Idolaters exhorted to repent.

TH

HEN came certain of the elders of Ifrael unto me, and fat before me.

2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, faying,

3 Son of man, these men have fet up their idols in their heart, and put the ftumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: fhould I be enquired of at all by them!

4 Therefore fpeak unto them, and fay unto them, Thus faith the Lord Gon; Every man of the house of Ifrael that fetteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the ftumblingblock of his iniquity oefore his tace, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will anfwer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

That I may take the houfe of Ifrael in their own heart, because they are all eftranged from me through their idols.

6Therefore fay unto the houfe of Ifrael, Thus faith the Lord Gon; Repent, and turn your felves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations,

7 For every one of the house of Ifrael, or of the ftranger that fojourneth in Ifrael, which feparateth himself from me, and fettyth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the fumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I'the LORD will anfwer him by myself:

8 And I will fet my face against that man, and will make him a fign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midft of my people; and ye thall know that I am the LORD.

9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet; and I will ftretch out my hand upon him, and will deftroy him from the midft of my people Ifrael.

10 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet thall be even as the punishment of him that feeketh unto him;

It That the house of Ifrael may go no more aftray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their tranfgreffions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God,

faith the Lord Gon.

12 The word of the LORD came again to me, faying,

13 Son of man, when the land finneth againit me by trespafling grievoudy, then will Iftretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the ftaff of the bread thereof, and will fend famine upon it, and wili cut off man and

15If I caufe noisome beafts to pafs through the land, and they fpoil it, fo that it be defo. late, that no man may pafs through because of the beafts:

16 Though these three men were in it, as I live, faith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither fons nor daughters; they only thall be delivered, but the land fhall be defolate.

17 Grif I bring a fword upon that land, and fay, Sword, go through the land; fo that I cut off man and beat from it:

18 Though these three men were in it, as I live, faith the Lord Gon, they shall deliver

The rejection of Jerufaim.

neither fons nor daughters, but they miy fhall be delivered themselves.

19 Or if I fend a peftilence into that land, and pour out my tury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beart:

20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, faith the Lord Goo, they fhall deliver neither fon nor daughter; they thall but deliver their own fouls by their righteoufnefs.

21 For thus faith the Lord God; How much more when I fend my tour fore judgments upon Jerufalem, the fword, and the famine, and the noisome beart, and the peftilence, cut off from it man and beaft!

22 Yet, behold, therein fhall be left a remnant that fhall be brought forth, b fons and daughters: behold, they thall come forth unto you, and ye fhall fee their way and their doings and ye thall be conforted concerning the evil that I have brought upoa Jerufalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.

23 And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye tha!! know hat I have not done without caufe all that I have done in it, faith the Lord God. CHAP. XV.

3 By the unfitness of the vine branch for any work, is fhewed the rejection of Ferufalem. A ND the word of the LORD came unto me, faying,

2 Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the foreft?

3 Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? Or will men take a pin of it to hang any veffel thereon?

4 Behold, it is caft into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meet for any work!

5 Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less thall it be meet yet for any work, when the fire hath devour. ed it, and it is burned!

6 Therefore thus faith the Lord God; As the vine tree among the trees of the fore, which I have given to the fire for fuel, fo will give the inhabitants of Jerufalem.

I

7 And I will fet my face against them; they fhall go out from one fire, and anther fire fhall devour them; and ye thall know that I am the LORD, when I fet my face against them.

8 And I will make the land defolate, becaute they have committed a trefpafs, faith the Lord God.

CHAP. XVI.

1 By a wretched infant is bewed the fate of Jerufalem: 6. God's love to her.

me, faying,

AGAIN the word of the LORD care unto 2 Son of man, caufe Jerufalem to know her abominations,

3 And fay, Thus faith the Lord God unto Jerufalem Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an "Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou waft born thy navel was not cut, neither wait thon wathed in water to fupple thee; thou waft not falted at all, nor fwaddled at all.

5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compartion upon thee; but thou waft caft out in the open field, to

the

Jerufalem's whoredom

mine.

9 Then wathed I thee with water; ye, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with

10 I clothed thee alfo with broidered work, and thod thee with badger's skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with Gilk.

11 I decked thee alfo with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thine hands, and a chain on thy neck.

12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.

13 Thus waft thou decked with gold and filver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and filk, and broi fered work; thou didst cat fine flour, and honey, and oil; and thou wait execeding beautiful, and thou didit profper into a kingdom.

14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, faith the Lord GOD.

15 But thou didst truft in thine own beauty, and played the harlot because of thy renown, and poured it out thy tornications on every one that paffed by; his it was.

16 And of thy garments thou did take, and deckedit thy high places with divers colours, and played the harlot thereupon the like things thall not come, neither shall it be (2.

17 Thou haft alfo taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my filver, which I had given thee, and made it to thyself images of men, and didit commit whoredom with them,

18 And tookett thy broidered garments, and coveredft them: and thou hart fet mine oil and mine incense before them.

19 My meat alfo which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, therewith I fed shee, thou haft even fet it before them for a fweet favour: and thus it was, faith the Lord

God.

20 Moreover, thou haft taken thy fons and thy daughters, whom thou haft borne unto me, and these haft thou facrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a fmall matter?

21 That thou haft flain my children, and delivered them to caufe them to país through the fire for them?

22 And in all thiné abominations and thy whoredoms thon haft not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou waft na

and judgments.

ked and bare, and waft polluted in thy blood. 23 And it came to pais after all thy wick. ednefs, (woe, woe unto thee! faith the Lord God;)

24 That thou haft alfo built unto thee an eminent plice, and haft made thee an high place in every street.

25 Thou haft built thy high place at every head of the way, and haft made thy beauty to be abhorred, and haft opened thy feet to every one that pasled by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.

26 Thou haft alfo committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and haft increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

27 Behold, therefore I have ftretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daugh ters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.

28 Thou haft played the whore also with the Affyrians, becaufe thou wait unfatiable; yea, thou hart played the harlot with them, and yet couldeft not be fatisfied.

20 Thou haft moreover multiplied thy for nication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not fatisfied herewith.

30 How weak is thine heart, faith the Lord Gop, feeing thou doet all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;

31 In that thou buildeft thine eminent place in the head of every way, and mak est thine high place in every street; and haf not been as an harlot, in that thou fcorneft hire;

32 But as a wife that committeth adulte. ry, which taketh strangers inftead of her husband!

33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou giveft thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every fide for thy whoredom.

34 And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou giveft a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary. 35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:

36 Thus faith the Lord Gon; Because thy filhinefs was poured out, and thy nakeducis difcovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idels of thy abomina tions, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didit give unto them;

37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleature and all them that thou haft loved, with all them that thou haft hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will dif cover thy nakedneis unto them, that they may fee all thy nakednets.

33 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and thed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

39 And I wili alio give thee into their hand, and they fhall throw down thine eminent place, and fhall break down thy high places: they thall trip thee alfo of thy clothes, and thall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

40 They thall alfo bring up a company 24 against

more angry.

43 Because thou haft not remembered the days of thy youth, but haft frette i me in all there things; behold, therefore, I alfo will recompenfe thy way upon thine head, faith the Lord GoD: and thou shalt not commit

this lewdness above all thine abominations.

44 Behold, every one that ufeth proverbs thall use this proverb againit thee, faying, As is the mother, fo is her daughter.

45 Thou art thy mother's daughter, that loatheth her husband and her children, and thou art the fitter of thy fillers, which loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

46 And thine elder fifter is Samaria, the and her daughters that dwell at thy leit hand: and thy younger fitter, that dwelleth at thy right band, is Sodom and her daughters.

47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as if that were a very little thing, thou waft corrupted more than they in all thy ways.

48 s live, faith the Lord Gop, Sodom thy fifter hath not done, he nor her daughters, as thou haft done, thou and thy daughters.

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy fter Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did the strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

so And they werchaughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I faw good.

51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of hy ins; but thou hait multiplied thine abo minations more than they, anul haft juftified ay fitters in all thine abominations which

hon haft done.

52 Thou alfo, which haft judged thy fifters, bear thine own thame, for thy fins that thou hall cominitted more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be Shou confounded allo, and bear thy thame, in that thou had juftified thy fifters.

53 When I thall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midit of them:

54 That thou mayeft bear thine own fhame, and mayeft be confounded in all that thou hat done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.

55 When thy fifters, Sodom and her daughtors, fhall return to their former eftate, and Samaria and her daughters thall return to their formier eflate, then thou and thy daughters thall return to your former eftate.

55 For thy fitter Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride,

57 Before thy wickednefs was difcovered, Es at the time of thy reproach of the daugh

The two angles and the vice, ters of Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which defpife thee round about.

58 Thou haft borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, faith the LORD.

59 For thus faith the Lord Gon; I wil even deal with thee as thou haft done, which hat defpifed the oath in breaking the cove nant.

6c Nevertheless I will remember my co venant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.

61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou thalt receive thy filters, thine elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant.

62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the

LORD:

faying,

2 Son of man, put forth a rid lle, and speak a parable unto the house of Ifrael;

3 And say, Thus faith the Lord God; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full ot feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar :

4 He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he let it in a city of merchants.

5 He took alfo of the feed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and fet it as a willow tree.

6 And it grew, and became a fpreading vine of low itature, whofe branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: fo it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and thot forth sprigs.

7 There was alto another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.

8 It was planted in a good foil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit," that it might be a goodly vine.

9 Say thou, Thus faith the Lord God; Shall it profper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither! It fhall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.

10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prof per? Shall it not utterly wither, when the caft wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew,

11 Moreover, the word of the LORD came unto me, faying,

12 Say now to the rebellious houfe, Know ye not what these things mean? Tell them, Behold,

Parable of the lion's whelps.

and live?

24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteoufnefs, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abomi nations that the wicked man doeth, fhall he live? All his righteoufnefs that he hath done fall not be mentioned: in his trefpafs that he hath trefpaffed, and in his fin that he hath finned, in them shall he die.

25 Yet ye fay, The way of the LORD is not equal. Hear now, O houfe of Ifrael; is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal?

26 When a righteous man turneth away from his righteoufnefs, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done fhall he die.

27 Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall fave his foul alive.

28 Because he confidereth, and turneth away from all his tranfgreffions that he hath

10 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: the was fruitful and full of branches by reafon of many waters.

11 And he had ftrong rods for the feeptres of them that bare rule, and her ftature was exalted among the thick branches, and the appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.

12 But he was plucked up in fury, the was caft down to the ground, and the cat wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire confumed them.

13 And now he is planted in the wildet. nefs, in a dry and thirty ground.

14 And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, fo that the hath no ftrong rod to be a fceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and fhall be for a lamentation.

CHAP. XX.

1 God refuseth to be confuited by the elders of Ifrael: 4 the flory of their rebellions: 33 be promileth to gather them.

not die.

29 Yet faith the house of Ifrael, The way of the LORD is not equal? O houfe of Ifrael, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?

30 Therefore I will judge you O house of Ifrael, every one according to his ways, faith the Lord Gop. Repent, and turn your Selves from all your tranfgrethions; fo iniquity thall not be your ruin.

31 Caft away from you all your tranf. greifions whereby ye have tranfgreffed; and make you a new heart and a new fpirit: for why will ye die, O houfe of Ifrael?

32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, faith the Lord Gop: where fore turn yourselves, and live ye.

CHAP. XIX.

lamentation for the princes of Ifrael, under the parable of lion's whelps taken in a pit. OREOVER, take thou up a lamentation

M for the princes of Ifrael,

2 And fay, What is thy mother? A lionefs: the lay down among lions, the nourished her whelps among young lions.

3 And the brought up one of her whelps it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.

4 The nations alfo heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.

5 Now when the faw that he had waited, and her hope was loft, then he took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.

6 And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

7 And he knew their defolate palaces, and he laid wafte their cities; and the land was defolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noife of his roaring.

8 Then the nations fet against him on every fide from the provinces, and fpread their net ever him he was taken in their pit.

And they put him in ward in chains,

in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Ifrael came to enquire of the LORD, and fat before me.

2 Then came the word of the LORD unto me, faying,

3 Son of man, fpeak unto the elders of Ifrael, and fay unto them, Thus faith the Lord God; Are ye come to enquire of me? As I live, faith the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you.

4 Wilt thou judge them, fon of man, wilt thou judge them? Caufe them to know the abominations of their fathers:

5 And fay unto them, Thus faith the Lord Gop; In the day when 1 chofe Ifrael, and lifted up mine hand unto the feed of the house of jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, faying, I am the LORD your God;

6 In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt, into a land that I had efpied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands:

7 Then faid I unto them, Caft ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourfelves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

8 But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man caft away the aoominations of their eyes, neither did they forfake the idols of Egypt: then I faid, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midft of the land of Egypt.

9 But I wrought for my name's lake, that it thould not be polluted before the heather among whom they were, in whofe fight made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.

10 Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wildernes