A Singular Evil Comes
7 The word of Adonai came to me saying: 2 “You, son of man, thus says Adonai Elohim concerning the land of Israel:
An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land. 3 The end is upon you. I will send My anger on you. I will judge you according to your ways. I will bring all your abominations on you. 4 My eyes will not spare you nor will I have pity, but I will bring your ways upon you, for your abominations in your midst. Then you will know that I am Adonai.”
5 Thus says Adonai Elohim:
An evil, a singular evil, behold, it comes. 6 An end has come, the end has come! It has awakened against you. Look, it is coming! 7 Doom has come upon you, inhabitant of the land! The time has come, the day is near—panic, not joyful shouting on the hills. 8 Now, soon, I am about to pour out My fury on you. I will exhaust My anger on you. I will judge you according to your ways. I will bring all your abominations on you. 9 My eye will not spare you nor will I have pity—I will repay you for your ways—your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that it is I, Adonai, who strikes. 10 Behold, the day! Look, it is coming! Doom has gone out. The rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed. 11 Violence grows into a rod of wickedness. Nothing will come from them, nothing from their crowd, nothing from their tumult, nothing distinctive among them. 12 The time has come—the day draws near. The buyer will not rejoice, the seller will not play the mourner, for wrath is on the entire crowd. 13 For a seller will not regain what he sold, as long as they are alive. For the vision against her whole crowd will not be revoked. No one will preserve his life, because of his iniquity.
14 “They have blown the horn. They have made everyone ready. Yet no one goes to the battle. Surely My wrath is on her whole crowd. 15 Outside is the sword, inside plague and famine. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword. Whoever is in the city will be devoured by famine and plague. 16 Those survivors who escape will head for the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. 17 All hands will be feeble. All knees will turn to water. 18 They will also gird on sackcloth. Horror will cover them. Shame will be upon all faces. Baldness will be upon all their heads. 19 They will throw their silver in the streets. Their gold will be as garbage. Their silver and their gold cannot deliver them in the day of Adonai’s wrath. They will not satisfy their appetite or fill their bellies, for their iniquity is a stumbling block. 20 They took pride in their beautiful jewelry and made images of their abominations and their detestable idols. Therefore I made it niddah to them. 21 I will give it into the hands of the strangers as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it. 22 I will turn My face from them, as they will profane the place I treasure. Robbers will enter it and profane it.
23 “Forge the chain! For the land is full of bloodshed. The city is full of violence. 24 I will bring the wicked of the nations. They will possess their houses. So I will end the pride of the strong, when their holy places are profaned. 25 Shuddering comes. They will seek peace but there will be none. 26 Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will seek a vision from a prophet, but Torah will perish from the kohen and counsel from the elders. 27 The king will mourn. The prince will be clothed with despair. The hands of the people of the land will tremble. By their conduct I will deal with them. By their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”
