13
"Because it is a testing, And what if the sword despises even the scepter? The scepter shall be no more," says the Lord God.
14
"You therefore, son of man, prophesy, And strike your hands together. The third time let the sword do double damage. It is the sword that slays, The sword that slays the great men, That enters their private chambers.
15
I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, That the heart may melt and many may stumble. Ah! It is made bright; It is grasped for slaughter:
16
"Swords at the ready! Thrust right! Set your blade! Thrust left-- Wherever your edge is ordered!
17
"I also will beat My fists together, And I will cause My fury to rest; I, the Lord, have spoken."
18
The word of the Lord came to me again, saying:
19
"And son of man, appoint for yourself two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to go; both of them shall go from the same land. Make a sign; put it at the head of the road to the city.
20
Appoint a road for the sword to go to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah, into fortified Jerusalem.
21
For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.
22
In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: 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, and to build a wall.
23
And it will be to them like a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them; but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.