1   And the word of our Lord was made to me, saying:

2   Sonne of man set thy face to Ierusalem, and ^note droppe to the sanctuaries, and prophecie against the ground of Israel:

3   And thou shalt say to the land of Israel: Thus saith our Lord God: Behold I to thee, and I wil draw forth my sword out of his scabbard, and wil kil in thee ^note the iust, and the impious.

4   And for that I haue killed in thee the iust, and the impious, therfore shal my sword goe forth out of his scabbard to al flesh, from the South euen to the North.

5   That al flesh may know that I the Lord haue drawen my sword out of his scabbard not to be reuoked.

6   And thou sonne of man, mourne in contrition of the loynes, and in bitternes mourne before them.

7   And when they shal say to thee: Why mournest thou? thou shalt say: For the bruite: because it cometh, and euerie hart shal melt, & al handes shal be dissolued, and euerie

spirit shal be weakened, and waters shal runne by al knees: behold it commeth, and it shal be done, saith our Lord God.

8   And the word of our Lord was made to me, saying:

9   Sonne of man prophecie, and thou shalt say: Thus saith our Lord God: Speake: The sword, the sword is sharpened, and fourbished.

10   To kil victims, it is sharpened; to glitter, it is fourbished: thou that mouest the scepter ^note of my sonne, hast cut downe euerie tree.

11   And I gaue it to be made smooth, that it may be held with the hand: this is a sharpened sword, and this is forbished, that it may be in the hand of the slayer.

12   Crie, and howle ô sonne of man, because this same is made in my people, in al the captaines of Israel, that fled: they are deliuered to the sword with my people, therfore strike vpon the thigh,

13   because it is proued: and that, when it shal ouerthrow the scepter, it shal not be, saith our Lord God.

14   Thou therfore ô sonne of man prophecie, & strike hand against hand, and let the sword be dubled, & let the sword of the slaine be tripled: this is the sword of great slaughter, that maketh them to be astonied,

15   and to pine in hart, & multiplieth ruines. In al their gates haue I geuen the truble of the sword sharpe and furbished to glitter, addressed to slaughter.

16   Be thou sharpened, goe to the right hand, or to the left, whithersoeuer the appetite of thy face is.

17   Yea and I wil clappe hand to hand, and wil fil mine indignation: I the Lord haue spoken.

18   And the word of our Lord was made to me, saying:

19   And thou sonne of man, ^note put thee two wayes, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both shal come forth out of one land: and he shal take coniecture with the hand, in the head of the way of the citie shal he choose it.

20   Thou shalt make way that the sword may come to Rabbath of the children of Ammon, and to Iuda into Ierusalem most fenced.

21   For the king of Babylon stood in the high way, in the head of two wayes, seeking diuination, shufling arrowes: he asked the idols, & tooke counsel of intralles.

22   On his right hand was made diuination vpon Ierusalem, to sette engins, to open the mouth in flaughter, to eleuate the voice in howling, to set engins against the gates, to cast vp a rampier, to build munitions.

23   And he shal be as it were consulting the oracle in vaine in their eies, & imitating the rest of sabbathes: but he shal remember the iniquitie to take it.

24   Therfore thus saith our Lord God: For that you haue remembred your iniquitie, and haue reueled

your preuarications, and your sinnes haue appeared in al your cogitations: for that, I say, that you remembred, you shal be taken by hand.

25   But thou prophane, impious prince of Israel, whose day prefixed cometh in the time of iniquitie:

26   Thus saith our Lord God: Take away the myter, take of the crowne: is not this it, that extolled the humble, and humbled the high?

27   Iniquitie, iniquitie, iniquitie wil I put it, and this was not done, til he came to whom iudgement belongeth, and I wil deliuer it to him.

28   And thou sonne of man prophecie, and say: Thus saith our Lord God to the children of Ammon, and ^note to their reproch, and thou shalt say: Sword, sword draw out thyselfe to kil, fourbish thy selfe to slaye, and to glitter.

29   When vaine thinges were sene for thee, and lies were diuined: that thou mightest be geuen vpon the neckes of the wounded impious, whose day prefixed cometh in the time of iniquitie.

30    ^noteReturne to thy scabbard in the place, wherin thou wast created, in the land of thy natiuitie I wil iudge thee,

31   and wil powre out vpon thee mine indignation: in the fire of my furie wil I blow vpon thee, and wil geue thee into the handes of men vnwise, & framing destruction.

32   Thou shalt be foode for the fire, thy bloud shal be in the middes of the land, thou shalt be forgotten: because I the Lord haue spoken.

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