Part 384

18:29. And the children of Israel say: The way of the Lord is not right. Are not my ways right, O house of Israel, and are not rather your ways perverse?

18:30. Therefore will I judge every man according to his ways, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God. Be converted, and do penance for all your iniquities: and iniquity shall not be your ruin.

18:31. Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit: and why will you die, O house of Israel?

18:32. For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, return ye and live.

Ezechiel Chapter 19

The parable of the young lions, and of the vineyard that is wasted.

19:1. Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

19:2. And say: Why did thy mother the lioness lie down among the lions, and bring up her whelps in the midst of young lions?

Thy mother the lioness. . .Jerusalem.

19:3. And she brought out one of her whelps, and he became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.

One of her whelps. . .Viz., Joachaz, alias Sellum.

19:4. And the nations heard of him, and took him, but not without receiving wounds: and they brought him in chains into the land of Egypt.

19:5. But she seeing herself weakened, and that her hope was lost, took one of her young lions, and set him up for a lion.

One of her young lions. . .Joakim.

19:6. And he went up and down among the lions, and became a lion: and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men.

19:7. He learned to make widows, and to lay waste their cities: and the land became desolate, and the fulness thereof by the noise of his roaring.

19:8. And the nations came together against him on every side out of the provinces, and they spread their net over him, in their wounds he was taken.

19:9. And they put him into a cage, they brought him in chains to the king of Babylon: and they cast him into prison, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

19:10. Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood planted by the water: her fruit and her branches have grown out of many waters.

19:11. And she hath strong rods to make sceptres for them that bear rule, and her stature was exalted among the branches: and she saw her height in the multitude of her branches.

19:12. But she was plucked up in wrath, and cast on the ground, and the burning wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods are withered, and dried up: the fire hath devoured her.

19:13. And now she is transplanted into the desert, in a land not passable, and dry.

19:14. And a fire is gone out from a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit: so that she now hath no strong rod, to be a sceptre of rulers. This is a lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.

Ezechiel Chapter 20

God refuses to answer the ancients of Israel inquiring by the prophet: but by him setteth his benefits before their eyes, and their heinous sins: threatening yet greater punishments: but still mixed with mercy.

20:1. And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month: there came men of the ancients of Israel to inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me.

20:2. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

20:3. Son of man, speak to the ancients of Israel and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Are you come to inquire of me? As I live, I will not answer you, saith the Lord God.