ites is forshewn. And finally Babylon, the destroyer of
others, shall be destroyed.

21:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

21:2. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and let thy speech flow
towards the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel:

21:3. And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I
come against thee, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and
will cut off in thee the just, and the wicked.

21:4. And forasmuch as I have cut off in thee the just and the wicked,
therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh,
from the south even to the north.

21:5. That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my sword out of
its sheath not to be turned back.

21:6. And thou, son of man, mourn with the breaking of thy loins, and
with bitterness sigh before them.

21:7. And when they shall say to thee: Why mournest thou? thou shalt
say: For that which I hear: because it cometh, and every heart shall
melt, and all hands shall be made feeble, and every spirit shall faint,
and water shall run down every knee: behold it cometh, and it shall be
done, saith the Lord God.

21:8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

21:9. Son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Say: The
sword, the sword is sharpened, and furbished.

21:10. It is sharpened to kill victims: it is furbished that it may
glitter: thou removest the sceptre of my son, thou hast cut down every
tree.

Thou removest the sceptre of my son... He speaks (according to St.
Jerome) to the sword of Nabuchodonosor: which was about to remove the
sceptre of Israel, whom God here calls his son.

21:11. And I have given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this
sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, that it may be in the hand of
the slayer.

21:12. Cry, and howl, O son of man, for this sword is upon my people, it
is upon all the princes of Israel, that are fled: they are delivered up
to the sword with my people, strike therefore upon thy thigh,

21:13. Because it is tried: and that when it shall overthrow the
sceptre, and it shall not be, saith the Lord God.

21:14. Thou therefore, O son of man, prophesy, and strike thy hands
together, and let the sword be doubled, and let the sword of the slain
be tripled: this is the sword of a great slaughter, that maketh them
stand amazed,

21:15. And languish in heart, and that multiplieth ruins. In all their