¶ The word of the LORD came unto me on this manner: Thee I call, O thou son of man. Thus sayeth the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel: The end cometh, yea verily the end cometh upon all the four corners of the earth. But now shall the end come upon thee: For I will send my wrath upon thee, and will punish thee: according to thy ways, and reward thee after all thy abominations. Mine eye shall not oversee thee, neither will I spare thee: but reward thee according to thy ways, and declare thy abominations. Then shall ye know, that I am the LORD. Thus sayeth the Lord GOD: Behold, one misery and plague shall come after another: the end is here. The end (I say) that waiteth for thee, is come already, the hour is come against thee, that dwellest in the land. The time is at hand, the day of sedition is hard by, and no glad tidings upon the mountains. Therefore, I will shortly pour out my sore displeasure over thee, and fulfill my wrath upon thee, I will judge thee after thy ways, and recompense thee all thy abominations. Mine eye shall not oversee thee, neither will I spare thee: but reward thee after thy ways, and shew thy abominations, to learn you for to know, how that I am the LORD that smiteth. Behold, the day is here, the day is come, the hour is run out, the rod flourisheth, willfulness waxeth green, malicious violence is grown up, and the ungodly waxen to a staff. Yet shall there no complaint be made for them, nor for the trouble that shall come of these things. The time cometh, the day draweth nye: Who so buyeth let him not rejoice: he that selleth, let him not be sorry: for why? Trouble shall come in the middest of all rest: so that the seller shall not come again to the buyer, for neither of them both shall live. For the vision shall come so greatly over all, that it shall not be hindered: No man also with his wickedness shall be able to save his own life. The trumpets shall ye blow, and make you all ready, but no man shall go to the battle, for I am wroth with all the whole multitude. The sword shall be without, pestilence and hunger within: so that who so is in the field, shall be slain with the sword: and he that is in the city, shall perish with hunger and pestilence.
¶ And such as escape and flee from among them, shall be upon the hills, like as the doves in the field: every one shall be afraid, because of his own wickedness. All hands shall be let down, and all knees shall be weak as the water: they shall gird themselves with sack cloth, fear shall fall upon them. Their faces shall be confounded, and their heads bald: their silver shall lie in the streets, and their gold shall be despised. Yea their silver and gold may not deliver them, in the day of the fearful wrath of the LORD. They shall not satisfy their hungry souls, neither fill their empty bellies therewith: For it is become their own decay thorow their wickedness: because they made thereof not only costly Iewels for their pomp and pride, but also abominable images and Idols. For this cause will I make them to be abhorred. Moreover, I will give it into the hands of the strangers to be spoiled: and to the wicked for to be robbed, and they shall destroy it. My face will I turn from them, my treasury shall be defiled: for the thieves shall go into it, and suspend it.
¶ I will make clean riddance, for the land is whole defiled with unrighteous judgement of innocent blood, and the city is full of abominations. Wherefore, I will bring the most cruel tyrants from among the Heathen, to take their houses in possession. I will make the pomp of the proud to cease, and they shall take in their Sanctuary. When this trouble cometh, they shall seek peace, but they shall have none. One mischief and sorrow shall follow another, and one rumour shall come after another: Then shall they seek visions in vain at their Prophets. The law shall be gone from the priests, and wisdom from the elders. The king shall mourn, the princes shall be clothed with heaviness, and the hands of the people in the land shall tremble for fear. I will do unto them after their own ways, and according to their own judgements will I judge them: to learn them for to know, that I am the LORD.