Appointing Ways
Table of Contents
1-2 [To Ezekiel] Son of man, go to Jerusalem and drop your word towards the holy places. Prophesy against the land of Israel, 3} Say to the land of Israel:
‘Enki says: I [am] against you, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. 4} Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north’
5 All flesh may know that I Enki have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.
6 Sigh therefore, you son of man, with the breaking of [your] loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.
7 When they say unto you, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh.
Every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak [as] water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass.
8-9 Son of man, prophesy, and say that Enki said that a sword is sharpened and furbished: 10} It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, [as] every tree.
11 He hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.
12 Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it [shall be] upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon [your] thigh.
13 Because [it is] a trial, and what if [the sword] contemn even the rod?
It shall be no [more,] saith Enki.
14 So son of man, prophesy, and smite your hands together. Let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain.
It is the sword of the great men that are slain, which enters into their privy chambers.
15 I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that [their] heart may faint, and [their] ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.
16 Go you one way or other, [either] on the right hand, [or] on the left, whithersoever your face [is] set.
17 I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I Enki have said [it. ]
18-19 Also, you son of man, appoint you two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose you a place, choose [it] at the head of the way to the city.
20 Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced. 21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made [his] arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint [battering] rams against the gates, to cast a mount, [and] to build a fort.
23 It shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.
24 Therefore thus saith Enki; Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, [I say,] that you are come to remembrance, you shall be taken with the hand.
25 You, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity [shall have] an end.
26 Thus saith Enki; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same.
Exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. 27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no [more,] until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [him. ]
28 You, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith Enki concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword [is] drawn: for the slaughter [it is] furbished, to consume because of the glittering:
29 Whiles they see vanity unto you, whiles they divine a lie unto you, to bring you upon the necks of [them that are] slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity [shall have] an end.
30 Shall I cause [it] to return into his sheath? I will judge you in the place where you wast created, in the land of your nativity.
31 I will pour out mine indignation upon you, I will blow against you in the fire of my wrath, and deliver you into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.
32 You shalt be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no [more] remembered: for I Enki have spoken it.