Ezekiel 7

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

1The LORD spoke to me again. This is what he said.

2Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.

2"Son of man" is what God called Ezekiel. God said: Tell the land of Israel what the Lord GOD says. The end! The end has come to every corner of this land.

3Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.

3The end is here for you now. I will let my anger come against you. I will judge you for the way you have lived. I will pay you back for all the disgusting things you did.

4And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

4I will not look at you and feel sorry. I will not hold back. I will pay you back for the way you lived. I will punish the disgusting things done among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

5Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.

5This is what the Lord GOD says: Trouble is coming! Terrible trouble, worse than any before. Look, it is on its way!

6An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.

6The end has come! The end has come! It has woken up and turned toward you. Look, it is here!

7The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.

7Your ruin has come, you people who live in this land. The time is here. The day is close. There will be fear on the mountains, not happy shouting.

NoteIn old English "the morning is come" here does not mean sunrise. It means ruin has arrived. The same word is used again in verse 10.

8Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.

8Very soon I will pour out my anger on you. I will let all my anger out. I will judge you for the way you have lived. I will pay you back for all the disgusting things you did.

9And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth.

9I will not look at you and feel sorry. I will not hold back. I will pay you back for the way you lived and for the disgusting things among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD, the one who strikes.

10Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

10Look at the day! It is here! Ruin has come out. The stick has budded. Pride has opened like a flower.

11Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them.

11Their cruel ways have grown into a stick that will punish them. None of them will be left. Not the big crowd, not their money, not one thing they own. No one will cry for them.

12The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

12The time is here. The day has come. The one who buys should not be glad. The one who sells should not be sad. Anger is coming on the whole crowd.

13For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

13The seller will never get back the land he sold, even if both men live. The message God showed will not be taken back. Because of their sin, not one of them will keep his life.

14They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

14They have blown the horn and made everything ready. But no one goes out to fight. My anger is on the whole crowd.

15The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

15War is outside the city. Sickness and hunger are inside. People out in the fields will die in the fighting. People in the city will die from hunger and sickness.

16But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.

16Some will get away and live in the mountains. They will cry softly, like doves in the valleys. Each one will cry about his own sin.

17All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.

17Every hand will hang down, too weak to lift. Every knee will shake like water.

18They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.

18They will put on sackcloth, rough scratchy cloth worn when people are very sad. Fear will cover them. Shame will be on every face. Every head will be shaved bare.

19They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

19They will throw their silver into the streets. Their gold will feel dirty to them. Silver and gold cannot save them on the day the LORD is angry. That money cannot feed them or fill their stomachs. It is the very thing that made them trip and sin.

20As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.

20They took their beautiful jewelry and grew proud of it. They used it to make ugly statues, the disgusting things they bowed to. So I have made it something dirty to them and taken it away.

21And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.

21I will hand it over to strangers, who will carry it off. Wicked people from other lands will take it. They will make it dirty.

22My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

22I will turn my face away from them. They will make my special place dirty. Robbers will walk right into it and ruin it.

Note"My secret place" means God's special, set-apart place. It is the temple in Jerusalem.

23Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

23Make a chain, because the land is full of killing. The city is full of cruel and violent people.

24Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.

24So I will bring the most wicked nations here. They will take over the people's houses. I will stop the proud showing off of the strong. Their holy places will be treated as common dirt.

25Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

25Ruin is coming. They will look for peace, but there will be none.

26Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

26One trouble will come after another. One scary report will follow another. Then they will ask a prophet for a message from God. A prophet is someone who tells people what God says. But the priests will have no teaching left. The old leaders will have no wise advice.

Note"The ancients" does not mean people long ago. It means the older leaders of the town, the ones people went to for advice.

27The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

27The king will cry. The prince will be wrapped in sadness. The hands of the people will shake with fear. I will do to them what they have done to others. I will judge them by their own way of doing things. Then they will know that I am the LORD.