Therefore, son of man, give the mountains of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: Your enemies have attacked you from all directions, making you the property of many nations and the object of much mocking and slander.

所以要发预言说，主耶和华如此说：因为敌人使你荒凉，四围吞吃，好叫你归与其余的外邦人为业，并且多嘴多舌的人提起你来，百姓也说你有臭名。

所以你要预言，说：主耶和华如此说：因为敌人使你荒凉，四围践踏你，要叫你归其余的列国为业，使你们成为各族的话柄与百姓的笑谈；

所以你要预言，说：主耶和华如此说：因为敌人使你荒凉，四围践踏你，要叫你归其余的列国为业，使你们成为各族的话柄与百姓的笑谈；

所以你要发预言，宣告主耶和华这样说，‘你们被蹂躏、掠夺，归了列国所有，成了外族人的话柄和笑谈。

所以你要说预言：主耶和华这样说：因为敌人使你们荒凉，四围践踏你们，好使你们归给列国中余剩的人为业，成为人们提说和嘲笑的对象，

所以要發預言說，主耶和華如此說：因為敵人使你荒涼，四圍吞吃，好叫你歸與其餘的外邦人為業，並且多嘴多舌的人提起你來，百姓也說你有臭名。

所以你要預言，說：主耶和華如此說：因為敵人使你荒涼，四圍踐踏你，要叫你歸其餘的列國為業，使你們成為各族的話柄與百姓的笑談；

所以你要預言，說：主耶和華如此說：因為敵人使你荒涼，四圍踐踏你，要叫你歸其餘的列國為業，使你們成為各族的話柄與百姓的笑談；

所以你要發預言，宣告主耶和華這樣說，『你們被蹂躪、掠奪，歸了列國所有，成了外族人的話柄和笑談。

所以你要說預言：主耶和華這樣說：因為敵人使你們荒涼，四圍踐踏你們，好使你們歸給列國中餘剩的人為業，成為人們提說和嘲笑的對象，

所以你要傳神言說：主永恆主這麼說：因為敵人真地使你們淒涼，四圍蹂躪你們，要使你們歸於其餘的外國人為業，被鼓舌傷人者的嘴和暴民的讒誹所取笑；

故爾當預言曰、主耶和華云、敵人使爾荒涼、四周吞噬、俾為列國遺民之業、為喋喋者談論、被人毀謗、

爾當以我言告之云、主耶和華曰、敵縱橫噬、使山荒寂、為他邦之人所得、虛誕之徒、播其流言、

故爾當預言曰、主天主如是云、爾四周之敵、使爾荒蕪、使爾荒蕪或作毀滅爾吞噬爾、致爾為未滅未滅原文作所餘下同之異邦人所得、又為人所談論、所譏刺、

Therefore prophesy and say,‘ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because they ravaged and crushed you from every side so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and the object of people’s malicious talk and slander,

Ezekiel, prophesy. Say,‘ The Lord and King says,“ Your enemies destroyed you. They crushed you from every side. So the rest of the nations took over your land. People talked about you. They told lies about you.” ’ ”

therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God: Precisely because they made you desolate and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people,

therefore, prophesy and say,‘ This is what the Lord GOD says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you from every side, so that you became a possession for the rest of the nations and an object of people’s gossip and slander,

therefore prophesy and say,‘ This is what the Lord God says:“ For good reason they have made you desolate and harassed you from every side, so that you would become a possession of the rest of the nations; and you have been taken up in the talk and the rumor of the people.” ’ ”

therefore prophesy, and say,‘ Thus says the Lord GOD:“ Because they made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you are taken up by the lips of talkers and slandered by the people”—

therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the nations, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;

therefore, prophesy and say: This is what the Lord God says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you from every side, so that you became a possession for the rest of the nations and an object of people’s gossip and slander,

Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they have made[ you] desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and[ are] an infamy of the people:

So prophesy and say:‘ This is what the sovereign LORD says: Surely because they have made you desolate and crushed you from all directions, so that you have become the property of the rest of the nations, and have become the subject of gossip and slander among the people,

therefore prophesy, and say,‘ The Lord Yahweh says:“ Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;”

You let our neighbors mock us. We are an object of scorn and derision to those around us.You have made us the butt of their jokes; they shake their heads at us in scorn.

All who pass by jeer at you. They scoff and insult beautiful Jerusalem, saying,“ Is this the city called‘ Most Beautiful in All the World’ and‘ Joy of All the Earth’?”All your enemies mock you. They scoff and snarl and say,“ We have destroyed her at last! We have long waited for this day, and it is finally here!”

Therefore, their land will become desolate, a monument to their stupidity. All who pass by will be astonished and will shake their heads in amazement.

then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations.And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will gasp in horror. They will ask,‘ Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’

Don’t let them say,“ Look, we got what we wanted! Now we will eat him alive!”

But in midautumn of that year, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and had been one of the king’s high officials, went to Mizpah with ten men to meet Gedaliah. While they were eating together,Ishmael and his ten men suddenly jumped up, drew their swords, and killed Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor.Ishmael also killed all the Judeans and the Babylonian soldiers who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah.The next day, before anyone had heard about Gedaliah’s murder,eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria to worship at the Temple of the Lord. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, and had brought along grain offerings and frankincense.Ishmael left Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he reached them, he said,“ Oh, come and see what has happened to Gedaliah!”But as soon as they were all inside the town, Ishmael and his men killed all but ten of them and threw their bodies into a cistern.The other ten had talked Ishmael into letting them go by promising to bring him their stores of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey that they had hidden away.The cistern where Ishmael dumped the bodies of the men he murdered was the large one dug by King Asa when he fortified Mizpah to protect himself against King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with corpses.Then Ishmael made captives of the king’s daughters and the other people who had been left under Gedaliah’s care in Mizpah by Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard. Taking them with him, he started back toward the land of Ammon.But when Johanan son of Kareah and the other military leaders heard about Ishmael’s crimes,they took all their men and set out to stop him. They caught up with him at the large pool near Gibeon.The people Ishmael had captured shouted for joy when they saw Johanan and the other military leaders.And all the captives from Mizpah escaped and began to help Johanan.Meanwhile, Ishmael and eight of his men escaped from Johanan into the land of Ammon.Then Johanan son of Kareah and the other military leaders took all the people they had rescued in Gibeon— the soldiers, women, children, and court officials whom Ishmael had captured after he killed Gedaliah.They took them all to the village of Geruth kimham near Bethlehem, where they prepared to leave for Egypt.They were afraid of what the Babylonians would do when they heard that Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the Babylonian king.

The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery.“ Look at you now!” they yelled at him.“ You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!”The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus.“ He saved others,” they scoffed,“ but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him!He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said,‘ I am the Son of God.’”Even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way.

Zedekiah was twenty one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.But Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done.These things happened because of the Lord’s anger against the people of Jerusalem and Judah, until he finally banished them from his presence and sent them into exile. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.So on January 15, during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls.Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone.Then a section of the city wall was broken down, and all the soldiers fled. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians, they waited for nightfall. Then they slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.But the Babylonian troops chased King Zedekiah and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered.They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.The king of Babylon made Zedekiah watch as he slaughtered his sons. He also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.Then he gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in bronze chains, and the king of Babylon led him away to Babylon. Zedekiah remained there in prison until the day of his death.On August 17 of that year, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem.He burned down the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings in the city.Then he supervised the entire Babylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind to care for the vineyards and fields.The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in front of the Lord’s Temple, the bronze water carts, and the great bronze basin called the Sea, and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon.They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, basins, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple.The captain of the guard also took the small bowls, incense burners, basins, pots, lampstands, ladles, bowls used for liquid offerings, and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver.The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea with the twelve bronze oxen beneath it, and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things had been made for the Lord’s Temple in the days of King Solomon.Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference. They were hollow, with walls 3 inches thick.The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7 1/2 feet high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around.There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 pomegranates on the network around the top.Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took with him as prisoners Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers.And from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an officer who had been in charge of the Judean army; seven of the king’s personal advisers; the army commander’s chief secretary, who was in charge of recruitment; and sixty other citizens.Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah.And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land.The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was 3,023.Then in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year he took 832 more.In Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty third year he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who took 745 more— a total of 4,600 captives in all.In the thirty seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil merodach ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to Jehoiachin and released him from prison on March 31 of that year.He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in Babylon.He supplied Jehoiachin with new clothes to replace his prison garb and allowed him to dine in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.So the Babylonian king gave him a regular food allowance as long as he lived. This continued until the day of his death.Jerusalem, once so full of people, is now deserted. She who was once great among the nations now sits alone like a widow. Once the queen of all the earth, she is now a slave.She sobs through the night; tears stream down her cheeks. Among all her lovers, there is no one left to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her and become her enemies.Judah has been led away into captivity, oppressed with cruel slavery. She lives among foreign nations and has no place of rest. Her enemies have chased her down, and she has nowhere to turn.The roads to Jerusalem are in mourning, for crowds no longer come to celebrate the festivals. The city gates are silent, her priests groan, her young women are crying— how bitter is her fate!Her oppressors have become her masters, and her enemies prosper, for the Lord has punished Jerusalem for her many sins. Her children have been captured and taken away to distant lands.

“ This will happen because these evil prophets deceive my people by saying,‘ All is peaceful’ when there is no peace at all! It’s as if the people have built a flimsy wall, and these prophets are trying to reinforce it by covering it with whitewash!

“ But now I am mocked by people younger than I, by young men whose fathers are not worthy to run with my sheepdogs.A lot of good they are to me— those worn out wretches!They are gaunt from poverty and hunger. They claw the dry ground in desolate wastelands.They pluck wild greens from among the bushes and eat from the roots of broom trees.They are driven from human society, and people shout at them as if they were thieves.So now they live in frightening ravines, in caves and among the rocks.They sound like animals howling among the bushes, huddled together beneath the nettles.They are nameless fools, outcasts from society.“ And now they mock me with vulgar songs! They taunt me!They despise me and won’t come near me, except to spit in my face.

Without mercy the Lord has destroyed every home in Israel. In his anger he has broken down the fortress walls of beautiful Jerusalem. He has brought them to the ground, dishonoring the kingdom and its rulers.

O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer!

But they are glad now that I am in trouble; they gleefully join together against me. I am attacked by people I don’t even know; they slander me constantly.They mock me and call me names; they snarl at me.

“ Have you noticed what people are saying?—‘ The Lord chose Judah and Israel and then abandoned them!’ They are sneering and saying that Israel is not worthy to be counted as a nation.

In view of all your faithful mercies, Lord, please turn your furious anger away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. All the neighboring nations mock Jerusalem and your people because of our sins and the sins of our ancestors.

For the land must be abandoned to enjoy its years of Sabbath rest as it lies deserted. At last the people will pay for their sins, for they have continually rejected my regulations and despised my decrees.

Let’s swallow them alive, like the grave; let’s swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death.

In January of the ninth year of King Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with his entire army to besiege Jerusalem.Two and a half years later, on July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, a section of the city wall was broken down.All the officers of the Babylonian army came in and sat in triumph at the Middle Gate: Nergal sharezer of Samgar, and Nebo sarsekim, a chief officer, and Nergal sharezer, the king’s adviser, and all the other officers of the king of Babylon.When King Zedekiah of Judah and all the soldiers saw that the Babylonians had broken into the city, they fled. They waited for nightfall and then slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.But the Babylonian troops chased them and overtook Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho. They captured him and took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who was at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.The king of Babylon made Zedekiah watch as he slaughtered his sons at Riblah. The king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.Then he gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in bronze chains to lead him away to Babylon.Meanwhile, the Babylonians burned Jerusalem, including the royal palace and the houses of the people, and they tore down the walls of the city.Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles to Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had defected to him, and everyone else who remained.But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind in the land of Judah, and he assigned them to care for the vineyards and fields.King Nebuchadnezzar had told Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, to find Jeremiah.“ See that he isn’t hurt,” he said.“ Look after him well, and give him anything he wants.”So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard; Nebushazban, a chief officer; Nergal sharezer, the king’s adviser; and the other officers of Babylon’s kingsent messengers to bring Jeremiah out of the prison. They put him under the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, who took him back to his home. So Jeremiah stayed in Judah among his own people.The Lord had given the following message to Jeremiah while he was still in prison:“ Say to Ebed melech the Ethiopian,‘ This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will do to this city everything I have threatened. I will send disaster, not prosperity. You will see its destruction,but I will rescue you from those you fear so much.Because you trusted me, I will give you your life as a reward. I will rescue you and keep you safe. I, the Lord, have spoken!’”

“ King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has eaten and crushed us and drained us of strength. He has swallowed us like a great monster and filled his belly with our riches. He has thrown us out of our own country.

I will make them an object of horror and a symbol of evil to every nation on earth. They will be disgraced and mocked, taunted and cursed, wherever I scatter them.

I am the favorite topic of town gossip, and all the drunks sing about me.

Why should pagan nations be allowed to scoff, asking,“ Where is their God?” Show us your vengeance against the nations, for they have spilled the blood of your servants.

Yes, the Lord has vanquished Israel like an enemy. He has destroyed her palaces and demolished her fortresses. He has brought unending sorrow and tears upon beautiful Jerusalem.

We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash— right up to the present moment.

You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the nations to which the Lord sends you.