"and say to the land of Israel, 'Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I [am] against you, and I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked from you.
"And it shall be when they say to you, 'Why are you sighing?' that you shall answer, 'Because of the news; when 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 is coming and shall be brought to pass,' says the Lord GOD."
Sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter, Polished to flash like lightning! Should we then make mirth? It despises the scepter of My Son, [As it does] all wood.
"Cry and wail, son of man; For it will be against My people, Against all the princes of Israel. Terrors including the sword will be against My people; Therefore strike [your] thigh.
" You therefore, son of man, prophesy, And strike [your] hands together. The third time let the sword do double [damage.] It [is] the sword [that] slays, The sword that slays the great [men,] That enters their private chambers.
I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, That the heart may melt and many may stumble. Ah! [It is] made bright; [It is] grasped for slaughter:
"And son of man, appoint for yourself two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to go; both of them shall go from the same land. Make a sign; put [it] at the head of the road to the city.
"For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.
"In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a [siege] mound, and to build a wall.
"And it will be to them like a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them; but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.
" Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you have made 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 remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.
" And you, son of man, prophesy and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach,' and say: 'A sword, a sword [is] drawn, Polished for slaughter, For consuming, for flashing --
While they see false visions for you, While they divine a lie to you, To bring you on the necks of the wicked, the slain Whose day has come, Whose iniquity [shall] end.
I will pour out My indignation on you; I will blow against you with the fire of My wrath, And deliver you into the hands of brutal men [who are] skillful to destroy.