John Greenleaf Whittier - "Narrative and Legendary Poems: The Vaudois Teacher and Others"

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - "The Valley of Fear"

Arthur Gilman - "The Story of Rome From the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic"

Louisa May Alcott - "Under the Lilacs"

The King James Bible

K >> King James >> The King James Bible




20:27 Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say
unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have
blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.

20:28 For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I
lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill,
and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and
there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also
they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink
offerings.

20:29 Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go?
And the name whereof is called Bamah unto this day.

20:30 Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye
whoredom after their abominations? 20:31 For when ye offer your
gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute
yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be
enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD,
I will not be enquired of by you.

20:32 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that
ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries,
to serve wood and stone.

20:33 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and
with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over
you: 20:34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather
you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand,
and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

20:35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and
there will I plead with you face to face.

20:36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the
land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD.

20:37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you
into the bond of the covenant: 20:38 And I will purge out from among
you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them
forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter
into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

20:39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye,
serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not
hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts,
and with your idols.

20:40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of
Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all
of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there
will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations,
with all your holy things.

20:41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out
from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have
been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.

20:42 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you
into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up
mine hand to give it to your fathers.

20:43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings,
wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your
own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.

20:44 And ye shall know that I am the LORD when I have wrought with
you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor
according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord
GOD.

20:45 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 20:46 Son of
man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the
south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field; 20:47 And
say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith
the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall
devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame
shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall
be burned therein.

20:48 And all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it: it
shall not be quenched.

20:49 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not speak
parables? 21:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 21:2
Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward
the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel, 21:3 And say
to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee,
and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from
thee the righteous and the wicked.

21:4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the
wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against
all flesh from the south to the north: 21:5 That all flesh may know
that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall
not return any more.

21:6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins;
and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

21:7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou?
that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every
heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit
shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh,
and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.

21:8 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 21:9 Son of man,
prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is
sharpened, and also furbished: 21:10 It is sharpened to make a sore
slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make
mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.

21:11 And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled:
this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand
of the slayer.

21:12 Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it
shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the
sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.

21:13 Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the
rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.

21:14 Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands
together. and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of
the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which
entereth into their privy chambers.

21:15 I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that
their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made
bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.

21:16 Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand, or on the
left, whithersoever thy face is set.

21:17 I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury
to rest: I the LORD have said it.

21:18 The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying, 21:19 Also,
thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of
Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and
choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.

21:20 Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the
Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.

21:21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the
head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he
consulted with images, he looked in the liver.

21:22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint
captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice
with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a
mount, and to build a fort.

21:23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight,
to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the
iniquity, that they may be taken.

21:24 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your
iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered,
so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that
ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.

21:25 And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come,
when iniquity shall have an end, 21:26 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove
the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt
him that is low, and abase him that is high.

21:27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no
more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.

21:28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD
concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say
thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is
furbished, to consume because of the glittering: 21:29 Whiles they see
vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee
upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is
come, when their iniquity shall have an end.

21:30 Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in
the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.

21:31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow
against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand
of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.

21:32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the
midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the LORD
have spoken it.

22:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 22:2 Now,
thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city?
yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.

22:3 Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood
in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against
herself to defile herself.

22:4 Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast
defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast
caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years:
therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking
to all countries.

22:5 Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock
thee, which art infamous and much vexed.

22:6 Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their
power to shed blood.

22:7 In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of
thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have
they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

22:8 Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my
sabbaths.

22:9 In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they
eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.

22:10 In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee
have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.

22:11 And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife;
and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in
thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.

22:12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken
usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by
extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.

22:13 Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain
which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of
thee.

22:14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the
days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will
do it.

22:15 And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in
the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.

22:16 And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of
the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

22:17 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 22:18 Son of man,
the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and
tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even
the dross of silver.

22:19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all become
dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of
Jerusalem.

22:20 As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin,
into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it;
so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave
you there, and melt you.

22:21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my
wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst therof.

22:22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be
melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have
poured out my fury upon you.

22:23 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 22:24 Son of man,
say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon
in the day of indignation.

22:25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like
a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have
taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows
in the midst thereof.

22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy
things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane,
neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean,
and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among
them.

22:27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the
prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

22:28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing
vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD,
when the LORD hath not spoken.

22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised
robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed
the stranger wrongfully.

22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the
hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not
destroy it: but I found none.

22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have
consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I
recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

23:1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 23:2 Son of man,
there were two women, the daughters of one mother: 23:3 And they
committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth:
there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of
their virginity.

23:4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her
sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus
were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

23:5 And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on
her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, 23:6 Which were clothed
with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men,
horsemen riding upon horses.

23:7 Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that
were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with
all their idols she defiled herself.

23:8 Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her
youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her
virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.

23:9 Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into
the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

23:10 These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her
daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among
women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

23:11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in
her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her
sister in her whoredoms.

23:12 She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers
clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them
desirable young men.

23:13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,
23:14 And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men
pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with
vermilion, 23:15 Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in
dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after
the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:
23:16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them,
and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

23:17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they
defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and
her mind was alienated from them.

23:18 So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness:
then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated
from her sister.

23:19 Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the
days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of
Egypt.

23:20 For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh
of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

23:21 Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in
bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

23:22 Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will
raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and
I will bring them against thee on every side; 23:23 The Babylonians,
and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians
with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great
lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses.

23:24 And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and
wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee
buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment
before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments.

23:25 And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal
furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and
thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy
daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.

23:26 They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy
fair jewels.

23:27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy
whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift
up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more.

23:28 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into
the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy
mind is alienated: 23:29 And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and
shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare:
and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy
lewdness and thy whoredoms.

23:30 I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a
whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their
idols.

23:31 Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give
her cup into thine hand.

23:32 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup
deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it
containeth much.

23:33 Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup
of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.

23:34 Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break
the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken
it, saith the Lord GOD.

23:35 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten
me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness
and thy whoredoms.

23:36 The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge
Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations; 23:37
That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and
with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused
their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire,
to devour them.

23:38 Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my
sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.

23:39 For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they
came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have
they done in the midst of mine house.

23:40 And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far,
unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou
didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with
ornaments, 23:41 And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared
before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.

23:42 And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with
the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness,
which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their
heads.

23:43 Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now
commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? 23:44 Yet they went in
unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went
they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.

23:45 And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of
adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because
they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

23:46 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon
them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled.

23:47 And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them
with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and
burn up their houses with fire.

23:48 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all
women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

23:49 And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall
bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

24:1 Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of
the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 24:2 Son of man,
write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of
Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.

24:3 And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them,
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water
into it: 24:4 Gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good
piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones.

24:5 Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it,
and make it boil well, and let them seethe the bones of it therein.

24:6 Wherefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody city, to the
pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it! bring
it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it.

24:7 For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of
a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust; 24:8
That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her
blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered.

24:9 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody city! I will
even make the pile for fire great.

24:10 Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it
well, and let the bones be burned.

24:11 Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it
may be hot, and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten
in it, that the scum of it may be consumed.

24:12 She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not
forth out of her: her scum shall be in the fire.

24:13 In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged thee, and
thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any
more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee.

24:14 I the LORD have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do
it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent;
according to thy ways, and according to thy doings, shall they judge
thee, saith the Lord GOD.

24:15 Also the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 24:16 Son of
man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a
stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears
run down.

24:17 Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of
thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover
not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.

24:18 So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife
died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.

24:19 And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these
things are to us, that thou doest so? 24:20 Then I answered them, The
word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 24:21 Speak unto the house of
Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary,
the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that
which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have
left shall fall by the sword.

24:22 And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips,
nor eat the bread of men.

24:23 And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon
your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for
your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.

24:24 Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he hath
done shall ye do: and when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the
Lord GOD.

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