1 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 2 He said, “Now, Son of man, here is a message from the Lord my Master. This message is for the land of Israel. The end. The end is coming. The whole country will be destroyed. 3 Your end is coming now! I will show how angry I am at you. I will punish you for the bad things you did. I will make you pay for all the terrible things you did. 4 I won’t show you any mercy. I won’t feel sorry for you. I am punishing you for the bad things you did. You have done such terrible things. Now, you will know that I am the Lord.” 5 The Lord my Master said these things. “There will be one disaster after another! 6 The end is coming, and it will come quickly! 7 You people living in Israel, do you hear the whistle? The enemy is coming. That time of punishment is coming very soon! The noise of the enemy is getting louder and louder on the mountains. 8 Very soon now, I will show you how angry I am. I will show all of my anger against you. I will punish you for the bad things you did. I will make you pay for all the terrible things you did. 9 I won’t show you any mercy. I won’t feel sorry for you. I am punishing you for the bad things you did. You have done such terrible things. Now, you will know that I am the Lord. 10 “That time of punishment has come like a plant sprouting, budding and flowering: ˻God˼ has given the signal, the enemy is prepared, the proud ˻king˼ ˻(Nebuchadnezzar)˼ is ready. 11 That violent man is ready to punish those evil people. There are very many people ˻in Israel˼—but he is not one of them. He is not a person in that crowd. He is not some important leader from those people. 12 “That time of punishment has come. That day is here. People that buy things won’t be happy. And people that sell things won’t feel bad about selling them. Why? Because that terrible punishment will happen to every person. 13 The people that sold their property will never go back to it. Even if a person escapes alive, he will never go back to his property. Why? Because this vision is for the whole crowd of people. So even if a person escapes alive, it won’t make people feel better. 14 “They will blow the trumpet to warn the people. The people will get ready for battle. But they won’t go out to fight. Why? Because I will show the whole crowd how angry I am. 15 The enemy with his sword is outside the city. Disease and hunger is inside the city. If a person goes out into the fields, then an enemy soldier will kill him. If he stays in the city, hunger and disease will destroy him. 16 “But some of the people will escape. Those survivors will run to the mountains. But those people won’t be happy. They will be sad for all their sins. They will cry and make sad noises like doves. 17 People will be too tired and sad to raise their arms. Their legs will be like water. 18 They will wear clothes of sadness and be covered with fear. You will see the shame on every face. They will shave their heads ˻to show their sadness˼. 19 They will throw their silver ˻idols˼ into the streets. They will treat their gold ˻statues˼ like dirty rags! Why? Because those things will not be able to save them when the Lord shows his anger. Those things were nothing but a trap that caused the people to fall ˻(sin)˼. Those things will not give food to the people and they won’t put food in their bellies. 20 “Those people used their beautiful jewelry and made an idol. They were proud of that statue. They made their terrible statues. They made those filthy things. So I ˻(God)˼ will throw them away like a dirty rag. 21 I will let strangers take them. Those strangers will make fun of them. Those strangers will kill some of the people and take others away as prisoners. 22 I will turn my head away from them—I won’t look at them. Those strangers will ruin my temple—they will go into the secret parts of that holy building and make it not holy. 23 “Make chains ˻for the prisoners˼! Why? Because many people will be punished for killing other people. There will be violence every place in the city. 24 I will bring evil people from other nations. And those evil people will get all the houses of the people of Israel. I will stop all of you powerful people from being so proud. Those people from other nations will get all your places of worship. 25 “You people will shake with fear. You will look for peace, but there will be none. 26 You will hear one sad story after another. You will hear nothing but bad news. You will look for a prophet and ask him for a vision. ˻But there won’t be one.˼ The priests will have nothing to teach you. And the elders ˻(leaders)˼ won’t have any good advice to give you. 27 Your king will be crying for the people that died. The leaders will wear clothes of sadness. The common people will be very scared. Why? Because I will pay them back for the things they did. I will decide their punishment. And I will punish them. Then those people will know that I am the Lord.”
