And then in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, "Son of man, say to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to his crowd,

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because it was tall in height and it set its treetop between thick clouds, and he took pride in his tallness, then I gave it into the hand of the leader of nations; he dealt thoroughly with it according to its wickedness. I drove it out. And strangers cut it off, the most ruthless of nations, and they abandoned it. On the mountains and in all of the valleys its branches fell, and its branches were broken in all the river channels of the land, and all the peoples of the world went out from its shadow, and they abandoned it. On its fallen trunk all the birds of the heaven now dwell, and all the animals of the field were on its branches. This occurred so that all of the trees with abundant water will not become tall, and they will not set their treetop between their thick foliage, and so thatall of the trees that are abundantly watered will not stand up to them in their tallness, for all of them, they have been given over to death, to the world below in the midst of mortals, to the people going down to the grave."

Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "On the day of its going down to Sheol, I caused mourning; I covered over it with the deep, and I withheld its rivers, and many waters were restrained, and I brought gloom over it; Lebanon and all of the trees of the field, they had fainted because of it. From the sound of its downfall I caused nations to shake when I made it go down to Sheol, with the people going down to the grave, and so in the world below all of the trees of Eden, the choice and the best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees were comforted! They also went down with it to Sheol to those who died by the sword, and its army who had lived in its shadow in the midst of nations.

To whom could you be compared, whether in glory or in majesty among the trees of Eden? And yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below; in the midst of the uncircumcised you will lie with those who died by the sword. That is Pharaoh and his entire crowd!" declares the Lord Yahweh.

And then in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, "Son of man, raise a lament over Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and you must say to him,

Thus says the Lord Yahweh:

declares the Lord Yahweh.

For thus says the Lord Yahweh:

declares the Lord Yahweh.

This is a lament, and they will chant it as a lament; the daughters of the nations will chant it as a lament over Egypt, and over all of its hordes they will chant it as a lament," declares the Lord Yahweh.

And then in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, "Son of man, mourn over the hordes of Egypt, and make her go down, and with her the daughters of mighty nations, down to the deep underworld with the people going down to the grave. You are more lovely than whom? Go down and be laid in rest with the uncircumcised. In the midst of the people slain by the sword it is given they will fall to a sword; they carried her off and all of her hordes. The chiefs of the warriors will speak to him from the middle of Sheol; with his helpers they have gone down; the uncircumcised lie still, those slain by the sword.

Assyria is there and all of its assembly; all around it are its graves, all of them killed, those fallen by the sword, who will be given its graves in the remote areas of the pit, and its assembly will be all around its grave, all of them killed, fallen by the sword, those who spread terror in the land of the living.

Elam is there and all of its hordes, all around its grave, all of them dead who fell by the sword, those who went down uncircumcised to the depths of the underworld, those who spread their terror to the land of the living, and now they bear their disgrace with the people going down to the grave. In the midst of the slain they made a bed for her with all of her hordes all around its graves, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, for their terror was spread in the land of the living, and they now bear their disgrace with the people going down to the grave; in the midst of the slain it was placed.

Meshech and Tubal are there and all of its hordes, all around him its graves, all of them uncircumcised and killed by the sword, for they gave their terror in the land of the living. And they do not lie with warriors fallen from long ago, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and they placed their sword under their heads, and their shields were on their bones, for the terror of the warriors was in the land of the living. And you too in the midst of uncircumcised people will be broken, and you will lie with those slain by the sword.

There is Edom, its kings and all of its leaders who are laid along with their might with those killed by the sword; they will lie with the uncircumcised and with the people going down to the grave.

There are also the princes of the north, all of them, all of the Sidonians who have gone down, being ashamed to lie with the slain because of their terror that they caused from their might, and they lie uncircumcised with those killed by the sword, and they bear their disgrace along with the people going down to the grave.

Pharaoh will see them, and he will be comforted over all of his hordes killed by the sword, Pharaoh and all of his army," declares the Lord Yahweh. "For he spread my terror in the land of the living, and so he will be laid down in the midst of the uncircumcised with those killed by the sword: Pharaoh and all of his hordes,"declares the Lord Yahweh.

And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, "Son of man, speak to your people, and you must say to them, ‘A land, if I bring over it a sword and the people of the land take a man, one from their number, and they appoint him for them as a watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land, and he blows on the horn and he warns the people, and anyone who listens hears the sound of the horn and he does not take warning and the sword comes and it takes him, his blood will be on his own head. For he heard the sound of the horn and he did not take warning; his blood will be on him. But if he took warning, he saved his life. And as for the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and he does not blow the horn, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and it takes their lives, he will be taken through his guilt, but his blood from the hand of the watchman I will seek.’

"And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; if you hear a word from my mouth, then you must warn them from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked one, you will certainly die,’ and you did not speak to warn the wicked from his way, he, the wicked, will die by his guilt, but his blood I will seek from your hand. But, you, if you warn the wicked from his way, to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he will die by his guilt, and you will have saved your life.

"And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, saying, ‘So you said, saying, "Indeed, our transgressions and our sins are on us, and because of them we are rotting, and how can we live?"’ Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares the Lord Yahweh, ‘Surely I have no delight in the death of the wicked, except in the wicked returning from his way, and he lives. Turn back! Turn back from your ways, O evil ones, for why should you die, house of Israel?’

"So you, son of man, say to your people that the righteousness of the righteous shall not save him in the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked will not cause him to stumble on the day of his returning from his wickedness; and the righteous will not be able to live by it on the day when he returns to his sin. When I say to the righteous, ‘Certainly he will live,’ and he trusted in his righteousness, and he turns and he does injustice, all of his righteousness will not be remembered, and because of his injustice that he did, because of it he will die. And when I say to the wicked, ‘Certainly you will die,’ but he returns from his sin and he does justice and righteousness— for example, the wicked returns a pledge for a loan, he restores stolen property, he goes in the statutes of life so as not to do injustice—certainly he will live; he will not die. All of his sins that he committed, they will not be remembered against him, and he did justice and righteousness; certainly he will live.

"Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’ yet their way is not fair. When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, then he will die because of it. And when the wicked turns from his wickedness, and he does justice and righteousness, because of it he will certainly live! Yet you said, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’ I will judge you, house of Israel, each person according to his ways."

And then it was in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month of our exile, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me, saying, "The city was destroyed!" And the hand of Yahweh was on me on the evening before the coming of the survivor, and he opened my mouth before the survivor came to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened, and I was no longer dumb. And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, "Son of man, the inhabitants of these ruins on the soil of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was one man, and he took possession of the land, and we are many; the land has been given for us as a possession.’ Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "You eat blood in your meat, and you raise your eyes to your idols and you pour out blood, and yet you want to take possession of the land? You rely on your sword, you do a detestable thing, and each man defiles the wife of his neighbor, and yet you want to take possession of the land?"’

"Thus you must say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "As I live, surely whoever is in the ruins, by the sword they will fall, and whoever is on the surface of the open field, I will give him to the animals to eat him, and whoever is in the stronghold and in the cave, they will die by the plague. And I will make the land a desolation and a wasteland, and the pride of its strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will be desolate with no one traveling through them."’ And they will know that I am Yahweh when I make my land a desolation and a wasteland, because of all of their detestable things that they have done.

"And you, son of man, your people, the ones talking together concerning you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, each one with his brother saying, ‘Please come and hear what is the word that is going out from Yahweh.’ And they come to you as people do, and they sit before you, and my people hear your words, and they do not do them, for they are showing passion in their mouth, but their heart is going after ill-gotten gain. Now, look! You are to them like a sensual song, beautiful of voice and played well on an instrument, and they hear your words, but they are not doing them. So when it comes, look! It is coming! And then they will know that a prophet was in the midst of them."

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) So the sisters sent word to him, saying, "Lord, behold, the one whom you love is sick." And when he heard it, Jesus said, "This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God may be glorified through it." (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.) So when he heard that he was sick, then he remained in the place where he was two days.

Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were seeking just now to stone you, and are you going there again?" Jesus replied, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks around in the daylight, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks around in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. He said these things, and after this he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I can awaken him." So the disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well." (Now Jesus had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was speaking about real sleep.) So Jesus then said to them plainly, "Lazarus has died, and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Then Thomas (the one who is called Didymus) said to his fellow disciples, "Let us go also, so that we may die with him."

So when he arrived, Jesus found he had already been four days in the tomb. (Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia. So many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary in order to console them concerning their brother.) Now Martha, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him, but Mary was sitting in the house. So Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will grant you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die forever. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who comes into the world."

And when she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary privately, saying, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." So that one, when she heard it, got up quickly and went to him. (Now Jesus has not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha went to meet him.) So the Jews who were with her in the house and were consoling her, when they saw Mary—that she stood up quickly and went out—followed her, because they thought that she was going to the tomb in order to weep there.

Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Then Jesus, when he saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled within himself. And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews were saying, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Was not this man who opened the eyes of the blind able to do something so that this man also would not have died?"

Then Jesus, deeply moved within himself again, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying on it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the one who had died, said to him, "Lord, he is stinking already, because it has been four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes above and said, "Father, I give thanks to you that you hear me. And I know that you always hear me, but for the sake of the crowd standing around I said it, so that they may believe that you sent me." And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The one who had died came out, his feet and his hands bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped with a facecloth. Jesus said to them, "Untie him and let him go."

Then many of the Jews who had come with Mary and saw the things which he did believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called together the Sanhedrin and said, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs! If we allow him to go on in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."

But a certain one of them, Caiaphas (who was high priest in that year), said to them, "You do not know anything at all! Nor do you consider that it is profitable for you that one man should die for the people, and the whole nation not perish." (Now he did not say this from himself, but being high priest in that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also that the children of God who are scattered would be gathered into one.) So from that day they resolved that they should kill him. So Jesus was no longer walking openly among the Jews, but went away from there to the region near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.

Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem from the surrounding country before the Passover, so that they could purify themselves. So they were looking for Jesus, and were speaking with one another while standing in the temple courts, "What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?" (Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, they should report it, in order that they could arrest him.)