A voice says, “Cry out!” Another asks, ¹  “What should I cry out?” The first voice responds: ²  “All people are like grass, ³  and all their promises ⁴  are like the flowers in the field.

Half of it he burns in the fire – over that half he cooks ¹  meat; he roasts a meal and fills himself. Yes, he warms himself and says, ‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’

I want you ¹  to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. ²  When you see someone naked, clothe him! Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood! ³ 

“As for those who consecrate and ritually purify themselves so they can follow their leader and worship in the sacred orchards, ¹  those who eat the flesh of pigs and other disgusting creatures, like mice ²  – they will all be destroyed together,” ³  says the Lord.

From one month ¹  to the next and from one Sabbath to the next, all people ²  will come to worship me,” ³  says the Lord.

“They will go out and observe the corpses of those who rebelled against me, for the maggots that eat them will not die, ¹  and the fire that consumes them will not die out. ²  All people will find the sight abhorrent.” ³ 

The Lord says to the people of Judah, ¹  “What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people? ²  Many of you have done wicked things. ³  Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings ⁴  that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them? ⁵ 

The Lord says, “I will put a curse on people who trust in mere human beings, who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength, ²  and whose hearts ³  have turned away from the Lord.

The sounds of battle ¹  will resound to the ends of the earth. For the Lord will bring charges against the nations. ²  He will pass judgment on all humankind and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.’ ³  The Lord so affirms it! ⁴ 

Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘The corpses you have dumped ¹  in the midst of the city ²  are the meat, and this city ³  is the cooking pot, but I will take you out of it. ⁴ 

This city will not be a cooking pot for you, and you will not ¹  be meat within it; I will judge you at the border of Israel.

Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will go out from its sheath against everyone ¹  from the south ²  to the north.

Then everyone will know that I am the Lord, who drew my sword from its sheath – it will not be sheathed again!’

I will put tendons ¹  on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath ²  in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

As I watched, I saw ¹  tendons on them, then muscles appeared, ²  and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath ³  in them.

You will eat the flesh of warriors ¹  and drink the blood of the princes of the earth – the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan.

At the end of the ten days their appearance was better and their bodies were healthier ¹  than all the young men who had been eating the royal delicacies.

I ate no choice food; no meat or wine came to my lips, ¹  nor did I anoint myself with oil ²  until the end of those three weeks.

They offer up sacrificial gifts to me, and eat the meat, but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices. ¹  Soon he will remember their wrongdoing, he will punish their sins, and they will return to Egypt.

You ¹  devour my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and crush their bones. You chop them up like flesh in a pot ²  – like meat in a kettle.