64 Thou wilt render unto them a recompence,

O LORD, according to the work of their
hands.

65 Thou wilt give them 'hardness of heart, thy 10r, blindness

curse unto them.

66 Thou wilt pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.

4 How is the gold become dim! how is the most
pure gold changed!

The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at
the top of every street.

2 The precious sons of Zion, 'comparable to fine
gold,
How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the
work of the hands of the potter!

3 Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give
suck to their young ones:

4

The daughter of my people is become cruel, like
the ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the
roof of his mouth for thirst:

The young children ask bread, and no man
breaketh it unto them.

5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in
the streets:

They that were brought up in scarlet embrace
dunghills.

Heb. covering.

6 For 'the iniquity of the daughter of my people Or, the is greater than 'the sin of Sodom,

the iniquity

That was overthrown as in a moment, and no Or, the hands were laid upon her.

7 Her 'nobles were purer than snow, they were
whiter than milk,

They were more ruddy in body than 'rubies,
their polishing was as of sapphire:

8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are
not known in the streets:

punishment of the sin

5

Or, fell

See 2 Sam. iii. 29.

6

Or, Nazirites

7 Or, corals

8 Heb.

darker than

blackness.

1 Heb. flow away.

2 Or, Yea

3 Heb. face.

Their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

They that be slain with the sword are better 9 than they that be slain with hunger;

For these 'pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden 10 their own children;

They were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

The LORD hath accomplished his fury, he hath 11 poured out his fierce anger;

And he hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured the foundations thereof.

The kings of the earth believed not, neither 12 all the inhabitants of the world,

That the adversary and the enemy should enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

It is because of the sins of her prophets, and 13 the iniquities of her priests,

That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

They wander as blind men in the streets, they 14 are polluted with blood,

So that men cannot touch their garments.

Depart ye, they cried unto them, Unclean! 15 depart, depart, touch not:

When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn here.

The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he 16 will no more regard them :

They respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain 17 help:

In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our

19

streets:

Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our
end is come.

Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of
the heaven:

They chased us upon the mountains, they laid
wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the
LORD, was taken in their pits;

Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall
live among the nations.

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that
dwellest in the land of Uz:

The cup shall pass through unto thee also; thou
shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself
naked.

22 'The punishment of thine iniquity is accom-
plished, O daughter of Zion;

He will no more carry thee away into captivity:
He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of
Edom;

He will discover thy sins.

5 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us : Behold, and see our reproach.

2 Our inheritance is turned unto strangers, Our houses unto aliens.

3 We are orphans and fatherless,

Our mothers are as widows.

4 We have drunken our water for money; Our wood 'is sold unto us.

5 Our pursuers are upon our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.

6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians,

And to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not;

And we have borne their iniquities.

1Or, Thine iniquity hath an end

2 Heb. cometh for price.

1 Or, hot

Servants rule over us :

8

There is none to deliver us out of their hand.
We get our bread with the peril of our lives
Because of the sword of the wilderness.
Our skin is 'black like an oven.

Because of the burning heat of famine.
They ravished the women in Zion,
The maidens in the cities of Judah.
Princes were hanged up by their hand :
The faces of elders were not honoured.
The young men bare the mill,

And the children stumbled under the wood.
The elders have ceased from the gate,
The young men from their music.
The joy of our heart is ceased;

Our dance is turned into mourning.

The crown is fallen from our head:
Woe unto us! for we have sinned.

9

10

II

12

13

14

15

16

For this our heart is faint;

17

For these things our eyes are dim;

For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate;

18

Or, jackals The 'foxes walk upon it.

3 Or, sittest as king

4 Or, Unless thou...and art &c.

Thou, O LORD, abidest for ever;

Thy throne is from generation to generation.
Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever,

And forsake us so long time?

19

20

Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall 21

be turned;

Renew our days as of old.

'But thou hast utterly rejected us,

Thou art very wroth against us.

22

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET

EZEKIEL.

1

captivity.

1 I Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year,
in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the
month, as I was among the 'captives by the Heb.
river Chebar, that the heavens were opened,
2 and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day
of the month, which was the fifth year of king
3 Jehoiachin's captivity, the word of the LORD
came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son
of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the
river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was
4 there upon him. And I looked, and, behold,

4 Or, electrum

a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with a fire 'infolding itself, and a bright- 2 Or, flashing ness round about it, and out of the midst thereof continually 'as the colour of 'amber, out of the midst of the 3 Or, as amber 5 fire. And out of the midst thereof came the to look upon likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a 6 man. And every one had four faces, and every 7 one of them had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled 8 like the colour of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides: and they four had their faces 9 and their wings thus; their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they