7. “And it shall be when they say to you, ‘Why are you sighing?’ that you shall say, ‘Because of the report that is coming. And every heart shall melt, and all hands shall go limp, and every spirit become faint, and all knees be weak as water. See, it is coming, and it shall be,’ declares the Master יהוה.”
8. And the word of יהוה came to me, saying,
9. “Son of man, prophesy, and you shall say, ‘Thus said יהוה! “Say, ‘A sword, a sword is sharpened and also polished!
10. ‘It is sharpened to make a slaughter, it is polished to flash like lightning!’ Or shall we rejoice? My son, you have despised the rod, every stick!
11. “And He has given it to be polished, to be taken by the hand. This sword is sharpened and polished, to be given into the hand of the slayer.
12. “Cry and wail, son of man, for it shall be on My people, on all the leaders of Yisra’ĕl. They shall be delivered to the sword together with My people, therefore strike your thigh.
13. “For it is a trier, and what if it even despises the rod? Shall it not be?” declares the Master יהוה.
14. “And you, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together. And let the sword come down twice, thrice, the sword for the slain. It is the sword of the slain, the great one, which surrounds them.
15. “I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, to melt the heart and that the overthrown be many. Ah! It is made like lightning, keen for slaughter.
16. “Sharpen yourself on the right, set yourself on the left, wherever your edge is appointed!
17. “And I too, I shall strike My hands together and cause My wrath to rest. I, יהוה, have spoken.”
18. And the word of יהוה came to me again, saying,
19. “And you, son of man, appoint for yourself two ways for the sword of the sovereign of Baḇel to go, both of them coming from one land. And place a signpost, put it at the head of the way to the city.
20. “Appoint a way for the sword to go to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Yehuḏah, into the walled Yerushalayim.
21. “For the sovereign of Baḇel shall stand at the parting of the way, at the fork of the two ways, to practise divination. He shall shake the arrows, he shall ask the household idols, he shall look at the liver.
22. “In his right hand shall be the divination for Yerushalayim: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege mound, to build a wall.
23. “And it shall be to them as a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths to them. But he is bringing their crookedness to remembrance, so that they are taken.
24. “Therefore thus said the Master יהוה, ‘Because you have made your crookedness to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that your sins are seen in all your deeds. Because you have been remembered, you are taken by hand.
25. ‘And to you, O profane, wrong one, leader of Yisra’ĕl, whose day has come, in the time of the crookedness of the end,