: there they shall lay the most holy things, and the
offering for sin, and for trespass: for it is a holy place.

42:14. And when the priests shall have entered in, they shall not go out
of the holy places into the outward court: but there they shall lay
their vestments, wherein they minister, for they are holy: and they
shall put on other garments, and so they shall go forth to the people.

42:15. Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he
brought me out by the way of the gate that looked toward the east: and
he measured it on every side round about.

42:16. And he measured toward the east with the measuring reed, five
hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

42:17. And he measured toward the north five hundred reeds with the
measuring reed round about.

42:18. And towards the south he measured five hundred reeds with the
measuring reed round about.

42:19. And toward the west he measured five hundred reeds, with the
measuring reed.

42:20. By the four winds he measured the wall thereof on every side
round about, five hundred cubits and five hundred cubits broad, making a
separation between the sanctuary and the place of the people.

Ezechiel Chapter 43

The glory of God returns to the new temple. The Israelites shall no more
profane God's name by idolatry: the prophet is commanded to shew them
the dimensions, and form of the temple, and of the altar, with the
sacrifices to be offered thereon.

43:1. And he brought me to the gate that looked towards the east.

43:2. And behold the glory of the God of Israel came in by the way of
the east: and his voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth
shone with his majesty.

43:3. And I saw the vision according to the appearance which I had seen
when he came to destroy the city: and the appearance was according to
the vision which I had seen by the river Chobar: and I fell upon my
face.

43:4. And the majesty of the Lord went into the temple by the way of the
gate that looked to the east.

43:5. And the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court:
and behold the house was filled with the glory of the Lord.

43:6. And I heard one speaking to me out of the house, and the man that
stood by me,

43:7. Said to me: Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of
the soles of my feet, where I dwell in the midst of the children of
Israel for ever: and the house of Israel shall no more profane my holy
name, they and their kings by their fornications, and by the carcasses
of their kings, and by the high places.

43:8. They who have set their threshold by my threshold, and their posts
by my posts: and there was but a wall between me, and them: and they
profaned my holy name by the abominations which they committed: for
which reason I consumed them in my wrath.

43:9. Now therefore let them put away their fornications, and the
carcasses of their kings far from me: and I will dwell in the midst of
them for ever.

43:10. But thou, son of man, shew to the house of Israel the temple, and
let them be ashamed of their iniquities, and let them measure the
building:

43:11. And be ashamed of all that they have done. Shew them the form of
the house, and of the fashion thereof, the goings out and the comings
in, and the whole plan thereof, and all its ordinances, and all its
order, and all its laws, and thou shalt write it in their sight: that
they may keep the whole form thereof, and its ordinances, and do them.

43:12. This is the law of the house upon the top of the mountain: All
its border round about; most holy: this then is the law of the house.

43:13. And these are the measures of the altar by the truest cubit,
which is a cubit and a handbreadth: the bottom thereof was a cubit, and
the breadth a cubit: and the border thereof unto its edge, and round
about, one handbreadth: and this was the trench of the altar.

43:14. And from the bottom of the ground to the lowest brim two cubits,
and the breadth of one cubit: and from the lesser brim to the greater
brim four cubits, and the breadth of one cubit.

43:15. And the Ariel itself was four cubits: and from the Ariel upward
were four horns.

The Ariel... That is, the altar itself, or rather the highest part of
it, upon which the burnt offerings were laid. In the Hebrew it is Harel,
that is, the mountain of God: but in the following verse Haariel, that
is, the lion of God; a figure, from its consuming, and as it were
devouring the sacrifices, as a lion devours its prey.

43:16. And the Ariel was twelve cubits long, and twelve cubits broad,
foursquare, with equal sides.

43:17. And the brim was fourteen cubits long, and fourteen cubits broad
in the four corners thereof: and the crown round about it was half a
cubit, and the bottom of it one cubit round about: and its steps turned
toward the east.

43:18. And he said to me: Son of man, thus saith the Lord God: These are
the ceremonies of the altar, in what day soever it shall be made: that
holocausts may be offered upon it, and blood poured out.

43:19. And thou shalt give to the priests, and the Levites, that are of
the race of Sadoc, who approach to me, saith the Lord God, to offer to
me a calf of the herd for sin.

43:20. And thou shalt take of his blood, and shalt put it upon the four
horns thereof, and upon the four corners of the brim, and upon the crown
round about: and thou shalt cleanse, and expiate it.

43:21. And thou shalt take the calf, that is offered for sin: and thou
shalt burn him in a separate place of the house without the sanctuary.

43:22. And in the second day thou shalt offer a he goat without blemish
for sin: and they shall expiate the altar, as they expiated it with the
calf.

43:23. And when thou shalt have made an end of the expiation thereof,
thou shalt offer a calf of the herd without blemish, and a ram of the
flock without blemish.

43:24. And thou shalt offer them in the sight of the Lord, and the
priests shall put salt upon them, and shall offer them a holocaust to
the Lord.

43:25. Seven days shalt thou offer a he goat for sin daily: they shall
offer also a calf of the herd, and a ram of the flock without blemish.

43:26. Seven days shall they expiate the altar, and shall cleanse it:
and they shall consecrate it.

Consecrate it... Literally, fill its hand, that is, dedicate and apply
it to holy service.

43:27. And the days being expired, on the eighth day and thenceforward,
the priests shall offer your holocausts upon the altar, and the peace
offerings: and I will be pacified towards you, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 44

The east gate of the sanctuary shall be always shut. The uncircumcised
shall not enter into the sanctuary: nor the Levites that have served
idols: but the sons of Sadoc shall do the priestly functions, who stood
firm in the worst of times.

44:1. And he brought me back to the way of the gate of the outward
sanctuary, which looked towards the east: and it was shut.

44:2. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be
opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of
Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut

44:3. For the prince. The prince himself shall sit in it, to eat bread
before the Lord: he shall enter in by the way of the porch of the gate,
and shall go out by the same way.

44:4. And he brought me by the way of the north gate, in the sight of
the house: and I saw, and behold the glory of the Lord filled the house
of the Lord: and I fell on my face.

44:5. And the Lord said to me: Son of man, attend with thy heart and
behold with thy eyes, and hear with thy ears, all that I say to thee
concerning all the ceremonies of the house of the Lord, and concerning
all the laws thereof: and mark well the ways of the temple, with all the
goings out of the sanctuary.

44:6. And thou shalt say to the house of Israel that provoketh me: Thus
saith the Lord God: Let all your wicked doings suffice you, O house of
Israel:

44:7. In that you have brought in strangers uncircumcised in heart, and
uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, and to defile my house:
and you offer my bread, the fat, and the blood: and you have broken my
covenant by all your wicked doings.

44:8. And you have not kept the ordinances of my sanctuary: but you have
set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.

44:9. Thus saith the Lord God: No stranger uncircumcised in heart, and
uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, no stranger that
is in the midst of the children of Israel.

44:10. Moreover the Levites that went away far from me, when the
children of Israel went astray, and have wandered from me after their
idols, and have borne their iniquity:

44:11. They shall be officers in my sanctuary, and doorkeepers of the
gates of the house, and ministers to the house: they shall slay the
holocausts, and the victims of the people: and they shall stand in their
sight, to minister to them.

44:12. Because they ministered to them before their idols, and were a
stumblingblock of iniquity to the house of Israel: therefore have I
lifted up my hand against them, saith the Lord God, and they shall bear
their iniquity:

44:13. And they shall not come near to me, to do the office of priest to
me, neither shall they come near to any of my holy things that are by
the holy of holies: but they shall bear their shame, and their
wickednesses which they have committed.

44:14. And I will make them doorkeepers of the house, for all the
service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.

44:15. But the priests, and Levites, the sons of Sadoc, who kept the
ceremonies of my sanctuary, when the children of Israel went astray from
me, they shall come near to me, to minister to me: and they shall stand
before me, to offer me the fat, and the blood, saith the Lord God.

44:16. They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to
my table, to minister unto me, and to keep my ceremonies.

44:17. And when they shall enter in at the gates of the inner court,
they shall be clothed with linen garments: neither shall any woollen
come upon them, when they minister in the gates of the inner court and
within.

44:18. They shall have linen mitres on their heads, and linen breeches
on their loins, and they shall not be girded with any thing that causeth
sweat.

44:19. And when they shall go forth to the outward court to the people,
they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them
up in the store chamber of the sanctuary, and they shall clothe
themselves with other garments: and they shall not sanctify the people
with their vestments.

Shall not sanctify the people with their vestments... By exposing them
to the danger of touching the sacred vestments, which none were to touch
but they that were sanctified.

44:20. Neither shall they shave their heads, nor wear long hair: but
they shall only poll their heads.

44:21. And no priest shall drink wine when he is to go into the inner
court.

44:22. Neither shall they take to wife a widow, nor one that is
divorced, but they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of
Israel: but they may take a widow also, that is, the widow of a priest.

44:23. And they shall teach my people the difference between holy and
profane, and shew them how to discern between clean and unclean.

44:24. And when there shall be a controversy, they shall stand in my
judgments, and shall judge: they shall keep my laws, and my ordinances
in all my solemnities, and sanctify my sabbaths.

44:25. And they shall come near no dead person, lest they be defiled,
only their father and mother, and son and daughter, and brother and
sister, that hath not had another husband: for whom they may become
unclean.

44:26. And after one is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.

44:27. And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, to the inner
court, to minister unto me in the sanctuary, he shall offer for his sin,
saith the Lord God.

44:28. And they shall have no inheritance, I am their inheritance:
neither shall you give them any possession in Israel, for I am their
possession.

44:29. They shall eat the victim both for sin and for trespass: and
every vowed thing in Israel shall be theirs.

30. And the firstfruits of all the firstborn, and all the libations of
all things that are offered, shall be the priest's: and you shall give
the firstfruits of your meats to the priest, that he may return a
blessing upon thy house.

44:31. The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself or
caught by a beast, whether it be fowl or cattle.

Ezechiel Chapter 45

Portions of land for the sanctuary, for the city, and for the prince.
Ordinances for the prince.

45:1. And when you shall begin to divide the land by lot, separate ye
firstfruits to the Lord, a portion of the land to be holy, in length
twenty-five thousand and in breadth ten thousand: it shall be holy in
all the borders thereof round about.

Twenty-five thousand... Viz., reeds or cubits.

45:2. And there shall be for the sanctuary on every side five hundred by
five hundred, foursquare round about: and fifty cubits for the suburbs
thereof round about.

45:3. And with this measure thou shalt measure the length of five and
twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand, and in it shall be the
temple and the holy of holies.

45:4. The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests the
ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to the ministry of the Lord:
and it shall be a place for their houses, and for the holy place of the
sanctuary.

45:5. And five and twenty thousand of length, and ten thousand of
breadth shall be for the Levites, that minister in the house: they shall
possess twenty store chambers.

45:6. And you shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand
broad, and five and twenty thousand long, according to the separation of
the sanctuary, for the whole house of Israel.

45:7. For the prince also on the one side and on the other side,
according to the separation of the sanctuary, and according to the
possession of the city, over against the separation of the sanctuary,
and over against the possession of the city: from the side of the sea
even to the sea, and from the side of the east even to the east. And the
length according to every part from the west border to the east border.

45:8. He shall have a portion of the land in Israel: and the princes
shall no more rob my people: but they shall give the land to the house
of Israel according to their tribes:

45:9. Thus saith the Lord God: Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel:
cease from iniquity and robberies, and execute judgment and justice,
separate your confines from my people, saith the Lord God.

45:10. You shall have just balances, and a just ephi, and a just bate.

45:11. The ephi and the bate shall be equal, and of one measure: that
the bate may contain the tenth part of a core, and the ephi the tenth
part of a core: their weight shall be equal according to the measure of
a core.

The ephi and the bate... These measures were of equal capacity, but the
bate served for liquids, and the ephi for dry things.

45:12. And the sicle hath twenty obols. Now twenty sicles, and five and
twenty sicles, and fifteen sicles, make a mna,

45:13. And these are the firstfruits, which you shall take: the sixth
part of an ephi of a core of wheat, and the sixth part of an ephi of a
core of barley.

45:14. The measure of oil also, a bate of oil is the tenth part of a
core: and ten bates make a core: for ten bates fill a core.

45:15. And one ram out of a flock of two hundred, of those that Israel
feedeth for sacrifice, and for holocausts, and for peace offerings, to
make atonement for them, saith the Lord God.

45:16. All the people of the land shall be bound to these firstfruits
for the prince in Israel.

45:17. And the prince shall give the holocaust, and the sacrifice, and
the libations on the feasts, and on the new moons, and on the sabbaths,
and on all the solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall offer the
sacrifice for sin, and the holocaust, and the peace offerings to make
expiation for the house of Israel.

45:18. Thus saith the Lord God: In the first month, the first of the
month, thou shalt take a calf of the herd without blemish, and thou
shalt expiate the sanctuary.

45:19. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering: and
he shall put it on the posts of the house, and on the four corners of
the brim of the altar, and oil the posts of the gate of the inner court.

45:20. And so shalt thou do in the seventh day of the month, for every
one that hath been ignorant, and hath been deceived by error, and thou
shalt make expiation for the house.

45:21. In the first month, the fourteenth day of the month, you shall
observe the solemnity of the pasch: seven days unleavened bread shall be
eaten.

45:22. And the prince on that day shall offer for himself, and for all
the people of the land, a calf for sin.

45:23. And in the solemnity of the seven days he shall offer for a
holocaust to the Lord, seven calves, and seven rams without blemish
daily for seven days: and for sin a he goat daily.

45:24. And he shall offer the sacrifice of an ephi for every calf, and
an ephi for every ram: and a hin of oil for every ephi.

45:25. In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, in the
solemn feast, he shall do the like for the seven days: as well in regard
to the sin offering, as to the holocaust, and the sacrifice, and the
oil.

Ezechiel Chapter 46

Other ordinances for the prince and for the sacrifices.

46:1. Thus saith the Lord God: The gate of the inner court that looketh
toward the east, shall be shut the six days, on which work is done; but
on the sabbath day it shall be opened, yea and on the day of the new
moon it shall be opened.

46:2. And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate
from without, and he shall stand at the threshold of the gate: and the
priests shall offer his holocaust, and his peace offerings: and he shall
adore upon the threshold of the gate, and shall go out: but the gate
shall not be shut till the evening.

46:3. And the people of the land shall adore at the door of that gate
before the Lord on the sabbaths, and on the new moons.

46:4. And the holocaust that the prince shall offer to the Lord on the
sabbath day, shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without
blemish.

46:5. And the sacrifice of all ephi for a ram: but for the lambs what
sacrifice his hand shall allow: and a hin of oil for every ephi.

46:6. And on the day of the new moon a calf of the herd without blemish:
and the six lambs, and the rams shall be without blemish.

46:7. And he shall offer in sacrifice an ephi for calf, an ephi also for
a ram: but for the lambs, as his hand shall find: and a hin of oil for
every ephi.

46:8. And when the prince is to go in, let him go in by the way of the
porch of the gate, and let him go out the same way.

46:9. But when the people of the land shall go in before the Lord in the
solemn feasts, he that goeth in by the north gate to adore, shall go out
by the way of the south gate; and he that goeth in by the way of the
south gate, shall go out by the way of the north gate: he shall not
return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go out at
that over against it.

46:10. And the prince in the midst of them, shall go in when they go in,
and go out when they go out.

46:11. And in the fairs, and in the solemnities there shall be the
sacrifice of an ephi to a calf, and an ephi to a ram: and to the lambs,
the sacrifice shall be as his hand shall find: and a hin of oil to every
ephi.

46:12. But when the prince shall offer a voluntary holocaust, or
voluntary peace offering to the Lord: the gate that looketh towards the
east shall be opened to him, and he shall offer his holocaust, and his
peace offerings, as it is wont to be done on the sabbath day: and he
shall go out, and the gate shall be shut after he is gone forth.

46:13. And he shall offer every day for a holocaust to the Lord, a lamb
of the same year without blemish: he shall offer it always in the
morning.

46:14. And he shall offer the sacrifice for it morning by morning, the
sixth part of an ephi: and the third part of a hin of oil to be mingled
with the fine flour: a sacrifice to the Lord by ordinance continual and
everlasting.

46:15. He shall offer the lamb, and the sacrifice, and the oil morning
by morning: an everlasting holocaust.

46:16. Thus saith the Lord God: If the prince give a gift to any of his
sons: the inheritance of it shall go to his children, they shall possess
it by inheritance.

46:17. But if he give a legacy out of his inheritance to one of his
servants, it shall be his until the year of release, and it shall return
to the prince: but his inheritance shall go to his sons.

46:18. And the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by
violence, nor of their possession: but out of his own possession he
shall give an inheritance to his sons: that my people be not dispersed
every man from his possession.

46:19. And he brought me in by the entry that was at the side of the
gate, into the chambers of the sanctuary that were for the priests,
which looked toward the north. And there was a place bending to the
west.

46:20. And he said to me: This is the place where the priests shall boil
the sin offering, and the trespass offering: where they shall dress the
sacrifice, that they may not bring it out into the outward court, and
the people be sanctified.

46:21. And he brought me into the outward court, and he led me about by
the four corners of the court: and behold there was a little court in
the corner of the court, to every corner of the court there was a little
court.

46:22. In the four corners of the court were little courts disposed,
forty cubits long, and thirty broad, all the four were of one measure.

46:23. And there was a wall round about compassing the four little
courts, and there were kitchens built under the rows round about.

46:24. And he said to me: This is the house of the kitchens wherein the
ministers of the house of the Lord shall boil the victims of the people.

Ezechiel Chapter 47

The vision of the holy waters issuing out from under the temple: the
borders of the land to be divided among the twelve tribes.

47:1. And he brought me again to the gate of the house, and behold
waters issued out from under the threshold of the house toward the east:
for the forefront of the house looked toward the east: but the waters
came down to the right side of the temple to the south part of the
altar.

Waters... These waters are not to be understood literally (for there
were none such that flowed from the temple); but mystically, of the
baptism of Christ, and of his doctrine and his grace: the trees that
grow on the banks are Christian virtues: the fishes are Christians, that
spiritually live in and by these holy waters, the fishermen are the
apostles, and apostolic preachers: the fenny places, where there is no
health, are such as by being out of the church are separated from these
waters of life.

47:2. And he led me out by the way of the north gate, and he caused me
to turn to the way without the outward gate to the way that looked
toward the east: and behold there ran out waters on the right side.

47:3. And when the man that had the line in his hand went out towards
the east, he measured a thousand cubits: and he brought me through the
water up to the ankles.

47:4. And again he measured a thousand, and he brought me through the
water up to the knees.

47:5. And he measured a thousand, and he brought me through the water up
to the loins. And he measured a thousand, and it was a torrent, which I
could not pass over: for the waters were risen so as to make a deep
torrent, which could not be passed over.

47:6. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man. And he
brought me out, and he caused me to turn to the bank of the torrent.

47:7. And when I had turned myself, behold on the bank of the torrent
were very many trees on both sides.

47:8. And he said to me: These waters that issue forth toward the
hillocks of sand to the east, and go down to the plains of the desert,
shall go into the sea, and shall go out, and the waters shall be healed.

47:9. And every living creature that creepeth whithersoever the torrent
shall come, shall live: and there shall be fishes in abundance after
these waters shall come thither, and they shall be healed, and all
things shall live to which the torrent shall come.

47:10. And the fishers shall stand over these waters, from Engaddi even
to Engallim there shall be drying of nets: there shall be many sorts of
the fishes thereof, as the fishes of the great sea, a very great
multitude:

47:11. But on the shore thereof, and in the fenny places they shall not
be healed, because they shall be turned into saltpits.

47:12. And by the torrent on the banks thereof on both sides shall grow
all trees that bear fruit: their leaf shall not fall off, and their
fruit shall not fail: every month shall they bring forth firstfruits,
because the waters thereof shall issue out of the sanctuary: and the
fruits thereof shall be for food, and the leaves thereof for medicine.

47:13. Thus saith the Lord God: This is the border, by which you shall
possess the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel: for Joseph
hath a double portion.

47:14. And you shall possess it, every man in like manner as his
brother: concerning which I lifted up my hand to give it to your
fathers: and this land shall fall unto you for a possession.

47:15. And this is the border of the land: toward the north side, from
the great sea by the way of Hethalon, as men go to Sedada,

47:16. Emath, Berotha, Sabarim, which is between the border of Damascus
and the border of Emath the house of Tichon, which is by the border of
Auran.

47:17. And the border from the sea even to the court of Enan, shall be
the border of Damascus, and from the north to the north: the border of
Emath, this is the north side.

47:18. And the east side is from the midst of Auran, and from the midst
of Damascus, and from the midst of Galaad, and from the midst of the
land of Israel, Jordan making the bound to the east sea, and thus you
shall measure the east side.

47:19. And the south side southward is, from Thamar even to the waters
of contradiction of Cades: and, the torrent even to the great sea: and
this is the south side southward.

47:20. And the side toward the sea, is the great sea from the borders
straight on, till thou come to Emath: this is the side of the sea.

47:21. And you shall divide this land unto you by the tribes of Israel:

47:22. And you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance to you, and to
the strangers that shall come over to you, that shall beget children
among you: and they shall be unto you as men of the same country born
among the children of Israel: they shall divide the possession with you
in the midst of the tribes of Israel.

47:23. And in what tribe soever the stranger shall be, there shall you
give him possession, saith the Lord God.

Ezechiel Chapter 48

The portions of the twelve tribes, of the sanctuary, of the city, and of
the prince. The dimensions and gates of the city.

48:1. And these are the names of the tribes from the borders of the
north, by the way of Hethalon, as they go to Emath, the court of Enan
the border of Damascus northward, by the way off Emath. And from the
east side thereof to the sea shall be one portion for Dan.

48:2. And by the border of Dan, from the east side even to the side of
the sea, one portion for Aser:

48:3. And by the border of Aser, from the east side even to the side of
the sea one portion for Nephthali.

48:4. And by the border of Nephthali, from the east side even to the
side of the one portion for Manasses.

48:5. And by the border of Manasses, from the east side even to the side
of the sea, one portion for Ephraim.

48:6. And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the side
of the sea, one portion for Ruben.

48:7. And by the border of Ruben, from the east side even to the side of
the sea, one portion for Juda.

48:8. And by the border of Juda, from the east side even to the side of
the sea, shall be the firstfruits which you shall set apart, five and
twenty thousand in breadth, and length, as every one of the portions
from the east side to the side of the sea: and the sanctuary shall be in
the midst thereof.

48:9. The firstfruits which you shall set apart for the Lord will be the
length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand.

48:10. And these shall be the firstfruits of the sanctuary for the
priests: toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward
the sea ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east also ten thousand
in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and
the sanctuary of the Lord shall be in the midst thereof.

48:11. The sanctuary shall be for the priests of the sons of Sadoc, who
kept my ceremonies, and went not astray when the children of Israel went
astray, as the Levites also went astray.

48:12. And for them shall be the firstfruits of the firstfruits of the
land holy of holies, by the border of the Levites,

48:13. And the Levites in like manner shall have by the borders of the
priests five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth.
All the length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten
thousand.

48:14. And they shall not sell thereof, nor exchange, neither shall the
firstfruits of the land be alienated, because they are sanctified to the
Lord.

48:15. But the five thousand that remain in the breadth over against the
five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city for
dwelling, and for suburbs and the city shall be in the midst thereof.

48:16. And these are the measures thereof: on the north side four
thousand and five hundred: and on the south side four thousand and five
hundred: and on the east side four thousand and five hundred: and on the
west side four thousand and five hundred.

48:17. And the suburbs of the city shall be to the north two hundred and
fifty, and the south two hundred and fifty, and to the east two hundred
and fifty, and to the sea two hundred and fifty.

48:18. And the residue in length by the firstfruits of the sanctuary,
ten thousand toward the east, and ten thousand toward the west, shall be
as the firstfruits of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for
bread to them that serve the city.

48:19. And they that serve the city, shall serve it out of all the
tribes of Israel.

48:20. All the firstfruits, of five and twenty thousand, by five and
twenty thousand foursquare, shall be set apart for the firstfruits of
the sanctuary, and for the possession of the city.

48:21. And the residue shall be for the prince on every side of the
firstfruits of the sanctuary, and of the possession of the city over
against the five and twenty thousand of the firstfruits unto the east
border: toward the sea also over against the five and twenty thousand,
unto the border of the sea, shall likewise be the portion of the prince:
and the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and the sanctuary of the temple
shall be in the midst thereof.

48:22. And from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession
of the city which are in the midst of the prince's portions: what shall
be to the border of Juda, and to the border of Benjamin, shall also
belong to the prince.

48:23. And for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west
side, one portion for Benjamin.

48:24. And over against the border of Benjamin, from the east side to
the west side, one portion for Simeon.

48:25. And by the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side,
one portion for Issachar.

48:26. And by the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west
side, one portion for Zabulon.

48:27. And by the border of Zabulon, from the east side to the side of
the sea, one portion for Gad.

48:28. And by the border of Gad, the south side southward: and the
border shall be from Thamar, even to the waters of contradiction of
Cades, the inheritance over against the great sea.

48:29. This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of
Israel: and these are the portions of them, saith the Lord God.

48:30. And these are the goings out of the city: on the north side thou
shalt measure four thousand and five hundred.

48:31. And the gates of the city according to the name, of the tribes of
Israel, three gates on the north side, the gate of Ruben one, the gate
of Juda one, the gate of Levi one.

48:32. And at the east side, four thousand and five hundred: and three
gates, the gate of Joseph one, the gate of Benjamin one, the gate of Dan
one.

48:33. And at the south side, thou shalt measure four thousand and five
hundred and three gates, the gate of Simeon one, the gate of Issachar
one, the gate of Zabulon one.

48:34. And at the west side, four thousand and five hundred, and their
three gates, the gate of Gad one, the gate of Aser one, the gate of
Nephthali one.

48:35. Its circumference was eighteen thousand: and the name of the city
from that day, The Lord is there.

The Lord is there.... This name is here given to the city, that is, to
the church of Christ: because the Lord is always with her till the end
of the world. Matt. 28.20.





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