Eze 7 | EE | STEP | The LORD spoke to me.

Ezekiel 7

The day has come for the LORD to punish Israel

1 The LORD spoke to me. 2 ‘Son of man, the LORD God is speaking to the land in Israel. He says, “This is the end. Now I am going to finish with all the land. 3 Now I will show you how angry I am. I will punish you because of all the wrong things that you have done. The punishment will be as great as the wrong things that you have done. 4 I will not be sorry for you or save you. I will punish you. I will punish you because of all the wrong things that you have done. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”’

5 This is what the LORD God says. ‘Great trouble! I am going to send you greater trouble than anyone has ever seen. 6 No time is left. It is finished. 7 I will destroy the lives of the people who live in this country. They will not have parties where they worshipped idols. They will have no more parties in the high places. People will be confused, not happy. 8 I will soon cause you to know how angry I am. I am going to be your judge for all that you have done. And I will punish you because of all the wrong things that you have done. 9 I will not make your punishment less. I will give you great punishment for all the sins that you have done. Then you will know that I, the LORD, am punishing you.

10 It is time now. The people have done enough wrong things. The time to punish them has come. 11 I have become very angry. I will punish the wicked people. I will punish all of them. None of their dear things will remain, nor anything that has any value. 12 The day when I punish my people has come. The person who buys will not be happy. Nor will the person who sells. I am angry with every one of them. 13 Any man who sells his land will not get it back. I will keep my promise. Nobody who has done wrong things will stay alive. 14 They may prepare for war, but nobody will go out to fight. The whole nation has made me very angry.

15 The enemy is outside the city. Inside the city, people are ill and they have no food. Soldiers will kill the people in the country. The people in the city will die from illness, or because they do not have any food. 16 Some people will stay alive. They will leave the city and they will run to the mountains. They will be like birds that are flying from the hunters. They will all cry because of their sins. 17 Their hands will be weak and their knees will knock together. 18 They will want to show that they are sorry. So they will wear clothes that are not comfortable. They will be very afraid. They will be ashamed and they will cut all the hair from their heads. 19 They will throw their silver and gold away like dirt. They will know that neither silver nor gold can save them from the LORD‘s anger. Neither will buy them food or anything that they want. These valuable metals have made them sin. 20 They were happy because they had beautiful things. But they used them to make idols. That is why the LORD has made them hate their silver and gold. 21 He will give their silver and gold to foreigners and to robbers. People will think that their idols have become not clean. 22 I will turn away from my people. Bad men will go into my special house (temple) and they will make it not clean. Nobody will worship me there.

23 Nothing is safe. The country is full of men who kill. People are fighting in the city. 24 I will bring the most evil people here and they will live in your homes. Your strongest men will feel weak when they see the temple. Evil men will have made it not clean.

25 When people are afraid, they will look for peace. But they will not find it. 26 Many bad things will come, one after another. Men will bring bad news all the time. They will ask the prophet to tell them what will happen. The priests will not have anything to teach the people. And the leaders will have not have anything to say. 27 The king will be very sad and his son will not be able to hope for anything. The people will be very afraid. And their bodies will move about like leaves in the wind. I will punish them because of the wrong things that they have done. I will be their judge in the same way that they were judges for other people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’