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Those that fed on dainties are desolate in the streets; Those that have been brought up in scarlet embrace the dunghill.

The punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of Sodom,

Which was overthrown in a moment, though no hands came against her.

Her princes were purer than snow, whiter than milk; More ruddy than coral was their body;

Their visage was of sapphire.

ઠ Now darker than a coal is their countenance; they are not known in the streets.

Their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is become dry, like

wood.

9 More fortunate are the slain by the sword than the slain by famine;

For these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of tender-hearted women cooked their own children;

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They were their food, in the destruction of the daughter

of my people.

Jehovah hath spent upon them his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger;

He hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured its foundations.

The kings of the earth believed not, nor all the inhabitants of the world,

That the adversary would enter, and the enemy, within the gates of Jerusalem.

It was on account of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests,

Who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous.

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They stumbled like blind men through the streets, polluted with blood,

So that men could not touch their garments.

"Depart! unclean!" men cried to them. "Depart, depart, touch not!"

As they fled, they stumbled; men said among the nations, "They shall dwell there no more."

16 The anger of Jehovah hath scattered them; he will no more care for them;

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They paid no regard to the priests, they had no compassion for the elders.

Still did our eyes fail, looking for help in vain ;

On our watch-tower did we watch for a nation that could not save us.

They laid snares for our steps, so that we could not go in our streets;

Our end is near; our days are accomplished, yea, our end is come!

Swifter were our pursuers than the eagles of heaven ; They chased us upon the mountains; they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits,

Under whose shadow we said that we should live among the nations.

Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz!

Yet to thee also shall the cup come! thou shalt be drunken, and shalt expose thy nakedness.

Thy punishment is at an end, O daughter of Zion! no more will he carry thee into captivity;

But thine iniquity will he punish, O daughter of Edom! he will uncover thy sins.

V.

Lamentation concerning the sufferings inflicted upon the Jews by their conquerors. CH. V.

1 REMEMBER, O Jehovah, what is come upon us! Look down and behold our reproach!

2 Our inheritance is fallen to strangers,

Our houses to aliens.

3 We are orphans; we are without a father; Our mothers are as widows.

4 Our water we drink for money;

Our wood is sold to us.

5 With the yoke upon our necks, we are driven; We are wearied, and have no rest.

6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians,

And to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. 7 Our fathers sinned; they are no more,

And we bear their iniquities.

8 Servants rule over us;

There is none that delivereth out of their hand. 9 With the peril of our lives we get our bread, Because of the sword of the wilderness.

10 Our skin is parched like an oven

Because of the burnings of hunger.

11 Matrons in Zion have they ravished, And maidens in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes were hanged up by their hand; The faces of the elders were not honored.

13 Young men carried millstones,

And boys fell under burdens of wood.

14 The elders sit no more at the gate;

The young men have ceased from their music.

15 The joy of our heart is at an end;

Our dancing is turned into mourning. 16 The crown is fallen from our head; Woe unto us, that we have sinned!

17 For this is our heart faint,

For these things our eyes are dim;

18 On account of mount Zion, which is desolate; Foxes roam over it.

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But thou, O Jehovah, sittest as king forever;

Thy throne endureth from generation to generation.

20 Wherefore dost thou wholly forget us,

And abandon us, for so long a time?

21 Turn us again to thee, O Jehovah, that we may be restored!

Renew our days as of old!

22 For shouldst thou utterly reject us

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Shouldst thou be so exceedingly wroth against us?

EZEKIEL.

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I.

The call of Ezekiel to the prophetic office. CH. I. — III. 21.

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were 2 opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year of the captivity of King Jehoi3 achin, the word of Jehovah came to Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of the Chaldæans, by the river Chebar; and the hand of Jehovah was there upon 4 him. And I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came from the north, a great cloud, and a mass of fire; and a brightness was round about it, and in the midst of it the appear5 ance of bright brass, in the midst of the fire. And in the midst of it were the forms of four living creatures. And this was their appearance. They had the form of a man. 6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four 7 wings. And their feet were upright; and the sole of

their feet was as the sole of a calf's foot; and they spar8 kled like polished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides, and all four had 9 faces and wings. Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not about when they went; they went every 10 one straight forward. As for the form of their faces, all four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side, and all four had the face of an ox on the left 11 side, and all four had also the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces. And their wings were expanded upward; two wings of every one were joined, and two cov12 ered their bodies. And they went every one straight

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