7. If they ask you why you’re groaning, say to them, "Because of the news." When it comes, every heart will despair, every hand will hang lifeless, every spirit will be listless, and urine will run down every leg. It’s coming! It will happen! This is what the Lord God says.
8. The Lord’s word came to me:
9. Human one, prophesy! Say, The Lord proclaims! Say:A sword! A sharp and polished sword!
10. For utter slaughter it is sharpened,polished to flash like lightning.Let’s not rejoice, because no one will escape the purge.
11. He appoints it for polishing, to seize in the hand.The sword is sharpened, it is polished;it is ready for the destroyer’s hand.
12. Human one, cry aloud, and wail,for it comes against my people,against all of Israel’s princes,handed over to the sword along with my people.Therefore, strike your thigh.
13. He’s testing.When even the rod rejects,will it not certainly happen?This is what the Lord God says.
14. And you, human one, prophesy!Strike hand to hand.Let the sword strike twice, three times!It’s a deadly sword,a great deadly sword.It whirls around them
15. to make hearts shudder,to make many stumble and fall.I’ve set the slaughtering swordagainst all their gates.Oh! It’s crafted to flash like lightning,polished for slaughter!
16. Stab again and again! Plunge right,plunge left, wherever your edge goes.
17. It is I who strike hand to hand!I’ll satisfy my wrath! I, the Lord, have spoken.
18. The Lord’s word came to me: