“So I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘A new time will certainly come. ²  People now affirm their oaths with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.”

The Lord who rules over all ¹  says, ‘Disaster will soon come on one nation after another. ²  A mighty storm of military destruction ³  is rising up from the distant parts of the earth.’

“Indeed, a time is coming,” ¹  says the Lord, ²  “when I will cause people and animals to sprout up in the lands of Israel and Judah. ³ 

“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, ¹  “when I will make a new covenant ²  with the people of Israel and Judah. ³ 

“I, the Lord, affirm: ¹  ‘The time will certainly come when I will fulfill my gracious promise concerning the nations of Israel and Judah. ² 

But the time is coming when I will send men against Moab who will empty it out. They will empty the towns of their people, then will lay those towns in ruins. ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it! ² 

Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings, a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah. At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful as a woman in labor.” ¹ 

“So the time will certainly come ¹  when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame. All her mortally wounded will collapse in her midst. ² 

Yes, but the time will certainly come,” ¹  says the Lord, ²  “when I will punish her idols. Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan.

So I got up and went out to the valley, and the glory of the Lord was standing there, just like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, ¹  and I threw myself face down.

Look here, I will tie you up with ropes, so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you complete the days of your siege. ¹ 

As I watched, I noticed ¹  a form that appeared to be a man. ²  From his waist downward was something like fire, ³  and from his waist upward something like a brightness, ⁴  like an amber glow. ⁵ 

So I went in and looked. I noticed every figure ¹  of creeping thing and beast – detestable images ²  – and every idol of the house of Israel, engraved on the wall all around. ³ 

Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed ¹  women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. ² 

Next I noticed the man dressed in linen with the writing kit at his side bringing back word: “I have done just as you commanded me.”

As I watched, I saw ¹  on the platform ²  above the top of the cherubim something like a sapphire, resembling the shape of a throne, appearing above them.

“Take note, son of man, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for distant days; he is prophesying about the far future.’

“‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” ¹  when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, ²  they coat it with whitewash.

No! ¹  It is thrown in the fire for fuel; when the fire has burned up both ends of it and it is charred in the middle, will it be useful for anything?

Indeed! If it was not made into anything useful when it was whole, how much less can it be made into anything when the fire has burned it up and it is charred?