The Dirty Ledger

¹In the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, some of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and sat before me.

²The LORD’s word came to me, saying,

³“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Is it to inquire of me that you have come? As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I will not be inquired of by you.”’

⁴“Will you judge them, son of man? Will you judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers.

⁵Tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “In the day when I chose Israel, and swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God;’

⁶in that day I swore to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.

⁷I said to them, ‘Each of you throw away the abominations of his eyes. Don’t defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’

⁸“‘“But they rebelled against me and wouldn’t listen to me. They didn’t all throw away the abominations of their eyes. They also didn’t forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the middle of the land of Egypt.

⁹But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰So I caused them to go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.

¹¹I gave them my statutes and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he will live in them.

¹²Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

¹³“‘“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them.

¹⁴But I worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.

¹⁵Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands,

¹⁶because they rejected my ordinances, and didn’t walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.

¹⁷Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I didn’t destroy them. I didn’t make a full end of them in the wilderness.

¹⁸I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Don’t walk in the statutes of your fathers. Don’t observe their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols.

¹⁹I am the LORD your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my ordinances, and do them.

²⁰Make my Sabbaths holy. They shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’

²¹“‘“But the children rebelled against me. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and didn’t keep my ordinances to do them, which if a man does, he shall live in them. They profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.

²²Nevertheless I withdrew my hand and worked for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.

²³Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries,

²⁴because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols.

²⁵Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they couldn’t live.

²⁶I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused all that opens the womb to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD.”’

²⁷“Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Moreover, in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.

²⁸For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There they also made their pleasant aroma, and there they poured out their drink offerings.

²⁹Then I said to them, ‘What does the high place where you go mean?’ So its name is called Bamah to this day.”’

³⁰“Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘The Lord GOD says: “Do you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? Do you play the prostitute after their abominations?

³¹When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols to this day? Should I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you!

³²“‘“That which comes into your mind will not be at all, in that you say, ‘We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.’

³³As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you.

³⁴I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out.

³⁵I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.

³⁶Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” says the Lord GOD.

³⁷“I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

³⁸I will purge out from among you the rebels and those who disobey me. I will bring them out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

³⁹“‘As for you, house of Israel, the Lord GOD says: “Go, everyone serve his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to me; but you shall no more profane my holy name with your gifts and with your idols.

⁴⁰For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel,” says the Lord GOD, “there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the first fruits of your offerings, with all your holy things.

⁴¹I will accept you as a pleasant aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered. I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations.

⁴²You will know that I am the LORD when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I swore to give to your fathers.

⁴³There you will remember your ways, and all your deeds in which you have polluted yourselves. Then you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.

⁴⁴You will know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you house of Israel,” says the Lord GOD.’”

⁴⁵The LORD’s word came to me, saying,

⁴⁶“Son of man, set your face toward the south, and preach toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the field in the south.

⁴⁷Tell the forest of the south, ‘Hear the LORD’s word: The Lord GOD says, “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree. The burning flame will not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it.

⁴⁸All flesh will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it. It will not be quenched.”’”

⁴⁹Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! They say of me, ‘Isn’t he a speaker of parables?’”

¹The LORD’s word came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and preach toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel.

³Tell the land of Israel, ‘The LORD says: “Behold, I am against you, and will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.

⁴Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore my sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north.

⁵All flesh will know that I, the LORD, have drawn my sword out of its sheath. It will not return any more.”’

⁶“Therefore sigh, you son of man. You shall sigh before their eyes with a broken heart and with bitterness.

⁷It shall be, when they ask you, ‘Why do you sigh?’ that you shall say, ‘Because of the news, for it comes! Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord GOD.’”

⁸The LORD’s word came to me, saying,

⁹“Son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘The LORD says: “A sword! A sword! It is sharpened, and also polished.

¹⁰It is sharpened that it may make a slaughter. It is polished that it may be as lightning. Should we then make mirth? The rod of my son condemns every tree.

¹¹It is given to be polished, that it may be handled. The sword is sharpened. Yes, it is polished to give it into the hand of the killer.”’

¹²Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people. It is on all the princes of Israel. They are delivered over to the sword with my people. Therefore beat your thigh.

¹³“For there is a trial. What if even the rod that condemns will be no more?” says the Lord GOD.

¹⁴“You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together. Let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the fatally wounded. It is the sword of the great one who is fatally wounded, which enters into their rooms.

¹⁵I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied. Ah! It is made as lightning. It is pointed for slaughter.

¹⁶Gather yourselves together. Go to the right. Set yourselves in array. Go to the left, wherever your face is set.

¹⁷I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest. I, the LORD, have spoken it.”

¹⁸The LORD’s word came to me again, saying,

¹⁹“Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come. They both will come out of one land, and mark out a place. Mark it out at the head of the way to the city.

²⁰You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.

²¹For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shook the arrows back and forth. He consulted the teraphim. He looked in the liver.

²²In his right hand was the lot for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, and to build forts.

²³It will be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken.

²⁴“Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have caused your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to memory, you will be taken with the hand.

²⁵“‘You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,

²⁶the Lord GOD says: “Remove the turban, and take off the crown. This will not be as it was. Exalt that which is low, and humble that which is high.

²⁷I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. This also will be no more, until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it.”’

²⁸“You, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘The Lord GOD says this concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach: “A sword! A sword is drawn! It is polished for the slaughter, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;

²⁹while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day has come in the time of the iniquity of the end.

³⁰Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, I will judge you.

³¹I will pour out my indignation on you. I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath. I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.

³²You will be for fuel to the fire. Your blood will be in the middle of the land. You will be remembered no more; for I, the LORD, have spoken it.”’”

¹Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying,

²“You, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations.

³You shall say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “A city that sheds blood within herself, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her!

⁴You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your idols which you have made! You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to the end of your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries.

⁵Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

⁶“‘“Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.

⁷In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.

⁸You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths.

⁹Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains. They have committed lewdness among you.

¹⁰In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness. In you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity.

¹¹One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. Another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.

¹²In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord GOD.

¹³“‘“Behold, therefore I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at the blood which has been shed within you.

¹⁴Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I will deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken it, and will do it.

¹⁵I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries. I will purge your filthiness out of you.

¹⁶You will be profaned in yourself in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”’”

¹⁷The LORD’s word came to me, saying,

¹⁸“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are the dross of silver.

¹⁹Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem.

²⁰As they gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there and melt you.

²¹Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted in the middle of it.

²²As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so you will be melted in the middle of it; and you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my wrath on you.’”

²³The LORD’s word came to me, saying,

²⁴“Son of man, tell her, ‘You are a land that is not cleansed nor rained on in the day of indignation.’

²⁵There is a conspiracy of her prophets within it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They take treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within it.

²⁶Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths. So I am profaned among them.

²⁷Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

²⁸Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, ‘The Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken.

²⁹The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.

³⁰“I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.

³¹Therefore I have poured out my indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have brought their own way on their heads,” says the Lord GOD.

¹The LORD’s word came again to me, saying,

²“Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother.

³They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there.

⁴Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

⁵“Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine. She doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,

⁶who were clothed with blue—governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.

⁷She gave herself as a prostitute to them, all of them the choicest men of Assyria. She defiled herself with the idols of whomever she lusted after.

⁸She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her. They caressed her youthful nipples and they poured out their prostitution on her.

⁹“Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians on whom she doted.

¹⁰These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.

¹¹“Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lusting than she, and in her prostitution which was more depraved than the prostitution of her sister.

¹²She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and rulers—her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

¹³I saw that she was defiled. They both went the same way.

¹⁴“She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with red,

¹⁵dressed with belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.

¹⁶As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.

¹⁷The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. She was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.

¹⁸So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my soul was alienated from her, just like my soul was alienated from her sister.

¹⁹Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.

²⁰She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

²¹Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the caressing of your nipples by the Egyptians because of your youthful breasts.

²²“Therefore, Oholibah, the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side:

²³the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; all of them desirable young men, governors and rulers, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.

²⁴They will come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples. They will set themselves against you with buckler, shield, and helmet all around. I will commit the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments.

²⁵I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will take away your nose and your ears. Your remnant will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and the rest of you will be devoured by the fire.

²⁶They will also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels.

²⁷Thus I will make your lewdness to cease from you, and remove your prostitution from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.’

²⁸“For the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated.

²⁹They will deal with you in hatred, and will take away all your labor, and will leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution.

³⁰These things will be done to you because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols.

³¹You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.’

³²“The Lord GOD says: ‘You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large. You will be ridiculed and held in derision. It contains much.

³³You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.

³⁴You will even drink it and drain it out. You will gnaw the broken pieces of it, and will tear your breasts; for I have spoken it,’ says the Lord GOD.

³⁵“Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.’”

³⁶The LORD said moreover to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.

³⁷For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured.

³⁸Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.

³⁹For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, they have done this in the middle of my house.

⁴⁰“Furthermore you sisters have sent for men who come from far away, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you washed yourself, painted your eyes, decorated yourself with ornaments,

⁴¹and sat on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you set my incense and my oil.

⁴²“The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her. With men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads.

⁴³Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, ‘Now they will play the prostitute with her, and she with them.’

⁴⁴They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute. So they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.

⁴⁵Righteous men will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

⁴⁶“For the Lord GOD says: ‘I will bring up a mob against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed.

⁴⁷The company will stone them with stones and dispatch them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

⁴⁸“‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to be lewd like you.

⁴⁹They will recompense your lewdness on you, and you will bear the sins of your idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.’”

¹Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the LORD’s word came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, write the name of the day, this same day. The king of Babylon drew close to Jerusalem this same day.

³Utter a parable to the rebellious house, and tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says, “Put the cauldron on the fire. Put it on, and also pour water into it.

⁴Gather its pieces into it, even every good piece: the thigh and the shoulder. Fill it with the choice bones.

⁵Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile of wood for the bones under the cauldron. Make it boil well. Yes, let its bones be boiled within it.”

⁶“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Woe to the bloody city, to the cauldron whose rust is in it, and whose rust hasn’t gone out of it! Take out of it piece after piece without casting lots for it.

⁷“‘“For the blood she shed is in the middle of her. She set it on the bare rock. She didn’t pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust.

⁸That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood on the bare rock, that it should not be covered.”

⁹“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great.

¹⁰Heap on the wood. Make the fire hot. Boil the meat well. Make the broth thick, and let the bones be burned.

¹¹Then set it empty on its coals, that it may be hot, and its bronze may burn, and that its filthiness may be molten in it, that its rust may be consumed.

¹²She is weary with toil; yet her great rust, rust by fire, doesn’t leave her.

¹³“‘“In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I have cleansed you and you weren’t cleansed, you won’t be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.

¹⁴“‘“I, the LORD, have spoken it. It will happen, and I will do it. I won’t go back. I won’t spare. I won’t repent. According to your ways and according to your doings, they will judge you,” says the Lord GOD.’”

¹⁵Also the LORD’s word came to me, saying,

¹⁶“Son of man, behold, I will take away from you the desire of your eyes with one stroke; yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down.

¹⁷Sigh, but not aloud. Make no mourning for the dead. Bind your headdress on you, and put your sandals on your feet. Don’t cover your lips, and don’t eat mourner’s bread.”

¹⁸So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. So I did in the morning as I was commanded.

¹⁹The people asked me, “Won’t you tell us what these things mean to us, that you act like this?”

²⁰Then I said to them, “The LORD’s word came to me, saying,

²¹‘Speak to the house of Israel, “The Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.

²²You will do as I have done. You won’t cover your lips or eat mourner’s bread.

²³Your turbans will be on your heads, and your sandals on your feet. You won’t mourn or weep; but you will pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.

²⁴Thus Ezekiel will be a sign to you; according to all that he has done, you will do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.’”’”

²⁵“You, son of man, shouldn’t it be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their heart—their sons and their daughters—

²⁶that in that day he who escapes will come to you, to cause you to hear it with your ears?

²⁷In that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped, and you will speak and be no more mute. So you will be a sign to them. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”